December 22, 2021 Breakfast - Shrimp Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup Luncheon Party - Crab Salad Dinner - Pasta with Meatballs and Christmas cookies

December 22, 2021 Breakfast - Shrimp Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup  Luncheon Party - Crab Salad  Dinner - Pasta with Meatballs and Christmas cookies

I worked on my response to the Court of Appeals from 2:30 to 5:00 a.m. and then slept until 7:30 and worked on it some more until 9:30 when I ate the rest of the Shrimp Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup to get rid of a pot in the fridge.  The soup was actually quite delicious with whole heads on shrimp and slices of fish cake in addition to three kinds of noodles, lots of soft tofu, and diced asparagus.  I enjoyed it.

Afterwards I  cleaned the kitchen, which should rank as a Christmas miracle on any other day than today when Suzette was out running errands and we had to get ready for a luncheon.

When Suzette returned at 11:15 we started prepping the luncheon.  The menu was simple, a crab salad with slices of toasted French baguette.

I made my favorite salad dressing for crab, which is a combination of a Louis Sauce, a cocktail sauce, and a mignonette sauce.  I minced 1/2 of a large shallot and covered the minced pieces with lemon juice of 1/2 lemon and let that sit for about 30 minutes to cook the shallot.  I then added 1/4 cup of catsup, 1 1/2 T. of horseradish, and 1 cup of mayonnaise and stirred all the ingredients together and put the sauce into the fridge to chill.

I also chilled a bottle of Gruet Sauvage and a bottle of Gruet Blanc de Noir.

I peeled and cubed a cucumber, and sliced three green onions while Suzette was picking the meat out of the half crabs sections and making carrot slices with a vegetable peeler and steaming about seven or eight asparagus.  Suzette also boiled five eggs, so she could fan an entire hard boiled egg on each salad plate.  

Finally, I sliced, toasted and buttered 12 slices of French baguette that we wrapped in a tea towel and placed in the bread tray and then sliced three small avocados into slices for the salads.

Cynthia and Ricardo arrived at 1:00 with a pint of vanilla ice cream and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and Melissa arrived shortly thereafter with a bottle of vintage Laurent-Perrier.

 Suzette composed the five salads from the ingredients we had prepared and I poured the dressing into a ceramic bowl.

We filled a wine bucket with ice and water and carried it and the salads, bread, glasses of water, and an extra bottle of Gruet non-vintage Blanc de Noir to the table under the gazebo in the back yard beside a warming fire ablaze in our new chiminera.

The weather was perfect, around 60 degrees, sunny, with no wind.  

I started the conversation by breaking the ice by asking Ricardo, “Another great year?”

Everyone then started talking about their trials and travails during the last year.

There were lots of contenders for worst experience of the year but my favorite was Cynthia and Ricardo having to obtain a restraining order against their neighbor of 20 years who went Full Trumpian crazy and started threatening them and putting disparaging signs up at their adjoining property line that said “I wish Joe Biden would die and so would you.”

After a wonderful hour of conversation we finished the salad and the other bottle of Gruet Blanc de Noir and Suzette served dessert; a scoop of rich vanilla ice cream with a cookie in the baccarat bowls I inherited from Jill that triggered Suzette and my most interesting story of the year about how my client made me the devisee of her estate and how we drove to Las Vegas to pick up the items of her estate from the Clark County administrator.

At around 3:45 we went outside to admire the newly painted front porch as everyone was leaving.  I must admit that the bronze color reflected the attractive warm glow of the afternoon sunlight.  

After everyone left, I called the Third Judicial District Court and talked to the supervisor who was able to provide me the nomenclature for accessing the docket sheet for the case I am working on, so I can see when specific documents were filed.  I was thrilled because now I can respond fully to the Court of Appeals’ order.

I then talked to a potential new client and then at 5:30 started watching the news.

Suzette was not hungry, so instead of cooking dinner we drank a glass of egg nog mixed with rum and ate several more of Cynthia’s Christmas cookies and several from a large tray that Lorraine’s mom made.

I wanted to eati some real food so around 6:30 I heated and ate the remaining PPI pasta dish we made several nights ago with the sausage meatballs, sautéed mushrooms, sweet potato cubes, and egg noodles with a Dos Equis beer.

We then watched a really good Christmas movie on Netflix and then the Lawrence O’Donnell “The Last Word” program on MSNBC.  My admiration for Lawrence has grown considerably lately as it seems he has an acutely accurate understanding of the political process in Washington. For example, tonight he introduced Congresswoman Jaypal, the leader of the Progressive caucus, with the most laudatory introduction I have heard from him, saying her public announcements are pitch perfect.  Then he interviewed her and she described how Senator Manchin had called her on Monday and described their conversation about Build Back Better after Manchin had public announced on the Sunday talk shows that he could not vote for the BBB bill.  

She said she asked Manchin whether the President was correct in June when he said that Manchin had agreed with the President’s then structure of BBB and Manchin said he had.  Jaypal said she then told Manchin she would send Manchin the bill that the House fashioned based on the structure Manchin agreed to in June and she asked Manchin to identify the elements he would agree to vote for.  She then told Lawrence that she was hopeful a bill could be fashioned out of the elements of the President’s BBB structure that Manchin had agreed to with the President.

It became apparent to me that Jaypal is a masterful negotiator and legislator.  As Lawrence said, she has demonstrated in her short five years in the House that she is the most skillfully articulate member of the House.

It was a thrilling introduction by Lawrence that showed his political acumen, followed by an interview that proved that his assessment of Jaypal and her skills were correct and most importantly, that she and the President will get Manchin to yes on some form of BBB.

At 9:00 Suzette went to bed and I followed shortly thereafter after eating another two Christmas cookies.

Today’s lunch was our major social event of the Christmas season.  We are not going to host an open house this year.  I feel like going back into full lockdown, especially after Lawrence interviewed Congressman Clyburn who has gotten Covid after being fully vaccinated and boosted.

Omicron seems to be highly transmissible and it is sweeping across the U.S. and the world like a tsunami wave.

Bon Appetit