April 28, 2023 Breakfast - Lax and Abel’s and smoked white fish and cantaloupe. Sara Jane’s Birthday party Dinner - Kyma Seafood in Stevens, PA

April 28, 2023 Breakfast - Lax and Abel’s and smoked white fish and cantaloupe. Sara Jane’s Birthday party  Dinner - Kyma Seafood in Stevens, PA

We slept well. I woke up at 6:00 and took a shower and dressed and Suzette did the same at 6:30.  I checked the Market and it was up, even after a monster day on Thursday.

Marty had driven to buy a box of fresh warm Einstein bagels and soon the table was with the plastic container of Marty’s homemade Gravad Lax.

He processes it a little differently than I do.  He washes the lax after it cures to remove as much of the salt as he can.

There was also a platter with sliced onion, tomato, and large cross sections of white fish.

YoYo peeled and sectioned a cantaloupe in a bowl.

Marty sliced and toasted bagel slices for us and we spread cream cheese and then slices of lax, or smoked white fish, red onion, and tomato on them and took several cubes of cantaloupe.

It was an old fashioned Jewish family breakfast with one exception.  YoYo served me some of the best Chinese teas I have ever tasted, including Big red robe, a special oolong, and a green tea that was the whole leaf, not chopped up or powdered. It was an amazing curated tea drinking experience.

After breakfast we drove to Jean’s house in Ephrata, PA and picked up Jean and drove to the Grove, which is an old camp ground converted into a craft center where Jean has a tent filled with Fenton collectible glassware to meet a collector who bought $500 of glass wares.

Then at 1:00 we drove to the Masonic homes at Elizabeth town to celebrate their Mother, Sara Jane’s 97th birthday.  Sara was in a wheelchair and living in the hospice unit, but was pretty spry for 97.

Suzette had picked flowers in Marty and Yo-yo’s yard and we stopped and then stopped at a Costco and bought a large Chocolate birthday cake, and bought three bottles of Chandon Brut and a bag of ice on the way and chilled the bottles.

Two of Sara’s brothers and a nephew with their wives showed up, as did two members of her old card playing group with their husbands, so there were 13 of us that celebrated from 2:20 to 5:00 in one of the dining rooms of her facility.

I poured champagne and Suzette served chocolate cake and Jean served chocolates that Jeff sent, so it was a pretty festive occasion with lots o& old stories of growing up in Elizabethtown.

After the party we drove to Kyma’s Seafood in Stevens, PA that features local seafood, mostly crab and flounder.

Suzette and I split a plate of 18 steamed Manila clams and a combination plate with two crab cakes, two crab stuffed shrimp, and a fillet of flounder stuffed with crab meat.

Jean ordered a Crab Colossus, which was a crab newburg with cream and lump meat crab and two side dishes. She chose a baked sweet potato and Asparagus and it was such a large portion that we took about 1/2 of the crab home.

We chose asparagus and green beans that are both local and at the height of their growing season.

The food was good but the emphasis was on the freshness of the ingredients and care with which the6 were prepared, not their presentation. Both dishes were cooked in a hot oven in enabled cookware for a short time to insure that the fish or crab would not dry out. We ordered a bottle of Sean Minor Sauvignon Blanc that went well with the fresh broiled seafood.

After dinner we drove back to Jean’s.  We heated three French Pain au Chocolates we had bought at Costco for dessert and tried to watch Stanley Cup Playoff hockey but soon faded and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

April 26 and 27, 2023 Albuquerque and Wilmington, Delaware

 April 26 and 27, 2023 Albuquerque and Wilmington, Delaware

April 26

The 26th was the day before we left for a long weekend and there is a push to use all the PPIs and perishables.

But today was different because the dual order of menus was all mixed up.

I ate the hardy meal of the day for breakfast, the normal breakfast menu for lunch, and a normal lunch menu for dinner.

For breakfast I sautéed a scramble of a diced bratwurst sausage, some PPI rice, two mushrooms sliced, a slice of red onion diced, and two eggs.

For lunch I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of Gravad lax, red onion, and capers.

And for dinner I made us a salad of slices of roasted lamb, tomato, two radishes, 1/4 of a cucumber, and sliced and diced red onion.

So a rather confusing assortment of dishes as the dat rearranged itself.  I also met with Shahin to give him my 2022 tax calculations and supporting documentation and received a Covid booster.

The most interesting thing of the day was watching PL No. 2 Man City crush No. 1 Arsenal 4 to 0 that brought Man City to two points from Arsenal, which is at real risk of losing its No. 1 ranking.

April 27 I woke up at 2:30. I am not sure if it was the Covid booster, the large lamb salad I ate for dinner, or the anticipation of the trip, butI was wide awake.

I lay in bed having vivid recollections of interesting events in my life for a while, but then got up.

I unloaded the dishwasher, I packed four containers, one with olives and pickled turnip spears, a second with two sliced pitas, a third with Suzette’s uneaten salad and tomato wedges, a fourth with the last of the labni and tzatziki.

I also packed an orange.

I then toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese, and lay slices of Gravad lax and red onion and capers on them and made a cup of hot tea and watched TV until 4:00 when Suzette awakened.

We got dressed and loaded three grips into the Highlander and drove to the airport for our flight to BWI.

When we arrived at 3:00 there was confusion with the rental car that was finally sorted out by 4:00 and we drove north to YoYo and Marty’s home in Wilmington.

It was a happy reunion when we arrived at 5:30. We gathered in the kitchen dining area around a platter of salami and prosciutto and a cheese board with a wedge of that wonderful German brie with mushrooms, a Irish cheddar, and one other cheese and Marty opened a bottle of 2018 Tenuta di Renieri Chianti Classico Riserva that was smooth as silk going down the gullet.

At 6:40 we drove to Badrea in downtown Wilmington, our dinner destination.  We immediately saw that it was highly rated as the best restaurant in Wilmington or Delaware in 2019.

I remember the recent cartoon in New Yorker in which a customer asks his waiter, “Is this a bistro, a diner, or a gastropub?”

The menu did not disclose which with its trendy divisions of dishes into snacks, small plates, pasta, and feed the table. 

After I made my choice of The Burrata Pop Tart, a burrata puff pastry known, Suzette and Marty picked five dishes among the appetizers and small plates, while I perused the wine list and the by the glass beverage list on the back of the menu.

One of the wines caught my attention. It was described as an Alpine White, Lugana, Buglioni.  I had a deja vu recollection of when we traveled to Lake Garda with Suzette, Debbie, and Jeff fifteen years ago and stopped at the Maison de Vin at Lake Garda and tasted several several Lugana wines and even bought and brought back a bottle.

The waiter was not knowledgeable, so I asked him to show me the bottle and when he brought it and saw it was a Lugana and touched the sealed bottle and felt it chill, I said, “Please bring me a glass of that.”

Later a gentleman came by who was probably the sommelier and told me the grapes were raised 13 miles from Lake Garda. The flavor was unique, a bit of minerality/acid on the front end and slightly sweet on the back end of the pallet Later research proved that the Lugana region lies south of Lake Garda, exactly where we tasted the Lugana wines and the wine is made with a single local grape, Turbiana, which used to be called Trebbianno di Lugana.

I loved it like meeting an old friend.

Soon the food began to arrive in successive waves. First was the burrata pop tart a fluffy puff pastry filled with creamy burrata with a small bowl of onion and  fennel jam.  I instantly realized this was a gastropub of the highest order that excelled in creativity of food combinations and presentation.

Next  came a small plate of charred octopus with a small clump of crispy celery pave and a harissa zabaglione with its deep red tint.  Again a very pleasing dish that used the celeriac pave to ameliorate the harissa’s spiciness. 

The octopus was tender like it had been cooked in a pressure cooker before it was char grilled.

Then came a small plate with a rectangle of layered thin eggplant slices battered, fried and baked into a Neapolitan shape surrounded by small dots of Parmesan fondue (foam), tomato sauce, and infused basil olive oil.

Not as exciting as the other dishes but a very satisfying because there was a freshness to the eggplant that brightened the dining experience, which Suzette noted described the entire dining experience.

The fourth dish was really interesting. A slice of pork collar with two sauces, a dark BBQ like sauce of pork broth reduction flavored with candied ginger and a chipotle flavored Béarnaise Sauce with a pile of charred pineapple pieces on the side. The pork was so tender it was difficult to keep it from falling off my fork but the pineapple was a revelation, charred to the point that it caramelized.  It was a perfect dish.

The fifth and last dish was one of the most beautiful presentations I have ever seen. Look at the picture. It was five rabbit roulade, rabbit skin and a layer of meat wrapped around a ground rabbit ragout and a rabbit terrine; rabbit three ways with a plate of Sauce Valois, Béarnaise with a rabbit meat glaze that was covered with patches of different colored vegetable powders: green from spinach, purple from beets, yellow from corn, orange from carrots, and brown from braised rabbit.

Suzette and Marty shared a Belgium style ale.

After dinner we returned home and Marty ani shared a sip of Bernanroy XO Calvados and Suzette sipped a rum Zacapa and then we all fell into bed.

Bon Appetit

April 25, 2023 Breakfast - Granola, milk, tropical fruit salad, and yogurt. Lunch - Pita pocket Sandwiches. Dinner - New recipe - Sautéed Cabbage, brats, and asparagus with whipped cream and horseradish sauce

April 25, 2023 Breakfast - Granola, milk, tropical fruit salad, and yogurt. Lunch - Pita pocket Sandwiches. Dinner - New recipe - Sautéed Cabbage, brats, and asparagus with whipped cream and horseradish sauce

Another great day of food.  As we draw closer to leaving on our trip, we tend to use up ingredients in unusual mixtures and that was true of the new recipe we created for Dinner.

I ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt, and a large helping of tropical fruit salad.

I worked on taxes and made an appointment with Shahin tomorrow to deliver my taxes to him.

Rahim came at 11:00 and we worked on his transaction until lunch.

We both wanted kebabs until I suggested making pita sandwiches with the PPI roasted lamb.  I made a quick tzatziki by dicing a Persian cucumber and adding a dash of salt, 2/3 cup of yogurt, a pressed clove of garlic, and juice of 1/2 lemon.

We went to the garden and picked five sprigs of fresh mint. Rahim destemmed the leaves and I chopped the leaves and added them to the tzatziki.  I also sliced 1/2 of a Roma tomato into wedges and fetched the pickled turnips, the labni, the  Tabouli, the hummus, the green cracked olives and the dried Moroccan black olives.

I then thinly sliced 1/2 lb. of roasted lamb and heated it in the microwave and cut a pita in half and heated the two halves in the microwave to soften them.

We each made pita sandwiches with a warm 1/2 pita and then I gave each of us another 1/4 of a pita that we filled with lamb, labni, tzatziki, tomato wedges, pickled turnips, and a little Tabouli.

It was a perfect lunch.  

After Rahim left at 2:00 I ate a slice of chocolate halvah and watched the Leicester City v. Leeds fixture that ended in a 1 to 1 tie, so each club moved one point further from relegation.

I then worked on my taxes until Suzette arrived at 5:00.

I was hungry so I buttered several pieces of Swedish Hard bread and added slices of Dutch Gouda cheese for a snack.

Then Suzette fetched the cabbage from the garage and I sliced 1/2 of the head into thin strips that I put into a large skillet with olive oil, spicy salt, and ground cumin and sautéed over low heat.

I then sliced two bratwursts into semi circles and added them.

Suzette then suggested we add the last seven stalks of asparagus, which I sliced into 1 inch sections and added.

Suzette fetched the wok cover to cover the skillet so everything woul heat evenly.

She then suggested making a whipped cream and horseradish sauce with fresh fennel. She fetched and chopped fresh fennel fronds from the garden and added the fresh fennel to the sauce.

I heated PPI rice to increase my carbs and soon we had created a new wonderful one dish recipe that we both liked very much.

Suzette fetched a bottle of Pinot Grigio rose del Venezia that was refreshing and slightly effervescent that complemented the dish.

We had a great dinner and enjoyed the last of the bottle as we watched Finding your Roots.

Suzette went to bed at 8:00 and I followed at 9:30 after the Dallas Stars won game five of their first round Stanley Cup playoff against the Minnesota Wild.

Bon Appetit

April 24, 2023 Breakfast - Lax on bagel. Lunch - Salami Salad  Dinner - PPI Casarecce Pasta with Sautéed Mushrooms, Zucchini, onion, steak, garlic, and tomatoes 

This was a very predictable food day.  I thought it was exactly the food I love. 

For breakfast at 9:30 I toasted two slices of an everything bagel and spread cream cheese on them and then slices of Gravad Lax, red onion, and capers and ate a bowl of fruit salad.

I worked on taxes until 1:45 when I made a salad with romaine lettuce, two sliced radishes, red onion slices, cucumber slices, a tomato diced, four slices of salami diced, and a handful of Moroccan deprived black olives with Cesar dressing.  Is also toasted a slice of French baguette and then melted slices of Jarlsberg cheese on it.

After lunch a worked on taxes until 4:00 and then watched Ari and took two long phone calls.

Suzette came home at 4:30 and showered and dressed and went to dinner with her girl’s group.

At 6:00 I started to walk but it was raining so I rode 1/2 mile until the rain stopped and then rode 1 mile.

When I returned home i checked the garden and pond when Suzette returned at 7:00

I heated the PPI pasta, zucchini, mushrooms, onion, garlic, tomatoes, and garlic with slices of Parmesan cheese and we watched the Antiques Roadshow.  

When the second hour ended at 8:00 Suzette went to bed since she had awakened at 5:30.

I stayed up to watch Colorado play Seattle in game four of their Stanley Cup playoff and Rachel Maddow.

Seattle won in overtime to tie the series 2 games each.

Bon Appetit in

April 23, 2023 Brunch - Men on a raft. Dinner - Zucchini, onion, steak, Mushroom, and Tomato Medley over Casarecce Pasta

April 23, 2023 Brunch - Men on a raft. Dinner - Zucchini, onion, steak, Mushroom, and Tomato Medley over Casarecce Pasta

A large part of the day was spent in the garden.  Carlos came and worked from 9:30 to 1:45.

He spread twelve bags of dirt throughout the garden, pulled volunteer trees and weeds from the formal garden, planted the five blueberry and five raspberry bushes we bought yesterday, and cleaned the area around the rose on the patio of bind weed and trees, and that was just what he did that I saw during the 1 1/2 hours I worked outside.

After Carlos filled the raised beds with dirt, Suzette and I planted about a dozen rows of vegetables, mostly carrots, radishes, lettuce, and beets in two beds. In a third bed Suzette planted squashes.

So we hopefully will live off the land this year.

But earlier in the morning at 7:00 I watched an amazing fixture between Newcastle and Tottenham, in which Newcastle scored three goals in the first five minutes and went on to beat Tottenham 6 to 1 that lifted Newcastle into third place in the standings past Man U.  It was the most impressive performance I have seen this year by ant PL team.

I also drank a glass of a mint flavor yogurt drink and rode 1.50 miles on the Bike.

At 11:40 I came back inside and made three men on a raft and fried four strips of bacon that Suzette and I shared. I also sautéed a slice of onion for myself. A man on a raft is a dish my mother made for me when I was little.  It is a slice of rye bread with a hole cut in the middle sautéed in butter on one side then flipped and sautéed on the other side and an egg is dropped into the hole that supports the yolk. After any egg that slips of the bread is firm the bread is flipped again to cook the egg over easy.

After brunch I planted several more rows of vegetables and supervised as Carlos cleared the bind weed and volunteer elm trees from the patio garden from around the Don Juan rose bush.

We then rested until 3:00 and then we made the two beds with the clean sheets Suzette had washed and dried.

The two guest rooms are ready for my family’s visit during the first weekend in May.

At 4:30 we started dinner.  Suzette boiled water and we blanched three tomatoes in the boiling water to loosen their skins that also stewed them a bit.

I then sliced two zucchini, 1/2 onion, two cloves of garlic, about 1/2 lb. of PPI grilled steak, the last two oz. of Jimmie Dean sausage, and five white mushrooms. Suzette sautéed the ingredients in a large skillet with some olive oil.

She also boiled 1/2 of a bag of Casarecce pasta and fetched the Parmesan cheese and ground a handful of basil into powder and added it to the sauté.

While everything was cooking we went to the garden and picked a handful of fresh oregano that I cleaned, destemmed, and chopped and added to the sauté.

Suzette opened the bottle of Chianti Classico that I bought at Costco.

By 5:30 dinner was ready. Suzette drained the pasta and filled the bottom of a pasta bowl with pasta.  Then she sliced slices of Parmesan cheese onto the pasta. Finally, she spooned spoonfuls of the sauté medley over the pasta. 

This is my idea of wonderful Italian cuisine, fresh ingredients, some from the garden without a lot of meat or a sauce cooked simply, so their individual flavors are discernible and without a heavy sauce.

Willy came by later and ate a bowl of pasta with the sauté and cheese and drank the last glass of chianti with it.

Willy left at 8:00 and Suzette went to bed at 8:30.

I stayed up to watch the latest episode of Marie Antonette and ate a bowl,of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and maraschino cherries and some of their liquor.

It was a lovely weekend and hopefully we will have lots of vegetables to enjoy from our effort.

Bon Appetit 

 

April 22, 2023 Breakfast - Lax and Bagels, Lunch - Pita Pocket Sandwiches. Dinner - Cheese and wine and charcuterie

April 22, 2023 Breakfast - Lax and Bagels, Lunch - Pita Pocket Sandwiches. Dinner - Cheese and wine and charcuterie 

I got up in time to watch the final seconds of Fulham beating Leeds 2 to 1.

Then I watched Leicester beat Wolverhampton 2 to 1.

Finally, Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest 3 to 2.

Crystal Palace tied Everton 0 to 0.

This week’s results lifted Leicester out of the relegation zone and within 1 point of Leeds, which Leicester plays on Tuesday.

After the Leicester match I toasted four slices of Kaufman’s bagels, two rye and two sesame seed for Suzette.  I spread cream cheese and garnished with slices of red onion and Gravad lax on mine and slices of tomato on Suzette’s plus capers on both.

After breakfast Suzette loaded the five or six boxes of empty wine and liquor bottles and we drove to the Solid Waste recycling center and dumped them into the huge dumpster.

We then drove to Home Depot and bought some herbs and floral plants plus five blueberry and five raspberry bushes to plant in the back yard.

We then drove to Albuquerque Water Gardens and bought five more goldfish and 15 mosquito eating fish for the pond and several more plants.

We drove home and after Suzette put the fish into the pond and unloaded the plants, we ate pita pocket sandwiches again and then rested from 2:30 to 4:30.

We got dressed and at 5:15 drove to UNM to attend the symphony at 6:00.  We were early and the Art Museum was open so we saw the female artists show, which was lovely.  There was even a Janne Quick to See painting that looked like it was painted when she was an art student at UNM.

The Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 played byJennifer Frautschi on a Stradivarius violin was wonderful, but we thought Gustav Marker’s Symphony No. 1 “The Titan” was uneven, at times too exuberant and at other during the quieter times too dissonant.

After the symphony we drove home, but instead of cooking we simply at cheese and charcuterie on toasted slices of Bosque Bakery baguette.

 Loved and ate the rest of the Leyden.  Suzette loved the special cheddar we bought and we both liked the new wheel of brie from Isgny, France.

We watched Father Brown, Colorado Avalanche win a playoff game, and then an episode of “Astrid”.

Then Suzette went to bed, but I tried to stay up to watch the Albuquerque United play Colorado Springs Stingers .  The United was terrible and lost the match.

It is sad that Albuquerque has no good professional team.

Bon Appetit

 

April 21, 2023 Lunch - Pita Pocket sandwiches and Kibbeh. Dinner - Turkey Stuffing with Turkey Gravy and Neighborhood Cocktail Party

April 21, 2023 Lunch - Pita Pocket sandwiches and Kibbeh. Dinner - Turkey Stuffing with Turkey Gravy and Neighborhood Cocktail Party

I slept until 8:30 and at 10:00 ate granola, milk, fruit salad, and yogurt.

Then I worked on taxes until 1:00 when i cut a pita in half and heated it in the microwave, I sliced several slices of roasted lamb and heated them in the microwave with the kibbeh and fetched the hummus, Labni, Tabouli, the tzatziki, green cracked olives, dried Moroccan olives, pickled turnips, and sliced several thin slices of red onion and tomato, and fetched a green onion.

I turned on the Fixture between No. 1 Arsenal and last place Southampton and at the 28 second point Southampton intercepted an Arsenal pass and scored. The match took on a very different complexion from that point, as Arsenal was forced to catch up.  At the half, Southampton was still ahead 2 to 1.

I enjoyed the match as I stuffed each pita with tomato slices, labni, Tabouli, lamb, tzatziki, and pickled turnip spears.

After I had eaten two sandwiches, I dipped the still warm kibbeh (a deep fried oblong object with a coating of grain wrapped around a core of ground meat, pine nuts, and seasonings) into the hummus to coat it with a layer of hummus and ate it also.

After lunch I decided that I needed to stay awake during the evening because there was a neighborhood cocktail party, so I mixed a heaping T. of condensed milk with 1/3 cup of cold coffee and added ice cubes to make a Vietnamese coffee that I sipped during the second half of the match.

The second half was just as exciting as the first half, because Southampton scored again and it looked like this would be the first PL match in which a last place team beat a first place team, but as the match approached the full time 90th minute Arsenal scored twice in short order to  tie.  Then 8 minutes of extra time for stoppage were added and it looked like Arsenal might score again and win, but Southampton survived the frenzy of Arsenal’s attacks to salvage a tie.

After the match Suzette arrived from another long day of Spring cleaning at the Center and showered and napped.

I deposited David’s check and fetched The Drowning Pool that Suzette had finished and Jill’s Boda/Kosta art glass bowl and drove to the library where I returned the book and checked out Tuesdays with Morris and Morris in his own words.

I then drove to the FedEx office on Central across the street from UNM and had Fedex pack and send the bowl to David.

When I returned home at 5:00 Suzette was in bed working on her phone. I went to the kitchen and filled a charger with dolmas, pickled turnip spears, and tomato wedges in concentric circles with a bowl of hummus in the middle.

I then peeled and diced the ripe delicious papaya I bought yesterday at El Super and mixed its cubes with the fruit salad I made previously.

I then heated some PPI Dressing covered with turkey gravy for a snack at 5:30.

We then watched Chris Hayes’ tenth anniversary live show and at 7:00 drove to Ed’s house for the cocktail party.

A smallish group of about fifteen mostly old timers were in attendance, which was nice because it allowed time to have a lengthy conversation with several old friends. 

The most interesting conversation was with Knute Lee and his wife, Annie, who moved to the neighborhood two years ago from Glenwood Hills up on the mountain.  As they described it, “From near vertical to flat”.

Knute praised my knowledge of food and wine and he said he had followed my writings for the last forty-three years since I wrote food reviews for Texas Monthly and enjoyed the weird semi-sweet 2014 St. Clair White Merlot I brought to the party. Apparently Knute likes sweet wines, because we made a tentative plan to get together to drink one of his Hungarian Tokays.

The best dish was a platter of chewy brownies made by Suzy.

Kylene brought a bottle of Cherry Blossom Pinot Noir and said that I had recommended it as the best, drinkable cheap Pinot and I was happy I had recommended it because Suzette and I drank it instead of the sweet White Merlot that I encouraged  Knute to drink.

At 8:45 we left as others started leaving after taking two chocolate cupcakes and three brownies and off loading the last six dolmas onto Kylene’s platter of dolmas.

When we returned home Suzette took a sip of cognac and I a sip of Calvados and we each ate a brownie and watched Inside Man on Netflix, with its stellar cast and interesting plot.

When it ended at 11:00 we went to bed.

Bon Appetit