August 31, 2020 Lunch – Shrimp Noodle Soup.  Dinner – Sashimi and Rice

I watched some of Stage 3 of the Tour de France because it was such a long Stage and switched to the business channel and checked my mail until 10:30 when it ended in a dramatic sprint finish won by Caleb McEwan

At 9:30 I ate a bowl of tropical fruit salad with granola and yogurt.

Then at 10:30 I rode five miles on my bike south.  When I returned I showered and dressed and then heated the PPI Shrimp Noodle Soup.  After the first bowl, I added the PPI shrimp scampi with all of its wonderful asparagus and Chard.

The second bowl was even better.

It was nearly 2:00 so I watched the Market close.  The DOW was down but today was the day Apple split 4 to 1 and it was bid up, resulting in a 1% gain for my portfolio. This has been the best August gain since 1986 according to the commentators.  I believe it.

I then drove to the bank and then to Costco to do some shopping.  We needed butter, eggs, Jarlsberg cheese, Pecorino-Romano cheese.  I also bought spinach, two Dungeness crabs, a salmon fillet, and three Aji tuna fillets, a bottle of Mohua New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and a bottle of Spanish Tempranillo Reserva rated 93 points by David Suckling for under $10.00.

When I returned home at 4:30 Suzette had arrived.  I unloaded and rested for a few minutes.  Then I made teriyaki sauce (1/3 cup each of soy sauce, sake, and Aji Mirin plus 1 T. of sugar heated to put the sugar into solution) and cut the salmon fillet to the size of a gallon freezer bag.  I thawed two sea scallops and we placed the package of crabs in the sink to thaw. 

I then placed the salmon fillet in the bag and Suzette poured the teriyaki sauce into bag and sealed the bag and placed it in the fridge to marinate.  I the wrapped two of the three tuna steaks and two extra salmon steaks and put them in the freezer.  

I then made Sashimi. I sliced the tuna steak and tail section of the salmon fillet, and the two scallops.  I sliced rounds of cucumber from the Italian cucumber we bought on our trip and heated a pitcher of sake and made a cup of green tea. I put pickled ginger into a bowl and filled dipping bowls with soy sauce and prepared wasabi sauce and filled bowls with rice.

 I heated a pitcher of sake in a pot of hot water and poured tear cups of warm sake.

Suzette had not eaten lunch so she ate the container of chicken salad with a bowl of potato chips.  Therefore she did not eat much of the Sashimi.  I managed to eat most of it.  I bought the tuna and salmon because I was really in the mood for Sashimi.  I bought the crabs because we had discussed eating a meal of crab and champagne for her birthday, but we decided to not take crab on our camping trip.

After dinner I drank a cup of green tea with a piece of toasted banana nut bread Suzette’s sister Jean sent her for her birthday.

We will eat teriyaki salmon and crab for the next couple of days.

Bon Appetit

August 30, 2020 Brunch – Sausage, Egg, onion, and Potato Burritos Dinner – Pork, bean, Hoja Santa, and Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce Stew with Rice

 August 30, 2020 Brunch – Sausage, Egg, onion, and Potato Burritos  Dinner – Pork, bean, Hoja Santa, and Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce Stew with Rice  

Today’s menu turned toward New Mexican and Mexican Cuisine.

I woke up a bit before 5:00 and watched the entirety of Stage 2 of the Tour de France starting at 5:00.  It was a brilliant ride by Julien Allaphillipe who broke away from a lead group of seven riders with the other riders 50 kilometers from the finish and finished the race about 5 seconds ahead of the peloton in a sprint finish with the other two riders.

We ate brunch after 10:00. I diced onion, Potato.  Suzette sautéed Jimmie Dean sausage with the onion and potato and then I added three eggs whisked and cooked the filling until done.  Suzette toasted two flour tortillas.  Suzette prefers to roll her tortilla around the filling and eat the burrito the traditional way, with one’s hands.  I prefer to fill the surface of a tortilla with filling and eat it like an open face sandwich with a knife and fork.   We shared a Bohemia beer.

I walked 1/3 mile and then showered and napped after brunch until 1:15, when we went into an accelerated effort to make a Mexican stew with chunks of Pork, white beans, an Hoja Santa leave, an onion, four ladles of green Tomatillo Enchilada sauce, two carrots, and 4 cloves of garlic.

We put the filled crock pot and baked the stew at 350 degrees by 2:00 and then had our weekly Zoom meeting with Willy and Bill and Elaine until 3:00.

Suzette prepared the information cards for her New Mexico female artists exhibit during the afternoon.

At 3:00 I lowered the heat to 325degrees and at 6:00 we checked  the stew and if was ready. Suzette asked me to make rice.  I made a cup of rice with 2 cups of water, ½ tsp. of dehydrated chicken stock, and 1 cup of basmati rice. After bringing the water to a boil and adding the rice, I cover the pan and cook at a low simmer for 30 minutes.

I fetched a Negra Modelo for Suzette and a Bohemia for me from the garage fridge.

Suzette fetched fresh Chard from our garden. I de-stemmed the ten leaves and cut them into bite sized pieces and Suzette plated our plates with Chard, then rice and finally on the stew.

I drank a sip of Calvados with a cup of tea and two chocolate chip cookies after dinner we watched the NY Islanders beat the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Bon Appetit

August 29, 2020 Lunch – Vichyssoise Dinner – Grilled Rig Steak and Asparagus with Baked Potato

 August 29, 2020 Lunch – Vichyssoise   Dinner – Grilled Rig Steak and Asparagus with Baked Potato

This was a wonderful day because it was the first stage of the Tour de France.  I was hoping it would not be canceled du3to the pandemic and it was not. Everyone wore masks except the riders and those standing on their own property.  Even better was the fact that Kristoff, a Norwegian, won the stage and the world champion, aDane came second.

It was a very rainy da6 and there were lots of accidents, especially in switchbacks full of water on the descents but after awhile the race was put under control by the riders until the last few miles in the sprint finish on the a boulevard along the ocean in Nice.

Tomorrow will be a mountain stage, also beginning and ending in Nice.

I toasted a small whole wheat bagel and spread it with goat cheese and garnished it with thin onion slices and Gravad Lax for breakfast with a cup of Earl Grey tea.

After the race I talked to Willy for a bit.  He had come from the Farmers’ Market with two chocolate and almond croissants.  Then he moved his motorcycle so it will not hinder Suzette’s access to her vehicle.  He had bought a lot of fresh green chili and gave us four or five of them.

After he left Suzette went on errands and I made Tomatillo green chili enchilada sauce and used three of the green chili’s Willy gave us plus about three lb. of tomatillos, two onions, a cup of chopped oregano and a head of garlic from our garden, and 2 T. of canola oil to sauté the vegetables and keep them from 

sticking to the bottom of the pot until the tomatillos went into solution.

Suzette arrived just as I was finishing adding all the ingredients Anne we ate a bowl of Vichyssoises.

We then napped until 4:30 .  We watched the news for several hours and then made dinner.  I sliced seven or eight mushrooms and a shallot and then sliced two slices of onion and went too the garden and picked chives and thyme.  We sautéed the mushrooms and onions with the destemmed  thyme leaves and I added Amontillado sherry to make a light sauce and flavor the mushrooms and onions. Suzette grilled the salted and peppered rib steak and asparagus tossed in olive oil, salt, and pepper.

There were two large potatoes already baked that Suzette heated in the microwave and dinner was ready.

I sliced the steak and it was bloody rare so we cooked a minute or two in the skillet with the mushrooms and onions.

Suzette chose a bottle of Martini Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was bland but pleasant with the steak because it was a light heavy.

After inner we watched a Black Panther.

I made a cup of tea and two chocolate chip cookies with tea and a sip of cognac.

I think pleasant days without a lot of craziness are to be cherished.

Bon Appetit

August 26, 2020 Lunch – Chicken Salad Sandwiches at a Great View Picnic Area in Canyonlands National Park. Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops, Baked Potatoes, and Salad

 August 26, 2020 Lunch – Chicken Salad Sandwiches at a Great View Picnic Area in Canyonlands National Park. Dinner – Grilled Lamb Chops, Baked Potatoes, and Salad 

This was another super interesting day. We got up at 7:30 and ate tropical fruit salad for breakfast. I also ate a heated slide of French Baguette with sliver of Iberico cheese.

We then drove to Canyonlands National Park, which adjoins Dead Horse State Park. We went to all the sights and even hiked the ½ mile to the Mesa Arch.  We ended our morning excursion at the lookout where one cab see the spot where the Green River converges with the Colorado  River at Grand Point.  We could not see the confluence because the rivers have cut deep gashes in the geography.

Wilson Arch

One of the most interesting things we saw was Whale Rock, a large formation that looks like a whale. Here is a picture.

We ate lunch at the picnic area just north of Grand Point.  We ate chicken Salad Sandwiches with potato chips, cucumber slices, tomato slices, chicken salad, avocado slices and lettuce on German whole wheat bread with sips of Advocat Oregon Pinot Gris.

The view from our picnic table

This raven’s main food source appears to be tourists’ leftovers

Melon, cucumber, avocado, lettuce, and tomato

Our chicken salad sandwiches were delicious

After lunch we drove back to the yurt and napped until 4:15.

I organized my phone for a Zoom meeting with Suzette’s help and participated in my 5:00 zen meditation meeting.

Soon after 6:00 we received a phone call from Willy that our house had been burgled. We went into motion while we prepared dinner to get the broken window sEaled.  By 7:30 everything was covered, reset and alarmed again.

Suzette buttered and double wrapped two large potatoes in foil and put them on the grill.  Then I made a salad of Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, cubed mozzarella cheese, and sliced avocado with a balsamic olive oil dressing and Suzette grilled six lamb chops.

We enjoyed the moon rise and sunset as we ate dinner.

I poured the last half bottle of Wellington 2012 Merlot into glasses and we enjoyed dinner.  Soon the darkness fell and we bathed in the brilliant light of the moon.

Bon Appetit

We watched the dark sky and sipped Croft Ruby Port that I recently bought at Costco. 

At 10:30 we went to sleep.

August 25, 2020 Albuquerque to Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

 August 25, 2020 Albuquerque to Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

I awakened early at 4:30 and showered and did some menial tasks like clearing the dishwasher and awakened Suzette at 6:30.  I ate a breakfast of tropical fruit salad, yogurt, and granola at 7:00 while Suzette was enjoying her coffee and filling a thermos full of coffee for the trip. We then made three steak, potato, egg and cheese burritos that Suzette wrapped foil to nibble on the road. I  checked e mail and watched the pre-market activity.  After the market opened it looked like it was going down but we were packing and loading the Highlander.  We left a bit after 8:00 and after stopping for gas were on the road to Four Corners by 9:00.

                                                      Eating a burrito on the rode 

The only stops we made were at a produce stand north of Bloomfield where we bought an Italian cucumber, a Crenshaw melon that was so ripe it smelled fabulous, and a small personal melon. The other stop was a Gopher gas station, liquor and convenience store in Utah.

We shared two burritos and sips of coffee and water as we drove.

We saw this interesting formation that resembled a Buddhist stupa but one of many white limestone topped mesitas generically called a Navajo formation.

Dead Horse state Park is adjacent to a portion of Canyonlands National Park.  The views from its scenic viewing points are of the sinuous winds of the Colorado River above the Grand Canyon.  According to the information plaques, John Wesley Powell surveyed  this stretch of the Colorado River in 1869.

We rented a yurt for two nights.  Our main reason for choosing to go to Dead Horse was that it is a UNESCO Premier dark Sky viewing location.

I thought we would be dry camping, but the yurt was quite luxurious with a substantial queen sized bunk bed, an A/C unit pumping out 68 degree air, a gas grill and electricity with lighting and a fan.  Just across the parking lot are two bathrooms with flush toilets and a dishwashing station with non-potable water.

Asparagus, Onions, Cottage Fried Potatoes, and Shishito peppers sautéing, and steak

The table set for dinner with Caprese Salad

We arrived at 4:15 and before going to our yurt,  we drove to the visitors’ center and asked about Canyonlands.  We visited the observation deck located next to the river.  Then we drove to Dead Horse Point and enjoyed its incredible view of the Colorado River’s amazing sinuous course that you see often in ads and pictures.  

The sinuous Colorado River

We then drove to our yurt.

We were hungry so decided to fix dinner. I sliced two slices of onion and sliced two cloves of garlic into thin rounds and diced ½ of a large potato that Suzette sautéed in the skillet we brought.  Suzette wrapped a handful of asparagus in foil with a drizzle of olive oil and grilled the foil wrapped asparagus next to the steak and the skillet. I also cut a piece of French baguette and drizzled it with olive oil and wrapped it in foil and Suzette heated it on the upper shelf of the grill.

We opened a bottle of 2012 Wellington Merlot and sipped it while we cooked and drank with ice cubes for dinner.

I also made a Caprese Salad with one of the lovely tomatoes Suzette picked  in her garden at the Center. I sliced the tomato into five slices and inserted a slice of fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves I had picked this morning in our garden. I added some olive oil to a small bottle I had filled halfway full of Italian Balsamic vinegar to made a balsamic dressing that I used to dress the Caprese Salad.  

The steak and asparagus were well cooked but a little tough.  The Caprese Salad was sublime and the earthiness of the merlot wine went well with the steak and salad.  All in all an easy meal to prepare that was  delicious. 

 I ate a chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

After dinner we lay down for a nap and awakened at 9:15 and went outside to gaze at the sky, but it was partially overcast with clouds, so after a while we went in and decided to sleep and get up later.

One thing I noticed immediately is how clean the air is.  I am feeling better almost immediately.  

I went out at 11:00 to check and the sky was completely covered by clouds.  So much for our dark sky experience.

The fatal problem with Trump’s foreign policy is that he will not admit when he is getting manipulated and covers up the error of his strategy with lies instead of adjusting his strategy. Just two of many such failures are denuclearization of North Korea and the fiasco of withdrawing troops from northern Syria to let Turkey and Russia take control of that area and let Turkey and Russia decimate the now unprotected Kurds.

Trump also seems to be Putin’s lackey.  He is now withdrawing troops from Germany which may expose Europe’s Western flank to Soviet aggression while at the same time rejecting America’s commitment to defend Europe.

I am enjoying this vacation very much. The fresh air and luxurious camping are invigorating.  I see why so many people come hereto to hike.

Bon Appetit

 August 28, 2020 Lunch – Shrimp Noodle Soup. Dinner – Scampi with Mixed Sautéed Vegetables on Spaghetti

Yesterday we cleaned the yurt at Dead Horse Point and I made lamb sandwiches with slices of Iberico cheese on toasted French Baguette with mayo, lettuce, and butter.  We stopped at the McDonald’s in Moab and picked up two egg and sausage biscuits which got us through lunch at 1:00.  We drove south to Shiprock and took a cut across the Navajo Nation to 550. When we got to 550, we stopped and ate our sandwiches with potato chips.  I drank my V-8 and Suzette drank a beer.

Shiprock

Farm north of Shiprock

We then drove into Albuquerque to inspect the damage of a failed break in.  The alarm must have gone off and scared the burglars away.

We made salads with chicken salad filled avocado halves for dinner and drank the last of the Advocat Oregon Pinot Gris that Suzette found too acidic.  I thought it was just okay, not great.

Today we both worked.  I did five or six deeds and Suzette went to work. At noon I made noodle soup with four types of noodles, wheat vermicelli, buckwheat soba, 40 mm.rice noodle squares, and a bundle of bean thread noodles plus dehydrated dashi, fish cake balls, shrimp, cubed zucchini, 5 oz.f soft tofu, 1 T. of white miso, onion, green onion, a stalk of celery diced, and four leaves of Napa cabbage diced plus a dash of each of Chinese Cooking wine, and sesame oil.  The soup nearl filled a 2=quart sauce pan.

                                       Noodle soup garnished with green onion slices and hoisin

We talked briefly and decided to make something with shrimp, so I thawed out approximately ¾ lb. of shrimp. 

Later when Suzette returned we decided to make Scampi with mixed vegetables.  I started chopping onion, garlic, asparagus, zucchini, 3 sweet peppers from our garden, and five mushrooms.  Suzette sautéed the vegetables and then added White Vermouth and butter to create a light sauce. She heated the PPI spaghetti and we had a great dinner.

Later I ate a few bites of claufoutis.

I am really enjoying the August 17th New Yorker Jon Lee Anderson autobiography and the Grant biography by Chernow.

Bon Appetit

August 23, 2020 Lunch – bagel, Lax and cream cheese. Dinner -Roasted Chicken with Steamed Broccoli, and Tomato Couscous

 August 23, 2020 Lunch – bagel, Lax and cream cheese. Dinner -Roasted Chicken with Steamed Broccoli, and Tomato Couscous

As often happens a heavy food day follows a light food day.  Today was a heavy food day.

I awakened at 6:30 and  walked 2/3 mile with one sugar pill.  Then I made tropical fruit salad with a pineapple, a papaya, two mangos, the juice of one lime, and one orange.  The fruit was sweet and so I made a granola, milk, yogurt, and fruit salad breakfast around 8:30.

I was still weak from my walk so at 10:00 I toasted a small whole wheat bagel, spread it with cream cheese, and garnished the two halves with thin slices of red onion, and Gravad Lax.

After the news shows we showered and dressed and went to Costco to purchase food the Center and s few items for us.

We then drove to HD so Suzette could get a few more items.

With the Highlander filled we drove to Willy’s so Suzette could take pictures of the leak in Willy’s bathroom. Willy informed me that the European championship was starting between Bayern Munich and Paris St. Germain.

We then went home and unloaded and I watched the match, which Bayern won.

At around 3:30 I started prepping a chicken for dinner. I went to the garden and picked six or seven sprigs of tarragon and slid it under the skin of the chicken and salted and peppered the chicken and roasted it for about 2 hours. 

We also roasted 6 large russet potatoes.

Suzette Steamed some broccoli and re-heated the tomato Couscous.  We opened a bottle of Picton Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, whose light acidity and fruitiness was a perfect complement for the toast chicken.

The idea that prompted roast chicken is that a Suzette and I prefer dark meat, but prefer white meat for chicken salad.

So tonight we ate the dark meat and bagged the breasts that ,we will use to make chicken salad tomorrow.

After dinner Suzette fetched the Clafoutis from the garage.  Suzette heated two small bowls of Clafoutis and drizzled them with cream. For a lovely warm dessert.

.Bon Appetit 

August 24, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – Chicken, Asparagus, Onion, and smoked Pork Chop wine and cream sauce over linguine

 August 24, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – Chicken, Asparagus, Onion, and smoked Pork Chop wine and cream sauce over linguine

I ate yogurt, granola, milk, and tropical fruit salad for breakfast and then walked ½ mile.

The market took off like a scared rabbit again today, although it settled down a bit toward the close ending with the Dow up an impressive 368points.  I had another amazing 1% gain today. A pretty usual Monday in the Market.

At 11:20 I drove to Total Wine to buy three bottles of brandy for Suzette as an ingredient for her maraschino cherries. And six other bottles of wine two Cotes du Rhone reds, three vouvray whites and 1 Falerio Italian white.

I then drove to Trader Joe’s where I bought a baguette and a ciabatta plus four bottles of French wine, a Sagnol Rose, a Famille Perrin Reserve White, a new bottle of 100% Sauvignon Blanc white Bordeaux, and a Tavel.

I then drove to Vietnam 2000 and picked up the No. 21 I had ordered for $10.00 and drove mk' k,mm,mhm, hk,home.  After unloading the groceries I picked a dozen basil leaves and fetched the cilantro and ate the whole lunch as I watched the Market close.,’Kyl,has,,xe

I worked until 5:15 when Suzette came home and started making chicken salad and dinner.  

Suzette decided to combine the last smoked pork chop With onions, some of the chicken breast, mushrooms, and chopped asparagus in a white vermouth and cream sauce to serve over spaghetti.

I had chilled the Falerio white and Willy brought his camp stove and stayed for dinner.  We ate in the back yard.  Falerio is one of my favorite new under $10.00 Italian whites.  Here is a picture.  

Chicken salad. Before and after dinner I chopped three stalks of celery, ½ red onion, three hard boiled eggs, a handful of tarragon, 2 red apples 

Peeled. cored and diced, and 1 ½ chicken breasts and added 1 cup mayonnaise, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp. of white wine vinegar, and ¼ tsp. of salt.

This will be our lunch on Wednesday.

While I was making chicken salad, Suzette was making 10 mason jars of maraschino cherries with the three bags of cherries we pitted yesterday.

We cleaned up around 9:30 and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

August 22, 2020 Brunch – Sausage, Egg, and Potato Burrito. Dinner – PPI Pork and Sauerkraut

 August 22, 2020 Brunch – Sausage, Egg, and Potato Burrito. Dinner – PPI Pork and Sauerkraut 

I slept in a bit this morning and read Grant and dozed.  I am the most interesting part of the book for me, which is that period just after the Civil War that included the effort to free the blacks from bondage and provide them equal rights that we think broadly of as Reconstruction and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.  I am finding many parallels between 1866/1867 and now.  A racist President.  Horrible treatment of blacks by whites. Actually it was worse during Reconstruction because the South was put under military rule to suppress the violence to blacks and Republicans who supported the Union.

I spent the morning organizing my desk and examining my shell collection.  I took out all my Tiger Cowries, to show the Hawaiian sub species Schilderiana.  It is the one on the left.

 

 

  Suzette was working in her office but around 10:00 she

 came into my office and said she was hungry.

I suggested sausage, egg, and potato burritos, to which she agreed.

So I began by chopping 3 to 4 oz. of onion and a small PPI baked potato.

Suzette had started by putting about ½ cup of sausage into the large skillet and turning on the heat. She then became distracted by a phone call, so I added the onion and potato and three T. of butter.

 When Suzette returned to assume her usual duties at the stove I went to the garden and picked six or seven sage leaves.  I chopped and added those to the  skillet and Suzette added the three eggs she had whisked to the skillet and toasted two flour tortillas on the open gas flame of the stove..

  As usual, Suzette made herself a Bloody Mary and I made myself a glass of Clamato with the juice of ½ lime.

Suzette scrambled the eggs and poured them out onto the two tortillas.  Hers in a line so her tortilla could be rolled into a burrito she could pick up and eat and mine onto the flat tortilla so I could eat it open faced

After brunch we made our list of items to gather for the trip we will take this week to a remote camp site for Suzette’s birthday.  We gathered some items and then I rested again and read until 4:00, when I moved my shell case to my office for the virtual shell meeting.  I lay out my five tiger cowries and a few venustas to identify.

I made a gin and tonic and gathered a handful of pita chips and several handfuls of roasted peanuts in a bowl for snacks during the Zoom meeting and dialed in at 5:00.The meeting lasted until 7:45.  I went to check on Suzette and called to her but she had fallen asleep.  It was too late to cook, so I fetched the pot of pork and sauerkraut from the garage and heated a plate of it and toasted a slice of German whole wheat bread and spread it with the Russian dressing I made for the Reuben sandwiches we made earlier this week and slid the bread under the heated pork to make an open faced Reuben sandwich.

Suzette appeared at this time and joined me for dinner.  She sliced a cooked sweet potatoes half and lay spoonfuls of pork and sauerkraut on top of it and heated the dish and joined me for dinner.

The food was filling and delicious but without the ceremony of prepping and cooking the food I could not help thinking of us as an older German couple eating this meal in a small hut in the German forest. Sort of like Van Gogh’s dark image of the Potato Eaters.

We watched a CNN program chronicling the 100 years of women’s struggle for equality since passage of The 19th Amendment.  

I took the pot of pork back to the garage and brought in the Clafoutis and ate a bowl of it with a cup of chai.

Suzette went to bed at 10:00 when the show ended and I stayed up and watched a bit of RDG and then Doctor T. and went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit

 

August 21, 2020 Lunch – PPI No. 21 from 2000 Vietnam, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Tomato Couscous, and Creamed Spinach with Sautéed Mushrooms and onion

 August 21, 2020 Lunch – PPI No. 21 from 2000 Vietnam,  Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak, Tomato Couscous, and Creamed Spinach with Sautéed Mushrooms and onion

Today was an easy food day.  Without much effort we achieved remarkable results.  

For breakfast I ate a bowl of granola, yogurt, milk, and blueberries, my favorite and healthiest breakfast.

I went to an appointment after breakfast and returned at around 10:30.

I worked at my desk until 12:30, mostly watching the run up in Apple and Nividia.  Apple ended the day up $25.00 and Nividia was up around $20.00.  Although the DOW was up 190 points, most of my other stocks were down slightly, but my portfolio managed a super healthy gain of 1%.

In fact the month of August has been the best of my 50 year stock picking career. It is hard to explain why these two stocks and a couple others like Tesla seem to defy gravity’s downward pull during the dire current economic conditions.

For lunch I ate the leftover ½ of the No. 21 from 2000 Vietnam Restaurant I ate with a Willy yesterday with lots of fresh cilantro from our El Super order last Sunday and fresh basil from the garden.

After lunch I rested and watched the news.  The big news is that Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign guru, was arrested yesterday on a $30,000,000 yacht anchored off the coast of Connecticut owned by a Chinese billionaire for defrauding a lot of Trump supporters in his scheme to build some of Trump’s wall. The allegation is that he and three others who formed an organization to solicit donations to build Trump’s promised wall at the Mexican Border with the representation that they would use 100% of the donations to build the wall and then diverted millions of dollars of the total of $25 million dollars raised to their personal benefit.  The obvious implication from these facts is that Trump and those around him are con artists who instead of wanting to help people, are using them to their own benefit. 

I also read a bit of the Grant biography written by Ron Chernow. I am half way through at page 560 and just entering Reconstruction in 1866.  I really find it an informative history.  I have read Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton and made a promise to myself today to read his Washington biography.

At 4:00 I did another hour’s work and then watched the news at 5:00.

Suzette came home at 6:30.  I suggested we grilled the two steaks we had thawed yesterday.  When I looked in the fridge I saw the bunch of spinach we ordered from El Super and we decided to prepare Creamed spinach with Mushrooms and onions for dinner.

In the afternoon I had invited a Willy to dinner and knew he was fond of Malbec so at 4:00 I went to the basement and found an old dusty bottle of 2004 Los Cardos Malbec from the Mendoza Valley of Argentina that I chilled in the fridge.

At 7:00 I started chopping Garlic, slicing onion and portobello mushrooms, and de-stemming spinach for one dish.  We had decided to refresh the Couscous with fresh tomato so while I prepped the Creamed spinach dish Suzette diced a Roma tomato and added it to the plastic container containing PPI Couscous and salted and peppered the two 1 ¼ inch rib steaks, and put four T. of butter into a large skillet on the stove. Suzette rinsed and spun the de-stemmed spinach to clean it.

Around 7:20 Willy arrived on his bike.

I then sautéed the onion, garlic, and mushroom slices and Suzette put the steaks on the grill.  In a few minutes we added the spinach and a dash of thyme and Amontillado sherry and Suzette fetched the wok cover and covered the skillet to steam the spinach. Suzette then fetched the Malbec and I opened it and poured three glasses while she added heavy cream to the spinach dish and adjusted the salt.

Willy and Suzette had set the table under the gazebo and I sliced the two steaks that Suzette had grilled perfectly to medium rare.  

Then we each plated our plates with slices of steak, and spoonfuls of Couscous and creamed spinach, mushrooms, and onion.

We each took a glass of wine and went to the table in the garden. The wind was breezy, lifting the tablecloth up several times.

We all agreed that it was an amazing dinner.  The thicker steak seemed to be aged, the Couscous was moistened and infused with tomato pulp and juice, and the spinach was not sauced with a heavy cream sauce, but more like a light creamy wine sauce, as you can see in the photo above.  To top off the positive effect of the food, the wine tasted like meeting an old friend.  It added  a smooth grape and chocolate flavor to the bites of steak and mushroom almost like another sauce.

This a standard standard steak dinner that we cook more or less on auto-pilot as you can tell from the inter-connection of our functions, but  with the addition of a different rather special wine that made the dinner somewhat memorable.

We finished the bottle around 9:00 and Willy told us that bad weather was predicted so we cleared the table and said goodnight.  After Willy rode off we watched the news. I toasted two slices of lemon/lavender pound cake and smeared them with raspberry jam and drank a cup of chai with a small glass of cognac and Grand Marnier.

We went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit