June 29, 2021 Lunch - Padilla’s Family Restaurant. Dinner - BBQ Pork ribs with sautéed Green Beans with slivered Almonds and a Baked Potato

June 29, 2021 Lunch - Padilla’s Family Restaurant. Dinner - BBQ Pork ribs with sautéed Green Beans with slivered Almonds and a Baked Potato

I made Oatmeal for breakfast with raisins, pecans, and brown sugar.

I decided to eat chili rellenos from Padilla’s for lunch and take the check I received for preparing deeds for mortgage companies to the bank.  A National law firm paralegal gathers the information and prepares a draft deed or other real estate document and sends it to me for review and I approve it or tell them what is needed to correct the document. Usually corrections are simple things like typos or mixed up names, but sometimes there are errors in the chain of title that need to be corrected.  Anyway last month I helped them prepare 41 documents.  

I called in my order to Padilla’s, a Chili Relleno plate with double beans and green chili.  Padilla’s makes wonderful sopapillas and each dinner comes with two sopapillas. 

It was still raining so I drove to the bank and Padilla’s to pick up my lunch and return home to watch the match at 1:00.

I ate one of the two chili rellenos and half of the beans and the two sopapillas as I watched Sweden vs. Hungary in Euro cup.  Sweden lost a player for a dangerous tackle and lost the match when Hungary scored in the last two minutes of added time in overtime.

Then I checked my portfolio performance for the day and discovered to my delight that it had gone up again a surprising .55%.  We must be into the froth at the top of a bubble but I can not resist seeing how high the bubble is.

After Sweden loss at 4:00 I went to the kitchen and prepared the package of pork butt sliced into country style ribs for baking by smearing them with BBQ sauce and putting them on a steel rack in a Pyrex baking dish filled with water to just under the rack and covering the rack with aluminum foil  and placing the baking dish on a cookie sheet in a pre-heated 325 degree oven to cook for 3 hours.  I then returned to my desk and worked until 5:15.  

Suzette came home around 5:00 and turned the heat up to 350 degrees and put six russet potatoes into the oven to bake with the pork.

We then cleaned the garlic we had harvested last week by removing the bulbs from their roots and stalks with a scissors.

Here is our crop for this year.

Since we were making so much food I asked Suzette if it was okay to invite Mike for dinner.  She said, “sure,” so I called him around 7:00 and he came around 7:30’ which gave us time to prepare the green beans.

Sautéed Green Beans.

This is Suzette’s recipe. We snapped the remaining pound of green beans and lay the pieces in a skillet and covered the green beans with water and blanched them until the water evaporated.no then we added butter and olive oil and slivered almonds and sautéed them until the almonds Began turning golden.

I drank a glass of amontillado sherry before Mike arrived at 7:30. Suzette set the table under the gazebo and then plated a potato filled with butter and sour cream and spoonful of green beans.

We discussed drinks and Mike expressed a preference for wine so I fetched a bottle of Morel Tavel from the garage and Mike opened it.

I poured glasses of wine and we each served ourselves slices of BBQ pork and carried the plates and glasses out to the garden.

It was a cool moist evening.  Mike noted that the mountains were covered with mist during the day like during winter storms. It is amazing to me that we are having winter weather while the East Coast and Northwest are experiencing the hottest temperatures ever recorded.

After dinner we went back inside.

Suzette whipped cream and she and Mike heated two French pastries in the microwave.  I poured glasses of cognac and we ate a delicious dessert.

J

Suzette went to bed at 9:30 and Mike and I talked until 10:30.

Bon Appetit 

June 28, 2021 Lunch - Vietnamese Miso Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner - Madras style Chicken Curry with Rice

June 28, 2021 Lunch - Vietnamese Miso Chicken Noodle Soup. Dinner - Madras style Chicken Curry with Rice

Today was a three ring circus with explosive activity in each of the three rings.

Starting at 5:30 a.m. I watched stage 3 of the Tour de France. It was a long flat stage with a sprint finish in which two of the favorite sprinters, Caleb Ewan and Peter Sagan crashed into each other 100 meters from the finish line. The Dutch Felix team won the stage with a lead out by the yellow Jersey.

After that excitement the second ring started; the Euro Soccer round of 16 single elimination matches.  There were two wonderful matches today, the last of which will be remembered for many years as the best match in years.

The first was Croatia vs. Spain.  Spunky little Croatia erased a two goal deficit to send the game to overtime but lost 3 to 5 in overtime.

The next game was incredible, Switzerland vs. France.  France won the World Cup last time and was considered the favorite to win this Euro Cup.  The Swiss stayed in the game, scoring in the last minute of added time to even the score at 3 to 3 and send the match into overtime like the first game.  But this overtime was different, the Swiss hung in and the score was still tied 3 to 3 at the end of the thirty minutes of overtime, which sent the game to a shoot out in which the goalie for each side faces five shooters kicking the ball from the 12 meter penalty spot in succession.

The Swiss won the toss and kicked first and made all five shoots on goal, but when France’s best player, Mbabe, kicked the fifth ball, Sommer, the Swiss goalie, blocked his shot and Switzerland won and advanced to the round of 8 after 120 minutes of play and 9 successful shoot out kicks.

The third area of activity was the stock market.  I had a great day in the market. Lots of my stocks went up for lots of different reasons.  For example, Crisper went up because a biotech company that uses their MRNA gene splicing technology used by it to alter genes inside the human body to successfully treat patients with a rare genetic disease, instead of modifying the gene outside the human body in the manner the Covid vaccine was created. This medical breakthrough sent Crisper stock up $15.00.  Also, Facebook won an antitrust case and its stock went up $15.00. Perhaps those events led a rotation back into high tech. The NASDAQ rose 150 points while the Dow fell 140 points; and my portfolio rose 1.5% sending the NASDAQ and my portfolio to an another all time high.

Vietnamese Miso Chicken Noodle Soup

Food was secondary.  I made Vietnamese Miso Chicken Noodle Soup with rice vermicelli noodles, 3 sliced mushrooms and some green beans, seaweed, chicken broth, tofu, 1/2 cup cubed chicken, some sliced onion, a few cubes of yellow zucchini, 1 T. of red miso, and a Vietnamese seasoning cube. I garnished the soup with lime juice, cilantro, and sliced green onion.

                                                       The rice vermicelli noodles I used

                                       The soup garnished with green onions and cilantro

Notice that the combination of ingredients creates a flavorful broth.

At 4:00 I rode to the bank and deposited a check and felt fine when I returned home.

When I returned home Suzette had arrived and I began fixing dinner.

Chicken Curry and Rice

Making Curry involves lots of chopping. I peeled and diced 2 sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes.  Then I cut 1 1/2 onions, then a head of garlic from our garden.

I began sautéing the above ingredients in 2 T. of canola oil in a large Le Crueset casserole. Then I peeled and diced two Braeburn apples snd added those to the Curry with about 1 T. of Madras Curry powder and 1 tsp. Salt. 

I then mixed 2 cups of boiling water with 1 tsp. of Knorr dehydrated chicken broth and added that and 1 cup of raisins.

Rice - I then heated 2 cups of water and 1 tsp. of Knorr dehydrated chicken stock to a boil and addedv1 cup of rice and reduced the heat to the lowest setting o;the smallest burner and simmered the rice for 30 minutes.

I then diced 1 PPI roasted chicken breast into 1/2 inch cubes and added that to the casserole with another 1/2 T. of Curry powder and a dash of Nepalese Timor pepper.

I let the Curry cook covered for 45 minutes until 7:15 when we ate some piled on the cooked rice and I took seconds when Will came at around 7:45.

Suzette fetched beers from the garage. I chopped a cup of roasted peanuts and filled a small bowl with finely grated coconut to garnish the dish.  I also fetched the big bottle of Major Grey’s Mango Chutney from the fridge and a bottle of spicy onion pickle and mild lime pickle as extra condiments.

This is the way I have made Curry since I was 25 and taught how to cook Madras Curry by Ajit, one of my fellow workers at Pier 1.

We all loved the Curry. All the ingredients were fully cooked by 7:15 because we had sautéed the hard ingredients in canola oil until they were tender.  This is the quick method.  

Sometimes when I start with a fresh chicken I follow a different slower method; I boil the chicken and when the meat is cooked in about 1 1/2 hour I added the chopped ingredients to the chicken broth and simmer all the ingredients for an hour, which I call the slow method. 

After Willy left after dinner, we watched TB best Montreal in the first game of the Stanley Cup Finals and then watched Antiques Roadshow and went to bed at 10:00.

We have added Collagen and turmeric to our vitamin regime and our joints are feeling a bit better.

Bon Appetit

June 27, 2021 Brunch - Trout, Oyster Mushroom and coconut Omelet Dinner - PPI Mapo Dofu and rice

June 27, 2021 Brunch - Trout, Oyster Mushroom and coconut Omelet Dinner - PPI Mapo Dofu and rice

Today was a lazy day with a real miscue on Brunch. We made a trout and mushroom omelet, using the PPI smoked trout and the fresh oyster mushrooms we bought at the Farmers” Market yesterday.

Suzette called for cheese and I handed her what I thought was grated a bowl of Pecorino but turned out to be grated coconut.

Needless to say it did not melt and the omelet had a dried crumbly middle.

We ate the omelet with resignation.  I also toasted two pieces of French baguette and buttered them and spread them with pineapple marmalade.

Suzette made a Bloody Mary and I drank tea.

I watched the Tour de France this morning.  There was a dominating performance by a Dutch biker who  rode from 18” behind the yellow Jersey, into the yellow Jersey by winning the final two climbs of the stage, thus winning the stage, two 10 second time bonuses, and going into yellow with  a 6 second lead.

All the commentators were extremely impressed.

Then I watched Netherlands lose to the Check Republic in Euro Soccer and Portugal lose to Belgium.

Willy came by for the last half of the Belgium v. Portugal match.

Suzette shopped all afternoon and bought me 1o short sleeve shirts at Goodwill.  So my summer wardrobe is complete.

 We had the delicious Mapo Dofu and rice left! so did not want to cook dinner pl suzette heated it in the microwave and I fetched two beers from the garage and we had a very delicious dinner. 

Later I ate chocolate wafer cookies and a chai and Suzette ate the last of the chocolate ice cream.  

We were tired and went to bed before 9:00.

I am taking turmeric and Collagen and feeling less pain. Let’s hope things stay at least as good as this new improved condition.

Bon Appetit 

June 26, 2021 Big Day of Food and Art. Breakfast - Chicken Liver And Mushroom Omelet. Lunch - Fried Stuffed Squash Blossoms and other stuff. Dinner - Chicken Salad Salad

June 26, 2021 Big Day of Food and Art. Breakfast - Chicken Liver And Mushroom Omelet. Lunch - Fried Stuffed Squash Blossoms and other stuff. Dinner - Chicken Salad Salad

What a great day of food and art.

We all rose pretty early. While I was getting dressed, Suzette and Etienne pulled the rest of the garlic from the raised bed we planted it this year.  

They returned to the kitchen while I was fixing a chicken liver omelet for breakfast. 

Chicken Liver Omelet

I cut the three chicken livers that had fallen out of the chicken I bought on Wednesday into large bite-sized pieces with the outer lobes intact and soaked the pieces in Amontillado sherry.  I minced 1/2 small shallot and two cloves of garlic. I fetched and cleaned about 2 oz. of white beech mushrooms. I whisked 4 eggs to almost a froth with about 1/4 tsp. of salt and a pinch of white pepper.

I melted 2 T. of  butter in a medium skillet and added the shallot and garlic.  After a couple of minutes I added the mushrooms and chicken livers and sherry. When the chicken had ceased to show any red after a few more minutes I added the egg and covered the skillet to cook and steam the top. I went to change my shirt and Suzette took over.  

Etienne sliced four slices of Bosque Bakery baguette and toasted them and Suzette poured herself a glass of Clamato juice.  Etienne took another cup of coffee and when I returned I brewed a cup of green tea.

By then the omelet had puffed up around the edges and fully cooked.

Etienne and I each buttered two slices of baguette and spread the slices with pineapple marmalade.

I cut the omelet into three pieces and put one on each plate.

We carried our drink and plate to the garden after viewing and flushing the Coopers Hawk sitting on our bird bath.

It was a lovely breakfast that reminded me of the chicken liver omelets my mother would make for us when I was young.  This seems to be a family recipe for that reason, although perhaps more people than I imagine ate chicken liver, sherry, and mushroom omelets when young.  

After breakfast we drove to the Farmers’ Market at Eight and Central  walked the entire perimeter.  We bought 1/4 lb. of oyster mushrooms, 6 beautiful squash blossoms, and a baguette. Etienne bought a pepper plant and a jar of salsa.  We took our purchases home snd then drove to the Albuquerque Art Museum to see the big Transcendental Painting Group Show.

Suzette had shown us the article in the Sunday paper and last night we ordered tickets for 9:00 when the museum opened the exhibit to the public today.

It was an amazing exhibit.  One I have been waiting to see for years.  I got two beg nibbles of TPG works in the big Mabel Dodge Lujan and Company show several years ago and the fabulous Agnes Pelton mystical painting exhibit at the Fine Arts Museum in Santa Fe last year, put this exhibit was organized around the works of each of the original members, everyone was included, even Lawrence Harris from Canada.

I feel like the connective link of the group was through Agni Yoga, created by Nicholas and Helena Roerich, which was mentioned with regard to Agnes Pelton, but Raymond Jonson had direct contact with Roerich in Chicago and Emil Bisttram taught at Roerich’s art college in New York before moving to New Mexico in 1930.

Alas, when gathered in on exhibit the paintings speak for themselves and one understands the uniqueness of the TPG movement, when you realize almost everyone else around them was painting Indians and Western landscapes.

Here are some of my favorites:

                    

 

Ed Garman

After viewing the TPG band talking to a couple who teach Art history at West Texas State College at Canyon, near Amarillo (Where Georgia O’Keefe taught) we walked through the Common Grounds exhibit admiring the new pieces, like big Juane Quick-to-see Smith and a New Sheldon Harvey.  The addition of contemporary Indian artists seems to be happening everywhere.

As we walked out of the Common Grounds I looked down the hall and saw  a Eye to Eye.  I asked Suzette and Etienne to walk down the hall to see what it was. As we approached the subtext revealed that it was a traveling exhibit of self-portraits from the National Portrait Gallery became excited.

When we walked through the door I was blown away by a large painting of the same scale as the original in the Met of Washington Crossing the Delaware, by a Japanese crew.  We walked around and saw lots of smaller gems, such as Patty Smith and Chuck Close self-portraits. The National portrait Gallery is he of my favorite museums, because it liberally explores the entire range of two and three dimensional art through portraiture.

After walking through the Farmers’ Market and the museum I felt like I had exercised enough for the day as we drove home.

Etienne left after we returned home and Suzette and he picked a bag of fresh garden mint.

Lunch - Fried Stuffed Squash Blossoms and other stuff

It was after 11:00 and we were getting hungry. Suzette found a recipe for a batter for coating squash blossoms that included club soda as one of its ingredients and made that. She then stuffed each blossom with a ball of fig flavored goat cheese and a salted anchovy and then coated each Blossom with batter and fried them in hot canola oil.  The resulting blossoms looked impressive.

We ate the blossoms with glasses of the Cotes du Provence Rose that Etienne had brought.  We discussed battering and frying other vegetables and settled on zucchini, onion rings, garlic scapes, and parsley. They all held the batter and fried really well.

It was a fun and tasty lunch.

After lunch Suzette hard boiled 8 eggs and then went to her office to work and I began to prep chicken salad.

In a large mixing bowl I combined 1 cup each of minced onion and celery (including their leafy tops), one chicken breast,1 apple, and diced six hard boiled eggs with an egg slicer.  I then went to the garden and picked a handful of tarragon and about ten chives and de-stemmed the tarragon leaves and minced them. I added the 1/4 cup of chive slices and 1/2 cup of chopped tarragon and then about 2 cups of mayonnaise and 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard. I then added the 1/4 cup of PPI balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing Suzette had made for dipping the fried squash blossoms at lunch.

At this point I thought to add a bit more white balsamic vinegar to intensify the tarragon flavor, when Suzette came to the kitchen.  I asked her if she thought we needed to add any more vinegar and she gave me a big compliment, when she said, “No.”

Dinner - Chicken Salad Salad

At this point Suzette took over our dinner prep.  She looked for some greens for a salad. Our salad mix had wilted and the bunch of spinach I bought at El Super last Monday was in pretty bad shape also.

Suzette cleaned and salvaged as much of the spinach as possible and then went to our garden and harvested enough of two types of kale to make a green salad. Suzette destemmed the kale leaves and chopped them abd added them to the spinach and added slices of avocado and then adde spoonfuls of chicken salad.

Suzette fetched a bottle of Picton Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from the garage fridge and we ate a lovely dinner of cool salad for dinner.

After dinner we watched another episode of Lupin and then Death in Paradise and then went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit