March 2, 2025 Early Breakfast snack - Latte Macchiato and Chocolate Croissant. Later Breakfast snack - Gravad Lax on bagel garnished with sliced red onion, Gravad lax, avocado, tomato, and capers. Lunch - Three Berry Salad Dinner - Salad Nicoise

March 2, 2025 Early Breakfast snack - Latte Macchiato and Chocolate Croissant. Later Breakfast snack - Gravad Lax on bagel garnished with sliced red onion, Gravad lax, avocado, tomato, and capers. Lunch - Three Berry Salad  Dinner - Salad Nicoise 

I was a little weak when I awakened around 6:30 and after we discussed the trip in bed, we got up at 7:30 and I ate a Chocolate croissant and my first latte macchiato of the year. 

Then at 10:00 Suzette washed and dried the two slabs of Gravad lax. I had cured this batch 36 hours, 18 hours per side using my standard 1 1/2 times the Swedish recipe, being 1 cup of salt, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp. of ground black pepper for three to 4 lb. of fresh salmon and a bunch of dill.  Here is the picture of the fully cured (Gravad) salmon (lax).

Suzette sliced and toasted a bagel in three slices. I spread them with cream cheese and Suzette sliced a tomato and an avocado and I sliced slices of Gravad lax and red onion 

and we layered them onto the bagel slices. I drank a cup of tea with mine and Suzette drank coffee with hers.

I watched the news and then showered and got dressed.

At 11:30 Peter came to pick me up and we picked up Charlie and drove to the Indian Cultural Center’s Harvest Restaurant. A wide range of dishes were ordered. The best one I thought was a Fry Bread Dip Sandwich made was a pile of sautéed chopped rib eye nestled in the middle of a fry bread  served with a a jus dipping sauce seasoned with red chili; a really creative dish with superb ingredients and execution. Others ordered bowls of red chili, blue corn enchiladas, and a sampler with small bowls of red and green chili, and a vegetable soup.  I already had eaten two snacks so was not very hungry, so I ordered a three berry salad, a bed of Gourmet greens garnished with strawberries diced and whole blackberries and blueberries with crumbled feta cheese and toasted pinon nuts with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

After lunch we drove to Charlie’s house for the book club meeting.

Their corkscrew broke so I fetched one from my house plus some Gravad lax for Paul and a bottle of Calstar 2020 Nelson Hill Pinot Noir that was wonderful.

The book was Lefthand of Darkness, an award winning sci fI novel.

After the meeting Charlie served us Sara Lee cheese cake.

I then went home with Nick and gave him a slice of Gravad lax.

It was 4:00 when I walked around the block to reach a total for the day of around 4200 steps.

When I returned home I worked on picking wineries and restaurants for the Argentinian trip until Suzette came home.

Suzette had not eaten anything since the lax and bagel in the morning lax, so she was hungry.

We decided I would make a Salad Nicoise with the leftover grilled teriyaki salmon. I followed Julia Child’s recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It is a composed salad comprising potato cubes, lettuce, tomato, a sliced hard boiled egg, black olives, blanched green beans, and white anchovies plus teriyaki grilled salmon and for me two thin slices of red onion. I made a French Dijonaise salad dressing with Dijon seeded mustard, red wine vinegar, a pressed clove of garlic, good Spanish olive oil, and dried tarragon plus the oil from the anchovies.

It was a delicious salad and quite filling. We drank the rest of the bottle of Pinot Gris we bought at Death Valley and I toasted several rounds of baguette.

After dinner we watched the Oscar presentations. The big winners were Anora, Brutalist, Wicked, and Dune 2.

We went to bed at 9:00 when the Oscars ended.

Bon Appetit