Southwest-ish Salade Compose

This wouldn't be a salade compose that you'd find in France, but it was damn tasty last night:
That is the last of the late season lettuce from my garden topped with grilled flank steak, cumin roasted sweet potatoes and a corn/red pepper/cilantro/lime salad.

I'm currently having a love affair with Arbor Farm's beef supplier. The old Arbor Farms used to depress the hell out of me--the produce was tired, the bulk stuff always looked dusty, and the only meat they had was frozen. The new Arbor Farms is much better. Their produce quality has improved ten-fold (though the only scallions they had the other day had started to go slimy...), the store is much brighter and cleaner, and they have a terrific grass fed beef provider. The meat tastes great and, this is my favorite part, is vacuum sealed so you can buy it and don't have to use it immediately, nor do you have to freeze it. I bought the flank steak before I had that nasty stomach bug last week and if I had bought it anywhere else, well, it would have gone bad by the time I was well enough to use it.

Arbor Farms is also on my side of town. It does not provide the satisfaction (nor the temptation) of shopping at Whole Paycheck across town--Whole Paycheck can provide the gourmet indulgences and Arbor Farms (wisely) doesn't try to compete with Zingerman's or Big 10. But Arbor Farms does have good food and far fewer of the frustrations of Whole Paycheck (that hellacious parking lot, the snarky checkout workers--though snarky in a "I've been trained to be cheerful so I'll sneer at you and your two pain-in-the-ass kids through my forced smile", and those prices!)

Ami and John joined us for dinner and they brought along three bottles of red wine for us to review--they want to buy a case for an upcoming fire-related event they are hosting so we opened them all and I thought they all were pretty darn good.
My favorite was the Arancio, a Sicilian Syrah. The Altaona was more Cabernet in strength and the Vina Alarba was juicier, more Zinfandel-like. Ami bought all three at Village Corner and I've got to head over there to get some too. I don't know if you can see the number on the price tag in the above photo, but that Altaona was only $6.99!!

There is still a lot of wine left in the three bottles which will come in handy today since Sarah introduced me to the idea of a Pope Joan drinking game.

Every time you find one of the following phrases used
"her white-gold hair"
"his/her malevolent/malicious smile"
you take a drink.

To this I will add my own contribution, every time you find a historical inaccuracy or bit of ridiculousness, take a drink.

By the above rules, I would have been sloshed this morning while in the 140 page vicinity since one of the above conditions was met on almost every page.

Yes, I have started a Pope Joan crimes notebook. It is the only way to tolerate reading it. Rather than gnashing my teeth, I gleefully take up my pen and note down the incident. Petty of me? Oh yes. Fun? Yes indeedy do.