September 25, 2019 Lunch – Padilla’s dinner – PPI Padilla Mexican food

September 25, 2019 Lunch – Padilla’s  dinner – PPI Padilla Mexican food

I slept until 7:45, then worked for a while and then ate yogurt, milk, granola, and ½ peach diced.

Then I walked to Modern General and met Amy and Luke until 10:30.

We then walked back home so I got a mile walk in for the day.

I was tired but showered and felt better.  I had suggested going to lunch at Padilla’s at 12:15.

I picked up Willy at noon and we drove to Padilla’s.

Luke went with Amy shopping after we returned from Modern General and met us at Padilla’s.

It was great having the family together for lunch.  I ordered my usual, Chile’s Rellenos.  Amy ordered two chicken tacos.  Luke ordered cheese enchiladas and Willy ordered a combination plate with a taco, a tamale, and a cheese enchilada.  None of us could finish our lunches, so I boded all the leftovers and took it home.

                                                              Cheese Enchiladas

Combo

                                                             Chile Relleno

Chicken Tacos

Suzette came home at 1:45 sick and we decided to not drive to Santa Fe for the “To the Trade” tasting at the Chile and Wine Festival.

We rested and then ate the leftover Padilla’s Mexican food for dinner.

Today was the beginning of the end of the Trump Presidency with the release of the transcript of his July 25, 2019 telephone conversation with President Zelenky of Ukraine.

Tomorrow may be even more historic, with the release of the whistleblower return about the actions by Trump related to Ukraine and Congressional hearing with DNI McQuire.

Bon Appetit.

September 24, 2019 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup with Fish ballad and shrimp. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Shishito peppers with baked potato and Cesar Salad

September 24, 2019 Lunch – Miso Noodle Soup with Fish ballad and shrimp. Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Shishito peppers with baked potato and Cesar Salad

I ate granola, yogurt, milk, and ½ peach diced for breakfast and then rode 10 miles.

At noon I made a pot of miso soup with three kinds of noodles, buckwheat/soba, bean cellophane, and wheat vermicelli plus dashi, red miso, green onions, a shallot, several diced leaves of baby bok Choy, four shrimp, ten white beech mushrooms, and four fried fish balls.

After lunch I thawed two rib steaks

I worked until 5:30, although Suzette arrived at 4:30.  We put four russet potatoes in the oven to bake for 45 minutes at 5:30 at 375 degrees.

Luke came home at 6:30 and Willy arrived at 8:00.

I made a Caesar salad with the fresh head of Romaine, grated Pecorino Romano cheese, and Suzette made croutons from six or seven diced slices of German Whole Wheat bread.  I made a fresh Caesar dressing with 2/3cup of olive oil, ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice, six diced anchovy filets, and two egg yolks.

Suzette Grilled the steaks and shishito peppers and I fetched a bottle of DePonte red blend Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

We had a family dinner on the patio in the cool.

After a Willy left and a Suzette went to bed at 9:30, Luke and I watched the third installment of Country Music.  Luke left, but I stayed to the end and went to bed around midnight with my head swimming with music.

Bon Appetit

September 23, 2019 Lunch – American Breakfast. Dinner – Sautéed Hake and pole beans

September 23, 2019 Lunch – American Breakfast. Dinner – Sautéed Hake and pole beans

I showed the property this morning and this afternoon.  After the morning showing I went to the bank and then to El Super to replenish our produce.  I bought oranges, papaya, pineapple, and a green mango for a tropical fruit salad.  Then I bought yellow onions, sour cream, green onions, radishes, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, bananas, limes, lemons, an avocado, celery, chayotes, and cilantro.  It is time to do some cooking.

Tomorrow Suzette wants to make grilled steak and sautéed sushito peppers.  I will probably bake several potatoes and we may cook poke beans again.

When I finally got home it was after 11:00 and I was hungry, so I decided to fry the last three slices of bacon and two eggs.  After I fried the bacon, I poured off the grease and added about ½ T. Of butterto the skillet plus about 2 T. Of the eggplant and yellow squash blend from last night’s dinner, plus the about ¼ cup of PPI black beans, chives and garlic and sautéed them for a while.  I whisked two egg whites and one egg yolk and a few dashes of Mexican Hot sauce added that to the skillet and scrambled everything together.  The result was a nasty looking mess, but very tasty.

At 4:00 I became hungry again, so I made myself two open faced sandwiches on toasted slices of rye bread, one with mayo and tomato slices and the other with sour cream and pickled herring.  I put slices of onion on both. Mi really liked them, so I made two more sandwiches and drank a cup of green tea with them.

When Suzette came home at 4:30 I lay down to finish my book club book, House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday.  I liked it a lot because it is about two places I am familiar with, Jemez Pueblo and L.A., especially since we just visited L.A. this last week.

Suzette came to get me to help make dinner at 6:30.  I filleted the hake steak into two filets while Suzette snapped the ends of a handful of pole beans.  She then sautéed the fish in one skillet covered to steam the top and the beans in another skillet.

When the fish was cooked she lay each filet on a fresh Hoja Santa leaf, like they did at Audrey’s at the Hammar in L.A. last Wednesday evening with a grilled sea bass filet.

I loved the dinner and enjoyed the fresh sautéed pole beans, although several larger ones were to tough to swallow.

We drank the rest of the bottle of 2018 Belles Vigne with dinner.  At 7:00 we watched the Ken Burns documentary on Country Music on PBS.  Suzette heated two Swedish desserts during the show.  I drank a cup of tea with my dessert.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 when the show ended.  I stayed up to work and blog.

Bon Appetit

September 21, 2019 Globalqurque

September 21, 2019 Globalqurque

We rested today. The day started wonderfully with Leiscester City beating Tottenham in PL soccer.

Then Willy came over and we walked 7 blocks to the Farmers’ Market, where we bought three kinds of beans, and a honeydew melon and we ate carne adovado tacos at Senor Taco’s food stand with a glass of horchata for Willy and a glass of watermelon fruit juice for us.  The tortillas were sprinkled with quest fresco and heated on a grill to melt the cheese. Then the tacos were filled with beans and meat and garnished with squirts of crema and guacamole, and small handfuls of onion, lettuce and tomato.  They were served three for $10.00. We ordered two orders and ate two each.

We rested after we walked home until 3:00 when I snacked on PPI gazpacho and ½ of a sandwich left by the film crew while I watched TCU struggle to overcome a 14 point deficit gained by SMU over them in the first few minutes of the game.

At4:30 I made four sandwiches by toasting four slices of fullkorn bread and smearing them with butter and then Kalles creamed cod roe and adding thin slices of onion and finally slices of Jarlsberg cheese.

I packed them in a sandwich bag and then a shopping bag so I could carry them easily around my wrist and we went to the Globalquerque music festival.

The festival was great this year with high quality acts from all over the world.  We particularly like the Inuit group from Greenland, the Persian tar player and drummer, and the Hawaiian slack string guitar player.  Here are pictures of each of those.

At around 8:30 we ate our sandwiches with water and a beer sitting in the Plaza Major watching a lady named Dat Garcia from Argentina sing and play instruments accompanied by her recorded musical compositions.
We went home at 10:30.

Bon Appetit

September 22, 2019 Brunch – American Breakfast.  Snack – Pesto and Yellow Squash Bruscetti. Dinner – Foil baked fish wrapped in Hoja Santa with retried black beans

I watched the news and at 9:30Suzette made an American breakfast: two eggs over easy, two slices of bacon fried crisp, two toasted slices of buttered whole wheat toast and country fries.

I rode six miles at 11:00 and we went shopping at 12:30.  We went to Total Wine and bought scotch, a 12 pack of Negra Modelo, a six pack of Sam Adams Oktoberfest, a bottle of gin and a cheap bottle of brandy.

We then drove to Talin, where we bought a small can of pimientos, 1 lb. of fresh hake, 1 ½ lb. of fresh monkfish, baby bok Choy, shallots, White beech Mushrooms, and squid ink.

We then drove to Sprouts where we bought yogurt, milk, and several other things.

On the way home we stopped at the Chile Cinnection at the corner of Mountain Rd. And a Broadway, where they were roasting bags of green chile, so Suzette could order two 30 lb. bags off Lemitar mild green Chile for delivery on Tuesday.

When we returned Suzette created an interesting new snack.  She toasted slices of whole wheat rolls and spread them with pesto and a slice of cheese and finally slices of yellow squash and baked them in the oven until to cook the squash and melt the cheese.  We drank glasses of red wine with the snack.

Then at 6:00 we started cooking dinner.  Suzette wanted to make Foil Baked Hoja Santa wrapped fish.  She decided to use the monkfish, so I butchered three sections of monkfish and refrigerated the
rest.  I then sliced pimientos, yellow squash, onions, chives, and oregano and Suzette piled those ingredients on the fish in two layers of aluminum foil that she crimped and baked on the grill with a pile of fresh carrots we bought yesterday at the farmers’ market.

Willy came over for dinner.  Suzette also made retried black beans.  She opened and sautéed a large can of black beans and then added chopped garlic, Hoja Santa, artichoke leaves, oregano from the garden, and some chopped pimiento.

I opened a bottle of Los Alamos Argentinian Red blend that as mostly Malbec grapes for Willy and opened a bottle of Belles Vignes French Sauvignon Blanc and poured glasses for Suzette and me.

We ate under the gazebo and got a full report from Willy on his trip to
Toronto and Montreal.

The evening was cool with a slight breeze so we enjoyed s pleasant conversation and meal.

I was enamored with the grilled sea bass on a bed of fresh Hoja Santa leaves at Audrey’s in LA., but tonight’s meal was delicious.

Bon Appetit

September 20, 2019 Lunch – Falafel Sandwich. Dinner- steamed buns

September 20, 2019 Lunch – Falafel Sandwich. Dinner- steamed buns

Today was an interesting food day.  My cousin introduced us to what a good falafel tastes like and we got to be with her again for a couple of hours more.

Luke took the car to meet friends for breakfast.  We packed and then made a simple breakfast.  Suzette stuffed the last three or four figs with goat cheese and I fried two eggs over easy and we spread slices of fullkorns bread with goat cheese and drank the last of the Rose with it.

When Luke returned around 10:30 we packed the car and drove to the Benito Juarez Market in downtown LA and found the fresh holy leaf (Hoja Santa) we had been looking for since we had it at Audrey’s.  Now all we need to do is to figure out the adobo sauce and find a fresh sea bass or red snapper and we can replicate the recipe.

We then drove to Dharma Damama’s apartment. Gee, GPS is wonderful.  She had ordered falafels.  There was a bit of an adventure with a neighbor’s cat, Orlando, that was locked out of the apartment.  Dharma gave the cat some milk but the cat kept meowing. We sat at a picnic table outside Dharma’s
apartment and talked and drank glasses of raspberry tea.

When the falafel delivery man came Dharma told us that the restaurant was Israeli owned shop.  So I realized these were the real thing.

Here is a basic recipe for falafels in pita bread.

INGREDIENTS
FOR THE FALAFELS
1 (15-oz.) can chickpeas, drained
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 tbsp. freshly chopped parsley
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Vegetable oil, for frying
FOR YOGURT SAUCE
1/2 c. Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly chopped dill
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR TAHINI SAUCE
1/2 c. tahini
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. warm water (plus more as needed)
Kosher salt
FOR SERVING
Pitas
Chopped lettuce
Halved cherry tomatoes
Thinly sliced cucumbers
GET INGREDIENTS
Powered by Chicory
DIRECTIONS
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine chickpeas, garlic, shallot, parsley, cumin, coriander, and flour and season with salt and pepper. Blend until mixture resembles a thick paste.
Form mixture into falafel balls about 2" in diameter.
In a pot, heat 1” vegetable oil until a drop of water added to the oil sizzles and pops.
Fry falafels until golden, then transfer to a paper towel–lined plate and season immediately with salt.
To make yogurt sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, oil, and dill. Season with salt and pepper.
To make tahini sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and warm water. Season with salt. (If you prefer a thinner sauce, whisk in more warm water 1 tablespoon at a time.)
Serve falafels in pita with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber and drizzle with either sauce.


What I can tell you after eating my first official Israeli falafel sandwich is that both the pita and the falafel were incredibly tender.  The falafel was not very flavorful. In fact it was rather doughy, but the Tzatziki (cucumber, lemon, and yogurt sauce) was tangy and delicious.
There were small containers of a thin hummus or tahini sauce that we drizzled on the sandwiches for extra flavor.  So, I can see that the range of variation in the falafel category includes a complex assortment of ingredients and sauces.

Dharma, who is a vegan, told us a funny story.  She ordered a falafel sandwich with hummus and they delivered a hummus sandwich.  She called the restaurant back and they checked their order and confirmed she had ordered a hummus sandwich, but sent a falafel sandwich over anyway.  The apparent joke was that hummus is a light sauce and she was overwhelmed when she bit into a sandwich with no falafel and only sauce.

We sat and Luke asked Dharma about her daily practice and she said it started around 3:30 with a cold shower and yoga.  Then he asked her about her how they became attracted to the Sikh practice.  She said they found the apartment they now live in because it was across the street from Robertson park that is a pocket park near Beverly Hills, where her parents lived and where she was raised, because it had basketball courts and they were playing lots of basketball in those days.

The Sikh temple was located at the end of the block, as it still is.  Dharma Damama Singh went To a yoga class there and then a lecture and when they said, “This our practice and this is why we do it, but you can do whatever you want,” he and they were hooked and became Sikhs.  They were among the earliest American Sikhs and know all the founders of the American movement.  So she concluded by saying, “So, our love of basketball led us to the Sikh religion.”


I realized something fundamental as she spoke these words as three members of the Simon family sat around the table, one a Sikh, another a Buddhist, and the other oriented to Hinduism and a pure spiritual practice.  It is not the religion that attracts a person to a spiritual path.  Instead, it is the proclivity of the person to choose a spiritual path that attracts them to a type of spiritual practice they prefer.  Most of us follow the religious path of our forefathers, but some of us seek a different spiritual path and that is what each of us Simon’s did.

At 1:15 we said goodbye and Luke drove us to LAX for our return flight to Albuquerque.

When we arrived in ABQ, we decided to go home and find something to eat in the fridge.  When Suzette opened the freezer section, I saw a package of frozen steamed buns.  I said, “I have been wanting to see if we can make these in the steaming oven.”

That was enough of a challenge for Suzette.  She read the instructions and put them on a tray covered with parchment and into the dreaming oven.  The first setting she used did not contain enough steam and the began to brown, so she reduced the heat and increased the steam to its highest setting and that worked fine.

While she was steaming the nine buns, I made a dipping sauce with 1 tsp of Chinese red chili sauce, about 1 T. of fresh finely minced shallot and about 3 T. of soy.  It was too spicy, so I added some rice vinegar and then lots of hoisin sauce and a T. of Mirin.  It was still spicy, but not unbearably spicy.  Suzette fetched a shallow bowl and we mixed spoonfuls of the chili sauce I made with hoisin sauce until we had a spicy sauce that we found to our liking.



We finally got the sound on on the TV and watched the news. The most recent Trump perversion seems to be coercing Ukraine into investigating Biden’s son in exchange for releasing the $250,000,000 of foreign aid that Congress adopted for Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.

We went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit

September 19, 2019  Lunch – Café Gratitude. Dinner – Rustic Canyon

I replicated the Vietnamese Crepe for breakfast perfectly.  I whisked three egg whites and one yolk and fried them into a large egg pancake.  I flipped it and cooked the other side slightly and then removed it to a plate.  I then sautéed the PPI bun noodles, ground beef, and fish from our dinner at Pho.  When the noodles, meat, and sauce were heated I laid them on one-half of the egg pancake/crepe and folded it in half. Voila, I had made a Vietnamese crepe.

We left around 10:30 and picked up Luke’s friend, Jacqueline, and drove to the Armand Hammer Museum downtown.  We arrived at 11:45 just in time for our entry reservation at 12:00.  We did not like much of the contemporary art, except for the large central gallery of large works by Mark Bradford.  We were especially impressed with the large mostly blue work depicting the fires in Watts during the riots in 1968.

At 1:00 we had seen all the art on the third floor and were hungry, so Luke drove us to what he called a typically California vegan restaurant Named Café Gratitude in a trendy new urbanism development with apartments and commercial establishments mixed together.

Suzette and I had trouble finding a dish to order.  Suzette ended up getting a falafel with black beans and toast and I ordered a salad with slices of avocado, Bibb lettuce, sunflower sprouts, and a bitter dressing.  Luke ordered an awful tasting dish of boiled rice vermicelli noodles coated with a tahini pesto. They each got cups of coffee.  The bill was $91.00 without tax.  Amazing.

I

                                                   Vegan Guacamole and fried corn chips

We then drove Luke and Jacqueline to her apartment and we then drove to Santa Monica and after stopping on the beach for a restroom stop we drove up onto Ocean Ave. and walked along the path on the crest of the cliffs next t the ocean.  The views were great and the vegetarian was magnificent.  I loved the old eucalyptus trees and unbelievably tall royal palms.

We then drove the  few blocks through Santa Monica to the Rustic Canyon restaurant at 1119 Wilshire, eleven blocks from the beach.  We were seated at 5:30 and perused the menu.  We son came to the decision t split three dishes; figs charred under the salamander filled with guacamole and garnished with trout caviar.  This was a highly successful dish, with the softness of the trout eggs and guacamole complementing each other. We hade never had a broiled fig before and rather liked it.

We then were served Beets and Berries with avocado, rancho gordo quinoa, and pistachio "soil".  I liked the red quinoa, but the pickling medium on the beets was to vinegary.

Finally our entrée arrived and again I marveled at the skill the fancy California Cuisine restaurants have in handling fish,  we ordered Rockfish and it was more like monkfish.  Tender but firm to the touch. Our waitress said the cooking method used was to put the filets in a pan and let them sit until
the entire fish is fully cooked.  Interesting.

I am beginning to think my blog is more like food field notes, rather than fully vetted recipes.

Our entrée was served with Sautéed Romano Beans, in a Middle Eastern sauce of Sumac, a bit of olive is, and puréed eggplant, which was my favorite part of the meal, like the roasted carrots were my favorite part of the meal last night along with the grilled sea bass on fresh Hoja Santa leaves.

I think I understand the gist of New California Cuisine.  It is based on freshness of ingredients
presented simply or in combination with fusion with other cuisines, depending upon the inclination of  the chef.

For example, Robust Canyon’s menu changed every night with lots of fusion sauces, while Audrey’s was a more static menu, with more emphasis on clean well defined flavors of ingredients.

Actually, the wine list was better and its wine prices were better at Rustic Canyon.  We shared a ½ bottle of 2018 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc that is arguably the best Sauvignon Blanc made in America for $35.00.

At 7:00 after dinner we drove the 3.5 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway to the J. Paul Getty  Villa to see the Greek tragedy called Heal in the recreated Greek/Roman outdoor amphitheater.  We claimed two seats by leaving our extra shirts on them and then ran t the snack bar and bought a slice of flourless chocolate cake that tasted a lot like my recipe for French flourless cake made with eggs, chocolate, sugar, and a T. of flour.  We then walked to the coffee kiosk and ordered a cup of Café au lait and returned to our seats and enjoyed our dessert with coffee in the cool night air.

 

The Heal is a professional production by the Roundhouse Theater of Bethesda, Maryland of an modern adaptation of Sophocles play named “Philoctetes”.  It has a universal theme of how we are all wounded by events in life, usually of our own making, that we must learn to overcome.  For more detailed information, check out the Wikipedia entry at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philoctetes_(Sophocles_play)

After the play ended we drove back to the Silver Lake.  What was really cool was we drove down the Pacific Coast Highway and through a series of underground tunnels and ramps onto I-10 from the Pacific Ocean.  So we started our trip eastward from the shore of the Pacific Ocean, the largest Ocean in the world.

Driving on the freeways at night is like a continuous act of faith that no one else will screw up or get overly aggressive, including yourself.  I tried to keep six or seven car lengths distance between the Prius at 60 mph and the vehicle in front  while more aggressive drivers weaved in front of me.  I had to control my emotions he hold my lane and maintain my distance as the assholes sped by. Our speed varied from 65 to 18 mph as we wove through downtown and changed from the I-10 to the I-5.

Finally we made it home alive and in one piece and celebrated with a glass of rose.

A beautiful day of art, food, and culture.

Bon Appetit