December 30, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Black Garbanzo, Mirepoix, Mushroom, and Spinach Stew with Duck.

December 30, 2025 Breakfast - Granola. Lunch - Mary and Tito’s  Dinner - Black Garbanzo, Mirepoix, Mushroom, and Spinach Stew with Duck.

I had a relaxing morning. I ate a bowl of granola with milk, blueberries and yogurt around 9:30 and read my book club book, One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Hawker.

Then at 1:00 I drove to Mary and Tito’s for lunch. There were several groups ahead of me so, I read the book while I waited.

When I was given a table I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lovely arrangement of fresh flowers on each table. 

Soon I was served chips and salsa and a glass of water. I ordered my usual, blue corn enchiladas with double beans, beef and an egg over easy with extra onions and red chili. I loved it and ate everything on the platter.

Then I returned home and checked my stock portfolio. Things have slowed down this week and stocks have drifted downward. My portfolio lost a negligee .1% today. I then walked around the block to help accumulate about 3000 steps today.

At 4:00 I took a 45 minute nap and meditated with Etienne and Todd at 5:00 for 1/2 hour.

Suzette had called to tell me she was going to Talin to buy greens and mushrooms, and fresh wood ear for the Rancho Gordo recipe she wanted to cook with the Rancho Gordo black garbanzo beans she has been cooking for a day. We decided to served roast duck with the bean stew, so I thawed a duck 1/2.

Here is the recipe.

I chopped a carrot, 1/8 onion and two stalks of celery for the mirepoix while Suzette sliced Maitake mushrooms, fresh wood-ear, and an interesting and beautiful green.

After the prep I returned to our bedroom to read my book.

When the dinner was ready I opened a bottle of 2023 Kirkland Vacqueyras and poured glasses.

 When the duck had roasted 20 minutes to heat it thoroughly and crisp the skin, I boned and sliced it and Suzette served the bean stew on a toasted slice of baguette as the recipe instructed and I put duck slices on the pile of stew.

I enjoyed the stew but loved the duck and wine.

I suggested adding caramelized onions and plums to the dish to perk up its flavor profile that was rather bland.

At 7:00 I started watching USC play TCU in the Alamo Bowl. There were two incredible plays, a USC one handed catch on the edge of the end zone by Richardson for USC and a winning run down the sideline by Payne for TCU through three tackles in overtime.

I went to bed and blogged this entry at 10:45.

Bon Appetit 

December 29, 2025 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel Lunch - sliced Turkey Breast sandwich. Dinner - Oysters at Pappadeaux’s and Pita sandwiches

December 29, 2025 Breakfast - Lax and Bagel Lunch - sliced Turkey Breast sandwich. Dinner - Oysters at Pappadeaux’s and Pita sandwiches

I woke up at 7:00 and watched the market and toasted a bagel, smeared the two halves with cream cheese, and garnished them with red onion slices, Gravad lax slices and capers.

The market and the precious metals all went down early and I was so busy I did not check to see how bad a day it was for my portfolio, but when I left the house at 9:30 for my appointment at 9:30 Nvidia was down over $3.00. It closed down $2.31. 

My appointment lasted from 10:00 until 4:15. At 1:00 Regina brought Sliced turkey cheese slices, sour dough breadAfter it I went home and called Aaron, as I had promised and he told me he and Monica were going to  Pappadeaux’s and invited us to join them.

We had no dinner planned so we drove to Pappadeaux’s and met them.

Monica and I each ordered a dozen fresh oysters on the half shell. Monika also ordered a broiled red snapper fillet stuffed with crab meat. Aaron ordered a shrimp salad and Suzette order six oysters broiled with bread crumbs, bacon and chili flakes (Casino) but a bit spicier. Suzette and I split a bottle of Gruner Vitliner. The bill totaled $125.00. That is the reason we do not eat out much any more. Several of my oysters were small and ripped to pieces from improper shucking.

We could have eaten three dozen oysters from Whole Foods on its Friday $1.00 oyster special for what one dozen cost at Pappadeaux’s.

And the Gruner Vitliner wine that usually costs $10.00 at Total wine was $47.00.

When we arrived home I watched Atlanta beat the L.A. Rams .

During the game I made two pita pocket sandwiches each with 1/2 of a Romanian pork sausage, tomato slices, red onion slices, feta cheese, and tartare sauce with a glass of Spanish Rioja Reserva.

Suzette finished cooking her casserole filled with black garbanzo beans.

Later I drank a cup of tea with a piece of chocolare candy and we watched Antique Roadshow until 10:00 when we went to bed. Suzette slept and I blogged until 11:00.

Bon Appetit

December 28, 2025 Brunch - Sausage, Mushroom and Gruyere OmeletSnack - Bao Sa. Dinner - Spaghetti in a Mirepoix, butter, and white wine sauce

December 28, 2025 Brunch - Sausage, Mushroom and Gruyere OmeletSnack - Bao Sa. Dinner - Spaghetti in a Mirepoix, butter, and white wine sauce

I woke up at 6:30 and watched the end of Leeds v. Sunderland in a tie.  The Fareed Zacharia, then Tottenham versus Crystal Palace in another tie.

It was time to cook breakfast. Suzette crumbled some Jimmie Dean sausage and I sliced onion, mushrooms, and Gruyere cheese and went out to the garden and picked thyme, parsley, and sorrel and minced them. 

Suzette sautéed the sausage, onion, herbs, and mushrooms and then added the slices of cheese and finally four eggs whisked to create a delicious omelette. I toasted and buttered three slices of bread and gave 1 1/2 t Willy.

We did not eat lunch but around 3:00 I heated two Bao Sa and ate them with a soy, chili oil, and green onion dipping sauce.

Around 5:00 Suzette started cooking a bag of black garbanzos with a mirepoix of celery, onion, and carrot.

Dinner - we thawed a bag of shrimp, but it was discolored by freezer burn, so we thawed a salmon filet and gathered the mirepoix vegetables. I chopped onion, a carrot, five cloves of garlic, and the inner core stalks of a head of celery that Suzette sautéed in butter and olive oil. I then diced the 1 lb. salmon filet and Suzette added that after the vegetables cooked a bit and added some white wine (Ruta 49 Albariño). 

She then added a handful of previously cooked Spaghetti to the mixture and after a few minutes when the spaghetti was mixed and heated, Suzette served pasta bowls filled with the mixture and I poured glasses of Ruta 49 with a number of ice cubes.

The dinner was interesting because it had a vegetable forward flavor with a creamy salmon aftertaste.

At 9:00 I toasted three slices of bread and garnished them with slices of Jill’s wonderful chicken liver pate’.

After dinner we watched an exciting San Francisco v. Chicago Bears football match until 10:00 when we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

December 27, 2025 Breakfast - Church Street Cafe. Lunch - Romanian Leftovers and fruit tamale Dinner - Garden Salad with sautéed Albacore tuna

 

December 27, 2025 Breakfast - Church Street Cafe. Lunch - Romanian Leftovers and fruit tamale  Dinner - Garden Salad with sautéed Albacore tuna

This was one of those horrible days after a major holiday when one succumbs to the excesses of holiday foods willingly.

We started out okay by meeting Billy and Elaine at Church Street Cafe to enjoy a New Mexican meal before they departed for Dallas.

Everyone ordered Huevos Ranchero except Suzette and me. We split a carne adovado platter served with a half platter of carne adovado with red sauce, beans, and spinach and two warm corn tortillas.

I gave Suzette some spinach and carne adovado and filled the two corn tortillas with carne and ate two carne adovado burritos. That left a lot of carne and beans that I boxed and took home.

Willy and I watched an exciting fixture between Aston Villa and Chelsea that Aston Villa won with a Watkins goal late in the match.

I ate a few bites of the leftover Romanian salads in the early afternoon and rode my stationary bike a mile in the afternoon and watched football.

Other than working with Karim for 1 1/2 hours, meditating with Todd for 1/2 hour, and two episodes of Emily in Paris, I watched football most of the day until 10:30 at night when Houston beat LSU in the Texas Bowl.

Around 5:00 Suzette went to the garden and picked a basket full on fresh lettuce and we made a tuna salad. I diced and sautéed the leftover raw tuna from the party in olive oil and added it to the salad and we dressed the salad with the mayonnaise tartare dressing we made for the Gravad lax and drank a Finger Lake Rose’.

                                                    The converted tartare dressing

Later I ate broken cookies with cognac and tea.

Bon Appetit

December 26, 2025 Breakfast - 2 fruit tamales Lunch - Romanian Christmas Dinner

December 26, 2025 Breakfast - 2 fruit tamales Lunch - Romanian Christmas Dinner

I woke up at 7:00 and watched Squawk on the Street and the open.

Nividia was up over $3.00 early, but as the day progressed the averages went negative and Nividia closed up $1.90 that produced a small gain in my portfolio.

What went crazy were gold and silver. Gold gained over $50.00 per oz. to $4550 per oz. and silver went up over 11% to $79.68 per ounce.

Platinum went up even more, rising 11.5% ($260.70) to $2534.70 per ounce.

The precious metals are on fire.

I ate two of the fruit tamales Jody and Loyda brought us with a fried egg and a cup of tea for breakfast.

I then helped Suzette add olive oil and lemon juice to the whisked meat of the two eggplants she roasted on the grill to make an eggplant salad for the Romanian dinner we would attend at Aaron and Monika’s house at 3:00.

I tried to save my appetite after breakfast by not eating a heavy meal, although I ate a couple of Christmas cookies with tea and Suzette made me a snack of baguette rounds garnished with slices of avocado and hard boiled egg around noon.

I also rode my new recumbent bike around the neighborhood.

Then at 2:40 Billy, Elaine, Suzette, and I took a slab of Gravad lax and the eggplant salad and drove to their new house in Tanoan.

When we arrived we were introduced to their Romanian friends, Jan and Emilia and Mina (who we met last year. 

Aaron did much of the cooking this year. He grilled pork chops marinated in olive oil and rosemary and some amazing pork sausages made by kneading ground pork shoulder in the Kitchen Aid until smooth and then adding whole peppercorns..

He also made the cabbage rolls baked slowly in a large  casserole with strips of bacon and sauerkraut. The cabbage leaves had been tenderized by cooking them in the liquid that gathers in sauerkraut. The stuffing was very tender pork also.

Jan made my favorite dish, perhaps because it was so unusual, a meat and vegetable salad in slightly acidic mayonnaise and decorated with a lovely flower arrangement made with vegetables.  There was another salad made by Mina that was also amazing.  It was eggs stuffed with chicken livers in mayonnaise and also decorated. 

Soon after we arrived Aaron grilled the marinated pork chops and then grilled the hand rolled pork sausages.

When the sausages finished grilling we started eating the food.

I tried one or two of everything except the cheese and chili pepper phylo wrap, which I had last year, made by Mina.

I discovered something interesting. Total Wine now sells Romanian wine. I enjoyed glasses of a dry Muscat. After the meal Monika gave us a bottle of white and red Romanian wine as a Christmas gift.

It was a great meal.

After we all finished the meal and rested for a few minutes before dessert. There were two cakes, a store bought German stollen and a Romanian coffee cake with a few raisins and a thin ribbon of chocolate at the top.

They were both good but we were full and I did not get excited about either.

We packed take-out boxes with the wonderful foods, so Willy could try them and left around 5:00.

It was a memorable dinner.

When we arrived home we sat and talked until around 6:15 when Billy and Elaine left.

I then watched a minor bowl game between Florida International U. And UT San Antonio until UT SA went ahead over 20 points because it was a scrappy exciting game tied at 14 points for a while.

Also UNM played Minnesota to a tie in regulation in its bowl game but lost in overtime.

I went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 1:00 when I finished this blog entry.

Bon Appetit