April 29, 2020 Lunch – Posole and a tamale. Dinner – New Recipe. Chicken Tandoori with Turmeric Rice, Roasted Vegetables, and Riata

April 29, 2020 Lunch – Posole and a tamale. Dinner – New Recipe. Chicken Tandoori with Turmeric Rice, Roasted Vegetables, and Riata

I woke up around 4:00 because something happened that has never ever happened before, One of my stocks rose more than $100 in the pre-market. This was a big deal for me because I own 99 shares.  When the market opened there seemed to be a harmonic convergence and many other stocks such as Facebook and Apple rallied along with a Google.  What I had done wasabi sold shares of those four stocks on the way down and used the amount realized to add additional shares at the lower price.  For example, I sold 78 shares of Google at $1388.00 on Feb 26 and bought 90 shares at the lower prices of 1086 on March 16 and 1106  April 2. Google closed at below $1245 yesterday and reached $1378 before falling back to a closing price today of $1341for a 22% gain in one month.

Also, I was happy I bought Salesforce yesterday because today it rose $5.00 today.  The market rewarded almost every stock today, rising 532 points or 2.2%.  Oil was even up another 20% and all the oil stocks rose. I am thrilled beyond words with a 1% rise in my portfolio value.  Today’s rise was over 3.2%, an increase beyond all reckoning and a strong validation for my strategy of re-entry and stock picking of the strongest tech names, such as Facebook, Apple, Qualcomm, and Google that were all big movers.

I toasted two slices of French dinner roll and smeared them with cream cheese and garnished them with onion slices and white fish for a lovely breakfast.

I spent five hours with Chuck trying to get my laptop fixed. It was pretty messed up.

Suzette worked from home today and had heated the bucket of Posole and steamed two tamales at
noon.  A 1:00 while Chuck was updating the computer programs I grabbed a quick bowl of Posole with a Tamale.

We put in an order at Bombay Spice for an assortment of Indian spices and asked Mike and Al to come and get the swamp coolers turned on.

When Chuck finished with the computer and Al and Mike were in the home stretch on the installation at about 5:00 we drove to Bombay Spice to pick up our order.  The box of spices was $62.00 and will last years.  I made the order because Suzette had made a tandoori marinade for the five remaining chicken quarters last night and was going to roast them tonight.  I agreed to make turmeric rice and Riata.

Turmeric Rice

I brought 2 cups of water to a boil and added ½ stick of cinnamon, five or six whole cloves, and ½ tsp. of Knorr dehydrated chicken stock, ½ tsp. of ground turmeric and 1 cup of rice.  I covered the pan and simmered the rice at the lowest setting for ½ hour.  The rice was cooked perfectly and had a beautiful yellow tint and a lovely spicy flavor.  Here is a picture.

Riata

I made my favorite Riata.  I peeled, seeded and cubed a cucumber and added ½ tsp. of salt and 1 T. of thinly sliced diced onion.  I then toasted mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and some dill seeds in a skillet
over medium heat until they started to change color and begin to pop.  I poured them into the cucumber and added about 1 cup of whole milk yogurt and all the accumulated liquid standing in the yogurt container.  I must admit, roasting the seeds gave the Riata a bright spice flavor.

When the chicken was fully cooked Suzette brought it in and we plated a leg section for each and served ourselves rice and Riata.  I put the jar of Major Grey’s mango chutney on the table because I like the combination flavor of rice and chutney with bites of chutney.  We both were thrilled with the result of our efforts, a truly unusual and delicious meal.  Suzette she was thrilled to have a chicken dish and especially such a delightfully flavorful one.

Riata and roasted vegetables 

                                                           The tumeric rice

I drank a cup of chai and Suzette drank the last of the white Bordeaux wine.

We had a lot to celebrate today, my biggest gain ever in the market and Suzette was notified that she received funding for her government PPP loan from her banker, which should get her through this awful economic period.

We both had a full day of activity and went to bed shortly after 9:00.

I did not drink a second cup of chai and had not napped in the afternoon, so I fell asleep quickly and slept until 1:30 when I finished this blog with a glass of water.

Bon Appetit

April 28, 2020 Lunch – PPI Tomatillo Enchiladas and Posole. Dinner – Bobby Flay Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

April 28, 2020 Lunch – PPI Tomatillo Enchiladas and Posole. Dinner – Bobby Flay Chicken with Roasted Vegetables

I ate Tropical Fruit Salad, yogurt, and granola for breakfast.

It was a low activity day but I did complete the boxing of my old files.

Next project will be completing my 2019 taxes.

At 12:30 I decided to eat lunch.  I heated about 4 oz. of PPI Tomatillo enchiladas in a pasta bowl filled with Posole.  As it turned out Suzette ate Tomatillo enchiladas at work today also.

After lunch I took the 10 lb. bag of chicken leg quarters I had bought for $5.90 and frozen.  We have been eating lots of pork and want to shift to a different meat.

I had a new experience today.  The market was trading down toward the close so a put a limit order in to buy 100 shares of Salesforce at 154.31.  I was replacing shares I had sold at $177.00.  Salesforce was trading above $154.50, so I did not think there was any chance it would fill, but in the last 20 seconds of trading the ask price dipped to $154.30 and then immediately shot back up to $155.00.  So I made $70.00 in 20 seconds.

I took a nap at 3:00 and awakened when Suzette arrived at 5:00.

After she showered we walked the gardens and discussed dinner.  We  decided to make a Bobby Flay Chicken with half of the chicken (5 quarters) and Suzette wanted to prep tandoori chicken with the other five quarters.  Suzette found a recipe for tandoori seasoning that included pepper, cumin, ground coriander, and cloves, minced ginger, onion, garlic, and curry powder that she made and then added yogurt to make the marinade for the chicken.

I also prepped roasted vegetables by dicing ½ large onion, five or six cloves of garlic, 10 Brussels sprouts, a rutabaga, and a parsnip, which Suzette tossed in olive oil with a bit of salt and later she added about ten stalks of diced asparagus.

After the chicken was coated with tandoori and placed in the fridge to marinate, Suzette turned her attention to the Bobby Flay Chicken.  We call it Bobby Flay Chicken because it is his recipe, but we love the recipe  because of the spice rub on the chicken and the way the chicken is cooked, first it is sautéed in a skillet weighted with another skillet filled with water and then baked in the oven.

Here is the recipe.  We did not make the mint sauce because we find the rub so delicious by itself.

                                                    Rubbed and ready to sauté

 

                                                                    Sautéing

After baking 

The vegetables after roasting 

I chilled a bottle of 2016 Benton Lane Rose.  I had a little secondary fermentation when I opened the bottle but that soon went away and it became very drinkable. I am not normally drinking 4 year old rose’ but I bought a case of Benton Lane and have ½ case left.  It is wonderful that it is holding up, perhaps because it is 100% Pinot Noir.

We ate under the gazebo and enjoyed a sunset around 8:00.

When we came back in we made a dessert by laying scoops of chocolate ice cream on a chocolate chip cookie and drizzling chocolate syrup and rum over it.  I ate mine with a cup of chai.

We watched Trevor Noah and Suzette then retired.  I stayed up to blog.

The President ordered meat processing workers back to work under the Defense Production Act today without ordering that they be tested or be spaced or those testing positive be isolated.  This could turn into a disaster, since thousands are already testing positive for corona virus.

One more sign of his lack of planning and his failure to follow his own guidelines.

Several workers have already died,  what if more die.  This could become a tort lawyers’ feast.  If a worker’s family sues the government for wrongful death for negligently failing to follow its own guidelines, will the President try to join China into the suit?

Bon Appetit

April 27, 2020 Lunch – Pork Salad Dinner – Shrimp scampi Primavera over Spinach Couscous

April 27, 2020 Lunch – Pork Salad   Dinner – Shrimp scampi Primavera over Spinach Couscous

We are tending toward simplified meals as the isolation wears on.  I do go out but only for basic activities.  Today I drove to the bank to deposits checks and tooth post office to post a letter that needed to be postmarked today.

I ate Gravad Lax on two Slices of toasted French dinner roll today smeared with cream cheese and garnished with onion and Gravad Lax slices with a cup of chai.

Then for lunch I made a salad with a slice of roasted pork diced, a hard boiled egg sliced, a tomato diced, 1/3 cucumber peeled and sliced, kalamata olives, sprinkled with grated Monterrey Jack cheese, and thinly sliced onion dressed with Caesar salad dressing.

At 5:45 I rode about three miles to Marquez and back.

Then we decided to make shrimp scampi Primavera with PPI Couscous with Spinach for dinner.  We thawed 8 large shrimp and I chopped 4 oz. of onion, ½ red bell pepper, 1 zucchini, and four cloves of garlic.  Suzette diced several stalks of asparagus and the sautéed the vegetables in olive oil and then
added the shrimp.  She then added some of the white Italian 2018 Falerio wine I had chilled to create a light white sauce.

Suzette was not in a good mood because of the shut down of the spa and delayed government assistance.

She said she did not like the wine but this is the same wine she liked previously.  I liked the wine a lot.  I bought four bottles a month or two ago when Total Wine was still open.

I have always thought that my mood was directly related to my cash flow and I guess it is the same with Suzette.

After dinner we watched the Antique Roadshow and then Suzette went to bed.

I made chocolate chip cookies and we each ate one.  I toasted ½ cup of pecans and added them plus ½ cup of raisins and 1 cup of chocolate chips to the dough.

We will hope that chocolate chip cookie therapy will get us through this financial rough spot.

Bon Appetit

April 26, 2020 Lunch – Posole Dinner – Composed Salmon Salad

April 26, 2020 Lunch – Posole  Dinner – Composed Salmon Salad

I awakened at 6:30 and watched the news until 11:00.  We ate tropical fruit salad with yogurt at 9:00.  I added a handful of granola to my bowl.

Suzette started gardening at 9:00 and I joined her at 11:00 after Governor Cuomo’s press conference.

The comparison of Cuomo’s to Trump is compelling.  Cuomo’s is prepared with meaningful statistics in a power point presentation and comments based upon a wealth of personal experience including being Attorney General of NY and Secretary of HHS besides being Governor of NY.  Trump by comparison is ill informed, lacks meaningful statistical information and often advances proposals that are little more than quackery or worse, dangerous.  Trump’s worst to date was uttered at Thursday’s press conference when he suggested to his medical experts that they should investigate ingesting or injecting ultraviolet light, heat or disinfectants to treat the corona virus.  For the three days following that comment government and industrial leaders have gone public with the warning that no one should introduce anything into one’s body without the approval by their physician, especially a topical disinfectant such as Clorox or Lysol.

We planted six tomato plants and six or seven hillocks with cucumbers and straight neck squashing several of the raised beds.  Now almost all the garden areas are planted although we might add some kale to one bed.

We had been cooking Posole all morning and I had been tasting it so I was not hungry after planting but Suzette was.  I took the last six bottles of De Ponte 2016 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir to the basement, while Suzette showered and heated frozen enchiladas and ate a bowl of enchiladas and Posole.

After lunch we had our weekly Zoom meeting with our family, Rebecca and Mickie, Elaine and Billy, and Luke and Willy and then Suzette lay down for a nap.  I joined her for a nap a little later.  When she got up she started moving things out of Willy’s room so she can use it for her office.

Willy came by around 4:30 to pick up the three new packages that arrived on Saturday for his home office and took a bottle of wine with the packages.

I became hungry around 6:00.we decided to use the PPI piece of grilled teriyaki salmon make a salmon salad for dinner.  I chopped a head of a Romaine lettuce and Suzette picked a small quantity of micro greens and I began to compose two pasta bowls of salad.  I added a handful of cooked green beans, 1 tomato diced, 1 stalk of celery finely diced, 1/3 of a cucumber peeled, seeded, and sliced.  Suzette hard boiled six eggs and peeled and sliced 1 for each salad.  The most creative thing Suzette did was to peel and chop a fresh potato into small pieces and fry them in olive oil until golden brown and crisp.  This was a creative variation on the traditional addition of potato wedges to a salad Nicoise.  I added the juice of ½ lemon and some olive oil to the continuous Ceasar salad dressing and lightly dressed the salad.

Suzette poured glasses of one of the bottles she brought home from the Bistro, the brightly acidic 100% Carignan 2018 VillaViva Cotes du Thau Rose’.  We ate our salad hungrily and were satisfied by the wonderful combination of ingredients.

We finished the bottle and then each ate a Swedish dessert as we watched PBS Masterpiece episodes of “World on Fire” and “Baptiste”. I drank a cup of chai with my dessert.  This my favorite Swedish dessert. It is a roll of rum ball filling with wrapped inside a sheet of marzipan with the ends dipped in chocolate.

At 10:00 we went to bed. I awakened at 1:30 and blogged and finished the Fauci profile in the April 20 New Yorker.

Bon Appetit

April 25, 2020 Breakfast – Bacon, Potato, Onion, and Egg Burrito. Lunch - PPI Grilled Lamb Chop and Spinach Couscous. Dinner – New Recipe Pasta Primavera with Salmon Fillets coated with sorrel sauce.

April 25, 2020 Breakfast – Bacon, Potato, Onion, and Egg Burrito. Lunch - PPI Grilled Lamb Chop and Spinach Couscous. Dinner – New Recipe  Pasta Primavera with Salmon Fillets coated with sorrel sauce.

I awakened at 7:00 and watched news for a while but became hungry.  I had thawed a lb. of thick cut smoked bacon (Sprouts $2.99 on sale) last night, so I Fried three slices.  I added 2 oz. of butter and two small baked potatoes sliced and 1/3 red onion sliced and diced.  After the bacon was fried to crisp and the potato slices had begun to brown I removed the bacon and Suzette took over.  She added two whisked  eggs and stirred them into the onion and potatoes.  She then toasted a flour tortilla and added the egg mixture to each tortilla and crumbled the fried bacon to each tortilla and I crumbled cojita cheese over the dish and added several drops of red Chile sauce to my  I made a cup of camomile tea with lime and honey and Suzette poured a glass of Clamato juice and we took our plates and drinks to the table in the gazebo in the garden and ate while we watched the dove drink from the bird bath and the fish swim in the pond.

After breakfast we drove to a brewery at Coors and Alameda so Suzette could buy ½ gallon of sanitizer and then to Willy’s to pick up the hammock frame.  We returned home at 1:00 hungry.  Suzette made a pita sandwich stuffed with PPI roasted pork garnished with fresh micro greens. I heated the lamb chop I did not eat last night and some of the PPI spinach Couscous and drank the last glass of the 2015 Joseph Drouhin Beaujolais.

After lunch I thawed a 2 lb. bag of frozen Bueno Posole and went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh mint and Suzette made mint syrup by dissolving three cups of sugar in three cups of heated water.

I then lay down for a nap until 4:00.  We then put air in Suzette’s bike tires and rode to
Marquez and back, a distance of about 2 1/2 miles.

When I returned to the kitchen I diced two onions, and cut about 2 lb. of pork off a pork butt roast that had been thawing during the morning.

I removed the fat and diced the two lb. of pork and minced six cloves of garlic and sautéed those three ingredients in a large pot until tender.  Then I added about 6 quarts of water and the two lb. of Posole after I rinsed it again the remove any excess lye.  I then went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano and de-stemmed the leaves and chopped them and added them to the Posole and simmered everything together.

After we made our first mojitos of the summer, we discussed dinner.  I suggested pasta primavera with shrimp, but when she looked in the meat drawer Suzette saw the two fresh fillets of salmon.  Rather than thaw frozen shrimp we decided to cook the salmon with the Primavera sauce and eat it over the thin fresh egg noodles in the meat drawer.

I sliced a zucchini in a vey interesting manner.  I cut it in half lengthwise and then cut each Hal into thirds lengthwise to create long strips.  Then I sliced 1 inch long sections diagonally to produce a piece of zucchini that was more or less fiat on three sides and deeply slanted at each end sort of a three sided parallelogram that I found attractive.  I also diced about 3 oz. of onion, four white mushrooms, minced 4 cloves of fresh garlic, and ½ of a yellow bell pepper.  Suzette then sautéed the chopped ingredients in butter and olive oil and fetched the sorrel sauce she had made last week and spread some on the belly side of each salmon fillet. When the vegetables were cooked Suzette pushed the vegetables to the side of the skillet and seared the salmon fillets on both sides.  Suzette then removed the salmon fillets to a plate and finished the sauce with ¾ cup of the pasta water,  a T. of Madeira, and 2 T. of heavy cream to add a wine cream sauce to the vegetables.  Suzette said, “The pasta water helps thicken the sauce because of the gluten in the water.”

 

Sautéing the salmon fillets with the vegetables 

                                                 The final sauce thickened with cream

The pasta and sautéed salmon 

                                    The final dish after adding the vegetables in cream sauce

We each drank the cocktails we had made with dinner.  I loved aa three elements of the new recipe: the delicate egg noodles, the salmon fillet coated with sorrel sauce, and the creamy sautéed vegetables.  It seemed to me that the new recipe created a fusion of three different cultures, Chinese fresh egg vermicelli noodles, a very classical French Salmon coated with Sorrel sauce, and a very traditional Italian Primavera sauce with fresh vegetables.

We enjoyed this very satisfying dish.  We then watched the third episode of of Unorthodox on Netflix and then Father Brown and Death in Paradise and went to bed at 10:00 after I added three dried Chile pods to the Posole and carried it to the garage.

Something odd occurred today. It seemed as if the usual junk mail ceased arriving in the mail.  Another indication of our changing economy.

A good day of cooking..

Bon Appetit

April 24, 2020 Lunch – Salmon and Scallop Sashimi. Dinner – Grilled Lamb chops with Spinach Couscous

Another day of elegant food.  I ate tropical fruit salad with yogurt and granola for breakfast.  Then I thawed three scallops.

The day was not very busy.  A few phone calls and letters.

At noon I decided to prepare Sashimi.  I sliced the three scallops and the tail end of the salmon fillet Suzette bought at Costco yesterday.  I opened the small can of pickled leeks I had chilled yesterday and put them on a plate with the scallop and salmon slices.  I opened the bottle of pickled ginger I had chilled and fetched the bowl of Japanese Pickled Vegetables and made a cup of green tea and added rice vinegar and Aji Mirin to the small amount of PPI rice and heated it for 1:11 minutes in the microwave and poured a cup of sake and heated it and mixed wasabi with soy in a small dipping bowl and was ready to eat an amazing Sashimi lunch.

When I finished eating around 2:40 I checked the market and was pleasantly surprised that the market had increased a little over ½% and my Portfolio increased by 1.8%, mainly due to a late surge in the big tech stocks.  For example,  Facebook announced a new meeting function similar to Zoom that sent Facebook up over $5.00 and Zoom down about $10.00.

I lay down at 3:00 and napped until 5:00 when Suzette arrived.  I went for a bike ride at 6:10 and rode south and back five miles.  My old 1972 Gitane/Campangola Road bike. It is the easiest riding bike I have ever ridden. Greg and Ryan at the bike coop found a pair of vintage presser rims to replace the original sew up rims.

When I returned we watched the news until 8:30.  We decided on a simplified meal.  Suzette had a bad day and was a bit down so when I went to the basement and found a special bottle, a 1995 Cotes du Ventoux.  Suzette Grilled four beautiful lamb chops while I added the rest of fresh spinach the the PPI spinach and tomato Couscous. I added 1 T. of butter, about ¼ cup of water, and ½ tsp of salt and heated the Couscous at low heat and stirred the Couscous.

When Suzette brought in the grilled lamb chops we served ourselves the heated Couscous and a couple of chops.

I fetched a new bottle of homemade mint jelly.

The twenty-five year old wine was amazing.  It had everything you would want, a pleasantly aromatic bouquet, an elegant flavor, and no bitterness on the finish.  There was little fruit, which may have helped let the elegance showed through. There is something magical about a splendid 25 year old wine, not unlike the return of a prodigal son  who has been gone a really long time.

The lamb chops were lovely also thick marbled chops.  We decided that more high end lamb that would have gone to high end restaurants are now being sent into the grocery markets.

We watched “Unorthodox” after dinner until 10:30 and then Suzette went to bed.

I stayed up and blogged until midnight so I could watch the News Hour.

Bon Appetit

April 23, 2020 Lunch – PPI Pork in Tomatillo Sauce on rice with green beans. Dinner – Cedar Plank Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Spinach and Tomato Couscous with Japanese Pickled Vegetables

April 23, 2020 Lunch – PPI Pork in Tomatillo Sauce on rice with green beans.  Dinner – Cedar Plank Grilled Teriyaki Salmon with Spinach and Tomato Couscous with Japanese Pickled Vegetables

Some days I marvel at the exquisite food we eat regularly. Today was one of those days.  Suzette and I were busy.  I ate tropical fruit salad with yogurt and granola at 8:00.

I did not finish my drafting of an agreement until after 1:00, so I was hungry.  I sliced a piece of pork roast and lay it and several small pieces of pork on some PPI rice and added a small pile of PPI green beans on the plate and microwaved it and ate a hasty but delicious lunch.  I love that acidic bite of Tomatillo Sauce with the rich flavor of pork.  This time we roasted a pork leg, which we thought was a really excellent cut.

At 2:00 I went to the bank to deposit several checks.

Suzette had bought a lovely large salmon fillet at Costco yesterday, so when I returned home I made teriyaki sauce by combining and heating ½ cup each of soy sauce, Aji Mirin,  sake, and 1 T. of sugar.  I then poured the teriyaki sauce into a 1 gallon freezer bag in which I had placed the salmon fillet and marinated the fillet in the teriyaki sauce from 2:00 until 6:30.

Suzette came home at 5:30 and I finished work around 5:45.  We talked to Dee Simpson for a few minutes and then Willy arrived to do his laundry and join us for dinner.  We all walked about ½ mile and then Willy moved his desk to his apartment.and returned for dinner.

After we watched Rachel Maddow we started cooking.

Spinach and tomato Couscous

We picked through the rest of the spinach and separated the good from the bad and washed and spun the good.

I chopped about ¼ cup of red onion and sautéed it in 4 T. of butter until it softened at medium high heat.  I then put a kettle on to boil and added 1 ½ cup of Couscous to the onion and sautéed it for a minute to coat with butter.  Then I added 2 1/2 cups of boiling hot water to the Couscous and one diced tomato and a large handful of spinach and reduced the heat after another minute to the lowest setting on the smallest burner and cooked the Couscous for several minutes.  Then I alternated the heat from medium to no heat several times until I guessed the Couscous and vegetables were cooked.  I fluffed the Couscous and turned the spinach into the Couscous so it would cook.

Suzette brought in the grilled salmon and I fetched the pickled vegetables.  Suzette cut the salmon fillet into three pieces and we each served ourselves.  We spooned a pile of Couscous onto our plate, placed a piece of grilled salmon on the Couscous and added a spoonful of pickled vegetables on the side of the plate.

Suzette opened and poured the 2018 Gruet Rose of Pinot Noir I had chilled and we took our glasses and plates to the gazebo in the back yard.  The temperature was 73 degrees so it was a lovely evening to eat al fresco.  Suzette liked the Gruet rose but I found the finish a little bitter.

The board next to the salmon fillet burning

I like my salmon cooked to rare so the Center is just barely cooked 

We ate quickly because we were hungry, although Willy told about his new lady friend, Saba.

After dinner Willy finished his wash and said goodnight and we watched Midsommer Mystery and then Endeavor until 11:00.

We each ate a chocolate cookie for dessert and I drank two cups of chai.

I blogged until 12:00.

Lots of work and good food today and very little TV made me feel more fulfilled than usual.

Bon Appetit

April 22, 2020 Lunch – Gravad Lax Salad Nicoise. Dinner – BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs, a Baked Potato, and Steamed Broccoli

April 22, 2020 Lunch – Gravad Lax Salad Nicoise.  Dinner – BBQ Country Style Pork Ribs, a Baked Potato, and Steamed Broccoli

I had a snack at 10:00.  I toasted slices of whole wheat roll, buttered them, and spread marmalade on them and then garnished with slices of Iberico cheese with a cup of chai.

The market shot back up today after three down days and I recovered more than my Friday losses.

Suzette worked from home today, so for lunch we made a Niçoise salad with cured salmon instead of tuna.  It was lovely. We substituted steamed asparagus for the usual potato. Here is a picture.

We enjoyed an al fresco lunch in the gazebo watching the fish swim in the pond and doves fly in to drink in the newly filled bird bath. We also made a tour of the garden and noted the new growth.

Suzette went to Costco at 4:00 and bought a number of items we needed such as olive oil, fresh salmon, lamb chops, and pine nuts for Willy.

I baked four country style pork ribs in the oven for 3 hours starting at 5:00.  I placed them in a 9 x 9 inch pyrex baking dish and coated them with Rudy’s Sissy BBQ sauce and covered them with aluminum foil and baked them in a 325 degree oven.  For the first hour I baked six russet potatoes
with the ribs.

When Suzette returned she took over and removed the aluminum foil for the 1 ½ hours during which she flipped the ribs once.

I then went to the garage and fetched the bag of broccoli.  I cut off about ten flowerets and put them in the steamer with water.

 I then cut two ore rose to freshen up out vase.

While Suzette steamed the broccoli and then plated dinner, I poured out the last of the 2018 Villaviva Cotes de Thau rose’ that we had opened at lunch.  This lovely light rose from southern France was one of the bottles Suzette brought home from her restaurant.

Here is a lot of information on this lovely rose.

Tasting notes
Luscious, aromatic nose of raspberries and strawberries. Fresh in the mouth with a well-balanced, full and lively middle palate, and a spicy, lingeringfinish.
Serve VillaViva chilled.
Drink anytime as an aperitif or with seafood, poultry, grilled meats, barbecue and Mediterranean-style cuisine.
Background
VillaViva is an extraordinary pale rose wine produced from vineyards surrounding the fishing village of Sete, famous for its oyster beds, and facing the Mediterranean Sea. Located in the Cotes de Thau (pronounced "toe") appellation, along the famous string of lakes (Etang de Thau) that make up the 
Bassin, the VillaViva vineyards are planted on fossilized oyster beds, limestone, gravel and quartz soil and benefit from a sunny and dry climate perfect for rose production. An elaborate subsoil network of fresh water and salt water conduits under the vineyards nourish the vines and contribute to the unique flavor of VillaViva. Because of the region's rich marine biodiversity, Sete has been the center of a thriving fishing industry that dates to antiquity. However, it is commonly believed that the commerce of wine was equally as important; Etruscan amphoras found at the bottom of the Thau Bassin indicate that wine was being produced in the region as early as the 7th century B.C. VillaViva is produced from a state-of-the-art production facility that covers two appellations Cotes de Thau and PicPoul de Pinet (known for its white wines with delicious saline flavors). Because of the unbelievable price point and quality, the roses from the estate have been so successful that they are now "replacing water" in all of the top restaurants on the French Riviera.
Viticulture and winemaking
Limestone, broken stone, and quartz soil.

Vineyards planted on slopes with southern exposure, borderering the Thau Bassin and over- looking the Mediterannean.
Unique microclimate - proximity to water ensures vines stay cool, and contributes to the freshness of the wines.
After harvest, grapes are cooled and undergo pre-fermentation maceration (cold oak) in Elite vats at forty-six Farenheit for six hours.
VillaViva is made from the free-run juice which is fermented at low temperatures to retain fruit and freshness.

We decided to serve dinner at 8:00 because that would be three hours of cooking time, so at 7:50 Suzette started the broccoli.

After dinner Suzette made us bananas foster with one banana, light brown sugar, butter and rum that
she then poured over a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I later ate two chocolate chip cookies with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

We went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

April 21, 2020 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodles. Dinner – new recipe Pan cooked Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetables, Olives, capers, and Spaghetti Sauce

April 21, 2020 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodles. Dinner – new recipe Pan cooked Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetables, Olives, capers, and Spaghetti Sauce

I ate granola, fruit salad, and yogurt as I watched the Market open and quickly drop 600 points, apparently the collapse of the world oil market was not seen as a positive economic indicator.

I had a facilitation at 9:00 that lasted all day, which prevented my watching much news or investing.  I decided that we have not seen the worst of economic woes yet so I am holding back investing any further.

By the end of the day the market dropped 631or almost 3%, but my portfolio dropped a bit more than 1 ½%.  Not much conciliation.

The facilitation dragged on all day, which was very frustrating to me as the other side dragged concession after concession out of my client.

We got what we wanted but we would have been much better off had it ended at 10:30.  Instead it dragged on until 5:30, at double the cost to both parties.

At a break at 1:30 I heated the PPI Vietnamese Mis Noodle Soup that has almost congealed unto a thickened bowl of ramen as the noodles absorbed all the liquid in the bowl.  It was still delicious, but just a little heavy on the noodles.

Suzette came home around 4:00, but I was unable to discuss dinner until 5:30 when my client left.

We came to no decision, so I made a gin and tonic and watched the news with her.  Then at 6:30 she said,”Let me look at the refrigerator.”

Which meant we were into a pure PPI adventure.

Suzette created a wholly new dish, which was surprisingly similar to Pasta Puttenesa, by combining PPI spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, cracked green and black olives, roasted root vegetables, capers, anchovies, and diced fresh mozzarella.

I went to the basement and found a bottle of 2013 Tuella Portuguese red from the Duero (Trader Joe’s $6.99 in 2014).  The fruitiness and smoothness of the wine complemented the complexity of the pasta ingredients.  We finished both the pasta and the wIne.

For a change, I went to sleep on the couch as Suzette watched a Michael J. Fox movie until 10:00 when we went to bed. I to blog and Suzette to sleep.

Bon Appetit