February 2, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen, Dinner - Warm Smoked Pork Chop and Potato Salad

February 2, 2026 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Padilla’s Mexican Kitchen,  Dinner - Warm Smoked Pork Chop and Potato Salad

I woke up around 6:00 after a bad night’s sleep and dressed and ate a bowl of granola with milk, mango yogurt, and tropical fruit salad. At 9:15 i lay down for a short 1 hour nap and felt better.

Then at 11:00 I picked up Janine and drove to Mary and Tito’s only to find out that it closes the first Monday of the month.

So I drove to Padilla’s Mexican kitchen on Girard near Indian School.

Almost as soon as we sat down Dee Silva, one of Mrs. Page’s best friends, came over and had a long talk with Janine.

I think Janine instantly liked Padilla’s.

Janine ordered a sopapilla stuffed with beans and meat smothered with green chili.

I ordered blue corn enchiladas with meat and double beans and red chili. Janine ate all of her dish but I took half home to leave room for Padilla’s wonderful sopapillas.

After lunch we drove to my house and were able to read the memory drive that Janine bought an adapter to use in a USB port, but found little additional information.

Janine mentioned that there were several properties in Barbara’s name that had a location at 110th St. and Central, so I looked up the location and found the parcels and printed their location from the Assessor’s map for Janine.

After I drove her back to her ABNB, I returned home and checked the market. It was a tough day in the market with wild swings up and down. For example, Nvidia went down $5.52, while Apple went up $10.53. These two stocks’ moves almost netted both to zero. So my portfolio has a small .3% gain.

At 3:00 I walked around the block to get some air. When I returned I read my new book club book, Stella Maris, and rested until 4:00 when I watched the news until 5:00.

Suzette came in and asked what I wanted for dinner and I said, “Salad”.

So Suzette chopped and sautéed a smoked pork chop and one of the baked potatoes and hard boiled an egg and made a lovely salad. I diced a tomato and 1/2 of a cucumber and Suzette added slices of red onion and pickled beet chunks and torn green leaf lettuce to the salad. I really enjoyed the warm salad. I drank water and Suzette drank Pinot Grigio.

After dinner we lay down until 7:00 when the Antiques Roadshow came on. 

Bon Appetit

January 31, 2026 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - Chicken Sandwich. Dinner - Potage

 January 31, 2026 Breakfast - Shrimp Omelet. Lunch - Chicken Sandwich. Dinner - Potage

The food got progressively simpler as the day went on.

I slept until 8:45 and then watched three or four PL soccer matches, Arsenal hammered Leeds 4 to 0, then I watched some of west Ham v. Chelsea that came back from a 2 goal deficit to win 3 to 2 that resulted in a scuffle at the end as the loss places West Ham facing relegation, then the end of the Brighton v. Everton which Everton tied 1 to 1 in the last few seconds of added time, and finally a wild but convincing win by Liverpool over Newcastle 4 to 1. In the midst of all this around 9:00 Suzette made a lovely omelet with leftover shrimp and the leftover mushrooms, leeks, and spinach from last night’s dinner.

This was the best and most elaborate meal of the day.

After that Suzette went shopping for three hours to find a dresser for a new tenant.

At 12:30 I walked a mile in the neighborhood and then rested until Suzette arrived, when Suzette sliced a chicken breast, a tomato, and an avocado and fetched the gourmet salad greens and Mayo and toasted two halves of a baguette each. We each spread Mayo and then I lay a slice of tomato, then chicken breast, then a pile of lettuce, and finally slices of avocado.

We drank a Dos Equis and we ate potato chips with the sandwiches.

Dinner - 

Then I lay sliced six cups of leek and 8 cups of russet potatoes and cooked them in a large casserole With 2 T. of Knorr chicken stock. 

Then I went to bed and napped until 4:15 when I walked around the block which helped me get to over 5000/steps today.

We ate bowls of soup for dinner with glasses of the bottle of Côtes du Rhone with the small bird on the wine label.

Hill Maher and Have I Got News for You completed the evening’s entertainment.

Bon Appetit

February 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Lamb Kebab Pita Sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots.

February 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel. Lunch - Lamb Kebab Pita Sandwich. Dinner - Grilled Lamb Chops and Asparagus with Roasted Potatoes and Carrots.

Today was very interesting. I dug into dematerialization deeper and watched several exciting soccer matches. In the first match Brentford beat No. 3 Aston Villa 1 to 0 at Aston Villa, which has not occurred in the last 90 years. Then I watched No. 2 Man City’s 2 goal lead at halftime evaporate as Tottenham came back to tie the match at 2 to 2.

I toasted a Wonder bread bagel that tasted surprisingly tasty and smeared cream cheese and added slices of thinly cut red onion, thicker cut Gravad lax, and capers.

Around 10:30 Janine, Mrs. Page’s granddaughter, arrived and we went to the garage and found the file she wanted after looking at many boxes of files that were not helpful.

After Janine left around 1:30 I cut the lamb kabob in half and made  two pita pocket sandwiches with creamy feta and gourmet lettuce plus two Polish pickles and about a dozen Kalamata olives.

Then I helped Suzette load a dresser into her Highlander and then worked at my desk until 3:30 when I rode my bike around the neighborhood that accumulated 3700 steps. I reached 4790 by the End of the day.

Dinner - At 5:00 we started cooking dinner. The menu was Roasted potatoes and carrots dusted with chopped mint and Grilled Asparagus and lamb chops dusted with ground fresh rosemary.

Suzette chopped and roasted the root vegetables. I went to the garden and picked a handful of mint and two sprigs of rosemary. I minced the mint and pulled the pedals from the rosemary stalk and snapped a dozen asparagus. This time Suzette added the mint with the olive oil and salt before roasting, which produces a soft almost sauce like result as the mint clung to the vegetables.

Suzette took it from there, grilling the lamb and asparagus.

I opened the bottle of 2024 Justice Pinot Noir I recently bought at Costco. It was a pleasant Pinot without much bitterness on the finish.

I opened a new bottle of homemade mint jelly that I like with lamb.

We had a delicious meal and then watched Miss Fisher, Miss Scarlet, the Grammy’s and Bookish.

I ate some brie with sips of Pinot after dinner and later I took a sip of Calvados with two chocolates and Suzette sipped a cognac.

Finally I drank a cup of tea with a chocolate chocolate chip cookie.

We went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit 

January 30, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Cheese and Coffee Dinner - Grilled Steak with Baked Potato and sautéed Mushrooms and leek

January 30, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Cheese and Coffee  Dinner - Grilled Steak with Baked Potato and sautéed Mushrooms and leek

I have been sleeping better in the last few days.

I woke up at 7:45 and dressed and was ready at 8:20 when the bricks arrived to instruct the Craig to place them on the right side of the garage.

Today I ate granola with a new Lala mango yogurt, with milk, and tropical fruit salad. What a nice change for better flavor.

I then got busy in my office and organized and filed my LRGA exhibits and pleadings to clear my desk and figure out what I had and organize it.

The great wave of response is coming and I want to be ready.

Then when Suzette returned from her exercise session around 11:30 we drove to the bank and each withdrew one half of the cost of the brick installation.

Suzette had seen an interesting menu for Seared and wanted to try Cheese and Coffee for lunch. Seared is the only restaurant I know that is run by one crew for lunch and a different crew for dinner in the same location. That location is in the neighborhood at Alhambra and San Pasquale, so an easy drive from the bank.

We were the only customers eating lunch and we were directed to a corner table by the waitress. The Menu was mostly sandwiches and salads. There was only green chili chicken soup. I ordered the sandwich featured on the chalkboard,yhe Knock Out with sweet potato fries.  Suzette had a more difficult time ordering and finally decided on a chicken salad salad to see how they make it in comparison to the Bistro version which she eats most days.

The reason why Suzette wanted to go to lunch at Cheese and Coffee was to examine its dinner menu, because her Sysco rep had shown her a four item limited entree menu that was a partially table d’hote menu that she was thinking of implementing at the Bistro.

What we did not expect was the complete incompetence of the waitress. Suzette had to ask two times for her to bring the dinner menu and when she served our food we had to ask her to bring us a knife and fork and napkin. I found it laughable, but Suzette is no as amused by incompetence as I am.

When Seared’s dinner menu was delivered we finally figured out that the four item entree menu was weekly special served in addition to a complete menu with most of the lunch sandwiches and salads, plus French Onion Soup and a full complement of entrees with all the meat groups, such as duck breast and ribeye steak.

So we realized that there was no creativity in the menu and there may even be a question of competency in the service. I did enjoy my warm sandwich stuffed with sliced Turkey, salami, black olives, lettuce and tomato between slices of grilled sourdough sandwich bread with a pile of breaded and deep fried waffle cut sweet potatoes ($17.00).

 We traded dishes and I liked Suzette’s chicken salad in a large bowl of greens and diced tomatoes, but reacted to the heavily peppered lemon vinaigrette dressing ($15.00).

Suzette felt sorry for the mostly disoriented waitress and left a $5.00 tip, since it appeared that we were the only one’s showing up that lunchtime.

When we returned home we thawed one of the T bones I had bought recently.

Then at 5:00 Suzette baked five of the russet potatoes I recently purchased.

Dinner - At 6:00 I sliced 1 1/2 leeks and four or five portobello mushrooms and Suzette thawed the steak fully in the microwave.

Then I plucked the stems from a basket of baby spinach.

Suzette chose a bottle of Red Tail Ridge Cabernet Franc for dinner. We opened it and tried it and it was delicious, smooth with the delicate flavor of Cabernet franc.

Then Suzette started sautéing the leeks and mushrooms in butter and olive oil. I took over and she seasoned the steak with salt and pepper and fetched dried lemon thyme from our garden. I added about 1/2 T. of thyme and 1 T. of sherry to the mushrooms and leeks and then after they cooked a bit added the baby spinach.

Suzette grilled the steak for about ten Minutes on each side. Then when she brought it in I sliced the fillet and sirloin strip from the bone and sliced them into slices while Suzette finished the vegetable sauté by adding some cream.

I usually like creamed spinach but tonight’s recipe with the addition of sherry and thyme clashed with the cream in my opinion.

But then Suzette put the Bobby Flay Mint parsley chili sauce on the table to dip steak into and opened a potato with a broad x for each of us and added butter and sour cream.

I sliced a green onion into thin ringlets and added some to each potato.

A refill of wine and we then enjoyed the best steak dinner available in Albuquerque today.

After dinner we watched a Hallmark Valentines movie on Netflix and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit