December 31, 2022 Brunch - Tamale with egg and Posole. Dinner - Boeuf Bourguignon with Mashed Potatoes and fresh spinach

December 31, 2022 Brunch - Tamale with egg and Posole. Dinner - Boeuf Bourguignon with Mashed Potatoes and fresh spinach

Today I watched soccer in the morning and College football in the afternoon and evening.

Suzette chopped tamales and cooked four sunny side up eggs on top.  I heated a bowl of Posole and lay half of the sautéed tamale and an egg on top.  Suzette ate tamale and egg without Posole.  Suzette made a Bloody Mary and I drank Clamato juice with ice.

I then butchered three rib steak and we made beef stock with the three bones and I diced the meat for Boeuf Bourguignon. Suzette fried lardettes of bacon and then braised the meat in the bacon fat. 

We then drove to Smiths to buy carrots celery, pearl onions, and tomato paste for the Boeuf and eggs, and another whole slab of rib steaks, plus a bag of Yukon gold potatoes, and pecan sandies and bagels on sale.

We returned home at 2:30 and discovered that TCU was up two touchdowns on Michigan.  I ate a bag of popcorn and a glass of root beer as we watched the game and Suzette made a Drink with limoncello, gin, vermouth and a slice of orange.

Amazingly TCU held off Michigan and won 51 to 45.  That win get TCU a ticket to the NCAA Championship game on January 9.

Then at 6:00 the other semifinal game between Georgia and Ohio State began.  

Suzette baked the Boeuf for 2 1/2 hours in 3 cups of stock and three cups of red wine and then added quartered mushrooms and pearl onions and added them for the last hour of cooking in the oven.

Then she made mashed potatoes with the fresh Yukon Gold potatoes.

Suzette asked for the 2013 Sangiacamo Calstar Pinot Noir, so I went to the basement and fetched a bottle.

Suzette plated the dish with spinach leaves on the bottom, then a mound of mashed potatoes and finally spoonfuls of Boeuf Bourguignon.

I poured glasses of Pinot for a fabulous dinner.

After dinner I ate some brie on slices of Baguette with some of the pinot.

Then we watched the Georgia v. Ohio State game and sipped wine.

Georgia won by 1 point 42 to 41 a minute after we watched the clock strike 12:00 midnight in New York and we went to bed, after what we deemed a wonderful New Year’s Eve.

Bon Appetit

Recollection - I read in the latest TCU alumni magazine that TCU was the repository of the Oscar Monnig meteorite collection.  That made me remember that Oscar Monnig was our neighbor and our back fence shared a fence with his back yard.

We did not befriend him and I knew very little about him except that he had a one acre lot and he collected trees, so his back yard was a mini-arboretum.  Only later did his nephew, who was a few years older than me told me about his collection of meteorites and later still I discovered that he actively collected them, with crews who went out to locations where meteors were sighted to find these bits of space junk.

Mr. Monnig owned a small local chain of department stores.

Our lot was 1/2 acre and my best friend, Shelby Hallmark’s family shared the fence with the other side of Mr. Monnig’s property.  I ran past his house almost every day, but I never was invited inside.

December 30, 2022 Lunch - Toasted Pita pocket filled with taramasalata and tomato slices and labni and olives. Dinner - Venison Meatballs with Cumberland sauce, roasted root vegetables, and fresh spinach

December 30, 2022 Lunch - Toasted Pita pocket filled with taramasalata and tomato slices and labni and olives. Dinner - Venison Meatballs with Cumberland sauce, roasted root vegetables, and fresh spinach

I ate the last of the tropical fruit salad with yogurt and milk and granola at 10:30. 

At 11:00 I drove to High Resolution for my MRI of my knees.

I returned home by 1:20 and made a pita pocket sandwich filled with taramasalata and tomato slices and labni and I added a few pimiento stuffed olives to the plate for something fermented.

I then started reading an article in the New Yorker about Kevin McCarthy and watching bowl games.

At 3:30 Willy, Suzette, and Luke went to an new facility that has salt water filled isolation tubs and soaked for 1 hour.  They said that after 15 minutes when the sound and lights in the floatation cubicles were turned off the isolation triggered lots of thoughts.

We had one of the best family dinner I have ever had tonight.  Suzette heated the venison meatballs and slices of duck breast in the Cumberland Sauce and heated the Roasted Root vegetables and served them on a bed of spinach leaves.

What was amazing was that when I opened a bottle of 2010 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon the cork was dry.

I did not pick up the fact that the bottle was corked but Suzette and each of the boys did.  Then Luke said something even more impressive, “Why don’t we open a bottle of that wine you served at the wild game party last week?”

That wine was the best wine in the cellar, a 2013 Calstar Sangiacamo Pinot Noir.  I told Luke how to find a bottle of it and he fetched one from the cellar.

I felt like I had taught the kids Wine 101 by osmosis.

They rejected a corked bottle and replaced it with an amazing bottle of wine.

The dinner was fabulous with the wild game, root vegetables and great wine.

I could not be happier.

After dinner we shared a few slices of Chanukah orange flavored chocolate.

Then Willy left and we went to bed so we could awaken at 4:00 to take Luke to the airport for his flight to Mexico to Matarude in Oaxaca where Maja Rose South is located.

Bon Appetit 

 

December 29, 2022 Lunch - Monroe’s Dinner - Stir Fried Lamb, snow Peas, and Broccoli

 December 29, 2022 Lunch - Monroe’s  Dinner - Stir Fried Lamb, snow Peas, and Broccoli

Today I ate a blueberry Newton for breakfast.

At 11:10 Charlie picked me up and drove me to Monroe’s on 4th St. for lunch with the book club.

I ate my usual Enchiladas and eggs with Calabacitas.

After lunch we regrouped at Peter’s house for a discussion of The Final Invention about the possibility that AI might destroy humans.

It was a spirited discussion.  The book got bad grades but the consensus was that machines can compute and recognize patterns but they lack the ability to think creatively.

I then went home and checked on a Roth IRA with Wells Advisors.

When Luke arrived at 4:00 we walked around the block.

I also set post-op rehab and checked on the location of tomorrow’s MRI of my knees.

At 5:00 I started watching news and football that lasted until 10:30.

Suzette came home around 6:00 after a massage with Pierre and did not cook, but she made us Old Fashions with bourbon, vermouth, a maraschino cherry and bitters.

Willy came over around 7:00 and we decided to make Stir Fried beef and broccoli with snow peas.

Luke started by stir frying broccoli in soy, mirin, garlic, and ginger. Suzette thawed what we thought were two rib steaks but turned out to be six lamb chops so I butchered three lamb chops into 1 1/2 strips and the dish became lamb and broccoli with snow peas.

The rice was already made, so the prep was quick, less than twenty minutes.

We enjoyed our meal and then Suzette went to bed and Willy left, and Luke did laundry and packed for his trip to Mexico and I watched the Cowboys beat the Titans and Oregon beat Oklahoma and Washington beat Texas.  I am in the bowl zone.  I invited Willy to watch TCU play Michigan on Saturday.

Bon Appetit

 

December 28, 2022 Lunch - Posole. Dinner - BLT Sandwich

 December 28, 2022 Lunch - Posole. Dinner - BLT Sandwich 

I ate granola with milk and yogurt and tropical fruit salad for breakfast at 11:00.

At 1:30 I ate a bowl of posole with minced onion, oregano, and lime juice.

We went to demo at 2:00 and I was pretty clear.  Bravo.

Then we drove to two showrooms and looked at tile for the front bathroom and then home.

Suzette worked and I napped until 7:00.

I then fried bacon and Suzette toasted slices of whole wheat sandwich bread and sliced a tomato and rinsed leaves of romaine lettuce.

We each made our own sandwiches. We spread basil mayonnaise on the toast and then added the other three ingredients. Suzette’s was American style and mine were two open faced sandwiches.

Suzette heated us cups of mulled wine, which was delicious with the sandwiches.

We watched two amazing bowl games Oregon vs. North Carolina that Oregon won by 1 point and even better was Arkansas v. Kansas that Arkansas won in triple overtime by 2 points.

Bon Appetit 

December 27, 2022 Lunch - Posole and a Tamale. Dinner - New Recipe Sautéed with Vanilla Sauce and Sautéed Rice with Green beans.

 December 27, 2022 Lunch - Posole and a Tamale. Dinner - New Recipe Sautéed with Vanilla Sauce and Sautéed Rice with Green beans.

I ate the usual breakfast of granola with milk and yogurt and tropical a fruit salad.

Then at 12:30 I ate a bowl of Posole with a tamale garnished with dried oregano, diced onion, and lime juice. 

 Dinner was very special.  Suzette sautéed the. 2 lb. Salmon filet and made a vanilla sauce from a recipe on the package in which the vanilla beans were packed.

I watched Man U. Beat Nottingham Forest 3 to 0 during and after lunch.

When Suzette arrived at 3:30 we drove to the Lowe’s and bought milk, tonic water, club soda, a bag of 7 small avocados, horseradish, and corn chips.

When we returned home a made guacamole with five of the avocados that were perfectly creamy, plus minced onion, a clove of minced garlic, 1/2 tsp. of salt, three or four dashes of Cholula red sauce, and about 1/3 cup of chopped cilantro leaves.  It was excellent.

I then snapped the 2/3 lb. of green beans and stripped the soft inner pulp away from the tough husk of one of the vanilla beans into Anne ameled sauce pan in which Suzette made the sauce.

We called Willy to invite him for dinner and he arrived about 1/2 hour later as Suzette was cooking it.

Suzette had fetched a bottle of Richard Riesling ($4.99 at Trader Joe’s) that we opened and sipped as Suzette finished cooking.

Both the sautéed rice and green beans and the Salmon and made the sauce.

We all enjoyed the new dish.  I have never had a vanilla sauce such as the one tonight. It was a pleasant change from our usual sauces.

We sipped cognac from the new bottle of Maison Surrene and watched three episodes of Emily in Paris after dinner and a call to Marty and Yo Yo.

Suzette went to bed at 9:00, but I stayed up to watch the news and Oklahoma State lose its Bowl game with Wisconsin.

Bon Appetit

December 26, 2022 Brunch - Sausage, sautéed Onion slices, Eggs over easy and toast Dinner - Baked Breaded Shrimp

December 26, 2022 Brunch - Sausage, sautéed Onion slices, Eggs over easy and toast  Dinner - Baked Breaded Shrimp 

This was an odd day of food.  

It is Boxing Day in England when many of the PL soccer teams play matches.  I watched all morning and I ate a big brunch at 10:30 of a patty of Sausage, sautéed Onion slices, Eggs over easy and toast. 

Then at 4:00 we baked breaded shrimp and Reconstituted some of the cocktail sauce from Suzette’s birthday party. I must have eaten 24 shrimp, so I was not hungry for dinner.

What I was hungry for was Christmas cookies and Suzette decided to make our favorite pecan mini tarts.

She was tired after making about 36 of the tarts and did not want to make dinner and I was not hungry, so I called Willy and when he said he had a 7:30 meeting I invited him to dinner tomorrow evening and we both relaxed.

We watched MSNBC and Monday Night Football.  The Indianapolis Colts were terrible, not making only a couple of first downs and suffering 7 sacks, so by 9:00 Suzette went to bed and I stayed up to blog and clear the dishwasher.

Bon Appetit

December 25, 2022 Brunch - Scrambled Eggs with Black Truffles Snack - Amy and Vahl’s Christmas Party. Dinner - Posole and Tamale

December 25, 2022 Brunch - Scrambled Eggs with Black Truffles Snack - Amy and Vahl’s Christmas Party. Dinner - Posole and Tamale

Today the food was simple and delicious.

It started with brunch at 11:00.  Suzette made Scrambled eggs with slices of black truffles, truffle oil, and truffle salt.  The pungent flavor stayed with me for hours.  I can’t say I am addicted, but the idea of a new food experience was wonderful and happily can be repeated because Costco is now selling two bottles of three truffles each for $32.00.  We saw a French truffle farm of oak trees in which acorns infused with truffle were planted.  I assume the cultivation of truffles has succeeded and that which once was more costly than gold is now within the reach of even us average gourmets.

After brunch we moved to the living room where we exchanged gifts, a family tradition. I gave a chocolate orange to Luke, and when asked if it was a family tradition recalled that it was, that I had been given chocolate oranges in my youth for Chanukah and always looked forward to receiving one.

At 1:15 Luke drove us to Amy and Vahl’s.  I dozed on the way up with Luke in the Prius and back when Willy drove us in his car.

At Amy and Vahj’s I sat at the end of the sofa next to Paul, whose son Craig, recently married Vahl’s niece, Dayla.  Amazingly, Paul is a corporate lawyer like me with a finance and a law degree, who works for a large firm in Chicago, so we had lots of stories to tell each other.

When we arrived Amy made me a cup of Constant Comfort with honey, and Dayanne, Dayla’s mother, opened a bottle of Erath Oregon Pinot Gris and poured me a glass. Suzette sat next to me and after few hours made me a ham biscuit spread with lemon curd and slices of ham with a dash of Mayo and a slice of the excellent sweet potato pie made by Chef Josh at the bistro.

At 5:00 we went outside to watch Vahl’s son, Josh and his young son, Rohan, play with a toy that shoots a rocket into the air when one stomps on a bladder filled with air and Vahl’s other son throw a boomerang.

We then said goodbye and Willy drove us home in a blazing pink to red sunset.

When we returned home we watched some of Sixty Minutes and the Sunday Night Game between the Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Buccaneers.  The first three quarters were boring but in the fourth quarter Tom Brady brought the Bucs back from a 10 point deficit to tie at 16 to 16 and then go on to win in overtime. Brady, who holds the NFL record of 54 come from behind victories, added a 55th, so is a shoe in to the NFL Hall of Fame and a remarkable athlete who is still playing professionally quarterback at 45 years of age and is currently the oldest NFL player.

I also watched a MSNBC film in a new series titled Turning Point about Wendy Davis, the Texas legislator from Fort Worth, who argued a standing filibuster for 11 hours in the Texas Senate in 2013 to block the passage of House Bill 5 limiting abortions.

I ate a bowl of Posole with a tamale for dinner to which I added chopped onion, lime juice, sour cream, and dried oregano, my favorite way to eat Posole.

I count this as one of the best Christmases ever.  Good conversation, good food, reasonable prosperity, surrounded by family made it special.

There was even a Christmas Miracle.  While we were sitting watching TV Suzette found my missing cell phone in the crease of the chair by the sound of its low battery beeping.

The prospect of new hips is both frightening and exciting.  Being able to walk and exercise again is exciting. The pain of recovery is frightening.

Alas life goes on.

Bon Appetit

December 24, 2022 Lunch - Posole Dinner - Posole and a tamale and mulled wine

December 24, 2022 Lunch - Posole Dinner - Posole and a tamale and mulled wine

Today is Christmas Eve, which means luminarias and Posole and Mulled wine.

We did not hold an open house this year, but I told Luke and Willy to invite friends and invited Charlie and Susan and Ricardo and Cynthia brought us more chocolate chip cookies.

I ate granola with milk and yogurt and tropical fruit salad at 10:30 and started cooking the Posole.  I added oregano and onions and garlic sautéed in duck fat.  We agreed the broth did not have enough flavor so Suzette deglazed the roasting pan with water and then added better than concentrated beef broth that improved the broth and I added a couple of tsp.s of salt to bring out its flavor.

At 2:30 the boys arrived and put out and lit the 250 or so luminarias that stretched along the sidewalks and driveway and walkways on both Park and 15th. A huge job.

After the Posole was simmering I made the mulled wine with the recipe from the Joy of cooking.  I had 3 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon so I reduced the recipe from four bottles. I heated 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil and the sugar dissolved into a simple syrup to which I added three sticks of cinnamon, 36 cloves, and two nutmeg crushed, plus’s 3 cups of lemon and orange juice and the peel of 3 lemons and 2 oranges. After the spices mulled in the simple syrup for 30 minutes we added three bottles of red wine.  The mixture was delicious, but we discovered how to make it better.  Suzette brought up a bottle of Amber brandy and when we added small amounts of brandy the conflicting flavors of citrus and spice unified into a uniform flavor.

The Posole and Mulled Wine were finished and warming when Cynthia and Ricardo came by at 5:00. We drank mulled wine and they ate Posole and we talked for about an hour and we kept tasting the Posole and ate the 10 or 12 chocolate chip cookies they brought us.  The best part of this Christmas has been sharing time, food, and beverages with friends.

This Christmas we sought to just cook duck Posole and mulled wine and share time with friends rather than hold an open house.

After Cynthia and Ricardo left we lit sixcandles and I said the Chanukah prayers and we exchanged gifts.

at 6:30 Charlie and Susan came over and we shared bowls of Posole and tamales with mulled wine with them.

At 7:30 when they left we walked to Janis and Tom’s and sat and drank a glass ofJosh Sauvignon Blanc by their brazier with them and their family.  We also walked to Barry and Kylene’s and drank a glass of excellent red wine and said hello to Barry’s son and daughter and talked to Robert Reck about knees and hips and he adjusted the height of my cane to better fir my body.  Robert needs a new knee. Kylene brought by a tray of cookies and I took a Mexican wedding cookie and Suzette took aSwedish style gingerbread cookie in the shape of a pig.

We returned home around 9:30 and soon Willy’s work mate, Ted, and two other friends came by.

Josh is a physical therapist and he checked me out and said I would be fine.  The other is the Indian girl who has come several  christmases before, who talked to Luke about spiritual matters this time.

When everyone left Suzette heated the PPI hot chocolate and I ate another tamale and we then watched episode 4 of Season 3 of Emily in Paris and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit

December 23, 2022 Lunch - Salad with Salami and ham and Boursin sandwiches Dinner - at Ruth’s house

December 23, 2022 Lunch - Salad with Salami and ham and Boursin sandwiches  Dinner - at Ruth’s house 

Another day of fruit salad, granola and yogurt and milk for breakfast and salad for lunch.  Today I spread two pieces of bread with boursin and salami on one and cured ham on the other.

I left the house at 12:00 and drove to World Market where I bought six Terry’s chocolate oranges, three of milk chocolate and three of dark chocolate plus a bottle of olive oil that said Mediterranean, so I hoped it was Moroccan.

Chocolate oranges  that are wedges of chocolate fused together at the end are a traditional Chanukah gift in our family, except when I was young the product was made by Droste.

I then drove to Smith’s and bought a buttera discounted to $2.99 in the.Murray’s Cheeses section, a fruit cake log, and a rain check for a 20 lb. Slab of rib steaks at $5.77/ lb.  I was looking for Posole but they had sold out. The buttera was a Chanukah gift for Suzette.

So, I drove to Lowe’s where I found a pumelo for another Chanukah gift for Suzette, who is fascinated by pumelos as the ancient predecessor of our current grapefruits.  Finally, I bought a 2 lb. Bag of frozen uncooked Posole. When I returned home I hid the pumelo in plain sight in a basket in the utility room and thawed and rinsed the posole and covered it with water and began cooking up it at a simmer.

At 3:00 when I arrived I made a salad with romaine lettuce, a diced tomato, slices of yellow onion, sliced radishes, and black olives marinated with lemon slices. I also toasted three slices of baguette and spread them with Boursin.  I lay slices of salami on two and cured ham rounds on the third.  The taste of warm toasted bread, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, spread with soft garlic flavored Boursin, and salami was heavenly

When Suzette arrived around 3:30 she immediately found the pumelo, which was good because she decided to take it to Ruth’s for dinner to serve slices of with the cloud cake and custard that is the recipe.

                                                                Me in my Chamois shirt

                          Suzette with her Chanukah pumelo and Italian cloud cake

I then removed the duck meat from the carcass and diced it and Suzette boiled the duck bones for 1 1/2 hours to make a duck broth that we added to the Posole.

Willy came over around 5:00 and brought the 200 votive candles he bought for the 250 luminarias he and Luke would put out on Christmas Eve.

At 5:30 we put the Posole on the back patio and left for Ruth’s house in Tanoan with the cloud cake, custard, and a bottle of chilled Gruet Savage Blanc de Blanc champagne.

When we arrived at 6:00 there were appetizers of wheel of brie cheese and Carr’s water biscuits and Figs and lettuce wrapped in prosciutto.  Cynthia and Ricardo were there and they had made a salad and chocolate extra chewy chip cookies that were delicious.

Ruth served us champagne cocktails made with Gruet champagne, an ounce of triple sec and a splash of cranberry juice; a nice Christmasy cocktail.

I sat in a chair by the fire and Melissa  brought me a low table on which to place my glass and the plate with two crackers spread with brie and two prosciutto wraps.

We talked for a while while Mellissa finished cooking and plating dinner and then we moved to the dining area in the large open living room, kitchen, and dining area.

I was given a seat with two arm rests at one end of the table and Ruth was at the other end.

Soon we were served plates filled with rice and a lemon chicken stew cooked in a Moroccan style sauce with a green salad.  I ate a few bites of the salad but left most of it having eaten a large salad three hours previously.

The chicken stew was interesting because Melissa is allergic to cumin so she doubled the amount of coriander.  I was fascinated that I noticed the difference in flavor.

 

Two bottles of Whispering Angel rose’ were served with dinner.  I like Whispering Angel produced by Lesclans, but I like Cotes Du Provence sold for less than 1/2 of its price at Trader Joe’s just as much.

After dinner suzette served the cloud cake on a puddle of pouring custard garnished with slices of pumelo, which is Suzette’s favorite way to serve this dessert. I love this dessert with the soft light meringue, the thick creamy vanilla flavored pouring custard, and the unusual lightly citrus flavor of

We said goodnight and drove home around 10:00.

Bon Appetit