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