The time change today threw my schedule off. I ended up getting dressed at 10:30 and ate an early lunch of the last of the Mapo Dofu with the last of the rice with green tea.
I went to Lowe’s with Willy to buy milk and green onions. We saw some nice looking sushi in the new sushi department, so we bought a tray with three rolls of five pieces each for $12.99 and took them home and ate them around 4:30, being sure to leave five pieces for Suzette. I must admit that I enjoyed the well made sushi rolls. Willy especially liked the roll covered with crisp flakes of fried onion.
I was hungry, even after eating the sushi, so we ate another appetizer of potato chips spread with herbed goat cheese that I had bought a Trader Joe’s last week for $2.99 after we prepped dinner and had started roasting the vegetables.
We started cooking dinner at 5:00. I decided to roast the organic golden beets I had bought at Sprouts last week with the turnips Suzette picked in the garden, plus three or four carrots Jefferson had given Suzette, 1 large onion and 2 small Yukon Gold potatoes. These filled a ceramic baking dish, which we tossed with Spanish olive oil, salt and ground black pepper.
Suzette roasted the vegetables covered with aluminum for 45 minutes and the uncovered for another 20 to 30 minutes.
Teriyaki chicken
We had a small bowl of soy sauce and wasabi and a couple of pieces of pickled ginger left from the sushi, so we decided to marinate the four chicken thighs I had thawed starting at lunch in the soy, to which I added a T. of Aji Mirin and an additional tsp. of pickled ginger threads.
After about an hour of marinating, we decided to grill the chicken with a handful of asparagus that Suzette had brushed with olive oil.
By 7:00 everything was ready, sort of; Suzette had to finish the chicken in the microwave to get it to full cooked, and we ate a delicious dinner. Suzette drank water and I drank Apple cider.
The roasted vegetables were delicious. They had become slightly caramelized and exuded a sweetness. Suzette was correct when she suggested against garlic and herbs, because the flavor of the roasted vegetables alone was exquisitely elegant.
We watched the Town Halls with Bernie and Hillary in Springfield, Illinois, and then Rachel Maddow and then read our books. Willy came home around 8:30 after eating dinner with Ellie and Tyler.
I had a cup of Earl Grey tea and several chocolate chip cookies and went to bed around 10:00.
Most everyone in the media has finally figured out that this Presidential election could be the reverse of the 1968 election; a Republican Party divided between dissident anti-Washington Trump supporters and establishment Republicans versus a unified Democratic Party moving toward a more inclusive progressive agenda.
So it is really the opposite of 1968 in two important respects. First, the Republican Party has splintered between its traditional big money interests and a populist insurgency driven by new media by Donald Trump, who is not a traditional Republican, but is a great showman with narcissistic demagogue tendencies, just like the Democratic Party in 1968 splintered between the traditional loose coalition of conservative Southerners and unions on one hand and the progressive mostly young anti-war civil rights wing of the Party. The 1968 election was the watershed event when the conservative Southern conservatives switched allegiance to the Republican Party, with Nixon’s southern strategy, as the Democratic Party tore itself apart over the War in Vietnam. Second, the numbers may finally be working in favor of the Democrats, as a coalition of young ideological voters who support Bernie Sanders unite with the traditional Democratic base of unions and minorities. Hopefully, this will be the opportunity for the U.S. to finally reflect politically the majority, minority country that it is becoming demographically and begin to manifest more inclusive and liberal/progressive institutions, like some of the countries in Europe.
The interesting thing will be to see what happens in the House of Representative and Senate elections. I suspect it will take another election to change control of Congress to a Democratic majority, if that is even possible, before meaningful progress can occur in legislation. But we could be surprised, if the backlash against the Republican controlled Congress is truly felt this election. It is hard to know how many conservative Republican office holders are vulnerable, because it is still too early for me to tell how the Trump wildcard plays in the Presidential and congressional elections. In other words, whether the Republican Party tears itself apart through internal fighting like the Democrats did in 1968 or finds some resolution that maintains enough party unity to hold control of Congress.
My guess is that some sort of Faustian deal will be worked out between the controlling elements of the Republican Party and Trump to let him brand the Party, like one of the casinos in Atlantic City for an election cycle, during which the Republicans will regroup and put forth a more traditional candidate next election, as the country sinks further into stagnation politically and economically. Alternatively, the more hopeful result would be for Paul Ryan and more moderate Republicans to work with the Democrats and Hillary to begin to pass meaningful legislation over the objections of the tea party members, like Ted Cruz, and overwhelm the populists by voting against their small and no government agenda, which would reduce the gridlock and dissatisfaction toward Washington and perpetuate the two party system as we now know it, perhaps with some meaningful election reform.
Bon Appetit
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