October 3, 2024 Lunch - Costco hotdog. Dinner - Roasted Sea bass with potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomatoes in the Spanish style and sautéed Zucchini with lemon juice

October 3, 2024 Lunch - Costco hotdog. Dinner - Roasted Sea bass with potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomatoes in the Spanish style and sautéed Zucchini with lemon juice 

Another busy day with a lovely lunch conversation in the middle.

I had a glass of orange juice in the morning and then made a slice of bagel with cream cheese, lax, red onion, slices of tomato, and capers for breakfast for each of us.

Then I drafted a portion of a contract and at 10:30 drove to my 11:00 podiatry nail clipping session.

After my appointment I drove to Costco to eat lunch and shop. I was eating my hot dog when John Budagher Jr., who is my age came over to say hello and we started talking. Soon his friend Rod, his wife (Bonnie), his son (John III), John’s wife, and their two children came over and shared my table with me. John explained that the family meets every Thursday at Costco for lunch at 11:30 and invited me to join them any Thursday.  I have always liked John and this invitation to share their family community was touching and I may accept it. One of the things that aids longevity is a shared community and I was offered an instantaneous community.

After lunch I shopped and bought two lovely sea bass filets, two baguettes, AAA batteries, asparagus, a bag of Godiva chocolates and a box of Ferraro-Rocher chocolates, a wheel of French brie cheese, and a large package of chicken thighs.

I then drove home, arriving at 2:15 and found that my portfolio had a good day and was almost back to its all time high. If the enthusiasm for Nvidia continues it should reach a new all time high soon.

I completed the contract with discussion with my client by 4:30 and then drafted conditions for termination of the Ultrahealth lease and sent it out for comment by 5:30.

Suzette and then discussed dinner and decided to roast one of the sea bass filets in the Spanish style that we ate in Combarro and save the other for tomorrow night.

I went to the basement and fetched the bottle of Paco and Lola Albariño we bought at the winery last year and put it in the freezer to chill.

Suzette sliced and blanched several potatoes and sliced the two ripe tomatoes from the garden at the Center while I diced about 1/3 cup of yellow onion and three cloves of garlic.  Suzette then sautéed the onions in a French roasting pan with garlic in Spanish olive we bought in Spain and added the tomatoes, Spanish saffron pimenton (smoked Paprika) and the filet and then roasted the dish in the oven for fifteen minutes until all the ingredients were fully cooked.

While Suzette was prepping and roasting the fish dish I sliced 1/2 of the zucchini I bought at El Super last week and about 3 oz. of yellow onion.

After Suzette transferred the sautéed onions and garlic from the skillet to the roasting pan I sautéed the zucchini and onion slices and about a tsp. of minced garlic with the good Spanish olive oil and a T. of butter in the skillet. After about ten minutes when the zucchini slices were slightly browned on both sides I added the juice of 1/2 lemon to the skillet and turned down the heat to low until the fish was ready.

Suzette plated 1/2 of the sautéed zucchini to each plate and placed the roasting pan on the table as it is served in Spain and served us from the roasting dish. I opened the bottle of Paco and Lola Albariño and poured two glasses and we ate as good a meal as we did in Combarro several weeks ago.

We were satisfied that we captured the essence of the roasted fish dish and discovered that aging Albariño one year mellows it out a bit which produces a more pleasant tasting wine, but only with food. Albariño is too acidic to drink without fat and salted food to balance its acidity.

Later we watched Midsomer Mystery and sipped Maison Serene cognac and ate several Godiva chocolates.

We went bed at 9:30. Suzette to sleep and I to blog.

I have decided life is too short to eat bad food or drink bad wine.

My favorite cousin Marty Meltzer died this morning from cancer. It was a terrible shock but we had been forewarned by a call from Marty’s sister, Barbara, last night that he was on hospice.

Perhaps that is what prompted me to buy expensive fish and chocolates today.

Life is short and we might as well enjoy it if we can. That is why I invited the family to join us for the trip to Spain.

I also received a message from Todd, a member of our meditation group, with a short mantra by Suzuki Roshi, “Enjoy the beauty and joy of this moment”.

I love the mantra and will adopt to guide my attitude. As Buddhism teaches, What are we except our thoughts.

If you can experience joy and beauty by instilling in your mind a simple mantra, why not?

Bon Appetit