June 25, 2026 Breakfast - Man on a Raft and Smoked Pork Chop. Lunch - Book Club Snack

June 25, 2026 Breakfast - Man on a Raft and Smoked Pork Chop. Lunch -  Book Club    Snack 

I woke up at 4:00 and went back to bed at 5:30 and slept until 6:30 when I spread goat cheese on toasted thin rounds of baguette. Then I sliced Gravad Lax and placed a piece on each baguette. Then I garnished each canapé with either thin slices of red onion or thinly sliced chives and put several capers on each.

The result was quite satisfying. A newly created appetizer I really liked.

Then we put out wine glasses and plates and plastic silverware for the book club party. 

At 8:30 I made three men on a raft, which is a slice of whole wheat bread toasted in butter in a skillet and then turn over and an egg placed on the toasted side while the other side is toasted in butter. Then it is flipped again to cook the egg to over easy, if the bread is large enough I tear a round hole in the middle so the yolk can be held in place. Today the yolks slid off the toast and burst because there was no hole.

I also sautéed a smoked Pork chop with the eggs and Suzette and I shared the chop.

Regardless of the good breakfast I started losing energy around 10:00, after we set up tables on the patio for drinks and fetched beers, apple cider, and four bottles of  wine and set up a table and chairs next to the raised bed and pulled couches in the living room back as far as I could. so chairs could be placed in front of them.

At 11:00 Keith came and I opened a 2019 De Ponte Estate Pinot Noir. It was a very pleasant wine, very smooth, yet with good tannins. Keith brought a bottle of 2023 Smith Kelly from Oregon.  I put a bottle of Toure French white from Cotes du Cascogne, A Faustino … Ulcea Albariño from Spain, a bottle of Trader Joe’s Bandol, and a bottle of Kirkland Pinot Grigio on ice outside with several Dos Equis, Negra Modelo, Angry Orchard Apple Ciders, and Carlsberg Greens.

Then at 11:15 Jeff arrived with Rebecca and they set up chairs in a semi circle around the coffee table.

As Keith and I sipped Pinot members and their wives began to arrive.

Susan and Charlie brought a cheese cake. Karl and Joanne brought Magic bars with crushed pistachios.Paul and wife brought Penne Pasta Salad. Pradip and wife brought Cantaloupe melon balls and prosciutto on skewers,

There was also a lovely chicken salad. Peter brought amazing crisp pecan cookies and Keith brought a bottle of good Oregon Pinot Noir.

I served the Gravad Lax canapés before Rebecca’s performance and put out the clafoutis on the dessert table.

At noon we all took seats in the living room and Rebecca performed her one woman performance which was a stream of consciousness monologue combined with playing the role of several characters. It was quite impressive.

When it ended we served ourselves food and a drink and went outside to eat at one of the tables under the trees or gazebo..

Suzette went to an appointment at Social Security and then joined us.

We conversed and ate until 3:00 when everyone except Keith left. He and I watched Japan v. Sweden and sipped the Smith Kelly Pinot he brought until After a strong thunder storm subsided around 4:30.

Then Suzette and I got into our pajamas and lay in bed to rest after all the activity. I dozed from 5:00 until 6:00 and then watched the second half of the Japan v. Sweden World Cup matche and then at 8:00 the US v. Turkey and some of Australia v. Paraguay.

We were stuffed and did not eat dinner, but I drank a cup of tea and ate a magic bar and a pecan cookie and an apricot later in the evening.

We went to sleep after Turkey scored a late goal in the last minute of extra time to beat the U.S. 3 to 2. 

It was a lovely party and everyone enjoyed the food and conversation. I suspect there will be more book club social events in the future. Jeff was wonderful in organizing Rebecca’s performance in the Living room. It was a vert pleasant event with great potluck dishes.

Bon Appetit 

June 24, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Calabacitas. Dinner - Leftover Beef Short Ribs and Roasted Vegetables

 June 24, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Calabacitas. Dinner - Leftover Beef Short Ribs and Roasted Vegetables 

I woke up at 4:00 and pitted the cherries and added cognac and Grand Marnier to marinate them.

The I went back to sleep at 5:45 and slept until 7:30.  Suzette made me a latte with my daily dose of collagen.

I worked at my desk until 9:30 when I ate a Pain au Chocolate and then I pitted and quartered about a cup of apricots and added them to the cherries to marinate. At 10:30 I Walked to the bank which weakened me even though I took a sugar pill, so I rested until noon when I heated the leftover Calabacitas but I had to defer eating because Jeff and Rebecca came at 12:15 to make a decision on the location for tomorrow’s play. They were interested in seeing my art collection so I showed it to them which took about an hour.

Finally around 1:30 I ate two bowls of Calabacitas with two toasted flour tortillas and started watching soccer and started feeling better.

Then at 3:15 I napped for an hour.

Suzette came home hungry so around 6:30 we heated up the leftover Braised Beef Shirt Ribs with the roasted vegetables and opened an unusual bottle of 2010 Simonsig Redhill Pinotage from Stellenbosch South Africa. I guess I bought it because it had Simon in the name producer’s name.

After dinner we watched South Africa beat South Korea in World Cup competition as we sipped the South African Pinot.

South African wines seem to have an earthy heaviness that I associate with its terroir.

We then made a cherry and apricot clafoutis. I have standard recipe: two cups milk and a cup of heavy cream scalded. Three eggs stirred into 10 T. of powdered sugar, 7 or 8 T. of flour until smooth. Then add them to the scalded milk and cream. The pour the batter and the marinated fruit into a buttered ceramic baking dish that has been dusted with granulated sugar.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 - 60 minutes until the custard is firm and the top is browned.

We watched Wild Kimberley about the wildlife on Australia’s northwest coast until 9:00 when Suzette went to sleep.

I stayed up to let the clafoutis cool before putting it in the fridge and checked my portfolio that lost another .3% today.

I went to bed at 10:00 and blogged this entry.

Bon Appetit

 

June 23, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - Large Oyster and Chicken Cesar Salad. Dinner - Chicken Curry and Rice

June 23, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate  Lunch - Large Oyster and Chicken Cesar Salad. Dinner - Chicken Curry and Rice

The menu may not how unusual the dishes were today.

The unusual aspect of Breakfast was that I drank tea with collagen with a pain au Chocolate Lunch for one of the first times.

Then I penned a settlement proposal for the LRGA.

Then around 10:30 I walked to the bank and added an additional block to my return home route that gave me a bit of exercise.

When I returned home I watched Portugal destroy Uzbekistan 5 to 0.

Then made a monster salad for lunch. I filled a pasta bowl heaping full with romaine lettuce and lettuce from our garden. I added a tomato and 1/3 cucumber diced, croutons, slices of red onion, grated Parmesan cheese, and green cracked olives. The salad resembled Mount Fuji.

The unusual aspect of the salad was the dressing. We did not have any smoked anchovies so I made the dressing with a cam of smoked oysters, juice of 1/2 lemon, olive oil and an egg whisked into a thick emulsion.

I pitted about 1 cup of bing cherries to 1/2 fill out jar of Marischino cherries to the top of the liquid.

I watched a bit of Britain v. Ghana but became sleepy at 3:00 and fell asleep.

I was awakened by a phone call from Etienne at 3:30 calling me to meditation.

After meditation I watched the news and then at 5:00 when Suzette arrived I suggested I make chicken curry with cubed of the butternut squash Suzette cooked a couple of days ago, I watched a very competitive match between Croatia and Panama that Croatia won 1 to 0.

While I watched soccer I diced 2/3 of tthe butternut squash, a Vadalia onion, two apples and then cooked those ingredients in 2 T. of butter and 2 T. of canola oil in a large enameled casserole that Suzette washed and dried.

Then after about twenty minutes of cooking covered I added about a three cups of chicken stock, 1 cup of raisins, and 1 1/2 cups of roasted Costco chicken plus about 2 T. of Madras Curry powder.

I then made rice using the remaining two cups of chicken stock and a cup of rice.

The unusual thing about the curry was the use of butternut squash instead of sweet potatoes. Since the squash and chicken were already cooked I was able to combine all the ingredients that greatly reduced the cooking time.

The first time I ate curry made with butternut squash was at Escalera on Lincoln Street in Santa Fe when Deborah Madison was the chef and it served exquisite vegetarian cuisine.

In fact the curry was ready after an additional 45 minutes before the rice was done because the fire in the gas burner under the rice went out, so we had to restart the rice cooking.

Suzette reheated the rice I made for my Sunday Father’s Day dinner of Indian food Willy brought.

We added some of the apricot chutney Suzette made and I added some Bengali Mixed Pickle.

I drank chai and Suzette drank a Dos Equis beer as we watched Finding Your roots and another exciting World Cup match between Congo and Colombia that Colombia also won 1 to 0.

We shared the last bowl of apricot cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00 and I went bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

June 22, 2026 Breakfast - Chorizo scrambled eggs. Lunch - Calabacitas. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak and Calabacitas

June 22, 2026 Breakfast - Chorizo scrambled eggs. Lunch - Calabacitas. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak and Calabacitas

It was a busy day. I had 2.5 hours of billable time plus lots of phone calls and soccer watching starting with Argentina, then Franch, and finally Norway victories featuring their respective stars Messi, Mbpape, and Haaland.

I tried scrambling a chorizo sausage with onion and eggs for breakfast. The chorizo was full of grease but flavorful. I filled two toasted tortillas with the egg mixture.

Then I worked until 11:00 when I chopped two zucchini an onion,ma yellow bell pepper and a smoked pork chop and cooked them in a bit of butter and water for several hours abd then added 1/2 cup of chopped oregano. I put several dried hot red Big Jim chilis in but they heated up the dish too much, so I took them out. But they heated up damage was done. The Calabacitas was very piquant.

At 11:00 I drank a can of hard apple cider that helped digest the chorizo.

I ate some Calabacitas on rice reheated in the microwave around 1:30. Then I thawed a rib steak for dinner.

Then I rested and watched soccer until 4:00 when I worked on Rahim’s project for 1 1/2 hours.

Dinner - Suzette grilled the steak and we reheated the Calabacitas for a lovely dinner with glasses of The Lussac-St. Emillion Bordeaux red from the Center.

We watched the Antiques Roadshow until 9:00 and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit