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

April 4, 2026 Snack - Pain au Chocolate Brunch - Trout Cake and egg Sandwich Snack - Fig Newtons. Dinner Enchiladas and Beans Snack - Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich

April 4, 2026  Snack - Pain au Chocolate Brunch - Trout Cake and egg Sandwich Snack - Fig Newtons. Dinner Enchiladas and Beans  Snack - Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich

Today we were active and it was the first day I walked over 3000 steps.

I got up early and ate a pain au Chocolate as I watched the first 1/2 of Man City versus Liverpool. When Man City was up 2 to 0 at halftime at 6:30 I went back to bed and slept until 8:20.

At 9:30 we drove to Trader Joe’s where we bought Whole Wheat bread, Iberico cheese, seven bottles of wine and two bottles of cognac and several plants, including basil plants for the garden

We then drove to Total Wine where we bought a 12 pack of Negra Modelo, a 12 pack of Carlsberg and two bottles of Shielding scotch for Suzette.

On the way to Trader Joe’s I ate four fig newtons.

After Total Wine we drove to Smith’s where we bought bagels, milk, cream cheese, two salmon fillets, green beans, and shallots.

When we returned home Suzette whisked and fried an egg each and microwaved the two leftover trout cakes from last night’s dinner and we made trout sandwiches.

Then Luke and Suzette worked in the garden and I read and watched TV because I had walked through three stores.

At 3:00 Luke left for a yoga class and zsuzette and I drove to Vara to pick up our shipment of wine and the taste a flight of four sparkling wines that are all being made by Laurent.  We also tasted a Late Harvest Albariño from California that we liked very much, so we bought an extra bottle of it and an interesting whiskey with three different grain bases.

We sat at a table in the grove of trees. Our favorite sparking wine was the Silverhead Brut, although I liked the Silverhead Rose’.

At 5:00 when we returned home and heated plates of PPI Enchiladas and beans and ate a good dinner.

We watched Bill Maher at 6:00 and Have I got News for you at 7:00 and snacked on another square of enchiladas and some beans and I ate a couple of scoops of vanilla ice cream with Hershey’s chocolate syrup.

Then we watched Father Brown and when Death in Paradise began I made a snack of toast spread with peanut butter and honey and drank a cup of chai with it.

So today we did not cook, but ate lots of snacks and small meals.

Bon Appetit