January 2, 2026 Breakfast - Lax on Bagel Lunch - Leftover Pita Sandwich with Romanian Sausage Dinner -

 January 2, 2026 Breakfast - Lax on Bagel Lunch - Leftover Pita Sandwich with Romanian Sausage   Dinner - Lobster Bisque 

   

I slept until 7:35 after staying up 2 hours during the night.

I decided to eat gravad lax and red onion on a toasted bagel spread with cream cheese.

After breakfast I drafted my succession plan for the Bar Association and sent it to all parties with responsibilities in the plan.

I was 1:30 and I was hungry when I finished the plan, so I checked the fridge and saw the Romanian sausage and Willy’s leftover tzatziki and pita bread. I asked Willy if it was okay to eat his leftover tzatziki, pita, and rice pilaf.

At 1:45 I made a pita sandwich with the sausage, tzatziki, feta cheese, and lettuce and put two pickles and a green onion on the plate and heated a container of rice pilaf. It was a lovely lunch and very filling.

 I watched the market close and checked my portfolio. I had been following the market all day but was surprised that the NASDAQ was negative, because my portfolio was up almost 1%. A good start to the new year.

I then lay down to read and napped until 4:10, when I started cooking the chicken hind quarters with a mirepoix and a small handful of minced oregano and sagen in a large pot of water.

Dinner - Suzette came home at 4:30 and found an easy recipe for Lobster Bisque on the internet.

I chopped 1/3 cup each of celery and green onion, a cup of fresh portobello mushrooms, and a carrot and fetched and minced parsley and thyme from the garden to season the dish.

Suzette began cooking those ingredients in butter and olive oil and then when they were cooked, she puréed them in the Ninja Blender and then added 8 cups of seafood broth we  made last night by boiling all the uneaten crab and lobster parts and shells. 

Then Suzette added heavy cream and instead of paprika, we added an tsp of Aleppo chili powder to add warmth. We stirred for 30 minutes without the soup thickening much, so Suzette employed the Japanese method of thickening, by making and adding a paste of potato starch and stock. Then in a few more minutes we added the lb. mixture of crab and lobster meat and cooked the soup for another few minutes. We garnished the soup with 12 asparagus speared that Suzette had steamed and sliced into 1 inch sections and several croutons seasoned with basil salt she made for the Cesar salad yesterday.

I poured glasses of a lovely bottle of Domaine Pichot 2023 Vouvray. It was a great Vouvray with the slightly sweet and citrus overtones of good Vouvrays. I will look for more bottles of this wine  I toasted and buttered three slices of baguette and ate two with the soup.

I think I bought this bottle at Kokoman in Pojuaque.

The combination of fresh crab and lobster in a delicious soup with a fabulous Vouvray made this dinner memorable.

I felt good about the $100 I spent on crab and lobster at Costco as we segregated the crab and lobster meat before the meal into three piles, one of crab and lobster for the bisque, one for crab soufflé tomorrow night and one with lobster tails and claws for lobster salad Saturday or Sunday. Considering the crab and lobster feast we had on New Year’s Eve the cost of four fabulous meals and possibly a fifth if we make fish soup with the broth seemed cheap. 

I noticed as we made the three piles was that the meat had dispelled its waterlogged texture from being frozen and was much fresher and aromatic after sitting in the fridge overnight.

After dinner we drank glasses of limoncello. Later I drank a sip of Maison Surrene cognac with a piece of fudge and later still a slice of Suzette’s tropical fruitcake with a cup of tea.

Suzette went to bed at 9:30 and I by 11:00.

Bon Appetit 

 

January 1, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - French Onion Soup, Cesar Salad, and Quince and Pear tart. Dinner - PPI Spaghetti, Duck, and Broccoli

January 1, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate   Lunch - French Onion Soup, Cesar Salad, and Quince and Pear tart. Dinner - PPI Spaghetti, Duck, and Broccoli 

The first day of the new year was wonderful. I slept until 8:30 and then read and ate a pain au chocolate with a latte machiatta. I then sliced three onions and rubbed the large salad bowl with garlic and made a Cesar dressing with a can of anchovies, the remaing clove of garlic pressed, lemon juice, and about 2/3 cup of Argentinian Laur olive oil and then two egg yolks to bind the dressing. Suzette then strained the beef broth she made yesterday and sautéed the onions in butter and olive oil with 3 tsp. of salt and then two egg onions softened, she added sugar to the onions to caramelize them.

Then she added 2 T. of flour and cook it into the onions, Finally Suzette added two quarts (8 cups) of the beef broth and 1/2 cup of white vermouth and cooked the soup to mix the ingredients.

Here is the recipe: 

Then Suzette tore several heads of romaine lettuce and put the torn leaves in the salad bowl and then baked a cookie sheet of garlic and olive oil soaked croutons made from Costco baguettes and I grated a cup of Pecorino-Romano cheese and sliced about fifteen slices of Gruyere cheese to garnish the Onion Soup and Suzette sliced rounds of baguette and we toasted them and then filled French onion soup bowls with soup and placed a slice of toasted baguette and a slice of Gruyere in each bowl. At 10:30 I watched some of the Sunderland v. Man City PL fixture with Willy. All five PL fixtures today ended tied.

At 11:30 Luke and Ari arrived and I added the croutons, the grated Pecorino Romano cheese, and the Cesar Salad dressing to the lettuce.

Then Suzette served each person a heated bowl of French Onion soup and I served cesar salad and poured glasses of Chateau Aton Haut Medoc Bordeaux red wine.

                                       The Cesar salad after the first serving

After lunch Luke and I whipped cream with 2 Tsps. of powdered sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Suzette served slices of tart and I poured glasses of pineau for Ari, Suzette, and me.

After lunch we went around the table and each gave our New Year’s resolutions. One of Suzette’s was to develop our garden area and mine were dematerialization of my Indian bank shares and a successful launch of Earn’s website.

After lunch Amber arrived and Ari and Luke left with Amber for California at 1:45 Suzette and I walked around the block in the warm afternoon sunlight, which helped me get to 3,000 steps for the day.

By the way my solar plex is beginning to strengthen. 

Then I watched Indiana quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy winner Mendoza crush Alabama in a National NCAA quarterfinal and then after 6:00 Miss. State beat Georgia in an exciting game.

We did not have an official dinner. Suzette ate the last cabbage roll with sauerkraut for he good luck New Year’s meal, willy ate at a new Afghanistan restaurant downtown, and I ate leftover roast duck, broccoli, and spaghetti with the last glass f the Vacqueyras red. The big important meal of the day was the very French lunch.

Willy returned with his report of the new Afghan restaurant and after Suzette finished working in her office she joined to watch the last 9 minutes of the Sugar Bowl which was won by Miss. State impressively.

Suzette cut me a slice of fruitcake and I ate it with a cup of tea and then after Miss. State won we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

 

December 31, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Snack - Fruit tamales Lunch - Leftover Carne Adovado with beans. Dinner - S’mores at the chimInia and cold crab and lobster salad

December 31, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Snack - Fruit tamales Lunch - Leftover Carne Adovado with beans. Dinner - S’mores at the chimInia and cold crab and lobster salad

I ate granola with the last of the blueberries in the morning around 9:00. Then at 10:00 I drove to Costco to shop for New Year’s Eve food and other things t replenish our larder.

I bought 18 bottles of wine, 8 Albariño, four Gran Reserva Riojas, a Malbec for Willy, 2 Gruet Rose Champagne, 2 Gruet Blanc de Blanc and a Kirkland Chianti Classico. The Gruet and one of the Gran Reserva were on sale at $9.99 and Albariño is our favorite with the painting of a fish on the label.

For dinner I bought fresh crab sections and three cooked lobsters. I could not resist buying the lobsters because they were 11.99 per pound. I also bought blueberries, mushrooms, a 3 liter bottle of Spanish olive oil, and a 1/2 kilo wheel of Iseny sur Mer brie at the ridiculous price of $4.97.

 Then I drove home and Willy helped unload the wine at 11:30.

I ate two fruit tamales and then around 12:00 drove to El Super where I bought blue corn tortillas, sour cream, requeson, and  grated cojita cheese, plus milk, two large avocados, 5 Bosc pears, celery, carrots, brown, onions, sweet potatoes, and chicken quarters. Most of these items were bought to replenish our mirepoix ingredients and to prepare chicken enchiladas.

I returned home at 1:15 just in time to watch the Citrus Bowl from Orlando between Michigan and Texas.  I ate the leftover carne adovado and beans wrapped in corn tortillas and drank a Negra Modelo as the two teams struggled in the first half. Finally in the second half Texas started rushing the Michigan quarterback and Michigan’s passing attack faltered and Texas won after several interceptions.

So I was thrilled that both of my Alma maters had won their bowl games and I had walked over 4000 steps.

Suzette arrived around 3:00 with a bag of marshmallows and wanted to build a fire in the chiminia to make s’mores. I asked to wait until the Game ended. Suzette went out and built the fire and gathered chocolate bars and graham crackers.

By the end of the game it was almost dark at 5:30 when we went lit the fire and pulled up chairs to the chiminia. Suzette had brought the wrought iron steak flipper we bought at Routs Market when we were last in Pennsylvania in August. Its two 2 inch prongs were the perfect utensil to roast two marshmallows. Suzette commented that we had a rather complete battery of utensils for cooking and we all agreed. No more twisted coat hangers for our s’more cooking sessions.

After about an hour of sitting and watching the fire burn down to coals and eating a few s’mores we went back inside for our New Year’s Eve dinner. 

Before dinner and during dinner prep, we cored, peeled and sliced the five pears and Suzette mixed them with thawed cooked quince slices we prepared last September and added a glass or two of French Pineau and made a pastry dough and rolled it out and folded it at the edges and filled the cavity with pear and quince slices and baked it in the oven and reduced sugar, butter, and pineau to a thick caramel which she used to decorate the tart that we will serve for dessert at the lunch tomorrow.

Dinner - Suzette fetched the largest steel Chinese platter and I began cutting romaine lettuce, a tomato, a cucumber, dill pickles, pickled sweet red peppers, and an avocado to fill half the platter while Suzette snapped and steamed a handful of asparagus and hard boiled five eggs. I also rejuvenated the tartare sauce by adding another dill pickle minced, some mayonnaise, some sour cream, some lemon juice, some capers, and some minced shallot. After Suzette sliced an egg and added the asparagus to the platter we added the crab sections and three lobsters I had bought at Costco for a magnificent platter of cold seafood salad for our dinner. 

Then when we added the rejuvenated tartare sauce to the platter we took it to the table in the TV room and opened the bottle of Gruet 2014 Gilbert Grand Reserve we had chilled in the freezer for several hours. The Gilbert was a magnificent bottle of champagne with tiny persistent bubbles and a rich nutty aged chardonnay flavor. It was a joy to drink it from our special blown glass glasses we bought at Murano many years ago. 

We then began to pick the meat out of the crabs and lobsters and to make lettuce wraps of tomato, avocado, sauce, egg slices, and cucumber. We filled bowls with the meat that we did not eat. As we ate we watched CNN’s Times Square programming with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen and a cast of reporters and singers from across the nation from California to New Orleans. Andy’s humor was a little raunchy for me at times that I dismissed as gay drunk talk.

Finally at 10:00 when all the seafood had been picked we toasted each other and the New Year at the stroke of midnight in New York with all those assembled in Time Square. 

We put up what we did not eat and the bowls of crab and lobster awaiting their time to be turned into lobster bisque and salad or Thermidor and crab soufflé (my favorite), crab omelets, and crab salad in the next few days.

Also today Suzette finished cooking the beef broth that we will use to make Onion Soup and salad for lunch tomorrow when Ari, Luke, and Amber return from Santa Fe.

Soon after 10:00 Suzette and I were on our way to bed and Willy was considering how and with whom to celebrate New Year’s in Albuquerque.

It was a wonderful day of shopping, cooking and eating a magnificent seafood and champagne dinner that is our usual manner of welcoming in the new year.

The market went down slightly today after a positive start. Probably the smart money closing positions before a long holiday weekend.

Bon Appetit