September 25, 2025 Lunch - Dave’s High Desert Grill Dinner - PPI Penne Pasta with Pesto, Squash, Chicken, mushrooms, steak, and shishito peppers

September 25, 2025 Lunch - Dave’s High Desert Grill  Dinner - PPI Penne Pasta with Pesto, Squash, Chicken, mushrooms, steak, and shishito peppers

I had three clients at a pn 8:30 hearing with a pro se person trying to practice law that went nowhere. The judge wisely sent us to mediation.

Then at 11:00i I drove Charlie to Dave’s High Desert Grill for lunch with the book club.

The menu was vast but it was more like a chain restaurant. I succumbed to the lure of a specialty hamburger with Andouille sausage when the waiter said it could be served with onion rings instead of French fries. Unfortunately the fried shell on the onion rings was broken and the onion rings were soggy with grease instead of wet with steam.

I was immediately put off when the greeter said we would need to wait for our entire group before we were seated because Charlie and I were the first to arrive. 

I took my seat at the table anyway. I should have argued that I would move to any other table in the nearly empty restaurant if our party did not arrive. I had the immediate feeling of being in a chain restaurant with frigid rules that were decidedly inhospitable.

So a bad experience.

We then drove to Travis’ house for book club and had a rather somber discussion of in the Wolf’s Mouth by Foulds.

After book club around 3:45 I drove Charlie home and drove to Walgreen’s and got a flu shot and a Tetanus shot.

When I returned home Suzette was in an ebullient mood having enjoyed her two day conference and a shopping spree at two estate sales where she bought two sets of silverware. One was gold washed and the other a Japanese specialty set for, as yet, unidentified uses.

We gave up watching the news at 6:00 and went to the garden and picked basil, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and shishito peppers. When we returned to the house we decided to add squash, PPI steak, and six fresh shishito peppers we had picked in the garden to the PPI Penne pasta, pesto, and chicken dish.

                 A ceramic fish Suzette bought at the estate sale with a fossilized seashell

We sautéed the squash and shishitos and steak and then added the leftover Penne to make a hearty penne mixed grill dish.

I really liked this dish, with the added beef and fresh sautéed squash that added to the richness and freshness of the dish and added meat and vegetable flavor that integrated with the pesto and cheese sauce.

We drank the leftover Chilean Red wine from the party last Friday.

After dinner we watched a local documentary about the period of federal court jurisdiction of New Mexico from 1846 to 1912 that described the facts and law surrounding a number of famous cases.

Then we watched Midsomer Murders and went to bed at 9:30 after a long day of activity for both of us.

We are really enjoying the fresh vegetables and herbs from our garden this summer and happy to be at home.  It looks we may shift our period of travel to the early spring and late fall in the future so we can enjoy our garden every year.

Bon Appetit