January 3, 2026 Breakfast - Steak and Eggs. Snack - Toasted Zucchini Bread with Lemon Curd Dinner - Crab Soufflé with Steamed Asparagus and Potatoes au Gratin
I woke up at 3:00 and read until 5:30 and watched the breaking news of the U.S.’ invasion of Venezuela and capture of its President Maduro. Then at 5:30 I watched Aston Villa v Forest until Villa scored a second goal on Nottingham Forest around 6:30, when I went back to bed until 8:30.
Around 9:30 Suzette sautéed leftover rib steak and eggs for breakfast.
Willy and I watched the Arsenal v. Bournemouth fixture at 10:30 to the end when Arsenal scored a 3rd goal to win 3 to 2. It was one of the few times I have heard Willy curse, because he has a prediction bet on Man City to win the PL this year and a tie would have put Man City two points closer to Arsenal atop the League standings.
After the fixture Suzette and I trimmed the fruit trees by the fence on the west side of the back yard.
When I came back in around 1:30 I toasted a piece of the Zucchini Chocolate bread given to Suzette by her trainer and spread the lemon curd we made on it for a snack. When Suzette joined me a few minutes later she ate the end slice of the bread with lemon curd. I then ate a slice of Suzette’s fruitcake.
I then lay down to read and nap until 2:30 when the Buccaneers v. the Panthers came on. It was played in pouring cold rain in Florida. The conditions were terrible with runners slipping and dropped passes. I turned the TV off and lay back down to read and nap until 5:00 when I received a call from Adam and Bill asking if they could bring by four more boxes of documents for me and Scott Boyd.
When Adam arrived at 5:30 we unloaded the boxes and then we had a glass of wine with Suzette in the living room and talked.
When Adam left around 6:30 we started dinner.
Dinner - Crab Soufflé with potatoes au gratin and asparagus
The last few years since Costco has stocked cleaned and cooked crab bodies with claws attached we have made our New Year’s Eve dinner a platter of crab with lettuce, tomato, and asparagus. We eat some of the crab and pick all of the crab and boil the shells to make a broth. We then use the leftover picked crab to make crab soufflé and the broth to make fish soup.
Tonight crab soufflé was on the menu. We had just begun the prep when Adam arrived. So when Adam left we went back to the kitchen to prep the soufflé. We generally follow Julia Child’s recipe for fish soufflé in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, substituting crab for the flounder. This year we were lucky to have Gruyere cheese in addition to Jarlsberg.
Suzette separated the yolks from the whites and put the whites into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid mixer and I whipped them until they stood firm.
Suzette made the béchamel sauce and added the eggs yolks while I grated Gruyere and then Suzette grated some Jarlsberg and added the cheese and 1 1/2 cups of crab into the sauce and folded in the stiffened egg whites.
I buttered and dusted a large soufflé dish with finely grated Gruyere and Suzette poured the mixture into the dish and set the settings on the steaming oven for soufflé and we baked the soufflé for approximately 30 minutes.
While the soufflé was baking, Suzette snapped eight stalks of asparagus and I filled a small bowl with leftover potatoes au gratin we had made to accompany the rib steak dinner on December 23 and I garnished the potatoes with thin slices of Gruyere.
We also opened the bottle of Laurent Gruet VaraxLG Brut champagne I had chilled in the freezer and poured glasses of it. It was excellent with lots of bubbles and that zippy brut flavor rather than the aged chardonnay flavor of the 2014 Gilbert Grand Reserve we drank on New Year’s Eve. They were different sparkling wines in subtle ways. Perhaps the distinction would be elegance v. vibrancy.
When the soufflé was nearly ready, we cooked the asparagus and then the potatoes in the microwave.
After dinner we sipped champagne and watched the San Francisco v. Seattle NFL game that Seattle won.
Then Suzette heated slices of leftover pear/quince tart and I whipped cream with vanilla and powdered Confectioner sugar and we sipped cognacs and ate tart for dessert. Also, I drank a cup of Kusmi Anastasia tea.
As the game ended we went to bed after deciding to add the leftover lobster meat to the lobster bisque we made last night for dinner tomorrow night.
This year we have been blessed with both crab and lobster at Costco that have produced or will produce five fabulous dinners for around $100 of seafood. What a wonderful way to welcome the New Year.
Bon Appetit
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