January 15, 2024 Lunch - Garcia’s Kitchen. Dinner - Lamb Kabab Pita Sandwiches

January 15, 2024 Lunch - Garcia’s Kitchen. Dinner - Lamb Kabab Pita Sandwiches

I woke up at 6:30 and showered and dressed and watched news until 9:00 because the market turned from negative to positive today. The Costco bagels are huge so a toasted splice of bagel is almost equal to two slices of a water boiled bagel. I spread cream cheese and garnished with red onion and Gravad lax slices and capers for a lovely breakfast with a cup of green tea.

I then worked at my desk trying to gain access and figure out the Secretary of State’s new website in order to form a new LLC.

Then at 11:30 I called Peter Eller to invite him to lunch. I drove to his house and picked him up a few minutes after 12:00 and we drove to Garcia’s at 4917 4th St. we each ordered the large bowl of menudo that were served with chopped onions, oregano, lemon wedges, and chili sauce. The red chili broth was significantly hotter than at the Garcia’s on Central we usually go to. I ate a flour tortilla with my menudo and the we each ate a sopapillas after the meal with honey.

We talked and ate until around 1:30, when I drove Peter to his house and returned home a few minutes before 2:00.

I was able to watch the last 15 minutes of Aston Villa v. Everton, which Aston Villa won and then watched Arsenal beat Tottenham to go into second place 4 points behind Liverpool and 2 points ahead of Nottingham Forest, so a fun afternoon of soccer.

At 3:30 Jody came and inflated the tires on the mini to 35 lb. for winter. Then I walked to Laguna and over to Los Alamos and back, a distance of 2600 steps that got me to 4150 steps for the day without a lot of huffing and puffing, although I stopped almost every block to catch my breath.

Suzette was at home when I returned at 4:15. I rested and watched news and completely forgot to meditate at 4:30.

Dinner - Then at 5:00 I went to the kitchen and chopped 1/3 cup of sweet onion and two cloves of garlic for the lamb and red rice kebabs Suzette was making. She added an egg and some saltine cracker crumbs and shaped each kebab into 8 small domed shaped kebabs and sautéed them in coconut oil.

While the kebabs were sautéing I made tzatziki with two cloves of garlic, 1/3 cup of sweet onion, about 1 T. of lemon juice and 1 T. of olive oil and 1/2 cup of minced parsley.

I also opened a bottle of the Tenebres Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre blend that was a heavy wine but without the sweetness of the Amarone we drank two nights ago.

We chopped some lettuce and I sliced a tomato. We toasted three pita halves and filled them with kebabs, tomato slices, lettuce, feta cheese, and tzatziki for a lovely light dinner.

After dinner at 6:00 we watched President Biden’s farewell speech.

After the speech we spent over an hour planning our trip to Argentina and a side trip to Santiago, Chile. 

Then we worked on Suzette’s Heart Beet Salad for the Bistro’s Valentine’s Day meal. We cut a slice of a beet she had baked in the oven for 1 1/4 hours into a heart shape using a steel template and then Suzette garnished the heart shaped beet slice with a slice of fresh mozzarella covered with lightly whisked cream to replicate burrata and dusted it with crushed almond slices and a few sprigs of parsley. It looked nice.

It was after 9:00. I went to bed to blog this entry and Suzette lay on her new heating pad for an hour and we went to bed by 10:30.

Bon Appetit