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

May 19, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Fruit Salad. Lunch - Bun Cha Gio Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice

May 19, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Fruit Salad. Lunch - Bun Cha Gio Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice

I love Mapo Dofu and I made a lot of it several evenings ago and extra rice, so I was happy to eat it again for dinner today. The big event today were the two PL matches, Man City v. Bourmouth and Chelsea v. Tottenham. Man City lost and thereby finished second to Arsenal and Tottenham lost to place within potential relegation if West Ham wins on Sunday.

I ate granola with milk and lots of tropical fruit salad for breakfast.

The market was down most of the day and took a deeper dive toward the close. My portfolio is still at a historic high, but losing ground fast. Tomorrow will be important, when Nvidia announces its quarterly earnings.

At 1:30 Suzette brought home an order of Bun Cha Gio from Coda Bakery. I have really become fond of theT takeout dish because there is a large enough portion to share and because the four hot from the fryer egg rolls are wrapped in a separate paper dish that keeps them really hot.

Suzette also brought home an order of two spring rolls with chicken and ate 1/2 of one. I will try one tomorrow. I drank a Vietnamese iced coffee and Suzette drank a glass of Carlsberg beer.

After the matches ended I drafted six deeds for a probate after the matches and finished around 5:20.

Dinner - After a bit of news I heated PPI rice and Mapo Dofu and hulled about 2 tsp. of Szechuan peppercorns and thinly sliced two green onions to garnish the re-heated food and made a cup of green tea. I ate 2/3 of the bowl of food and Suzette finished it 

We watched a Stanley Tucci episode from the Discovering Italy series on Veneto, the region around Venice up to the Dolomites and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

May 18, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad. Lunch Tacos at Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu with Rice

May 18, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad. Lunch Tacos at Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu with Rice

I woke up after 8:00 and watched the TV until 9:00 and then I ate a bowl of granola with milk and tropical fruit salad.

At 12:00 I drove to Mary and Tito’s and ordered my new low-salt dish: beef tacos with refried beans and red chili on the side.

I love this dish and may return on Thursday when it is the daily special for $7.95. Today it was $8.50. All of Mary and Tito’s are similarly inexpensive. I often order blue corn enchiladas with ground beef and a fried egg for $10.50, which I think is the most expensive item on the menu.

I said hello to Gerry Dixon and Steve Scholl, who were eating at the table next to my booth.

When I returned home I watched Arsenal beat Burnley 1 to 0. The result was to be expected since Arsenal is In first place in the English Premier League and Burnley next to last and soon to be relegated from the PL.

In contrast to the quality and excellent prices at Mary and Tito’s, after the soccer match and the celebration by the Arsenal fans at around 3:00 I checked my portfolio and found the NASDAQ was down 134 points and my portfolio lost .95% today, a second day of big loses as Trump fumbles the War gin Iran and the economy.

At 4:00 Suzette arrived, tired from a hard day and stayed. At 4:15 I watched AriI and at 5:00 I walked around the block.

When I returned I cleaned a T. of Szechuan peppercorns by removing their hard pits. The husk is what carries the unique flavor.

I also thinly sliced three green onions for garnish and Suzette heated some Mapo Dofu and rice. We garnished bowls with the peppercorns and green onion and ate a lovely dinner.

I drank green tea and Suzette drank water.

After dinner we watched the Antiques Roadshow, suzette was tired and went to bed at 8:00.

I stayed up to watch two episodes of Stanley Tucci’s  Discovering Italy on Abruzzo and Marche and went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit

May 17, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad Lunch - Avocado Toast Dinner - Costco Roasted Chicken with Rice and Sorrel and Steamed snow Peas and Sugar snap Peas

May 17, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad Lunch - Avocado Toast Dinner - Costco Roasted Chicken with Rice and Sorrel and Steamed snow Peas and Sugar snap Peas

I did not sleep well due to the rash around my dialysis catheter site and woke up at 6:00. I watched Leeds beat BHA in added time.

Then I chopped a papaya, a pineapple, three mangos, and three oranges and added the juice of a sweet lime to make my tropical fruit salad.

I ate a bowl of granola with milk, yogurt, and fruit salad as I watched West Ham go into relegation from the PL.

Around noon Willy and Matt came by and we served them a bowl of fruit salad with mango yogurt and then Suzette made avocado toast. Mat then helped me trim the Don Juan rose bush.

Willy and Matt left and we picked up Willy at his house and drove to Costco so willy could buy some stuff he needed.

We also bought staples, including, a toasted chicken, grapes, eggs, blueberries, baguettes, Mayo, and 9 Bottles of wine; two Kirkland Pinot 

Grigio, two Kirkland New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs, a Chateauneuf Du Pape, two Cotes du Provence roses, a Kirkland Malbec, and one other

We drove home and I napped for an hour until 5:20.

Dinner - The snow peas and sugar snap peas we planted this year are at the height of their production, so our dinner menu was easy, roasted chicken, peas and rice. 

Rice - We went to the garden and picked a basket full of peas plus several stalks of garlic chives and thyme.

While I was chopping the garlic chives into thin slices, suzette went back to the garden and picked about ten leaves of sorrel and I processed that by removing the stem in each leaf and chopping the leaves into bite sized pieces.

I then heated three cups of water and added about 2 tsp. dried Japanese seaweed and as the water began to boil Suzette added the chopped garlic chives, sorrel, and thyme. Then I added the seasoned chicken juice from the bottom of the bag of chicken and 1 1/2 cups of rice. We covered the pot and reduced the heat to low and steamed the rice for 30 minutes.

Willy arrived and Suzette fetched a bottle of the Pinot Grigio we had chilled.

Suzette then destemmed the peas and blanched them in butter.

I sectioned the chicken and we put a breast, two thighs, and a drumstick iinto a Pyrex baking dish and heated the chicken in the microwave.

When 5e rice was ready we filled our plates with chicken, peas and rice and drank glasses of Pinot Grigio for a filling delicious dinner.

We talked a bit after dinner and Willy left around 8:30. 

We watched an episode of Eva Longoria discovering Bordeaux and I ate three squares of milk chocolate and Suzette drank another glass of Pinot Grigio and we went to bed shortly after the episode ended around 9:30.

Bon appetit 

May 16, 2026 Brunch - Mushroom, Avocado, and Shallot Omelet Snack - Leftover pasta, mushroom, and Dinner at Nancy and Cliff’s Watermelon, Arugula, and feta salad, Chicken Marbella and rice Pilar

May 16, 2026 Brunch - Mushroom, Avocado, and Shallot Omelet Snack - Leftover pasta, mushroom, and Dinner at Nancy and Cliff’s Watermelon, Arugula, and feta salad, Chicken Marbella and rice Pilar

I woke up around 8:30.

I watched Man City win the FA Championship, which is an all England team competition over Chelsea with a nifty behind the back re-direction by Semenyo of a Haaland pass. The FA Cup determines which English teams compete for the European EUFA championship and it appears that five English teams will compete next year based upon the PL’s high performance this year.

After the FA final at 10:30 I sliced lobster, orange oyster, and portobello mushrooms, two cloves of garlic, and a shallot for an omelet. I added butter and sautéed those ingredients in the remaining peanut  and sesame oil in the skillet I used last night to sauté the pot stickers. After I sautéed the ingredients I had chopped I added four whisked eggs and then garnished one side with avocado slices Suzette prepped. I lay the other side with slices of Manchego cheese.

This was the kind of dense ingredient filled delicious omelets my mother used to make .

When the edges began to turn up and began to brown I flipped one half onto the other and let it cook with the heat turned off while I toasted slices of baguette and brewed a cup of chai.

After we ate brunch I showered and dressed and walked to Park Plaza at 3:00 for an interview with Greg Gould for a project he has started to provide guidance by seniors to young people. I talked for about an hour about all the influences on my life and how they played out to try to explain that if you follow what you like to do and are good at you will develop a revenue source and wealth that will allow you to have a comfortable and healthy retirement. 

After the interview at 4:10 we rested an hour during which I ate the leftover pasta, chicken, and mushroom dish from several nights ago dinner.

Earlier Suzette had eaten slices of the pork loin she roasted several days ago with Mayo.

We then went to a terrific symphony performance by the NM Philharmonic of a Schumann violin concerto and Mahler’s 5th Symphony.

After the symphony we drove to Cliff and Nancy’s house for dinner around 8:30.

Nancy had prepared Chicken Marbella, chicken baked with prunes and green olives, a terrific rice pilaf with sliced almonds, and a lovely light watermelon, arugula, and feta cheese salad. It was a terrific dinner. I loved every dish.

It was served with glasses of King’s Estate Pinot Gris, one of my favorite wines. 

Then for dessert Nancy served a slice of fresh raspberry tart. Then for shell was made with almond flour and was delicious. Then for custard filling was fabulous and the fresh raspberries were lovely. It was one day old so the crust had moistened, which made it even more subtle and infused with flavor. I do not think i have had a better unglazed fresh fruit tart.

At 10:00 we bid them goodnight and went home and went to bed.

Bon Appetit