January 3, 2018 Lunch – Spinach Salad with Ham and cheese sandwich, Dinner – Cream of Vegetable Soup

January 3, 2018  Lunch – Spinach Salad with Ham and cheese sandwich, Dinner – Cream of Vegetable Soup

I actually ate four times today and a little oddly in two respects.  I started quite conventionally at 7:00 with a bowl of granola, blueberries, milk, and yogurt.  It was a hungry day so at 9:30 I heated and ate the PPI Vietnamese Noodle Soup from yesterday’s lunch with the addition of the juice of a lime and a handful of fresh cilantro.

I then drove to El Super for the Wednesday specials, including 3 small avocados for $.99, sweet limes, bok Choy, Mexican limes, fresh red potatoes and honey crisp apples for $.50/lb., yellow onions for $.20/lb., five cucumbers for $.99 and heads on medium shrimp for $4.99/lb. I also bought three large 40 oz. cans of black beans for $5.00 and another bunch of two large leeks for $1.89.

Then at 2:30 I made a fresh spinach salad combining, ham, tomato, a red dyed hard boiled egg Suzette prepared when she pickled the beets on January 1, 1/3 of a cucumber peeled and cubed, and an avocado.  There was a bag of ham in the fridge and a bag of sliced cheese that Suzette had brought home from her trip home, so I used it to make an open faced ham and cheese sandwich.  I don’t know if the ham was old or I have gotten unused to the chemical preservatives, but I felt a little queasy from the ham for the rest of the day. I drank the last of the Gruet rose’ and a glass of French Crayon rose’ with the salad.

After lunch and recording another strong day in the market for my portfolio, I drove to the Verizon store to get a new SIM card for my new Apple 8 Plus phone.  Willy decided against the new phone and gave it to me in exchange for me buying him a new coat and other clothes he needed for his trip to Washington this weekend for a national seminar.

When we had dinner last night we all agreed that I could give him stocks for his Christmas gift, which satisfies both of us.

So with Suzette’s cooperation, we activated my new phone and substituted it for my old phone on her Verizon account, which took from 3:30 to 4:30.  After leaving the Verizon store I drove to Sprouts at the corner of San Mateo and Lomas, where I bought a lb. of scallops for $9.99/lb., an eggplant for $.98, ½ lb. of green beans for $.88/lb., and 2 lb. of chocolate covered peanuts for $1.99/lb.; all on specials.

Both El Super and Sprouts were mobbed today by shoppers enjoying the Wednesday special prices.

I arrived home at 5:15 And after unloading started to slice the four leeks I now had and seven of eight potatoes to make vichyssoise or potage.

When Suzette came home she was upset that I was making another soup when she had made a large pot of cream of vegetable soup, but I defended myself a bit by saying I would not finish the postage until we ate the vegetable soup.  So I fetched the vegetable soup from the garage and we heated it and added a cup of the 1996 Black Opal Chardonnay to thin it.  Then I suggested we flavor it with pesto and Suzette suggested we garnish it with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.  We found a jar of the pesto Suzette made this last summer in the freezer and thawed it in the microwave and I grated about 1/3 cup of Pecorino Romano and when the soup was hot and somewhat creamier, Suzette ladled some into small soup bowls and garnished the top with a dollop of pesto and sprinkle of salty grated Pecorino Romano cheese.  The  thick, almost stew like soup with the oily basil pesto and grated
cheese stirred into it was delicious.  Suzette had converted a pan of rather bland roasted root vegetables into a delicious heavy winter soup that reminded me of the herbaceous day’s of summer with the salty tanginess of cheese and addition of the pesto made with basil from our garden.

Suzette had not eaten much during the day so she heated and ate the PPI bacon and cheese quiche she had made last Sunday with dinner.

After dinner we watched Rachel and ate a few more pieces of the delicious Buffet’s candy Sandy gave us for Christmas.  I think we are now fully addicted to Buffet’s wonderful creative handmade chocolates that seem to be made with only the best ingredients.

Bon Appetit