January 31, 2017 Lunch – PPI Beef Stroganoff and sautéed zucchini, Dinner – Sautéed Lamb Chops and Zucchini, Cesar Salad, and tzatziki

January 31, 2017 Lunch – PPI Beef Stroganoff and sautéed zucchini,  Dinner – Sautéed Lamb Chops and Zucchini, Cesar Salad, and tzatziki

I went to see my new Dr. this morning at 7:00.  I like him.  When the  visit ended around 9:00 I drove first to the middle eastern market and bought a plastic container ofTurkish black olives and then drove to Fano Bakery.  Although closed one of the owners came to the door and sold me two baguettes.

I then went home and ate a bowl of granola, blueberries, yogurt, and milk. worked until 1:00, when I heated the PPI Beef Stroganoff and sautéed zucchini from last night’s meal that I ate with the last ½ glass of Benton Lane Rose’.  I also sliced a slice of fresh baguette and spread butter and duck foil gras on it.  After lunch I drank a cup of chai with a couple of brownies.  I intended to ride and wanted to load up on protein and a bit of sugar.

At 3:30 I rode to Montano and back.  I saw flocks of cranes headed north high over the valley.  It seems like they have been watching the weather reports and saw that the next few days will be unseasonably dry and warm, perfect weather for flying.

I watched the Nightly Business Report while resting in bed until Suzette came home at around 5:30.  I was pleased to see that Apple released a good earnings report that should send the stock up tomorrow.

We want to eat the tzatziki I prepared last Friday, so we decided to grill the last four lamb chops and the last two zucchini.  Unfortunately, the propane gave out, so Suzette had to sauté the chops and zucchini on top of the stove.  I made a Cesar Salad and took the tzatziki out of the fridge.  Soon we had a delicious dinner of sautéed lamb chops and zucchini, Cesar salad and tzatziki.  We drank the last ½ bottle of 2013 Famille Perrin Reserve left from last Friday night.

Later we ate another brownie for dessert.

Bon Appetit

January 30, 2017 Lunch – Cesar Salad with Cornbread, Dinner – PPI Beef Stroganoff with Sautéed Zucchini Squash and Onion

January 30, 2017 Lunch – Cesar Salad with Cornbread,  Dinner – PPI Beef Stroganoff with Sautéed Zucchini Squash and Onion

Today I was busy and not very hungry, so I skipped breakfast and ate a fresh Cesar Salad for lunch and cut the two PPI pieces of cornbread left from last night’s meal in half and buttered them and heated the four pieces to melt the butter.  I then drizzled the cornbread pieces with honey and after I ate my salad made a cup of tea and ate the cornbread with the tea as dessert.

Suzette came home around 4:00 hungry, so she made a warn sandwich She sliced the PPI pork from last night’s meal with slices of Cheddar cheese on rye bread and toasted it in a skillet with butter.

Since Suzette was not hungry at 6:30 I looked in the fridge and found the PPI Beef Stroganoff with spinach, which I heated.  I halved lengthwise and thinly sliced two zucchini and 1/3 of an onion and sautéed the sliced vegetables in 1 T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil in a medium skillet with 1 tsp. of dried marjoram until tender.  I then put about 1 cup of zucchini in a pasta bowl and spooned about 1 ½ cups of Stroganoff over the zucchini.  I drank a glass of Benton Lane Rose’ with dinner.

Later I ate vanilla ice cream garnished with poached pears and drizzled with Hershey’s chocolate syrup as I watched the Antiques Roadshow with Suzette.

Bon Appetit

January 28, 2017 Brunch – Over Easy Eggs, bacon, toast with marmalade and Cheddar Cheese. Dinner – Grilled Eggplant and Lamb chops with Cesar Salad

January 28, 2017 Brunch – Over Easy Eggs, bacon, toast with marmalade and Cheddar Cheese. Dinner – Grilled Eggplant and Lamb chops with Cesar Salad

Suzette and I worked in the morning.  At 11:30 Suzette came in from sanding in the garage and said she needed to leave for work in Los Lunas, but wanted an egg sandwich.  While she changed I toasted two pieces of rye bread and smeared them with mayonnaise and sliced slices of Irish cheddar cheese.  I also fried two strips of bacon and sliced into thirds a piece of baguette and toasted them and then spread them with butter and marmalade.

When Suzette returned to the kitchen she whipped an egg and fried it in a small skillet and added slices of cheese to it.  When the egg was cooked and the cheese melted a bit she put it between the two pieces of bread.

After Suzette left with her egg sandwich in hand I fried two eggs and made a cup of chai and ate a lovely brunch.

I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich at 4:30.

Suzette came home around 6:00 with packages of lamb chops, pork steaks, romaine lettuce, and lemons from Costco.

I had made tzatziki in the afternoon with a chopped cucumber, a Roma tomato, two green onions, and three cloves of garlic plus 1 ½ T. of olive oil, 1 cup of Greek style yogurt, ¼ cup of dill and 2 T. of chopped fresh oregano and 1 tsp. of fresh mint from the garden.

We invited Willy and Robin to join us for dinner.

At 5:00 I made croutons by cubing and shaking old French baguette in a bag with olive oil and 1 tsp. of salt seasoned with fine herbs.  I also sliced Pecorino Romano cheese and washed the salt off about ten salted Spanish anchovies and added lemon juice, two or three chopped anchovies, and Spanish olive oil to the Cesar Salad dressing that I keep in a Grey Poupon mustard jar in the fridge and shuck it to mix the dressing. I also chopped 1 1/2 heads of Romaine lettuce into bite sized leaves, spun them and put them into the large teak wood salad bowl with about ¼ cup of sliced Pecorino Romano cheese and about ¼ cup of croutons plus two or three chopped anchovies

I also sliced the eggplant I had bought at Lowe’s on Thursday into ½ inch slices and seasoned and tossed the slices in a plastic bag with a tsp of salt with herbs Provence and a drizzle of Spanish olive oil.

At 6:30 Suzette salted and peppered the lamb chops and started the grill.  I opened a bottle of Famille Perrin Reserve 2013 Cotes Du Rhone red wine that is a 50/50 blend of Grenache and Syrah and we set the table for four by the fireplace in the TV room.

Suzette got hungry and by 6:45 and decided to start grilling the eggplant and lamb, boys or no boys.

Miraculously Willy and Robin appeared a bit after 7:00 after Suzette had pulled the Eggplant slices and covered them with aluminum foil to keep them warm and I dressed and tossed  the salad.

A minute or two after the guys arrived Suzette pulled the lamb chops off the grill, plated them with slices of Eggplant.  I served the salad to the table and gave each person several anchovies for their salad, which we each added to our plates.

I forgot to serve the tzatziki, perhaps because the Cesar salad was a refreshing addition that would have been ruined by the heavy milky tzatziki.

We drank 1 ½ bottles of Famille Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone as we discussed the health care system in America and the value of a human life in America versus a India.  Robin is in his surgical residency at UNM Hospital and Robin and Suzette are both dealing with clients who are in the last stages of life in the hospital.  We all agreed that there is a strong will to survive and American medicine can keep people alive even after they are brain dead.

After dinner and another glass of wine,  I poured a small amount of Trimbach Grande Reserve Plum brandy that we sipped as we talked until about 10:00 when the guys took off for the bars and we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

January 29, 2017 Brunch – Mushroom, bacon, cheddar cheese, and Spinach Omelet. Dinner – Grilled Pork Chops, with a medley of corn, black bean, onion, pimiento and garlic and corn bread and steamed string beans

January 29, 2017 Brunch – Mushroom, bacon, cheddar cheese, and Spinach Omelet. Dinner – Grilled Pork Chops, with a medley of corn, black bean, onion, pimiento and garlic and corn bread and steamed string beans

This morning during the news shows Suzette made one of my favorite omelets ever.  We discussed ingredients and after rejecting lax, goat cheese, and red onion, we settled on mushrooms, spinach, onion, cheddar cheese, and bacon.

This was one of the best omelets I have ever eaten, a really complete meal with four slices of crumbled bacon, lots of sliced mushrooms and spinach and cheddar cheese.

Suzette made her traditional Sunday Bloody Mary and I drank a glass of Clamato juice with a squeeze of the juice of ½ lime in it.

We were not hungry for lunch, but Suzette ate a couple of almond clusters to keep her going on her marathon cabinet door and drawer sanding project in the garage and around 2:30 I ate a few bites of Fruit cake with a cup of chai to give me some energy to ride.  I then rode to Rio Bravo and back at a moderate pace.

I showered and rested a bit and then we started to cook around 5:00.  We had invited Charlie and Susan to dinner at 6:30.  The menu was geared to Charlie’s food likes which include beans and corn and red meat and do not include seafood and vegetables, except for string beans.  So, on Friday Suzette bought string beans and pork chops at Costco.

Today we went to the pantry and found cans of corn, whole black beans, and Spanish pimientos.

Mexican Black Bean Medley

Suzette decided to make a Mexican style Black bean medley with corn and chopped pimiento.  She chopped onion and several cloves of garlic an sautéed them in a large Le Crueset casserole in butter.  Then she added a 15 oz. can off each of corn and cooked black beans and about 1/3 cup of chopped canned pimiento.  We the added dried Mexican oregano, avocado leaves and hojo santo leaves and about 1 cup of water and stewed the vegetables and herbs for about an hour.  If we had been Mexicans, we would have used a hotter pepper than a pimiento.

Cornbread

I decided to reach back to my Southern roots, which I share with Charlie and Susan, and make cornbread.  I found a five star recipe by Betty Crocker on the internet that included ½ stick of melted butter mixed with 1 cup of milk and one large egg to which is added 1 cup of white flour, 1 ¼ cup of corn meal flour, 1 T. of baking powder, ½ of sugar and ½ tsp. of salt.  I had to add a second egg to grit the dry ingredients int solution.  I guess my eggs were not large enough.  The recipe calls for baking the cornbread for 20 to 25 minutes in a 400 degree oven until a straw or knife comes out clean when inserted into the cornbread.  We cooked the cornbread for 20 minutes until it was golden brown but the straw was still a little sticky with batter, so I turned off the heat in the oven and let to cornbread cook and stay warm in the oven until we were ready to eat.  The cornbread turned out to be a little dry but kept its heat in the thirty minutes it sat in the oven.

When Charlie and Susan arrived, Charlie and I watched the 60 Minutes segment about how some bicycle racers may be using motor powered bikes to get an unfair advantage.  Charlie explained that the small motors and high efficiency lithium batteries used in the bikes are exactly the same ones he is using for the latest 12 foot wing span model plane he is now building.

I showed Susan some of the art collection that relates to the Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company show until Suzette called us to dinner.

Suzette plated each of our plates with one half of a grilled pork chop, string beans, and the black bean medley.  I cut squares of cornbread and put them into the bread container covered with a napkin to keep the warm. Suzette put a stick of Irish Butter on the table and I put the jar of honey out with a honey dipper.  Charlie and Suzette drank Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon and I drank 2015 Benton Lane Rose’, a moderately interesting Pinot Noir Rose from the southern Willamette Valley located about twenty miles north of Corvallis, Oregon, which I buy because it costs $15.00 per bottle.

Susan brought chocolate brownies with nuts that we ate for dessert.  Suzette made Susan a cup of coffee from the Miele and I heated a kettle of water and we made cups of Earl Grey with lavender tea for Suzette and me.

At 9:00 we said goodnight, as it was our bedtime.

Bon Appetit

January 27, 2017 Lunch – Le Troquet, Dinner – Beef Strogonaff

January 27, 2017  Lunch – Le Troquet,  Dinner – Beef Strogonaff

Breakfast was yogurt, fruit salad, milk, and granola.

Aaron called in the morning and we touched base again at 11:30.  He was getting his shoes shined on Gold Street, so I suggested we meet at Le Troquet, which is next door to the shoe shine shop at the corner of 3rd and Gold.

I had heard that Jean Pierre had closed the restaurant on Pan American and I saw him in that very French pose by so many French chefs, leaning in the open doorway of the restaurant waiting for his first diners last Saturday watching the people walking to the Women’s Protest at Civic Plaza, of which we were among.

So I was curious to try Le Troquet.  I met Aaron outside the restaurant putting coins into the meter where his truck was parked.  When we entered Le Troquet we were greeted with a gasp of recognition by Jean Pierre, who was in the front of the house.  I introduced him to Aaron and we had a small chat, like friends who were catching up on too many years of not seeing each other.  I told him I would return, now that he was cooking in our neighborhood  and asked what he recommended for lunch.  Jean Pierre answered, “The chicken in Tarragon Sauce is the Special of the day.”

Voila, that is what I ordered when a young lady came to take our order.   Aaron said he loved Trout Amandine, which was offered, so he ordered that.  It was a chilly day, so we both ordered bowls of French Onion Soup.  Soon we were served steaming hot French Dinner rolls with slits in the top so one could slide pieces of butter into them.  They were delicious, crisp slightly browned on the outside and soft on the inside.  It was like an appetizer bread course.

Then we ate our soup more slowly and enjoyed it's rich slightly sweet broth and softened sliced onion with bits of the cheese encrusted toasted bread crouton.  We both agreed that the soup was our favorite course.

Soon the entrees came.  My chicken breast was floured and sautéed, then sliced and drizzled with a thick mushroom, tarragon, and wine cream sauce.  The effort to make a fresh mushroom, tarragon, and wine cream sauce was refreshing and made me recall what a wonderful chef Jean Pierre is and how fabulous to still have him cooking in the community after all these years.

I moved to Albuquerque in 1981 and started writing food reviews for Albuquerque Monthly around 1985. As I recall one of my first assignments was to pick the ten best fine dining restaurants in Albuquerque.  I recall that I was only able to recommend eight restaurants that year and Jean Pierre’s was one of them. I recall that he then owned Crepe Michel in Old Town.  The others, if I recall correctly, included Smiroll’s and Antiquity, also in Old Town, Andre’s Restaurant at the Doubletree Hotel, the Marriott’s fine dining restaurant, perhaps café Miche on Wyoming if it was open then, and the restaurant on Rio Grande a few blocks north of I-40, and the steakhouse at 1008 Eubank and perhaps Andrea Chavez’ new American restaurant at Edith and Central that became Artichoke Cafe as we know it when she sold it to Terry and Patty Keene.

As I told Aaron and Jean Pierre, Jean Pierre is the longest serving French chef in Albuquerque, who is still cooking and may be the longest serving French chef in New Mexico.   Before I moved to Albuquerque he started Comme Chez Vous, then located on Lead near UNM in the location that later became Amerasia, which Mickey owned and served wonderful Dim Sum at, and is now a kabob restaurant.  Then he opened Crepe Michel in Old Town that was later taken over by Francie.  I think he then opened a Comme Chez Vous in Santa Fe, then I think he cooked at the Territorial House in Corrales before Peter White took over (I remember eating boar for the first time there), and then the restaurant on Pan American, if I recall history and names correctly.

Aaron’s Sautéed Trout Amandine was perfectly cooked, cooked with the skin side down that left the meat tender and the body of the Trout tender with a mound of browned almond slices piled on the fish.  Both of our plates contained small piles of blanched and sautéed diced yellow Squash, haricot vert, blanched carrot slices, a pile of couscous, and a lovely baked half of tomato garnished with bread crumbs.  I ate every morsel of mine and tried a bite of Aaron’s trout and enjoyed every morsel.  My chicken cost $14.25, Aaron’s Trout cost $14.50, and the French Onion Soups cost $7.95 each, which seem to me to be very fair prices for a superb French bistro run by one of New Mexico’s best French chefs.  I shall return soon for a dinner.

Yesterday, we needed milk, so I stopped at Lowe’s on the way home from a deposition and bought a rib steak for $6.99/lb., ½ lb. of white mushrooms for $1.98, and an eggplant plus a gallon of milk.

We boiled the last half of a head of cauliflower with three peeled and diced potatoes, which Suzette whipped into a mashed consistency in the Kitchen Aid bowl.

Suzette the thawed and heated the PPI Boeuf Bourguignon with a large handful of spinach and we had a lovely PPI meal with a glass of Wellington 2010 Morehardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tonight when Suzette asked he what I wanted for dinner I answered, “Beef Stroganoff”.

Suzette fetched ½ onion, five cloves of garlic, the ½ lb. of mushrooms, the rib steak, and 1/3 of a green bell pepper and I chopped then into cubes.  We sautéed the onions, garlic, and bell peppers in butter until they softened.  Then I added the mushrooms and sautéed the mixture about fifteen minutes until everything  seemed cooked .  Then we removed the vegetables to an enameled Le Creuset casserole  and added 1 T. of butter to the large skillet and cooked the beef.  While the beef was cooking Suzette added about ½ cup of Crema and salt and pepper to the vegetable mixture.  When the meat was beginning to tun grey bur still had some reddish color internally, we added the meat and the PPI Boeuf Bourguignon to the mixture and then added a large handful of spinach to the mixture in the casserole.  Suzette the heated a bag of PPI spaghetti and divided it into two pasta bowls and we each spooned Beef Stroganoff over the mound of spaghetti in each of our bowls.

We drank the last of the 2010 Wellington Cab and then opened the bottle of Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon that Ricardo and Cynthia brought us last Saturday.  We liked the Charles Shaw cab also, especially with the Stroganoff.

Bon Appetit

January 20, 2017 Lunch – Cesar Salad, Dinner – sautéed Aji Tuna Steak, Steamed Broccoli, and Coconut Rice

January 20, 2017 Lunch – Cesar Salad,  Dinner – sautéed Aji Tuna Steak, Steamed Broccoli, and Coconut Rice

I cooked oatmeal for breakfast, with raisins, brown sugar, and pistachios. I use half milk and half water and cook the oatmeal until it develops a saucy consistency.

At 11:00 I drove to Sprouts and bought a 2 ½ lb. chunk of chuck roast, a lb. of mushrooms, a liter of Spanish olive oil, and a 7 oz. package of cipollini onions.

For lunch I made a Cesar Salad: Romaine lettuce, Pecorino Romano cheese, croutons, and Spanish anchovies plus slices of hard boiled egg.

Suzette came home at 2:30 and we went to the Turner Branch Estate sale.  I did not see anything bur Suzette bought a beautiful tooled Leather briefcase made in Paraguay and eight five piece place settings of what appeared to be hand made wrought iron silverware.  She is thinking we might use them at the house which makes me very happy.

We drove to Sprouts after the estate sale and bought 2.85 lb. more chuck roast, an heirloom tomato, and five lb. of russet potatoes.

We returned home at 4:30 and started cooking Boeuf Bourguignon.

I diced the roast, removing all the silver skin and fat.  Then I diced two onions, two carrots and five cloves of garlic.

While I chopped Suzette sautéed a aji tuna steak, steamed some broccoli, and heated the PPI Thai Chicken Massaman Curry.  We ate a lovely dinner and then resumed cooking the Boeuf Bourguignon.

Suzette sautéed about ¼ lb. bacon until crisp.  Then we braised the meat in the bacon fat until it browned.  Suzette then sautéed the onions, carrots, thyme, and garlic.  Then she added 3 T. of flour and cooked the flour for a opulent of minutes.

Then she added 10 cups of beef stock and four cups of red wine to the sautéed meat and vegetables and put them into a roasting pan in the oven to bake for two hours.

I went to bed at this point and let Suzette take over.  Then at 10:00 she removed the dish from the oven and seasoned it with salt and pepper and we took it to the garage.

Tomorrow we will cook it some more and add mushrooms and cipollini onions sautéed in butter.

We used Julia Child’ recipe for Bouef Bourguignon in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Bon Appetit

January 19, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Pho Miso Noodle Soup with shrimp, fish cakes and spinach. Dinner – PPI Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

January 19, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Pho Miso Noodle Soup with shrimp, fish cakes and spinach. Dinner – PPI Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

For breakfast I ate fruit salad, with granola, vitamin powder, yogurt and a dash of milk.  There are two interesting things I noticed about this breakfast; the ability of fruit to stay fresh for long periods of time when refrigerated.  For example, the pineapple was bought before Christmas and used in the mulled wine.  The rest of the cut up pineapple is still fresh and delicious in this salad although it has shed someone its juice and lost some tensile strength.  The other interesting thing is the rapid conversion of whole milk into a soft yogurt when combined with yogurt.  It and the other ingredients of the salad congeal into a soft mass instead of their different elements remaining separate.

The morning was spent mostly on VinDacia stuff.  I had a teleconference with Aaron and a securities attorney and reviewed and edited the head of terms agreement for the purchase of a Romanian winery.

For lunch I made my usual Pho and miso soup with rice, wheat and mung bean thread noodles.  Today I added dehydrated fish stock(dashi), shrimp, and fish balls to the regular miso ingredients of tofu, green onion, and  seaweed, and added some spinach and the PPI roasted purple carrots from Common Fire in Taos.

After eating two bowls of soup and I felt like a new man.  I like to eat soup for lunch before I ride my bike because it seems to hydrate my body, which aids me in riding my bike.  I wanted to ride at 3:00 but was delayed until 4:00 by a revision of a letter.  The temp was 49 degrees so I wore gloves and long leggings and was quite comfortable, but the wind was gusting a bit and changing direction, so it seemed to be an issue going north and south.

I returned home at 4:30 after a shortened ride, showered, and dressed. Suzette asked about my schedule and I said I would be ready by 5:00 and would like to eat some curry before we left for the Museum.  Suzette heated and we ate PPI Chicken Massaman Curry with roasted peanuts and split a Lefftes beer and drove to the museum at 5:20.

There was a full evening of activities at the museum that we enjoyed.  After we obtained our ticket for the Fusion Theater’s presentation of Altitude Sickness by D. H. Lawrence for 7:00, we toured the new block print exhibit and an exhibit on the Jewish community in New Mexico in the 20th century, observed the printing demonstration, and each made a block print by tracing the lines of a print affixed to an inked sheet of glass that created a reverse image of the traced lines by lifting ink from the inked glass where pressed by a sharpened pencil.

Suzette made a wonderful Women Power image and I made a half hearted effort to copy a scene of the Taos Plaza in the 1920s.

After our print making we each had a Negra Modelo and shared a bowl of salty snacks.  At 7:00 the auditorium doors were opened and folks filled the seats.  The seats in the auditorium were rather uncomfortable and tightly bunched against one another so I moved to an open seat at the end of the row in front of our row and was able to shift my position and give Suzette the ability to do the same using my emptied seat.  Suzette liked the presentation but I was tired and sore from riding and missed much of the nuanced dialogue.  The high points of the 20’s and 30’s in Taos in the play were Mabel Dodge’s narcissism and the love triangle between D.H. Lawrence, his German wife, Frieda, and Dorothy Brett, who was a painter, also British, and infatuated with Lawrence.

I recently finished reading the catalog for Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company edited by Lois Rudnick and Malan Powell, which mentioned the bent toward free love and open relationships at Mabel’s Taos compound, so that was no surprise and neither was Mabel’s narcissism.

We went to bed shortly after we returned home at 8:30 after a rather full day if activity.

Bon Appetit