December 11, 2025 Breakfast - Granola with blueberries. Lunch - Enchiladas with avocado. Dinner - Casarecce Pasta with Chicken, onions, garlic, spinach, and mushrooms

December 11, 2025 Breakfast - Granola with blueberries. Lunch - Enchiladas with avocado. Dinner - Casarecce Pasta with Chicken, onions, garlic, spinach, and mushrooms

Today was a more normal day. I awakened around 7:00 and watched Squack on the Street for a few minutes until it became apparent it was a huge tech sell off. Actually, the Dow rose over 600 points to hit a new high which offset some of the loses in the NASDAQ that ended down 60 points. Nvidia was down over $5.25 at one point but ended down $2.85 at the close, so my portfolio lost only about .55%.  

At 9:30 I ate a bowl of granola with Greek yogurt, milk, blueberries and banana. Then I met with Jody to pay him for fixing the fan assembly in the Prius.  

Loyda came at 10:30 and cleaned the house.

Willy came home from work at 12:30 and we heated enchiladas and ate together plus Willy toasted a sliced hard boiled of sour dough bread and ate a can of sardines on it.  I drank Clamato with lime juice.

I felt fine in the afternoon so decided to begin my slow recovery of my muscles. I walked the two blocks to the bank and withdrew some cash.

When I returned at 4:00 I watched Ari. Today may be a turning point for our democracy. The Indiana Senate rejected Trump’s plan to add two additional seats to the Republicans in the House by a vote of 31 to 19 and a court freed a detainee by ICE.  The senate voted to reduce Hegseth’s travel budget unless he provides all the footage of the September 2 killing of two unarmed men after their boat was blown up off the coast of Venezuela.

Yesterday a democrat was elected mayor of Miami, so the appearance of invincibility of Trump may be collapsing as more people realize the way to fight a bully is to fight him rather than give in to his threats.

The Democrats will continue to win if the Republicans disregard the wishes of the majority, such as refusing to fix the loss of subsidies for health care insurance in the next 19 days.

Dinner - At 6:00 we started dinner. I chopped 1 1/2 cups of onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 chicken breast, 5 mushrooms sliced, and a handful of fresh oregano I picked in our garden.

Suzette cleaned and chopped a cup of spinach and sautéed the onion, mushrooms, and garlic and then added the chicken and oregano and the pasta. Finally Suzette added some Le Ferme Julien Rose wine and heavy cream and cooked the ingredients to reduce the liquids to a thin sauce. When the ingredients were all cooked and the sauce slightly thickened she placed a pile of fresh spinach in pasta bowls and we each served ourselves the pasta dish.

Suzette grated fresh Parmesan cheese and we added grated Parmesan cheese to the pasta and poured glasses of rose wine.

It was a perfect 70% carb and 30% protein dish in my estimation.

Later we watched the finale of South Park and the Daily Show. I drank a small glass of grappa and two chocolate truffles and at 10:00 went to bed to blog.

I am happy that I am able to start moderate exercise to begin to rebuild my muscles. I walked 3000 steps today, which is encouraging.

Bon Appetit 

December 10, 2025 Breakfast - Smoked Trout and onion on toasted Baguette smeared with Goat cheese. Lunch - Leftover Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup with wontons and egg noodles Dinner - Smoked Trout Salad with Butternut Squash

December 10, 2025 Breakfast - Smoked Trout and onion on toasted Baguette smeared with Goat cheese. Lunch - Leftover Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup with wontons and egg noodles Dinner - Smoked Trout Salad with Butternut Squash

Today I attended a tax seminar virtually lying in bed with my legs elevated.

I ate smoked Trout and onion slices on toasted Baguette smeared with Goat cheese with a cup of tea for breakfast at 8:00. Then attended the seminar from 8:30 until the 12:15 lunch break.

I heated the leftover yesterday lunch’s Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup with wontons, roasted pork, and egg noodles and added a few leaves of spinach, a green Nixon sliced in thin ringlets, and a small handful of cilantro and returned to the seminar at 1:10.

When it ended at 4:30 I rested until 5:00 when I meditated for 30 minutes.

Suzette went to the garden and harvested a basket full of fresh lettuce and made her famous smoked trout salad with avocado, butternut squash, smoked trout, a sliced hard boiled egg, and red onion with a honey mustard dressing made with seeded Dijon mustard.

She fetched a bottle of Trader Joe’s Bandol Rose to drink for a lovely light dinner.

After dinner Willy arrived from work and ate enchiladas, so there will be trout salad left for lunch tomorrow.

I worked at my desk after dinner until 10:15 and then blogged this entry.

I hope resting in bed today will provide me more stamina and reduce the swelling of my right calf.

Bon Appetit

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