August 23, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Brunch - Bacon, mushroom, chard, and Swiss Gruyere cheese omelet with Croissants Dinner - Butter Chicken Ratatouille Saag with Pita

August 23, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Brunch - Bacon, mushroom, chard, and Swiss Gruyere cheese omelet with Croissants  Dinner - Butter Chicken Ratatouille Saag with Pita

Today was a restful day for me.

I awakened at 4:30 and finished the book discussion notes and grades for Sense and Sensibility and then slept from 6:00 until 8:30.

Then I watched the news and the highlights of the first 2 stages of the Vuelta de Espana and ate a pain au chocolate with a cup of chai with collagen.

I then began the prep of brunch. Monica returned from Romania and we invited her and Aaron for brunch at 11:30.

I minced four shallots, a. pimiento pepper from our garden, about two cups of portobello mushrooms and three fresh shiitake mushrooms.

I also chopped five slices of thick cut bacon into 1/4 inch strips that I fried into lardettes.

At 10:30 Suzette returned from Los Lunas with a bag of freshly picked chard. She sliced the leaves from the stems for a handful and I chopped the pile of leaves into bite sized pieces.

Suzette had cleaned two window air conditioners at the Center, so she showered and dressed and then set the table.

Aaron and Monica came at 11:30 with croissants, strawberry eclairs, and Danish pastries from Whole Foods.

We served coffee to them and I grated 1 1/2 cups of Swiss Gruyere cheese. 

Suzette and Monica took over kitchen duties and heated the croissants in the oven and cooked the shallots and pepper in butter and olive oil and then added the mushrooms, chard, and bacon, and finally four whisked eggs. Then they sprinkled grated Gruyere over the surface and covered the skillet and let the omelet cook without turning it.

Suzette cut a bunch of red grapes into small bundles and cut the omelet into 4 quarters and placed a quarter on each plate with a bundle of grapes and a toasted croissant.

I fetched the bottles of cherry preserves and the homemade quince, peach, and fig compote and poured glasses of Archer Summit Vireton Pinot Gris for Suzette and Monica. Aaron and I drank water.

We enjoyed the meal and talked of travel.

After thre meal we served cordial glasses of Canadian Rief Vidal Blanc Icewine for dessert.

I then lay down and watched Barcelona destroy Eche in a La Liga match and Suzette worked at her desk.

At 5:00 Willy called and we set 6:00 as the time to come for dinner.

I then boned and diced the meat from the three chicken thighs Suzette cooked last Thursday, We decided to cook the chicken in the leftover Ratatouille with spinach for an easy one pot dinner, which turned out to be the perfect menu idea because when Willy came he brought a bottle of Butter Masala. I thinly sliced a zucchini and we added that and 4 T. of Butter Masala paste to the ratatouille and cooked it for 30 minutes and then added the bunch of spinach I had chopped into bite sized pieces. The end result was a very pleasant tasting butter chicken combined with a mixed vegetable saag.

We did not have naan, so we sliced and toasted pita halves. The warm pita were really delicious with the richly flavored chicken and vegetable stew.

We drank glasses of the Vireton Pinot Gris that was really pleasant with the rich Indian stew because it had a fruity slightly sweet flavor.

After dinner we looked in the box of pastries Aaron and Monica brought and found the three small strawberry eclairs. Suzette cut each of them into thirds and we ate them for dessert.

I drank another cup of chai with collagen with dessert. Willy brewed a cup of Kushmi herbal tea and Suzette drank a sip of cognac.

Willy described his 7 hour ordeal to fix the ball joints on his car and he decided to call Jody to make the final adjustments.

Willy also reported that Luke was loving his job and was thrilled because he had his own office, which made us all exceedingly happy.

Willy left at 8:30 and we put the leftover chicken saag into a container in the fridge and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

August 22, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - Coda Bakery Bun Cha Gio with egg rolls. Snack - cheese and grapes

August 22, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate Lunch - Coda Bakery Bun Cha Gio with egg rolls. Snack - cheese and grapes

We woke up early. I ate a pain au chocolate with chai and then rode my bike around the neighborhood.

Suzette left for exercise and work and I left home at 9:20. I dropped the book off at Peter’s and then met Shahin at his office at 10:00 and we worked until 1:30 to complete my taxes.

When I returned home I discovered that Suzette had eaten my leftover Bun Cha Gio from Friday’s lunch at Pho Linh.

I was still in the mood for Bun Cha Gio, so at 2:00 I drove to Coda Bakery at the corner of San Pedro and Central. It was busy as usual nut in a couple of minutes I ordered Bun Cha Gio for $12.50 with a large container filled with piles of Vietnamese Rice Vermicelli, lettuce, cucumber sticks, mint, mung bean sprouts, pickled carrots and daikon, peanuts, and fish sauce. On the side was a cardboard basket with four steaming hot egg rolls in a bad to keep them warm.

It was a lot of food but I was hungry and ate it all with an extra fish sauce.

I then went home and rested for an hour and then we drove to Home Depot where Suzette bought swamp cooler and I filled the Highlander with gas.

It was 8:00 when we drove to Vara to taste wine and pick up my three bottle wine club selections, a Spanish Viura, a California Albariño, and a red Mencia.  We tasted all three and then were offered several other wines to taste. We both liked the Atrevido that is a blend of 75% Grenache and 25% Carenina grapes from Spain.

We also bought a bottle of late harvest Albariño from California grapes.

The two bar tenders were pleasant and knowledgeable and, since there were no other customers we had a pleasant conversation as we sampled about ten wines.

As I neared 9:00 the bar tender helped load our wine and we drove home.

Neither of us were hungry so I toasted three slices of baguette and we spread goat cheese on one slice and brie on the other two and wash them down with a glass of Brunello and a bunch of grapes.

We went to bed around 9:30.

Bon Appetit

August 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Pho Linh. Dinner - Leftover Bobby Flay Chicken and Ratatouille

August 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Pho Linh. Dinner - Leftover Bobby Flay Chicken and Ratatouille

It was a productive day. I reviewed my Reply in the water case and filed it by 3:45.

I woke up at 6:00 and ate a bowl of granola with yogurt, blueberries and milk at 7:30.

Then at 8:30 I rode my bike around the neighborhood.

I then showered and dressed and worked at my desk until 11:00 when I Picked Robert at his office and drove us to Pho Linh near Eubank and Central.

We each ordered our usual, bun cha Gio for me and rice with vegetables and tofu for Robert.

We discussed a troublesome client of Robert’s.

Then when we returned to Robert’s office, which includes a shop and living quarters where he keeps a car collection, he showed me his newly purchased 1938 Simca 5.

I then drove home and finished my review of the reply

At 4:15 I finished the filing and heated the Vietnamese Noodle Soup from yesterday’s lunch and Suzette and I shared it.

dinner.

We were still hungry for dinner so at 6:30 we heated the leftover ratatouille and several of the Bobby Flay chicken thigh leftover from last night’s

I opened a 2013 Red Newt Bullhorn Creek Riesling that was sensational. It had that magic balance of extreme  sweetness and minerality that make Finger Lake Rieslings so impressive.  Suzette, who is usually low keyed about wines was struck by its intensity.

We loved dinner. Leftovers can be wonderful.

After dinner we drank another glass of Riesling and watched a terrific episode of finding your Roots about Depok Chupra, Sting, and Sally Fields. Sally’s tenth great grandfather arrived in America on the Mayflower in 1620. Chopra’s dad was aide de camp to Lord Mountbatten in WWII and a physician.

It was an impressive show.

We went to bed after it at 9:45.

Bon Appetit

August 20, 2026. Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner - Sautéed Salmon, Roasted Potatoes and onions and Cole Slaw

August 20, 2026. Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner - Sautéed Salmon, Roasted Potatoes and onions and Cole Slaw

I awakened at 2:30 and edited my reply until 4:00 and watched the news for 30 minutes and went back to bed and slept until 8:00

I ate a pain au chocolate with a latte macchiato and finished the edit by 12:30.

I decided to make Vietnamese noodle soup with the meat of one of the baked chicken thighs, seaweed, 1 bundle each of wheat and rice vermicelli noodles, a handful of chopped Napa cabbage and a handful of spinach, two shiitake mushrooms sliced thinly, and 1/2 shallot minced plus a cube of Pho seasoning, 1/2 T. of chicken stock, and a heaping T. of red miso.

I cooked all the ingredients for about 20 minutes and added five chicken dumplings and cooked the noodles another fifteen minutes and added some water to bring the volume to about 1 3/4 quarts.

Then I thinly sliced two green onions and salvaged some cilantro to garnish the noodles and squirted the bowl of noodles with hoisin.

I drank a cup of green tea with the noodles and ate two bowls.

I then worked on other matters until 6:30.

Dinner - Suzette started cooking dinner around 6:00. She sautéed The salmon filet I bought two days ago and reheated the leftover roasted potatoes and onions.  When those two items were cooked, she plated them with a pile of the Cole slaw made a few days ago and poured out the last of the 2023 Claire Patelin French Sauvignon Blanc.

We enjoyed dinner and after dinner shared the last beso de Nuez wedding cookie.

At 7:30 I.lay down to read and napped until 8:15 when I got ready for bed and blogged and talked to Suzette until 9:00 and went to bed.

Bon Appetit