March 22, 2025 Breakfast - Tropical fruit salad, granola, milk, and yogurt Lunch - Herring Sandwiches Dinner - Mapo Dofu and Rice

March 22, 2025 Breakfast - Tropical fruit salad, granola, milk, and yogurt Lunch - Herring Sandwiches   Dinner - Mapo Dofu and Rice

I got up and read a bit and worked on the Motion to Reconsider and ate a bowl of fruit salad, granola, milk, and Lala mango yogurt. 

I then ordered The History of the Basque but Kurlansky and Diva by Delacorta to read on the trip.

Then at 11:00 I joined Suzette to work in the yard. I planted seeds in the raised bed while she fixed the irrigation and many other tasks.

A little after noon we came in and she ate fruit salad and yogurt for lunch and I ate two open faced herring sandwiches. Two toasted slices of whole wheat bread spread with sour cream and garnished with slices of red onion and herring in wine sauce.

Then I napped until 4:00 when Suzette went shopping and I started cooking Mapo Dofu for dinner.

Dinner - I followed roughly the recipe from my Szechuan cooking book.

I minced four T. Each of ginger and garlic amend 2/3 large yellow onion and stir fried those in the large 18 inch wok. I then diced two pork steaks (about 1 lb.) and added them plus some Chinese cooking wine and sesame oil.

Then I diced a green bell pepper, a zucchini, and the remaining head of white cabbage (about 1 cup), and added them. 

Then I peeled the skin from an American eggplant and diced it and added it to the wok.

At this point I made the seasoning sauce with 1 T. of cornstarch, 2 tsp. of sesame oil, 2 T. of soy, 1 tsp. of chicken stock, 1 tsp. of garlic chili sauce,  and about 1 cup of hot water.

I then added 19 oz. of diced firm tofu and added a bit more chicken stock to cover the ingredients and covered the wok and simmered the ingredients for an hour.

At 6:00 I cooked a cup of rice in 2 cups of heated water to which I added 1 tsp. of Knorr dehydrated chicken stock for 30 minutes at low heat and we watched Bill Maher.

I also uncovered the wok to let the ingredients cook down into a thickened stew.

I removed the hard seeds from about a T. of Szechuan pepper corns and thinly sliced 3 green onions for the garnish to the dish.

Then at 6:50 we served ourselves rice and Mapo Dofu and watched Have I got news for you on CNN.

I drank Chinese green tea and Suzette drank water.

Mapo Dofu is one of our favorite Chinese dishes with tofu and eggplant.

Suzette went to bed at 8:00 and I stayed up to watch Father Brown and Death in Paradise but fell asleep sitting watching Sherlock.

I went to bed at 11:30 to blog and read.

Bon Appetit