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

April 24, 2024 Breakfast - granola with milk, yogurt and diced Fuji apple Lunch - Fried Pot Stickers. Dinner - Antelope Stew with Tomato Couscous

April 24, 2024 Breakfast - granola with milk, yogurt and diced Fuji apple  Lunch - Fried Pot Stickers. Dinner - Antelope Stew with Tomato Couscous 

I had a busy day.  I started by eating a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt and diced Fuji apple. I then showered and got dressed.

Then around 9:00 I picked a basket of lettuce from the garden.

At 9:30 I drove to NM Ortho for my six week exam and it went well. Today I graduated myself from the use of a cane to support my walking.

After my Orthopedic exam I drove to Trader Joe’s and bought several pounds of chocolate before the price goes up, two bottles of Chevalier VS cognac and eleven bottles of wine, including a St. Emillion Grand Cru, a Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve California Pinot Noir, a couple of German Reichard dry Rieslings, two French Palantir Sauvignon Blancs, an Italian Soave, and another white for Summer.

At 11:45 I drove home.  I was hungry and decided to fry pot stickers.  I put 11 in a skillet with 2 T. of peanut oil and a dash of sesame oil. Unfortunately, several were frozen together and did normal cook evenly. The skins tore of several and they absorbed a lot of oil and it turned out to be rather a greasy mess. Of course I ate them with a dipping sauce of soy, chili oil, green onion, and the sauce from the package that has a lot of sugar. I drank green tea.

After lunch I watched and doze through two PL matches. I watched the first half of Crystal Palace v. Newcastle that Crystal Palace won and the second half of Everton v. Liverpool that Everton won, which might eliminate Liverpool’s chance to win this year’s PL title.

I sent out two demand letters and read a land purchase agreement and then at 5:15 drank a gin and tonic and at 5:30 I meditated until 6:00.

I watched some news and Suzette gave me a foot treatment and cut my hair.

Today Arizona indicted the 11 fake electors and seven others for various crimes associated with preparing, signing, and sending fake election certifications to Washington for the 2020 election. Trump was apparently an unnamed co-conspirator but Mark Meadows, John Eastham, Rudy Giuliani and several others were indicted along with the 11 who signed the fake certifications.

Finally at 7:00 we decided to heat up the PPI Antelope stew and tomato couscous. Née noticed that there was very little fat on the antelope.  We drank the California Noble Pinot Noir I bought at Costco on sale last week and we both liked it. We also ate the stew with lots of Suzette’s homemade mango chutney.

We watched the science programs on PBS after dinner.

They included one on trying to save coral reefs, then A Brief History of the Future and finally The Making of North America about life.

We went to bed at 10:00.