October 31, 2018 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Chicken Soup. Dinner – PPI Roast Duck with red rice, roasted baby potatoes sautéed in duck fat with Quince jerky and steamed asparagus

October 31, 2018 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Chicken Soup. Dinner – PPI Roast Duck with red rice, roasted baby potatoes sautéed in duck fat with Quince jerky and steamed asparagus

I made a big breakfast by sautéing a smoked pork chop, PPI mashed potatoes, green onion, and shredded Brussels sprouts and two eggs.

At 12:30 I made Vietnamese Miso Noodle Chicken Soup with three kinds of noodles, chard from the garden, the PPI Bobby Flay chicken thigh, dehydrated chicken stock, a pho seasoning cube, red miso, Chinese coking wine, sesame oil, chicken mini-wontons, and a chopped green onion, some poblano chili,  and some cilantro stalks.

After 25 minutes when the noodles finished cooking we put hoisin, cilantro, and more slices green onion into our bowls of soup.  Luke like the abundant noodles and tasty broth.

We handed out trick or  treat candy until 7:45.  I sautéed the roasted baby potatoes in a cast iron skillet with duck fat and chopped Quince jerky, steamed about a dozen asparagus, and reheated the Pyrex baking dish holding the remaining duck, red rice and quince sauce.

I fetched a 2012 Cotes Du Rhone from Fleury (Total Wine $14.99 less 20% for $12.49).

I loved dinner.  Duck is probably my favorite meat.

The wine was sensational, a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, and Cinsault that was smooth as silk.


We ate some Halloween candy for dessert and watched the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi.

Bon Appetit

October 30, 2018 Lunch – Taj Mahal Dinner – Spaghetti with a Meat, Mushroom, Tomato, and Squash Sauce

October 30, 2018 Lunch – Taj Mahal Dinner – Spaghetti with a Meat, Mushroom, Tomato, and Squash Sauce

For Breakfast I ate two quartered slices of bagel smeared with cream cheese and topped with Smoked Whitefish.

I worked until 10:30 when I went with Luke to Wells Fargo Bank to begin processing a mortgage loan.

At noon we finished at the bank and drove to Taj Mahal  to meet Mike for lunch.

The Taj was as good as ever.  I ate my usual favorites, tandoori chicken, tikka masala chicken, beef meatballs, Saag paneer, roasted yellow squash, a piece of culcha (naan seasoned with onion, parsley, and other herbs and baked in a tandoori oven) and some mung Dahl.  Luke also ordered a mango lassi and Mike ordered a Pepsi.

At 1:00 we drove to Sandia Park to view a house Luke was interested in buying.  It was a small 750 square foot ranch cabin built in 1928 deep in the woods along a creek near the ski basin road.

Like took pictures and we talked to the owner’s boyfriend, Jack.

We stayed until after 3:00 and then drove back home.  I was surprised that the market may have finally turned positive with a 432 point in the Dow.

I lay down for about fifteen minutes to rest and then got up to start dinner.  There were a series of calls from Amy, who was in Albuquerque to pick up Val, who was returning from a trip to see his son’s family in Homer, Alaska, regarding  dinner.  The final result was that Amy and avail would go eat and then stop by for a glass of wine.

Suzette was still shopping at Costco for her program, so I started dinner.  My plan was to chop the two zucchini and two yellow squash and add them to the PPI spaghetti squash and tomato meat sauce to amplify the remaining spaghetti sauce.

I sliced the four squash plus five cloves of fresh garlic from our garden and ½ of a small yellow onion by the time Suzette arrived from Costco.

I went to the garden and picked four stalks of basil and five yellow cherry tomatoes and removed and chopped the approximately 3 T. of basil leaves and added them to the other vegetables by the time Suzette unloaded the car. I cleaned a large Le Creuset casserole and asked her to sauté the vegetables.  She checked the PPI spaghetti and said there was not enough meat, so she sautéed the vegetables in the casserole with about 3 T. of butter and 2 T. of olive oil while she sautéed the remaining 1 lb. of ground beef in a skillet.  I then sliced four baby portobello mushrooms and added them to the skillet.


Suzette said, “We need to add liquid to the vegetables.”  She added 1 cup of water and I fetched the remaining 1 ½ cups of a PPI bottle of undrinkable Benton Lane rose’ and added it to what was quickly becoming a vegetable stew.

 I then sliced the cherry tomatoes in half and diced two or three red tomatoes and added those to the casserole and added the now cooked ground beef and mushrooms.

We covered the casserole and set it to simmer.  When Amy and Vahl arrived I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2010 Coppola Pinot Noir, since Vahl likes pinot.

As we sipped Pinot, Luke showed his photos of the cabin and everyone seemed to think it was a decent cabin for the money.

Vahl showed us photos taken on his trip to Homer, Alaska of his son, Erin, and wife and handsome grandson. After about an hour, about 6:30  Amy and Vahl left and we resumed preparing dinner.  We asked Luke if he wanted any spaghetti and he said, “Yes.”  So we put a pot of water on to boil and Suzette added ½ lb. of spaghetti to the boiling water.

By 7:00 we were ready to eat.  Suzette drained and rinsed the spaghetti in a colander and we served ourselves spaghetti and spaghetti sauce.  I shaved slices of salty Pecorino-Romano cheese for each of us to garnish the top of our pasta bowls filled full of spaghetti and sauce.  We poured out the rest of the Coppola Pinot Noir and talked through the pros and cons of Luke’s possible house purchase and planned trip to Portland and New York.

Dinner was delicious. I loved the balance between vegetables, meat, and spaghetti.  I love the fact
that we used lots of ingredients from our fridge and garden. Here is a picture of the remaining sauce
and spaghetti.

After dinner at around 8:30 I got tired and went to bed after eating a couple of pieces of Halloween candy.

At 11:30 I awakened to blog a bit and drink a glass of water.

Bon Appetit

October 29, 2018 Lunch – Vietnam 2000 Dinner – Bobby Flay Chicken with Mint Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots and steamed asparagus

October 29, 2018 Lunch – Vietnam 2000  Dinner – Bobby Flay Chicken with Mint Sauce, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots and steamed asparagus

I ate yogurt, granola, milk, and grapes for breakfast.

We went to Los Lunas for a meeting and on our way back decided to go to Vietnam 2000 for lunch.  Vietnam 2000 prepares all types of noodle dishes better than any other Vietnamese restaurant in Albuquerque, in my opinion.  I am particularly fond of their steaming hot egg rolls with pork.

Today Aaron ordered stir fried egg noodles with mung bean sprouts, shrimp, zucchini, and broccoli and I ordered No. 48, which is a wonderful dish that I only find at Vietnam 2000.  It is a layer of wide rice flour sheets laid on top of sautéed mung bean sprouts, cucumber and carrot threads, and chopped herbs and on top of the flour sheets are laid two quartered fried egg rolls and eight or ten slices of shrimp sausage, piping hot, plus a medley of chopped herbs, peanuts, and fried shallot.  The dish is served with a bowl of fish sauce to loosen the noodles.  Both dishes were wonderful.

          My half eaten plate of flour sheets, sautéed vegetables, and egg rolls and shrimp sausage

After lunch at 2:00 Aaron drove me home and I napped until 4:30 when Suzette arrived.  We took a walk and did some tree yoga in Forest Park and decided to prepare Bobby Flay Chicken.  When we came home I went to the garden and picked a large handful of fresh mint.

I chopped the mint and Suzette made the mint sauce with spinach instead of parsley and ¼ poblano chili instead of a Serrano chili, and CBD honey, Dijon mustard, 4 cloves of fresh garlic, and olive oil processed in the Cuisinart into a smooth sauce.

While Suzette made the chicken, I peeled and diced two carrots and four russet potatoes that Suzette boiled and mashed.  Finally she steamed asparagus.

At about 6:30 Willy and Luke arrived and we ate dinner.  We drank beers with the slightly spicy chicken

Everyone enjoyed dinner.

Bon Appetit

October 28, 2018 Fabulous Fall dinner Roasted Duck, New Recipe – Quince, raisin, onion, walnut, and Orange Sauce with Red a Carmage Rice, Baked sweet potatoes, and fresh chard

October 28, 2018 Fabulous Fall dinner  Roasted Duck, New Recipe – Quince, raisin, onion, walnut, and Orange Sauce with Red a Carmage Rice, Baked sweet potatoes, and fresh chard

I watched with sadness the coverage of the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre.  The only hope is that this will be the October surprise that motivates people to vote the Republicans out of office.

I ate three slices of bread smeared with cream cheese and smoked whitefish.  On days like this it important to cling to your cultural roots.

Suzette came out at 9:30 and drank coffee and read the Sunday paper and ate one of the meat pies Willy had made.

She then went out to work in the garden.  I joined her at 11:00 after she had transplanted the chard thriving in out compose heap to a raised bed.  We then worked together to cover two beds.

At 1:00 we finished and I ate the other meat pie for lunch.

Aaron called and we invited him for dinner.

We decided to roast a duck for dinner and a suzette had found a recipe for a Quince, pomegranate, walnut, onion, raisin and garlic sauce for the duck.

We did not have pomegranate so we decided to substitute orange juice and zest for the pomegranate.  I diced 3 cups of onion, 2 cups of walnuts, and zested and juiced 2 large oranges that produced Two cups of Orange juice.

I then napped until 4:30, while Suzette made banana nut bread, the Quince sauce, and roasted sweet potatoes.

Willy texted us and we invited him for dinner also.

I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2013 H and H Chateauneuf Du Pape.  I think H and H .is one of Total Wine’s winery direct labels because it cost $17.99, which must have been a 20%

discount. We decanted the wine into a carafe to let it breath.

The sauce really was a Quince stew, which is fine.  Often a heavy stew like sauce made by stewing chestnuts is served with duck in France in the fall.  I carved the meat from the duck into the two leg quarters and I sliced the two breasts and Suzette ladled sauce onto the slices of breast.  Here is a photo.

The Quince sauce

The carved duck meat with the slices of breast covered with saipuce

Aaron arrived at 5:30 with a gallon of Bluebell vanilla ice cream.

We heated the rice and put a handful of chopped fresh chard on each plate and everyone served themselves rice, duck breast, sweet potato and sauce.  The sauce was superb with the duck, heavy chunky with a slight sweetness from the addition of brown sugar.

This is one of my favorite fall meals, roasted duck with a good Cotes Du Rhone red.  This wine had complexity, yet clarity with spicy herbal notes. I liked it, but Chateauneuf is one of my favorite wines.

Willy arrived while we were eating and Suzette heated him a plate of food.


Willy is packing to move into a duplex by the end of the Nemo then, so he left after dinner.

Suzette then served her candied quince with ice cream in parfait dishes.
Suzette drank some cognac with hers and Aaron and I drank glasses of Martini moscato Della Asti with our dessert.

Aaron left after dessert a bit before 7:00 and we watched The Durrell’s in Corfu and Poldark and the Red Sox win the World Series.

We went to bed happy.

Bon Appetit

October 27, 2018 Lunch – Chicken Salad Salad Dinner at Debbie’s Wedge Salad with Gorgonzola buttermilk dressing, Moroccan Chicken with Carmage rice

October 27, 2018 Lunch – Chicken Salad Salad  Dinner at Debbie’s Wedge Salad with Gorgonzola buttermilk dressing, Moroccan Chicken with Carmage rice


We started the day watching Premier League and peeling Quinces.  We decided to make bacon, eggs, and sautéed baby potatoes for breakfast

Here is a picture.

Willy came by and ate breakfast and helped us process Quince.

Then at 1:00 we made chicken salad salads with a slice of tomato, slices of cucumber and radish drizzled with balsamic and olive oil dressing.

Chicken Salad Salad 

Suzette Baked quince halves in lemon juice, moscato de Asti, water, and sugar.  We also cooked the last cup of red Carmage rice.   We thawed out a whole duck purchased last fall for Sunday dinner.

Then we walked and I took a shower.

At 4:30 I went to the basement and fetched the bottle of 1998 Ca’ Molin
Lugana white we bought in 2000 on the trip to Lake Garda in Italy with Greg and Debbie.  Here is a picture of it.

We took the candied quinces, rice, and wine to Debbie’s house for dinner.  Debbie had cooked Moroccan Chicken in a crock pot with lemon, cinnamon, and olives.

 When we arrived she put out cheese and Triscuits and a bowl of nuts and we drank wine and watched the sunset.  At 6:00 Debbie made a lettuce wedge salad and dressed it with a creamy Gorgonzola dressing.  Jeff was out of town attending to his parents who were having health issues.

We ate a lovely dinner as the sun set and the lights illuminated the city.  Debbie’s house sits at the highest point in the city so has a fabulous view of the valley and city.

 We talked and ate a lovely dinner.  Suzette’s candied quinces were a great success garnished with whipped cream.

Finally around 9:00 I became sleepy and we said goodnight.

Bon Appetit

October 25, 2018 Lunch – Greenside Café, Cedar Crest. Dinner – Chayote and Pork Stew on Couscous


I started with two slices of bagel with cream cheese and smoked whitefish.

I picked up Charlie a bit before 11:00 and drove to the Greenside Café in Cedar Crest where we met the other members of the book club for lunch. The obvious choice for any Texan was Greenside’s  superb Chicken Fried Steak, which Charlie ordered.  Here is a picture.

I wanted to venture into some more interesting areas of the nenu and finally decided the spinach and ricotta filled ravioli in a artichoke white sauce was the most challenging dish on the menu and ordered it.  Also, Suzette’s eschewing all pasta for the last 1 ½ years had left me hungry for some fresh pasta.  The dish turned out to be just what I expected Sans a dash of chopped parsley as garnish.  The ravioli were tender, confirming that they were probably fresh,  the spinach and ricotta stuffing was melt in your mouth soft and the white sauce was thin enough to coat but not too thick to interfere with its function of melding the flavors of the chunks of artichoke with  the sauce and the pasta.  Here is a picture.

Ken ordered the chicken breast mole, which was my alternative choice and he reported to be very delicious.

Several others ordered the  Sanger de Christo sandwich, which was aMonte Cristo with a berry dipping sauce and home made potato chips.

All in all I found Greenside to be a really good restaurant.  It is a readers’ choice favorite on the east side of the mountains.  I highly recommend it.

After lunch we drove to Rob’s house for our book club meeting.  I recorded comments, which are available at info.LTBC if you are interested. At the end of the meeting the host serves a dessert.  Rob served slices of pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream.

At 3:30 when the meeting ended we drove home.

Suzette was at home when I arrived at 4:15 and did not want to cook.

Finally, we decided to make Couscous, which we do not consider cooking, because it is so easy to make and serve the chayote and Pork stew I had made on Wednesday with it.

We decided to chop up two carrots and a tomato to add to the Couscous.  Suzette heated 1 1/2 cups of water with 2 T. of butter in a sauce pan band added the carrots and I added the diced tomato and we cooked those ingredients for a couple of minutes before adding 1 cup of couscous.  We left the heat on the lowest setting for a minute or two and then turned of the heat.  In a few minutes the Couscous was ready, except I do not like dry Couscous, so we added ¼ cup of water and turned on the heat again to low to moisten the Couscous.  In another few minutes I turned off the heat to the Couscous and it was the way I wanted it, cooked and moist.

While the Couscous was cooking we heated the sauce pan full of chayote stew.  It actually included ½ poblano chili and 2/3 onion diced plus two chayote peeled and sliced and two smoked pork chops diced.

We scooped spoonfuls of Couscous into pasta bowls and covered it with spoonfuls of stew.  The dish was delicious, especially after adding a sprinkle of salt.  It was a true stew with both melded and separate flavors.

Suzette drank a beer and I drank water.  We enjoyed our spontaneous dinner very much.

Later I ate the last bit of the Java Chip ice cream doused with a Kahlua and topped with two maraschino cherries.

Bon Appetit

October 26, 2018 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner Theater at Center for Ageless Living

October 26, 2018 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner Theater at Center for Ageless Living

I drank a sweet lime in hot water.  Then at 10:00 I heated the PPI No. 21 Bun Cha Gio from lunch on Monday at Vietnam 2000, which was surprisingly delicious.

Aaron came at 10 and I made a cup of hot chocolate coffee for us at 11:00.  We worked until 12:30.  When Aaron left I heated up the PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup from yesterday.  I was just as good today as yesterday.

The market disappointed again today, without checking, I guess I am now negative for the year.

I went to the bank at 2:30 and then drove t the Center for Ageless Living in Los Lunas.  I soaked in the hot tub for ½ hour and then had an hour massage by Pierre, who also gave us three bottles of wine, a German Pinot Noir, a Coteaux de Layton, sweet Chenin Blanc from the Loire, and a good Cabernet Sauvignon from California.

After the massage I joined Suzette for dinner in the bistro with over 20 others who had come for dinner and a theatrical performance.  The dinner was three courses: spinach salad with red onion and carrots and tomato chunks from the Center’s garden, Bow tie pasta with a light tomato sauce that was not very good, and a world class dessert, Quince and apple cobbler with a foamy icing.  I ate two portions of dessert it was so good.



We then moved to the tent with chairs arranged in front of the stage and were treated to an amazing historical one woman show about one of the most famous women in N.M. History, a lady named Teles, who owned the largest gaming hall n Santa Fe in the 1840’s.  It was an impressive performance with all the historical content of a book plus music and humor.  I loved it.

When the performance ended at 8:00 I drove home.

Later I ate two pieces of hard bread with butter and Jarlsberg cheese and later two pieces of whole wheat bread smeared with crema and topped with pickled herring, while we watched the third game of the World Series until the 14th inning which made it the longest World Series game ever and then went to bed.

I enjoyed the afternoon and evening immensely.

Bon Appetit

October 24, 2018 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup Dinner – PPI Lamb Chop with Ratatouille and Rice

October 24, 2018 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup  Dinner – PPI Lamb Chop with Ratatouille and Rice

Yogurt, granola, milk, and tropical fruit salad for breakfast.

At noon I made Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup with three kinds of noodles and chicken mini wontons, chicken, fish balls, spinach, red miso, dehydrated dashi, a spicy pho seasoning cube, chicken, tofu, 3 oz. of yellow onion, three portobello mushrooms sliced, and green onion slices to garnish. Aaron joined me for lunch and then a bit of work.

At 3:15 I drove to El Super for the Wednesday specials and bought limes, sweet limes, oranges, large avocados, green onions, carrots, eggs, chicken thighs, chayote, and smoked pork cutlets.

Suzette was at home when I returned around 4:30.  I wanted to make stewed chayote and she wanted us to peel quinces, so I did both.  I quartered quinces and she then peeled them, I peeled and sliced two chayote, ½ of a poblano chili, 2/3 of a yellow onion, and diced two smoked pork chops and put those ingredients in a 2 quart pot filled with water and simmered it until 7:30 or 8:00.

I went to meditate at 5:45 and returned at 7:00.  Suzette was still peeling quinces, while she sipped a 2013 Paton-Clemente Crianza Spanish Tempranillo,

We discussed dinner.  Suzette said, “The PPI lamb chops need to be eaten.  There were two lamb chops in a Pyrex loaf pan with some Ratatouille and rice.  I love lamb and Tempranillo, so I quickly agreed.

There was little Ratatouille, so I looked in the fridge for some other vegetable and found the baked delicate squash from Sunday’s brunch.  I sliced it in half, removed its seeds,  added slices of delicata to the loaf pan,  put the Pyrex loaf pan into the microwave and pushed the sensor reheat button and start.  In a few minutes our dinner was ready.

I poured glasses of Tempranillo and Suzette plated dinner.  It was an ugly plate of delicious food.  I was particularly impressed that the sensor reheat function on the microwave did not dry out the lamb.  It still was tender and medium rare.

Suzette has eaten the last stuffed sweet pepper when she arrived home at 3:45, so she was not terribly hungry and my two bowls of noodle soup had filled me up, so one lamb chop, a bit of Ratatouille, ½ of a baked delicate squash, and some rice with a glass of Tempranillo was a perfect meal for each of us.

The Paton-Clemente Crianza is the best Tempranillo for under $5.00 (Trader Joe’s) I have found in Albuquerque.  It is a good Tempranillo and the Crianza designation indicates that it has been aged longer than a simple Tempranillo.  Here are the aging requirements for, Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva wines:
• Crianza wine
2 years of aging, one of them must be in barrel and bottle.
• Reserva wines, with at least 12 months aging in oak plus at least 24 more months in the bottle.
Gran Reserva wines, with at least 24 months aging in oak plus at least 36 more months in the bottle.

Based on my experience, Tempranillo has a heavy skin and the wine has lots of sediment, so the longer it is aged the cleaner and more clarified the wine becomes.

The only way I can explain Payton’s low price is that it was produced in La Mancha instead of Rioja, which is a 1 ½ hour drive south of Madrid, while the Rioja is about a three hour drive north of Madrid.  La Mancha is sunnier and drier than Rioja and produces more wine, which perhaps explains why its wines are less expensive.

After dinner I ate the last of the Java chocolate chip ice cream doused with Kahlua and then drank a White Russian, milk, Kahlua, and rum, which relaxed me and made me ready to sleep as soon as the second game of the World Series and the Neanderthal Program ended at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

October 23, 2018 Lunch – La Choza, Santa Fe. Dinner – Mushroom and meat Spaghetti Sauce over Spaghetti Squash

October 23, 2018 Lunch – La Choza, Santa Fe. Dinner – Mushroom and meat Spaghetti Sauce over Spaghetti Squash

Today I had to appear in court in Santa Fe.  We woke up at 7:00 and I ate granola, yogurt, milk, and tropical fruit salad and a few grapes.

I also made a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat bread to take to the hearing.

I made it to the hearing by 10:00 and did my argument.  At 12:00 the hearing ended and Scott Wiseman delivered the artwork we bought at Zozobra Fest.

I suggested going to eat at La Choza.  We were five persons, Sammie, Scott, a couple who came from Las Cruces for the hearing, and me.  I ordered my favorite, beef enchiladas with double Posole and red chili.

The Las Cruces couple ordered the same as me.  I felt honored.  Sammie ordered meat tacos and Scott ordered a Cesar Salad with baked cod.

                                            My beef enchiladas with double Posole and red

Scott’s Cesar Salad

I loved my lunch because of all the fond memories of days gone by in Santa Fe, although I still lack my taste to some extent.  I ate my plate of food and then a sopapilla and drank two glasses of water.

After lunch I drove back to Albuquerque, arriving at around 3:00.

I was tired so I worked for an hour and then lay down and napped until 5:30.

Suzette was not home by 6:00 so I decided to make dinner.  We had a bowl of cooked spaghetti squash and all the ingredients necessary to make a mushroom, meat sauce, so I decided to make an Italian style spaghetti sauce to serve on the spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti Sauce

I finely diced a head of garlic and a medium brown onion and sliced five portobello  mushrooms and sautéed them in olive oil with about 1 lb. of ground beef. I added 7 oz. of tomato sauce, and four diced vine ripened tomatoes ($.88/lb. at Sprouts last week). I went to the garden and picked five or six stalks of oregano and 11 basil leaves and de-stemmed about 2 T. of oregano leaves and minced them with the basil leaves and added them to the sauce.  This is my basic spaghetti sauce.

Suzette came home a bit after 7:00 and added some salt to the sauce.  We decided to let the sauce cook until 7:20 to meld the flavors.  I went to the basement to fetch a bottle of Gaetano di Aquino Chianti Riserva (Trader Joe’s $5.98).  The Chianti tasted smooth and complemented the tomato sauce perfectly.  Finally I am beginning to enjoy soft tannins in red wine.

Suzette took over.  She heated the squash and served a pasta bowl with squash and we spooned sauce
on top and thin sheets of Pecorino-Romano cheese I had sliced.

It was a lovely dinner without any carbs.

We watched the first game of the World Series between Boston and LA and bits of the new PBS series on Native Americans.  The most interesting thing in the show was a recent archeological find in the Amazon basin of a 13,000 year old cave cave paintings that appear to depict the summer and winter solstice in the position in the cave where they are most visible.  Like a marker on the wall of the cave identifying the spot where one should stand to witness the setting sun on those respective days.  This tends to prove that native Americans settled the Americas far earlier and were much more knowledgeable about the celestial calendar than previously thought.  I find this completely believable if we consider that water navigation may have occurred soon after crossing the Bering Strait land bridge.  The fact that early migration by water occurred would also explain how early men were
oriented to celestial markers and thus aware of the solstices.

After dinner Suzette made a lovely dessert by again combining three PPIs, the apple crisp we bought on Saturday in Santa Fe, the baked apples Suzette made last week, and the peach and blueberry flambé she made a week ago.  She mixed all three desserts together and heated them and served bowls filled with the warm fruit crisp and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It was a delicious fruity treat enhanced by the creamy ice cream as it melted.

Suzette is routing for Boston, so she was happy when Boston won the game 8 to 4. When the game ended a bit after 10:00 we went to bed.

I awakened at 2:00 and wrote this blog.

Bon Appetit

October 22, 2018 Lunch – Vietnam 2000. Dinner – Chicken Salad Salad

I ate a bagel with cream cheese and whitefish.  I doubt I will ever tire of whitefish, especially the wonderful smoked Whitefish processed in Brooklyn that Costco sells.  It is my favorite new item at Costco, perhaps because it connects me to my childhood when the family used to go to New York for a couple of weeks and rent an apartment to visit all of my mother’s relative and her mother.  We would order food from the delicatessen. My favorite after smoked sturgeon was smoked whitefish, with rich cream cheese on a crusty NYC bagel. Heaven.

Joe and Bryan came early to snake the kitchen line to clear the clog.  Joe also got the fireplace pilot light going, so we now have a secondary source of heat.

This was one of those weird days in the market in which the fang tech stocks went up a bit while everything else went down.  I made a small gain.

So far this is the market’s worst month in the last three years and it is not over yet.

I got a message from Peter suggesting lunch.  I was free today, so he came by at noon and drove us to Vietnam 2000, which I introduced him to and now is his new favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

Peter was beef soup.  I suggested that my favorite was No. 38, Pho Soup with beef meatballs and thin slices of rare beef in a beef broth seasoned with pho seasoning with vermicelli rice noodles.

It was warmer today, so I ordered my usual summer dish, No. 21, a bowl with three layers of ingredients.  The bottom layer includes fresh mung bean sprouts, chopped lettuce, cucumber, green onion, basil, and cilantro.  The middle layer is steamed vermicelli rice noodles and the top layer is your choice of meat or meats.  The top layer of No. 21 is 2 fried egg rolls and a pile of grilled marinated pork (Bun Cha Gio). Today Peter also ordered an order of four fried egg rolls, so I had a couple extra egg rolls.  When the egg rolls arrived I took one and wrapped the lettuce leaf around it and put several cilantro leaves on it.  It was really hot when I bit into it, which for some reason made me really happy.  I order extra vegetables and fish sauce so I can load up the noodles with extra mung bean sprouts, basil, and cilantro.

We could only eat half, so I took ½ home in a box and Peter took ½ of his soup home in a covered quart plastic container.

 Peter generously treated me to lunch.  Perhaps getting sick has some benefits.

He drove me home at 1:30 and at 2:30 Tom came to fix the furnace.  Unfortunately the pilot mechanism could not be fixed

I worked on an appeal and my argument for the water case for tomorrow until 5:00.  Suzette came home a bit after 5:00 and we decided to make a chicken salad salad with a head of the Butter lettuce we bought at Costco last week.

While I was chopping chicken, celery, green onions, and an apple, Suzette chopped several radishes and some cucumber, cleaned a head of butter lettuce and arranged leaves in circles on two plates, made an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, and sliced two large slices of tomato from a huge hothouse tomato I bought at Sprouts last week.  She then added apple cider vinegar and mayo and peeled the five eggs I had boiled and sliced them into the salad and finished making the chicken salad.

Here is the final composed salad.

We drank French St Sagnol rose with dinner.

After dinner I ate a bite of PPI Vietnamese noodles and later a bowl of java chocolate chip ice cream doused with Kahlua.

I am feeling almost back to normal.   After dinner Suzette encouraged me to  sit in the hot tub for a bit, which relaxed my muscles and joints a bit.

A pleasant day of food, work, and relaxation.

Bon Appetit

October 21, 2018 Lunch- Chard, sausage and egg Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with rice and Ratatouille

October 21, 2018 Lunch- Chard, sausage and egg  Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with rice and Ratatouille

I ate granola, tropical fruit salad, and yogurt for breakfast.

Luke made us lunch, a sauté of patty sausages, diced Italian sausage, and chard served with a fried egg over easy, 1/2 of a baked delicate squash, and roasted baby potatoes.  We drank diluted apple juice with it.

After lunch Luke left for the east side of the mountains and Willy left to play soccer.

I peeled Quince while a Suzette rigged a new contraption to cover the pond with plastic mesh on a pvc frame.

Al Shoman came by and closed down the swamp coolers.  We gave him a bag of quinces and a cowrie Shell.

I watched Dallas lose to Washington and then we made dinner.

We decided to use as much prepared and available stuff as we could. I snapped 16 asparagus and Suzette grilled them with the remaining 7 lamb chops.  I heated the rice we made last night in a Pyrex loaf pan in the microwave and Suzette heated the PPI Ratatouille in a sauce pan.

I opened a really good 2013 Cotes Du Rhone Village and toasted a slice of bread for Willy who joined us again for dinner at 6:00. It was an interesting wine but I still have not regained my taste for wine.

After dinner Suzette diced and flambeed the baked apples with Calvados and served us each a bowl with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a tasty dessert.

I rested as much as possible and began feeling better this evening.

Bon Appetit