April 29, 2024 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate and Latte Macchiato Lunch - Miso Chicken Soup with dumplings and Matzo balls. Dinner - Hamburger steaks with Salad.

April 29, 2024 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate and Latte Macchiato  Lunch - Miso Chicken Soup with dumplings and Matzo balls. Dinner - Hamburger steaks with Salad. 

We have been eating better dinners in both the quality of the food andvthe healthiness of the meals.

Of course, we cheat and go off the diet all the time.  Today’s meals were a good example of this mixed diet.

I woke up and watched the market and I made a chai and heated a pain au chocolate for 44 seconds in the microwave.

At around 8:30 I went to my desk and sold 1000 shares of Square and shares of another stock to convert them into cash to make the loan to Earn.

Then at 10:30 I drove to Bill Turner’s and reviewed a file and then discussed a case with Bill and I think he recommended me to help the client, so a new client.

I returned home hungry a bit after 1:00 and took the chicken and vegetable mini-dumplings from the freezer.  I decided to make a combination of miso soup and chicken wonton soup.

I filled a 2 quart sauce pan 1/2 full with water and added seaweed, 1/2 shallot minced, 8 mini-dumplings, chopped parsley, two matzo balls, 1/2 carrot sliced thinly, 1 1/2 T. red miso, 1 tsp. of vegetable bouillon, and 8 oz. of soft tofu. I forgot to add dashi but swirled in an egg and garnished with green onions sliced thinly.  The result was almost like a stew. IT was thick with wonderful ingredients. I squeezed a line of shiracha mixed with hoisin and dipped the dumplings into that seasoning.

After lunch I went to bed but was prevented from napping by phone calls.

Suzette came home early and rested and then she worked in the garden.

Later I went out and dead headed dead roses and cut several new ones. I am particularly fond of the super fragrant deep red Mr. Lincoln and put one by my bed with two pink Don Juan roses.

Luke called and gave me the bad news that I was expecting that Cissie had died. She was dying of cancer, so I think she went out on a wave of morphine.

I loved Cissie and am saddened that she died.  I shall always remember as the clever gregarious person she was with me.

I weakened in the morning and it took a while for my body to generate energy, but by 5:00 I was moving without weakness.

Suzette and I had agreed to make hamburgers and eat them with salad for dinner,so when I returned at 1:15 I took a bag of ground beef out of the freezer when I fetched the the mini-dumplings.

At 2:30 when I finished lunch I checked the Market and was pleasantly surprised that Apple was up over $4.00 and Caterpillar was up over $6.00.

My portfolio had another good day up 1.37%.

By 6:00 the ground beef was almost thawed so I added minced shallot, and fresh thyme that Suzette gathered in the garden, and an egg and made three large hamburgers. 

Suzette grilled the hamburgers and a handful of asparagus that she then diced and added to the salad.  I went to the garage and fetched a wedge of Manchego and sliced several slices of it that Suzette melted onto the top of the hamburgers.  I sliced four portobello mushrooms and sautéed them with the rest of the minced shallot and some fresh thyme in olive oil and butter. I also fetched a bottle of 2021 Kirkland Chianti Classico Riserva and opened it and gathered a bowl of ice cubes to chill it and poured glasses of it while Suzette was adding the hamburgers, sautéed mushrooms, and asparagus to bowls of lettuce from our garden. We added catsup and mayonnaise to create a bit of seasoning for the steak and also use the steak, mushrooms, and asparagus as a medley of ingredients instead of salad dressing to mix with the lettuce.

After dinner we drank some cognac and ate some ice cream to ruin the effect of our great diet as we watched the Antiques Roadshow.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 and I stayed up to watch Denver eliminate LA Lakers in the NBA playoffs and Dallas beat Las Vegas to tie their best of seven series 2 to 2 games.

It was a really sad day because my ex-sister-in-law died.

Bon Appetit

April 28, 2024 Breakfast -Sausage and Eggs with Potatoes and Brussels sprouts Snack - Salami and cheese sandwiches. Dinner - Roast Duck with Sautéed Vegetables

April 28, 2024 Breakfast -Sausage and Eggs with Potatoes and Brussels sprouts Snack - Salami and cheese sandwiches. Dinner - Roast Duck with Sautéed Vegetables

This was a gardening and picture hanging day besides watching resent volunteers cracking soccer matches. The biggest was the London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham at Wembley Stadium that Arsenal won 3 to 2. The first match was Nottingham v Man City that Man City won 2 to 0. The two victories put Arsenal h first place  and Amanda city one point behind arsenal in second place.

Suzette made breakfast worked in the garden while I watched soccer and the news until 11:30, when I dressed and joined her. She had planted the plants we bought yesterday, including the four tomato plants. I helped her plant the newly acquired Yumi pine. I also picked a basket of lettuce and trimmed the climbing vine at the entrance to the garden.

The garden is looking a lot better.

At 2:30 I made three open faced sandwiches of salami, slices of onion, and Jarlsberg cheese on toasted baguette spread with Mayo and mustard.

I then napped until 5:30 when we hung five pictures in our bedroom.

Then at 7:00 I chopped a zucchini, 1 1/2 carrots, 1/4 onion, and about a dozen asparagus stalks and Suzette sautéed them.

Then she microwaved the roasted 1/2 duck and roasted potatoes.

I opened the Trader Joe’s Growers’ Reserve 2021 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that I liked ver much.

Later we ate the chocolate truffles and Italian cheese cake Joanna send me home with last Thursday.

 

Later I had a sip of cognac from the new bottles of Maison Serrene and several squares of Belgian milk chocolate.

Bon Appetit

April 27, 2024 Breakfast - Bagel and cream cheese with Gravad lax and onion Lunch - Hot Dog at Costco Dinner - Mediterranean Cod with Salad

April 27, 2024 Breakfast - Bagel and cream cheese with Gravad lax and onion Lunch - Hot Dog at Costco Dinner - Mediterranean Cod with Salad

I awakened at 5:30 and watched two more tied matches. The most significant was West Ham tying Liverpool that left Liverpool in third place three points behind Arsenal and not likely to win the PL this year depending on whether Arsenal wins tomorrow.

At 10:00 we ate toasted bagels spread with cream cheese and garnished with Gravad Lax, onion slices, and capers.

We then moved dirt into the garden,  loaded the empty bottles for recycling, dropped the bottles at recycling, and drove to Costco. Suzette bought a basket full of flowering plants and I took another basket and we shopped together. We bought toilet paper, paper towels, asparagus, blueberries, chocolate chips, multi-vitamins, pain au chocolate, and a couple of other items.

We then ate a hot dog and drove home and I rested and watched Aston Villa tie Chelsea to hold on to fourth place in the PL.

The big game will be tomorrow when Arsenal plays Tottenham to see if Tottenham can win and move toward fourth place.

At 3:00 we drove to total wine where we bought apple cider, Carlsberg beer, Negra Modelo, triple sec, and scotch.

We then drove home in the rain.

When we returned home we decided to re-create the Mediterranean Cod recipe we made earlier this week sine we still had the lime and olive oil marinade.  We decided to eat a salad with dinner from the fresh lettuce from our garden.  We did not have any cucumber so we added a diced Roma tomato a diced carrot and added olive oil to the PPI Riata to add cucumber and make a dressing.

The resulting salad was wonderful. We drank a 2021 Italian El Molina Soave.

We then watched the Washington Correspondents’  Dinner to roast President Biden during which there was much roasting of Donald Trump.

During the Dinner we drank cordial glasses of limoncello.

After the Dinner Suzette went to bed and I stayed up to watch Paris Murders.

Bon Appetit 

 

April 26, 2024 Brunch - PPI Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry Matzo Ball Egg Foo Young. Dinner - Roasted Duck, Potatoes, Asparagus and Onion

April 26, 2024 Brunch - PPI Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry Matzo Ball Egg Foo Young. Dinner - Roasted Duck, Potatoes, Asparagus and Onion

This was a busy but interesting day. I started by working on my transaction with Earn from 6:3 until 9:30. Then I reviewed a PSA for Sarah. At 11:00 I was becoming sore so I finally made brunch.  I added sliced matzo balls to the PPI Chicken and Vegetable stir fry from last night’s meal and when those ingredients were cooked, I added two eggs and stirred them in. After several minutes the egg stiffened and bound the ingredients into a cake like consistency. I let to ingredients cook, while I made tea and the cake browned.

I transferred pieces of the cake to a plate and ate a lovely and filling brunch.

After brunch I met with Rahim and revised a brokerage agreement until 2:00.

As soon as the market closed I checked my portfolio. It was a huge day in the market with the Dow up 153, the NASDAQ up 316’ and the S&P up 51 to 5100.  The market has recovered much its loss of last week in the last two days. My portfolio was up 2.8% thanks in part to Nvda rising $30 and Amazon rising $6.

 I napped from 2:30 until 3:30 and then took a walk around the block without the aid of a cane.

When I returned I watched the news until Suzette arrived at 5:30.

She had a very busy day with lots of gardening resulting in her accumulating 13,000 steps, an all time high for her.

We decided to have a lovely dinner but the roses were in bloom and I wanted to pick a few, including my favorite, Mr. Lincoln.

After I picked three roses and put them in vases and put the Mr. Lincoln, which is highly fragrant on Suzette’s side table, I filled a small Pyrex baking pan with 1/2 onion diced and about two dozen small potatoes sliced in half and Suzette took over the cooking of dinner in a most creative way.

She tossed the potatoes with olive oil and a bit of salt and roasted them in a 350 degree oven covered for about an hour, but after 30 minutes she removed the foil and put the two pre-cooked duck halves in the roasting pan and then in a few more minutes added a handful of olive oil tossed asparagus stalks.

I had anticipated this roasted duck dinner for several days and put a bottle of  Jean XXII 2021 Chateaunuef du Pape in the fridge to chill. When it is warm we like our red wine chilled.

We poured glasses of wine while the food was roasting and found it to be a very complex and wonderfully mellow wine. 

Then when the food was cooked Suzette filled up our plates with roasted potatoes and asparagus and I carved one duck 1/2 by removing the meat from the thigh and leg and slicing the breast and divided the meat between the two plates.

We loved the roasted duck and vegetables with the luscious wine. This was a great meal.

Later after we watched Phil eating in New York and Venice and Moderna, I served us a bowl of chocolate cherry ice cream garnished with several of Suzette’s homemade Maraschino cherries and opened the recently arrived Germain Robin Old Havana cognac which was part of the original inventory made by Germ that was sold to Gallo and came back to Germain after Gallo’s five year exclusivity period.

The Old Havana was incredibly light with a very floral bouquet and a rather distinctive vanilla after taste.

It was a magnificently wonderful dinner from start to finish and was very low in fat.

As I finish this blog on the morning of the 27th I am feeling wonderful.

Good food not only puts you in a good mood, it also puts your body in a good mood.

Bon Appetit

April 25, 2024 Breakfast - Toasted Raisin Bread spread with peanut butter and honey Lunch - Greenside Restaurant and Book Club Dinner - Chicken and Vegetables Stir Fry

April 25, 2024 Breakfast - Toasted Raisin Bread spread with peanut butter and honey Lunch - Greenside Restaurant and Book Club Dinner - Chicken and Vegetables Stir Fry

Another perfect day.  Suzette awakened me around 7:30 to help her load a cabinet into her SUV.

Then I toasted two slices of raisin bread and spread peanut butter and honey on them and drank a cup of hot chai and listened to the immunity arguments at the Supreme Court. 

The argument lasted almost 3 hours, so at 10:15 I started getting dressed.

Luckily the arguments ended at 10:45 and I was able to pick up Peter and drive him to the Greenside Restaurant in Cedar Crest where we met the members of out book club for lunch.  I wanted something with carbs and protein that was not greasy, so I ordered a  Sangre de Christo Sandwich that was a Monte Christo sandwich; layers of ham and cheese with a bit of green chili on white bread sandwich bread that was then dipped in egg and milk batter and fried like French Toast. It was a lovely sandwich and I ordered a salad as my side with Mango vinaigrette dressing to be good. Others were ordering Chicken Fried Steak, which is a specialty.  Here are a couple of dishes.

After lunch we drove to Karl and Joanna’s house in Pakko for our book club meeting. This month’s book was the mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel, who created the first efficient internal combustion engine. The diesel engine and disappeared mysteriously at the beginning of WWII.

After the meeting we were treated to Italian lemon cheese cake, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate truffles all made by Joanna.

We returned home at 4:30 and I feared checking the market because the Dow was down 375 points and Meta was down $60 when I left home in the morning, but I suffered only a mild loss because Nvda was up almost $30.00 and AppL was up almost $1.00.

I wrote a letter and then went to the kitchen to help Suzette with dinner and watch the wall to wall coverage of the two Trump cases.  Apparently David Pecker, long time friend of Donald Trump and editor of Inquirer Magazine admitted to printing untrue stories and to helping Trump to violate election laws.

I chopped garlic ginger, garlic, snapped green beans, seven stalks of asparagus, and sliced a zucchini.  Suzette brought in some garlic and Ramp leaves and I minced those and then diced 1/2 of a chicken breast.

Suzette boiled a bundle of Vietnamese rice vermicelli for 7 minutes to soften the noodles and added them to the stir fried chicken and vegetables and finally added a seasoning sauce.  The result was really delicious and we used up lots of ingredients.

I drank Chloe New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Suzette drank Noble Vines 667 California Pinot Noir.

We watched some TV and then Denver Nuggets beat the LA Lakers to take a 3 game lead in their NBA playoff series.

We made the bed and I blogged in bed as Suzette slept.

Bon Appetit