March 4, 2019 Lunch - Taj Mahal  Dinner – Grilled Hamburger with melted Manchego cheese and Asparagus, with Baked Potato and Sautéed Mushrooms

A day in which food consumption swelled in a cescendo.

It started out simply;  tropical fruit salad, granola, yogurt, and milk.

Then for lunch with Robert things built as I ate a plate of moderate amounts of roasted onions, tandoori chicken, chicken curry, saag, and riata with an onion culcha and a bowl of mango custard for dessert.

But dinner was a feast of gargantuan portions; a large hamburger grilled and topped with melted slices of Manchego cheese with grilled asparagus that had been coated with olive oil, salt, and pepper, a baked potato garnished with butter, sour cream, and the first fresh finely diced chives from our garden of the year, and sliced mushrooms sautéed in butter and olive oil and seasoned with salt, dried marjoram and Amontillado sherry.

I opened a bottle of Pessimist red blend from Paso Robales that was given to us as a Christmas gift last Christmas.  It was a deep purple color that looked and tasted like a mostly merlot blend.  It went well with the beef dinner, somewhat like a St. Emillon from Bordeaux.

Later I watched my two alma maters, TCU and Texas, go down in defeat to the two powerhouse Big 12 basketball teams, Kansas State and Texas Tech, respectively.

After the games at 9:00 I ate a small bowl of blueberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

After that immense dinner my guess is that I made little progress in my recent healthy weight loss program.

But dinner reminded me of the great dinners of my youth with my family.  We would eat hamburger steak with a baked potato and a vegetable about three times a week.  My folks would buy a side of beef and have it butchered and the result would be a few steaks and roasts and a hundred and fifty pounds of hamburger.

Bon Appetit