December 1, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean Dinner - Skillet Sautéed fresh trout with stir fried green beans, slivered almonds, and rice.

December 1, 2021 Lunch - East Ocean   Dinner - Skillet Sautéed fresh trout with stir fried green beans, slivered almonds, and rice.

Today was interesting.  I slept until 8:00.  Then I listened to the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Mississippi case attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I was heartened by the arguments but most commentators say there are 6 votes to overturn Roe, so the decision is not hopeful.  Sotomayor made a fateful prediction in her comments.  She said that if the Court overturns Roe, their decision will carry with it the stench of politics that will diminish the Court’s reputation as a fair arbiter of the Constitution.

It looks to me like the Republicans have engineered yet another nail in the body of American democracy with appointment of Supreme court nominees made to overturn Roe.

I then got dressed and grabbed a Blueberry Newton and ate it on my way out the door to my dermatology appointment at 11:00.

After the dermatology appointment I called Suzette and drove to East Ocean.  I ordered the usual 1/2 Roasted duck with deep fried tofu and Mixed Vegetables and rice with hot tea.  Suzette arrived several minutes before the plate of duck was served.  This is my favorite duck dish in Albuquerque and only costs $17.99.  A few weeks ago it cost $14.99, so maybe it will stay at $17.99 for a few weeks.

The other dish we ordered is fried tofu with Mixed vegetables.  The vegetables include: onion, bamboo shoot slices, mushrooms, snow peas, broccoli, celery, carrots, water chestnut slices, bok Choy, and zucchini slices plus squares of fried tofu in a cornstarch thickened chicken stock sauce. I usually add some soy sauce to the vegetables to loosen, add saltiness, and increase the amount of sauce.  Both dishes were wonderful.  The sauce on the duck was really lovely today, thin, dark and very flavorful.

After lunch Suzette went home and I drove to Albertsons to shop.  The first Wednesday of the month is senior discount day when seniors receive a 10% discount on their total shopping bill.  I bought $90.00 of groceries and paid only $81.00.

Among the things I bought were: asparagus, green beans, celery root, 3 fresh trout, 5 lb. of boneless beef ribs at half price, coffee ice cream, milk, blueberries, yogurt, a 3 lb. package of slab bacon, and 10 fresh oysters.  The oysters were fresh and pretty large.

I drove home from Albertson’s and Suzette helped me take in the groceries. I checked the Market and discovered that this was the biggest single day drop in my portfolio since February 2020, 3.17%. 

I worked until 4:00 and then watched the news and Jim Cramer.  Willy got it right, the late plunge in the market coincided with the announcement that the first case of omnicron variant has been found in the US.

I am trying to take the long view.  Most analysts say there should be a Christmas rally, so I am hopeful.

I called Willy to invite him to join us for dinner at 6:30 and he came by at 6:30 but we were still wrestling with the oysters so he took a walk and returned at 7:00 as we were preparing dinner

Dinner - Suzette suggested that we sauté the green beans with slivered almonds and rice.

I agreed and suggested that we remove the trouts’ heads and tails and sauté them in a skillet.

We decided to eat the oysters raw, as an appetizer, so I made a small amount of cocktail sauce by combining catsup, horseradish, and lemon juice.

I then tried to open the oysters but succeeded with only six of the smaller ones.  So we roasted the remaining four oysters.  They were delicious.

Suzette then dusted the trout with flour and salt and pepper and fried the three trout to a golden brown in a skillet filled to 1/3 inch with Canola oil.

After Suzette snapped the green beans I sliced 1 clove of garlic thinly into rounds, and sautéed the garlic and a handful of almond slivers in butter and olive oil in my wok and then added the green beans and cooked them for a minute and then added the remaining approximately 1 1/2 cup of coked rice and stir fried that to mix everything together and finally added about 1 1/2 T. of Amontillado sherry and 1/2 tsp. of lavender flowers.

At 5:00 we had removed all the jars of food and bottles of wine from the garage fridge in anticipation of Appliance Liquidators delivering our new refrigerator on Thursday.  We decided to drink the bottle of Opolo Viognier produced in California’s Central Coast that Amy and Vahl gave us that had been in the fridge and was now on a card table in the garage. Suzette fetched it and I opened it and poured three glasses of it.  Suzette fetched a cup of ice cubes so we could chill the wine.

I think Opolo is the best American produced Viognier. It has that tight tension of a finely calibrated balance between the sugars and acids in the fruit and skins of the grapes. 

We all loved dinner.  The trout was tender with soft white flakes of meat.  The stir fried rice with green beans and toasted slivered almonds turned out better than I expected because the rice became slightly saturated with the garlic, sherry, and almond flavors with a pleasantly greasy slick texture.

Sort of a sauce, vegetable side dish, and starch combined into one dish that complemented the fish. It was like eating trout almandine with green beans and rice all in one bite.  Actually Suzette cuts up her food and mixes it together in a pile and then eats all the flavors in every bite, so the mixture of flavors was perfect for her.

After dinner I asked Willy to fetch the bag of Swedish Daim orange flavored chocolate covered brittle bites I bought at IKEA last Saturday and we enjoyed a few of them for dessert.

It was wonderful to have fresh food and an especially pleasant luxury to eat a few fresh and broiled oysters with a really good wine.

Tomorrow, if the fridge is delivered, I will go to El Super to replenish fruits and produce.

Bon Appetit