December 30, 2017 Brunch – Bacon and eggs with Roasted Vegetables. Dinner – Seared

December 30, 2017  Brunch – Bacon and eggs with Roasted Vegetables.

Dinner – Seared

I worked in the morning until Suzette allied me to the table to eat bacon with fried ages cooked with PPI Roasted Vegetables from Christmas.

After breakfast we ordered tickets for the Taos Winter Wine Fest and called Barry and Kylene to ask them if we can stay at their house in Taos and invite him to join us for the reserve tasting.

We then showered and dressed and at noon we drove to Highridge theater and saw The Shape of Water, which should receive a nomination for best film of the year by the Academy.


After the movie we returned home and rode our tandem to Rio Bravo and back.

Then we rested and watched bowl games and got dressed again and drove the six blocks to Seared which is located next to the Old Town Post Office on Dan Pasquale at 7:00 for dinner and to hear a guitarist named Marygold, based upon an article in the newspaper.

Seared

We looked at the menu and found few interesting dishes.  As Suzette said, “it is hard to eat out when everything on the menu is stuff that we cook. Eating out is for folks who do not know how to cook.”

I ordered the most interesting item on the menu, fresh mussels Sautéed with Chorizo.  It also had as ingredients onion and a few white beech mushrooms.  The sauce was a milk sauce with lots of red chili flakes, so it was very spicy.  Also many of the mussels has not opened which scared us a bit about their quality, but I ate several that were partially open to no ill effect.

Suzette ordered Salmon cakes and we decided to split a Chopped Salad.
The chopped salad was the best dish of the meal.  It was composed with organic greens topped with regions of sliced chicken beast, Granny Smith apples, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, and toasted walnuts and was dressed with an interesting vinaigrette.

We ordered a bottle of Joel Gott 2016 Sauvignon Blanc that was quite drinkable.

When Suzette’s salmon Cakes came she could not eat them, because they seemed to be blackened an encrusted with soy and fish sauce, which made Suzette think they were burned.  This led her to reject the dish.  We asked for a substitution of a side dish of shrimp and escargot, which turned out rather well; a small shallow bowl filled with four or five plump fresh de-shelled shrimp cooked in a white wine and butter broth with chopped escargot, onion, and parsley.  The bowl was served on a butter plate with toasted thin slices of bread and a mound of chopped roasted garlic.  We enjoyed this dish very much and when the final bill arrived it turned out we were comped on this dish, because it was
actually part of the Surf and Turf offering on the menu.

We talked to the chef, Alejandro, who is from Vera Cruz, during the meal and suggested to his wife after the meal that they feature some Vera Cruz seafood dishes to add more exotic offerings to the menu.

We were satisfied with the meal and happy we went out and heard some good music, but as Suzette said, “The music was more appropriate for a brewery, because it was loud guitar music.”

When we returned home I brought in the Clafoutis and we plated our dessert with rectangles of Clafoutis surrounded by whipped cream and topped with spoonfuls of the blueberry Quine sauce Suzette made to accompany the duck breast dinner before Christmas.

So I finished the evening with a cup of tea, a glass of Calvados and a lovely dessert that we ate while we watched Penn State win the Peach Bowl against Miami.

We are looking forward to our four course dinner at Gruet tomorrow night catered by Whole Foods.

Bon Appetit

December 29, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Noodle Soup with roast beef Dinner – Roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, brown gravy and cream horseradish sauce

December 29, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Noodle Soup with roast beef
Dinner – Roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, brown gravy and cream horseradish sauce

I ate ½ bagel with goat cheese and slices of onion and Lax for breakfast.

I wanted to ride today so I took all my vitamins.


For lunch I made a Vietnamese Noodle Soup with Pho seasoning, dehydrated dashi, broccoli, green beans, a shallot and a mushroom sliced and about 1/3 lb. of chunks of roast beef.  I even scraped the pan and put some pan drippings into the soup.  I used fresh rice noodles and garnished the soup with green onion finely sliced and fresh cilantro, lime juice and hoisin sauce.  This soup gives me nutrition and moisture that helps lubricate my joints, it seems.

After lunch I lay down for 45 minutes until 3:00 to build my energy by digesting lunch.

Then at 3:00 I went to pick up a digital file from Sally.

At 4:00 I rode to Rio Bravo and back.  I find that the above regimen helps me ride with good energy all the way.

I rested until 5:30 when I returned at 5:00.

Then I went to the kitchen and started cooking.


I prepped the mashed potatoes by peeling and cubing six medium russet potatoes (10 lb. of potatoes for $1.99 at El Super) and put the cubes into a pot ½ filled with water.  I then started the potatoes boiling until I thought they were soft and turned them off.

I then made the Clafoutis with blueberries.

Clafoutis

This is a dessert from the Limousine region of France which is dairy and cattle country.  This dish is characterized by the use of enriched milk.  To enrich the milk I use 2 cups of whole milk and 1 cup of half and half.

I scald the milk mixture and allow it to cool.


In a mixing bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients I mix 7 T. of flour, 10 T. of confectioners sugar, and ½ tsp. of salt.

I make a slight depression in the center of the dry ingredients and drop three large eggs into the center and and whisk the eggs into the dry ingredients.  Today the eggs did not fully emulsify all the dry ingredients, which is okay because I then added the milk and stirred the batter until it was smooth.  I then added three cups of fresh blueberries to the batter.

Then I the buttered a ceramic baking dish. I often cost the butter with sugar, but did not today.  I poured the batter into the ceramic baking dish.  And put the mixture into a heated 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes until the custard is baked to firm and the top a golden brown.

Suzette arrived at 6:30 and Charlie arrived a few minutes later.


I opened a bottle of 2016 Belleruche Cotes Du Rhone rose’ and poured glasses of it for a before dinner drink. Suzette opened a bottle of 2016 Chateau Haut-Sorillon Bordeaux for dinner.

I then snapped the approximately 1 lb. of green beans I had bought at Sprouts on Wednesday for $.77/lb. and put the beans into the steamer basket of our steamer and placed the steamer on a larger burner on the stove and turned on the heat.

While I was dealing with the beans Suzette heated milk and butter in the microwave and added it to the drained potatoes she had put into the bowl of the Kitchenaid mixer and whipped the potatoes.

Then Suzette heated the PPI pan drippings left in the roasting pan after we roasted the 8 lbs. of standing rib roasts on Tuesday night and added flour to make a roux and then added milk to make a brown gravy.  She did not need to season the gravy since a portion of the sea salt and pepper I coated
the roast with had fallen into the roasting pan.

We checked the Clafoutis by shaking the baking dish and it seemed firm, so Suzette removed the baking dish from the oven and placed it on the counter to cool.

Dinner prep was a quick affair taking no more than twenty minutes after the potatoes were peeled, cubed and cooked.  Suzette whipped  the potatoes and made the brown sauce and I snapped and steamed the green beans.  Then I sliced three slices of roast beef from the roasted but uncut 4 lb. piece of PPI roast beef from Tuesday evening’s meal and Suzette covered the slices of meat with Saran and heated them in the microwave oven until they were hot and steaming.  We judged the beans to be cooked so we each plated our own plates with a slice of roast beef, a scoop of mashed potatoes, and a couple of tongs full of green beans and spooned brown sauce onto the meat and potatoes.  I fetched the cold cream and horseradish sauce from the fridge but it was unnecessary, because we all preferred the warm brown gravy.

When we finished our glasses of rose’ we poured glasses of red wine and ate our way through the heavy meat and potatoes dinner by washing the bites down with wine, although Charlie preferred water.
After dinner I asked Charlie, “Do you want Blueberry Clafoutis or my chocolate dessert?”  Charlie responded, “The chocolate.”

So I plated a piece of my chocolate dessert I had before Christmas and coated it with some pouring custard I had made before Christmas also.  I poured Suzette a cognac and myself a Calvados and we each ate a small bowl of still warm Clafoutis while Charlie ate the chocolate dessert with custard sauce.

I made a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk to wash down my food and dessert.

Charlie does not cook.  He learned woodworking from helping his dad in his dad’s woodworking shop, just like I learned how to cook by helping my mother prep dishes for her cooking school and family dinners.  Charlie’s woodworking skills are awesome.  He can make anything with wood from model planes to harpsichords and federal period marquetry tables.

When he said he had gone to the store to buy 6 cans of soup, I filled a storage container with two slices of roast beef, the rest of the mashed potatoes and as much brown gravy as I could get into the container and sent him home with several dinners of food.

We said goodnight at about 9:00.

Charlie had mentioned an interview on BBC Radio 4 of Obama by Prince Harry, so after Charlie left tuned it in on You Tube Suzette.  Suzette then went to bed and I stayed up to listen to Rachel discuss the Dossier and check the year end results of my portfolio.  I achieved a 16.5% gain, which is below average, probably because made two big mistakes. I had more than 10% in cash for fear of what Trump might do to the economy and I held a large position in GE, which was the worst performing stock in the Dow, down 45% for the year.

I just read a talk of the town article about a graphic designer who is going to make a book about unhappy people and I remember something Charlie said at dinner, “I have lots more time now that I ave stopped watching the news.”

Those two things made my realize that it is stupid to get angry or unhappy because of what President Trump says or does because that is just playing into his crazy agenda.  Suzette perhaps has the best attitude.  When we watch the news se says, “Let’s see what our crazy President is doing today.”

I need to adopt either Charlie or Suzette’s attitude and stop worrying about the President’s madness or Narcissistic personality disorder that continually attacks our democratic institutions.  I keep remembering what Hillary and others said during the campaign, about how Trump was emotionally unprepared to be President.

I promise myself to try not to react negatively to Trump’s craziness.

The problem is that I fear that Trump’s craziness and inability to govern exposes the U.S. to greater threats from those who would do us harm who see an opportunity to strike at the U.S. or leaders of growing powers like China and Russia who see an opportunity to advance their agendas because they think the instability created by Trump may keep the U.S. from making a unified response.

Bon Appetit

December 28, 2017 Lunch – Canyon Club Dinner – PPI Rib Roast with Mashed Potatoes and blanched Spinach

December 28, 2017 Lunch – Canyon Club  Dinner – PPI Rib Roast with Mashed Potatoes and blanched Spinach

Suzette threw up last night and became sick.  We were not sure if it was the food.  Last night I ate poached pears and yogurt for dessert and this morning I ate granola, yogurt, milk, and blueberries to try to stave off any possible food borne ailment.

Today was our December book club meeting.  Mike was host and he reserved a private dining room at the Canyon Club in the Four Hills Subdivision, where he is a member.  We could chose from either the breakfast or lunch menus.  I chose a Cobb Salad with blue cheese dressing.  Charlie chose a green Chile meatloaf sandwich.  There were lots of interesting sandwiches and entrées.

After lunch we reassembled at Mike’s house and discussed Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow until 5:00

Charlie drove me home.  When Suzette arrived around 5:30 she was still sick and went to bed, not be seen for the rest of the evening.  At 6:45 I made dinner out of mainly PPIs, pieces of the standing rib roast and mashed potatoes and celery root from last night’s dinner on a pile of spinach heated in the microwave covered with Saran.

I dabbed the dish with liberal amounts of horseradish cream sauce and opened a bottle of Cherry BlossomCalifornia Pinot Noir.

After dinner I smeared pieces of bread with butter, PPI foie gras and Camembert as I watched TCU play Stanford in the Alamo Bowl game.  TCU started poorly but its defense and offense began to dominate in the 4th quarter and the Frogs came from behind to win the game 39 to 37 in the end.  A great game.

Bon Appetit

December 27, 2017 Lunch – Polish Dog at Costco, Dinner – PPI Enchiladas with Black Beans and mango pineapple salsa

After every great food day there must be average food days.

Today was less than wonderful food.  The best meal was a quick breakfast of ½ bagel smeared with cream cheese and garnished with slices of red onion and Lax with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

I worked until almost 2:00 and then rode to Montano and back.  After I returned I went to Costco and ate a Polish Dog.  Then I went to Home Depot and then visited with Shahin.  Then I shopped at Sprouts for green beans, Brussels Sprouts, milk, and olive oil.

I then meditated and went home at 7:00, where I ate PPI enchiladas, Black Beans, mango and pineapple salsa and sour cream with radishes and a Negra Modelo.

Suzette threw up her dinner so, since I ate the same dinner she did, I drank a second Negra Modelo.

Bon Appetit

December 26, 2017 Lunch – PPI Shrimp Enchiladas and Duck Posole Dinner Party – Standing Rib Roast with Horseradish Cream Sauce, Celery Root Mashed Potatoes, green beans, Spanish Orange and Olive Salad, Cranberry Compote and corn relish

December 26, 2017 Lunch – PPI Shrimp Enchiladas and Duck Posole
Dinner Party – Standing Rib Roast with Horseradish Cream Sauce, Celery Root Mashed Potatoes, green beans, Spanish Orange and Olive Salad, Cranberry Compote and corn relish

I am trying to get back on a normal diet, but only achieved it for breakfast, a bowl of granola with yogurt, blueberries, and milk.

I ate lunch after 2:00; PPI shrimp enchiladas and a bowl of Duck Posole.

I then helped Willy pick up the luminarias.

At 3:30 I started prepping the two approximately 4 lb. roasts for dinner.  I sliced holes and inserted cloves of garlic into the slits.  Then I covered the roasts with sea salt and ground pepper and put it into an oven pre-heated to 500 degrees covered.  I then reduced the heat to 350 degrees and we cooked for 2 ½ hours until it reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  Suzette arrived  at around 4:30 and immediately uncovered the roasting pan, so the meat would develop a crust.  The roasts did not have a large external fat layer, but was pretty heavily marbled internally, so it retained a lot of moisture and tenderness.

I then peeled two celery roots and five or six russet potatoes and cubed them and put the cubes into a bowl in water so they would retain their color and freshness.

I took a shower at 5:30, after watching the business news, and when  I returned at 6:00, I found a recipe for Epicure Sauce. I first beat 1 cup of heavy cream until just short of fluffy peaks (the recipe calls for ½ cup of cream but I used to make this sauce with only cream, so I like more cream).  Then I added about 3 or 4 T. of horseradish and fresh Mexican crema and whipped those ingredients together.  The;I added 1 to 2 T. of sweet lime juice, about ¾ tsp. of salt and about ¾ tsp. of Worcestershire Sauce to intensify the bitterness.  Finally I went to the garden and rummaged under the dead leaves of chives until I found about 2 T. of chives and finely minced those and added them to the sauce to complete the sauce. I then placed about 2 cups of the sauce in a serving bowl and placed it in the fridge to chill.

While I was making the sauce Suzette was boiling the potatoes and celery root in a large covered enameled casserole and then whipped the boiled mixture in the Kitchen Aid as she added melted butter and heated milk to make fluffy smooth mashed potatoes.

Melissa and Ruth arrived just after 6:30 with two bottles of wine, a 1987 Appellation Controllee  Haut Medoc Chateau Muret and a 2014 California Martin Ray Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Haut Medoc has been bought by Ruth’s husband and Melissa’s dad, John and they never got the chance to drink it while he was alive.

Soon, Aaron arrived with a bottle of 2015 Bogdan biodynamic Estate bottled Merlot and Cynthia and Ricardo arrived with a bowl of green beans, a cranberry and orange compote, a Spanish style salad of orange slices, avocado chunks, and quartered seeded Kalamata olives dusted with smoked paprika, and a large wedge of an apple, cranberry, and raisin pie she baked for Christmas.

Suzette put some of the golden corn chutney she made for the Christmas Eve party in a bowl on the table.


When I tried to pull the cork in the Chateau Muret it collapsed, so I pushed the cork into the wine and decanted the wine into a pitcher through an aerator and a sieve. .

Suzette had been checking the internal temperature of the meat with a meat thermometer and pulled the two roasts from the oven just before they reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees.  The meat was cooked to medium medium rare, just the way I prefer, with a bit of red toward the middle that Suzette prefers.

Melissa enjoyed the Romanian Domaine Bogdan rose’ I poured at the Christmas Eve Open House, so today I poured glasses of 2016 Le Pont Bandol rose’ for everyone when we were together at around 6:45.  Then I opened a bottle of 2014 Gruet Rose’ and poured glasses of it.  Melissa loved both Rose’s.

We then sat in the dining room and I carved one of the roasts, which was probably 4 ½ lb. and we heated the green beans in the microwave briefly to warm them.

We poured out the decanter of Chateau Muret and I served the meat and Melissa served the potatoes and we passed the green beans and Epicure Sauce and when we were all served Melissa offered a toast to John and we sipped the Chateau Muret.  It had a velvety smooth taste with complexity that you could identify as age.  It was a good wine that had lived for 30 years in the bottle.  A testament to French winemaking and John and Ruth’s care of the bottle.

Everything was first rate.  The meat was tender.  The mashed potatoes and celery root were wonderful.  The green beans were tender and still had a bit of crunch and the sauce, the cranberry compote, and corn relish were delicious.

For our second glass of wine we poured the 2015 Bogdan Merlot, which was indescribably light and elegant.  The best Merlot I have ever tasted.  A winner.

After dinner the conversation continued and I asked if anyone wanted coffee or tea.  When the said, “No,”, Suzette and Cynthia served dessert; Suzette served the chocolate baked Pudding with pouring custard and Cynthia served slices of her apple, cranberry, raisin pie. I served small sho glasses of Buller Premium Fine Muscat from Victoria, Australia that I have had for about ten years in the cellar and was rated 98 to 100 points, as I recall.

A little before 10:00 we all said goodnight after a lovely meal with exquisite wine that I shall remember fondly.

Bon Appetit

December 24, 2017 Christmas Eve Open House

December 24, 2017 Christmas Eve Open House

We started the morning by prepping the shrimp enchilada recipe from Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen Cookbook.

We sautéed tortillas in grape seed oil to soften them and then stuffed them with the filling and then covered them with sauce and grated cheese.

I realized I had forgotten to make the pouring custard for my chocolate dessert, so I made that next.  Here is the recipe:

Willy came by and started putting out the 240+ luminarias.  We save our luminarias year to year, so he did not need to make lots of new ones, but it still was a huge job


I made the mango and pineapple salad next with two or three mangoes, a pineapple, and ½ red onion finely chopped.  We needed chili’s, so I drove to El  Super.  The parking lot and store were full of folks doing their Christmas food shopping.  Serrano chilis were on sale for $.50/lb. so I bought five of them, which was about 3 oz.  I also bought black beans and more red onions.

When I returned home I finely minced two Serrano’s and completed the salsa.

Suzette made the corn chutney by boiling the 8 ears of corn, stripping the kernels, and adding minced red bell pepper.  Here is the recipe:

The syrup did not thicken, so we ended up with a bottle of simple syrup.  This and the inspiration for the Duck Posole and the New Age New Mexican themed menu came from John Sedler’s Modern Southwest Cuisine cookbook.  John used to own a restaurant in Manhattan a Beach, but a few years ago moved back to New Mexico and is now Executive Chef at Eloisa’s Restaurant in the Drury LaneHotel at the corner or Peralta and Palace.

We worked steadily but were not in a crunch.  I sliced the fruitcake and we demolded the chocolate desserts and placed them under glass canopies on the buffet.

I took a nap and then dressed and returned to the kitchen at 4:00.

I sliced and toasted bread slices for the cheese and pate’ and made the mulled wine by adding 4 cups of lemon juice and 4 1 ½ liter bottles of Concha y Toro Explotateur Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot Chilean red.

I then moved most of the spices from the negrus in the mulled wine to another pot to which I added apple cider to makes spiced apple cideR.
I put out cheeses.  This year the new cheeses were a Gesu de Alsacae, a hard aged cheese from Italy named Paradiso, and a Camembert from Normandy.

We filled the serving containers, most of which were wooden.  This year Suzette used her extensive
collection of monkey pod wood containers.

Here is Suzette spooning roasted vegetables into a ceramic covered casserole.

And here is a picture of the table.

   The dessert buffet                                                          Two Romanian wines Aaron brought. 

By 5:30 everything was ready.  About 6:00 Carole, Mark, and Rachel arrived with a crock pot in a heat proof bag full of BBQ brisket and vegetables and a plate full of homemade cookies

Then a steady stream of folks arrived, including Susan Feil and Jonnie Gillespie with gifts, Bill and Regina, Cynthia and Ricardo, Lynn and Michelle, Jill and Marty who brought an amazing platter with a beef pate’terrine, French seeded mustard, chopped onion, and capers, Barbara and Charlie, Peggy and Dick, Robert and Marilyn came bringing a can of sesame oil, and several others.  This year there were about an equal or greater number of Willy and Luke’s friends.  Drew brought his girlfriend Megan.  Rachel and Rosa brought the best gingerbread men I have eaten in years.  Rosa has just finished her masters in Florence on Renaissance female artist self portraits so she was interested in our art collection.  So the most fun I had at the party was showing the collection to Rosa and enjoying her knowledgeable comments.  She said they are opening a gallery in Denver this year.  Prettyinteresting.

The Simbanas came and I shared my Gravad Lax recipe with them as I cut more La


Ed showed up later and told me he was retired now and interested in a company recycling water in California.Will and Willy arrived around 4:30 and lit the luminarias.  It seemed like everyone knew and did their job to perfection so there was very little tension.

Around 9:30 Janis and Tom and their family came, about ten folks.

It was great fun seeing so many friends and sharing our new recipes.

The hit of the party was the foie gras that we served with the golden corn chutney and Mango and pineapple salsa on either warm taco sized tortillas or tostadas.

At 10:30 we went out to walk the neighborhood and wished the Rosales family a happy holiday, Ellie and Tyler, Jody and Loyda, and Jose were standing around the steel brazier with a fire going in front of the house.

We walked three blocks and saw a couple of thousand luminarias.  The neighborhood looked lovely, especially on Park Ave where the City had turned off the street lights and swept the street, thanks to Willy and the Neighborhood board’s discussions concerning turning Park Ave. into a pedestrian only walking street from 6:00 until 8:00.

There did not seem to be as many people out this year, ever though the weather was particularly balmy.  The temperature reached 60 degrees and there was no wind.

We returned around 11:30 and found the young folks had left for Drew’s house.   Everyone went home by 12:00.

We cleaned and put up food for an hour and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

December 25, 2017 Lunch – PPI Shrimp Enchiladas, Mango Pineapple Salas, and Spinach Avocado Salad.  Dinner- PPI Black Beans and Duck Posole and Spinach Avocado Salad

Today was a lazy but eventful day.  We started the day sleeping until after 8:00.

When we woke up Suzette wanted to open gifts, so I made a cup of hot lime water with honey and she made coffee and we gathered in the living room.  I gave her an I-phone 8 and bottle of truffle salt.  She gave me a recycled bike tire message board and I selected one of the four Nepalese felt scarves she bought at the Santa Fe Folk Art show in July.

Then I started opening gifts folks brought us last night at our Christmas Open. I am surprised and pleased that folks bring us gifts, sharing the joy of giving at Christmas.  I guess opening our home and entertaining for the evening is a form of giving, also.

The gifts included a jar of fruits and nuts preserved in honey from Lynn and Michel, a jar of homemade spiced pecans from Susan Feil, a bottle of Champalou sparkling Vouvray from Johnnie, a bottle of French Cruse Sparkling wine from Bill and Regina, tea towels, a coffee table book on the Wine of Romania from Aaron, a box of Buffet’s Candies from Sandy, and a bottle of Ecco Domeni red Italian merlot.  What fun.
 

The food contributions to last night’s buffet were many and are described in the blog for December 24.

Willy arrived at around 10:30 and gave me a new game called Splendor and gave Suzette a Fitbit Alta.  I gave Willy a New I-Phone 8 and Suzette gave him a new Hoover vacuum cleaner for his apartment so he will not need to keep borrowing our vacuum cleaner.

It was approaching lunch time and we decided to play the Splendor game and eat lunch.  Suzette heated the last tray of blue corn shrimp enchiladas and made plates for us filled with enchiladas, mango pineapple salsa, and spinach avocado salad.  Luke called and we talked to him for a while, so for a few minutes the family was together, which was nice.  We nibbled on Jill’s delicious beef pate terrine and sipped MacMurray Pinot Gris as we played Splendor.

After lunch and a couple of games of Splendor, Willy departed and we packed our gift for Cynthia and Ricardo and rode to their home on the tandem.  They invited us in and gave us a Puerto Rican Christmas eggnog drink named Coquito.  Here is a recipe:
In bowl of blender, add evaporated milk, cream of coconut, coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, rum (if using), vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. Blend on high until mixture is well combined, 1-2 minutes. Pour coconut mixture into glass bottles; cover. Transfer to refrigerator.

We sat outside beside their horno fireplace in the mild 60 degree weather and opened their gift, a zested from William Sonoma and four sweet limes, and talked for over an hour.

Then we rode home at 3:30 and relaxed.  I napped from 4:000 until 5:00 and Suzette watched the first two episodes of “True Detective” in her effort to binge watch a series of shows for the holidays.

We then watched the news shows and heated bowls of PPI black beans and Duck Posole for dinner and I ate the PPI Avocado and spinach salad on a bed of fresh spinach. So a pretty healthy dinner, although I ate a slice of fruitcake and Suzette ate a couple of pieces of Buffet’s handmade candies.

After watching the Antiques Roadshow I climbed into bed and finished the Alexander Hamilton biography, this month’s book club selection.

Suzette came to bed around 9:00 while I was reading.

A pleasant day.

Bon Appetit

December 23, 2017 Lunch – Sandy Buffet ‘s Open House Dinner at Willy’s apartment

December 23, 2017 Lunch – Sandy Buffet ‘s Open House   Dinner at Willy’s apartment

I started with a sweet lime juice and honey in hot water.  I nibbled as I cooked, heating the duck posole and making my chocolate dessert.

Here is the recipe and a picture of me filling the buttered and sugared molds.

  Suzette added some ground cinnamon to keep the Mexican theme going.

I put the puddings on the top rack too near the heat source and they scorched a bit.

We then showered and dressed and at 11:15 walked across the street to Sandy’s for her open house.  She had Santa Claus visiting from the North Pole.  I know because we talked and we took a picture together.

Sandy served a chicken green Chile stew and tamales.  Of course there were lots of good looking desserts including boxes and trays of Buffet’s candies.  I ate a bowl of stew with a tamale and drank a beer with it.  Tim Keller was in attendance with his family.  It appears that we now have a new generation of families with young children moving into the neighborhood, which is quite wonderful.


We then drove to Walgreen’s to buy luminaries candles and the El Super for black beans, fresh epazote, and potatoes.

We then drove to Costco where we bought apple juice, corn, half and half, heavy cream, and Reddi-whip whipped cream.

When we returned home at 3:00 I made the negrus for the mulled wine with 5 cups of sugar 3 cups of water plus 6 cinnamon sticks, three crushed nutmegs, about 50 whole cloves and the zest from four sweet limes, one lemon, and two large navel oranges.  I simmered the syrup for about twenty minutes until 4:00 when I took a nap until almost 6:00 when we spoke to Willy and he invited us to his apartment for dinner.  

Willy fixed Irish Stew with Guinness Stout.  We took the bag of potatoes and Willy and Suzette made mashed potatoes.  We took a bottle of 2011 Marquis de Caceres 2011 Reserva, which turned out to not bee a great bottle of wine, or more aptly, we have been drinking such good wine lately, it paled in comparison.  I bought the Reserva at Total Wine but do not recall when or its price.

Later I ate some yogurt with poached pears and we went to bed at 9:00.

Bon Appetit

December 22, 2017 Lunch – Reconstituted PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – Seared Duck Breast and Liver served on Black Beans with a Blueberry Sauce

December 22, 2017  Lunch – Reconstituted PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – Seared Duck Breast and Liver served on Black Beans with a Blueberry Sauce

Today a started cooking Duck Posole for Sunday night’s open house.  I washed and covered four lb. of posole with water and simmered it on the stove at the lowest heat for five hours to force out as much lime as I could because I was going to cook the posole in duck broth.

It took about two hours to butcher to remove all the meat from the two ducks because there were several interruptions such as ordering Christmas gifts and buying 100 shares of Nvidia stock.

I put the Duck meat in a freezer bag in the meat drawer of the fridge and the two carcasses into a stock pot filled with water.  I started heating the stock and posole at around 10:00 in the morning and cooked both all day until Suzette came home.

At 11:00 I went shopping for Christmas gifts in Uptown.  I went to the Apple store, Williams Sonoma, and Trader Joe’s where I bought chocolate for my chocolate baked pudding, some sea salt with truffles, and 9 bottles of wine and a bottle of cognac and a bottle of Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey.

On the way home at 1:00 p.m. I stopped at the new Le Madeleine and bought two baguettes.  The restaurant was really large and filled with diners eating lunch.  It is wonderful to have a new French bakery in town.  I hope to go there soon for lunch.

When I got home I sectioned and bagged the baguettes.

Suzette came home at 3:00 and after I checked the market finish and was relieved to see I had a slight gain on a slightly down day I rode 5 miles south and back.  When I got back and changed clothes Suzette helped me pour off the water in the posole pot and pour the duck broth into the posole pot.  I then re-filled the duck broth pot and put it back on the stove to cook another batch of Duck stock.

Suzette then suggested that I dice the duck meat.

I had no plan for dinner but when Suzette saw how much meat there was she suggested sautéing a duck breast for dinner and serving it on some of the black beans she had put into our bean pot and was slowly cooking on the stove, to which I immediately agreed.   Suzette researched recipes on the internet and found a recipe for a blueberry sauce using apple juice and sugar, so she made a sauce with 1 ½ pints of blue berries, ½ cup of sugar and an 8 oz. jar of Quince syrup she made from this year’s crop of Quince.

Suzette then dusted the duck breast and a piece of duck liver with herbs d’ Provence and sautéed lardettes made by slicing slices of thick cut Kirtland applewood Smoked bacon in a skillet.  When the lardettes were fried to golden brown Suzette removed the lardettes and added 1 T. of  olive oil to the skillet and sautéed the duck breast and liver for a couple of minutes to sear them.  She also steamed flowerets of broccoli. I the sliced the duck breast and the liver and Suzette constructed our plates by laying about 1/3 cup of black beans in the bottom of a pasta bowl, laying the slices of breast and liver on the beans.  Shen then spooned blueberry sauce over the duck slices, lay flowerets of steamed broccoli beside the duck and finally garnished the dish with the bacon lardettes.

I was so impressed with her menu that I decided to try the new bottle of 2015 Kirtland Chateauneuf Du Pape I recently bought at Costco.  I was intrigued by the prospect that Costco had a private label Chateauneuf Du Pape and at $17.99 it was less expensive than most.

It had a very clean taste and opened up after about an hour and tasted better, which is the opposite from a cheap wine.  I did not think it had the kind of awe inspiring taste of the Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cab I drank yesterday or a Chateau Beaucastel, which are both much more expensive bottles of wine, but it was a very clean tasting wine that developed a bit of character as it opened up.

Here is a review I completely agree with by someone who seems very knowledgeable, who is also willing to give Costco every consideration based on its effort to bring good French wines into the American market.

The Kirkland Chateauneuf might be the wine I look forward to the most every year at Costco.  It’s not because it’s typically the best wine.  In fact, last year was a bit of a bust.  The reason I look forward to tasting these wines is because I think it’s awesome that Kirkland offers a wine like this (same can be said for the Brunello and Pauillac Bordeaux).

They just seem so nichy compared to the sea of Napa Cabs.  But people love them.  I do.  And I think it’s awesome that Costco brings us these wines at such phenomenal prices.    The Chateauneuf for instance is only $19.99.  When we review a wine like this at such a favorable price point, it’s hard to criticize too much (last year was an exception).

2015 Kirkland Chateauneuf du PapeSo let’s move on and see what we have this year.  I’ve tasted it right out of the bottle and after an hour decant to give it every shot possible.  And I think it’s ok this year, maybe a slight step up from last year, but again, not a 90 pointer in my book.  It’s thin, kind of like a Chateauneuf light if you will.  Maybe like a very good Cotes du Rhone Villages bottle.

The nose changed on me a bit, first a little earth and spice but then after a bit I got loads of fruit punch.  The wine is light in color and medium bodied; flavors are predominantly red fruit, cherry, a bit more of that fruit punch, with a slight pepper toward the finish.  It wraps up a little quick.  Not a whole lot more note-wise to say on this one.  It’s pretty mediocre, rather simple.

This reviewer had given prior year’s Kirtland’s  Chateauneuf Du Pape over 90 point ratings, so maybe next year it will be better.

Bon Appetit

December 21, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Brat and Sauerkraut This day passed leisurely on vacation from the normal regimen of work. I ate yogurt, milk, blackberries and granola for breakfast. Then at 11:15 I started making Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. I filled to ¾ full a three quart pot with water to which I added 1 tsp. of dehydrated chicken, 1 tsp. of dry dashi concentrate, and 1 cube of Pho seasoning. I then added 1medium diced shallot, a handful of de-stemmed snow peas, about 1 cup of PPI Bobby Flay roasted chicken, three kinds of noodles 30 mm. rice squares, wheat noodles, and a bundle of bean thread noodles), 1 large white mushroom thinly sliced, four leaves of Napa cabbage and 2 T. of red miso, a dash of Chinese Cooking wine and a dash of sesame oil. The result was more like a ramen bowl than a soup. On a cutting board I thinly sliced three green onions into a pile and placed a pile of mung bean sprouts and a bundle of cilantro that Willy and I added to our bowl of soup. After lunch I took the two frozen ducks out of the freezer and put them into the sink to thaw. Aaron came over in the afternoon to work on a letter. After we finished we decided to try several wines. I opened an Italian rose’ of Pinot Grigio that was a $6.50 bottle that we agreed was not very good. I removed the Gravad Lax from the fridge while Aaron watched me wash the curing ingredients from the salmon filets and we then tasted it and both agreed it was delicious. Curing salmon with salt and sugar in the Swedish manner extends the period of optimal consumption of the salmon from three days to three or four months in my opinion. I then fetched and poured us glasses of 2008 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon that blew Aaron away. I poured an extra glass for myself and gave him the rest of the bottle. I recall paying $25.00 for the bottle with my wine club membership. Alas, I think Wellington is no longer an independent winery. I then made myself 7 or 8 canapés of a multigrain cracker smeared with the lovely chicken liver paste that Carole made for her Hanukkah dinner garnished with a slice of fresh cucumber. When I lived in Copenhagen as an exchange student in the Summer of 1968 we would be served Danish open faced sandwiches for lunch in the dining room at of the Hansa Insurance on Holmans Kanal. You could order as many as you wished but generally there were only 8 different types. They included Danish classics such as sliced roast beef with a slice of pickled beet, shrimp in an Italian salad made with mayonnaise and cream with green beans, smoked salmon with a mustard dill sauce, and my favorite, liver paste with a slice of fresh cucumber. As I remembered those lovely days in Denmark I enjoyed watching the business news while nibbling the canapés and sipping cab. I must tell you that Wellington almost always make me think that Wine is a gift from the Gods. It has a clarity, immediacy, and vibrancy that is hard to describe. I feel like I am standing in the sunlit field among the grapes as I sip the wine. About ½ hour after finishing the canapés and cab, I decided to eat the PPI Brat and Sauerkraut left from Tuesday’s dinner and drink the last ½ of the Modelo Especial from last night’s meal. The dish of simple fare was filling as I filled my fork with a mound of sauerkraut and speared a piece of sausage and dipped it into a mixture of horseradish and Dijon mustard. The food today made me realize afresh the joy of eating good food and drinking good wine and how it can deeply affect you both culturally and personally. I guess I more strongly feel such food memories at Christmas when we are cooking many of these favorite dishes. After two days with no nap, I collapsed after dinner and got into bed a little after 7:00. Suzette came home a little later but I stayed in bed and soon fell asleep, not to awaken until around 11:30. The serious cooking will commence tomorrow. Bon Appetit

December 21, 2017 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Brat and Sauerkraut

This day passed leisurely on vacation from the normal regimen of work.

I ate yogurt, milk, blackberries and granola for breakfast.

Then at 11:15 I started making Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup.  I filled to ¾ full a three quart pot with water to which I added 1 tsp. of dehydrated chicken, 1 tsp. of dry dashi concentrate, and 1 cube of Pho seasoning.  I then added 1medium diced shallot, a handful of de-stemmed snow peas, about 1 cup of PPI Bobby Flay roasted chicken, three kinds of noodles 30 mm. rice squares, wheat noodles, and a bundle of bean thread noodles), 1 large white mushroom thinly sliced, four leaves of Napa cabbage and 2 T. of red miso, a dash of Chinese Cooking wine and a dash of sesame oil.

The result was more like a ramen bowl than a soup.  On a cutting board I thinly sliced three green onions into a pile and placed a pile of mung bean sprouts and a bundle of cilantro that Willy and I added to our bowl of soup.

After lunch I took the two frozen ducks out of the freezer and put them into the sink to thaw.

Aaron came over in the afternoon to work on a letter.  After we finished we decided to try several wines.  I opened an Italian rose’ of Pinot Grigio that was a $6.50 bottle that we agreed was not very good.

I removed the Gravad Lax from the fridge while Aaron watched me wash the curing ingredients from the salmon filets and we then tasted it and both agreed it was delicious.  Curing salmon with salt and sugar in the Swedish manner extends the period of optimal consumption of the salmon from three days to three or four months in my opinion.

I then fetched and poured us glasses of 2008 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon that blew Aaron away.  I poured an extra glass for myself and gave him the rest of the bottle.  I recall paying $25.00 for the bottle with my wine club membership.  Alas, I think Wellington is no longer an independent winery.

I then made myself 7 or 8 canapés of a multigrain cracker smeared with the lovely chicken liver paste that Carole made for her Hanukkah dinner garnished with a slice of fresh cucumber.  When I lived in Copenhagen as an exchange student in the Summer of 1968 we would be served Danish open faced sandwiches for lunch in the dining room at of the Hansa Insurance on Holmans Kanal.  You could order as many as you wished but generally there were only 8 different types.  They included Danish classics such as sliced roast beef with a slice of pickled beet, shrimp in an Italian salad made with mayonnaise and cream with green beans, smoked salmon with a mustard dill sauce, and my favorite, liver paste with a slice of fresh cucumber.  As I remembered those lovely days in Denmark I enjoyed watching the business news while nibbling the canapés and sipping cab.

I must tell you that Wellington almost always make me think that Wine is a gift from the Gods.  It has a clarity, immediacy, and vibrancy that is hard to describe.  I feel like I am standing in the sunlit field among the grapes as I sip the wine.

About ½ hour after finishing the canapés and cab, I decided to eat the PPI Brat and Sauerkraut left from Tuesday’s dinner and drink the last ½ of the Modelo Especial from last night’s meal.  The dish of simple fare was filling as I filled my fork with a mound of sauerkraut and speared a piece of sausage and dipped it into a mixture of horseradish and Dijon mustard.

The food today made me realize afresh the joy of eating good food and drinking good wine and how it can deeply affect you both culturally and personally.  I guess I more strongly feel such food memories at Christmas when we are cooking many of these favorite dishes.

After two days with no nap, I collapsed after dinner and got into bed a little after 7:00.  Suzette came home a little later but I stayed in bed and soon fell asleep, not to awaken until around 11:30.

The serious cooking will commence tomorrow.

Bon Appetit

December 20, 2017 Lunch – PPI Posole with a fresh warm blue corn tortilla. Dinner – Eggplant in Garlic Sauce with pork I drank a cup of coffee hot chocolate for breakfast and Suzette and I prepared the Gravad Lax using the salmon filet I bought yesterday. At 9:30 I went to the bank and then to El Super to shop for the Christmas party. I bought lots of stuff. Yellow and red onions, white and blue corn tortillas, tostadas, corn chips, avocados, carrots, sweet limes, radishes, cilantro, Monterrey Jack cheese, Persian limes, 8 avocados, 6 mangos, and a piñata for Suzette’s Christmas Party in Los Lunas tomorrow evening. I arrived home at 11:30 and called Aaron and invited him over for a working lunch. I heated the posole from this last February and chopped 3 oz. of onion, and got the oregano out and sliced a couple of limes. When Aaron came we each ate a bowl of posole with chopped onion, oregano, and lime juice with a toasted fresh blue corn tortilla

I drank a cup of coffee hot chocolate for breakfast and Suzette and I prepared the Gravad Lax using the salmon filet I bought yesterday.

At 9:30 I went to the bank and then to El Super to shop for the Christmas party.

I bought lots of stuff. Yellow and red onions, white and blue corn tortillas, tostadas, corn chips, avocados, carrots, sweet limes, radishes, cilantro, Monterrey Jack cheese, Persian limes, 8 avocados, 6 mangos, and a piñata for Suzette’s Christmas Party in Los Lunas tomorrow evening.


I arrived home at 11:30 and called Aaron and invited him over for a working lunch.  I heated the posole from this last February and chopped 3 oz. of onion, and got the oregano out and sliced a couple of limes.

When Aaron came we each ate a bowl of posole with chopped onion, oregano, and lime juice with a toasted fresh blue corn tortilla.

A little after 4:00 Suzette arrived and we drove to Costco to shop for the party.  We bought a fruitcake, spinach, and a couple other items.   Suzette also got eggnog, and candy for her party.

We drove home and unpacked and I went to  meditate at 5:45.

When I returned at 7:00 we made Eggplant in Garlic sauce.
Here is the recipe from The Art of Chinese Cooking by Lo.

I sliced an eggplant, two small zucchini, ½ of a poblano Chile into long strips.  Then ai minced six or seven cloves of garlic while Suzette made the seasoning and thickening sauce.

Suzette then sautéed the vegetables in small batches in peanut oil.  Then she fried two potato latkes from Sunday’s Hanukkah dinner and wrapped them in a paper towel to allow some of the grease to drain

               

Stir frying the pork

                           Stir frying the vegetables and meat together

Then Suzette stir-fried the meat from one pork chop diced and when it had turned gray, she added the vegetables and stir-fried the vegetables and meat together for several minutes, finally she added the seasoning sauce. And stirred the dish to thicken the sauce.  The dish was delicious, slightly spicy, but very delicious.



We each drank a bottle of beer, for a lovely dinner.

Bon Appetit

December 19, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken. Dinner – Bratwurst baked with Sauerkraut, onion, and apple and steamed green beans

December 19, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken.  Dinner – Bratwurst baked with Sauerkraut, onion, and apple and steamed green beans

I decided to get back now the health regimen with the usual yogurt, milk, blueberries, and granola for breakfast.

Then I made a simple salad for lunch with diced cucumber, tomatoes, chicken, and sliced red onion and radishes on a bed of romaine lettuce
Dressed with Cesar dressing.  I toasted a piece of whole wheat bread and spread some of the chicken liver spread Carole had given to me on Sunday evening.

Then I went shopping.  I went to Smith’s and bought an 18.63 lb. slab of rib steaks for $4.88/lb.. a whole salmon filet for $6.99/lb., and five 6 oz. containers of blueberries for $.97 each.  I also bought a 2 lb. bag of sauerkraut on sale for $2.29 to go with the three Bratwurst I thawed in the morning.

I then went to Talin to buy two small bags of dill weed for $.98 each.   Then I drove to La Montanita Co-op where I bought 6 whole nutmegs and a wedge of raclette Cheese.

I then drove home and put things up and then around 3:30 rode ½ way to Rio Bravo.

At 6:00 I started to snap a small bag of green beans when Suzette arrived.

Suzette took over and placed the three thawed brats in a large casserole and sautéed them with 1/3 diced onion, and 1 diced apple.

When the ingredients had softened Suzette added the 32 oz. of sauerkraut and covered the casserole and cooked all the combined ingredients for 30 to 45 minutes.  8 minutes before Suzette decided the brats were fully cooked she turn on the heat under the green beans to high so they would steam.

I fetched mustard, Long’s horseradish, mayonnaise, and catsup and beers.  When Suzette filled our plates with a brat and the sauerkraut, apple, and onion mixture we made sauces to dip the brat into on our individual plates.

I fetched  Modelo Especial and a Negra Modelo from the garage and we enjoyed beers with this very German meal.

Bon Appetit

December 18, 2017 Lunch – Mary and Tito’s. Dinner Party at the Palmers

December 18, 2017 Lunch – Mary and Tito’s. Dinner Party at the Palmers’

I had my first cheese bagel, which turned out to be pretty tasty, smeared with cream cheese and garnished with Lax, red onion, and capers.

Then went to a meeting and after the meeting Aaron and I went to pick up a shipment of wine samples from Romania.

Then we went to lunch at Mary and Tito’s.  We each ordered what we ordered last visit, a stack of three flat enchiladas with ground beef and an egg with red chili.  Aaron ordered the large combo with a ground beef taco, a chili Relleno, and a cheese enchilada.

We loved lunch.  Then we went to my house and tasted one of the Romanian wine, a biodynamic semi-dry rose’, that was delicious as we worked on VinDacia paperwork.

Aaron left a little after 2:00 and after checking on the market result for the day, I lay down but was interrupted by a call.  I rested until 5:30, when I gathered the items for dinner: a bottle of French Pinot Noir ($6.49 at Trader Joe’s), the poached pears, the pear sauce, nutmeg and nutmeg grater, broccoli, cauliflower, and Swiss and Manchego cheese.

At 6:30 I drove to Susan and Charlie’s house with the bag of stuff.

Shortly after I arrived, Willy arrived.  Willy talked to Charlie while I cooked with Susan.  She preparing the mashed potatoes and gravy, I preparing the vegetables and sauce Mornay.  I started by making a roux for a Béchamel sauce with 2 heaping T. of  flour and 3 oz. of butter. After cooking the roux for several minutes, as I cut broccoli and cauliflower flowerets off their stalks, I added milk until the sauce was the creamy consistency I wanted.  Then I added salt and white pepper and grated about ¼ tsp. of nutmeg into the sauce.  Then I grated about ½ cup of Swiss Gruyere and Manchego cheese and added that and stirred it into the sauce.  I stirred the sauce over medium heat to melt the cheese into the sauce and put it aside.  Susan helped me find a large vegetable steamer and we worked together to steam the cauliflower and broccoli flowerets (I cut the larger flowerets into two or three bite sized pieces).

The I started heating the pear sauce which was simply the poaching medium of 1 ½ cups La Granja red wine, 1 cup water, 1 1/3 cups sugar, 1 tsp f ground cardamon, 1 tsp. of ground cinnamon,  and an 8 oz. jar of Quince syrup that was a failed attempt to make Quince jelly.

Susan and I heated the pear sauce over high heat to drive of the moisture, while constantly stirring it.  At 8:00 I had to go fetch Suzette at the airport and we returned at around 8:30.  When we returned the pear sauce was a perfect consistency thanks to a Willy and Susan stirring and watching the sauce.

Susan made Julia a Child’s recipe for garlic mashed potatoes from the Mastering the Art of French Cooking, with an interesting twist she cooked and added black garlic that she had found a jar of in some store.

She whipped the potatoes and then cuisinarted the cooked black garlic and then began adding the garlic to the potatoes until she liked the flavor of the potatoes.  The potatoes were a tan color with specks of black garlic.

We poured out the Pinot Noir as soon as I poured Suzette a glass, so Susan offered a bottle of Vina San Pedro 1865 Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, which was a more full bodied wine than the elegant lighter bodied Pinot Noir.

The cab was fine with the roasted meat and potatoes.

Susan fetched a large ceramic bowl. I spooned the vegetables from the steamer basket into the bowl and added the Sauce Mornay.  Susan put the potatoes into another bowl and the gravy into a pitcher, we took our respective bowls to the dining table and I sliced the roast and served each person a piece.

It was a lovely dinner and it was wonderful to have Suzette back at home.

After we supped on vegetables, meat, potatoes and gravy, we rested for a few minutes.

While Susan and I cooked Charlie made vanilla ice cream.  Charlie is from Houston and his favorite ice cream is Bluebell vanilla, but due to a food poisoning in a batch of ice cream, the Bluebell ice cream factory was shut down and the contaminants removed.  The factory is raising its production levels, but has not reached the point of distributing in New Mexico again.  So, Charlie and Susan have bought an electric ice cream maker and found a recipe for a custard vanilla ice cream similar to Bluebell’s and make their own ice cream. Charlie removed the firm ice cream from the machine to a plastic container and placed it in the freezer to harden.

So we put out the poached pears and sauce and the container of ice cream, which we each easily scooped into our individual bowl. I served the pears and we passed the sauce pan of sauce around with a spoon to sauce the dessert.

Susan made and served tea.  It was a lovely finish to a lovely meal.  In fact it was just as distinctively Texas as the meal last night was distinctively Jewish.  Both were perfect from their own cultural and food perspectives.  I can no chose one over the other.  I was glad to have the food and cultural immersion into both.  If it is true that we are what we eat, it is equally true that what we are determines what we eat.

I would buy the Pinot Noir again but not the 1865 Cab because it was a little heavy for my taste which usually means that it is a blend of different hybrids and not a single field of one hybrid of one grape or perhaps the limestone cobbles in its field gave it a more earthy terroir.

Bon Appetit

December 17, 2017 Breakfast – Flying Star. Lunch – Bagel with Cream Cheese and Lax. Hanukkah Dinner Party

December 17, 2017 Breakfast – Flying Star. Lunch – Bagel with Cream Cheese and Lax.  Hanukkah Dinner Party

I went Flying Star for a breakfast meeting with Marty.  He ate a bagel with cream cheese with jelly.  I ate a bowl of oatmeal with raisins, chopped walnuts and brown sugar.  The oatmeal was lovely but I felt it cost a bit much at $6.50.

I went home and toasted a bagel and smeared it with the new Greek cream cheese I bought at Sprouts for $2.00 and garnished it with slices of Lax, red onion, and capers.

Then I drove to Costco to buy cookies for a Hanukkah gift for Carole and Mark in the evening.  I decided to do a little Christmas Open house buying.  I bought a six pack of Conha y Toro Explorateur, a bottle of Kirkland Chateauneuf de Pape for $17.99, which is the cheapest price I have seen, and a bunch of cheeses, including a new small French cow cheese named Gese, a wedge of Manchego, and a wedge of Stilton, and a case of Modelo Negra and Especial.

I then drove to the Art Museum to see the Neuberger Collection and the permanent collection again.  I said hello to Mary and Joe and their docent friends.

Then I went home and rode to Montano and back and then dressed for dinner and picked Willy up at 5:00.

When we arrived at 5:30 Rachel was frying potatoes latkes.  Then the Druxmans arrived with a cheese ball and Rich and Barbara arrived with a basket of Mandelbrot.  As Carole said approvingly, “This the largest Hanukkah party we have had and it is the first with all Jews.”

I must say that it was a lovely evening that felt very special, perhaps because of the cultural bond we shared.  We started in the living room seated around a coffee table filled with Carole’s wonderful chicken liver and Jana’s cheese ball.

I poured wine, including a chilled Castel Garcia Vinho Verde white and my 2010 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County. Then I opened a 2014 Rodney Strong Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon.  I liked the Wellington for its clean fruitiness.  The Rodney Strong tasted muddy and slightly bitter, as if low quality grap juice had been mixed into it.

Then we moved to the dinner table and served ourselves Mark’s BBQ pot roast and BBQ roasted vegetables, and latkes.  When we sat down we added sour cream and Carole’s apple sauce with stewed diced apple chunks to the latkes.  Everything tasted great.

Conversations were great also.  Willy and I spent a lot of time talking to Rachel, who specializes in genealogy of her family.  We saw pictures from her trip to her ancestral village in Germany where she and her mother visited her Great grand mother’s grave in a Jewish cemetery.

After dinner after the mandelbrot and tea and coffee were served everyone told their family story about their immigration to the U.S.

We talked until 9:45 when Willy said he needed to leave and we said goodbye and thanked everyone for a lovely evening.

Bon Appetit

December 16, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken and liverwurst sandwich. Dinner – PPI beef stew with posole and spinach

December 16, 2017 Lunch – Salad with Chicken and liverwurst sandwich. Dinner – PPI beef stew with posole and spinach

 I spent much of the day shopping for food.  After ½ bagel spread with goat cheese, Lax, and thin slices of red onion and a hot tea I drove to Keller’s Westside store and bought two ducks.  I then drove to Sprouts at Alameda and Corrales Rd. Where they were holding another duck for me.  While at Sprouts I also bought three brats at $2.99/lb., 1/3 lb. of Boar’s Head Liverwurst, celery root, parsnips, rutabagas, sweet onions, oranges, 2 eggplants at $.98 each, cream cheese, milk, and oranges.

I then drove to El Super and bought posole, Bosc pears, sweet potatoes, sweet limes, a pineapple, a bunch of beets,

I arrived back home around 2:45 and made a simple salad with sliced radishes and red onion and diced tomato, roasted chicken, and cucumber and chopped a head of romaine and drizzled the whole salad with Cesar dressing.  I toasted a slice of rye bread and lay slices of liverwurst and cucumber on it to eat with the salad.

Then at 3:45 I rode five miles halfway to Rio Bravo and back.  Then I rested until 7:00 when I heated the dinner I had assembled yesterday by combining the PPI stew I had made by combining Roasted Vegetables and hamburger helper with a rich brown sauce with spinach and a scoop of posole from last year.

I opened and poured a glass of La Granja Red Rioja wine, a pleasant blend of 50% Grenache and 50% Tempranillo for $4.99 at Trader Joe’s.

After dinner I cored, peeled, and sliced the four Bosc pears I had bought at El Super for $.69/lb. and poached them in La Granja red wine using a recipe from Epicurious.

Here is the recipe I worked from:

INGREDIENTS
1 750-ml bottle dry red wine
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 cinnamon stick
4 firm but ripe pears, peeled, stems left intact
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 plain or almond biscotti, crumbled
Orange peel strips (optional)
PREPARATION
Combine first 7 ingredients in heavy large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to simmer. Add pears and return mixture to simmer. Reduce heat and simmer slowly until pears are tender when pierced with knife, about 25 minutes. Transfer pears to plate. Boil liquid in saucepan until reduced to 3 cups, about 20 minutes. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill pears in poaching liquid. Before serving, rewarm over medium-low heat until pears are heated through.)
Arrange 1 warm pear and 1 scoop of ice cream on each of 4 plates. Drizzle some poaching liquid over. Sprinkle with biscotti crumbs. Garnish with orange peel strips, if desired, and serve.

I reduced the amount of red wine, water and sugar by half and substituted about 1 cup of old rose’ wine and a cup of Quince syrup Suzette made.

Bon Appetit

December 15, 2017 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup with spinach. Dinner – Neighborhood Christmas Party at the Cronin’s

December 15, 2017 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup with spinach. Dinner – Neighborhood Christmas Party at the Cronin’s

I ate my usual granola, blueberries, yogurt, and milk with a few wedges of banana at 9:00.

Then at 1:00 I heated the PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup from yesterday and filled the pot with fresh spinach and heated it and stewed the spinach n the broth and added a handful of fresh mung bean sprouts and ate a large bowl of wonderful soup.

I worked this afternoon on a transaction until 4:00 when Mad Money came on.  There was not much to say today because almost every stock went on the news of the agreement on the final tax bill in Congress.

I rested for about an hour and then at 6:00 I went to the basement and fetched the fruit cake and filled a cake platter with slices of cake and decorated it with holly boughs.

Christmas Fruitcake

 At 7:00 I went to the neighborhood Christmas Party at Peg and Dick Cronin’s house on San Cristobal.  They collect contemporary art, so it was fun to see their art; three Horgans and lots of Japanese woodcut prints..

Everyone brought lovely food and wine.  The best dish was a gelatin mold of canned salmon and
mayonnaise drizzled with a lovely sour cream, mayonnaise, and fresh dill sauce made by Susan Feil, who claimed it was an early Cuisinart recipe she was given by a friend when she lived in Chicago 40 years ago.  I must have been the same vintage as  Mother’s Van Cliburn Competition Shrimp Mold.  Here are the recipes.

There were spanokapitas, baked spinach in croute, shrimp. brandy beans, cookies, candies, and lots of cheeses and desserts.

I ate and drank, and talked all evening.  It was fun.

I took a bottle of 2014 Sheehan Chardonnay.

Bon Appetit