May 4, 2026 Breakfast - Bagel and Lax Lunch - Duck Salad Dinner - Leftover Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli and Rice and a salmon spread and avocado sandwich

May 4, 2026 Breakfast - Bagel and Lax Lunch - Duck Salad   Dinner - Leftover Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli and Rice and a salmon spread and avocado sandwich

I awakened at 6:30 and toasted two halves of a bagel and spread them with cream cheese and then garnished them with slices of red onion and Gravad lax and drank two cups of Earl Grey tea with them and then edited my reply again until 1:30, when I made a salad of romaine lettuce, a diced Belgium endive, a few grape tomatoes halved, two radishes sliced, Kalamata olives, a hard boiled egg diced, and the last few oz.s of roasted duck heated.  I melted slices of Brie cheese on two slices of toasted baguette and made my favorite Dijonnaise dressing with minced fresh tarragon and thyme from the garden and a clove of garlic plus lemon juice, red wine  and Spanish olive oil.

I also drank a glass of Spanish Mencia.diluted with ice cubes.

I ate half of the salad and then watched Everton beat Man City in a PL match and dozed until Suzette arrived at 3:30. Suzette ate some beans with a leftover lamb ribblet while I finished my salad. 

Suzette then lay down and I finished editing my reply and then drove to El Super and bought, milk, green beans, sweet potatoes, chicken thighs, and mango yogurt. Produce is increasing in price. Many items have already doubled and I suspect more increases in the near future.

Perhaps the future has arrived in the stock market. Today oil went up and the Dow dropped 557 points and my portfolio dropped another .8% in value.

When I returned home neither of us wanted to cook, so Suzette ate avocado toast for dinner and I heated some leftover Chinese Broccoli and rice and spread Swedish salmon spread on a piece of buttered toast and garnished it with slices of avocado.

We watched The Antiques Roadshow and then Suzette went to bed.

I stayed up until 11:00 watching the Ken Burns American Revolution series and then Rachel Maddow and ate the last chocolate chip cookie.

In bed I blogged this entry.

Bon Appetit

May 3, 2026 Breakfast - Cottage Fries, fried Eggs, and homemade sausage. Lunch - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice. Dinner - Duck, beans, and Chinese Broccoli

May 3, 2026 Breakfast  - Cottage Fries, fried Eggs, and homemade sausage.  Lunch - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice. Dinner - Duck, beans, and Chinese Broccoli

I had another night of bad rest, although my body seems to be healing and my nose dried out. To make up for the lack of sleep I rested several hours during the day today.

At 9:00 Suzette ground the rosemary, sage and garlic chives we dried overnight and mixed the spices and a 1/2 T. of Aleppo chili with the remaining 1/2 lb. of ground pork and made two patties. She then sliced a potato into thin slices and fried them.

Then she fried three eggs and i toasted and buttered two slices of bread and fetched the cherry preserves.

We put cherry preserves on the slightly Spicy and dry sausage to good effect and enjoyed breakfast.

I watched Tottenham win its match and kept itself out of relegation.

Then I chopped a carrot, 1/3 of an onion, and a stalk of celery that Suzette sautéed and added the beans she had soaked overnight and water and simmered for several jours until the beans were cooked.

Then I made rice with seaweed and garlic chives and at 2:00 we heated the leftover Mapo Dofu and served it with rice for lunch.

I then worked and then lay down until 4:00, when toured and sat in the garden.  

Dinner 

When we returned to the house I deboned the leftover duck from last night’s meal and cut the leftover braised Chinese Broccoli from last night’s meal at East Ocean into bite sized pieces.

Suzette sautéed the duck in a skillet and steamed the Chinese broccoli in the microwave and served spoonfuls of eac over a pile of the cooked beans as a deconstructed cassoulet.

I opened a bottle of 2017 Gruner Vetliner 

Then we watched two episodes of Finding France with Eva Longoria, Burgundy and Alsace.

At 8:00 between the episodes I ate a bowl of chocolate ice cream with a dash of cognac.

I watched an episode of Astrid at 10:00 and went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit

May 2, 2026 Breakfast - Egg and BLT Sandwiches with avocado Lunch - Sandwiches - for me. Vichyssoises and Bundt cake for Suzette. Dinner - Mapo Dofu with Rice

May 2, 2026 Breakfast - Egg and BLT Sandwiches with avocado Lunch - Sandwiches - for me. Vichyssoises and Bundt cake for Suzette. Dinner - Mapo Dofu with Rice

Breakfast was rather special.

I fried four slices of bacon with a slice of Vidalia onion and toasted four slices of baguette and sliced a tomato and an avocado and Suzette torn leaves of romaine. I spread Mayo on the toast and Suzette scrambled two eggs and made an egg pancake and we each made out own egg BLT sandwiches. Suzette with two pieces of toast on either side of the ingredients and mine were open faced.

They were delicious.

Then we drove to the Farmers’ Market and walked the perimeter. I bought a loaf of Country bread from my friend at Le Quiche. Suzette bought sugar snap peas, four tomato plants, and two shishito chili plants.

We then drove to Willy’s and helped him plant the two cherry tomato plants.

I stayed and watched Arsenal beat Fulham and ate a biscuit with honey and butter while Suzette took a load of bottles to recycling.

When she returned we drove home and I watched the rest of the match.

Then I rested and blogged yesterday’s entry and at 1:00 I made three sandwiches with slices of the fresh baked bread, one with Mayo and slices of tomato, one with peanut butter and honey, and one with butter and slices of Leyden cheese.

Then at 2:30 we drove to an open house on 13th Street to view a small house built in 1916 for sale that Willy was looking at buying.

When we returned home at 3:30 I started cooking Mapo Dofu for dinner.

I cubed an eggplant, an onion, an Anaheim green chili, and two garlics I picked in the garden plus a small piece of ginger root.  I sti fried these ingredients and added 2 tsp. of garlic chili paste and two T. of Afghanistan ginger garlic paste. I then added about 1/2 lb. each of ground pork and Jimmie Dean Sausage and then cubed a 14 oz. block of organic firm tofu and two or three cups of water to cover the ingredients and a few dashes of sesame oil and then left the ingredients to stew together.  I stewed these mixture for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until Willy came for dinner.

While the stew stewed I picked and stripped the leaves from several stalks of  rosemary and sage and added about 1 cup of thinly sliced garlic chives to a bowl to dry overnight. Our plan is to grind the dried leaves tomorrow to season the other 1/2 lb. of ground pork to make our own sodium free sausage patties for breakfast.

When Willy arrived around 6:30 Suzette fetched and microwaved the rice from East Ocean and we served ourselves bowls of Mapo Dofu and rice for dinner.

I did not add any salt, cornstarch, or soy, that were called for to a seasoning sauce in the recipe. I prefer to cook for a longer period of time to let the ingredients make their own sauce to avoid the added cornstarch flavor. I left off the salt and soy to avoid the extra sodium. The ginger and garlic marinade had no salt and the chili garlic sauce had very little. Mixing fresh ground pork with Jimmie Dean sausage reduced the effect of the salt from the sausage.

After dinner we walked through the garden and Suzette showed us where the mulch she covered one of the raised beds had sprouted wheat plants.  

As a result of all the ramblings today I accumulated over 4000 steps, 2000 at the Farmers’ Market and 2000 rambling around the house and garden.

After Willy left we watched Father Brown and Death in Paradise and I ate a chocolate hip cookie with a cup of tea.

It was a very good day.

Bon Appetit

May 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel Lunch - Vichyssoise and Pai au Chocolate. Snack - at Flea Market reception. Dinner - East Ocean

May 1, 2026 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel Lunch - Vichyssoise and Pai au Chocolate. Snack - at Flea Market reception. Dinner - East Ocean

I went to Tricore for a draw at 7:00.

When I came home I toasted a bagel and spread the two halves with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of vidalia onion and graves lax.

Then I worked at my desk until 11:00 when we ate bowls of Vichyssoise and I also ate a pain au chocolate as we walked out the door to drive to Santa Fe at 12:00 and connected my mobile phone to the Earn board meeting for an hour.

When we arrived in Santa Fe at 1:15 we drove to the Santa Fe Auction and picked  up the three pieces I bought at the last auction.  Here they are.

  

We also previewed the next auction scheduled for May 4 and 5 that includes several interesting pieces.

Ar 2:30 we drove to the Rodeo grounds where the Folk Art Museum’s Fiea Market was set to open at 3:30. We previewed the textiles and rugs and said hello to TR and Linda, who just returned from Mexico. TR was really upset because he said most of the country is in the control of cartels and there are roadblocks everywhere and he will not drive to Sayulita again. Then we looked at the rugs and TR declared them all “Junk”. I ate a tortilla wrap and some cookies and took a sugar pill to build my energy for shopping.

I was the fourth person through the door for the Collector’s Corner and Suzette went to the barn with craft items, but we bought nothing for ourselves because most items were junk.

I reserved several dresses for Suzette but they were all pricey and Suzette rejected them.

Finally we went past the four long tables of textiles, clothing,household goods, and related accessories and Suzette filled two bags full of belts, hand bags, a woven sleeping mat of wall hanging, a mola wall hanging, two large paper umbrellas, and about  two dozen other items to use or sell at the Center in Los Lunas, which seemed appropriate since Suzette’s $1000 donation on behalf of the Center as a Sponsor of the Flea Market got us access to the Sponsor Preview. 

By a bit after 4:00 we were loaded up and drove back to Albuquerque. We had had a full day and did not want to cook. We decided to stop at East Ocean for an early dinner.

When we arrived at EastvOcean at 5:30 we were practically the only persons. We were hungry and Suzette ordered an order of fried Calamari and hot soon as we sat down. Then we ordered 1/2 Roasted Duck and an order of Chinese Broccoli. 

The small platter came soon with a small ramekin of plum sauce and a bottle of hot mustard. The rings of breaded calimari were fried to perfection. They were very warm, just out of the fryer. The breading was crisp and the rings inside the breading tender and they were not at all greasy. We loved them as dipped them in the plum sauce and ate them.

Then a few minutes later a large platter filled with roasted duck was served in its black tea sauce and then the broccoli in a Mandarin thickened chicken broth and garlic sauce and then a couple of minutes later a large bowl of steamed rice.

We ate some but packed up most of the food.

We drove home, unloaded the Art, and by 9:00 we were in bed.

Bon Appetit

April 30, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Trail Rider Restaurant Dinner - Leftover Salmon, Rice, and Broccoli with Scallop in Lobster sauce

April 30, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Trail Rider Restaurant Dinner - Leftover Salmon, Rice, and Broccoli with Scallop in Lobster sauce

I slept badly but awakened finally at 7:45 and saw Cat was up $80.00. I immediately sold 5 shares of Caterpillar at $878.24 and then took a shower.

After I dressed I saw that CAT was up to $891.65, so sold 6 more shares.

I then ate a bowl of granola in our garden that is full of blooming plants.

I then worked at my desk until 10:45 when I walked down Charlie and Susan’s house. Martha was visiting so I talked to her for a minute.

We left for book club at 11:00 and picked up Peter and Charlie drove us to Trail Rider Restaurant in Cedar Crest that has taken over the large Greenside space.

We were joined by Karl, Pradip, Paul, and Jeff for lunch and then book club at Karl’s house. The menu was extensive with lots of sandwiches and pasta dishes. I settled on Spaghetti and meatballs and garlic bread. The spaghetti sauce had a noticeable black pepper flavor but was otherwise mild. The meatballs were firm ground beef and the star of the dish was the pile of fresh linguine. The melted mozzarella covering the dish was inedible, so I pushed it to the side.  Everyone enjoyed their meal.

The book was Fer de Lance by Rex Stout. After the meeting we all enjoyed the Margarita Bundt ca ke and Chocolate Fudge Bundt cake and chocolate chip cookies Joanna made using recipes from Susan’s The Best of Bundt Cookbook.

Charlie returned me home at 4:00 and I rested until 5:45 when I went the garden and picked chives and thinly sliced them but we decided to heat the leftover salmon, rice, and broccoli instead and sauce the dish with the leftover Scallops and Lobster sauce left from lunch yesterday at East Ocean. The lobster sauce was a perfect sauce for the salmon.

I drank the last glass of New Zealand Scott Family Sauvignon Blanc

We watched Midsomer Murders during which we drank limoncellos and I ate the last of the last bit of quince, fig, and apple cobbler.

After Midsomer Murders Suzette went to bed and I watched George Gently and then blogged this entry.

Bon Appetit