August 13, 2020 Lunch – PPI ½ of 2000 Vietnam No. 21, Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak with Sautéed Mushrooms, Shishito Peppers, and Onion Slices, Boiled Ear of Corn, and Steamed Asparagus

 August 13, 2020 Lunch – PPI ½ of 2000 Vietnam No. 21,  Dinner – Grilled Rib Steak with Sautéed Mushrooms, Shishito Peppers, and Onion Slices, Boiled Ear of Corn, and Steamed Asparagus

My legal business has diminished but that provides me more time to watch and play the stock market.  I saw that gambling has increased in the last few months. My gambling is in the stock market and it has been successful so far.  During the last year my portfolio has increased over 36%, which is the best year ever even though it included the huge drop of February/March of this year. And I still have 16% of my portfolio in cash held in reserve.

I typically arise at 4:30 to get a sense of what the markets will do and watch my favorite news program, Morning Joe.  Apparently President watches it also because he tweeted about it yesterday. I went back to bed at 6:00 and slept until 7:30.

Today I toasted two slices of bagel and spread cream cheese on them and garnished them with Whitefish and drank a cup of tea with them for breakfast.

I watched the Market for a while after breakfast and then a bit before 9:00 rode south 5 ½ miles.

When I returned I rested for a while and then did some work until 11:45 when I went to the garden and picked about 10 basil leaves.  I then reheated for 22 seconds and ate the remaining ½ of the No, 21 from yesterday’s lunch.  

I lay down after lunch I thawed a rib steak and then read Grant and dozed until 2:00, when I checked my portfolio and discovered to my delight that it had increased .6%, reaching a new all time high.

I rested during the afternoon and 5:00 began cooking.  I peeled a bag of peaches Suzette brought from her trees in Los Lunas.

Then at 6:30 when Suzette arrived and confirmed that she had not bought any meat for dinner when she went to Costco and Shamrock after work shopping for the Center, I suggested making a steak dinner with sautéed mushrooms, onion slices, and some of the Shishito peppers we bought in Taos.  I also suggested steaming asparagus.

As Suzette loaded her groceries not the garage fridge she handed me the bag with the remaining three ears of fresh corn and said, “Let’s fix this also.”  I carried the corn and a plastic container f blueberries into the house.  

I started the corn by husking the three ears and filling a pot with water and heating it on the stove with a splash of milk to soften the corn and brought it to a simmer.

When Suzette came in I asked her how much sugar did I need to add to the peaches and Suzette answered, “1/4 cup.” I added slightly less than 1/3 cup of sugar to the peaches. So cobbler was on the menu for 

dessert.

This dinner prep will show you how efficiently and seamlessly Suzette and I work together to cook a meal.

I fetched a bottle of 2018 Chateau Sorillon Bordeaux Superior and put it into the freezer to chill.  The bottle now cost $9.99 at Trader Joe’s and is the best reasonably priced Chateau produced Bordeaux for steak.  As the attendant at Trader Joe’s once told me, “We sell so much of this for steak, we call it Chateaux Sirloin.” 

I next put the corn into the simmering water.  Then I snapped ten stalks of asparagus and put them into the steamer and filled the steamer with water and put it on the stove.

I sliced five or six portobello mushrooms and three slices of onion and heated butter and olive oil in a large skillet . When the butter melted I added the mushrooms and onion slices and 10 to 12 Shishito peppers.Suzette then salted and peppered the steak and took it out to put it on the grill she had turned on and heated about five minutes previously.

I then turned on the heat under the asparagus.

Suzette then mixed the ingredients for the cobbler and added some of the blueberries she had bought at Costco and I pre-heated the stove to 375 degrees.

After a few minutes I flipped the mushrooms and onion slices.

In a few more minutes I checked the asparagus and turned off the heat.

Then Suzette brought in the steak grilled to medium rare. I sliced the steak and Suzette fetched and opened the bottle of wine. I fetched glasses and took the bottle of wine and poured glasses as she put the cobbler into the oven.

I then plated each of our plates with 5 stalks of asparagus and an ear of corn with the big tongs.  We each took slices of meat and used the spatula I had used to turn the onion slices, peppers, and mushrooms to  garnish our steak slices with those items.

Here is a picture.

We watched the last of Rachel Maddow as we ate and then started watching Midsomer Mystery. I ate two toasted and buttered slices of French Baguette after dinner garnished with slices of brie cheese with another glass of the pleasant red wine. Suzette took another glass of wine also to finish the bottle.

There are two episodes of Midsomer Mystery shown every Thursday.  Between the episodes I whisked about 2/3 cup of heavy cream with a dash of sugar into whipped cream and then Suzette served us bowls of warm cobbler topped with whipped cream.

After Midsomer at 9:30 we watched an re-run episode of Detective Lewis until 11:00 and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit