December 31, 2021 Brunch - Tomato Couscous and Cassoulet. Snack - French Onion Soup. Dinner - 48 oysters

December 31, 2021 Brunch - Tomato Couscous and Cassoulet. Snack - French Onion Soup. Dinner - 48 oysters 

We finally achieved the perfect New Years Eve Meal, 48 oysters on the half shell.  Whole Food features a Buck Shucks on Fridays, which means they sell shucked oysters on the half shell for $1.00 each.

We drove to Whole Food at 4:30 and pick a handful f snow peas and then made our way through the mob shopping for their New Year Eve dinner to the meat counter.  There were four or five customers waiting, but Suzette yelled for Mark, who had taken our order, and he answered and went to pick up our order.  The order turned out to be beautifully set into deep containers filled with ice with 16 oysters nestled into crevices in the ice in each container.  I have never been more impressed with a presentation of oysters in my life.  

We then went to the the cheese counter to see if they had any Leyden.  They did not and when I asked when the next order of Leyden might arrive they said, “Next November”.

I asked about Racellete and I purchased a highly recommended slice produced in Vermont.

We made our way out of the store and we’re amazed that the oysters were $1.00 each.

I had chilled a bottle of 2020 Sancerre we had just bought at Total Wine a few months ago and a bottle of Kirkland (Costco) chablis Premier Cru.

We drank both with the oysters and did not like either.  We poured the last of the Sancerre into the French Onion Soup we had made in the afternoon.

At 11:00 I ate the last of the cassoulet and the tomato couscous.  Suzette returned at 12:30 and we made French onion soup and ate bowls of it with slices of French baguette garnished with slices of Gouda and baked in the oven to melt the cheese at 3:00. 

Starting at 1:30 we watched Alabama crush Cincinnati in the first play off game to determine which two teams will play for the NCAA football championship.  At 3:30 at the half we walked 1/3 mile and then drove to Whole Foods to pick up oysters.

When we returned home we drove to Whole at 5:30 we watched the second match up between Michigan and Georgia.  Georgia crushed Michigan. So the National Title will be between Alabama and Georgia, which already played for the SEC title.  Alabama beat Georgia, and I suspect it will again.

The oysters were fabulous. We will do this again soon.

I made a cocktail sauce for the oysters with catsup, horseradish, and lemon juice.  We ate pita chips instead of crackers.

Willy came by at 7:00 and Suzette baked him a soup bowl of French Onion Soup and then he left for his quiet New Year’s Eve with a friend whose  return flight to Europe was cancelled.

We got tired of watching the Michigan v. Georgia game we watched a movie on Netflix and then went to bed at 10:30.

Bon Appetit

31, 2021 Brunch - Tomato Couscous and Cassoulet. Snack - French Onion Soup. Dinner - 48 oysters 

I made a cocktail sauce for the oysters with catsup, horseradish, and lemon juice.  We ate pita chips instead of crackers.

Willy came by at 7:00 and Suzette baked him a soup bowl of French Onion Soup and then he left for his quiet New Year’s Eve with a friend whose  return flight to Europe was cancelled.

We got tired of watching the Michigan v. Georgia game we watched a movie on Netflix and then went to bed at 10:30.

Bon Appetit

December 30, 2021 Lunch - Posole, a tamale, some red chili, and an egg. Dinner - Lamb Saag and Cassoulet and Turmeric Rice

December 30, 2021 Lunch - Posole, a tamale, some red chili, and an egg. Dinner - Lamb Saag and Cassoulet and Turmeric Rice

Today was a day of activity in which food was secondary.

I ate a bowl of granola, yogurt, milk, and blueberries for breakfast around 9:30 as I tried to host a zoom meeting for our monthly book club meeting.

Then at 11:00 I drove to my podiatry appointment.  I drove home after the podiatry appointment and at 1:00 made my lunch.  I am trying to make the perfect Posole meal.  Today, I added an uncooked egg to the bowl of Posole, tamale, and red chili that I heated in the microwave. Next time I may remove the yolks, which I do not eat, and add two egg whites.  I also toasted and buttered a flour tortilla today. So I reduced the amount of Posole and added a flour tortilla.  I liked the addition of the warm wheat flour tortilla to the mix of ingredients and the egg cooked completely in the microwave, so I adopted those two improvements to my completely perfect  Posole lunch.

At a few minutes after 1:30 I hosted the book club zoom and recorded the discussion notes and grades.  This month’s book was Comanche Empire, a history of the Comanche and their dominance of the Southern Plains from 1700 to 1875.  I was amazed how little sensitivity the book club guys had to the slaughter of the Indians.  They seemed to believe the Manifest Destiny concept that the Indians were simply an obstruction that stood in the way of Anglo Americans’ settling of all the lands between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans and the sooner gone the better.  The problem with the Comanche was they did not go away easily.  In fact they dominated trade and hindered settlement between the Platte River and Mexico and from the Mississippi River to the Rockies for over 150 years.

Suzette arrived at 4:00 and we watched Ari Melber and I heated the mulled wine and drank a mug of it.

I then meditated until 5:30,  I was not hungry so I read a New Yorker article about the new eruption of a volcano on the Southern coast of Iceland. 

While I was reading Suzette ate a dinner of leftovers, cassoulet and lamb saag washed down with a bottle of Dos Equis beer

At 7:00 I followed her lead and heated leftover turmeric rice, lamb saag, and cassoulet for dinner with a bottle of Dos Equis beer.

We watched some news and then a very interesting Peach Bowl between No. 10 Michigan State and No. 12, Pitt.  When we tuned in at the beginning of the 3rd quarter Pitt was ahead 21 to 10, but Michigan State clawed its way back with great offense and defense to win 24 to 21.

Finally, we watched a House Hunters International episode where a father and son chose a historic 100 year old fixer upper home in downtown Guadalajara, Mexico over modern high rise apartments.

We were in bed by 9:30.

I slept until 5:00, meditated in bed a bit and then got up and wrote this blog entry.  

It is New Year’s Eve and we have a big fresh oyster dinner planned.

Bon Appetit

December 29, 2021 Lunch - Posole, tamale, and egg Dinner - Baked Spiral ham, Steamed Broccoli, and Baked Sweet Potato

December 29, 2021 Lunch - Posole, tamale, and egg  Dinner - Baked Spiral ham, Steamed Broccoli, and Baked Sweet Potato

Today was a lazy day.  I got up at 8:15. The market was generally down a little. My portfolio ended down .2%. 

I worked on Titan corporate documents during the morning but took a break at 10:30 too toast three small slices of French baguette that I spread with butter and blackberry jelly and garnished with slices of Jarlsberg cheese. I drank a cup of Earl Grey to complete the Scandinavian breakfast model.

I received my check for the title work I did in November this morning.

There were two PL Soccer matches today. At 1:00 I watched Man City v.  Brentford until Man City scored in the first 20 minutes.  I then switched to the Brighton v. Chelsea match, which was much more dynamic and competitive.  In fact, Brighton tied the score 1 to 1 in the 90th minute to salvage a point.

Suzette had eaten a fried egg on a tamale for brunch.  At 1:30 I heated a 1/2 bowl of Posole with a tamale and a dab of red chili l when the  Posole and tamale were hot I added a fried egg to the top and some minced red onion. Both Suzette and I drank Stella Artois beers with our meal.  I really enjoyed this over the top dish that combined Posole, a tamale, red chili minced onion, and a fried egg.

We then drove to each of our banks to make deposits and then to El Super to shop for fruits and vegetables.  We bought acorn squashes, green nopales tortillas, ginger,  and papayas for the Center and lemons, limes, sweet limes, onions, a papaya, a pineapple, oranges, zucchini, ears of corn, smoked pork chops, cilantro, sweet potatoes, avocados, and tomatoes for the house.

When we returned home we watched the last portion of Ari Melber, which is becoming my favorite news program.  Today he interviewed Sharon Stone.  

We decided to bake the spiral cut ham I had bought at Smith’s several weeks ago with sweet potatoes and steam some broccoli. The most interesting thing about the meal was that Suzette placed the pitcher of congealed Hollandaise in the steamer with the broccoli and it liquified but did not curdle.  The egg, Lemon juice (acid), and butter bond must be stronger than I thought.

I lay down and Suzette cooked dinner.  She coated the ham with a prickly pear jelly glaze but forgot to cover the ham and the outer layer on which the glaze was spread burned.  The inner part of the ham near the bone was barely warm but very tender and tasty.  We are going to use some of the ham and the bone to cook beans, so a bit of char may be acceptable.

Also, it was a 10 lb. Ham, so even with some waste, there is still lots of ham.  Much of the crispy darkened edges tasted just like crisp bacon, so there was not as much loss as it initially appeared.

I opened a bottle of Gruet rose of Pinot noir and added cubes of ice to it. I liked it with the ham. Finally, a good bottle of Gruet rose.

After dinner I read some year end book and music recommendations by New Yorker and requested one of the recommended books from the library.  Volume 4 of the 6 book series titled My Struggle by the Norwegian writer, Ove Knausgaard.

Then at 8:00 I lay down and blogged this entry and read an article in a recent  New Yorker about communicating with people in vegetative states.

A quiet day with good food and lots of PL football is always a good day.

Bon Appetit 

December 28, 2021 Brunch - Bagels with cream cheese and Lax and cheese. Dinner - Sautéed Rack of Lamb with Tomato and Onion Couscous and steamed Broccoli

December 28, 2021 Brunch - Bagels with cream cheese and Lax and cheese. Dinner - Sautéed Rack of Lamb with Tomato and Onion Couscous and steamed Broccoli 

I awakened at 8:15 and lay in bed and watched Tottenham and Southampton play to a 1 to 1 tie.  Then I worked and prepared a brunch at 10:30 of three toasted bagel slices spread with cream cheese.  One two I lay thin slices of red onion, Gravad lax, and garnished them with capers.  On the other slice I lay slices of Gouda cheese.  I drank a cup of Earl Grey Tea with milk.

It was a lackluster day in the market with the Dow up about 100 points and the NASDAQ down.  My portfolio was down a little less than .4% but remained over 20% for the year, which is my goal.

The big event of the day for me was the evening match between Leicester and No. 2 Liverpool that started at 1:00 p.m. MST, which I thought would be a slaughter, since last week No. 1 ranked Man City beat Leicester 6 to 3.  I tuned in at the 42nd minute and was amazed that the score was still 0 to 0.

I watched the rest of the match and was thrilled that Leicester scored a goal and held off the Liverpool scoring juggernaut as the local crowd thunderously cheered Leicester on to win the match.  It was my best sports Christmas gift of this year.  The town will probably be in joyous exultation for a week.

At 4:00 I drank a glass of Vietnamese iced coffee with two chocolate chip cookies and then walked 2/3 mile without pain or stopping to catch my breath with one sugar pill.  I would like to think my stamina is improving and my joint pain diminished, but it most likely is just euphoria resulting from the Leicester victory.

Suzette came home just as I returned home after picking four sprigs of Rosemary from the garden for the lamb dinner I had planned.  We had four ribs left from the rack of lamb we grilled last week.  I proposed to Suzette that we sauté the lamb riblets in olive oil and Rosemary and serve them with tomato couscous and steamed broccoli.  Suzette agreed but first I had to drive to Lowe’s at 5:30 to buy a gallon of milk.

Tomato Couscous 

When I returned at 5:50 Suzette had begun prepping the couscous by dicing a tomato and several ounces of red onion.

Suzette wanted to reduce leftovers, so we cooked only 1/2 cup of couscous.  We sautéed the diced onion and then the diced tomato in butter in a sauce pan and then added the couscous and stirred it to coat it with butter.  Then we added 3/4 cup of boiling water to the sautéing ingredients and covered the pot and lowered the heat to slowly cook and steam the couscous.  After about five minutes I checked the couscous and then fluffed it with a fork and recovered the pan and after another 30 seconds turned off the heat to allow the couscous to steam for several minutes.

Suzette then sautéed the four lamb riblets in olive oil and Rosemary and steamed the broccoli flowerets, while I chose a bottle of 2011 Gran Reserva Origon from the Terra Alta region of Spain located at the southern end of Catalonia; a blend of 60% Grenache and 40% Syrah, so the same blend as found in many Southern Rhone reds: my preferred wine with lamb.  We dabbed Hollandaise Sauce on the steamed broccoli.  Everything was really flavorful, a wonderful dinner.

After dinner we watched a documentary on the career of Angela Merkel, titled “In Her Own Words” that was very impressive.

A ate a few squares of chocolate with my last glass of wine and Suzette ate a couple of chocolate chip cookies with her glass of wine as we watched. Suzette gave the cookies her seal of approval, which was pleasing.

Suzette went to bed after the documentary at 8:30 and I brewed a cup of Earl Grey tea and stayed up and blogged and read.

I thought today’s food consumption was perfect, a late brunch, an afternoon snack of tea and biscuits, and an early dinner with a chop, a starch, and a green vegetable.p with a good wine.

After dinner I talked to Rick, who owns Calstar Cellars and ordered a case of his wines, including several Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs.  We discussed driving the camper to Anderson Valley for the Pinot Festival in May.  We have not been in over ten years.

Bon Appetit 

December 27, 2021 Lunch - Posole and a Tamale. Dinner - Curry Leaf

December 27, 2021 Lunch - Posole and a Tamale. Dinner - Curry Leaf

I awakened at 7:30 as the market was opening.  It started moving upward immediately.

At 9:30 I ate a bowl of granola with milk and blueberries and yogurt for breakfast.

At 10:30 I met with Pat for a couple of hours to discuss three legal matters.

I then heated a bowl of Posole and a tamale for lunch and watched the market close with the Dow up over 350 points. 

It may be the beginning of a Santa Claus rally and I had sold a portion of my two winners, Apple that rose $4.00 and Nvidia that rose $13.00.  So instead of a 1.67% gain, I my portfolio gained only .8335%.

I am a little over 20% for the year instead of nearing 25%.  It is painful to not get maximum gains, but I console myself that the market could turn downward at any moment, if for example a vaccine resistant variant of Covid develops or war breaks out in Ukraine.

After lunch I rested for a while until I received a call from Suzette asking me to come pick her up because she had had her eyes dilated and could not see properly to drive at 4:30.

I called Willy, who luckily was free and agreed to pick me up and drive us to Suzette at Osuna and I-25.  As we drove to fetch Suzette I suggested that we order take out for dinner.  Willy suggested Curry Leaf Indian Restaurant.  When we arrived, Suzette agreed to eat Indian Cuisine.  Willy and Suzette wanted Chicken Tikka Masala and I wanted lamb Saag.  Willy agreed to pick up the order and bring it to our house while I drove Suzette home in her Highlander.  The traffic was intense and I almost had a wreck when the cars in front of me on the freeway came to a sudden stop.

After we arrived home I made a chai and Suzette had a scotch.

When Willy arrived he had also ordered an extra Chicken Tikka Masala, two vegetable Samosas, Nann, tamarind chutney, and mint chutney for a total of $70.00. It was more than I wanted to eat or spend, but it was a perfect dinner for an evening that we could not cook and created enough leftovers for a meal for a Willy to take home and enough lamb saag for a meal for me. 

I thought the spices were bright.  I loved the Lamb Saag but I needed a chunk of Major Grey’s chutney to balance the spiciness of the Tikka Masala.

                            Turmeric rice, Chicken Tikka Masala, lamb Saag, and nann

I drank chai, Willy drank water, and Suzette drank the last of the Cotes Du Rhone red.

I was stuffed after three large meals, but by 8:15 I recovered a bit and made 40 chocolate chip cookies with raisins, and toasted pecans.

I read the rest of an interesting New Yorker book review on a recent book tracing the history of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799 and the deciphering of Egyptian Hieroglyphics from 1814 to 1831 that initiated the beginning of Egyptology, the study of the 3000 year history of Egypt.

I drank another chai, took my pills, and went to bed to draw this blog.

I enjoyed the day and its mix of work, positive market activity, and a family meal of delicious Indian Cuisine.  The Indian food was almost as good as that that we ate in Vancouver, which is where I suspect he developed his taste for good Indian food.

Bon Appetit 

December 25, 2021 Family Open House at Amy and Vahl’s

December 25, 2021  Family Open House at Amy and Vahl’s

Some days are more special than others.  Today was one of those special days.

We slept more than usual, we saw more family than we usually do, and some of the beauty of New Mexico.

Amy had decided to do her Christmas Open House, but just for family, which now included Craig and Dela, and his mother and father and brother, Vahl’s sister, Deann, and Amy and our old friend, Rick Spiegel from Fort Worth and his wife, Mary Sue.

We slept in until 9:00. I drank a cup of sweet lime juice and honey in hot water and puttered around until 10:30 when I took a shower and dressed.  At 11:45 I heated a tamale and made another cup of sweet lime juice, some of which I took in a carry mug when Willy arrived.  We grabbed gifts for everyone.  I took Amy the Emily Guthrie Smith pastel of Santa Fe that we had bought from Emily when we were married and living in Fort Worth and Vahl a bottle of De Ponte 2018 Chalk Hill Pinot Noir.

Willy drove us in his car, since he was more comfortable in his car, which gave me the opportunity to take a few pictures of

When we arrived at 1:00, we exchanged gifts with Amy and Vahl.  Amy and Vahl gave me a box of Scottish shortbreads and bottle of maple syrup.  Willy gave them a bottle of Frankly Organic Liquor and a bottle of the good olive oil as he had given to us.

Soon, Rick Spiegel and Mary Sue arrived. I started talking to Mary Sue, who is a wonderful talker of the Texas variety and caught up on things in Fort Worth.

Amy had set out a great spread of food, including ham and biscuits and a wonderful Waldorf style salad with apples, blue cheese, walnuts, lettuce and a poppy seed dressing she bought from the Roadhouse Restaurant.  In fact most of the food Amy served was bought, but delicious, such as the pan of chicken enchiladas made by a lady in Pecos, which I enjoyed very much. There were also refried beans and chicken tamales. We took our pot of Posole and five pork tamales, which went on the stove with the other New Mexican foods.

In the other room a bar of interesting wines was set up.

A little later, Craig and Dela and Craig’s family arrived and there was another wave of gift exchanges in the living room.

It was an all Gruet day for me.  When we arrived we toasted our family with a bottle of White Sauvage, which was lovely.  Later, a bottle of Gruet Brut was opened and I drank a glass of that with several desserts from Whole Foods as we watched the Green Bay v. Cleveland football game in Vahl’s man cave and I talked to Mary Sue some more. She told me about her anti-vaccine cousins who all got Covid among other interesting factoids.

Finally, around 4:15 we said goodbye and we packed up the Posole and gifts and Willy drove us home.

The sky cooperated magnificently today.  On the way up we had a heavy bank of clouds towering over the Sangre de Cristos and on the way home we enjoyed intense sunlight with shafts of pink and gold playing across and behind a bank of clouds over the Jemez Mountains.  In fact the clouds made the Emily Guthrie Smith pastel an even more impressive gift because her composition was dominated by a similar bank of clouds as we had seen in the morning hanging over Santa Fe and we all agreed that it was drawn from some point on I-25 where we had seen the bank of clouds.

I did not eat as much food today as yesterday.  When we returned home I made a cup of Earl Grey tea with the new kettle and Suzette made a cup of mint tea.  The only food I ate after we returned was a couple of bites of a mini pecan pie.

We watched the end of “Don’t Look Up” with Jennifer Lawrence and Leonard Decaprio. It was a dark movie with lots of funny parts.

It was fun to celebrate a traditional Christmas with family instead of hiding from Covid. 

Bon Appetit

 

December 26, 2021 Boxing Day in England. Breakfast - Crab Scrambled Eggs. Afternoon Snack - Posole with a tamale. Dinner Snack - Taramasalata on pita chips. 

I awakened at 7:30 and watched the news until soccer commenced at 8:00, as did GPS,  I watched much of GPS but also the Chelsea v. Aston Villa match while I picked the meat from the rest of the crab legs.  When Suzette wakened round 9:00 I sliced two green onions into thin slices and broke three eggs into a bowl, which Suzette whisked  and seasoned with salt and combined into Scrambled eggs with crab and green onion.  This was the best meal of the day by far, perhaps the best meal of the week.  The eggs were filled with crab meat and a sprinkle of green onion.  Very simple and very delicious.  The crab meat still permeated with the salty brine of the ocean.  Just wonderful.

I switched back and forth between soccer and news and then football until 2:30 when Willy came to recycle the luminarias.  I helped him and it went amazingly quickly, mainly because Willy is a professional.

Jody and Loyda brought a bag of sweet tamales and a bag of pork tamales around 10:30, as they usually do.  

After we finished we heated our luminaria recycling effort. Willy left for a party and Suzette and I ate Posole.  I tried one of the sweet tamales and I did not like it with the Posole so I reheated the bowl of Posole with a pork tamale with a dab of sour cream and some avocado cubes and it was delicious.

I rested until 3:45 when we went for a walk in the Bosque to the two lakes.  We saw Canadian geese, mallards, green teal and a canvasback duck.

Here is a picture of the beaver lodge.

When we returned home I drank a hot buttered rum toddy.  

At 6:00 we watched an interesting segment on 60 Minutes about how global warming is affecting the wine business in France and England.

Then we started switching from Home Town and the Cowboys v. Washington, which soon became a blow out with a score by the half of 42 to 7 in favor of the Cowboys.  We watched the game until it ended a bit after 9:00 when the final score was 56 to 14.

During the game I opened the bag of pita chips and ate some spread with with taramasalata and drank Jermann Pinot Grigio white wine.  Suzette joined me but spread Boursin cheese on pita chips and drank a couple of glasses of Cotes Du Rhone red.

I guess the Cowboys are peaking just in time for the playoffs.

We went to bed after the Cowboy game ended at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

 O

December 23, 2021 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam No. 31. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak with sautéed green beans, mushrooms and sliced onion and a baked Potato

December 23, 2021 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam No. 31. Dinner - Grilled Rib Steak with sautéed green beans, mushrooms and sliced onion and a baked Potato

I finished the rough draft of my response between 3:30 to 4:30 a.m.  I like working early in the morning when there are no interruptions.  I slept from 5:00 to 7:45 when Suzette awakened me to say she was leaving, a full 8 hours.

I showered and dressed and ate a bowl of granola, milk, blueberries, and yogurt by 9:00 when Mark arrived to discuss a case with me in which I might be called as a witness.

We talked until 10;30 and when finished he asked me the most intriguing question of the morning pointing at a painting on the dining room wall, “Is that a Bisttram?  

My answer, “Yes.” Prompted an impromptu tour of the art collection that lasted an hour.  Mark was knowledgeable about New Mexico Art.  He told me he was raised in Santa Fe and his mother collected Art, so he appreciated many of the pieces in my collection.

At 11:45 after Mark left I talked to Willy about luminarias for Christmas Eve and we decided to eat lunch together at 1:00, when he was going to be allowed to leave for Christmas.  I then worked until 12:30, mainly preparing and filing my Response with the Court of Appeals.  Then I ordered two No. 31’s from 2000 Vietnam for take out and drove there to pick them up.

When I walked into 2000 Vietnam the order was ready and after I handed the proprietress my credit card and signed the credit card charge slip, she handed me a large bag filled with a large box of Vietnamese Pineapple cakes and a 2022 calendar and said, “Our gift for Old clients”.

I did not know whether she meant clients of a certain age or long term clients, but since I fit both categories, I thanked her and wished her  Happy Holidays and left with my food and my gifts.

When I returned home at 1:15 Willy was waiting and opened the door for me, which was immensely helpful, as both my hands were full.

We enjoyed our lunch. Willy likes No. 31 as much or more than I do.  

He left at 2:00 as I was beginning to check my portfolio.  Today was a smaller return but the portfolio had again reached a 20% return for the year, even with 28% of the portfolio sitting in cash.  Given the risks, I am satisfied with that gain while feeling prepared for an economic disruption, such as another wave of Covid variant or war in Ukraine.

After lunch I went to the garage to check our luminaria situation.  We were fully prepared.  There is a tradition in our neighborhood to line our property with luminarias on Christmas Eve. Willy, having grown up in this neighborhood, has become an expert in the methodology of preparing, setting, and re-using luminarias.  When I checked the luminarias, I found three large trays of approximately 250 luminarias stacked five deep with fresh candles and sand in them ready to set out plus a box containing over 120 votive candles, fresh brown paper bags, and a trash can full of sand.  So we were prepared.

I also fetched one of the frozen rib steaks we hand cut last Sunday and put it into the sink to thaw.

I made a glass of Vietnamese iced coffee and checked my email again. I was gratified to see that my Response had been accepted by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals.  After I sent my clients the filing notification and approved several deeds, I started to read the newly adopted Uniform Notary Act, which will go into effect on January 1, 2022.

Suzette came home with a lovely gift basket from the Old Town Olive Oil Shop containing a bottle of olive oil, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, and a jar of prickly pear jelly. We watched the news from 4:30 until 5:00. Then I meditated until 5:30.

After meditation Suzette, Billy and I had a telephone conversation with our last living 90 year old first cousin, Audrey, who sent us the funniest Christmas card I have ever received.  It fit Audrey’s acerbic nature perfectly.  Here is a photo of it

Dinner

After our talk with Audrey we began preparing dinner.  Suzette snapped 1/3 lb. of green beans and roasted six small russet potatoes.

She then blanched the green beans in a sauté pan filled to a depth of 1/8 inch with water and when the water evaporated she added four or five pats of butter and then three sliced mushrooms, 1/8 of a medium onion, and two sliced cloves of garlic and sautéed those ingredients.

While I tended the sautéing of the vegetables, Suzette salted the steak with some of the wild mushroom salt from IKEA and grilled it on the gas grill.

I asked about wines and suggested a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and Suzette agreed, so I fetched a bottle of 2018 Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($14.99).

As I understand the nomenclature for the grades of Trader Joe’s Reserved labeled wines, Petit Reserve is lowest, then Silver, then Gold, and Platinum is the highest grade.  If I recall what I was told by a Trader Joe’s wine section employee about this wine, this platinum wine was made for Trader Joe’s by a really good Napa producer that usually sells its wine for at least $30.00.

Suzette and I both really liked the wine. It was incredibly smooth and yet really fruity.  It was delicious for sipping by the fireplace and also was a good food wine, everything you would want in a cab.

Suzette plated our two plates with a baked potato crimped open and filled with dabs of butter, sour cream and some chopped Italian broad leaf parsley; and divided the sautéed vegetables equally while I sliced the steak. We had hand cut steak oddly so it had a thick end and a thin end due to the location of the bone.  The thick end was very rare and the thin end was medium to medium well done.  Since Suzette likes rare and I like medium, we agreed that the steak was perfectly cooked. I made two piles of slices and we each took slices from the rare or medium piles as we chose.  

I had warmed the pitcher of PPI Hollandaise on the stove to remove some of the refrigerator chill and soften it a bit. I put a spoon into the pitcher and we spooned Hollandaise onto the vegetables and steak.

We enjoyed dinner and both agreed that the steak had a good flavor and texture. We were happy that we had a dozen more in our new freezer.

After dinner we sipped the last glass of wine with two Godiva chocolates as we watched an episode of Midsomer Murders.  I later poured a sip of Calvados and ate another Godiva chocolate with it.

We went to bed at 9:30 after an eventful day.

Bon Appetit