We had an organizational meeting for the new community garden this
afternoon where we discussed tilling, irrigation issues, soil
emendations, and who's doing (or not doing) what. Turns out it's me,
mostly, on all counts except spreading the compost.

After the meeting D and I took a drive down TX Hwy 66 to Rockwall and
then a bit north to the San Martino Winery
(http://www.sanmartinowinery.com/) which we'd heard about for years,
but had never visited. It turned out to be a pretty civilized place.
D got a glass of Zinfandel and I had some of their Tempranillo, which
I quite liked. At first the Zin in D's glass was a bit rambunctious,
but it settled down after a few moments. Big red wines sometimes need
to breathe a bit.

The owner sat down at our table and chatted us up, a personable and
agreeable Spanish expat who's now an administrator of some description
with one of the area community college systems. It turned out we had
a number of mutual friends and acquaintances.

After our vino, we drove to a Rockwall supermarket to see what we
could find for dinner. It turned out that a flat iron steak was the
thing to get, along with some broccoli. Back home, I set the broccoli
to roasting in the oven and rubbed the steak (half of it, actually -
the other half went into the freezer) with smoked paprika and salt. I
seared it on each side and finished it in the oven. Then I set it on
a plate in the warming drawer and built a pan sauce of minced
shallots, stock, a little soy sauce, lemon juice, and a tiny dash of
galangal powder.

With rice and the broccoli, it was a good dinner.
--
modom

ambitious when it comes to fiddling with meat