June 14, 2024 Breakfast - Tea and a pain au chocolates, Snack - Buttered Fruit loaf with cherry preserves, Brunch - A Steak, tomato, rosemary cheese Omelet with toasted baguette. Snack - Chocolate Mousse, Special Wine and food Dinner

June 14, 2024 Breakfast - Tea and a pain au chocolates, Snack - Buttered Fruit loaf with cherry preserves, Brunch - A Steak, tomato, rosemary cheese Omelet with toasted baguette.  Snack - Chocolate Mousse, Special Wine and food Dinner

This was a big day of food and I needed every bit of it to keep going.

I started at 7:00 with a cup of Earl Grey tea and a heated pain au chocolate.

We then picked the apricots from our heavily laden tree.

Then I heated two buttered slices of a spice cake I bought at Talin and spread it with cherry preserves and drank a latte machiatta with it.

Then I went to the garden and topped the lettuce plants and picked a basket full of lettuce and scaped about ten garlic plants.

Then around 10:30 Suzette made a steak, tomato, and rosemary cheese omelet and I toasted three small slices of bread that I buttered and spread some of the plum jam we got at the vineyard in Portugal last summer.

It was a delicious brunch.

We then showered and dressed and by noon left for Santa Fe. 

Our first stop was to visit Richard Lambert at Zaplin-Lambert Gallery on Canyon Road. Suzette discussed selling her Jonson watercolor No. 41 of 1945. I looked around and found a nice Helmut Naumer pastel that I liked and bought of Black Mesa.

We then drove to Owings Gallery and saw that my Jaunne Quick to See had not sold even though it had been marked down to $75,000 from $125,000. I talked to Nat and we both agreed that the spring and summer last year was when the interest in her work peaked during the big Whitney show and subsequent exhibition traveling to Fort Worth.

I still have hope it will sell but probably for less than $75,000.

Then we drove to Peyton Wright and amazingly they were offering a 1945 Jonson watercolor (No. 30) for $28,500, so Suzette had to reassess her expected value for her 1945 Jonson watercolor.

Then we drove to the Pastry Shop at La Fonda and drank cups of mocha (a mixture of coffee and hot chocolate with whipped cream) and a chocolate mousse. They has sold out of my favorite pastry, an Opera torte.

We were parked by the Cathedral and the view of the cathedral when walked out on to San Francisco was dramatic.  Santa never seems to dissapointed.

We then drove to Stephen’s Consignment and looked around. Suzette found a set of six long handled forks that will be perfect for eating seafood for $15.00. When we got home later Suzette discovered they were silver plated pickle forks used in the officers’ mess of the US Navy. Pretty cool.

We sat in a park on Aqua Fria from 4:30 to 5:15 when we drove to the wine dinner at the Kitchen Table, a community kitchen, that was the reason for our trip to Santa Fe.

It was a special meal featuring the cuisine by Peter O’Brien and the wine selections by Greg O’Byrne.

Here is the menu and wine list.

It was a wonderful four course meal plus appetizers and Lanson Black label French NV Champagne on the patio. The spring pea blinis wrapped around smoked trout remoulade were very interesting. And I also liked the creamy beef tartare and the crisp turkey and Spanish rice meatballs on a Romesco sauce appetizers.

We then went inside and sat at long tables. We sat across from two interesting young women. Lisa managed and monitored flights for the UN in New York and her friend Patty worked for a staffing company in Tampa.

Patty insisted on taking a picture of us.

Every dish was delicious except the smoked brisket that was dried out.

My favorite dish was the pork belly served with an amazing mole that had just enough heat to be interesting wrapped in a soft hand made flour tortilla.  

All the wines were amazing.  I particularly liked the 2022 Sperino rose’ from Piedmont made with 90% Nebbiolo grapes that had a lightness and elegance and also the earthy finish of the Nebbiolo grape.

Greg’s knowledge of wines showed with the serving of 2019 Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. He said that this is a selection of grapes from the Monte Bello estate that did not quite meet the high standard for Ridge’s famous Monte Bello Estate Cab, but this is a $100.00 bottle, while Ridge’s Monte Bello Estate Cab is a $500.00 bottle.

Dessert was impressive and disappointing at the same time. The toasted white chocolate glossage was heavenly but the apricot halves it covered were tough because not quite ripe. I asked Chef O’Brien his recipe for the glossage. He said, “It is easy to make. You melt white chocolate, then add heavy cream and several egg yolks to enrich the sauce. Finally you whip cream and fold it into the sauce. Viola.

We left happy. It was a good meal with fabulous wines. We were happy to pay $155.00 each. Perhaps our enjoyment of the meal had as much to do with the unstoppable rise in NVDA that today exceeded ten times what I paid for it and seems to be on the trajectory to achieving the highest total market value of any US stock. It currently is in third place behind Microsoft and Apple.

Bon Appetit