December 16, 2016 Lunch – Noodle soup, Dinner – Roasted Turkey, roasted vegetables, dressing, Brown Gravy and cranberry sauce.

December 16, 2016 Lunch – Noodle soup, Dinner – Roasted Turkey, roasted vegetables, dressing, Brown Gravy and cranberry sauce.  

We had thawed out the 24 pound turkey I had bought for $.67/lb. at Lowe’s before Thanksgiving yesterday.  This morning Suzette cut in half and roasted a butternut squash in the oven.  I chopped two stalks of celery and 1 onion for Suzette to use in her dressing, while she cut up the half loafed of whole wheat bread and Fano baguette.  I then went to the garden and picked a handful of oregano and a handful of sage leaves that were not too frost bitten and chopped each up separately.  The ½ cup of chopped sage went into the dressing.  While Suzette added stirred eggs and water to the stuffing and mixed and stuffed the dressing into the turkey and put the giblets and neck into a pot of water on the stove at low heat to make a turkey stock, I diced ½ of the butternut squash, after de-seeding it, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 small onion, 2 shallots, the handful of de-stemmed oregano (about 1 cup), and about 1 lb. of Brussels sprouts that I had removed the tough ends from and had made  criss-cross cuts into in the ends.

I put the ingredients into our large roasting pan and Suzette doused the vegetables with Olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.  I then covered the vegetables with aluminum foil and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered  and the put the roasting pan into the fridge in the garage.

We then turned our attention to the turkey we trussed the neck and tail cavity to hold in the dressing and rubbed the flesh with about 4 oz. of butter, and put the bird into an oven bag with about 2 Tbsp. of flour. We then put the bag into the big blue roasting pan.  

At noon I asked Luke if he wanted some noodle soup and when he said yes, I started a pot of water to which I added ½ tsp. of dehydrated dashi, a stalk of celery, diced, ¼ onion, the PPI pork and Bok Choy from last night, a large Tbsp. of red miso, about a Tbsp. of seaweed threads, three types of noodles and about 1 Tbsp. each of soy, fish sauce, and Chinese rice wine and a dash of sesame oil.  I then added about 3 oz of diced tofu and chopped up two green onions.  I fetched the Hoisin sauce and Shiracha and the bag of cilantro and we had a wonderful lunch of noodle soup.

At 1:00 I went to Ranch Market and bought limes ($.77/lb.), Latin Crema ($1.69/lb.), onions (3/lb. for $.99),  4 smoked pork chops at $3.49/lb., 4 sweet limes at $.99/lb.

I then went to Albertson's for milk, eggs, and a lb. of fresh Atlantic salmon at $5.99/lb..

When I got back home a little after 2:00 Eloy, garage repair man was leaving and I waved at hi and he gave me his estimate to fix the automatic garage doors.  

At around 2:30 I put the turkey into a 350 degree oven on the lowest level of convection.  

It was a clear and sunny afternoon but cold at around 40 degrees so I rode to Rio Bravo and back at 3:00.  Soon after I returned home at 4:00 Suzette arrived and shortly after that Mario arrived to move stuff to the basement and out of the garage, so we can park cars in the garage again.  

By 6:30 the turkey had achieved an internal temperature of 162 degrees, which we considered fully cooked .  The guides said turkey should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees.  We took the turkey out of the oven, because Melissa arrived at 6:20 and Luke shortly after her.  

I poured Melissa a glass of Pinot Grigio and myself a glass of Sicilian Grillo.  Melissa then recounted a fantastic story of how she spent her Autumn.  Melissa writes for “Days of our Lives” and when she saw the BBC news segment on the disabled girl who was wheeled by her family from Kobani, Syria to Europe that we had seen on BBC World News, her heart was touched when the 16 year old girl in the wheel chair said she had learned English by watching “Days of Our Lives”.  John Oliver did a long segment on Immigrants and Refugees in which he featured the BBC segment with Nadia.  Melissa saw the John Oliver segment and noted that Nadia had said she was saddened when her two favorite characters died on the show.  So Melissa found out where Nadia and her family had been settled in Germany, wrote a short segment that brought the two characters back to life, contacted the actors, one of whom was in retirement and living in Vancouver, and got them to act out Melissa’s script, in which they said coming back to life was not as difficult as coming from Syria to Germany.  To make a long story shorter, Melissa and one of the show’s fans raised over $4,000 from the show’s fans on line and visited Nadia and her family in Germany and the fan club has helped Nadia and her family.  Also, the segment Melissa wrote and produced has been seen on You Tube by over 8,000,000 people.

What an Autumn Melissa has had!

At 6:30 we opened the bag and the turkey was perfectly cooked with the meat falling off the bone and the breast meat tender.  It could not have been more perfectly cooked and the dressing was moist and flavorful.  Suzette removed the dressing to a serving dish and I sliced one thigh and three or four slices of breast from the steaming hot turkey.

I put the meat on a wooden cutting board and Suzette spooned some of the roasted vegetables into a serving bowl and heated them in  the microwave.  I put some of the cranberry sauce I made last week into a cut glass compote bowl and Suzette made a roux with 4 oz. of butter and 2 or 3 Tbsp. of flour and I fetched the turkey stock from the fridge and heated it on the stove and Suzette combined the roux and turkey stock to make a gravy while I minced the giblets and some neck meat to make giblet gravy.  I poured glasses of Grillo, which had matured to a slightly bitter wine, with very strong character.  Not exactly an elegant white wine but perfect for washing down the heavy flavors of roasted vegetables and dressing.  I was glad it was our last bottle.  Melissa did not seem to like it.  

We discussed the psychological problems of her nephew a bit and many other topics.  Luke made the best comment, “I wonder how people become psychologically unbalanced from a spiritual stand point?”

We said goodnight to Melissa at 9:00 after inviting her to ourChristmas Eve party.

For those of you who read this blog, we are having our Annual Christmas Eve open House this year and you are invited to drop in between 5:30 and whenever.

Bon Appetit

December 15, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Dinner – New Recipe Stir Fried Bok Choy with pork, corn, mushrooms, shallot and green onion

EDecember 15, 2015 Lunch – Taj Mahal, Dinner – New Recipe Stir Fried Bok Choy with pork, corn, mushrooms, shallot and green onion

Luke and I ate a late lunch at Taj Mahal. Luke took the vegetarian choices and I ate saag and tandoori chicken with roasted onions.  The food was wonderful as usual.  We talked to Shamiz and invited him to the Christmas party.  He told us his daughter was studying at UBC and interested in foreign service.  

Taj Mahal’s wall is full of awards, Best of Burque, best Indian restaurant, etc.  the buffet now costs $11.50, so the price had gone up over the years but the quality has not gone down.  It is both of our favorite Indian restaurant.  One of the waiters is really good and when he came to the table and asked if there was anything he could get for us, I said, “Onion Culcha”.  He was puzzled and asked a question, “do you mean garlic Naan ?

I replied, yes.  In a few minutes when a fresh batch of garlic nan was ready he brought us two pieces of warm garlic nan.

Luke had an invitation to eat dinner at a friend's. I had decided to make Mapo Dofu, but Suzette and I decided to make a lighter dish.  I decided to stir fry a Bok Choy with corn kernels, mushrooms, pork, shallot, green onions, ginger, and garlic.  I separated the green leaves from the heavy white stalks, and sliced three mushrooms  diced six small green onions, and cut the kernels from an ear of corn.  I opened a bottle of strips of ginger pickled in salt since we did not have any fresh ginger.  I stir fried the meat with the garlic and ginger first, then the hard white parts of the Bok Choy and the shallot, then the green leaves of the Bok Choy with the mushrooms, the green onions, and corn.

I then made a thickening sauce with about 1 Tbsp. Each of soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine, about 1 tsp. of sesame oil, about 2 tsp. of corn starch and about 1/4 cup of water, about 1/3 cup in all and added that to the wok.  I cooked the vegetables and sauce for several minutes until the sauce thickened and all the ingredients appeared to have changed color and softened.  

Suzette heated some PPI basmati rice and we each filled glasses with water and ate a delicious light meal. 

We watched a bit of the Republican debate until I got depressed about what our friends and enemies in the world must be thinking about what America might do to them if one of the Republicans was elected President and decided to read my book instead. 

Bon Appetit

December 14, 2015 Lunch – Chirashi Donburi at Azuma, Dinner – EggplantI Parmigiana

December 14, 2015 Lunch – Chirashi Donburi at Azuma, Dinner – EggplantI Parmigiana 

I met Robert Mueller for lunch at Azuma.  I ordered us our usual when I arrived ahead of him, Chirashi Donburi, which is a box half filled with sushi rice with a layer of raw seafood (sashimi) on top of the rice.  Azuma includes 12 slices of seafood per order and over the years I have selected the twelve I like the best and order them each time: 2 salmon, 2 red tuna (Mauro), 2 octopus, 2 ultra white, and 4 yellowtail (hamachi) plus two pieces of omelet and two pieces of pickled daikon.

After lunch I stopped at Fano Bakery and purchased a baguette for $3.00.

When Suzette arrived home around 5:30 we discussed dinner.  I was prepared to make Ma Po Dofu, but Suzette wanted to make Eggplant Parmigiana, so I sliced an eggplant and grated about ¾ cup a Pecorino Romano cheese, while Suzette toasted old french baguette pieces in the oven for about fifteen minutes and then ground them into bread crumbs in the Cuisinart.  The she broke an egg into a shallow bowl and stirred it until it homogenized and mixed the bread crumbs with the grated cheese in another shallow bowl.  She dipped the slices of eggplant first into the egg to coat them and then the cheese and crumb mixture to coat them with a layer of crumbs.  Suzette then fried the crumb coated slices of eggplant in about ¼ inch of canola oil to fix the coating and partially cook the eggplant slices.  Then Suzette lay the cooked slices of eggplant in a ceramic baking dish with slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and covered the dish with spaghetti sauce and baked the eggplant dish in the oven for about twenty minutes to heat the dish thoroughly and melt the mozzarella.

When the eggplant parmigiana was almost ready Suzette heated the PPI Gemelli pasta from last night and lay a pile of pasta on plate and then topped it with slices of eggplant parmigiana and sauce.

I had opened a bottle of 2013 Tuella Portuguese red wine from the Duero River Valley (Trader Joe's $5.99) earlier when we ate snacks of fresh toasted Fano baguette with duck liver pate (Lowe’s market for $7.99 for 6 oz. and Petit Basque cheese, so we drank the rest of the bottle with dinner.

Suzette’s Eggplant Parmigiana is wonderful and the dish was easy to prepare because we already had 2/3 of it fixed; the pasta and the spaghetti sauce.

Bon Appetit 

T

 

 

December 13, 2015 Breakfast- Huevos Rancheros, Dinner – Roasted Pork Tenderloin Tapa, Sautéed Sweet Potatoes, and Grilled Artichokes

BhDecember 13, 2015 Breakfast- Huevos Rancheros, Dinner – Roasted Pork Tenderloin Tapa, Sautéed Sweet Potatoes, and Grilled Artichokes

Today we woke up seeing a blanket of snow covering everything.  Here is a picture from our front porch.  

We had a leisurely day, I watched the news programs and then we decided to make Huevos Rancheros with the PPI roasted potatoes and the red three chili salsa Suzette made last week.  Since we were going to make the Roasted Pork Tenderloin tapa for dinner and the recipe called for cutting the thin end of the tender off, I cut the thin ends off the two tenders I intended to use for the tapa dish, stored the cleaned and dried tenders in a freezer bag in the fridge, and diced the two end pieces of the tender into about a ½ cup of meat.  I also minced about 3 Tbsp. of onion.  Suzette sliced and sautéed in one large skillet with the remaining cup of Yukon Gold potatoes with the onions in olive oil and in another skillet cooked four eggs sunny  side up and toasted four corn tortillas.  When everything was hot and the eggs cooked Suzette constructed the dish, by laying two tortillas on each plate, then laying the meat and potato mixture on the tortillas, then laying the eggs on top of the meat and potatoes and finally ladling spoonfuls of salsa on top of the dish.  Here is a picture.

After a hardy breakfast, we moved beds and tables to rearrange the bedrooms for the anticipated arrival of Luke and Willy.  Willy called and we talked to him about his travel plans to Germany and Latvia for the Christmas Holiday and to Thailand with friends in January and February to study kickboxing.  We wished Willy a happy Holiday.

Then a little after noon Suzette told me that Cynthia and Ricardo we're hosting a pop up sale for Lena, an artist friend, who makes tie died hand painted silk scarves, so I grabbed a bottle of chilled Nassa Albariño and we drove to the Railyard for the Annual holiday Sale.  We saw lovely Hand blown glass Christmas decorations, but not much else of interest, except we bought a Bosque Bakery baguette to take to Cynthia and Ricardo’s house for the sale by Lena of her hand painted scarves.  We drove from the Railyard to Cynthia and Ricardo’s house and were welcomed by a dining room hung with dozens of colorfully painted silk scarves.   There were appetizers on the kitchen table including an olive medley and hummus and crackers and Brie cheese put together by Cynthia and a pot of hot apple cider and a bottle of home made spiced rum made by Lena, the artist.  

The apple cider was delicious and Cynthia soon brought us a slice of date nut bread she had made using her Mother’s recipe smeared with a thick layer of cream cheese.

I bought a scarf for Luke and Suzette picked out a scarf for her Christmas gift.  This is my favorite way to shop for Christmas.  I dislike going to big stores or the malls, but love seeing beautiful things in a casual atmosphere. 

After buying the scarves we admired some framed architectural designs on the wall of their office. Ricardo explained that they designs were made by a New York architect named Hedjuk, who he was an assistant to when he Ricardo attended Cooper Union in NYC.  Ricardo showed us a folio of designs published by Hedjuk that had been given to him by Hedjuk and then we talked to Ricardo and Cynthia in their living room until Suzette became tired and after inviting them to dinner, we said goodbye and went home to nap.  After a nap, I took a shower and at around 5:30 we began cooking dinner.  I sliced two apples and one large onion into slices and then cut the two pork tenders into twelve 2 inch long pieces for the pork dish.  Then I cut the previously boiled artichokes into halves so they could be grilled.  Suzette peeled and sliced the PPI sweet potatoes into slices lengthwise, so they could be sauteed in butter.  I went to the garden and picked a large handful of oregano sprigs and cleaned them, while Suzette sautéed the onions and then the apples in the long French copper sauté pan.

Cynthia and Ricardo arrived a little after 6:00 with guacamole and chips, the rest of the French olive medley, and the rest of the brie from the party and sesame crackers, a bottle of Cravit Pinot Grigio and a large wedge of date loaf and cream cheese.

Cynthia set up the appetizers on the Texas cutting board and took it to the TV room table while Suzette and I cooked.  

When the apples and onions were softened, Suzette added the pork tenderloin pieces and garnished the pan with sprigs of fresh oregano and placed the pan into a 300 degree oven to roast.  She then sautéed  the sweet potatoes until browned and grilled the artichokes on the grill while I made a mayonnaise, lemon juice, yogurt and herb dipping sauces for the artichokes. 

We then sat for a few minutes and ate appetizers and talked with Cynthia and Ricardo, while Suzette ran from the grill to the kitchen to check the progress of the dinner during the 20 minutes that she roasted the pork dish.  After 20 minutes I made a cup of chicken stock and fetched the bottle of Spanish Pedro Dominguez brandy.  When Suzette removed the pan from the oven I poured a little more than ½ cup of chicken stock into the pan and then we lit two burners and reduced the stock and cooking liquids to a light sauce.  Then we added about ¼ cup of brandy and we lit the brandy and everyone watched the pan burst into flames.  Then Suzette fetched the artichokes and plated plated ps with sweet potatoes and two pieces of pork tender and two halves of grilled artichokes and I ladled apples and onions and sauce over the pork and opened a bottle of La Granja Spanish Rioja blend of Tempranillo and Grenache (Trader Joe's $4.99) and we were ready to eat.

   The Love Birds

  The wine

The pork was cooked perfectly to pink in the center at about 170 degrees.  The sautéed sweet potatoes had slightly caramelized an developed a crunchy edge that was delicious.  The artichokes wer a little tough on the outer leaves but the inner leaves and heart that had faced the flame were soft and wonderfully flavorful, having been soaked in olive oil before grilling.  

We ate and drank and talked until 8:30 when Cynthia became tired from her two days spent cleaning her house and cooking and shopping for the sale.

We were ready to get into bed also after Suzette showed me the three finished bedrooms that we had rearranged and she had completed with fresh bedding and had hung the extra art we had taken down during the remodel. I thanked her for completing the restoration of the three bedrooms, which are finally organized and look wonderful.

Bon Appetit 

December 12, 2015 breakfast – shrimp Omelet, Lunch – Posole, Dinner Gemelli Pasta with PPI meat and mushroom sauce.

December 12, 2015 breakfast – shrimp  Omelet, Lunch – Posole, Dinner Gemelli Pasta with PPI meat and mushroom sauce.

We started out today wanting an omelet.  We decided upon a shrimp omelet, so I thawed and peeled 10 large Malayian shrimp (Albertson's $5.99/lb.) and I decided to use the Old Windmill Dairy Thyme infused softened goat cheese.  The omelet was fabulous,especially since Suzette cooked it to just short of firm so the ingredients ran into each other a bit in a loosely congealed manner.  Suzette made a Bloody Mary and I opened a bottle of Nassa Albariño and drank a glass of the smooth white wine from Galicia Spain (close out at Quarters. When I went to Quarters Friday evening after picking up my bike at the Bike Coop, I bought the last three bottles of the Nassa Albariño at the ridiculous price of $2.99/bottle.  

At lunch we finally finished the Posole.

For dinner we decided to try to make a dish of pasta like the Bolognese pasta we ate at Scalo on Thursday night where they mixed the sauce with the pasta to make a homogeneous dish of sauce and pasta.  Our meat sauce had chunks of meat, mushrooms and tomatoes and although Suzette mentioned that we needed to run the sauce through a blender to smooth it out to get the totally integrated texture, I decided against that.  Instead we heated the sauce in its pot and I boiled a pot with about 4/5 of a lb. of Gemelli pasta and steamed 10 stalks of asparagus.  When the pasta was cooked to soft, I cut the Asparagus into 1 inch lengths an d Suzette stirred tomato, meat and mushroom sauce and the asparagus pieces into the pasta, while I opened one of the bottles of 2011 Gaetano Di Aquino Chianti Riserva I bought at Trader Joe’s on Thursday for $5.99.   The chianti was very smooth and its light fruity flavor complemented the slightly tart flavor of the pasta dish perfectly.  

One of the things I noticed and liked about the mixed together pasta dish was that it had a more integrated cohesive flavor which minimized the the acidity of the tomato flavor and created a more integrated texture an flavor.  

After dinner I ate a few Lindt Lindor as we moved dressers in the back bedroom and watched TV.  I finished reading The Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick for my book club.  

I also spoke to Billy about the book this morning as we were making plans to go to a Ridge Winery sponsored wine dinner on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 when he, Elaine, and Rebecca visit us for the Taos Winter Wine Festival.

Here is the proposed wine dinner menu as advertised in Local Flavor this week.  

Later in the evening I opened the fruit cake I had drenched with Bacardi gold rum and ate a couple of pieces of it.  It was a little gooey, but the cake was moist and the fruit softene

Bon Appetit

December 11, 2015 Holiday Reception at Gruet

December 11, 2015 Holiday Reception at Gruet

We have not cooked either of the last two days.  

Today we decided to go to Gruet’s Holiday reception, which offered a 25% discount on all wines for wine club members.  The 2013 Pinot Noir is the featured wine this months.  We enjoyed it but it seems a little thin in flavor.  Justin poured us a small taste of the Gruet 2012 Pinot Noir and it was a very different wine deeper in color with a very deep rich flavor, yet with the clarity of a great pinot.  I bought a bottle of it for $26.53, instead of $33.00.

Suzette and I had eaten little today and we're famished, so we were pleasantly surprised by the two large platters of appetizers in Gruet’s Tasting Room.  One was filled with an extensive selection of charcuterie plus seed mustard and a peach chutney and the other platter was filled with an extensive selection of cheeses.  There were also platters of sliced French bread, so we had a picnic. 

Bon Appetit

December 8, 2015 A PPI Day, Brunch – Posole, Costco – Polish Dog, Dinner PPI Ham and Chard Soup

December 8, 2015  A PPI Day, Brunch – Posole, Costco – Polish Dog, Dinner PPI Ham and Chard Soup

Today was dominated by my effort to buy shares in the Indian Bank I invest in.  It included 2 ½ hours at my bank getting a foreign currency draft, and couriering the draft and purchase documents to the bank in India.  Before I went to the bank at 10:30 I ate a bowl of Posole and was pleased to find out that the tripe had softened significantly. 

I had left the Posole simmering while I went to the bank so when I returned at 1:00 I ate another bowl.

 J.B. Bryan came by and we talked about the mural he is going to do for our stairwell to the basement and ate a bowl of Posole around 2:00 and I showed him a bunch of art, when he mentioned that I liked Southwest Modernism art and he wanted to paint something that had that feel and sensitivity.

I then went to the mail center at Coors and Irving to mail the courier pack. 

After I mailed the courier pack, I went to Costco for a Polish Dog and then bought a package of four pork tenderloins for $3.49/lb., so we can make the wonderful slow roasted pork tenderloin with onion and apple tapa, plus coffee beans and a bunch of yellow roses for Suzette, and a 2.25 lb. bag of asparagus for $7.49 and a package of 6 hearts of romaine lettuce for $2.99.

I then drove to Sprouts at Alameda and Coors and bought 2 Fuji apples, 2 eggplants for $.48 each, a lb. of leeks for French onion soup at $1.99/lb., and a lb. of salmon at $6.99/lb.   When I arrived home around 5:30 Suzette had arrived and she was not hungry, having eaten a wonderful meal of sautéed salmon prepared by the new chef she hired for the Bistro.  So my dinner ideas went out the window.  We sat and watched the news and ate nuts and then I brought in a pot of soup from the garage fridge, when I took the lettuce and leeks to the garage fridge.  The ham and chard and barley soup we had made after Thanksgiving was in the pot, so we decided to eat bowls of it for dinner.  Suzette heated it and toasted slices of French bread and we ate a bowl of it for dinner.  It was still incredibly delicious. The salty flavor of the ham had permeated the soup and the barley mix had softened finally, so one did not bite into hard kernels of lentil or split pea.

An exciting day of food shopping, but not so exciting in the food prep category, although everything I ate was delicious in a PPI sort of way.  Sometimes it is fun to enjoy the ease of eating the fruits of one’s labor without having to prep and cook. 

Bon Appetit