April 8, 2026 Breakfast - Lamb and Roasted Vegetable omelet Lunch - Leftover Chirashi. Dinner - Leftover Eggplant Parmigiana and Spaghetti and Salad

April 8, 2026 Breakfast - Lamb and Roasted Vegetable omelet  Lunch - Leftover Chirashi. Dinner - Leftover Eggplant Parmigiana and Spaghetti and Salad

I awakened at 6:00 and cleaned the Gravad lax and toasted four slices of bagel and Luke spread them with cream cheese while I sliced red onion and Gravad lax. We wrapped two for Luke and two for me and Luke left at 7:00 to drive 12 hours to Ari’s house in Idlewild, California.

A watched the Market open and then made a very savory two egg omelet with lamb, red onion, dabs of goat cheese, and Roasted root vegetables.

I worked at my desk until 11:00, when I ate a few bites of Quince and fig cobbler for a snack and grabbed the Gravad lax bagels and a bag of grapes and left for dialysis at 11:45.

When I arrived a draw of blood was taken and again I was not put on a machine.

The nurse said they would send the blood to Tricore for quicker analysis and to return on Friday. 

I drove home by 1:45 in time to see the market close with a slight gain and then Real Madrid lose to Madrid Athletico 2 to 0.

During the match I ate the Chirashi left from Tuesday lunch at Crazy Fish with the green wasabi plant. I heated the leftover sushi rice and made several cups of green tea and ate a luxurious lunch with my 1/2 and the extra pieces of salmon and albacore and seaweed salad and squid salad Henry left for me. It was a feast.

After lunch I rested until 4:00 when I watched the news.

When Suzette came home we decided to heat the leftover Eggplant Parmigiana, Spaghetti and Spaghetti Sauce. I opened a bottle of  Marco Bonfante La Stella Barbera di Asti Superiore that was smooth but not remarkable and we ate a hearty and delicious dinner.

Suzette made a salad with the bibb lettuce she had bought at Costco to accompany the dinner.

I finally felt full and enjoyed the feeling.

We went to bed at 8:30, but I woke up at 1:15 and finished reading Fer de Lance, our April book club selection, a detective story set in 1933 New York.

Bon Appetit

 

 

 

April 9, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Tacos at Mary and Tito’s. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak, Baked Potato and Sautéed Mushrooms and Asparagus

April 9, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Tacos at Mary and Tito’s. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak, Baked Potato and Sautéed Mushrooms and Asparagus 

Today I ate my first New Mexican food. When I awakened I ate a pain au chocolate and a Latte Macchiato at 9:00 after watching the News and a strong market open.

I worked at my desk until 12:15 when Aaron picked me up. We drove to Mary and Tito’s. Aaron ordered a Sopapilla turnover with chicken. I ordered the Thursday Special: two handmade tacos with double beans. This was my first New Mexican food at a restaurant and I loved it.

We worked on a Press Release for Earn that I think went quite well as we promoted AI to edit it.

After lunch I worked checked the Market and was pleased that my portfolio increased approximately 1.1% today.

 I then worked on Rahim’s project for a couple of hours until 4:30 when I watched some news until 5:00 when Suzette watched her home shows until 7:00.

I thawed a rib steak and baked five Yukon Gold potatoes.

Then I sliced three mushrooms and a shallot and I sautéed them with some leftover asparagus Amy made for our Easter dinner.

Suzette over cooked the steak so it was not the best steak dinner but I moved the baked potato stuffed with butter, sour cream and garnished with thinly sliced garlic chives from our garden at the table on our patio.

We drank the rest of the Barbera red we opened last night.

We lay in bed to watch Midsomer Murders at 8:00 and I dozed until Suzette awakened me at the end.

We then went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

April 7, 2026 Breakfast - Lax on Bagel Snack - Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich Lunch - Crazy Fish Chirashi. Dinner - PPI Grilled Lamb Chops with Roasted Root Vegetables and Rice

April 7, 2026 Breakfast - Lax on Bagel  Snack - Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich   Lunch - Crazy Fish Chirashi. Dinner - PPI Grilled Lamb Chops with Roasted Root Vegetables and Rice

At 5:30 I woke up and watched the news and the pre-market until 6:15 when I cleaned the Gravad lax. I then toasted four slices of bagel. Luke then spread cream cheese on the bagels and I added slices of red onion and the newly cured Gravad lax. It is still curing and tastes different from the traditional Swedish recipe due to the use of fennel instead of dill weed and orange zest instead of ground black pepper and equal parts sugar and salt instead of more salt.

I ate two bagels with lax with a Latte Macchiato and made two for Luke who left at 7:00 a.m. to drive to Ari’s home in Idlewild, California.

Then around 8:15 went my desk and worked until noon when I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich with a cup of chai.

Henry, Richard, and I drove to Crazy Fish at 1:45 and Henry and I each ordered Chirashi and Richard ordered Japanese curry with chicken and rice.

After lunch I took Richard back to Henry’s house and went home and meditated from 3:30 to 4:00.

Then I watched Trump taco on his threat to destroy the civilization of Iran.

At 6:00 Suzette heated three leftover lamb chops and some of the roasted root vegetables and rice for dinner.

We ate them with water for a lovely quick dinner.

After dinner we watched Finding Your Roots. Suzette ate vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and I ate a macadamia cluster and a sip of Maison Serene cognac.

At 8:30 we went to bed.

I checked the after Market at 6:30. My portfolio lost about .5% today, but with the prospect of a ceasefire of the Iran war, the futures were up dramatically.

Bon Appetit

April 6, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Tropical Fruit Salad. Snack - Pain au chocolate. Lunch - Bagel with Gravad lax. Dinner - Eggplant Parmigiana and Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

April 6, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Tropical Fruit Salad. Snack - Pain au chocolate. Lunch - Bagel with Gravad lax. Dinner - Eggplant Parmigiana and Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce

I awakened at 6:30 and watched news until 7:45. The market was up today again, as if the War in Iran and closing the Strait of Hormuz were not imminent threats to the world economy.

I filed a bowl of granola, milk, tropical fruit salad and yogurt and worked at my desk but not on either taxes or pleadings. Actually at 10:30 Luke and I made Gravad lax using fennel fronds we picked in the garden instead of dill weed and orange zest instead of ground black pepper and adjusted the sugar to salt to a  ratio to 50/50 to reduce the saltiness.

               The 50/50 mixture of sugar and salt to dust each side of the filets

                          Layering fennel between and on the two filets 

Then we toasted and smeared cream cheese on four slices of bagel and garnished them with thin slices of red onion and the last of the old Gravad lax.

I packed two bagel sandwiches for lunch at dialysis with a bag of red grapes and drove to dialysis at noon and Luke ate his two for lunch.

Amazingly, I was not put on a machine again today, which will make a week off the machine by Wednesday. Instead the nurse cleaned my port and took blood samples for lab tests of my creatine level and other markers.

Around 1:30 I drove to Lowe’s on the way home and purchased two containers of spaghetti sauce, a bunch of spinach, two eggplants and a pound of ground beef.

When I returned home Luke and I walked the two blocks to Southwest Capitol Bank and back home.  This was my first serious walk after discharge and it felt okay.

Then at 4:00 I began making the Bolognese sauce. I minced five or six cloves of garlic, diced an onion, three mushrooms, 3/4 lb. of 81% lean ground beef, and two vine ripened tomatoes and sautéed those ingredients with some olive oil in a large casserole.

Then Suzette added three cans of diced organic Costco tomatoes and I added a cup of water and we cooked the sauce for two hours while we prepared the rest of the meal. 

I sliced the two eggplants into 2/3 inch thick slices and Suzette brushed them with olive oil and grilled them on the propane grill outside. We then arranged the slices in two rows in a 10 x 18 inch Pyrex cooking dish with slices of fresh mozzarella and a basil leaf between them and then covered the two rows with the Bolognese sauce and baked them for 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

While the eggplant dish cooked Suzette boiled a lb. of spaghetti. Everything was ready when the boys arrived from their workout at the gym at 7:00.

I opened a bottle of 2022 Kirkland Chianti Classico Reserva DOCC that is a solid Chianti for under $10.00 at Costco and poured half glasses for each.

Suzette rinsed the spaghetti and we put the Eggplant dish on the stove beside the remaining casserole of Bolognese sauce and each person filled their pasta bowl with spaghetti, eggplant slices and sauce and garnished theI bowl with Parmesan cheese I had grated.

We enjoyed being together and sharing an excellent meal as a family.

Luke was very clever and arranged for his car to be delivered to him at the house instead of being driven to L.A. because he will not be in LA. to pick it up and so he can drive to Idlewild and spend a couple of days with Ari, because his tenancy in L.A. does not begin until April 10. Driving to California will also allow Luke to pack many of the books and clothes stored at the house that he wants to have in L.A.

I ate a couple of bites of cobbler for dessert and said goodnight and went to bed at 9:00 after I turned the Gravad lax that will be ready at 7:00 a.m. 

Bon Appetit

April 5, 2026 Easter Dinner with the Family Breakfast - Gravad Lax Omelet Dinner - Asparagus, Garlic Grits, Smoked Trout, Caprese Salad, and Quince and Fig Cobbler. Snack - Cobbler. Dinner - Enchiladas with beans and rice

April 5,  2026 Easter Dinner with the Family Breakfast - Gravad Lax Omelet Dinner - Asparagus, Garlic Grits, Smoked Trout, Caprese Salad, and Quince and Fig Cobbler. Snack - Cobbler. Dinner - Enchiladas with beans and rice

Today was Easter and traditionally that means we join together our extended family, Amy and Vahl and Suzette and me and Luke and Willy in a late lunch. Today was a complete success. We cooked smoked Trout, a Caprese Salad, and Quince and Fig cobbler. Amy cooked Garlic Grits, and Aparagus, and bought biscuits from Whole Foods.

When I woke up at 6:30 I made a chai and watched the news.

Then I made a Mushroom, Red Onion, cream cheese, and Gravad Lax Omelet for breakfast.

 

The day started in earnest with Suzette finishing the walkway between the roses and I cutting back the vine on the trellis arch at one end of the pathway between the two gardens and Luke and I gathering a basket full of Garlic Chives, parsley, chives, and Lemon thyme in the garden.

I then chopped the garlic chives, chives, thyme, and parsley finely and Suzette mashed those herbs into 8 oz. of butter to make a compound butter to stuff the trout’s stomach, a Swedish recipe.

Then I sliced tomatoes, and red onion, and Luke helped arrange those slices with leaves of fresh basil from the plants we bought yesterday at Trader Joe’s and slices of fresh Mozzarella we bought at Costco to make a Caprese salad that Suzette dressed with a simple Argentinian olive oil and Balsamic vinegar vinaigrette.

Suzette also made a jiffy cobbler without salt combining figs harvested last year from our fig tree and quince harvested last year from the trees at the Center in Los Lunas.

I chilled the three bottles of Faurino Rivera Ulcea 2024 Albariño I bought at Costco on Friday and the half bottle of Vara Late Harvest Albariño we bought at Vara yesterday.

Then around 12:30 I cut the heads and tails off the five trout I bought on Friday at Costco and Suzette stuffed them with the herbed compound butter and lit the propane grill and soaked a cedar board in water.

Amy called at 12:15 to say they were leaving Eldorado and to preheat the oven to 300 degrees, mince a shallot for the vinaigrette for the asparagus, and they would arrive around 1:15.

When I preheated the oven I inadvertently baked the cobbler.  Then when Amy and Vahl arrived Amy put the Garlc grits into the oven to bake, added the minced shallot to her vinaigrette and dressed the asparagus, Suzette started the trout broiling and smoking on the propane grill, and I opened two bottles of Albariño and put them into an ice bucket with water and ice and Willy carried the bucket out to the Gazebo where Suzette had set the table for dinner.

Then around day was sunny with temperatures around 72 and no wind, so perfect for out Al fresco lunch.

Suzette moved a wicker table to the gazebo where we places the Caprese salad and asparagus platter.

When the trout and grits were cooked I removed the skin and fileted the five trout at a table near the gazebo and put a filet on each of the six plates and Luke poured the wine and the mint tea he made from several of the fresh mints growing in our garden.

It was a lovely meal with lots of conversation about traveling among our well travelled family.  After we finished the entrees, we cleared the plates and Suzette served parfait glasses filled with cobbler and Kroger artisanal vanilla ice cream and cordial glasses were filled with the late harvest Albariño for dessert and more mint tea.

I loved every element of this meal, especially since every dish was prepared without salt to meet my restricted salt diet. 

We finally started clearing the table after two hours and everyone left around 4:00 and I lay down for an hour nap and Suzette cleaned the kitchen with Luke and Willy’s help.

When I got up around 5:15 Suzette and I ate a snack of cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Then around 7:30 I heated and ate a bowl of enchiladas garnished with sour cream and beans, and rice as we watched Eva Longoria eating in Madrid.

Again another day with small meals and snacks and one huge Easter dinner.

I cannot say how thankful I am to be able to share another Easter meal with my extended family in what seems like a magical moment, two weeks after being discharged from the hospital . It was also fortuitous that Luke was in town as he is on his way from living in New York to living in L.A. and Willy has moved back to Albuquerque from 1 1/2 years living in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia and Amy was recently discharged from a recent hospitalization for a virus.

What also amazed me was the magical menu of family favorite dishes perfectly matched to the wine. Amy’s favorite Southern dishes of grits and biscuits paired perfectly with vinegary huge Aspragus and a fresh Caprese salad and locally raised Smoked Trout stuffed with fresh herbs from our garden plus a cobbler made with figs and quince we grew in our gardens paired with my favorite Albariño and an interesting and unusual late harvest Albariño with dessert.

It was a memorable meal in so many ways.

I am happy that I am feeling better, as my muscles are regenerating and my kidneys are recovering. It appears I have dodged a bullet yet again.

Bon Appetit