January 18, 2013 Neighborhood Cocktail Party

January 18, 2013 Neighborhood Cocktail Party

I knew it was going to be a night that we did not want to cook a dish for the cocktail party, so I took out a 72 piece box of Nancy’s Petite Quiches t 2:30 p.m. when I finally got a moment to eat some salad for lunch.  I worked until after 4:00 and then rode until 5:20 p.m. and Suzette got home about then also.  She was happy to see we had a prepared dish to take and we baked the quiches in a 375 ˚ oven for the recommended 21 minutes at around 6:30 p.m.

We were the second to arrive shortly after 7:00 p.m. at Glenn Felty’s house.

 The best dish of the evening by far was prepared by Jennifer Bean. It was a plate of baked scallops surrounded by a wall of snow peas and topped with a Thai peanut sauce.

The most interesting conversation was with several ladies who played golf at the Albuquerque Country Club and who suggested that I looked like I could play golf well. I told them that I probably could because my father was an NCAA letterman on TCU’s golf team in late 1920’s but that when he graduated from Law School in 1933 he was not allowed to join  any of the country clubs in Fort Worth because he was Jewish an so I had never had any interest in joining a country club.  One of the ladies had left and the other lady said, That has never been a problem for me because I was adopted.”

That made me think for a moment.  I guess in the realm of heredity and socialization, that is the social equivalent of “less is more”.  

Which makes me think about the wonderful recent article on Danish TV’s popularity in England that rightly said that the Danish people are among the happiest in the world and surely in Europe.  Having lived in Denmark for a summer in 1968, I agree with the article’s assessment and reasoning that that is because the Danish do not classify and categorize and criticize for differences in people’s choices.  They treat all as Danish and that is the end of it, even though there are lots of differences at some levels, such as politics.

Suzette tired at around 9:00 p.m. and said she wanted to leave.  We said goodnight to our host and hostess and left in such a hurry that I did not take the time to sift through the stack of coats on a bed  to find my cap.

I awakened around 3:00 a.m. and watched a wonderful Norwegian made movie at 4:00 a.m. titled “Beautiful Country” about a one-half Vietnamese/one-half American child of a Vietnam veteran who leaves Vietnam in search of his American father starring a wonderful Vietnamese actor and Nick Nolte.  It seems like the movie channels schedule the best movies for 4:00 in the morning so there will be no interruptions.     

 Bon Appètit

    

 

January 15, 2013 Lunch – Anatolia; Dinner- Salmon Fish Tacos with cucumber salad

January 15, 2013 Lunch – Anatolia;  Dinner- Salmon Fish Tacos with cucumber salad

Josefo and Davida and I were finishing a meeting at my office at noon and they suggested that we go somewhere for lunch.   I suggested the new Turkish restaurant, Anatolia, and they, being good sports, agreed, so we drove the ten blocks.  When we sat down I looked at the menu board and saw that the lunch specials included lentil soup with spinach rolls ($5.95), Adana Shish kabob ($5.95) and Ground lamb shish kabob ($8.95).   We ordered one of each. Adana for me, lentil for Josefo and lamb or Davida.  I usually order the special because it is usually a regular menu item at a reduced price.  In the case of the Adana, its menu price is $7.25 but on the lunch special it is $5.95.  The shish kabob plates are served with one freshly made shish kabob formed on a sword and cooked on a charcoal grill on pile of rice pilaf covering more than half of a plate with salad filling the rest of the plate. The salad is dressed with a light vinaigrette and a few marinated onions seasoned with fenugreek.  When Josefo saw our plates and I gave him a taste of my Adana special, he ordered an Adana special also. I enjoy going to lunch with Davida and Josefo, because they love to eat good food and they were loving the Turkish food at Anatolia, Josefo in his quiet way of constant eating and Davida in her boisterous way.  She kept telling the waiter, “This is great food; you need to open a restaurant in Rio Rancho! We have no good food in Rio Rancho!”

After lunch I went to a client’s office for a meeting at 4:00 and then I went to Costco today at 5:00 to gas the truck and buy a few items including a salmon filet for dinner, a case of Kirtland Brand beer and Cholula Mexican Hot Sauce.  When Suzette arrived home I was making guacamole with the last three large avocados and three ounces of red onion and the newly purchased Cholula hot sauce and she suggested that we make fish tacos, because we still had a pile of about 70 corn tortillas left from Christmas and she could use the new container of panko she had bought on her last trip to Costco.

I agreed immediately, because I love fish tacos.  One of the innovations we have developed for fish tacos is to make a Cole slaw with cucumbers to garnish the fish tacos, which we call cucumber slaw.  We decided to make that again because I had bought three cucumbers at Pro’s Ranch Market last week (5 for $.99) and did not have cabbage. So I peeled, de-seeded and sliced the cucumber in half and then into thirds and then sliced each third into long thin slices and then salted the cucumber slices in a bowl to which I added mayonnaise, catsup and pickle relish to them to make a kind of Russian dressing.
While I was making the cucumber garnish, Suzette was cutting the fish into bite sized pieces and dipping and coating them in panko and frying the pieces in a skillet filled with canola oil to a depth of about ¼ inch.

She got Willy to help her wrap about a dozen tortillas in a moistened tea towel and heat the tortillas in the microwave for a minute or two.  Then Willy went to the basement and fetched several beers. As soon as the fish had been fried and was draining on a paper towel and the tortillas steaming hot, we served dinner.  We each made our own tacos by laying pieces of fried salmon and a spoonful of guacamole and cucumber slaw on a warm tortilla.  I had asked for a German style beer and it was not quiet cold and reminded me of drinking beer in Northern Europe where beer is drunk warm, which is cool by our standards, but is unrefrigerated.

Bon Appètit

January 16, 2013 Lunch - Ham Sandwiches, Dinner - Meatloaf with blanched carrots

January 16, 2013 Lunch - Ham sandwiches;  Dinner – Meatloaf with blanched carrots

I went to Pro’s Ranch Market at around 12:30 p.m. today to buy a few items, including a papaya (2lb. for $.99), oranges (5lb. for $.99), sliced ham (FUD cooked ham for $1.99/lb.), carrots (3lb. for $.99) and large head off shrimp ($5.99/lb.).  When I got home I made a ham sandwich with the ham on toasted slices of dilled rye bread baked at Suzette’s Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery in Los Lunas and the last of the cucumber relish from last night instead of mayonnaise and fresh Leyden cheese and leaves of butter lettuce and slices of a Roma tomato and drank a glass of Jarritos alcohol free Sangria, “Senorial”.  A short pleasant visit to Mexico, both for shopping and for lunch.

Tonight I had to go to meditation.  Before I went I discussed dinner with Suzette and she said, “The last of the ground meat needs to be cooked and the easiest thing to make is meatloaf.”  I said, “I bought carrots, if you want to make some carrots with the meatloaf.”  Suzette said, “Carrots go really well with meatloaf.  I will cook some carrots.”

So when I got home at 8:15 p.m., the meatloaf was baking in the oven and the carrots chopped and blanching in a saucepan on the stove.

We discussed wine and I suggested a heavier wine like a Syrah and Suzette agreed, so I went to the basement and looked through all of our wine and found only one bottle of Wellington 2005 Syrah, but I did also find several 2002 Australian Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon blends.  When I mentioned that we had the two bottles of 2002 Australian wine, we changed our mind and I went back and got a bottle of 2002 Rosemount Estate Shiraz 75%/Cabernet Sauvignon 25% that was from South Eastern Australia and estate bottled that had garnered a gold medal and opened it.  In about another ten minutes Suzette declared the meatloaf done and we pulled the two large mounds of meatloaf from the oven and turned the heat off of the carrots and Suzette filled our plates with both and we poured glasses of the wine and ate the meal with relish.  The wine had a rich plumy flavor with great depth of color and a pleasant absence of any of the typical zinfandel tannic spiciness.  Found it very drinkable, even though it was slightly sedimented.  I have decided to decant my older wines and let them sit for a bit to clarify and let the sediment settle.  As I write this article about 5 hours after dinner, I am tasting the open glass left by Willy on the table and it is delicious, so allowing an older wine to breath, often helps its flavor or as Suzette says, “It allows it to open up.”  I will try to plan to allow for more time for wines to open up in the future also.

The meatloaf was wonderful.  Suzette said it was easy.  She added eggs and oatmeal to the ground beef and her secret sauce, which she said was some Worcestershire sauce.

Bon Appètit 

January 14, 2013 Dinner – Hamburger steaks with PPI potatoes and Brussels sprouts

January 14, 2013 Dinner – Hamburger steaks with PPI potatoes and Brussels sprouts

At 4:00 I knocked off work to go to Smiths to buy some rib eye steaks on sale for $5.99/lb.  I really like the Smiths at the corner of Coors and Central, because it is near my old Westland office where I worked for 18 years and was where I shopped as my primary grocery store during those years.  I knew the butcher and the lay out of the store, etc.

So I had a déjà vu shopping experience, first going to the meat department and buying two flats of 4 rib eye steaks each, then to the dairy department where I found a gallon of Dreyer’s Double Fudge Brownie ice cream on sale for $3.99 and finally to the candy department where I found Toblerone chocolate bars for $1.25 each for the 100 gram bar.

When I got home, Suzette was ready to cook hamburgers, so I thinly sliced mushrooms and a small yellow onion while she poured out the last of the Valreas Côtes du Rhone and began drinking red wine and ground the chopped chuck beef more finely in the Cuisinart and formed two large patties. 

While Suzette sautéed the large hamburgers in a skillet in a bit of butter and olive oil with the onions and mushrooms, I fetched the butter lettuce from the garage and sliced a tomato and prepared a plate of tomatoes and lettuce leaves.  Then I fetched the mayonnaise and catsup and a bottle of Cutler Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from the basement wine cellar.

Suzette took the PPI Brussels Sprouts and onions and the PPI roasted potatoes and shallots and garlic and combined them in a pyrex baking dish and heated them in the microwave and then took the last of the Huntsman cheese (an English cheese made with alternating layers of Stilton and Cheddar) from Christmas from the fridge and laid a slice of it on the hamburgers and covered the hamburgers with a skillet lid to melt the cheese. 

In about twenty to thirty minutes we were ready to eat our lovely dinner.  We each piled hot vegetables and a hamburger, mushrooms and grilled onions onto our plate and then garnished the plate with fresh lettuce and tomatoes and a slather of mayonnaise and a splash of catsup for a delicious dinner.  I guess I have eaten this type of dinner so often in my youth in Texas that I did not get indigestion later from it. I did have an additional slice of cheese and a glass of wine after dinner to digest the cheese and put those all-important enzymes into my stomach.

Bon Appètit

January 13, 2013 PPI Fish casserole and Stir fried Chinese mustard greens and red bell peppers

January 13, 2013 PPI Fish casserole and Stir fried Chinese mustard greens and red bell peppers

We were going to see Tom Paxton this evening at 7:30 p.m., so we wanted to cook a relatively easy meal and we decided that we needed to eat the last of the fish casserole we had cooked last Sunday evening.

I also wanted to use the Chinese mustard greens we had bought last Saturday at Ta Lin, so I quickly chopped about four cups of greens and some onion and garlic and ginger and ½ of a red bell pepper and stir fried them in just a bit of peanut oil and sesame oil and a splash of Shiaoxing rice cooking wine in the wok while Suzette heated the last of the fish casserole in the microwave.

While the greens were cooking I went to the cellar and found the bottle of Windsor Winery North Coast Sauvignon Blanc that Robert Andrews of Andrews Pueblo Pottery had given me for Christmas. 

 

I then made a thickening sauce for the mustard greens with a splash of rice wine and a tsp. of corn starch and a bit of water and thickened the cooking juices in the greens into a sauce.  I enjoyed the flavor of fish casserole even more than the first time we ate it last Sunday evening, now that the flavors had set and mixed. I especially liked the combination into a sauce that the melted raclette cheese made when it combined with the cooking juices from the fish and spinach.

 The wine was not very good.  It had the same dead flavor of a wines made from grapes combined from many different sources, like the Cameron Hughes wine we drank this week.  There was not any of the bright grassy, citrusy flavor I associate with Sauvignon Blanc, even though I loved the fact that it had been a gift from Bob Andrews.

Bon Appètit

January 11, 2013 Dinner – Duck Salad

January 11, 2013 Dinner – Duck Salad

Friday nights are usually rough nights to cook because we usually want to decompress from our workweek and that does not bode well for cooking elaborate dinners.  This Friday neither one of us were particularly hungry because we had each snacked on the PPI eggplant and pork stir fry that we had made the night before.  We both agreed that it was the best eggplant and pork we had ever made and agreed that that the success of the eggplant and pork dish was mainly due to the fact that the BBQ pork was delicious and enhanced the flavor of the exceedingly fresh eggplant.

Anyway I had decided earlier in the day that it was time to use up the butter lettuce we had bought at Costco last Saturday and the roasted duck breasts that were still in our fridge from this week’s roasted duck dinner, so at around 4:00 p.m. I made a salad dressing with one pressed clove of garlic, about 1 or 2 tsp. of Praeger Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar, 1 tsp. of French seeded Dijon mustard, some Kirtland olive oil and a bit of grape seed oil and a generous dash of dried tarragon leaves from our garden.

At around 6:00 p.m. Suzette tore and spun the lettuce and heated the duck in the microwave while I sliced two Roma tomatoes into four wedges each and then sliced those wedges into bite sized slices and then thinly sliced 2 oz. (two slices) of red onion into quarters and sprinkled them onto the salad.
Suzette sliced an avocado to complete the garnishes on the salad.

I fetched a bottle of Valreas Côtes du Rhone (Trader Joes $5.99) from the cellar and we were ready to eat as soon as the duck was heated and the breast sliced and laid on the salad with the other garnishes in a composed manner and the salad dressed.

Sometimes it is wonderful to have a simple elegant, meal like salad that has the added benefit of being easy to digest.

Bon Appètit

January 12, Richard Donfro’s Memorial Dinner

January 12, Richard Donfro’s Memorial Dinner

Richard Donfro was a wonderful client and friend.  We had visited him and Rose last Sunday and he passed away in his sleep on Tuesday or Wednesday.  So on Saturday his partner, Rose Marie, who owns Rose’s Table Café at Mesa del Sol opened her restaurant to all of his friends for a dinner and celebration of his life.

I took a bottle of Seagram’s Crown Royale that Richard had given to me inscribed with a medallion label that said “Robert Simon, Super Hero”.  He was a very sensitive person and recognized when others were looking out for his interest before their own and I think he saw that in me, which formed the basis for our long relationship.  The facts of the case when we met were that I did a bankruptcy and some slight of hand corporate re-organization for Richard and a vendor who had a false claim sued Richard for non-discharge of the claim in the bankruptcy and we were able to fight our way through the claim adjudication in bankruptcy court.

Anyway, the restaurant was filled with over twenty folks when we arrived around 7:00 p.m.

There were motorcycle buddies and old friends from Richard’s past and lots of folks who knew Richard and loved him for all the reasons I did

Rose served lots of wonderful food, mostly gathered from specialty purveyors, like coconut coated fried shrimp, for which Rose made a lovely strawberry yogurt dipping sauce, and a pork knuckles on a bone and rice and lots of desserts including my favorite, Chess Pie.

Nok, Richard’s longtime companion, brought a tray of eggrolls and sweet chili dipping sauce

I brought the bottle of Crown Royale

It was a great party and everyone seemed to have an interesting and loving story to tell about Richard, so it was a great evening.

Bon Appètit