December 10, 2020 Lunch – Miso Soup. Dinner – Duck breast Salad

 December 10, 2020 Lunch – Miso Soup.  Dinner – Duck breast Salad

Today was lovely. For one thing it snowed so for about two hours everything turned white.  Also today I tried to eat a moderate diet.  For breakfast I ate tropical fruit salad with yogurt, milk, and granola.

For lunch I made a traditional miso soup: dashi, seaweed, tofu, celery tops, miso, and green onions.plus two extra semi traditional items, chopped taka Choy and chicken dumplings.  It was a wonderful lunch.  Afterward I ate a chocolate chip cookie with a cup of green tea.

The big news today was the IPO of Air BNB.  It priced at $68.00 last night, but I did not know any one who could get me an allocation and my name is not Carl Icahn.  So I had to figure out how to buy it on the open which was very tricky because the sale was a modified auction with the highest bidders getting shares determined by how many shares were offered.  Actually, I called Rahim and he had a prior relationship with Air BNB through his apartments, so he was given an allocation of 200 shares at $68.00; lucky fellow.  

As I watched the TV coverage I finally figured out that as the estimated opening price kept going up I 

could put in any limit price if my offered price exceeded the opening price my order would fill at whatever the opening price was, so I kept moving my price up, finally to $170.00 and was pleasantly surprised when the order filled at an opening price of $146.00. A little more than double Rahim’s allocated price but not terribly overpriced in my opinion. The stock traded up and down within about $2 to $3 of the open and finished the day down a bit over $1.

I have been waiting for over two years for this day because I think ABNB has not only revolutionized travel, but it has also created the ability for almost all persons who own or possess real estate to monetize its potential real estate value.  I love the concept and it is great dominant player in its industry. 

I worked a bit this afternoon and at 5:00 I meditated with the zen group.  Today was particularly satisfying because Luke joined us an recited the closing mantra for the group.

Suzette had arrived at 4:40, so at 5:30 when meditation ended, I went the kitchen and we started constructing our dinner duck salad.

Suzette had confited the two duck breasts last night by covering the breasts with cooking oil and the baking them in the oil in the oven for 7 or 8 hours. She first rinsed and spun a head 

 I cubed a tomato, ½ of a peeled cucumber, thin slices of red onion, and duck breast. Suzette had added a spoonful of pickled beets  to each salad.of butter lettuce and filled two pasta bowls with the torn leaves.  

We then added the three ingredients.  Finally when Suzette saw me tossing away the skin, she sliced them into strips and fried them until crisp and we garnished our salads with the pieces of crisp fried duck skin that highlighted the specialness of Duck.  Suzette also made a special dressing by mixing goat cheese, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.

The salad was really delicious.

Suzette picked a bottle of Campo Viejo Reserva Spanish Tempranillo, which was incredibly smooth and complemented the salad.

I toasted a slice of French bread and spread it with butter and lay slices of brie on it and enjoyed eating it with the wine.

Later, I made chocolate chip cookies with toasted pecans, cocoa, raisins, and chocolate chips.  Unfortunately, to put it in the terms of the Great British Baking Show, I over baked the cookies.

We will see if they hold up in the next few weeks.

We went to bed at 9:45 after watching Trevor Noah’s Show.

We woke up at 1:30  and I butchered the flat at pork chops into 1 inch cubes that Suzette thawed today and Suzette seasoned them in a freezer bag in Italian Spices.  She will probably start cooking the cubes in the confit oil tomorrow. We went back to bed at 2:00.

Bon Appetit