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

January 18, 2017 Lunch – Vietnam 2000 No. 21, Dinner – PPI Eggplant Parmesan with Tomato Sauce

January 18, 2017 Lunch – Vietnam 2000 No. 21,  Dinner – PPI Eggplant Parmesan with Tomato Sauce

I am still trying to maintain a high protein and carb diet, so I ate fruit salad, granola, yogurt, milk, and vitamin powder for breakfast.

Then at 12:15 I had a hankering for some good Vietnamese food and because I knew I wanted to go by Sprouts Farm Market,  so I drove to Vietnam 2000 at the corner of San Mateo and Zuni and sat at my favorite table with its view of the snow capped Sandias and ordered my favorite dish, Number 21, a bowl of fluffy steamed rice noodles sitting on a bed of fresh chopped lettuce, basil, mung beans, cucumbers, and cilantro and topped with slices of hot grilled lean pork and two pork filled egg rolls served with a sweetened fish sauce for $8.50.  I order an extra fish sauce so I can dip my egg rolls and a side plate of fresh mung beans, basil and cilantro for $1.50, to add freshness and flavor to the dish.  My body must still be craving protein and carbs, because I ate the entire bowl today.

After lunch I drove north on San Mateo to Lomas, where Sprouts Farm Market is located.  I had three things in mind, fresh fish, more organic broccoli, and tomatoes for a tomato sauce to revive the Eggplant Parmesan dish.  I bought two tuna steaks on sale for $5.99/lb.  The broccoli was a different stocky form of broccoli, but I bought it anyway.  Lovely mature Roma tomatoes were on sale for $.50/lb.  I picked out the softest most mature six I could find.  I then bought about a lb. of granola for $2.99/lb. and about a lb. of milk chocolate almond clusters on sale for $6.99/lb.

I went home and worked with Aaron on the Los Lunas project until a little after 5:00, then went to the garage and said hello to Suzette, who was sanding cabinet doors for Los Lunas and told her I was going to meditate and would start a tomato sauce for the Eggplant Parmesan first.  I then went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano and a small clump of garlic growing among the tarragon that I wanted to get rid off.

Tomato Sauce

I sliced and diced ¼ onion, 4 Roma Tomatoes, the garlic and oregano.

There was approximately ¼ cup each of oregano and garlic.

I then heated two T. of Spanish olive oil in a large skillet and sautéed the onion for a couple of minutes.

I then added the oregano, tomatoes, and garlic and added ¼ cup of Chianti and stirred the ingredients to mix them together.

I cooked the ingredients until I had to leave at 6:20 for meditation when Suzette took over.  When I returned home at around 7:30 Suzette had constructed a casserole dish with PPI spaghetti on the bottom, then the PPI Eggplant Parmesan, then the tomato sauce, and finally, slices of Pecorino Romano cheese that she had covered with Saran Wrap and put into the microwave.  We discussed wine and she decided on another bottle of Aquino Chianti Reserva from Trader Joe’s, so I opened it and poured glasses of it while she heated and served the Eggplant Parmesan casserole.

The dish was fantastic. The fresh tomato sauce reinvigorated  the dried out overcooked Eggplant dish to create a mouth watering delicious dinner with a completely fresh flavor.  It was revelatory for me to see how an unappealing dish could be transformed into an appealingly fresh dish by the addition of a fresh sauce and reconstruction into a casserole.  My idea to add a tomato sauce to the tired old Eggplant dish worked better than I had hoped.

Suzette wants to lose weight so the simple tomato sauce was a good start for her new diet.

Bon Appetit

January 17, 2017 Breakfast – Yogurt, fruit salad, granola and milk, Lunch – East Ocean, Dinner – Thai Chicken Massaman Curry with rice

January 17, 2017 Breakfast – Yogurt, fruit salad, granola and milk, Lunch – East Ocean,  Dinner – Thai Chicken Massaman Curry with rice

Today the weather finally warmed to 50 degrees, the rain stopped, the wind moderated,  and the sun shone intermittently, so I knew I would ride.

I ate a pretty full bowl of granola with the fruit salad I made on Sunday, with papaya, orange, strawberries, and  blueberries and a bit of milk at took my vitamins

Then at 11:30 I went to the dentist and at 12:00 met my new hygienist and had my teeth cleaned and x-rayed.

At 1:15 I drove to East Ocean and met Peter Eller.  Peter ordered No. 16, Kung Pao Chicken and I ordered No. 16, Moo Goo Gai Pan, which is Chicken meat stir fried with sliced baby corn, snow peas, celery, onion, bok Choy,  water chestnut slices, and mushroom slices in a lightly thickened chicken stock/Mandarin sauce served with a mound of fried rice and six or seven pieces of sweet and sour chicken slathered with red sweet and sour sauce.

My Moo Goo Gai Pan contained many of the same vegetables as the Chicken Massaman Curry I knew I would eat for dinner but I did not care because I wanted a dose of protein, carbohydrates,  and vegetables.  We discussed the Plasterer painting by Emil Bisttram and the Von Hassler restoration and I showed Peter the Catalog for the Mabel Dodge Luhan exhibit and encouraged him to see it.

After lunch I went home, checked the mail and the stock market.  This was one of those rare days when my portfolio had a minimal loss of about $692.00, while the whole market dropped about .2% to .4% thanks to Apple perking up $.96 to $120.00.  I had tried to determine what to sell and when to take the mandatory 3.65% distribution from my IRAs.  The unexpected rise in Apple has almost convinced me to wait until the end of the year to decide whether to sell this year or next year depending on my expected income this year versus next year, because the pundits are projecting a better stock market growth for 2017 than 2016.

At 3:45 I felt good and rode 10 miles, all the way to Rio Bravo and back to see the Canadian geese and sandhill cranes feeding in the fields and the heavy clouds hanging over the snow capped Sandias.

When I returned home around 4:45, Suzette was sanding cabinet doors in the garage.  I went in and watched the NBR business news on PBS and around 5:45 she came in.  I told her I wanted to roast peanuts with which to garnish the curry.  We went to the kitchen and Suzette heated a container of rice and curry in the microwave and transferred the remaining rice and curry to a single container while I toasted and crushed about 2/3 cup of blanched frozen peanuts from Talin until golden brown which took about 25 minutes at medium heat.

Suzette reheated the curry and fetched beers from the garage fridge.  I drank a Lettfe from Belgium and Suzette drank a Stella Artois.

The curry was greatly improved by the tamarind paste and juice I added last night and the crunchy toasted peanuts I added tonight.  We enjoyed our slightly exotic Thai dinner.

Later I ate a bowl of Java Chip ice cream garnished with poached pear slices, chocolate sauce, and a dash of Kahlua.

Suzette went to bed at 8:30 and I followed at 9:00 and read a bit of the new Business Week.

I love that the President of China has addressed the World Economic Summit at Davos, Switzerland today.  It has filled most of the business news today and is the perfect antidote to Trump’s tweets.  Not only does it make his tweets irrelevant as news, but it sends a strong message to the world that China stands ready to assume the role of world leader to advance the continuation of globalization and free trade.  It should make Trump think twice before he closes our borders with a border tax that will cause inflation and start a world wide trade war, perhaps for the wrong reason, because it diminishes his status as a world economic leader, but will result in the right action, which is why I am not going to sell Apple this week.

Actually early on Sunday morning I called TD Ameritrade and talked to Mitch, who informed me that a mandatory distribution from an IRA does not require a sale of the stock.  One can transfer the required amount of dollar value of stock from an IRA account to a taxable account and include the amount of the transfer in one’s taxable income.

Bon Appetit

January 16, 2017 Lunch – PPI Eggplant Parmesan, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Artichoke halves, Mashed Potatoes, steamed Broccoli, and Sautéed Mushroom Sauce

January 16, 2017  Lunch – PPI Eggplant Parmesan,  Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak and Artichoke halves, Mashed Potatoes, steamed Broccoli, and Sautéed Mushroom Sauce

I ate no breakfast today thanks to the double helping of Eggplant Parmesan last night.

I went to the fridge at 1:00 and decided to eat another helping of Eggplant Parmesan for lunch.  It was delicious again.  The eggplant had collapsed and become creamy and blended with the spinach, cheese, and meat sauce into arch thick sauce that coated and flavored the spaghetti perfectly.

The only ingredient I did not have when I made the Chicken Massaman Curry on Thursday was tamarind, so I had bought a 1 lb. bag of dried tamarind fruit at El Super yesterday for $1.99/lb.  I asked Suzette to help me make tamarind paste to ad to the curry when she arrived home this evening.  We looked at a couple of videos on the internet and discovered that you remove the hard shell, strip the threads from the fruit,  soak the fruit in heated water for several hours to soften the fruit, and then push the fruit through a sieve to remove the fruit from the remains threads and the internal seeds.

 We removed the dried husk from about ten pods and removed the threads that encased the fruit while we heated water in the tea pot.  We then put the fruit into a medium sauce pan, poured about three cups of water over the fruit, brought the fruit to a boil , covered it and let it sit for about three hours until after the meal.

Suzette was hungry so we immediately started dinner after removing and covering the tamarind fruit.  We had PPI mashed potatoes and I had thawed a rib steak yesterday.

Suzette salted and peppered the steak, I cut the two boiled Artichokes in halves so Suzette could grill them with the steak.  The artichokes retain a lot of water from the boiling and so the grilling simply heats and removes the moisture, leaving a more firm steamed artichoke that has the added benefit of being heated.  We love to grill the tender medium fresh artichokes that Trader Joe’s sells for four for $2.49.

I fetched the mayonnaise dill sauce and put it on the table for the warm artichokes.

We decided to steam some of the fresh organic broccoli that I had bought on Thursday on sale for $.88/lb..  Suzette deflowered a head of broccoli and put the flowerets into the steamer with water, ready to steam.

When Suzette took the steak and artichokes to the grill I turned on the heat under the broccoli and started cooking the Mushroom sauce.

Mushroom Sauce with cream

I sliced about six or seven medium portobello mushrooms and minced ½ of a shallot and two cloves of garlic.  When Suzette took the steak and artichokes to the grill outside, I heated 2 T. of butter and 1 T. of olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat and then added the minced shallot and garlic and cooked them for a minute or two.  Then I added the mushrooms and about ½ T. of dried marjoram and ½ tsp. fleur de sel with herbs Provence. I tossed and stirred the mushrooms with a wooden spoon for about five minutes until they were coated with the grease and began to soften and change color.  I then added about 2 T. Amontillado sherry and stirred it in to coat all the mushroom slices.  I cooked the mushrooms to infuse the sherry for another couple of minutes.  When the surface of the sauce began to glisten I knew I was on the right track because the sauce was beginning to bind the butter, Mushroom liquid, and sherry.  I then did something I have never done before; I added about 1 ½ T. of Central American Crema from El Super to the sauce to further bind the sauce and add a slightly  creamy flavor.

Willy arrived at this point with his wash and we invited him to join us for dinner.   This was a great example to him of the benefit of being ready to eat when the meal is ready.

I fetched a bottle of 2015 Chateau Haut Sorillon Bordeaux Superiore I bought at Trader Joe’s on Saturday for $7.99 and Suzette opened it and also heated the PPI mashed potatoes in the microwave while I finished making the Mushroom Sauce.

In a few more minutes, when Suzette brought in the grilled steak and Willy had started his laundry, the sauce and broccoli were ready to eat.  I sliced the steak which was between rare and medium rare and divided it into three portions with Suzette’s being the rare steak.

Suzette divided and plated the mashed potatoes and we each served ourselves the broccoli and Mushroom Sauce and I poured the red wine.

We each took a grilled artichoke and enjoyed our elaborate dinner while watching the Antiques Roadshow from Fort Worth and the one from Santa Clara.

Poached Pears

After dinner Suzette serves us bowls of vanilla ice cream with some of the poached pears we made yesterday.  As I mentioned, I bought four Bartlett pears at El Super. Sunday afternoon Suzette peeled the pears and cored and halved them and I sliced them. I then put about ½ cup of water into a medium sauce pan with about ½ cup of sugar and the remaining 1 cup or 1 ½ cup of 2004 St. Clair Refosco red sweet wine that we found undrinkable but kept for just such a moment.  I also added the zest of one lemon, the juice of ½ lemon, and about 2 T. of an Italian aperitif made from bitter herbs and simmered the pears and liquid for about a hour until the liquid reduced by about ½.

The ice cream with the still firm pear slices and flavorful poaching medium made for a lovely flavorful dessert.

After dinner we ate a few pieces of chocolate and drank more or the new Prince d’ Arignac Armagnac VS we bought at Trader Joe’s for $15.00.  Armagnac is typically more mellow than cognac and cheaper.

After dinner I sieved the softened tamarind and we put about three or four T. of the resulting paste and about 1 cup of the tamarind flavored  water into the curry and bottled the paste and remaining liquid.

Suzette then went to bed a bit after 9:00 and I stayed up and enjoyed immensely watching the family pictures, official ceremonial movies, and commentary collected into a BBC special celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.  I guess I am a closet monarchist.  Or simply that much of her life parallels my life.  I remember fondly the week I spent with my family in London in 1960 in early April during which we viewed the royal wedding procession of Princess Margaret from a balcony window in the heart of London with all the other well wishers and tourists.

Bon Appetit

Bon Appetit

January 15, 2016. Lunch – the last of the Christmas Posole, Dinner – Eggplant Parmesan with boiled artichokes

January 15, 2016. Lunch – the last of the Christmas Posole,  Dinner – Eggplant Parmesan with boiled artichokes


This week was the transition point between Christmas food and new food.  I went shopping for food at a Sprouts on Thursday we went shopping for wine, scotch, and beer on Saturday, and today I went to El Super to replenish produce.

We ate light breakfasts of peanut butter mixed with Nutella in toast.

I finished the last of the posole for lunch, while Suzette was sanding cabinet doors in the garage.

I then drove to El Super in the rain.  It was full of Sunday afternoon shoppers, but the prices, even at their regular prices were super.

I bought four Bartlett pears to poach for $.67/lb., limes were expensive at $.79/lb. but I bought about a ten, I bought a bag of dried tamarind for $1.99/lb., onions were expensive at $.33/lb., but I bought about three pounds, I bought four zucchini at $.79/lb.  then I bought a gallon of milk marked $3.00 but was charged $3.99 for it and 1½ lb. of medium heads off shrimp for $6.99.

When I got home at around 2:45 the Playoff game between Dallas and Green Bay was just starting.  Suzette and I watched that while flipping back and forth to two Jennifer Aniston movies, Bounty Hunter and The Switch.  The game was heartbreaking because Dallas lost in the last ten seconds, but the movies were fun.

We started cooking at 4:00 because we told Willy we would eat at 5:00

Yesterday I had boiled the fresh artichokes we bought at Trader Joe’s. Mayonnaise Dill Sauce
Today we inspected and threw out the PPI sour cream dill sauce from the Christmas Party and I made a fresh sauce for the artichokes with about 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1/3 cup fresh dill, 1 minced green onion, ½ tsp. Fleur de sal with herbs Provence that Kathryn and Mike brought us last year, and about 2 T. of lemon juice.  I mixed these ingredients together until smooth and set the sauce aside to meld its flavors.

We had selected a 1997 Brunello, but when our latest project to have Mario replace the door jam went haywire and Suzette became upset, I decided on a slightly less wonderful but still good bottle of wine.  I selected a 2012 Banfi Chianti Reserva (Total Wine $20.00 reduced to $16.00).

Eggplant Parmesan

I sliced the eggplant I had bought at Sprouts on Wednesday into ½ inch thick slices.
Suzette on pie pan with egg and the other with Progresso bread crumbs.
She coated the slices first with egg and then with crumbs and the sautéed them in a combination of olive oil and butter until golden brown.

She grated Pecorino Romano cheese and filled a Pyrex baking dish with layers of spaghetti sauce, spinach, eggplant, cheese spinach and cheese and baked the dish in the oven for 45 minutes until the ingredients began to bubble.

We made the spaghetti sauce last week with ground beef, mushrooms, three chopped leeks, fresh oregano from the garden, and two cans of Spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage.

I made a lb. of spaghetti by boiling a pot of water with ½ tsp. of salt and a bay leaf and then adding 1 lb. of Italian spaghetti.

We finished cooking the meal by 5:30, but made a mistake because we waited for Willy and he did not arrive until 6:30 or 7:00, which meant that the spaghetti became cold and stuck together and the Eggplant became dried out as we kept it warm in the oven.

While waiting for eating our artichokes with the wonderful dill mayonnaise lemon sauce.  We thought the fresh boiled artichokes with the fresh mayonnaise sauce was exceptional.

We agreed with Willy that next time we would eat when the food was ready and he can heat up the food when he arrives.

The 2012 Banfi Chianti Reserva was fabulous.  It had a chalky bite and a smoothness with a clean finish, everything one would want with a red wine, except it did not have that exceedingly long finish that great Red  burgundies have.  Just a very solid wine that Suzette kept drinking until it was gone (the true test of quality).

The Eggplant Parmesan with spinach was also delicious even though the eggplant slices collapsed a bit more than I would have liked due to its overcooking.  The benefit of overcooking is that the cheese melted fully and became a creamy binder in the dish.

We loved the meal and wine.  It was a very successful and simple meal.

We tried the new bottle of Armagnac that we bought for $15.00 at Trader Joe’s on Saturday, which was soft and creamy tasting.  It won a gold medal and well worth the price.

Bon Appetit

onion, ½ tsp. Fleur de sal with herbs Provence that Kathryn and Mike brought us last year, and about 2 T. of lemon juice.  I mixed these ingredients together until smooth and set the sauce aside to meld its flavors.

We had selected a 1997 Brunello, but when our latest project to have Mario replace the door jam went haywire and Suzette became upset, I decided on a slightly less wonderful but still good bottle of wine.  I selected a 2012 Banfi Chianti Reserva (Total Wine $20.00 reduced to $16.00).

Eggplant Parmesan

I sliced the eggplant I had bought at Sprouts on Wednesday into ½ inch thick slices.
Suzette on pie pan with egg and the other with Progresso bread crumbs.
She coated the slices first with egg and then with crumbs and the sautéed them in a combination of olive oil and butter until golden brown.

She grated Pecorino Romano cheese and filled a Pyrex baking dish with layers of spaghetti sauce, spinach, eggplant, cheese spinach and cheese and baked the dish in the oven for 45 minutes until the ingredients began to bubble.

We made the spaghetti sauce last week with ground beef, mushrooms, three chopped leeks, fresh oregano from the garden, and two cans of Spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage.

I made a lb. of spaghetti by boiling a pot of water with ½ tsp. of salt and a bay leaf and then adding 1 lb. of Italian spaghetti.

We finished cooking the meal by 5:30, but made a mistake because we waited for Willy and he did not arrive until 6:30 or 7:00, which meant that the spaghetti became cold and stuck together and the Eggplant became dried out as we kept it warm in the oven.

While waiting for eating our artichokes with the wonderful dill mayonnaise lemon sauce.  We thought the fresh boiled artichokes with the fresh mayonnaise sauce was exceptional.

We agreed with Willy that next time we would eat when the food was ready and he can heat up the food when he arrives.

The 2012 Banfi Chianti Reserva was fabulous.  It had a chalky bite and a smoothness with a clean finish, everything one would want with a red wine, except it did not have that exceedingly long finish that great Red  burgundies have.  Just a very solid wine that Suzette kept drinking until it was gone (the true test of quality).

The Eggplant Parmesan with spinach was also delicious even though the eggplant slices collapsed a bit more than I would have liked due to its overcooking.  The benefit of overcooking is that the cheese melted fully and became a creamy binder in the dish.

We loved the meal and wine.  It was a very successful and simple meal.

We tried the new bottle of Armagnac that we bought for $15.00 at Trader Joe’s on Saturday, which was soft and creamy tasting.  It won a gold medal and well worth the price.

Bon Appetit

January 14, 2017 Breakfast - Tamales and Fried Eggs, Lunch - Posole and Tamales, Dinner – Bratwursts with Mashed Potatoes and Steamed String Beans

January 14, 2017 Breakfast - Tamales and Fried Eggs,  Lunch -  Posole and Tamales,  Dinner – Bratwursts with Mashed Potatoes and Steamed String Beans

Yesterday was the Neighborhood Cocktail Party. This month it was hosted by Wendy York, who was a judge and now mediates and moved to our neighborhood in May.  She did a lovely food tray filled with lots of wonderful offerings, mostly from Costco, such as the three meat pack of prosciutto, salami and pepperoni guacamole, and Spanish Marconi almonds, corn chips, and currant nut crackers.

Suzette and I filled one side of the Portuguese appetizer plate with slices of Cabot Double Cheddar and the other side with slices of  Wengers Lebanon Bologna we bought in Elizabethtown when we visited her family in October and placed a ramekin of honey mustard mayonnaise in the center of the plate.

The best dish of the night was brought by Peggy Cronin, sautéed scallops wrapped with bacon and sautéed (scallop rumaki).  Wikipedia says that Rumaki was a faux Polynesian dish made with bacon wrapped chicken livers created by Trader Vic’s.

Several folks brought deviled eggs and several brought guacamole, which seem to be popular dishes.

Wendy’s dining room is dominated by a large Warhol print of Elizabeth Taylor that is super impressive.

On Saturday we sautéed a tamale and fried eggs for breakfast.  For lunch we heated the last two remaining tamales and posole from Christmas and ate that at around 1:30.

At 10:30 we drove to Trader Joe’s.  Suzette bought candles for the Bistro for its Valentine’s Day special meal.  I bought seven bottles;  an Armagnac, an Aquino reserve chianti, a Craydon French rose, a Famille Perrin Reserve White Cotes du Rhine, a Chateau Haut Sorillon St. Emillion, a new bottle of Torrontes from Argentina, a La Granja white blend of Viura and Verdejo grapes for $4.99 and a 14 oz. can of medium roast Colombian supreme for the coffee machine for $5.99, a bouquet of lillys and asters for $2.99, and a four pack of medium artichokes for $2.49.

Then we drove to Total Wine where Suzette replenished her scotch and I bought 10 bottles of wine, including three Famille Perrin Reserve Red Cotes du Rhone, a $20.00 Le Pont Bandol rose’, an Italian White, a $20.00 bottle of Monte Clavijo Gran Reserva, and the best bottle we bought was a Haut Cotes de Nuit from Nuit St. George in the Cote d’ Or. There were 12 packs with four beers each of Hoegaarden, Stella Artois, and Leffes for $7.99. We bought the last three 12 packs to replenish our beer.

I took a nap in the afternoon and at 4:30 rode north to Campbell Rd. and back against an increasingly strong head wind.

At 6:30 Suzette suggested that we cook the three bratwursts I bought at Sprouts Farmers Market on Thursday for $2.99/lb.  I suggested we steam the green beans I also bought on Thursday for $.88/lb. and make mashed potatoes.  

 I peeled and chopped five small potatoes and put them into the boiling pot of water in which I was boiling the four artichokes.  I then snapped the ends off the green beans and put them into a Pyrex loaf pan with a bit of water and covered the pan with Saran.  

Suzette boiled the three brats in ½ bottle of Hoegaarden beer and when the potatoes were boiled whipped them with milk and butter into mashed potatoes in the Kitchen Aid mixer.

I fetched bottles of Stella Artois and the mustard, and horseradish and a Suzette fetched the mayonnaise and plated the dishes and we had a merry time dipping our forks filled with mashed potato and slices of brats into a sauce we each made with spoonfuls of mustard, horseradish and mayonnaise while sipping Stella Artois beer.

Bon Appetit 

January 12, 2017 Lunch - Vinaigrette Dinner - Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

January 12, 2017 Lunch – Vinaigrette,  Dinner – Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

I ate the last of the PPI Ham Pot Pie made by The Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery at the Center for Ageless Living with two fried eggs for breakfast.

I called Willy and asked him if he wanted to go to lunch and he suggested we meet at Vinaigrette because it was such a pleasant day he wanted to stretch his legs by taking the easy 10 block walk from his office at 9th at Copper to Vinaigrette at 1828 Central.  I, not being so young and athletic, chose to drive the 10 blocks from my house to Vinaigrette, I took a magazine and arrived before him and was offered the last two top in the filled restaurant and read the menu and my magazine for ten minutes until Willy arrived.

When Willy arrived I ordered my favorite, the French Frisée Salad with fried lardons, a poached egg, and a Seeded Mustard Dijonnaise dressing on a bed of brilliantly fresh frisée.  Willy ordered the seasonal specialty Harvest Moon Salad with chopped kale and sliced apples and a fizzy drink made with club soda, ginger and carrot juice.

We discussed the news of the day including the new revelations that there was an ongoing investigation by the FBI regarding communications between the Trump campaign staff and the Russians that the FBI did not disclose to the public when they did disclose the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails to the public that has now triggered an FBI Chief Counsel into Dir. Comey’s public announcements and that Dir. Comey of the FBI told Trump at the Security briefing on Friday, January 6, 2017 that MI-6 had made allegations that the Russians have a dossier with information that could be used to compromise Trump into doing what they want.

I told Willy this is how Watergate scandal started, by a relatively simple investigation of a burglary of January 12, 2017 Lunch – Vinaigrette,  Dinner – Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

I ate the last of the PPI Ham Pot Pie made by The Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery at the Center for Ageless Living with two fried eggs for breakfast.

I called Willy and asked him if he wanted to go to lunch and he suggested we meet at Vinaigrette because it was such a pleasant day he wanted to stretch his legs by taking the easy 10 block walk from his office at 9th at Copper to Vinaigrette at 1828 Central.  I, not being so young and athletic, chose to drive the 10 blocks from my house to Vinaigrette, I took a magazine and arrived before him and was offered the last two top in the filled restaurant and read the menu and my magazine for ten minutes until Willy arrived.

When Willy arrived I ordered my favorite, the French Frisée Salad with fried lardons, a poached egg, and a Seeded Mustard Dijonnaise dressing on a bed of brilliantly fresh frisée.  Willy ordered the seasonal specialty Harvest Moon Salad with chopped kale and sliced apples and a fizzy drink made with club soda, ginger and carrot juice.

We discussed the news of the day including the new revelations that there was an ongoing investigation by the FBI regarding communications between the Trump campaign staff and the Russians that the FBI did not disclose to the public when they did disclose the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails to the public that has now triggered an FBI Chief Counsel into Dir. Comey’s public announcements and that Dir. Comey of the FBI told Trump at the Security briefing on Friday, January 6, 2017 that MI-6 had made allegations that the Russians have a dossier with information that could be used to compromise Trump into doing what they want.









I told Willy this is how Watergate scandal started, by a relatively simple investigation of a burglary of the DNC offices at The Watergate Apartment Building and later the break in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s Psychologists’ office that led to a Congressional select Committee investigation that led to imprisonment of those in the Republican Party officials who planned and covered up the facts and the impeachment and resignation of Richard Nixon and resulted in stopping government action for a year.

After lunch I went to the bank and Sprouts.  At Sprouts I bought green beans for $.88/lb., three Bratwurst for $2.99/lb., a head of Romaine lettuce, green onions, two 32 oz. yogurts for $5.00, and an eggplant for $.88.

After I returned home and unloaded, I rode 5 miles south and back in the relatively warm afternoon sunlight.

I then worked until after 6:00 when Suzette arrived tired from a busy day.  She wanted to cook an easy dinner using the PPI roasted chicken from last night and I mentioned cooking Thai chicken curry, so while I was finishing my telephone conference Suzette gathered cans of Massaman curry paste, baby corn, and water chestnuts, chopped the two breasts from the chicken and simmered the rest of the chicken into a large pot filed with about a gallon of water to make chicken stock.

   When I finally arrived in the kitchen at 6:15 I fetched a can of julienned bamboo shots and sliced ½ onion and three cloves of garlic.  We started by making rice with 2 cups of chicken stock and 15 oz. of coconut milk and 2 cups of basmati rice simmered for 30 minutes at the lowest setting on a small burner.

Chicken Massaman Curry
I then sautéed the onion and garlic in a four quart sauce pan in peanut oil.  We then added about 1/3 cup of peanut butter and ½ of the 6 oz. can of Massaman curry paste (3 T.).  We then added about 2 quarts of chicken stock, a can of coconut milk, and approximately 1 ¼ lb. of diced chicken and tasted the curry.  It did not taste right, so I went to the internet and found a recipe at allrecipes.com.

Here it is:

We then added all the additional ingredients except the tamarind paste.

I then chopped 1 T. of ginger and added it and Suzette added the 3 T. of fish sauce and 3 T. of brown sugar and I added the 3 T. of lime juice.

I cut the 14 oz. can of ears of baby corn into 1 inch sections, and added the large can of julienned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in lieu of the 3 cups of cubed potatoes and we cooked the mixture for about 20 minutes until it thickened slightly.

Suzette de-stemmed the last cup of sugar snap peas and steamed them and put 2 oz. of shredded coconut and ½ cup of sliced almonds in a small cast iron skillet and I browned them and I then fetched a can of beer from the fridge in the garage.

When the sugar snap peas were cooked we served dinner with glasses of beer.

I loved the dish as a rare departure from our normal range of dishes but Suzette did not enjoy the dish and left most of it.

This recipe made enough curry to feed 10, so there is almost a gallon of curry and three cups of rice left.

Bon Appetit

January 10-11, 2017 Lunch - Ying Yang, Dinner - Smoked Salmon Omelet, Lunch - Taj Majal

January 10, 2017 Lunch – Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant , Dinner – Smoked Salmon Omelet

I woke up early to go to Santa Fe and ate the PPI ½ of the Chirashi from yesterday’s lunch with Peter Eller at Azuma.

Martin and I drove to Santa Fe and mediated until noon when we went to Ying Yang for lunch.  YY  serves the best Chinese Buffet that I know of in Santa Fe and is centrally located across the street from the new courthouse at the Design Center on Cerillos.

The reason I like YY is because it serves dishes I like that are more traditionally Chinese with quality ingredients for $8.95 for lunch, which seems to be a fair price.  We arrived at 12:15 and the restaurant was already full and many offerings depleted.  The restaurant seems to start with full containers of a dish and refills them as they run out but not always fully.  For example, my first pass I found two green lipped mussels in a black bean sauce.  It was a great dish so when I went back a few minutes later to refill I found only three mussels, which led me to believe they did not fully refill the trays in some cases.  I guess it is a form of enforced portion control.  There were four or five other dishes I thought were really delicious, including stir fried chunks of deep fried tofu with vegetables like slices of button mushrooms in a brown sauce, an amazing Mandarin Chicken with vegetables; the chicken was white from being marinated in cornstarch and stir fried in a light white chicken sauce with cabbage and carrots; and deep fried shrimp paddies made by shelling all but the tail of a shrimp, slicing it to butterfly it and then pressing it flat into a paddy, breaking it, and deep frying it.  Of all the ways I have eaten fried shrimp, this my favorite.  There were also more standard offerings th.  There were also more standard offerings that were less exciting to me like BBQ pork ribs and General Tso deep fried chicken with it spicy and sweet sauce and twice cooked pork with vegetables that were all of good quality and preparation.  I was also able to dredge up some tofu and egg clouds from the remaining hot and sour soup that I added a little egg drop soup to to reduce its pungency and was struck by the recollection that YY makes one of the most authentic Hot and Sour Soups because it flavors the soup with Chinese vinegar.

We were also served good strong fresh Oolong tea.  I recommend Yin Yang to anyone who loved Chinese buffets.  It is the real deal, not an Americanized imitation that uses cheap ingredients in bland combinations.

I arrived home a little after 5:00 and there was no real dinner plan.  Suzette did not want to cook, so I went to the fridge.  I had bought a bag of spinach and a box of portobello mushrooms at Costco on Monday when I filled the mini with gas.  I found two pieces of smoked salmon in the fridge that had been smoked by Chef Kelly at the Greenhouse Bistro left from Christmas, so I decided to make a smoked salmon omelet.  Suzette fetched the last of the round of aged goat cheese that her brother Jeff and his wife, Kathy, sent us for Christmas.  So I chopped up 2 oz. of onion, a 1/3 lb. piece of smoked salmon, 2 cloves of garlic, sliced the oz. or two of goat cheese, chopped about ¼ cup of kitchen dill,  sliced two large white mushrooms,  and whipped four egg.  We made the omelet by sautéing the onions, garlic and mushroom slices, then added the dill and egg, then arranged slices of salmon and cheese over the surface of the egg, cooked the omelet until almost done, then Suzette flipped one side onto the other and cooked the omelet until done.  It was a big omelet. I ate my entire ½ to get as much protein as possible but Suzette only ate ½ of her half, so I ate her other half for breakfast on Wednesday with three pieces of toast, one with Nutella, one spread with peanut butter and honey and the third with butter and slices of Petit Basque cheese.

I spent the morning working with Roland, Ioana, and Aaron on our Romanian wine venture making multiple calls to Romania.

We finished a letter of intent by 11:30 and decided to go to Taj Mahal for lunch.  Taj Mahal was as pleasant as always, we were greeted with Happy New Year by our favorite waiter and Samiz.  The food was reliably good with really good tandoori chicken and culcha and always great saag paneer.  I loved it and we had a lively discussion about the various ways the Russians could be spying on and compromising Trump, after the release of the report by MI6 that the Russians have compromising information on him.  Ioana was really animated because she grew up in Romania when it was under the control of Russia and was familiar with Russia’s techniques of gathering and using information and propaganda.

I did not get to the store today so I asked Suzette to bring home a roasted chicken from the Greenhouse Bistro.  Suzette suggested sautéing zucchini and yellow squash, so I fetched the zucchini squash from the fridge in the garage and a couple of lemons and Suzette found a yellow squash which she sliced up while I sliced about 2 oz. of red onion.  Suzette sautéed the red onion and chopped squashes in utter and olive oil and then I added a large handful of spinach.

We drank the last of the La Granja Spanish white blend of Viura and Verdejo grapes (Trader Joe’s $4.99) and then opened a bottle of Famille Perrin Reserve white Cotes du Rhone.

The chicken was deliciously roasted and complemented by the sautéed vegetables.

Bon Appetit

January 7, 2017 Lunch – Lambert’s. Dinner – Common Fire. Nibbling our way through Taos We stayed at Kylene and Barry’s house with its fabulous view of Wheeler Peak and Taos Valley. For breakfast we made cinnamon toast with slices of the fresh Fano baguette I had bought warm at 10:30 hot from the oven as we were leaving Albuquerque. We stopped in Santa Fe for lunch after we found that Lan’s was closed due to the weather. I guess snow on the ground is anathema for luscious Vietnamese food. So we went to see the Earl Strohs at Aaron Payne Gallery and spoke to Aaron for a few minutes and then walked to the Shed where there was no line and we were seated at our favorite table, the middle table in the sunny south facing alcove filled with plants and open glass. We split a Number 5: blue corn enchiladas with ground beef, double posole and red chili sauce, and a piece of Josie’s famous chocolate mocha cake for dessert. We then drove on to Taos and settled in at the house on Juniper Rd. And ate cheese and pate appetizers of PPIs from the Christmas Party (Jill Duval made a wonderful Baked Chicken Liver pate with chopped onions, chopped egg, and French seeded mustard) and Jeff, Suzette’s brother and his wife, Kathy, sent a lovely selection of cheeses including a delicious aged goat cheese that we enjoyed on toasted slices of Fano baguette with butter with the pate and a 2014 Cabernet franc from Saumer Champigny Reserve de Vignerons (Total Wine $11.69). Later we ate bowls of a mixture of sherried Mussel soup, smoked salmon chowder and lobster bisque, sort of a mass up of three meals we made with PPIs since Christmas that we brought with us. Saturday morning I was finally feeling good. My diaphragm function seemed to be back to normal and there was no longer any congestion in my lungs. After eating the light breakfast of cinnamon toast and an orange we drove to Taos by way of Kit Carson Rd. We stopped at a few galleries on Kit Carson Rd. And a Suzette drank a coffee at Tazzo. I was interested to see lots of Don Brackett’s oil paintings at Parson’s Contemporary Western art Gallery. We then went to 203 Gallery.but found that it had moved, so went to The Harwood, but arrived at 11:48 and it did not open until 12:00, so we drove to Bent Street and went to Robert Parson’s Gallery. He was showing works by artists featured in the big Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company exhibit. Later I spoke to Robert and found out that a number of pieces in the exhibit were from his collection like the 1932 Plasterer by Emil Bisttram, which was one of my favorites. At Parson’s Gallery we saw an interesting Bisttram watercolor of Kachina Dancers and Mary called Robert for me and we spoke about the piece which was marked $12,500, but Robert offered to me for $10,000. I told Robert I would think about it and we walked next door to Lambert’s for lunch. We both picked starters, Suzette choose sweet pea sprout risotto and I picked a bowl of Raman with beef and pork meatballs, Kimchee and a partially hard boiled egg in a light broth. I loved my dish but Suzette and I both found the risotto to be too al dente. It seems that we like our risotto overcooked to the point of being uniformly soft and Italians eat their risotto rigidly al dente. As we sat eating. I received a call from Robert Parsons to tell me that he had just bought some Von Hasslers from a family in Farmington and suggested that I return to the gallery and ask Mary to bring them out of the offices do if I liked them he would sell them to me at wholesale. So after lunch we went back to the gallery and looked at the Von Hasslers. There was one lithograph, one small oil on board and one medium sized oil on canvas of a building in Tomay ( Tome’) that had a dozen small nicks in the canvas that would need to be conserved. Robert previously sold me an Emil Bisttram in a broken frame with holes in it that I conserved and put in a nice frame and like very much, which he called “a project”. I enjoyed the process of another repair project and bringing a worthy work of art back to life. So when Robert said, “You are from Albuquerque, so you should appreciate Von Hassler,” he was right. I bought the three pieces and two couples who were in the gallery asked me if I would sell the oil on board one on the spot. When I said I wanted $4,000 they became cooler, but I gave them my card. I told them I might trade with them for the Von Hassler when they said they had bought an Olive Rush at Stephen’s Consignment. We loaded up our new Von Hasslers and drove to Mission Gallery and chatted with Reva until 3:00. She knows everyone and told us about the writer of the catalog for the Mabel Dodge Lujan exhibit named Milan Davis, who used to be a curator at the NM Museum of Fine Arts. Reva told us that the best new restaurant is Common Fire at Quail Run. So we drove there and ordered a roast beef French Dip sandwich with an order of grilled heirloom carrots. The carrots had a distinctly different taste that was richer and creamier than a regular orange carrot. Our knowledgeable waitress told us they were rainbow carrots, which must be correct because they were three different colors, red, rainbow white, and purple. Both starters were wonderful, especially with glasses of Barbera de Alba. We spoke to the owner/Chef, Andy, about the four meals he is planning for Wednesday through Saturday of the Winter Wine Festival and were taken by his excitement. After our snack at Common Fire we ate a chocolate and Earl Grey Pot a Crème that was flavored strongly with oil of bergamot and then we returned to the house and watched the TV news and a documentary on Iris Apfel, a 93 year old fashionista you Albert Maysles. I later ate some ham pot pie and we ate bits of the chocolate bars we had brought. Bon Appetit

January 7,  2017 Lunch – Lambert’s. Dinner – Common Fire. Nibbling our way through Taos

We stayed at Kylene and Barry’s house with its fabulous view of Wheeler Peak and Taos Valley.

For breakfast we made cinnamon toast with slices of the fresh Fano baguette I had bought warm at 10:30 hot from the oven as we were leaving Albuquerque.

We stopped in Santa Fe for lunch after we found that Lan’s was closed due to the weather.  I guess snow on the ground is anathema for luscious Vietnamese food. So we went to see the Earl Strohs at Aaron Payne Gallery and spoke to Aaron for a few minutes and then walked to the Shed where there was no line and we were seated at our favorite table, the middle table in the sunny south facing alcove filled with plants and open glass.  We split a Number 5: blue corn enchiladas with ground beef, double posole and red chili sauce, and a piece of Josie’s famous chocolate mocha cake for dessert.

We then drove on to Taos and settled in at the house on Juniper Rd. And ate cheese and pate appetizers of PPIs from the Christmas Party (Jill Duval made a wonderful Baked Chicken Liver pate with chopped onions, chopped egg, and French seeded mustard) and Jeff, Suzette’s brother and his wife, Kathy, sent a lovely selection of cheeses including a delicious aged goat cheese that we enjoyed on toasted slices of Fano baguette with butter with the pate and a 2014  Cabernet franc from Saumer Champigny Reserve de Vignerons (Total Wine $11.69).

Later we ate bowls of a mixture of sherried Mussel soup, smoked salmon chowder and lobster bisque, sort of a mass up of three meals we made with PPIs since Christmas that we brought with us.

Saturday morning I was finally feeling good.  My diaphragm function seemed to be back to normal and there was no longer any congestion in my lungs.

After eating the light breakfast of cinnamon toast and an orange we drove to Taos by way of Kit Carson Rd.  We stopped at a few galleries on Kit Carson Rd. And a Suzette drank a coffee at Tazzo.  I was interested to see lots of Don Brackett’s oil paintings at Parson’s Contemporary Western art Gallery.

We then went to 203 Gallery.but found that it had moved, so went to The Harwood, but arrived at 11:48 and it did not open until 12:00, so we drove to Bent Street and went to Robert Parson’s Gallery.  He was showing works by artists featured in the big Mabel Dodge Luhan and Company exhibit.  Later I spoke to Robert and found out that a number of pieces in the exhibit were from his collection like the 1932 Plasterer by Emil Bisttram, which was one of my favorites.

At Parson’s Gallery we saw an interesting Bisttram watercolor of Kachina Dancers and Mary called Robert for me and we spoke about the piece which was marked $12,500, but Robert offered to me for $10,000.  I told Robert I would think about it and we walked next door to Lambert’s for lunch.  We both picked starters, Suzette choose sweet pea sprout risotto and I picked a bowl of Raman with beef and pork meatballs, Kimchee and a partially hard boiled egg in a light broth.  I loved my dish but Suzette and I both found the risotto to be too al dente.  It seems that we like our risotto overcooked to the point of being uniformly soft and Italians eat their risotto rigidly al dente.

As we sat eating. I received a call from Robert Parsons to tell me that he had just bought some Von Hasslers from a family in Farmington and suggested that I return to the gallery and ask Mary to bring them out of the offices do if I liked them he would sell them to me at wholesale.  So after lunch we went back to the gallery and looked at the Von Hasslers.  There was one lithograph, one small oil on board and one medium sized oil on canvas of a building in Tomay ( Tome’) that had a dozen small nicks in the canvas that would need to be conserved.  Robert previously sold me an Emil Bisttram in a broken frame with holes in it that I conserved and put in a nice frame and like very much, which he called “a project”.  I enjoyed the process of another repair project and bringing a worthy work of art back to life. So when Robert said, “You are from Albuquerque, so you should appreciate Von Hassler,” he was right.  I bought the three pieces and two couples who were in the gallery asked me if I would sell the oil on board one on the spot.  When I said I wanted $4,000 they became cooler, but I gave them my card.  I told them I might trade with them for the Von Hassler when they said they had bought an Olive Rush at Stephen’s Consignment.

We loaded up our new Von Hasslers and drove to Mission Gallery and chatted with Reva until 3:00.  She knows everyone and told us about the writer of the catalog for the Mabel Dodge Lujan exhibit named Milan Davis, who used to be a curator at the NM Museum of Fine Arts.

Reva told us that the best new restaurant is Common Fire at Quail Run.  So we drove there and ordered a roast beef French Dip sandwich with an order of grilled heirloom carrots.  The carrots had a distinctly different taste that was richer and creamier than a regular orange carrot.  Our knowledgeable waitress told us they were rainbow carrots, which must be correct because they were three different colors, red, rainbow white, and purple.

Both starters were wonderful, especially with glasses of Barbera de Alba.

 We spoke to the owner/Chef, Andy, about the four meals he is planning for Wednesday through Saturday of the Winter Wine Festival and were taken by his excitement.

After our snack at Common Fire we ate a chocolate and Earl Grey Pot a Crème that was flavored strongly with oil of bergamot and then  we returned to the house and watched the TV news and a documentary on Iris Apfel, a 93 year old fashionista you Albert Maysles.

I later ate some ham pot pie and we ate bits of the chocolate bars we had brought.

Bon Appetit