December 9, 2025 Breakfast - Enchiladas and Eggs. Lunch - Lime. Dinner - Roasted Whole Chicken stuffed with Herbs de Simon salt and Acorn Squash and Baked Asparagus

December 9, 2025 Breakfast - Enchiladas and Eggs. Lunch - Lime. Dinner - Roasted Whole Chicken stuffed with Herbs de Simon salt and Acorn Squash and Baked Asparagus 

We each had a busy day. I woke at 6:30 and called Tricore Labs  and checked the voting times. 

Then at 7:15 I drove to Tricore for my labs and then drove back Washington Middle School and voted.

When I returned home at 8:30 as Willy was getting ready to go work.

I heated a square of enchiladas and fried two eggs with some onion for breakfast.

Then by 10:00 I received a call for an appointment with a doctor at Pres so I went by the bank and then drove to the Montgomery location for my 11:00 appointment.

I learned that the swelling in my calves was not infected and due to insufficient pumping of blood in my veins, so basically okay.

I had talked to Aaron and then at 12:15 drove to Lime Vietnamese restaurant on Montgomery at Eubank where I read my book and waited for Aaron, who arrived at 12:45.

I had reviewed the menu and decided on chicken soup with egg noodles, wontons, and roasted pork, No. 16.

When Aaron arrived he picked the same item. The soup was served in a large bowl. I loved everything about the dish, but could eat only 1/2 so the lady packed the rest in a large plastic cup.

I drove home at 2:15, took the chicken out of the fridge to thaw and checked my portfolio that suffered a small loss and got in bed where I could elevate my legs and rested until Joe and Bryan came to fix the boiler at 4:30.

Joe got one side of the house heating but need to order parts for the boiler, so I gave them a bottle each of wine.

Suzette had seasoned the chicken with herbs de Simon salt and lemons and roasted it starting at 4:00.

She also sliced the acorn squash into slices and baked them with the chicken. After an hour the squash was baked and Suzette glazed them with baked acorn squash rings with homemade apricot chutney and put the asparagus in the roasting pan with the cooking juices from the squash and baked a handful of asparagus with the chicken an additional 20 minutes. 

When I cut into the chicken the meat was still a little bloody, so Suzette cooked it for a couple of minutes in the microwave. I loved all the different flavors, the soft baked asparagus, the soft chutney flavored squash and the tender roasted chicken with its herb and lemon flavor.

I opened a bottle of Archery Summit Veriton Pinot Gris.

The Vireton walks boldly into the Willamette Valley and returns with the unexpected, a kind of down-to-earth, everyday level of luxury. Not tethered to any one vineyard site, this outgoing wine instead reflects the merits of an entire region. It’s a testament to the power of multiple voices within one storied region and the strength in numbers that follows. In wine, just as in life, it’s the most intrepid who end up the most fulfilling experiences. The Vireton celebrates as much, whether you’re toasting another Tuesday or celebrating something much bigger.

Vireton is named for a style of crossbow arrow with feathers placed at an angle to make it spin in flight, improving its accuracy. Vireton wines express our unwavering commitment to exploration and excellence. As in archery, making great Pinot Noir requires finesse, attention to detail and finely tuned instincts.

Willy arrived around 6:30 after a hard day of work and was happy to have a hot meal ready to eat.

We were tired and went to bed at 7:15 and slept until 9:15 and watched several episodes of House Hunters International and Suzette went back to sleep and I blogged this entry.

This was a wonderful day of food with three good meals. I was unable to go to Smith’s today but hopefully I will on Wednesday. I have an all day seminar tomorrow.

We decided to make a smoked trout salad for dinner tomorrow evening.

Bon Appetit

December 8, 2025 Breakfast - Everything bagel with red onion, cream cheese and white fish salad. Snack - Sautéed Pasta with Sausage, mushrooms, red onion, requeson, and egg Dinner - Pork Enchilada Casserole

December 8, 2025 Breakfast - Everything bagel with red onion, cream cheese and white fish salad. Snack - Sautéed Pasta with Sausage, mushrooms, red onion, requeson, and egg  Dinner - Pork Enchilada Casserole

 

I awakened at 4:00 and went through the month’s mail and registered for a seminar and went back to sleep at 6:30 and slept until 8:30. 

Willy walked to his first day at his new job at 8:45 while I watched the market trend downward except for Nvidia that closed $3.14 higher that made me a slight winner on a day when all the indices ended down at 2:00.

At 9:00 I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of red onion and white fish salad.  Suzette ate the remaning half bagel and whitefish and then left for work.

I worked at my desk until 1:45 when I watched Man Union beat Wolverton 4 to 1 and rested in bed and watched the stock commentators on CNBC, At 3:00 breaking news reported that Trump had decreed that Nvidia and AMD, and Intel can sell their less powerful chips in China, which sent the price of those stocks up over $4.00 each Nvidia in after hours trading. Nvidia reached $190 per share.

When Suzette arrived at 3:30 we drove to El Super to buy produce, including corn and flour tortillas, cilantro, avocados, zucchini, broccoli, green onions, a bunch each of spinach and beets, poblano chilis, apples, onions, limes, lemons, an acorn squash, three ears of corn, tomatoes, oranges, requeson, cojita cheese, sour cream, and carrots. This leaves one more shopping at Smith’s to completely refill our ingredients with the addition of milk, cream cheese, bagels, and fresh salmon for Gravad lax.

We decided to make pork enchiladas for dinner. When we returned home at 4:30 I was hungry and weakening so I made a quick snack of pasta, sausage, two sliced mushrooms, about 1/4 cup of red onion, and a clove of garlic in butter and olive oil with two eggs and a spoonful of requeson added after the ingredients were cooked. After we ate the snack, at 5:30 we started dinner prep.

Dinner - I recalled that we had a bottle of chopped green chili in the garage fridge.

I diced an onion and minced four cloves of garlic. I fetched a quart of chicken bone broth we had bought yesterday for Willy at Costco and Suzette minced about 1 lb. of pork tender, and sliced two zucchini and four mushrooms with the new knife we bought in Kyoto. Suzette then sautéed onion and garlic in two skillets. To one skillet she added the pork, to the other she added 1/2 jar of medium green chili, and chicken bone broth. She then emulsified the green chili mixture to make it more emulsified. When she tasted the green chili mixture she found it to be too piquant, so she added about 1/2 cup of sour cream to the green chili mixture and emulsified it again to mix it thoroughly.

We were then ready to construct the enchilada casserole. We lay a layer of the still warm corn tortillas on the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch Pyrex baking dish. We should have put some butter or green chili sauce on the bottom of the dish before the tortillas. Also we did not sauté the corn tortillas in sauce before laying them in the dish, because the sauce did not penetrate them on the bottom, they stuck a bit to the dish, which I found pleasant to have a soft fresh tortilla base but it  lacked any joinder to the rest of the dish and required being pried off the bottom with a spatula when served.

Suzette then spread the pork, onion, and garlic filling on the first layer of tortillas and added about one half of the container of requeson (Mexican cottage cheese) and some green chili sauce.

Then we lay another layer of corn tortillas on the pork layer and Suzette added the sliced fresh mushrooms and zucchini and the rest of the requeson and more green chili sauce. 

Finally we added a third layer of tortillas and added the rest of the green chili sauce to the dish and pushed it into the crevasses at the edges of the dish to fill the dish with sauce on all the edges. We then lay a layer of thinly sliced cojita cheese squares on top of the sauce and baked the dish on a cookie sheet in a 350 oven for 35 minutes until it bubbled, the cojita squares browned, and we thought the zucchini and mushrooms had cooked.

Willy joined us and we served squares of the enchiladas with Negra Modelos for dinner

We then watched Philadelphia an the LA Chargers play Monday Night Football  . It became a comedy of errors such as an interception and two fumbles on one play, so at 8:30 I checked my portfolio and found it now stood 2.2% below its level on November 3, so close to the same level when the surge in after hours trading of AMD and Nvidia. It had been a big day of activity for all of us so we went to bed at 9:30 before the game ended.

We now have three excellent PPI’s to eat for the rest of the week, smoked trout, tomato couscous, and green chili enchiladas.

Bon Appetit

December 7, 2025 Breakfast - 2 men on an island. Lunch - Costco - hot dog. Snack - Peanut butter and honey sandwich. Dinner - Smoked Trout Piccata and Tomato Couscous

December 7, 2025 Breakfast - 2 men on an island. Lunch - Costco - hot dog. Snack - Peanut butter and honey sandwich. Dinner - Smoked Trout Piccata and Tomato Couscous

I did not sleep well and woke up from 4:30 to 6:30 and then slept until 8:30.

Then Willy and I watched West Ham tie Brighton and Crystal Palace beat Fulham in added time to go into fourth place in the standings.

At 9:00 I made two men on an island: a slice of sour dough bread toasted with butter and then an egg is fried onto the other side with a cup of chai.

At noon we dressed and Suzette and I drove to Costco to refill the larder. We ate hot dogs and then we shopped, buying three fresh trout, eggs, cream, Kirkland 10 year tawny port, Kirkland Premier Cru Chablis, a liter of Kahlua, and a bottle of Kirkland Chianti Classico, a kilo round of brie, a brick of Dubliner cheddar, two goat cheese logs, and wedges of Manchego and Jarlsberg, chicken bone broth for Willy, two baguettes, asparagus, romaine lettuce, white mushrooms, and gourmet blend lettuce, blueberries, and dark chocolate truffles. 

We then drove home at 2:30 and I rested and watched football.

I made a peanut butter and honey sandwich for a snack around 4:00 and Willy ate a wedge of Brie with slices of baguette for a snack.

Then Willy went to a party at Jane’s at La Luz.

At 6:00 we started dinner and watched 60 Minutes and then the Houston v. Kansas City game on Sunday Night Football.

Suzette went to the garden and picked a basket full of fallen cherry tomatoes, a few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme, a few leaves of sorrel, and a handful of fresh parsley.

I chopped the herbs plus three cloves of garlic, and three mushrooms for a butter, olive oil, garlic, herb, and mushroom sauce for the smoked trout.

I then diced 1/8 red onion, and halved about 12 cherry tomatoes and cut the heads and tails off the three fresh trout we bought. 

Suzette then smoked the trout on the grill while I made couscous . I first melted three T. of butter in a sauce pan and added the red onion and tomatoes and cooked them in the butter for a couple of minutes. Then I added 1 cup of couscous and tossed it with the ingredients. After a couple more minutes I added 1 1/2 cup of boiling water and covered the pot and cooked the ingredients for about ten minutes on low heat while Suzette was grilling the trout.

Suzette had melted three T. of butter in a small skillet and added good olive oil and the garlic and mushrooms and sautéed them until cooked.

When she brought in the smoked trout she added the herbs to the sauce.

I filleted the three trout and lay the fillets on a platter and Suzette drizzled the herb, mushroom, and garlic sauce over the trout.

I poured out the remaining 1/2 bottle of Kirkland Pinot Grigio and Suzette spooned a pile of couscous onto each plate and we each took some trout from the platter and squeezed lemon juice on it.

This is the type of elegant and simple dinner that we love. And we have lots of trout and couscous left for salads and additional meals.

It is great to be back home where we can cook the type of food we like.

After dinner Suzette filled cordial glasses with crushed ice and some of our homemade limoncello for a dessert drink.

Bon Appetit

December 6, 2025, Honolulu to Albuquerque Breakfast - Starbuck’s sandwich. Lunch - Everything bagel with cream cheese and white fish Dinner - Casarecce Pasta, White Lima beans, sardines, anchovies, tomatoes, and fresh chard

December 6, 2025, Honolulu to Albuquerque Breakfast - Starbuck’s sandwich. Lunch - Everything bagel with cream cheese and white fish  Dinner - Casarecce Pasta, White Lima beans, sardines, anchovies, tomatoes, and fresh  chard

We got up at 5:00 in Honolulu and drove to the airport. We shared a starbuck’s English muffin, scrambled egg, and sausage sandwich. Suzette drank coffee and I drank chai. We boarded the flight to San Diego at 8:10 and shared a everything bagel smeared with cream cheese and white fish salad at 12:30 about one hour before we arrived in San Diego. When we arrived in San Diego we switched planes to an Albuquerque bound flight and arrived in Albuquerque at 7:15.

Willy picked us up and drove us home. While I watched the Big Ten Championship game between undefeated No. 1 Ohio State and undefeated No. 2 Indiana, which Indiana won, Suzette and Willy put together a very delicious dinner by combining Casarecce pasta, white Lima Beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of sardines, a can of anchovies, red onion, garlic, and chopped red chard. We garnished the dish with Grated Manchego and Parmesan cheese and drank Kirkland Pinot Grigio with dinner. It was wonderful to have a dinner made with ingredients of one’s choice that are compatible with one’s dietary interests instead of trying to guess what dishes created by restaurants will meet one’s food criteria, which is difficult even at the best restaurants.

I then watched Duke beat Virginia in overtime to win the ACC championship and then UCLA beat Hawai’i in the last minute of a tied score game. 

Our heating system started making a terrible sound and we turned it off and went to bed at 11:00.

It is great to be home even though we have to deal with some problems.

Bon Appetit