August 17, 2019 Breakfast – Bacon and tomato, and cheese Scrambled Eggs and a Man on a Raft. Lunch – PPI Chirashi and Stir fried Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables. Dinner – Shell Club Meeting

August 17, 2019  Breakfast – Bacon and tomato, and cheese Scrambled Eggs and a Man on a Raft.  Lunch – PPI Chirashi and Stir fried Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables. Dinner – Shell Club Meeting

I slept in a bit this morning.  Then I watched the last five  minutes of Arsenal v. Burnley.  We made breakfast during Liverpool v. Southampton.  We fried five pieces of bacon and Suzette made a three egg scramble with small fresh halves of tomatoes from her garden in Los Lunas, a few pieces of thinly sliced green onion,  and Jarlsberg cheese.  I wanted to use one of the slices of our new loaf of Jewish Rye to make a man on a raft, which is made by tearing a hole in a slice of bread approximately the size of an egg yolk, toasting the slice of bread on one side, then flipping it over and dropping and egg  with the yolk in the hole and toasting that side.  I dropped a few slices of green onion of the egg as the bread toasted and, finally flipping the bread again and turning off the heat to let the egg firm.

We ate in the garden under the gazebo.

After breakfast we walked, but I only made it about ½ mile. I guess some days are worse than others physically.

We had a minor emergency at the building and after that I drove to El Super to do my weekly produce shopping.

I needed avocados, cucumber, and a salted cheese for the watermelon salad we were making for the Shell Club Dinner. I bought limes, a pineapple, a ½ lb. wedge of cojita cheese, oranges, avocados, spinach, broccoli, green cabbage, yellow and red onions, cucumbers, and carrots for $20.84.

When I returned home Suzette was working on the lamps that will hang on the deck of the apartment at the Candy store remodel.

It was 1:00 and we decided to eat the PPI lunches from the last two days.  While I divided and diced the Chirashi items from Azuma Suzette stir fried the PPI Fried Tofu and Mixed Vegetables from East Ocean.

I made a cup of green tea and Suzette drank a beer.

After lunch I took a nap until 3:30 and Suzette worked on the lamp and then napped.

Watermelon Salad

I had found a recipe I liked with fresh chopped mint and basil on an Internet site named Love & Lemons with these ingredients

Watermelon Salad Recipe Ingredients

If you’ve never tried watermelon in a savory setting, you have to make this recipe ASAP. Juicy & fresh, the melon goes SO well with the other creamy, crisp, tangy, and spicy components in this salad. Here’s what makes it so delicious:

Red onion, for a sharp bite of flavor and crispy texture
Cucumber, for a cool, crisp addition
Feta cheese, for a creamy, tangy element
Avocado, for extra creaminess. Plus watermelon + lime + avocado = a match made in heaven.
Mint & basil, for fresh herbal notes (Mint & watermelon is one of my favorite combos too!)
Serrano pepper, for a little heat (if you like, these are optional)
And a bright lime dressing, to tie it all together.

Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Dressing
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lime juice
½ garlic clove, minced
¼ teaspoon sea salt

For the salad
5 cups cubed watermelon
1 heaping cup diced English cucumber
¼ cup thinly sliced red onions
⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 avocado, cubed
⅓ cup torn mint or basil leaves
½ jalapeño or serrano pepper, thinly sliced, optional
Sea salt

And the

Instructions
Make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, lime juice, garlic and salt.
Arrange the watermelon, cucumber, and red onions on a large plate or platter. Drizzle with half the dressing. Top with the feta, avocado, mint, and serrano pepper, if using, and drizzle with remaining dressing. Season to taste and serve.

I peeled and diced ½ seedless melon into a large mixing bowl.  There were slightly more than five cups of melon. Then I peeled and diced and added a cucumber and a thinly sliced 1/3 cup of red onion. I went to the garden and picked a handful of basil leaves and three or four stalks of mint. I rinsed the herbs and sliced the central stem out of the larger basil leaves and de-stemmed the leaves from the mint and chopped them and added them to the salad.  At this point Suzette Suzette joined me in the kitchen and asked if she could help. I asked her to make the dressing with 4 T. of lime juice, 3 T. of olive oil, and 1 clove of garlic.  We decided to eliminate salt from the dressing because the cojita cheese was very salty.  Suzette suggested crumbling the cojita cheese into the dressing to reduce some of its saltiness and to add a bit of saltiness to the dressing. While Suzette made the dressing, I diced two small avocados and added them.  Suzette then added and tossed the salad and we covered the salad bowl with Saran.  I grabbed the new Cowrie specimen Guide by Lorenz that Suzette bought me for Christmas and a bag with four different Zoila Venusta and at 5:15 we left for Tom and Donny’s house in northern Rio Rancho and arrived at 6:00 p.m.

Tom edits the national shell collecting magazine, The Conchologist, so he had several new shell related books on the table.  I added my shells and book.  Tom praised a new book titled Beyond Extinction by Wolfgang Grulke that examines how a number of ocean living invertebrates like nautilus, and jellyfish are adapting to global warming and changes in the ocean in an easily readable text with lots of photos. I looked at it and mentally put it on my must read list.

Three of the six men who were members are world authorities on a genus of shells, so there was a lively discussion of news and how the taxonomy for invertebrates worked.  Here is the definition of genus.

Genus. From Biology-Online Dictionary | Biology-Online Dictionary. Definition. noun, plural: genera. (taxonmy) A taxonomic category ranking used in biological classification that is below a family and above a species level, and includes group(s) of species that are structurally similar or phylogenetically related.Sep 12, 2016. Wikipedia

Tom wrote the guidebook on Nerites. Bruce wrote the guidebook on Epitonium or wentletraps.  DescriptionEpitonium is a genus of small predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks. Epitonium is the type genus of the family Epitoniidae, the wentletraps. The common name wentletraps is derived from the Dutch word wenteltrap, denoting a spiral staircase. Wikipedia

The new member is working on the team of shell scientists cataloging and preserving a new find of fossilized Cretaceous mollusks found in the Bisti Badlands. Apparently they include previously named species, but the find will extend the species’ known habitat.

Suzette and Tom’s wife, Donny, talked and drank margaritas in the kitchen and then prepared the meal. It is hard to decide which group had the better time.

After about two hours dinner was served.  Baked salmon, a Mediterranean tomato, olive, cucumber salad Donnie made, and our watermelon salad plus slices of a good French baguette.  Mike brought a bottle of 2017 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Viognier blend and there was also a bottle of unoaked chardonnay that was drinkable.

After dinner Donnie served each of us a small bowl of vanilla gelato with a bowls of fresh sliced peaches and raspberries to garnish the gelato and a platter of chocolate mint cookies and peanut cookies.

We had a lively discussion about allergies and dietary constraints. The result seemed to suggest that cooking for a group presents challenges that are almost insurmountable.

We left at 9:30.  When we arrived home at 10:15 we went bed immediately.

I woke at 1:00 and wrote this blog.

Bon Appetit