September 22, 2021 Lunch - Elk Stew with rice and Refried black beans. Dinner - Fresh Oysters and ice cream

September 22, 2021 Lunch - Elk Stew with rice and Refried black beans. Dinner - Fresh Oysters and ice cream

I awakened at 8:00 after going to bed at 7:30 last night and waking at 3:00 and working until 5:30. I transcribed last month’s book club meeting.

When I awakened I worked at my desk mainly on stuff for Suzette until 10:00 when I toasted two slices of bagel and spread one with butter and plum jam and garnished it with slices of Iberico cheese and Genoa salami. I spread the other one with cream cheese and garnished it with slices of onion, Gravad lax, and capers.  Here is a picture.

I had a busy day at my desk with clients, including a conversation with another lawyer about a case for a new client.  

The market perked up today with the Dow adding 338 points and the NASDAQ adding 150 points.  My portfolio increased by just over 1% to resurrect my year to date increase to date to 20%, which is great.

At 1:45 I heated the last 1/3 cup of PPI cooked rice and elk stew and added a couple spoonfuls of Refried black beans and a slice of onion for a delicious bowl of elk stew for lunch.  I wish every lunch of leftovers was this good.  We had cooked the elk stew using Julia Child’s recipe for Beouf Bourguignon, so it contained beef stock and Pinot Noir wine, sautéed mushrooms and pearl onions.

After I watched the market close and recorded my gain for the day at 2:00  I toasted two slices of French baguette. I spread butter on both slices and added plum jam and slices of Idiazabel cheese to one and brie on the other. I ate both with a second glass of 2018 Chateau Rodier from the Montange-St. Emillon Appellation.  The 2018 is more highly rated that some earlier vintages and tasted great, so I will buy more of it.

I worked until 4:00 and then turned my attention to shopping.  Stores advertise weekly specials beginning on Wednesday.  Smiths/Kroger has many more specials than just its advertised weekly specials advertised on its digital web site.  The digital app allows you to clip a coupon on line that will connect that special price to your Smiths customer discount card, so that the added coupon discount will be subtracted from your bill whenever you present that item at the checkout counter during the relevant discount period.  For example, I checked a $5.00 discount coupon for an 18 pack of Dos Equis on line and when I checked out today I received $5.00 off the sale price of $18.99.

We had run out of milk, so I had to go shopping.  After I electronically clipped a lot of coupons including a 1/2 gallon of milk for $.88, I drove to the post office and then to my local Smiths on Carlisle at Constitution.

I bought 2 1/2 gallon containers of milk, and two 1/2 gallons of Dreyer’s ice cream on sale for $2.50 each and then went to the meat department where I selected 2 double packages of pork tenderloins that were priced at $5.49/lb. but offered for Buy 1 and the second one is free, so $2.75/lb.  

Then I perused the fish offerings and saw nice small fresh oysters for $4.99/lb.  The attendant said they were from Virginia and were fresh, so I bought eleven of them for $9.34. 

I then proceeded to the produce section to replenish our vegetables and selected four avocados for $.50 each on sale, a bunch of cilantro, a bunch of parsley, a lb. container of strawberries for $.97, a nice head of romaine lettuce, 5 nice shallots for $1.99/lb. that is the cheapest price in town, 2 red onions for $.89/lb., a handful of beautifully tender green beans for $1.29/lb., a bit more than a pound of Brussels Sprouts on sale for $.99/lb. soon to be featured in our first roasted vegetable medley of the Fall. I also bought a quick sale bag of nice looking red bell peppers for $.99. 

Then I went to the liquor department where I had clipped a number of coupons and realized that I needed to use my cell phone to monitor my clipped coupons next time.  I simply chose an 18 pack of Dos Equis because I knew that was a coupon featured item and because we like Dos Equis a lot because it is a lager that goes well with most types of food and at $18.99 was a good price.  I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered after I checked out that I had received the $5.00 coupon and bought the 18 pack at a very good price at $13.99, which is probably as cheap as at a big manufacturer’s warehouse in Mexico.

There are lots of foreign produced food items in the US that are cheaper than in their country of origin.  The best example I can think of is Jarlsberg cheese.  We recently paid $5.55/lb. for a 2 lb. wedge with a $3.00 bonus discount at our local Costco.  When we were in Oslo two years ago, we bought a much smaller wedge in a food hall for about $15.00/lb. in Euros for which we had to pay a 3% exchange fee on our credit card to convert to dollars. 

How can the Norwegians ship that wedge of cheese to Albuquerque and sell it for $4.00/lb.? One reason may be that their industry is subsidized by the Norwegian government.  Another reason surely is that the maker is not burdened by Norway’s VAT (sales) tax paid on all purchases of goods in Norway. But in the end buying a superb Norwegian cheese for less than 1/3 of the price we paid in the country of origin feels a lot like dumping. And, I hope the dumping continues.

When I returned home and after we stored all the food, I presented the package of fresh oysters to Suzette who was thrilled, especially since she thought we would be eating leftovers for dinner.  I made a spicy cocktail sauce with catsup, horseradish, lemon juice, and two drops of Cholula hot sauce.  Then we shucked the oysters, which proved to be far more difficult than usual because of their small size until Suzette suggested prying the shells apart near the latch end.  Here is the result.

We wanted a light white wine with the oysters.  Suzette selected one of the recent purchases at Total wine, a Gavi Saula ($14.99 less 25%) which has more intense acidity than even Gavi Princessa, but which is balanced by a slight buttery sweetness due to a higher percentage of residual sugar; so a more complex wine. I think if given the choice, I would pick Princessa because I like a lower residual sugar, higher acid style of wine better.  I like to pucker up occasionally.

After our light appetizer/fish course of fresh oysters we decided to splurge and each bowls of ice cream since we now had lots of it.  Suzette made fresh whipped cream and fetched her homemade maraschino cherries and we made ice cream sundaes our entree and dessert.  I added a dash of Kahlua to my bowl of mocha almond fudge and double chocolate fudge ice cream topped with whipped cream and maraschino cherries to create a glorious sludge.

I have been feeling weak for the last two days because I have been eating only two meals per day, so today I made a point to eat three meals with lots of protein and carbs.  Suzette observed that my diet is somewhat like a diabetic diet; mostly carbs and proteins, except occasionally I have a need for sugar.  Whatever the balance, today I achieved it.

 

We went to bed after watching Trevor Noah at 9:30.

I awakened at 1:30 and drank a cup of chai and blogged this blog until 3:15.

Bon Appetit