August 11, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Leftover Chirashi. Dinner - Mapo Dofu and Rice

August 11, 2026 Breakfast - Pain au Chocolate. Lunch - Leftover Chirashi. Dinner - Mapo Dofu and Rice

Not as elegant as yesterday, but really delicious dishes, especially dinner.

I got up at 6:00 and copied tax records and worksheets and sent them to Shahin.

Then at 7:20 I brewed a latte macchiato and microwaved a pain au chocolate for breakfast and then rode around the neighborhood with Suzette.

She then drafted a complaint to send to the Consumer Fraud Division of the NM Attorney General’s office and I helped edit it and I completed the real estate transaction I have been working on.

Around 10:20 Suzette went to her exercise class and I drove to my dentist appointment. After the appointment I went home and ate the leftover chirashi from yesterday’s lunch with Japanese pickled cabbage and daikon and some leftover sushi rice.

 I finished lunch around 3:00 I checked the market and my portfolio was down slightly by a little over .1%. After two or three negative days the NASDAQ may be turning positive.

I meditated from 3:30 to 4:00 and then filed notices of non-availability in my two water cases. I rested from 4:30 to 5:30 when I started peeping dinner.

Dinner - I made Mapo Dofu. I cubed two Ichiban eggplants, 3/4 of a Vidalia onion, 1 lb. of pork loin, 1 1/2 T. of garlic, and 3 1/2 T. of ginger and cooked those ingredients in 2 T. of peanut oil with a dash of sesame oil.

Then I added 1 cup each of fresh shiitake mushrooms and wood ear, and 2 T. of holy basil from our garden.

Then I added 19 oz. of soft tofu and 2 cups of water to just cover the ingredients and cooked them 30 - 45 minutes to stew and blend their flavors.

Then I added a seasoning and thickening mixture containing about 1 T. of cornstarch, about 2 tsp. of sesame oil, 1 - 2 T. of rice cooking wine, and 1/4 cup of water.

After another ten minutes of cooking a sauce developed and the dish was ready.

We heated leftover rice and each of us ladled Mapo Dofu onto a pile of rice.

We drank beer with the meal.

 

Around 8:30 Aaron left and we watched an episode of Finding Your Roots. archived on You Tube until 9:30 when we went to bed.

This was a great day of food and we have enough rice and Mapo Dofu left for another meal.

Bon Appetit

August 10, 2026 Breakfast = Men on an Island. Lunch - Crazy Fish Dinner - Grilled stuffed bacon wrapped Pork loin with buttered new potatoes and snow peas,

August 10, 2026 Breakfast = Men on an Island. Lunch - Crazy Fish Dinner - Grilled stuffed bacon wrapped Pork loin with buttered new potatoes and snow peas

I am eating so well these days I can hardly stand it. Due in large measure to the abundance of fresh produce.

The day started with one of my childhood favorites, men on an island,, an egg fried over easy dropped into a hole in a slice of skillet toasted bread. What made today’s version special was the use of country whole wheat loaf bought from Le Quiche Bakery at the farmers’ market on Saturday for the bread slices. 

I drank my usual latte macchiato with collagen and sugar.

Actually, I called Neelish in Bombay at 3:00 a.m. to see if I could complete dematerializing my bank shares by zoom. Unfortunately he said “No”.

I got dressed by 10:00 and worked at my desk until 11:30.

Then I drove to Crazy Fish to meet Aaron for lunch.  He introduced me to a unique appetizer called Monkey balls that is a mushroom cap stuffed with ground Aji tuna, battered and fried and drizzled with a pink spicy sauce. I liked it a lot. We also ordered miso soups. I was quite filled by the time my chirashi arrived and I barely ate a 1/3 of it.  Aaron did better with his teriyaki chicken bowl.

After lunch I drove home and checked my portfolio that gave back most of what it gained Friday.

I then made an appointment with Shahin to do my taxes and copied and sent tax records and schedules to him until 5:30 when we started dinner.

Dinner - the pork tender we thawed was a large 5 1/2 lb. pork loin, not two small tenderloins, so we came up with a different menu. We decided to butterfly the pork loin and stuff it with some of the peach, fig, and quince preserves we cooked yesterday. Suzette suggested wrapping the stuffed loin with bacon and I suggested wrapping it with aluminum foil so it would retain its juices. After thirty minutes on the grill Suzette opened the aluminum to allow the fire to brown the bacon. I sliced the pork roast into 1/2 inch slices and found that it was perfectly cooked, juicy and still slightly pink on the top half that was away from direct flame.

The large pork loin yielded two additional cuts. Suzette dusted the larger one with salt and pepper and wrapped it in aluminum foil and grilled it also. It will be used for pork sandwiches.

  

The third smaller piece, approximately one lb. will be diced and used as an ingredient tomorrow night in Mapo Dofu.

The high point of the meal was not the grilled pork roast, although it was amazingly delicious, served with a dollop of fresh peach, fig, and quince preserves. The high point were the small new potatoes Suzette raised in our garden and harvested on Saturday.  

I have not eaten really fresh baby new potatoes since 1970 when I lived in Sweden where they are considered an annual delicacy.  We prepared them in the French manner, first boiling them and then sautéing them in sage butter. We also briefly sautéed snow peas with them.

Willy arrived just as Suzette was filling plates with a slice of pork roast, sautéed new potatoes and snow peas, and a dollop of preserves.

I poured glasses of Red Tail Ridge Dry Pinot Rose I had chilled. It was lovely. This was a terrific California Cuisine meal with a clean, elegant rose from New York’s Finger Lakes.

After the meal we sipped another glass of rose with some of the artisanal Ecuadorean chocolate Willy and Luke gave me for my birthday and Range baked cookies that were given to guests at the Valencia County Hispano Chamber of Commerce banquet Saturday evening.

Luke called as we were enjoying dessert to report on his first day at his new job and we thanked him for the chocolates.

Willy left and we watched a British spy thriller titled Black Bag on Netflix and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

August 9, 2026. Breakfast - Baguette with cherry jam and Jarlsberg cheese. Lunch - Sautéed Cabbage and Apple with Smoked Pork Cutlet. Dinner - Pasta with eggplant and lamb spaghetti sauce, sautéed Shiitake mushrooms, wood ear, and shallot

August 9, 2026. Breakfast - Baguette with cherry jam and Jarlsberg cheese. Lunch - Sautéed Cabbage and Apple with Smoked Pork Cutlet. Dinner - Pasta with eggplant and lamb spaghetti sauce, sautéed Shiitake mushrooms, wood ear, and shallot

I slept until 8:15.  After Fareed Zacharia I toasted three slices of baguette and spread butter and cherry preserves and garnished wupith slices of Jarlsberg cheese and drank a latte macchiato.

Then we rode our bikes around the neighborhood.

When we returned I rested for a few minutes and then we picked the dozen or so apples from our tree that is looking half dead.

Suzette then simmered figs and cooked peaches from our trees with cooked quince from last year, one vanilla bean, 3 cups of sugar, juice of one lemon, and 2 T. of fresh lemon thyme. After 30 minutes of simmering she filled sterilized jars and processed the sealed jars in a water bath for ten minutes to seal the jars.

At noon while the jam was cooking she also sautéed a smoked pork cutlet and the added tha leftover cabbage and apples we prepared last week.

We then drove to Goodwill and picked up five pants and one shorts to try on to see if they fit.

Then we drove to Total Wine and bought two bottles of scotch for Suzette.

When we returned home we rested until 5:00 when we started preparing dinner.

Dinner - I sliced three shiitake mushrooms, about a handful of fresh wood ear and a medium shallot that Suzette added to the leftover orecchiette pasta mixed with the leftover eggplant stuffed with a lamb, capers, and spaghetti sauce made from fresh tomatoes to which we added three purple tomatoes plus a handful of orange tiny cherry tomatoes, three cloves of garlic minced, 1/2 cup of fresh minced oregano and four larger red cherry tomatoes. I cannot explain how delicious the flavor of fresh ripe tomatoes is, especially joined with grilled lamb and a good Italian red wine.

Suzette opened a bottle of Susemaniello red from Puglia. It was a birthday gift  last month. It was dense, but flavorful, with just a hint of tannins on the finish.

After dinner we watched the last two episodes of season two of Castle Impossible with sips of cognac and a chocolate truffle and went to bed a bit after 8:00.

Bon Appetit

August 8, 2026 Breakfast - Croissants and Coffee. Lunch - Enchiladas with Rice and Beans Dinner - Valencia County Hispano Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet

August 8, 2026 Breakfast - Croissants and Coffee. Lunch - Enchiladas with Rice and Beans  Dinner - Valencia County Hispano Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet

I slept until 8:30 which is unusual.

Then at 9:00 we rode our bikes to the Farmer’s Market where Suzette bought two regular Croissants and one almond croissant and a loaf of Country brread from Le Quiche Bakery.

Then when we returned Suzette ate her regular croissant with a latte macchiato while reading the morning paper and I started removing the husks from the cloves of garlic we grew this year.

Suzette left for work around 9:30 and Willy arrived around 10:00 and we split The remaining almond and regular croissant and ate them with latte macchiatos and had a deep dive into our stock investing strategies.  Willy is doing very well, especially with long term options.

After he left around 11:00 I returned to separating cloves of garlic from their husks until Suzette arrived at 12:30 when we heated leftover enchiladas wirh beans and rice for lunch and drank beers.

I then finished husking cloves and Suzette lay down for a nap.

When I finished husking garlic at 2:30 I also lay down and napped until 4:00 when we got dressed and at 5:00 drove to Isleta Hotel to attend the Valencia County Hispano Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet.

Suzette had paid for a table for Senior Living that was a new member and because her manager, Vicki Baldenado, was to receive the outstanding Board member of the year award.

I had never been in the convention area of the hotel and was amazed how beautiful the long barrel vaulted main corridor was.

After we sat at our table, got drinks (I took a glass of Merlot), and a lot of introductory remarks, diner was served. I was amazed how good the food was, there was gourmet salad blend with cucumbers and cherry tomatoes plus a tomato and caramelized red onion salad.  Then came the entrees, a vegetable medley of lightly sautéed red onion, yellow and zucchini squash, and haricot vertes, then mashed potatoes and then chicken, stewed brisket, and baked salmon fillets. There were also squares of carrot and chocolate sheet cake.

I took the brisket and it was really good, slow cooked for hours in a beef broth sauce, but the best dish was the vegetables with the thin haricot vertes and fresh squashes.

After dinner there was another two hours of introductions and awards and soeeches abd pictures taken by each of the 15 or 16 new members including Suzette’s Senior Living crew (pictured above) and Vickie and Jeff’s company, Sunrise Builders. Then the award winners were honored including Vickie as Outstandimg Board member of the year.

Finally at 9:15 we drove back to Albuquerque in Suzette’s 1990 BMW roadster with the top retracted. I had fun driving Suzette’s roadster convertible.

When we arrived home we went to bed.

Bon Appetit