March 25, 2022 Lunch - Pho Dumpling Soup Dinner - Oysters and Grilled Asparagus

March 25, 2022 Lunch - Pho Dumpling Soup   Dinner - Oysters and Grilled Asparagus 

Another strange and wonderful day of food and activity.

I worked from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 and then watched news until 5:00 and then slept until 8:00 and worked until 2:30 when I finally was able to file four pleadings in a case of forcible entry and unlawful detainer and ejectment, one of those ancient common law causes of action still on the books that tests the right of possession to real property between two claimants.

I then checked the market and was thrilled that the market had recovered toward the close and my portfolio was only down .25% after its huge gain yesterday of 2%.

I wanted a bowl of soup without having to cook dry noodles a long time.  So, I put three frozen pre-cooked pho wheat dumplings and eight frozen pre-cooked chicken dumplings rice flour wrapper dumplings in a pot with  about 1 1/2 quarts of water plus dehydrated chicken stock, 1/2 T. of red miso, a sliced mushroom, a minced shallot, the rest of the baked penne with meatballs, and six Napa cabbage leaves diced.  I simmered the pot for about fifteen minutes to make sure everything cooked and then added a green onion sliced thinly and ladled a bowl full and added some hoisin sauce to add a bit more flavor and sweetness. 

I ate 1 1/2 bowls ate around 3:00 which is when Suzette called and said she was on her way to Whole Food for oysters.  We have made Friday dinners a ritual of eating raw oysters occasionally because Whole Foods sells shucked raw oysters pack in containers on a bed of ice for $1.00 each on Fridays.  

I reminded Suzette to get a lemon so we could make cocktail sauce and then I dozed and read until she arrived with six containers of oysters containing 46 oysters instead of 36. We felt blessed.

We are running out of many items as we try to use up all of the perishables before we leave for Mexico next Friday, buy I bought four lb.s of the biggest freshest asparagus I have seen in a year or two last week at Smith’s.  Suzette fetched a bunch and I snapped the tough ends off and Suzette tossed them in a freezer bag with a seasoned salt and some of the really good olive oil Willy gave us for Christmas.  We decided to eat in the back yard so we moved the table into the shade and I fetched a tube of saltine crackers and a chilled bottle of the Vara Grenache Rose we recently bought and made a cocktail sauce while Suzette grilled the asparagus and set the table and carried the oysters out to the table.

As soon as the asparagus wrapped in aluminum foil were grilled we poured glasses of rose and each took three containers of oysters.  It soon became apparent that instead of 18 oysters each we each has 23.  Alas, we ate them all, dipping them in cocktail sauce and eating them on saltine crackers, occasionally eating a warm asparagus with our fingers between sips of rose.

We agreed that this was a very relaxing and healthy dinner as we sat in the warm early evening sun at 5:30.

After dinner we watched the news until 6:15 and then Season 3, Episode 1 of The Last Kingdom, which was unusually bloody even by the series bloody standard, although probably historically accurate with scenes like the Danes burning and killing of priests in an effort to find out where the church silver was kept.

At 8:00 we watched Washington Week and then some more news until 9:30 when Suzette went to bed.

I made a cup of tea and ate a cookie and stayed up until 11:00 blogging.

This was the first day in a long time that I wore pajamas all day as I went from bed to working at my desk and back again several times.

Bon Appetit