December 28, 2020 Lunch – Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Chicken Curry with Rice

 December 28, 2020 Lunch – Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner – PPI Chicken Curry with Rice

Today the food was not very interesting but the Market was a star.  On Sunday the British and EU reaches agreement on Brexit and In the U.Sl President Trump signed the $900 billion Covid Relief Bill . That set the market up for a jump and it occurred simultaneously around the world.  Yeh Dow ended up over 200 points and my portfolio was up 1 ½ % to a new all time high by a full 1%.

For lunch I used some of the PPI boiled chicken left from the chicken boiled to make the curry to made a quick soup.  I add dehydrated chicken stock, three kinds of Oriental noodles (rice, wheat, and bean thread) to the pot.  I then added 1 shallot minced, 1 baby Bok Choy diced, 1 heaping T. of white miso, two portobello mushrooms sliced, and 3 oz. of chicken. After simmering for thirty minutes, I ate a bowl garnished with sliced green onion, hoisin, and a squeeze of lime.

At 4:00 I rode two miles on my bike into a strong 16 mph wind which made me feel the exercise because this was the warmest day of the year.

When I returned home I showered and started a cup of rice and made a peanut butter and orange marmalade open faced sandwich and a cup of tea that I ate during a 2 hour phone conference.

Suzette and I had discussed dinner in the morning and agreed to heat up the PPI Chicken Curry, so at 5:15 I started a cup of basmati rice.

Suzette had fetched the curry and chopped peanuts and fetched some shaved coconut, so when. Finished my call at 7:40 the curry, rice, peanuts, and coconut were ready to eat.  Suzette went to bed early at 8:00, but I stayed up until 11:30.

Bon Appetit

December 27, 2020 Brunch – Bacon and fried eggs with Cottage Fries, Dinner – PPI Christmas dinner

 December 27, 2020 Brunch – Bacon and fried eggs with Cottage Fries, Dinner – PPI Christmas dinner

Today was very relaxing. I spent the morning watching English soccer and the news and the afternoon watching NFL football.

After the news ended at 10:00 I made breakfast.  Suzette had an upset stomach that she blamed on the omelet I made yesterday, so today I prepared one of her favorite breakfasts, Bacon and fried eggs with Cottage Fries.  I thinly sliced two Yukon Gold potatoes and fried them in about 2 T. each of heated olive oil and butter turning them occasionally until the potatoes took on color. I fried four slices of bacon until crisp and finally I fried three eggs over easy.

Suzette made a Bloody Mary and I drank a glass of Clamato with juice of 1/2 lime.

After lunch I napped and then at 2:30 we drove to Kit Carson Park and walked to the Bosque and walked around the two lakes, a distance of just over 1 mile.

When we returned home a watched the Cowboys beat Philadelphia and the we watched 60 Minutes. 

After 60 minutes I fetched the ceramic casserole with the leftover Cornish game hens, Roasted acorn squash filled with green peas, and fried rice with pecans, and onion.  Suzette poured out the rest of the bottle of Famille Bougerier Vouvray  and we had a fabulous dinner.  This time the meal was better because we were hungrier because we had not each also eaten 6 oysters on the half shell and four Oysters Rockefeller as we did on Christmas as appetizers.

To complete the meal Suzette brought the Pumpkin Bombe in for dessert and we each ate a slice of it.

It was a lovely brunch and dinner and a very relaxing day.  

I did have a snack of fruit cake and a Jot buttered rum when we returned home from our walk.

Bon Appetit

December 26, 2020 Lunch – Cornish Game Hen, Green Pea, Mushroom, Onion, and cheese Omelet. Dinner – Madras Chicken Curry with Rice, coconut, and peanuts

 December 26, 2020 Lunch – Cornish Game Hen, Green Pea, Mushroom, Onion, and cheese Omelet. Dinner – Madras Chicken Curry with Rice, coconut, and peanuts

Some days are big food days when I am really hungry and others are not.  Today was a big food day.

I started around 9:30 with a small 2 ½ nah piece of baguette that I sliced into three slices and toasted them.  I then smeared the slices with cream cheese and lay thin slices of red onion and Gravad Lax on them and ate them with a cup of Earl Grey tea.  I was still hungry so I toasted a slice of Willy’s bubble bread an smeared it with butter and orange marmalade and ate it with another cup of tea.

Then at 11:30 I became hungry again and made an omelet with a Cornish game hen breast, three portobello mushrooms sliced, 4 oz. of white onion diced, ½ shallot minced, about 2 T. of cooked green peas. I sautéed the mushrooms, onions, and game hen for several minutes until it softened .  I then added the peas and three whisked eggs seasoned with salt and pepper and a dash of Marsala.  When the egg began to set I lay about seven or eight slices of Jarlsberg cheese Suzette had sliced.  After a few more minutes when the bottom of the omelet had turned golden brown, I flipped one side onto the other and cooked it an additional couple of minutes.  We drank Glasses of Famille Bougerier Vouvray with the omelet.

After lunch suzette, and I gathered the luminaries and removed the spent candles and Willy filled them with another candle and stacked five bags deep and stored them in the garage ready for next year.

I wrote the blog for yesterday and published it until 4:30 and napped until 6:00. We had thawed out a chicken and decided to make curry.  Suzette had put the chicken on to boil in a pot of water with a diced carrot, some onion, and a stalk of celery at 4:00 and removed it from the pot at 6:00 when I awakened.

Chicken Curry. 

We had a large container of pumpkin we had prepared several months ago.  We had previously made chicken curry substituting pumpkin for sweet potato.  Tight I did the same . I diced and sautéed two medium onions, three apples, seven cloves of garlic dusted with madras curry powder in canola  and butter.  I then de-boned the chicken meat.  I cubed the white meat and bagged the dark meat for another meal. I then added enough chicken broth to cover the sautéed ingredients.  I then cubed about three cups of pumpkin and added a dash of ordered cloves and allspice and about 1 T. of ground cinnamon and about 2 tsp. of salt.

 I let the ingredients cook for about 30 minutes and then made a roux of flour and butter and added about 1/3 cup of heavy cream to make a loose paste that I added to the curry to thicken it.  Unfortunately, the flour destroyed the clarity of the spices.  Suzette heated up the PPI rice from yesterday and I crushed 1/3 cup of peanuts and 1/3 cup of coconut and put each into a bowl. 

I fetched the jar f Major Grey’s Mango Chutney and the container of five ingredient pickle.

We each piled rice into bowls and spooned curry over the rice and added chopped peanuts and coconut and chutney and pickle.  The chutney is sweet and the pickle is salty.

Suzette fetched 2 Especial beers from the garage and we ate a not great, but decent curry dinner. 

After dinner we watched the Steven Hawking biopic on Netflix.

Bon Appetit

December 25, 2020 Thanksgiving with a Difference for Christmas

 December 25, 2020  Thanksgiving with a Difference for Christmas 

My mother not only had a gourmet cooking school, she also wrote a cookbook.  The concept for the cookbook and her school was to provide recipes for an entire meal so students would learn how to creatively plan an entire meal. One of her most elaborate meals was Thanksgiving Dinner. The departure of her menu for Thanksgiving shows her creativity in menu planning with a view to tradition and seasonally available ingredients.

What I present here are the recipes in the menu from mother’s cookbook with a bit of commentary on the adjustments we made in our Christmas dinner. 

  We substituted Cornish game hens for the duck. We did not have fresh figs or wish to use cherries for the sauce, so I used a combination of a fig and port jam plus Suzette’s maraschino syrup that contained Cherry liquor and cognac to dilute the fig jam.  

We used pomelo instead of grapefruit in the fruit salad.

We served the meal like an extended French 5 course meal because we added a pre-appetizer course of fresh yesterday on the half shell.  The only thing lacking was a cheese course after the meal to make a six course meal. 

Shucking the oysters

The oysters Rockefeller being prepped for baking 

A roasted Cornish game hen

 A plated entree 

The finished Oysters Rockefeller

The bombe 

The bubble bread

 

The inside of the bombe

The fruit salad 

The baked oysters Rockefeller

Bob spreading cocktail sauce on a raw oyster 

 

                                                             Making the  Jubilee sauce

 

On Wednesday December 24 I went to 999 Market and purchased 24 oysters and the butcher threw in an additional oyster since that was their last oyster.

At around 10 on Christmas Day we   began the meal by making a cocktail sauce by mixing to taste lemon juice, ½ of a shallot minced, then a ½ T. horseradish, and catsup.  I then sucked the 25 oysters.  Twelve went into a bowl and into the fridge for the oysters Rockefeller and the other thirteen on to a tray filled with ice cubes.

We opened a bottle of Gruet Brut champagne and squeezed some fresh orange juice into champagne flutes and drank mimosas as we ate the oysters.  A lovely first course.  

We had requested that Willy arrive at 1:00 and we cooked from 11:30 until 1:30.  When Willy came he started a fire in the ceramic brazier by the gazebo and brought Robin’s sweet three month old French 

terrier who slept in his dog bed covered by a blanket beside the brazier while we ate the meal.Suzette made 12 oysters Rockefeller.  She undercooked them by about three or four minutes which prevented the sour cream from going into solution with the spinach.  They were still delicious and the oysters were cooked, so it was a almost successful dish.

Everything else was first rate.  We roasted the Cornish game hens on Spandex cookers in the oven with the baked acorn squash.  I made the pecan and onion fried rice and it dried out a bit as it sat on the stove in its iron skillet, but I enjoyed its more toasted nutty flavor.

We served the last of the Gruner Vetliner ($5.99 at Trader Joe’s) and then I opened the 2018 Melon of Bourgogne produced by De Ponte Winery in the DundeeHills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley $21.00. 

  Each dish was plated with ½ of a roasted game hen sauced with the Jubilee sauce, some fried rice, ½ of baked acorn squash filled with green peas and a piece of the wonderful yeasted bubble bread Willy made with two risings.

We were so full we could not eat Mother’s Pumpkin Bombe  dessert until in the evening when Willy returned to open gifts.

 It was one of the greatest meals ever and a tribute to mother who taught me how to cook. 

Bon Appetit

December 24, 2020 Lunch – Pork Noodle Soup. Dinner -Baked Flounder Stuffed with Shrimp Newburg with Sautéed onion and yellow and Italian squash

 December 24, 2020 Lunch – Pork Noodle Soup. Dinner -Baked Flounder Stuffed with Shrimp Newburg with Sautéed onion and yellow and Italian squash

I went to the 999 store at 11:00 to buy oysters and got the last 24 plus two extra.  I had not been to 999 store in a long time and I was impressed by the expansion of its offerings.  I bought a nice 2 lb. flat fish. I think it was a petrale  sole.  I also went around the store to check things out.  I went first to produce and picked a bag of baby Bok Choy, some Japanese eggplants, a package of fresh turmeric root, a tub of medium tofu, package of snow peas, two types of new dried noodles, a box of gunpowder green tea, and a bottle of hoisin.

When I returned home I put the fish and vegetables in the fridge and started on lunch. Suzette called and said she was on her way homework I increased the amount of water.  I added Knorr tomato/chicken flavoring and a ½ lb. piece of pork diced, a heaping T. of white miso, the last 5 oz. of tofu, about five or six snow peas de-stemmed and cubed, three or four leaves of Napa cabbage sliced, two large portobello mushrooms sliced, and 4 oz. of white onion diced.  The combination of pork flavor, the dehydrated chicken/tomato, and white miso combined to nmake a lovely broth after about twenty minutes of cooking.  I wanted a quick meal so I added a bundle of fresh egg noodles and about seven or eight chicken mini-dumplings.  The result was splendid..  

Willy came by and set up about 200 luminaries and he and Suzette lit them in the afternoon.

After lunch I checked the Market and had another day of minimal gains because Moderna went down $7.00. I then rested and slept through 5:00 meditation.

Suzette wanted to start dinner at 6:00.  I suggested steaming the flounder in the Chinese style but Suzette was thinking of stuffing and baking it.  We did dueling cookbooks until Suzette, “Let’s look in her Williamsburg cookbook.” And there was the perfect recipe, Stuffed Baked Flounder. The stuffing was with Crab Newburg, but Suzette substituted shrimp.  We boiled about 12 heads on shrimp and Suzette made the stuffing using the Cuisinart to purée all the ingredients almost instantly: onion, red pimiento, celery, yellow bell pepper, crab boil seasoning, cayenne and a couple more ingredients.  Here is the recipe.

I opened the stomach and removed the swim bladder that the fish monger had missed and slit the fish along it backbone and opened a cavity by pushing the blade of my knife along the heavy rib bones for a distance of about 1 ½ inches in each direction and Suzette stuffed both cavities  with stuffing, dusted the fish with bread crumbs, and drizzled the top of the breadcrumbs with melted butter.

We decided to sauté zucchini and yellow squash with onion, and and pimiento with several of the white beech mushrooms I bought today at the 999 store for a vegetable because I add Italian seasoning and lemon juice that seems to go well with the fish.

Suzette baked the fish in a 350/degree oven for thirty minutes.  Here is photo of the baked flounder.

The squash, onion, and beech mushroom vegetable sauté 

  The stuffed fish before  baking

 

 

                                                          The stuffed fish after baking.  

Willy came over for dinner. 

I filleted the fish and divided the stuffing and fish among three plates by lifting the top filet and stuffing from the top, taking out the main rib bones and then lifting the bottom filet away from the row of bones on either side of the fish.  In any event there were still lots of tiny edge bones that we had to remove but the flavor of the delicate white fish with the newburg stuffing was delicious.

We poured Gruner Vetliner, a traditional Austrian grape, but in this case , grown and produced in Hungary, which is a great wine producing country just east that shares the same climate.

  Everyone loved the dish.

Willy asked for mulled wine so I made a 1/2 recipe with zest of two oranges and two lemons cooked with 24 cloves, 1 1/2 nutmegs crushed and three sticks of cinnamon in a syrup made with 1 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and a magnum of Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon and juice of three lemons 

The mulled wine 
  

 We each took a cup or mulled wine and walked down Park Ave. to see the luminaries. This was our first year to enjoy this stroll this early in the evening because this year we did not do an open house.

We met the Sounder Graffs about half way to the Country Club and walked back to our house and Willy lit the Mexican brazier and we talked and I served mulled wine to Emily, Rachel, and her fiancé and Willy. I went in at 10:00 when Kim and zdiane left and left Willy with his friends.

  Ironically, when Suzette spoke to her sister, Jean, today to wish her a Merry Christmas, Jean reported that she had eaten baked flounder stuffed with crab meat for dinner last night.  The only difference was that Jean had bought the stuffed flounder prepared for baking at a local meat market in Elizabethtown.

Bon Appetit

December 23, 2020. Lunch – PPI No. 21 from 2000 Vietnam. Dinner – PPI Grilled Lamb Riblets on Couscous with a salad for me and a lamb salad for Suzette with a tzatziki

 December 23, 2020. Lunch – PPI No. 21 from 2000 Vietnam. Dinner – PPI Grilled Lamb Riblets on Couscous with a salad for me and a lamb salad for Suzette with a tzatziki

  I spent most of the day relaxing in my pajamas.  I ate the rest of the 2000 Vietnam No. 21 left from yesterday’s lunch at 2:30.

Jim and Diane brought by a bottle of Bertrand Cotes de Provence Rose and Cynthia brought by an assortment of cookies.

At 5:00 Suzette arrived and we watched the news for a while and then decided to combine the PPI grilled lamb rib-lets into a salad for a Suzette and to heat them with the PPI Couscous and a side salad.

I sliced and diced a tomato and ¼ cucumber, and sliced several thin slices of red onion. Suzette spun red lettuce and heated the lamb rib-lets and Couscous in the microwave.

We used the PPI tzatziki as a dressing.  I added about 1 ½ T. of olive oil to it to stretch and thin it.

I drank the last of a bottle of Chianti and Suzette drank the last glass f the Trader Joe’s  Oakville Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Suzette may have put her finger on our lack of desire to cook when she said, “We seem to be taking a holiday from the massive amount of food we usually cook for our Christmas open house.

After dinner Suzette drank a small glass of cognac and I drank a small glass of Calvados and we ate two Belgium chocolates.

We watched an interesting Nova program titled “Pluto and Beyond” about the astronomical discoveries in the last few years by the Pioneer space craft launched in 2006.

Bon Appetit

December 22, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21 at Willy’s Dinner – PPI Leg of Pork in Tomatillo Sauce with Refried Black Beans served on PPI Spinach and Tomato Couscous

 December 22, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21 at Willy’s  Dinner – PPI Leg of Pork in Tomatillo Sauce with Refried Black Beans served on PPI Spinach and Tomato Couscous  

Today included no cooking today and very little activity in the market but a full day of activity.  

At 10:00 I drove to Corrales with my Tim Prythero Dairy Queen to get one of the fallen neon lights glued back on and pick up my cleaned B. J. O. Nordfeldt “Portrait of a man in a red sweater”.

Ari was kind enough to glue the small neon fixture back onto the Dairy Queen while I waited.

I then drove to 2000 Vietnam to pick up two No. 21’s and drove to Willy’s for lunch.  We ate on his apartment’s outside balcony sitting ten feet apart with a steady sustained South breeze.  No 21 is our favorite,  the menu has changed and old No. 21 is now new No. 31, but when I call in my order I tell them my name and they know I am ordering old No. 21.

A

After lunch I arrived home at 1:30 and immediately entered a 2 ½ hour phone call with the Skipti group.

Suzette arrived at 5:30 and we decided to not cook.  We heated about three cups of the PPI Leg of Pork in Tomatillo Sauce with Refried Black Beans and served it on a pile of re-heated PPI Spinach and Tomato Couscous with a toasted flour tortilla.

It was an incredibly filling dinner and we went to bed full and happy.

Bon Appetit

December 21, 2020 Lunch – a tomato and a Lax sandwich. Dinner – Grilled Lamb Riblets, Tzatziki, Tomato onion, and spinach Couscous

 December 21, 2020 Lunch – a tomato and a Lax sandwich. Dinner – Grilled Lamb Riblets, Tzatziki, Tomato onion, and spinach Couscous

I awakened at 6:45 and watched the news and market open and got bummed as it went down but did not sell anything.  By the end of the day the market recovered much of it losses and my portfolio ended up fractionally.

I ate tropical fruit, yogurt, milk, and granola for breakfast.

At 1:20 I became hungry and and sliced and toasted two slices of pumpkin seed bread.  On one I smeared cream cheese and added slices of Gravad Lax and onions.  On the other I spread mayo and added sliced tomato. I drank a cup of Earl Grey tea with the sandwiches, which reminded me of days in Sweden and Denmark as an exchange student.  Sandwiches are a main element of the Danish diet that students in Sweden had adopted when I lived there in 1970.

At 4:30 Suzette called from Costco to ask if we needed anything.  I requested Greek yogurt for tzatziki for dinner, baguettes to replenish our bread.  She also bought lemons, limes, and bibb lettuce.

We prepared dinner soon after Suzette arrived.  Suzette Grilled the rack of lamb and snapped and steamed the green beans.  I prepared the tabouli and tzatziki. 

Tzatziki 

I peeled and de-seeded and diced a cucumber and sprinkled salt on it.  I the squeezed the juice of ½ lemon onto the cucumber and added 1 ½ cups of Greek yogurt, three cloves f garlic squeezed, about ¼ cup of fresh chopped dill, 1 ½ T. of olive oil, and 1 oz. of chopped onion. I covered the tzatziki with Saran and put it into the fridge.

Tabouli

Almost every tabouli is a little different but always successful.  Tonight I diced the ½ tomato left from lunch, the last 3 oz.of red onion, and Suzette de-stemmed a partial bunch of spinach.  I sautéed the tomato and onion in a sauce pan in 3 oz. of butter and added 1 ¼ cup of Couscous and sautéed all three 

ingredients.  I heated 2 ½ cups of water in the tea kettle and added 2 cups of boiling water to the sauce pan and then added the spinach and lidded the sauce pan.  I turned the heat down from medium high to the lowest temperature and let the Couscous cook for several minutes.  We started the green beans steaming when Suzette thought the lamb was 10 minutes from being done.

I then checked the Couscous.  It had puffed but still wet, so I left the low heat on it for a couple more 

minutes and then tossed the Couscous with a fork to fluff it and turned it off to let it steam. 

We fetched the mint jelly and tzatziki and put them on the table and poured glasses of leftover red wine.  I sliced the riblets into chops and we served ourselves Couscous, lay a couple of lamb chops on the Couscous and lay a small pile of green beans on our plate.

  We added tzatziki and mint jelly to our plates and ate a terrific meal.

 After dinner a ate a slice of fruitcake with a cup of tea.

We watched the Antiques Roadshow and Suzette went to bed a bit after 8:00. I stayed up to blog.

Bon Appetit

 

December 20, 2020 Brunch – Sautéed Pork Roast , Onion, Napa cabbage, and Refried Black Bean Burritos. Dinner – Sautéed Hamburgers, Cottage fried sweet and Russet Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli

 December 20, 2020 Brunch – Sautéed Pork Roast , Onion, Napa cabbage, and Refried Black Bean Burritos. Dinner – Sautéed Hamburgers, Cottage fried sweet and Russet Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli 

I woke up to enjoy Leicester beat Tottenham in PL play to hold 2d place.

I then watched the news shows and then made brunch for us.  I sautéed ¼ onion, two cloves of garlic, a cup of roasted pork ,  a cup of refried black beans and two whisked eggs  in a skillet.  When everything was hot I toasted a large flour tortilla and let Suzette fill the tortilla with the sautéed ingredients.  While I was sautéing Suzette went to the garage fridge and fetched a bottle of Clamato juice.  She made herself a Bloody Mary and poured me a glass of Clamato juice with the juice of ½ lime.

I then peeled and sliced ½ of the lovely large avocado Suzette selected at Albertsons yesterday. After Suzette filled her tortilla, I toasted a flour tortilla and filled it with the rest of the pork. 

After our lovely lunch I lay down for a nap until after 1:30 when I watched Dallas beat San Francisco  and then rode 5 miles South.

At 5:30 Suzette started cooking dinner. She mixed about 1 lb. ground beef with salt and pepper and formed hamburgers and sautéed them in a skillet with sliced mushrooms.  In another cast iron skillet Suzette sautéed sliced PPI yukon gold and sweet potatoes. And she steamed flowerets of broccoli in the steamer.  I fetched the catsup and a bottle of estate bottled 2010 Wellington Zinfandel from Sonoma County..

Suzette plated the plates and sliced the other half of avocado and we squirted catsup on our plates and ate a hardy dinner with an amazing wine.

Later Suzette and I ate bowls of ice cream for dessert and I had we were in bed by 8:30.

Bon Appetit 

December 19, 2020 Fabulous Lunch – Sautéed Trout, and Fried Eegs. Dinner – PPI Pasta with Boeuf Bourguignon and Steamed Broccoli

 December 19, 2020 Fabulous Lunch – Sautéed Trout, and Fried Eegs. Dinner – PPI Pasta with Boeuf Bourguignon and Steamed Broccoli

I drank a cup of hot chocolate for breakfast and then got dressed and at 8:30 Suzette and ii went food shopping mainly for Cornish game hens.  We wanted to go to Albertsons but found only 1 game hen there, but there were lots of other specials.  We bought a ham for $.97lb. and an 18 lb. slab of rib steaks for $4.77/lb. plus green beans, ginger snap cookies for our Christmas dessert,  yogurt, ice cream, a bottle of Los Alamos Malbec for a Willy, 12 pack of Shiner Bock Christmas beer for Suzette’s employee, and a fresh trout.  We called Smiths and found that they had lots of game hens and that they were on sale for 2 for $7.00, so we went to the Smiths at San Pedro and Lomas.  We also bought an avocado and grapes and tonic water, four game hens, and six bottles of Gruet champagne for $10.39 a bottle (a super special price).

When we returned home we decided to cook the trout with Cottage fries, and eggs.  Suzette said that was one of her favorite meals. I was hard pressed to think of a wine but I had chilled a Gruet Gilbert 2012 grand Reserve, so we poured that and had one of the best lunches we have had in a long time.

The trout was so fresh that it had almost no fishy flavor so we could taste the full power and richness of the champagne that was still delicious after 8 years.

We walked at 4:00 and at 5:30 Suzette suggested that we eat two PPIs, the last of the Boeuf Bourguignon mixed with the last of the cassarecce pasta.  It was a really delicious dish and we enjoyed the bottle of Rivero Tempranillo from Rioja with it that Suzette selected.

Suzette spent the afternoon making the pumpkin bombe for our Christmas with a ginger snap crust and a pumpkin cream filling.

There was a small ramekin of pumpkin cream left, so I ate it with a cup of tila tea and a small glass of my raspberry brandy after dinner.

Bon Appetit

December 13, 14, 15, and 16, 2020

 December 13, 14, 15, and 16, 2020

I have spent the last three days reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, this month’s book club selection. Thanks to Peter for loaning it to me for several of those days.

It is wonderful to get back to blogging.  I will be concise.  

December 13. Lunch - Houng Thao Dinner – Pasta with Pork Confit and marinated Artichoke hearts.

We took Suzette’s Helen Blumenschein painting of mummy cave in Canon de Chelly and her recently purchased Bernique Longley painting titled New Mexico Woman to Michael’s at 11:00 so she could get a 70% discount on a frame.  We had discussed getting Vietnamese food for lunch and specifically wanted the flour sheet dish served at 2000 Vietnam.  I called 2000 Vietnam but it was closed, so I checked Houng Thao and it was open. I asked if they had the flour sheet dish and the lady said, “we do not.”  I decided to order Stir Fried Noodles and ordered one order with beef and one with pork. The noodle used in stir-fried noodles is about 2/3 inch wide so a very substantial noodle. I asked that they put lots of mung bean sprouts in the vegetable mix and ordered an order of four fried egg rolls, which are served with lettuce leaves, slices of cucumber, oriental basil, cilantro, and Vietnamese fish sauce.  We drove to Houng Thao on Juan Tabo and waited in the parking lot and called to tell the lady we had arrived.  Buying Vietnamese take-out is like a drug deal.  You drive up to the door and they come out to your car and you hand them your credit card and try take it and run the card payment and then bring you back your food with your card and the credit card charge and you drive off with your food.  We drove home and ate the fabulous Vietnamese 

food with a beer.  We did not finish all the noodles, so I put the boxes of leftover noodles in the fridge. Houng Thao is one my two favorite Vietnamese restaurants with 2000 Vietnam.  In fact it is a bit mote upscale

  

  

 

 

 

  

We made a pasta dish for dinner.  Suzette made her normal white wine and cream sauce after sautéing 

onion, tomato, marinated artichoke hearts and some of the Pork Confit we made last week.  Unfortunately, I had not refrigerated the articles and they may have gone bad and the pork Confit was made with a terrible cut of pork that became very hard to chew.  

      You probably know by now that I have a very finicky gut and when it senses displeasure with what I have eaten it fires it straight out the other end of my system, which is what happened with the data dish.  We rarely throw anything away, but we threw the pasta dish and the pork Confit in the trash.

 December 14, 2020  Lunch – Miso Soup  Dinner – Garlic Eggplant with Swordfish and Mushrooms I 

have been trying to perfect miso soup lately.  Today I made it with the usual ingredients: dehydrated 

 dried seaweed, tofu cut into 1/3 inch cubes, a heaping T. of white miso, a couple of mushrooms sliced 

thinly, the leaves and a bit of stalk of celery, and green onion sliced thinly. Today I decided to add a whisked egg mixed with a tsp. of soy and Aji Mirin.  If you wait until the soup reaches a rolling boil  before adding the egg it will cook when it hits the liquid and turn into small particles that are usually referred to as a cloud. I do not recall if I added noodles, but I usually do.  I sprinkled thinly sliced green onions on top as a garnish. The result was delicious.

  Dinner was wonderful also.  I had been marinating a cubed swordfish steak in sweet chili sauce, soy, and Chinese Cooking wine for several days hoping to make swordfish Shish kebabs but when Suzette said, 

“We have an eggplant, so I would like to make my favorite Chinese dish, Garlic Eggplant (from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking) and add Mushrooms, Napa cabbage, and the Swordfish to it. I made rice and 

then peeled the eggplant and cut it into 2 ½  to three inch strips resembling fried potatoes, which Suzette fried in a small quantity of peanut oil.  Suzette made the seasoning sauce by combining soy sauce, rice vinegar, Chinese Cooking wine, oyster sauce, and cornstarch.

 

 After the eggplant strips were cooked, Suzette stir fried onion and garlic in the wok and then added the cubed swordfish and sliced mushrooms.  In a few minutes Suzette added the seasoning sauce and when the liquid in the wok began to thicken Suzette served the dish over rice.  We drank beer with this meal.  The eggplant was a little flaccid, but the mushrooms and swordfish were delicious additions to the dish.

We drank beers with the dish.  

December 15,  2020. Lunch - Bologna and goat cheese salad. Dinner – New Recipe, sautéed scallops with a lime and cilantro melted butter sauce over rice.  

 Willy gave us a Harry and David food box for our birthdays in July/ August with several cheeses, 

salamis, cookies, and crackers.  We took it on our dark sky trip for Suzette’s birthday in August.  Several salamis were left uneaten, so today when I decided to make a fresh salad for lunch I chopped an opened salami into quarter circles and added it to my salad of Romaine lettuce, tomato, radishes, croutons and 

goat cheese.  I also toasted bread and spread goat cheese on it.  We buy the California goat cheese at 

Costco because it is the least expensive and is delicious.

We had not discussed nor had we thawed anything for dinner until 4:00 when Suzette arrived. I suggested scallops because they are easy to thaw quickly and Suzette agreed.  After a cocktail and a bit of watching the news Suzette found a recipe for Sautéed scallops with a lime, garlic, white wine vinegar, cilantro, butter sauce.  It was essentially a glorified Mojo de Ajo sauce.

I chopped garlic and cilantro and Suzette cleaned and chopped fresh spinach.  Suzette then salted and peppered the scallops and sautéed them and heated some of last night’s steamed rice in a Pyrex baking dish covered with Saran in the microwave.

Suzette them made the sauce in a skillet by toasting the garlic in butter and then adding the chopped 

cilantro, lime juice, and a dash of white wine vinegar.  The result was a zesty garlic citrus flavored sauce that Suzette poured over the scallops she had laid n a pile of warmed rice.

We drank a bottle of German Reichard Rose ($4.99 at Trader Joe’s ). The 100% Pinot Noir wine was wonderful with the zesty Scallop dish.    

Suzette kept saying except for the ocean I feel like I am in 

Puerto Vallarta.  It was an amazingly fresh tropical citrus sauce with that Mexican seafood vibe that draws us to Mexico’s Pacific Coast again and again.  Perhaps being denied the opportunity to go to PV made this taste of Mexico so much more endearing.

 

 

December 16, 2020  Lunch – IKONIC Coffee Shop.  Dinner – Sautéed Mushrooms with PPI Boeuf Bourguignon and Roasted Potatoes

Today we drove to Santa Fe to pick up PPE for The Center but it turned into a shopping spree of sorts.  We first drove to the basement of Yuen’s Tony Anaya Building on Cerrillos  and loaded 420 N95 masks, five boxes of gowns and 200 face shields from the NM Department of Health stockpile.  Stephens Consignment was across the street so we drove there after we called Aaron Payne to make an appointment to see an Ed Garman painting he had shown in his Daily Christmas circular he had shown that morning.  It was a beautiful painting that seemed to me to evoke elements of the Transcendental Painting  Group, of which he was a member and the California hard edge school of the 60’s and 70’s.  I loved it the minute I saw it on my computer screen that morning and thanked God for the rapid increase in my portfolio that would allow me to purchase it.

But first Stephen’s.  Suzette saw several items that she thought we should buy, none of which were particularly expensive, a double candelabra with rings of crystal prisms hanging from each candleholder

, a jack of linked wrought iron hooks used to hang meat such as four quarters of beef or venison or for hanging baskets of plants if you are Suzette, and a set of 10 place settings of silverware with wooden handles made by the German Henkel Firm, sort of its take on Scandinavian modern steel and wood silverware.  We loved the silverware immediately and realized we needed a newer nicer set of everyday silver.

After loading our new purchases we drove to Aaron’s new gallery on Lena Street, which has become a really hip area.  We loved his new airy well lit gallery. After a bit of haggling I bought the painting, especially after I learned it was owned by Tiska Blankenship, the former Manager of the Jonson Gallery at UNM.  What became even more interesting was that she said she bought it from Peter Eller, but Peter did not seem to remember that fact today when he was over and I asked him.

After buying the painting we loaded it and walked across the street to the IKONIC coffee shop. I immediately liked the place when we saw a fellow roasting coffee in a 50 lb. roadster near the front door.  We ordered lunch to take out although there was a patio because the day was cold and there was no sun on the patio.  We took or David Bowie card on a stand holder given to us to identify us across the street to a table in the sunlight.  Soon our lunch was delivered a vegetarian cauliflower, broccoli, and thin rice noodle coconut milk green curry based soup for me and a patty melt with a small salad for Suzette.  We enjoyed 

our lunch and will return if we are in the area.

    

We drove home and rested until dinner.

Suzette decided to make a light dinner out of the last bit of Boeuf Bourguignon and roasted potatoes.  She sliced about 1 ½ cups of portobello mushrooms thickly and sautéed them  in olive oil until the edges browned.  Then she added the PPI Boeuf Bourguignon and Potatoes from a prior meal and heated everything together and then plated it.  

   

I opened a bottle of Trader Joe’s 2017 Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville in the Napa Valley.  The wine was really delicious, as was the rich mushroom dish.  We are trying to eat less, and this dinner was perfect.  

Bon Appetit