Thursday, November 30, 2023

November 30, 2023 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops with Asparagus, tomato, onion, and spinach Couscous With Tzatziki

November 30, 2023 Lunch - East Ocean. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops with Asparagus, tomato, onion, and spinach Couscous With Tzatziki


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



Then Suzette called at 11:30 to suggest we go to lunch at East Ocean.


I agreed heartily and she picked me up a bit after noon and drove us to East Ocean.


We studied the menu carefully and settled the two entree combination dinner for two persons with full dinner portions of cashew chicken and shrimp with lobster sauce plus two bowls of egg drop soup, two egg rolls, two sweet bean paste filled fried balls, and two fried wontons plus a bowl of fried rice for $15.99 each. We also ordered hot tea.


Soon the tea and two bowls of egg drop soup were served with a bowl of chow mein noodles. We put a spoonful of noodles in each bowl of soup and enjoyed the egg drop soup that is made with thickened chicken broth.


Then the cashew chicken, shrimp in lobster sauce and rice.  I love shrimp in lobster sauce.  It has lots of ground pork, chopped green onion, and shrimp in a cornstarch thickened chicken broth that was more viscous than the egg drop soup broth.  I mix the rice with the lobster sauce so it becomes thickened into a gelatinous mass of sauced rice.


The cashew chicken was great also cornstarch laced slices of white chicken in a pile of vegetables including, celery, baby corn, bok Choy, onion, carrot, and mushrooms.


We enjoyed our meal and filled three containers with leftovers.  Enough for another wonderful meal.


We then drove to Restore It so Suzette could look for a mantle.  She did not see one so we drove on to Weems Gallery to pick up the Juanne Quick to See Smith pastel that Ari had cleaned.


We then drove home.


When we arrived I grabbed the letter from the Register of Wills of Philadelphia and drove to the post office and bought a postal money order for the fee.


I then went home and started watching the news by Ari Melber on the Beat.


Willy called and we decided he would grill the dozen lamb chops we bought at Costco several days ago.


I diced four asparagus, a tomato, a sliced of onion, and de-steamed a handful of .


When Willy arrived he turned on the grill and I started cooking the .


I melted about three T. of butter in a sauce pan and sautéed the diced onion and .  I then added the diced tomato and a cup of couscous. After another minute or two of stirring at medium heat I added 1 1/2 cups of boiling water and the spinach and covered the sauce pan and cooked the couscous at medium heat.  I them moved the sauce pan to the smallest burner and reduced the heat and cooked the couscous for a couple more minutes and then turned off the heat.


Suzette found 1/8 of a cucumber in the fridge, so I made tzatziki.  I diced the cucumber and a slice of red onion and sprinkled them with salt.  I then added about 2/3 cup of yogurt and a heaping T. of labni and pressed a clove of garlic into the mix.  Willy then went to the garden and picked five of six stalks of fresh mint.  We de-stemmed the leaves from three or four stalks of mint.


When the lamb was cooked Willy brought it in and Suzette covered it with aluminum foil to keep it warm and  while I finished the tzatziki.


Suzette picked and opened a bottle of Primativo from Puglia, Italy.  The thicker red wine was lowly with the lamb as it opened up.


Suzette spooned a pile of couscous onto plates and then added lamb chops.  Suzette also cleaned several radishes.





We had a great dinner as we watched Dallas beat Seattle.

After the game Willy left and Suzette went to bed.


I stayed up to watch the news until midnight and learned the pause for hostage releases ended today when Hamas failed to submit a list of hostages to released.  


This was the first day we cooked a fresh dinner since Thanksgiving.


Suzette discussed eating the leftover Chinese food with added oysters to the lobster sauce, which sounded good to me.


Bon Appetit





Wednesday, November 29, 2023

November 29, 2023 Lunch - Enchilada Salad. Dinner - Fabada with Garbanzo beans and Pork Belly

November 29, 2023 Lunch - Enchilada Salad. Dinner - Fabada with Garbanzo beans and Pork Belly


I cooked a good breakfast of two slices of onion, two pork sausage patties, and two eggs over firm with hot tea and a toasted pull apart roll sliced in half.



At 1:00 I made a salad of romaine lettuce, sliced radishes, onion, green onion and a . I then heated the remaining enchilada casserole with a bit of crema and put the warmed enchiladas on the salad for a delicious warm salad.


The vanity was delivered during lunch and the driver left in on the driveway.


Suzette came home soon after the vanity was delivered and we decided to call Henry to help us and get a bid on tiling the bathroom.


He brought his son and they moved the vanity into the garage and then we tasted his new tequila and I shared tastes of Aalborg Aquavit and Aalborg Jubeliems with pickled herring. The sweetness of the pickled herring counteracted the harshness of the aquavit.


We then watched the news until 6:00 when Suzette heated up the remaining Fabada and added a can of garbanzo beans to make a full dish.


I loved the Fabada with the roasted pork belly.




We opened the new wine I bought at Costco.  I turned out to be a heavy Tempranillo vino Tinto, although it opened up and was quite lovely with the last chocolate Callier truffles.


We watched another two episodes of the Life of our Planet and went to bed at 9:00.


Bon Appetit




Tuesday, November 28, 2023

November 28, 2023 Lunch Bagels and Gravad Lax. Dinner - Snacks

November 28, 2023 Lunch Bagels and Gravad Lax. Dinner - Snacks


Today was even less interesting than leftovers. Like being at the end o& a trail that leads to scraps of food.


I missed breakfast, so at 12:00 when things quieted down I sliced the last five of Gravad lax, toasted two thin slices of plain bagel and spread them with cream cheese and slices of red onion, lax, and capers.  The two thin 1/4 slices of bagel was not enough food, so I spread cream cheese on an untoasted 1/2 slice and lay the last three slices of lax on it.  It was gummy but filling and then I enjoyed the toasted thin slices.



At 3:00 I drove to the Post Office and mailed a letter and then drove to Lowe’s where I bought milk, more cream cheese, avocados, and a can of spaghetti sauce.  Suzette was looking for a can off spaghetti sauce to add to the eggplant parmigiana and we had none, but now we do.


I returned home by 4:00 and made a cup of hot chocolate with a dash o& rum for my snack and watched Ari Melber until Suzette came home.


Suzette heated the rest of the leftover eggplant parmigiana and ate it.


I was not hungry but around 6:30 I shelled and ate a bowl of peanuts with a white vermouth after I finished the last few bites of the uneaten eggplant parmigiana.


Then we watched two episodes of the Life of our Planet, after which Suzette went to bed.


I then toasted a pull apart roll that I had cut into two slices and buttered them and added a slice of Turkey and a slice of brie to each with a cup of tea, plus two chocolate wafer cookies for my last snack of the day.




Bon Appetit 

Monday, November 27, 2023

November 27, 2023 Lunch - PPI enchilada casserole with Zucchini. Dinner - PPI Thanksgiving Dinner

November 27, 2023 Lunch - PPI enchilada casserole with Zucchini. Dinner - PPI Thanksgiving Dinner


Today was a day of leftovers.  I distinguish between leftovers and PPI’s.


Leftovers are dishes that are eaten again and not used as an ingredient in a different dish.


For example, I reheated a portion of the leftover enchilada casserole and only garnished it with minced red onions and natural crema to enhance its flavor, which was a leftover.




The same was true of dinner.  We reheated the dishes of the Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, dressing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Suzette heated the turkey and dressing with some of her gravy in a skillet to mix the three dishes together and microwaved the three vegetable dishes together in a Pyrex bread loaf pan.





I drank a Shiner Bock beer with lunch and fetched the bottle of Bougier Chenin Blanc Vouvray Reserve Sec we bought on Saturday at Total Wine. It turned out to be too dry for us and did not have any of the Chenin Blanc fruitiness we love. It was just plain dry.


In the afternoon we drove to Costco and Suzette did some Christmas shopping for her staff and we bought a few things for ourselves, like eggs, butter, Jimmy Dean Sausage , lamb chops, and four bottles of wine, two 94 point Rioja reservas for $11.99 each, a bottle of Kirkland Gigondas, and an Argentinian Malbec for Willy.


We did a complete circumnavigation of Costco, which I counted as my exercise for the day.


After dinner we watched two craft shows, Made in England and one on Made in Ireland about handmade goods such as shoes, blankets, cut crystal, and bees wax candles.


I also watched a terrible game between Chicago and The Minnesota Vikings.


Bon Appetit





Sunday, November 26, 2023

November 26, 2023 Brunch - scrambled eggs with Dungeness Crab Dinner - PPI Eggplant Parmesan with Spaghetti

 November 26, 2023 Brunch - scrambled eggs with Dungeness Crab  Dinner - PPI Eggplant Parmesan with Spaghetti 


What an amazing day of food, it started with out favorite brunch dish, scrambled eggs with Dungeness crab.  The crab was fresh and succulent and Suzette garnished with chopped fresh parsley.  We drank white wine with brunch.p, Vino Verde fr me and Palantir Sauvignon Blanc for Suzette.



This simple dish was completely satisfying.


We drove to the Albuquerque Museum to see the amazing Henry Moore and Georgia O’Keefe exhibit.  The t was huge and comprehensive with hundreds of major works.


We next drove to Total Wine were we bought 7 bottles of wine and three bottles of spirits.  We replenished our scotch and gin and white vermouth and bought several bottles of chenin blanc.


Then we drove to a second hand shop we’re Suzette found two new works by New Mexico female artists.


We then drove to Costco for gas and home.  I rested until 4:30 and then watched football.


Suzette opened a bottle of Kirkland Chianti Riserva and re-heated the eggplant Parmesan she made last week with spaghetti. We loved the dish and later drank the rest of the chianti while we watched two episodes of the lopife of our planet on Netflix .






Then later we ate Callier chocolates with A. e. Dor VSOP cognac and watched  the Jose Andres family food tour of three regions of Spain, including Asturias.






What a fun day.


Suzette said she loved me and that made the day even more special.


Bon Appetit