April 20, 2016 Lunch – Polish Dog at Costco, Dinner - sauteed ham and zucchini with a baked potato

April 20, 2016 Lunch – Polish Dog at Costco, Dinner - sauteed ham and zucchini with a baked potato

I went with Willy to Costco for lunch at 1:30.  He ordered two slices of pizza and I ordered a polish dog, which i garnished with sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, deli mustard and catsup.  Then we shopped, buying lamb chops, pot stickers, frozen fruit for his smoothies, and toilet paper.  Up I also picked up a prescription, which was the main impetus for the trip. 

When we came home at 3:00 I discovered that my $6000 gain in the stock market had evaporated to a $2,000 gain, but the market and my portfolio were still at all time highs.  My portfolio is up 3% over the end of 2014 and 6% over the end of 2015, which is what I predicted it would achieve this year.  I will be pleasantly surprised if the Dow ends much higher, which can happen only if the world economy continues to improve.

Suzette came home at 3:30 and lay down to nap, after a bad night’s sleep last night and at 3:30 I rode to Rio Bravo and back into a head wind out of the North gusting to 15 mph at times, which put pressure on my legs.

I arrived home at 4:20, took a shower and dressed.  While I was dressing, Suzette washed and pierced several russet potatoes and put them in the oven to bake.  We then drove to UNM for the Medieval History Department Lecture by Prof. Freedman on Medieval Cookbooks.  It was an interesting lecture in two respects. First, it dealt with mostly German Cuisine, which he acknowledged is currently “under appreciated”. Second, there were few formal cookbooks.  Most cooking manuscripts were thin and described converting ingredients into things that were different than the obvious, like a fish that has 1/3 fried, 1/3 baked and 1/3 boiled or making a castle with turrets with a different animal in each turret, like a stuffed swan, a suckling pig, etc.

Normal people ate something called muss most of the time that combined grains, meat, and vegetables into a one dish meal. 

Also, there was much more pork fat used in cooking than now.  In the question and answer period Prof. Friedman answered answered two interesting questions.  To a question about sugar he said that crane sugar originated in India, but did not grow well in the relatively dry climates until it was taken to the Caribbean, where it thrived and its production took off.  He also mentioned that Americans eat approximately 120 pounds of sugar a year, which is more than most other countries, mostly in sodas and prepared foods.  The other interesting question dealt with Jewish food.  Professor Friedman, who appears to be Jewish said that Jewish food, “Tended to be both similar and different.”  That there are many similarities between Sephardic cuisine and Spanish Cuisine and that Askenasi Jews tended to cooked like the Germans, but there were unique dishes common to both like gefilte fish is similar across all groups of Jews.  For the gastronomically curious here is what appears to me to be an authentic “Jewish” recipe for Gefilte Fish.  My mother would make it for Passover with carp, which she claimed was the most authentic fish to use.

This recipe comes from the Food Channel

My Mom's Legendary Galicianer (Sweet) Gefilte Fish from Food.com: http://www.food.com/recipe/my-moms-legendary-galicianer-sweet-gefilte-fish-186793?nl=email_share

Galicia was a short lived independent region in what is now Poland and Eastern Europe, which at the height of Ashkenasan culture was within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the 5:15 lecture at around 7:00 we returned home and I fetched the ham from the garage fridge and cut slices for dinner and chunks for ham salad.  Suzette sliced up two zucchini and Sautéed them with the slices of ham in a skillet for a two dish meal with one of the baked potatoes. 

We watched NHL hockey. Since there are still 16 teams competing in the Stanley Cup Finals, there is lots of hockey being played these days.  I am rooting for Dallas, but not very avidly. It is also interesting to watch the New York Islanders to see if Jagmar Jagr can still be a dominant presence on the ice.

We drank the last of the Chilean rose and then opened the bottle of Josefina California Rose of Syrah I bought recently at Trader Joe’s for $6.99. The 2013 Paso Robles vintage seems more fruity to me and according to Suzette, “has more complexity.” We both like it, but I miss the drier wine produced in prior years.  By the way I am excited to pick up the case of recently released Gruet still rose waiting for us at Gruet Winery.  We will serve it at my 70th birthday party on July 3.  

At around 9:30 I ate several chocolate covered almonds with a glass of cognac mixed with Courvoisier and Suzette and I studied wineries in the Seneca and Lake Cayuga area of the Finger Lakes we will be traveling to at the beginning of May.

We went to bed about 10:00.

Bon Appetit