March 17, 2020 Lunch – PPI Boeuf Bourguignon, red cabbage and beets, and mashed potatoes. Dinner – Mapo Dofu and rice and Japanese pickled vegetables.

March 17, 2020 Lunch – PPI Boeuf Bourguignon, red cabbage and beets, and mashed potatoes. Dinner – Mapo Dofu and rice and Japanese pickled vegetables.

I did not eat breakfast, so at 11:00 I gathered three PPIs from the fridge; Boeuf Bourguignon, red cabbage and beets, and mashed potatoes, and heated them in the microwave and ate them from the storage container that I had reheated for 3:33 minutes at a power of 8.

I poured a glass of 2012 Origon Gran Reserva.  The 60% Syrah and 40% Tempranillo blend went well with the dish, not unlike the Cotes du Rhône recommended by Julia Child in her recipe for the dish in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.



After lunch I weeded the yard for 30 minutes and then worked for a while.  At 5:00 I took a 1/3 mile walk in an unrelentingly strong breeze out of the Southwest.

This was a day of recovery for the market of 1049 points on the Dow, but not enough to erase the 3000 point drop of yesterday. My portfolio is at a new low and probably will not recover until there is a cure for the corona virus, which could be a year.

Suzette came home at around 6:00 and I started preparing Mapo Dofu for dinner.  The dish is a traditional Szechuan dish. I make it without the traditional piquantness.  I diced ½ each of a bell pepper and a poblano pepper, 1 medium onion, about 2 T. of ginger and 1 T. of garlic, 1 eggplant, and about 1 cup of broccoli.  I then diced a 1 lb. boneless pork sirloin, 1 tsp. of chili garlic sauce. and two cooked PPI bratwurst.

I heated about 2 T. of peanut oil in my wok and stir fried all those ingredients for about 20 minutes until they were tender.

I then added 8 oz. of firm cubed tofu, and about 1 T. of dried Black wood ear threads and 4 sliced dehydrated shiitake mushrooms that I had rehydrated in 2 cups of hot water for about fifteen minutes and added to the wok to nearly cover the ingredients.  I also added 1 T.of Chinese Cooking wine, 1 tsp. of sesame oil, and 2 T. of soy sauce.

I covered the wok and let the ingredients steam for another five to ten minutes and the added a seasoning sauce of 1 T. of Chinese Cooking Wine and 1 tsp. of sesame oil, ½ tsp. of dehydrated chicken stock and 1 T. of cornstarch plus 2 to 3 T. of hot water.  After a couple of minutes at medium high heat the liquid in the wok thickened slightly.

I fetched two Negra Modelos from the fridge and Suzette and I shared one with dinner.

I heated the PPI sushi rice from last Friday night’s Sashimi dinner for 2:22 minutes and we served ourselves Rice and Mapo Dofu and nibbled Japanese pickled vegetables

The mixture of meats and vegetables and tofu seems very healthy and satisfying to me.

After dinner I drank a cup of green  tea and finished reading Lost Horizon by James Hilton.  I loved the book about a valley of tranquility hidden in the Himalayas where people live exceedingly long and happy lives.  A perfect book for 1933 and the rise of Nazism that foreshadowed the horrors of 2nd World War.

I saw that Biden expanded his lead over Sanders in the primaries held today in Illinois, Arizona, and Florida.  The nomination appears to be Biden’s to lose at this point.  The question now is whether the democrats can unite to defeat Trump.

Bon Appetit