January 25, 2023 Lunch - Ham and Bean Soup with a tamale. Dinner - Ful Mudamas, Egyptian Fava Beans with sautéed ground lamb

January 25, 2023 Lunch - Ham and Bean Soup with a tamale. Dinner - Ful Mudamas, Egyptian Fava Beans with sautéed ground lamb

Tomorrow is surgery so today I tried to eat lots of carbs and protein.

For breakfast I ate a bowl of granola with milk and blueberries and yogurt and tropical fruit salad.

At 10:00 I watched the President say the US would send tanks to Ukraine, which will trigger other countries sending tanks.

At 11:00 Rahim came by and we worked on one of his transactions for an hour.  

Then at 2:00 I went to the garage looking for potstickers but the bag was still sealed so I selected a yogurt container of what I thought was Posole and a frozen tamale.

When I defrosted the container in the microwave I discovered the container was ham and bean soup, so I heated a bowl of the soup with the pork tamale and ate a delicious lunch with lots of carbs.

I then printed the recipe for Ful Mudamas, Egyptian Fava Beans because we had lots of cooked fava beans we had cooked last weekend from dried beans.

Ful Medames

Foul Mudammas or Ful Medames (Egyptian Fava Beans) is a creamy, rich, and hearty recipe that's brightened with a generous drizzle of peppery olive oil, fresh vegetables, and herbs. It's a traditional breakfast dish in Egypt and the Levant area of the Middle East, and it's typically served as part of a spread along with fresh vegetables and flatbread.

Course Breakfast, Vegetarian Main Course

Cuisine Egyptian, Middle Eastern

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Calories 318kcal

Author Faith Gorsky

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 15 ounce can fava beans sometimes called broad beans or foul mudammas, with liquid
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small tomato diced
• 1/2 small onion minced
• 4 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 lemon wedged

Instructions

• Crush the garlic in a mortar and pestle with the salt.
• Bring the fava beans (with liquid), chickpeas, and water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Turn off heat and use the back of a spoon to mash some of the beans (about 1/2 cup) against the side of the pot.
• Stir in the garlic, lemon juice, cumin, and black pepper.
• Transfer the beans to 1 large or 4 small serving dishes; drizzle on the olive oil and arrange the tomato, onion, and parsley on top in a decorative way.
• Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze on top.

After lunch BIlly and Luke called to wish me well and we had a three way conversation between Oaxaca, Dallas, and Albuquerque for a few minutes.

Luke told us a fantastic story about a man who was visiting the small village near Majahual where Maja Rose South is located where Luke is staying who contacted him on Facebook because they shared a common person, Liz Simon or MamaDana Kaur, my first cousin who recently died.

The man contacted Luke because he had been friends with Liz and Bucky at the Kundalini ashram in LA.  When the man asked Luke how Luke was connected to Liz, Luke answered, “She is my family.  I am her second cousin.” They immediately shared a bond Luke said and the man went to dinner with Luke and six other Maha Rose persons a couple of nights ago.

Suzette came home at 3:30 and I lay down and napped from 4:15 to 5:15, then meditated for a few minutes until 5:30.

I went to the kitchen and found Suzette had chopped onion and sliced cucumber for dinner.

She fetched a cutting board and a knife and tomato and bunch of parsley.

We thawed a lb. package off ground lamb yesterday in anticipation of preparing this meal with the addition of sautéed lamb.

I diced the tomato and minced the parsley and Suzette mashed and heated the fava beans and added the suggested sauce made by mortaring garlic and jalapeño chili with lemon juice plus the minced onions.

In a separate large skillet she sautéed the ground lamb seasoned with z’ atar, (thyme, sumac and crushed sesame seeds) and the parsley.

Suzette then plated the Ful Mudamas and garnished it with the sautéed lamb, diced tomatoes, goat cheese, and cucumbers and added wedges of flour tortillas toasted over the open flame on the stove.

It was a dish that looked as good as it tasted.

I was not allowed to eat after 7:30 so I finished a cup of chai and a slice of fruit cake at 7:28.

Willy spent the evening with us giving me encouraging words and Diane Souder called to wish me well and ask when she could bring food and start walking with me.  She gave us a report on her neck surgery which altered her voice and did not cure the loss of feeling in her right arm and we encouraged her and I realized lots of folks are dealing with more difficult conditions than me. Thank God she can still walk.

We went to bed at 8:00 because we must get up at 4:00 to arrive at the hospital by 5:30 for pre-op.

Bon Appetit

 

January 24, 2023 Lunch - Fish, Cabbage, Black bean, and Rice Egg Foo Young and donuts. Dinner - BLT Sandwiches

January 24, 2023 Lunch - Fish, Cabbage, Black bean, and Rice Egg Foo Young and donuts. Dinner - BLT Sandwiches 

Today I did not eat until 11:00 and weakened a bit as I stir fried the leftover chopped cabbage from last night’s dinner with some red onion and after those ingredients cooked a bit I added the leftover fried fish from last night plus the Chipolite rice and black beans left from yesterday’s lunch.

After I let those ingredients cook for a few more minutes I added  two eggs and stirred them into the ingredients. I then let the mixture cook at medium heat for several minutes until the egg cooked and the mass of ingredients congealed into an egg Foo young.  I then flipped the large thick cake of ingredients over in pieces and cooked the other side until it became firm.

I slid the resulting Egg Foo Young onto a plate and sauced it with oyster sauce.  It was delicious.

I made myself a cup of Earl Grey tea with milk.

Soon after I sat down to eat Henry arrived with a plastic container with three Chocolate and three plain icing glazed donuts.

I gave Henry some of the Egg Foo Young and he made a cup of chai and after we finished our lunch we ate a donut.

I made another cup of chai and we worked for three hours on discovery for his case until 4:00.

I then reviewed Rahim’s PPM and filed my CRS taxes and then watched news, but Suzette and I were hungry. She thawed a lb. of ground lamb but she was stumped on something for dinner. I suggested a BLT sandwich because I had just bought lettuce and tomatoes and we had bought a lovely artisanal whole wheat bread at Trader Joe’s last week.

While I fried eight slices of thick sliced bacon Suzette toasted and spread mayonnaise on four slices of whole wheat bread, sliced two tomatoes, and tore several leaves of lettuce into pieces that would fit on the bread slices.

As soon as I finished frying the bacon we assembled our sandwiches.

Suzette drank French Sauvignon Blanc and I drank water.

It was a lovely dinner.  After dinner I drank a cup of chai with two pecan Sandie cookies as we watched Discovering Your Roots, although we both slept through most of the show.

I called Rahim at 8:00 after the show and worked until 11:30 on his offering

I then watched the total hip replacement instruction video and then blogged and went to bed at 1:00.

Bon Appetit 

January 23, 2023 Lunch - Chipotle Salad. Dinner - Fish Tacos with red cabbage and Tropical fruit salsa

 January 23, 2023 Lunch - Chipotle Salad. Dinner - Fish Tacos with red cabbage and Tropical fruit salsa

Today was a light food day that almost turned into a disaster.  My CPD condition is triggered when I do not eat regular meals and today I came close.  I woke up and showered and instead of eating something for breakfast I drove to my 11:00 Covid test appointment at Presbyterian’s West side facility at 3901 Atrisco NW.  After the appointment I drove home and began to weaken so by 12:00 I ate 1/2 of a toasted blueberry bagel, spread with cream cheese and blackberry jelly and garnished with slices of Iberico cheese and drank a cup of tea with milk.  I soon recovered much of my strength sitting at my desk and working.

Rahim arrived at 1:00 with chicken salads with a scoop of guacamole and sides of rice and black beans from Chipotle.  I have never eaten Chipotle’s food and found it adequately fresh and flavorful but not generous.

After lunch we worked on a document until 3:45.  Suzette came home soon after hungry, so we decided to make fish tacos with the additional thawed rockfish.  Suzette chopped red cabbage and chopped 1/2 of one of the unripe avocados I bought at El Super and steamed several blue corn tortillas and cubed several fish fillets, coated them with flour and salt and pepper and fried them in the oil left from dinner two nights ago.  Suzette also mixed some natural crema with basil mayonnaise to make a sauce to flavor the tortilla and diced 1/2 tomato.

She then made plates by spreading sauce on two steamed tortillas and making a pile of fried fish, tomato cubes, and fruit salsa on each tortilla and placing the fruit salsa and chopped red cabbage on the table so we could garnish our tacos if we wished.

This is the style of fish tacos as served in San Diego.

We enjoyed the tacos and I ate a third one while I was clearing the dishwasher.

At 7:00 there was a big treat, the Antiques Roadshow from Santa Fe.  Then we watched an hour of Roadshow from Indianapolis.

Suzette scooped me a bowl of Spumoni ice cream that I ate while watching the Roadshow. August 

Suzette had awakened at 5:30, so she went to bed at 9:00 but I stayed up to watch the news until 12:00 midnight.  It looks like Ukraine will receive German Leopard tanks soon.

Also there other major developments in world affairs that have had significant economic impacts, including the U.S. trying to both develop a better relationship with China and China ending its Covid lock down, while criticizing China for its government industries doing business with Russia. 

The price of oil has risen since China abandoned its zero Covid policy and Chinese stocks have risen and U.S. tech stocks have soared.

Friday my portfolio gained 1 1/2% and today it gained over 2 1/2%.

I doubt this phenomenal growth can continue for long, but it is a welcome change from the doom and gloom the Market has experienced since the beginning of the year.

Bon Appetit 

January 21, 2023 Brunch - Eggs with Roasted Root Vegetables, Spinach, and Sautéed Red Cabbage and apples Dinner - Fried Rockfish with Tomato and Spinach Couscous

January 21, 2023 Brunch - Eggs with Roasted Root Vegetables, Spinach,  and Sautéed Red Cabbage and apples  Dinner - Fried Rockfish with Tomato and Spinach Couscous

Willy came by around 10:30 to watch Newcastle v Crystal Palace and cook breakfast.  I found a container of PPI Roasted Root Vegetables and the PPI braised red cabbage with apples and Asian Pear that Willy wanted to cook with some fresh spinach.

We made tea and then Willy started sautéing the vegetables. I destemmed a handful of spinach leaves that he threw in with three whisked eggs.

Suzette arrived as Willy finished the eggs and I toasted and buttered two slices of baguette and made herself a Bloody Mary after having spent most of the night at the Center with an employee issue.

After we ate Willy left and I worked on several cases until 2:45 when the Jacksonville v. Kansas City AFC Playoff started.

Suzette napped until 3:30 when we shared bowls of popcorn and watched the game.

At 5:00 I received a call from Henry, whose case I had worked on earlier to thank me and compliment me on the excellence of the effort.  I was pleased and committed to finishing the discovery request.

The game ended around 5:30 and the NFC match up between The Giants and Philadelphia began at 6:15.  

I bought a 5 lb. bag of dried fava beans at El Super on Thursday so we researched how to cook dried Fava beans and picked a recipe that recommended bringing them to a boil and then letting them cool and then  putting them in fresh water and cooking them at a simmer for 3 or 4 hours.  Suzette found our ceramic bean pot and we started the adventure of cooking our first pot of fava beans.

I diced a small brown onion and seven or eight cloves of garlic that Suzette combined with the water and some cumin seeds when the cooking began after the soaking. 

We then started 

Dinner.

Suzette suggested skillet frying four of the Rockfish filets she had thawed.

I suggested cooking tomato and spinach couscous to accompany the fried fish because it would be quicker.

The fried fish - Suzette patted cumin and z’ atar onto the filets.

  

Even though it varies greatly depending on where you are in the Middle East (specific recipes are sometimes closely-guarded secrets!), za'atar is generally a combination of dried oregano, thyme, and/or marjoram (woodsy and floral), with sumac (tangy and acidic) and toasted sesame seeds (nutty and rich).

She then fried the za’atar coated fish filets in 1/4. Inch of oil.

The Couscous- 

Suzette fetched a tomato from the garage.  I then diced the tomato and destemmed a cup of baby spinach leaves Suzette had bought from the container Suzette bought at Costco last week.

While the fish were frying we put 3 - 4 T. of butter in a two quart sauce pan and melted it. Suzette put the tomato. And spinach into the boiling butter. I poured in 1 cup of couscous and stirred while Suzette heated water in the kettle.

In a minute or two when the couscous and vegetables were coated with butter and cooked a bit Suzette added 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cup of boiling water to the pot and I covered the pot and cooked the couscous mixture for a couple of minutes to cook it and build up steam.  I then turned down the heat to its lowest level and cooked several more minutes.  Then I turned up the heat for a minute and then opened the lid and stirred the mixture. Then I covered the pan and cooked the couscous ay a low temperature to build up the steam again.  Then I turned off the heat and let the couscous steam and fluff up.  This entire process takes six or seven minutes.

                                                        The Couscous
                

I like my couscous moist, so I use 1 3/4 cups of water to 1 cup of couscous.  The couscous is also easier to reheat if it is moist.

When the couscous was ready the fish filets had been fried to light brown on both sides.

Suzette suggested tartare sauce, which I wanted also, so she fetched the mayonnaise and pickle relish and I squeezed juice of 1/4 lemon into a bowl and added 1/2 cup of Mayo and 1 T. of pickle relish that made a loose, creamy tartare sauce when mixed together.

Suzette poured the last of the bottle of Vara sparkling Carinena with the oysters last night.

Carignan (Carinena) Wine. The oft-unsung workhorse of the Mediterranean, Carignan is a red wine grape that likes warm weather and (given its high tannin, acidity and color) mixing with others. Carignan (Cariñena in Spain, Carignane in the USA) is a black-skinned wine grape variety, most likely native to Aragon.

Suzette then laid two fried fish fillets on a pile of couscous and added a spoonful of the tartare sauce to each of two plates.

We enjoyed dinner and Suzette said she wanted to make fish tacos with the rest of the Rockfish. 

I said, “Sounds good to me.”

After dinner watch watched the football game, but I soon lost interest because Philadelphia dominated the Giants.  We watched a rerun of SNL from 2010 hosted by Sigourney Weaver, Suzette had not slept last night because she had gone to the Center for a staffing problem at 2:30, so she went to bed at 8:30.

I went to bed when the game ended around 9:30 and slept until 12:00 when I awakened and watched SNL and finished this blog and added water to the bean pot.

Bon Appetit

January 18, 2023 Breakfast - Gravad Lax and red onion slices on whole wheat toast spread with cream cheese. Lunch - Panera soup and Salad or sandwich Dinner - Stir Fried Steak with mushrooms, poblano chili pepper, asparagus and red onion over rice

January 18, 2023 Breakfast - Gravad Lax and red onion slices on whole wheat toast spread with cream cheese. Lunch - Panera soup and Salad or sandwich  Dinner - Stir Fried Steak with mushrooms, poblano chili pepper, asparagus and red onion over rice

This was a more normal day of food. It started at 9:30 with Gravad Lax and red onion slices on whole wheat toast spread with cream cheese and garnished with capers with a cup of tea.

I worked with Rahim on his securities offering for several hours in the morning and then he ordered Panera delivery for lunch.  I ordered a chicken sandwich with lettuce and avocado and a bowl of wild rice soup.  The wild rice in the soup was really wild because it seemed hidden from sight.

Rahim ordered a salad and a chicken masala soup that he said was a new item and quite delicious.

I drank a bottle of Magners Irish apple cider and Rahim drank water.

We then worked from 3:00 until 4:45.

Suzette arrived around 4:00 after a successful afternoon of shopping, including buying asparagus and spinach at Costco

She ate the potato chips left from my lunch, but was still hungry.

When Rahim left I meditated from 5:00 to 5:30 and then went to the kitchen where we had a discussion about dinner.  We decided to not eat the old Boeuf Bourguignon and chicken with pasta and instead to make a fresh cup of rice and make Stir Fried Steak with mushrooms, poblano chili pepper, asparagus and red onion over rice to use up the two bags of PPI grilled rib steak.

We started by cooking a cup of jasmine rice in the PPI chicken broth.

Then I chopped 1/3 red onion, two cloves of garlic, 1 T. of ginger root, about 10 stalks of asparagus, two mushrooms, 1/2 of a poblano chili, and four radishes.

Suzette made a seasoning sauce of dark soy, Chinese Cooking wine, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and cornstarch.

Suzette fired up the wok with some peanut and first sautéed the hard ingredients and after they cooked, added the other ingredients, the mushrooms, the asparagus, diced steak, and radishes.

When the food was finished cooking Suzette spooned a few spoonfuls of warm rice onto a plate and heaped the beef stir fry on top.

We drank the rest of the bottle of Chateau Maris’ Natural Selection we opened last night and watched a recent Woody Allen movie on Netflix that was about several couples in various situations of anxiety which seems to be the plot of many of his recent movies.

Bon Appetit

January 20, 2023 Lunch - Salami and Jarlsberg Cheese Sandwich Dinner - Oysters on the half shell and sushi rice

January 20, 2023  Lunch - Salami and Jarlsberg Cheese Sandwich  Dinner - Oysters on the half shell and sushi rice

This was another busy day of work.

I made a bowl of granola, milk and yogurt and blueberries and then reviewed the Questionnaire and Subscription Agreement for Rahim’s offering from 9:00 to 11:00.

Then at 11:00 Henry and his brother came and I notarized the brother’s affidavit and then reviewed several documents and drafted and filed a document in response to one of the documents until 2:00.  A bit after 2:00 Rahim returned and after I toasted a slice of baguette and spread basil mayonnaise on it and lay slices of salami and Jarlsberg cheese and leaves of romaine lettuce and diluted the last 1/2 glass of Cotes du Provence rose’ with water for a late lunch, we did our final review of his offering until 5:30.

Suzette came home around 4:30 and left at 5:20 to pick up four dozen oysters, 2 dozen Rappahannock and 2 dozen blue point.  While Suzette was picking up the oysters I squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon into about 1 cup of the PPI cocktail sauce made for her birthday party and also made 

Sushi rice

I heated 1 T. of sugar, 2 T. each of mirin, sake, and rice vinegar to dissolve the sugar and stirred the mixture into the approximately 2 1/2 cups of PPI rice. I then transferred the rice to a ceramic bowl and then covered it with Saran and heated it in the microwave.  The result was that the clumps of hard rice separated and became moist.

The oysters were petits but they were delicious with dollops of picante citrusy cocktail sauce combining catsup, horseradish, lemon juice, and a touch of chili sauce.

Suzette fetched a bottle of Vara sparkling rose that was lovely with the oysters and after dinner we enjoyed sipping the champagne with chunks of milk chocolate with almonds as we watched the news.  

At 9:30 Suzette went to bed and I stayed up to watch the final 2 1/2 hours of Ken Burns America and the Holocaust documentary.

The great quote was when the death camps began to be liberated in 1945 General Eisenhower flew to one or two to inspect the horror of what the a Germans had done he told the American soldiers, who he ordered to March through the camp to witness them, “if you didn’t know what you were fighting for, now you know what you were fighting against.”

A new word was created to describe the destruction of 6,000,000 Jews living in Europe by the Nazis, Genocide.

Talking about great quotes my friend Ed Louden who started Bacchus Distributing used to say, “Life is too short to drink bad wine”. 

Being the foodie that I am I would amend Ed’s quote in light of this evening’s meal to, “Life is too short to eat bad food.”

After the documentary I blogged and went to bed after midnight.

Bon Appetit

January 19, 2023 Lunch - Monroe’s. Dinner - Sautéed Smoked Pork Chop with Sautéed red cabbage, apples, and Asian Pear

January 19, 2023 Lunch - Monroe’s. Dinner - Sautéed Smoked Pork Chop with Sautéed red cabbage, apples, and Asian Pear

This was a fun day of food.  I started the day with a bowl of Granola, milk, and blueberries and opened a fresh container of LaLa plain low fat yogurt that is an excellent yogurt and a bargain at $2.59 at El Super.

At 10:00 Rahim arrived and we finished his securities offering documentation by 12:30.

I suggested Monroe’s for lunch and Rahim gamely agreed.  Miguel seated us under the atrium so we had a lovely table.  Here are some views iPod the new space.

I ordered my usual, two eggs and two enchiladas with Calabacitas except today I ordered the enchiladas with beef. The berry filled enchiladas were not as pastry-like as the all cheese enchiladas because there was no cheese to melt into the tortilla to create the amalgamation of the cheese with the tortilla.  But I liked the beef enchiladas a lot. I find that this is just the right amount of food.

Rahim ordered the daily special, which was meatloaf with chili sauce and mashed potatoes. 

Rahim drove me home a few minutes before 2:00. I spent at least an hour ordering a hip kit oh Amazon to help assist me after my hip surgery.

Later when Suzette came home at 4:00 I drove to El Super to replenish our fruits and vegetables.  Suzette thawed Smoked Pork Chops, rockfish, duck breasts and a bag of pork yesterday so we now have lots of stuff for meals while I am immobilized due to hip surgery.

I bought lemons, limes, leeks, snow peas, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, oranges, Gala apples, a pineapple, apples, mangos, and a papaya, crema, 

Radishes, garlic, mushrooms, avocados, oregano, a can of black beans and a can of pinto beans, mushrooms, brown and red onions, zucchini, broccoli, an eggplant, a gallon of milk, a head of red cabbage, green beans, and a five pound bag of dried fava beans, $60.00 of stuff.

Hopefully there is enough variety of stuff to see us through the first week of my recovery.

When I returned home Suzette emptied the car and put up the groceries.

Suzette had asked me to get red cabbage so she could sauté red cabbage because she wanted to sauté the two smoked pork chops she had thawed  and serve the chops with sautéed apples and red cabbage seasoned with cumin.  She used a lovely orange flavored olive oil and the balsamic vinegar we bought in California to sauté and flavor the cabbage and apples.

I diced a Granny Smith and a Fuji apple and the remaining 1/2 of the Asian Pear the Blaugrunds brought us plus a small brown onion.

We drank the 2021 Cotes Du Provence we bought at a Trader Joe’s last week.  Of all the roses Trader Joe sells I prefer the Cotes Du Provence, even though it is a dollar more at $7.99.

After dinner Suzette spread lingon sylt on shortbreads for a light dessert.

I went to bed early at 8:30 shortly after dinner because my body was aching in pain from my two hour shopping experience, although I had not triggered my CPD condition.

Suzette came to bed soon and massaged my sciatica zone and back which was so therapeutic that I was able to go to sleep. It seemed like the best massage I had ever had and rejuvenated me completely.

I have talked to several people and believe that those who live alone have the most difficult recoveries from hip replacement because they have no one to assist them with the daily tasks of living.

The aromas of our cooking often permeate the air in our house. Tonight the aroma of oranges permeated the house.

Bon Appetit 

January 17, 2023 Lunch - Domino’s Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza, Dinner - PPI Roast Duck with Norwegian Ric

January 17, 2023 Lunch - Domino’s Pepperoni and Sausage Pizza,  Dinner -  PPI Roast Duck with Norwegian Rice 

Every day is special and there are multiple reasons to be happy,, especially if you devote energy to helping others.  That seems to be the plot of this month’s book club selection, Anxious People by Swedish author Fredrick Blackman .  The book offers a fictional chronicle of several people connected to a hostage taking in a high rise apartment.

Their lives and personal concerns are examined in depth as the chronicle weaves their lives together toward the heart warming conclusion of how their actions to help others is transformative in their and the lives of those they interact with during their hours of forced imprisonment.

The moral of the book to me was that the path of loneliness and emotional isolation that often leads to suicide can be altered by loving interaction with others.

Blackman uses sophisticated humor to both expose each of the character’s deep seated emotional agendas that are motivating their conversations and actions, as well as to entertain the reader, because as the characters often say in the book, “People are idiots.” 

At the conclusion the characters seem to alter their earlier harmful ways of thinking and acting for the better as they share their wealth and social skills and love with others.  This welling up of happiness through sharing seems to be the formula behind the book.

In my case it worked.  I loved the book.

We all share in different ways depending upon our personal situation.

I have a law degree and have spent years developing and sharing my knowledge with others.  I have never figured out if it is a gift or a defect that I accept what people offer in the form of compensation for my services.  I render a bill and most people pay the bill, which is the superficial relationship of lawyer client, but as I get to know clients over time there seems to be a transformation toward friendship and a drift adherence to a firm hourly rate relaxes into a negotiated price based upon the effort and knowledge I provide as a part of the client’s overall goal.

Most of my clients are sophisticated businessmen with identified goals when they come to me that they have already monetized and have a good sense of how my effort fits into their transaction. 

Case in point.  I am part of a network of Persian Shias Muslims and Muslims and Sikhs of Indian origin who do business together.  They seem more comfortable negotiating the price of everything at the beginning of the process, which is often impossible in large transactions. But what I have found is when you are a trusted member of their team they will negotiate a fair price at the end of each transaction when presented with a bill.

That happened this week. I was engaged by one such client to prepare the legal documentation for a multi-million dollar corporate reorganization based upon the creation of a large number of legal entities to take over control of a large number of properties through leases rather than acquisition.

I was given about a dozen Manila folders with the charters for each entity and in an initial meeting that also provided me the economic relationship between six pairs of companies.  I then spent last weekend drafting organizational documents to complete each entities’ formation and leases and minutes to link each to a specific property.  Then I spent more than 10 hours with the client and their accountant to complete the documentation.  As a result I rendered a verbal bill for about $4,000 and they negotiated with me and paid me $3100 today at the end of the engagement, which I think both of us felt was a fair compensation for solidifying their multi-corporation structure. They trusted me to do the work and we worked together to accomplish what would have taken months to accomplish with a large corporate firm for a fee that was a fraction of what they would been charged by a large corporate firm.

And they still need to document additional transactions with other partners in other properties, that we agreed could wait until after I recover from my hip surgery.

And I also was introduced to the fast food cuisine of Subway yesterday and Domino’s Pizza today.  Yesterday’s chicken sandwich was awful because instead of slices of chicken the chicken was cooked with a sauce that collapsed the chicken into fibrous mush stuffed into a nicely baked baguette.  Today’s lunch was much better because it was more predictable, a small pepperoni and sausage pizza in a sturdy Domino’s box designed to retain the pizza as warm as possible.  I think I was more impressed with the box than the 🍕.

At 4:00 we finished and I drove to my appointment at Manzano to have an assessment of the condition of the cartilage around my knee.  After an additional ultrasound of my knees I was given an estimate for the cost of a platelet replacement procedure to strengthen the knees and drove home, arriving at 6:00.

Suzette had brought home a sample of the Norwegian rice the Greenhouse Bistro staff prepared for the Scandinavian meal featured for January.. The rice was cooked with bell peppers and other vegetables into a delicious combination.

We decided to eat the Norwegian Rice with the leftover Roast Duck from our lunch at East Ocean last week instead of cooking.

Suzette heated the two dishes in the microwave and opened a bottle of 2019 French red wine. Chateauu Maris’ biodynamic 70% Syrah-30% Grenache Natural Selection wine produced in the Minervois La Laviniere Appellation given to her for her birthday.

The

Minerve village, Languedoc-Roussillon

Minervois La Liviniere is a red wine appellation of the Languedoc region in southern France. La Liviniere is a commune in the north of the area covered by the Minervois appellation, with a reputation for producing some of the finest red wines of the region.

After their wines were classified as AOC Minervois in 1985, the producers of La Liviniere spent 10 years lobbying the INAO (the government body in charge of France's appellation system) for their own, more-specific appellation of which eventually they were successful.

The Minervois La Liviniere title is uniquely for the local dry red wines produced from traditional Carignan and Cinsaut grapes, assisted by the classic Rhone varieties Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre. The latter three are cepages ameliorateurs ('improver varieties') and are being widely used across the region to make the traditional Carignan-based wines more complex and approachable. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre must form a minimum of 60 percent of any wine made under the La Liviniere name, while Carignan and Cinsaut are limited to a maximum of 40 percent.

The area's terroir is characterized by a Mediterranean climate and classic southern-French garrigue landscape. Garrigue is the quintessential Provencal landscape of dry, limestone-based scrubland, populated by hardy herbs such as rosemary and lavender. It is this soil make-up which sets La Liviniere apart from the rest of Minervois.

The Appellation is located in Southwestern France northeast of Carcassone.

I liked the wine because it had a fresh brightness that I think is associated with the biodynamic process while combining two of the most famous grapes raised in the Southern Rhone a bit farther northeast that I am particularly fond of drinking with roast duck. I finally felt like I understood the pleasure of drinking Biodynamic wines. I shall try to find more Chateau Maris biodynamic wine.

We watched Finding Your Roots and after a Calvados, a cup of tea, and several cookies I went to bed. Suzette had preceded me a bit after 8:00.

I awakened at 2:00 and stayed up until 5:00 to blog and catch up on the news. 

New Mexico made the national news because a neighbor who lives around the corner who ran for a state senate seat who is as an election denier appears to have paid people to shoot bullets through five local democratic politicians’ homes and offices. APD arrested him and It now looks as if he will be prosecuted for his political activism that endangered the lives of several persons.

Alex Wagner interviewed Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver extensively about threats to election workers and how to stop dangerous lies spread on the Internet that precipitate such actions and the need to vigorously prosecute persons who spread such lies

Bon Appetit