December 14, 2022 Breakfast - Granola and milk and yogurt and tropical fruit salad. - Potstickers with seaweed salad. Dinner - steamer oven cooked lamb chops with spinach and asparagus couscous

December 14, 2022 Breakfast - Granola and milk and yogurt and tropical fruit salad. - Potstickers with seaweed salad. Dinner - steamer oven  cooked lamb chops with spinach and asparagus couscous 

I awakened at 7:00 I watched the market open and some Morning Joe.

The market rose until noon when Federal reserve director Powell spoke and then it took a nose dive into negativity.

I ate a bowl of tropical fruit salad and yogurt and granola and milk at 10:00 and then took pills and took the trash receptacle to the curb.  We threw out the last half of the chocolate cake, which took some determination to clean up my dietary act.

At 11:00 I met with Rahim and drafted an agreement for his new venture.

We finished in time to watch a bit of the France v. Morocco World Cup Semi final match before he had to leave.

France was already ahead 1 to 0 when we turned it on in the 30th minute.

Rahim left during the second half that ended with France winning 2 to 0.

Then at 2:20 I heated 10 frozen potstickers and made a soy, chopped green onion, and chili sauce. I made a cup of green tea with six of the potstickers and left four for Suzette’s lunch.

Suzette worked at home until 2:00 and ran errands.

When she returned at 4:00 Suzette ate lunch and participated in the big news of the day, a video appointment with Dr. Mehta at Pres. Endocrinology to prepare a report approving me for hip surgery.  As it turned out she had seen me and participated in my post gall bladders removal operation and was familiar with the glucose drip post op strategy.  She whole heartedly supported my hip operation and the same glucose drip as before, so it looks as if I will soon have a new metal right hip joint.

Suzette then helped me deposit a check by mobile app that saved a trip to the bank. 

I drank another cup of tea at 4:30 and then meditated from 5:00 to 5:30

After meditation we put up the newly arrived case of Riesling wines from Herman Weimer and discussed dinner.  Suzette decided to prepare 6 lamb chops in the steamer oven because the weather was cold and blustery outside and unfit for outdoor grilling and serve them with the PPI couscous with diced asparagus and homemade mint jelly.  I asked her to add additional asparagus to the couscous.

Suzette said she wanted to season the lamb chops with Middle Eastern herbs and I told her I had recently bought a container of Za’ atar, a mixture of sesame seeds, salt and ground sumac.  I fetched the mixture and we brushed the lamb chops with the good olive oil we bought in Suisun Valley in California and then coated them with Za’ atar and placed them on a grill over a roasting pan designed to fit in the steamer oven.  Suzette then referred to the steaming oven cooking guide to determine the proper settings and filled the water receptacle with water and cooked the lamb chops for the prescribed 23 minutes.  The result was a roasted chop fully cooked to medium that was exceedingly tender. 

While the lamb chops were cooking Suzette diced several more asparagus spears and added them to the PPI couscous and heated the couscous in a skillet to cook the asparagus and heat the couscous.

I fetched a bottle of Kirkland 2020 Cotes Du Rhone Villages and poured two glasses. It had a slightly metallic taste at first, perhaps due to its metal twist off top, but as it sat that taste went away and it developed the heavy smooth berry flavor common to Cotes Du Rhone of Syrah and Grenache but it was not wonderful and the real tell was that Suzette would not drink an offered second glass.

Others had a similar experience.  Here is a rating from Atlanta:

This wine pours a pale to medium purple in the glass; dark fruit, wet soil, pepper aromas; medium bodied and acidic, but flavors are a bit disjointed, there’s some black cherry, blackberry, and plum, black licorice with a touch of mocha, finishes dry but just not as interesting as we’ve found past vintages.

We are big fans of Rhone wine, and have really enjoyed this one in the past. But something just didn’t quite come together. At $7, if you like Rhone bottles, give it a shot and see if you like it. But I’d have to advise readers to pass on this one.

For the same price ($6.99) the Kirkland Bordeaux Superieur is a much better buy that is also making its way around stores right now.

CostcoWineBlog.com Rating: 85 points

After dinner I sipped a cognac and Grand Marnier and ate a couple of Ghirardelli milk chocolate with caramel squares as we watched a Netflix movie about an American  wine seller who quits her job and starts her own distributor and goes to work at an Australian winery named Vaughan Family that whose wine she loves and falls in love with the son of the family who is one of the owners. The twist is the plot does not disclose the son is the son until the end.

We went to bed at 10:00 after the movie.

Suzette rubbed my hands and feet with body lotion again which has made them feel better and have more feeling.

Bon Appetit