May 23, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel Snack - Avocado Toast. Snack - Costco Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae. Lunch - Pinto and Fava Beans Dinner - BBQ Country Pork Ribs with Peas and Cole Slaw

May 23, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel  Snack - Avocado Toast. Snack - Costco Chocolate Ice Cream Sundae. Lunch - Pinto and Fava Beans Dinner - BBQ Country Pork Ribs with Peas and Cole Slaw

I woke up at 7:00 and watched the last 1 1/2 hours of Stage 14 of the Giro.

There was a breakaway of 17 riders that almost a 4 minute lead on the peloton but Visma put in a chase that gobbled up all of the leading group by they got onto the final climb of the day, an over 7 km. mountain road at a 7+% gradient. At which point Vinegaard took off and put over 2 minutes between him and the leader in the Pink Jersey. That plan of coordinated attack put Vinegaard into the GP standings in the race. It was as compelling an example of bike racing strategy as I have ever seen. It also made me wonder how exciting the Tour de France will be this year when this Visma team comes up against UAE and Tadej.

At 8:00 I toasted two slices of bagel and spread cream cheese on them and garnished them with Gravad lax and red onion slices.

Suzette got up around 8:00 and exercised in the hot tub and then worked in te yard. At 9:30 she toasted slices of baguette and spread avocado on them and we snacked on avocado toast.

A bit after 10:00 we drove to the Farmers’ Market which was very crowded. We bought a 1/4 lb. of mushrooms, a lb. of fresh fava beans, and a loaf of country bread and then drove to Costco that was also crowded. We bought a package of country style pork ribs, a bag of Yukon Gold Potatoes, a fancy bottle of olive oil, pain au Chocolate, and six bottles of wine, a Cotes de Provence rose, a Kirkland Pinot Grigio, two bottles of Spanish Crianza and two bottles of Kirkland Bordeaux Superior red wine. All were less than $8.00 per bottle.

We then shared a chocolate sundae made with chocolate ice cream and chocolate syrup.

When we returned home around 1:00 Suzette shucked half of the fava beans and blanched them and added them to the black eyed peas she had previously cooked and added some chicken breast and heated that mixture for a delicious lunch.

Dinner - Suzette filled a Pyrex baking dish with about six or seven pork ribs and began baking then in a 300 degree oven. 

We then napped until 3:30.

When we got up from my nap at 3:30 I made a BBQ sauce in the Ninja blender by combining 1 cup each of brown sugar and catsup, about 1/3 cup of fresh pineapple and about 1/4 cup of the liquid from the tropical fruit salad, about 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar, 2 T. of yellow mustard, 1 T. of Worcestershire sauce, and 1 heaping T. of ground Aleppo chili. The resulting BBQ sauce was tangy but very pleasant. I was amazed by the appealing flavor of the BBQ sauce without either salt or black pepper, that the recipe called for. I felt like this sauce was a breakthrough in the low salt diet.

We spread the sauce on them and added ribs and baked them for another hour.

At around 5:00 we went to the garden and picked a basket full of three or four different types of peas. 

Suzette then made a German style of cole slaw by chopping Napa cabbage and grating carrot and dressing it with apple cider vinegar and sugar. I fetched a bottle of Kirkland Cotes de Provence rose.

We snapped the green peas and Suzette blanched a handful and enriched them with butter for our green vegetable for dinner.

We took the ribs out of the oven around 5:30 and brushed them again with the BBQ sauce and Suzette plated a rib,a slice of onion, some cole slaw and several green peas on plates for dinner while I opened and poured glasses of Cotes De Provence rose.

We ate a lovely Memorial Day weekend BBQ dinner.

Then we watched the second game of the Western finals of the Stanley Cup between Montreal and the Carolina Hurricanes.

At 8:00 we got in bed and Watched an episode of Father Brown but I fell asleep. At 9:00 we went to bed and I slept until 11:00 when I got up and blogged and watched a bit of SNL

I went back to bed at 1:00.

Bon Appetit

May 22, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Leftover Spring Roll Dinner - Cream of Mushroom Soup and Lobster Salad

May 22, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Leftover Spring Roll Dinner - Cream of Mushroom Soup and Lobster Salad

I woke up at 7:00 and went back to sleep until 8:00.

I ate a bowl of granola with milk and tropical fruit salad at my desk.

At noon I made a tall glass of iced Vietnamese coffee, a cup of coffee infused with a heaping T. of condensed milk and filled with ice cubes.

I took the iced coffee to the garden table and ate a spring roll from Coda Bakery and read several pages of The Lover by Duras.

At 2:00 I checked the market and my portfolio was up .18% even though Nvidia was down $4.18.thanks to Apple, Cat, and AMD.

I then napped until 3:30 when I walked around the middle circle that helped me accumulate 3700 steps for the day.

When I returned home at 4:30 I made a stock with the leftover steak, steak bones, and chicken and chicken circus

Dinner - When Suzette arrived at 5:00 we decided to make cream of mushroom soup as we had discussed yesterday.  Suzette found this recipe.

I chopped two shallots, a head of garlic, and a lb. of portobello mushtooms that Suzette then sautéed with some flour in mutter and olive oil and then added Marsala wine, cream, and some of the stock.

Suzette picked a handful of lemon thyme and parsley that I minced for a garnish.

Then Suzette picked lettuce in the garden and we made a lobster salad  with lettuce, cucumber, and radish slices. I butterflied the South African  lobster tail and Suzette sautéed it.

I made a light Dijonnaise dressing with Spanish sherry vinegar, a heaping tsp. of seeded Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and a tsp. of minced parsley and thyme.

I cut the tail in half and removed the two halves and we sliced them into segments and marinated them briefly in the dressing and then dressed the salad.

I fetched a bottle of Kirkland New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

We enjoyed the soup and then the salad with its chunks of warm lobster.

At 8,00 we watched Washington Week and then Firing Line.

Around 8:30 we watched Colbert’s final show.and James Coburn drive around Liverpool and singl

At 10:30 we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

May 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit salad. Lunch Mary and Tito’s with Monica and Aaron. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak, green peas, sautéed Mushrooms, and Baked Potato

May 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit salad. Lunch Mary and Tito’s with Monica and Aaron. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak, green peas, sautéed Mushrooms, and Baked Potato

Today I woke at 6:50 and watched the Market open, slightly down. Nvidia’s was under pressure and closed down $3.96. So my portfolio had a small loss of .2%.

I ate granola with milk and tropical fruit salad for breakfast. Then I worked at my desk until 10:30 when I walked around the block.

At 12:30 I drove to Mary and Tito’s and met Aaron and Monica for lunch.  They ordered Mexican turnovers that are stuffed sooapillas with beef and beans and guacamole.

I ordered the Thursday special of two beef tacos with double beans and red chili on the side. Today I was hungry and wrapped spoons Ful of beans and red chili in pieces of the flour tortilla served with the dish to make mini burritosl.

After lunch I drove to Smith’s where I bought milk, 8 1 1/2 thick T-bone steaks, 10 chicken thighs, a marked down South African lobster tail, a container of sour cream, and two bunches of lovely asparagus, the butcher was kind and cut me steaks 1 1/2  inch thick with large filet sides approaching porterhouse steaks in configuration.

After I returned home and unloaded it was 4:00. I tried to watch Ari in bed but fell asleep until 5:30.

Dinner - I went to the garden and picked sugar snap and snow peas that are prolific this year.

Suzette baked Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes.

She then seasoned one of the T-bone steaks with salt and ground Nepalese peppercorns and grilled the steak. We de-stemmed the peas and Suzette blanched them and then enriched them with butter.

I sliced five or six portobello mushrooms and the last three lobster mushrooms and 1/2 of a shallot and sautéed the ingredients in olive oil and butter.

                                          Sunset in the garden

I opened a bottle of Calstar 2024 Sangiacomo Pinot Noir.

Willy joined us around 7:45 under the gazebo in the garden. At 8:30 we came back in to watch Midsomer Murders and Willy left.

Suzette made parfaits of vanilla ice cream with Suzette’s homemade maraschino cherries.

Suzette went bed at 9:30 and I stayed up to watch George Gentlely until 11:15 when I blogged and went to bed.

Often I feel the best around 11:00 at night.

Bon Appetit

May 20, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit Salad. Lunch - Vietnam 2000 with Keith Dinner - Chicken with Red Cabbage and Peas from the garden

May 20, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit Salad. Lunch - Vietnam 2000 with Keith  Dinner - Chicken with Red Cabbage and Peas from the garden

Another simple day of food, but a huge day in the market.

Pi did not sleep well again, so I got up at 6:30 and took the trash receptacle to the curb and ate a bowl of granola with milk and fruit salad asI watched the market open very positively. After three losing days finally we had a winning day, probably because Nvidia was announcing its revenues after the close of the market.

Strangely, I went back to bed at 9:00 and slept until 10:30. I guess my body was telling me I needed to catch up on my sleep..

At 10:30 I showered, shaved and dressed and drove to meet Keith at Vietnam 2000 at 11:30. Keith was waiting for me when I arrived having walked from the senior center at Cooper and Monroe.

I ordered one of the specialties of the restaurant No 87, a layer of sautéed mung bean sprouts and cucumber sticks covered with boiled sheets of 2 inch wide rice noodles garnished with egg rolls and marinated and grilled slices of pork, without salt. This time the chef made the dish with a special noodle that did not contain any salt. It was less salty but the dish was served with a small bowl of sweetened fish sauce that I lightly dipped the ingredients into for added flavor. The sautéed vegetables make their own sauce and unique flavor and the pork and egg rolls have lots of flavor, so the dish does not lack for flavor and each bite can be enhanced by dipping in the sauce, which is very flavorful and only requires a tiny fit of sauce to flavor the entire bite of food.

Keith wanted spring rolls without meat, so he ordered an order with fried tofu. 

We enjoyed a pleasant lunch as he described the complex legal situation with one of his properties and retained me to represent him.

After lunch I drove him back to the senior center and returned home at around 1:45. 

I watched the market close and waited for Nvidia’s to announce its earnings at 2:45. Nvidia went up $2.86 during the day but then went went down after the earning announcement, which seems to be a common characteristic of Nvidia stock and does not bother me.

Typically the stock will start going back up as the President, Jensun Huang, is interviewed in the next few days and tells people how well the company is doing. In fact as I write this blog from 1:30 to 2:15 the stock has gone from -$1.33 to +$.53 in after hours trading, so it is on the move higher. As people realize that its investement in many of the leading high tech companies makes Nvidia a mini-conglomerate or investment vehicle in the most advanced companies in the high tech sector.

At 3:00 I lay down and napped until 4:00 when I completed the documents for the probate case I am working on. 

Dinner - At 5:30 Suzette was home, working in her office when I finished my probate documents.

We decided to roast the duck quarters we bought at Talin, to sauté the remaining half head of red cabbage with strips of carrot and a red sweet pepper and ground cumin in olive oil, and blanch the sugar snap peas and snow peas from our garden and then enrich in butter.

I opened a bottle of 2018 Rivallana Rioja Gran Reserva I recently bought at Costco for around $10.00 that took about an hour to open up and express its mellowness.

Suzette cooked the duck in the steaming oven to try to soften it but it was freezer burned and so tough as to be inedible, so we threw the duck away and Suzette quickly microwaved slices of chicken breast.

She also flavored the red cabbage with sugar and apple cider vinegar in the German manner.

Dinner was saved as we watched Denver play Las Vegas in the NHL Western finals and then a Nova special on the Paleologic evidence that whales evolved from land walking mammals as we sipped the last of the wine with squares of a Trader Joe’s Belgium milk chocolate bar.

We went to bed around 9:30 and I slept until 1:30 when I awakened to blog and drink a cup of chai to start my May 21st.

Bon Appetit