December 20, 2025 breakfast - Egg croissant sandwich. lunch - Cafe Fina, at Eldorado. Dinner - Grilled Oysters and Enchiladas

December 20, 2025 breakfast - Egg croissant sandwich. lunch - Cafe Fina, at Eldorado.  Dinner - Grilled Oysters and Enchiladas 

We got up around 7:30 and ordered an egg sandwich with a sausage patty and hash browns at the food truck at El Rey.  We ate at the long table in the green hose surrounded by its collection of cacti and succulents.

I talked to a friendly couple from the Carolinas after Suzette went to get a second cup of coffee for a couple of minutes.

Then at 8:30 we drove to the Stephen’s Consignment sale at 1910 Agua Fria. An amazing amount of stuff.

Here is a photo of one room out of ten or twelve.

I bought two hats (a fina Panama and the other, a shapely hat that fit me made of palm) and a vase. Suzette bought curtains, a Kendall Jackson wine display rack to put on her side of the bed, a pile of carved wooden coasters, a roll of vintage fabric and a few other items.

We then drove to Amy’s house and she drove us to Cafe Fina at the intersection of Old Las Vegas Highway and US 285 The menu was extensive. I was torn between ordering ricotta pancakes with fresh berries and a Reuben Sandwich. I finally ordered a Reuben sandwich with a salad that was over vinegary and ate less than half of it because Suzette wanted to share. Suzette ordered a chicken salad and only ate half of it also. She said she was considering asking for olive oil to balance the acidity of the dressing. Amy ordered huevos motulenos

over easy organic eggs on a corn tortilla with black beans, nm feta cheese, peas, sautéed bananas and red or green Chile and seemed to like them. Amy is one of those persons who loves huevos rancheros.

We then returned to Amy’s and found that Luke had arrived.

Soon he and Suzette were deep in discussion about his house remodel that looks like it will begin in January.

We gave Amy the enon (decorative door curtain) we bought her and Vahl in Kyoto and installed it where the old one had been. She loved it. We were pleased.

Amy and I reminisced for about an hour and she showed us a book that Margaret Johnson wrote about her sister Ellen’s obsession with fashion, titled Ellen’s Closet. Ellen who died several years ago and had lived in New Orleans, was a fashionista of the highest order and some of the pictures of her outfits were fantastic. There were two or three pages just showing labels from some of the clothes.

Around 2:00 we drove back to Albuquerque to Smith’s grocery to buy salmon to make Gravad lax. The store was having its semi-annual sale on rib steak so we picked up three roasts that probably weighed a total of 10 pounds. The card saver price was $8.99 but the digital coupon price was $6.99, so I was stunned and happy. We bought large end roasts that had more fat and flavor. We bought two matching filets of salmon about 13 inches long, plus eggs, milk, and red seedless grapes.

There was a sale on fresh oysters at $1.03 each, so we bought a dozen. 

I was exceedingly happy as we drove home.

When we arrived at home Suzette fired up the grill and roasted the oysters and I fetched a chilled bottle of Gruet Brut and a bottle of limoncello from the garage fridge. 

When the oysters were roasted and started to open we poured glasses of champagne and added limoncello to try to replicate the limoncello kir cocktail Suzette had at Belon in Tokyo, but we must have added too much limoncello because it overpowered the flavor and bubbly structure of the champagne. Also the oysters that lacked a deep well and lots of liquid dried out, so we realized that grilling only worked well with large deep welled oysters.

After the oysters and champagne we were a bit drunk and tired and did not wish to cook, so we ate some enchiladas with slices of avocado and went to bed at 8:00, leaving until Sunday the making of more lemon curd, the Gravad lax, and the pouring custard for my chocolate flourless torte.

I did check my portfolio before going to bed and was pleased that it had a monster day on Friday, going up 1.84%. The futures were also were up for Monday, indicating that perhaps the Santa Claus rally had arrived after all.

I woke up at midnight to finish this blog and drink a cup of tea with a slice of ginger to ease the tightness in my throat that probably comes from mouth breathing in my sleep.

Bon Appetit

December 19, 2025 Breakfast - Bagel with cream cheese, red onion and melted Jarlsberg Snack - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - Enchiladas Dinner - Pho Ava

December 19, 2025 Breakfast - Bagel with cream cheese, red onion and melted Jarlsberg  Snack - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - Enchiladas  Dinner - Pho Ava 

Today was the first day I experienced joy since I got sick on November 23. It was on a star gazing train ride and lecture from the Railyard on the Sky Train with music, drinks, a brownie, an excellent astronomy discussion and guided tour of the night sky. I loved the train ride and the club car looked exactly like the Super Chief one we used to take to Chicago in the 50’s.

But let’s go back to the food that supported my body.

I felt sluggish in the morning even after eating two halves of a toasted bagel spread with cream cheese and garnished with slices of red onion and Jarlsberg cheese that I melted in the microwave. The microwave heat melted the cheese and cooked the red onion and softened the cream cheese into a tasty pastry-like consistency.

At 10:00 i decided to make my chocolate baked pudding dessert.

Here is the recipe.

I melted 1/2 cup of Kirkland semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2 T. of hot chocolate mix and 1/2 lb. of butter. I then added 1/2 cup of sugar to the chocolate  

I then mixed 1 T. of flour into six or seven egg yolks and whipped 11 egg whites in the large mixer until they stood but were less than stiff.

I then mixed the egg and flour mixture into the chocolate and egg mixture and then folded the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and poured the mixture into a metal bowl that I had buttered and dusted with granulated sugar that I had collared with parchment paper.

I then put the bowl of chocolate into a bain marie and baked it for 50  minutes at 350 degrees.

Here is how it looked at the end of the bake.

Willy arrived shortly after noon and Suzette, a little later, and we all heated enchiladas and ate them with sour cream and guacamole.

It was after 1:00 and the market was still going up, which is unusual on a Friday afternoon. High tech stocks were all up and it looked like a monster day.  I will get a final assessment when I return home on Saturday, because we spent the rest of the day and tonight in Santa Fe. 

At 2:00 we drove to Santa Fe. Our first stop was Stephen’s Consignment where we saw nothing we wanted to buy.

It was after 3:30 when we drove to El Rey, one of the original motor lodge hotels, and checked in.

We checked in and went to our room and rested until 5:30 when we went to Pho Ava for dinner.

My impression of Pho Ava was that a Vietnamese family has moved in and made their family recipes largely the menu. Suzette ordered grilled spring rolls, which I have never seen on a menu and I saw that the restaurant offered a steamed bun, so I ordered that plus a bowl of pho with rare beef and meatballs. 

Suzette’s spring roll was very different than most. It had lots of sautéed peanuts and grilled pork and rice noodles rolled in a rice wrapper and grilled that was served with fish sauce instead of the usual peanut sauce.

My steamed bun had a heavier irregular steamed bun bread coating wrapped around a meatball that combined a hard boiled egg. I was expecting BBQ’d pork, but this was a very different and rougher bun and more of a meatloaf filling.

Then when I received my pho, it had lovely slices of beef and wedges of meatball that seemed to be the rough texture of the meatball that was in the steamed bun. It was like the restaurant had its own recipe for meatballs that it cooked for all the dishes that included meatballs. Interesting, and different. Also when we tasted the broth it had a decidedly five spice flavor of cinnamon and anise, so not your usual pho either.

I was intrigued by the approach to Vietnamese Cuisine at Pho Ava enough to want to go back and try other items.

Then at 6:30 we drove to the Railyard for the Star Gazer train ride on the Sky train owned by R. R. Martin and the Bronowskis. We waited in the lobby of the restaurant/theater until 7:35 when we boarded the train. The train had three original railroad cars, a coach that we sat in in which a bar had been installed in the middle, a flat car to which railings had been attached, and an original club car where there was a jazz band playing. One could take the jazz concert trip or the star gazing trip. We elected to take the star gazing trip but walked to the jazz venue and I was blown away when I saw that it was one of the original club cars with bar and plush seats, exactly like my memories of the club cars with bar on the Santa Fe Super Chief railroad we rode to Chicago from Fort Worth in the 1950’s, because it probably was.

The lecturer on the night sky was not only knowledgeable about the stars, constellations, and planets, but also the history of astronomy and during the ride out to the dark sky location where we viewed the sky, he lectured about the history of how brightness was analyzed to work out distance of stars and how Hubble discovered the Andromeda galaxy using the work of a lady at the Harvard Astronomy department that discovered how to compute distance by determine the absolute brightness of a star.

There was also a musician who played guitar and harmonica who sung old favorites and requested between astronomy lecture segments.

Suzette drank a Manhattan and I drank a Tractor Brewing apple cider and ate a brownie.

It was a thoroughly delightful evening that for the first time I felt fully engaged in and could enjoy because I had had enough rest and sufficiently pleasant food. Suzette loved the evening also and was happy that she had planed an evening that we could enjoy.

I went to the bathroom in the club car and had a rush of deja vu thoughts of riding the Super Chief, also.

Our train was even side railed on the way back to allow the main train to pass us, so it was a real railroad experience.

When we returned to the station at 10:30 we drove back to El Rey and went to bed in the big king sized bed.

As Suzette described it, “It was a lovely mini-vacation.”

And it was.

Bon Appetit 

December 18, 2025 Breakfast - Two fried eggs, a slice of toast and a slice of pork tenderloin Lunch - an SPLASH wrap at Slate Street Museum restaurant. Snack - Enchiladas. Dinner - Leftover Grilled Lamb, roasted vegetables, corn on the cob, couscous, and tzatziki

December 18, 2025 Breakfast - Two fried eggs, a slice of toast and a slice of pork tenderloin   Lunch - an SPLASH wrap at Slate Street Museum restaurant. Snack - Enchiladas. Dinner - Leftover Grilled Lamb, roasted vegetables, corn on the cob, couscous, and tzatziki

I slept in our new bed last night for the first time and i5 is wonderful.

I awakened at 6:45 and dressed and met with Luke and Suzette at 7:00 to go over the plans for his house remodel. After Suzette left for work at 8:00 I cooked two eggs each over easy for our breakfast and toasted a slice of sourdough rye and heated the leftover pork tapa and ate a slice of pork with my eggs and toast. Willy made scrambled eggs and joined us for breakfast. Luke then prepared for a session at 9:00 and Willy made breakfast.

We worked until 10:45 when we all three walked around the block. This was the first real exercise I have had since the trip to Japan and it allowed me to walk 5000 steps today.

When we returned I drove to the Albuquerque Art Museum to meet our book club group. We ate lunch in the Slate Street cafe in the museum. I had a SPLASH wrap, salad, a slice of bacon, guacamole, wrapped in a tortilla and toasted in a sandwich press. I was mostly salad, so not very filling.

We then visited the big Germany Art from 1910 to 1945 exhibition. I liked it for the third time. 

At 2:00 I drove home.

Willy was having a snack of enchiladas so I had a snack of enchiladas also and checked my portfolio and it had recovered about half of what it lost yesterday, so the market was starting to go in the right direction.

I have a new theory. The smart money fellas know that unemployment and inflation are rising and they are easing out of the market, so the market is going to drift downward until Trump realizes that he cannot support the economy or his approval rating with his lies or sales pitch (in his mind). His speech to the National Wednesday evening was a desperate attempt to stop the erosion of confidence in him that would fool very few intelligent people. 

If his approval rating continues to slide, is when we will see if economic policy will kick in. I am hoping that that is shortly after New Years, so my portfolio will have a lower value due to the downward drift we are currently in.  My portfolio’s value has drifted down approximately 6.4% from its high a couple of months ago.

Talking about intelligent people, I went to a seminar on Tuesday sponsored by the federal bar dealing with AI issues. The speaker was a professor at UNM law school who deals with technology and the law. One of the statistics she gave was: 30% of Americans have a college degree, 1% of Americans are doctors and 1/2% are lawyers. The statistic was given in the context that lawyers have a special duty to maintain their mandated ethical standards, but the subtext was that lawyers have the special duty to guard the rule of law that is part of the bedrock of our democracy. That makes me think lots of folks around Trump are going to jail when the country reverts to Democratic control. There are already signs that the shift back to proper functioning of government is occurring. This week four Republicans voted for the discharge petition to have a vote whether to extend the ACA credits for health insurance and the vote by the Republican majority Indiana legislature to not redistrict to increase Republican congressional districts were strong signs of the return to a more normal functioning government.

As unemployment and prices rise I hope more folks will see reality and stop accepting Trump’s lies as truth.

Perhaps I should feel happy that my little family unit has the capacity for critical thinking that sees through Trump’s attempt to create a dictatorship and more importantly can make the right financial moves.

I was sleepy by 3:00 and took a nap until 4:00 and watched Ari and then at 5:00 drove to the Main library and picked up the January book club. Suzette was making a snack of slices of chicken breast garnished with basil Mayo.

Dinner - When I returned home we drank a glass of red wine and watched the interview with Michelle Obama about her new book, The Look.. Then around 7:30 we boiled three ears of corn and then heated plates of leftover grilled lamb chops, roasted vegetables, and couscous and fetched the tzatziki and mint jelly from the fridge. I poured out the last of the wonderful Red Tail Winery red and then half way through the meal opened a bottle of California Embroidery Pinot Noir that tasted flat compared to the New York red. How our taste changes as our palate becomes educated to better quality.

After dinner and during the interview I squeezed the juice out of 14 lemons and Suzette found her recipe for lemon curd and fetched the butter, eggs, and sugar. 

                                   The last two of 14 lemons for to juice by hand

After the Obama interview we made a batch of lemon curd. We had never made lemon curd and it was amazing to me that it was a variation of a simple Hollandaise Sauce, heating sugar, eggs, and lemon juice to 170 degrees until they thicken and then add butter. So it is actually a sweetened Hollandaise Sauce. Viola.

Suzette went to bed at 9:30 and Willy and I watched a very exciting game between Seattle and the L.A. Rams for the Western NFL Conference lead. Both teams were 11 and 3 and both were playing at a high level. A fluke two point conversion late in the 4th Quarter tied the score at 30 to 30 and sent the game into overtime. Then LA. Scored to make it 37 to 30 but in overtime rules both teams have a chance to score and Seattle scored to bring the score to 36 to 37. Overtime rules dictated that if the score was tied after the first two possessions, the next score would win. So Seattle ather than kick the extra point and give the ball back to LA. elected to go for a two point conversion, which was successful and Seattle won the game 38 to 37. A great game.

I tried to blog but fell asleep at 10:30 after a day of satisfying leftovers and an exciting new recipe, lemon curd.

We have lots of lemon juice because we peeled 13 lemons for the limoncello, so now we are converting the lemon juice from those lemons into lemon curd that we can give as Christmas gifts.

Suzette and my food trip just keeps going.

Bon Appetit