August 30, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant and tea. Lunch - Mapo Dofu and rice. Dinner at Debbie’s

August 30, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant and tea. Lunch - Mapo Dofu and rice. Dinner at Debbie’s 

I woke up around 7:30 and ate a chocolate Croissant and a cup of tea.

Then I watched Chelsea beat Fulham 2 to 0. Then I watched  an exciting Stage 8 of La Vuelta in Andorra. An Australian won the stage and a Norwegian went into first place ahead of Jonas Vingegaard for one day.

Then I watched Ohio State beat Texas to upset Texas’ No. 1 ranking.

We ate the rest of the Mapo Dofu for lunch. I ate mine with rice. It was just as good today as two days ago.the best ever.

After lunch Suzette cooked the beans for the cassoulet for Sunday dinner. I removed the meat from the duck bones and Suzette made a duck broth by simmering the bones with onion and carrot over low heat.

She then cooked the beans in the duck stock.  

Dinner - At 6:00 gathered green onions, two of the sweet peppers we bought at the farmer’s market we went to Debbie’s for dinner. After drinks on the patio to watch the sunset on the Sandias we cooked dinner of spaghetti, sautéed scallops, and salad.

I helped Debbie make the marinara sauce by quartering about fifteen cherry tomatoes from our garden and the two sweet peppers and several slices of onion. After those vegetables had cooked we added 1/2 bottle of Rao’s Marinara sauce. 

I also made a salad of lettuce we bought at the farmers’ market, some cherry tomatoes, some carrot sticks, and 1/2 of a cucumber from our garden.  Debbie made a dressing and Suzette dressed and tossed the salad. Then Debbie sautéed about a dozen scallops and garnished the spaghetti with shrimp and we were ready to eat.

We each served ourselves spaghetti sauce, grated Parmesan cheese, shrimp, and spaghetti. Debbie also made slices of cheesy bread by melting mozzarella on slices of white bread for her and me.

                                                        Debbie’s plate

                                                         Suzette’s plate

                                                                    My plate

I loved dinner, carbs and seafood protein. Debbie served us 19 Criminals red blend with dinner and she drank scotch.

After dinner we split a pear Debbie had picked that was wonderfully sweet p. I ate my share of the pieces of pear with a wedge of the laughing cow processed French cheese.

We had a rather intimate conversation about our lives that we had not had before that only really close friends have until 9:30 when I got tired.

When we arrived home at 10:00 and I pitted and halved about three cups of cherries and marinated them with Grand Marnier and Brandy and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit

August 29, 2025 Breakfast - Mackerel Omelet. Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - East Ocean

August 29, 2025 Breakfast - Mackerel Omelet. Lunch - Mary and Tito’s Dinner - East Ocean

Today was a good food but not a very productive work day.

I made a mackerel omelet for breakfast with sliced green onion, enoki mushrooms, and chrysanthemum leaves. I liked it a lot and Suzette seemed to like it also.

I walked around the block and worked at my desk until 12:30 when I drove to Mary and Tito’s for Blue corn enchiladas with beef and an egg over easy for lunch. I love that they put a vase filled with fresh flowers on each table.

On the way home I stopped at Lowe’s and bought a head of garlic, tonic water, and milk.

When I returned home at 2:15 I checked my portfolio and confirmed the bad news that I saw developing for the last day, a sell-off of the high tech stocks led by a $5.94 drop in Nvidia and a $12.41 drop in Meta. The only bright spot was I sold Marvel at $69.99, which was the first time a stop has worked for me because it closed today at about $63.00. After the dust settled my portfolio was down just over 1.6%. If the prices of high tech keep going down I may become a buyer..

I rested in the afternoon from 3:00 until 4:00 and then discovered that I had missed the early delivery of my wine shipment from California.

Suzette tried to help me and she finally got UPS to promise an early delivery tomorrow with a call before delivery, so hopefully I will not miss the delivery as I did today.

At 5:30 we visited Peter at the rehab hospital where he is now. Suzette spoke to him for an hour about his options. Peter was in good spirits and happy that his meds finally were working so that he is not in as much pain and now has a proper diagnosis and is moving to a better facility to treat his condition.

At 7:00 after our visit with Peter we drove to East Ocean. It was rather crowded, mainly with Chinese.

We ordered 1/2 Roast Duck and Deep Fried Tofu with Mixed Vegetables.

There were lots of orders ahead of ours so the waitress brought us the hot tea  we ordered and later complimentary bowls of egg drop soup as an appetizer.

First a large bowl of rice was served with the Roasted 1/2 duck in a tea sauce and then the fried tofu with mixed vegetables.

The Duck was fantastic with its light sauce of slightly sweetened tea. We could not finish even half of the food so we filled three take out boxes.

Suzette was tired from a long hard day, so when we returned home she showered and went bed.

I stayed up to pit cherries and drizzle them with Grand Marnier and brandy for the clafoutis I will make tomorrow.

I blogged and slept until 11:30 when I went to bed.

Bon Appetit

August 28, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant and Earl Grey tea. Lunch - Cobb Salad at Harry’s Roadhouse and Book Club. Tea at Amy and Vahl’s Dinner - Leftover Japanese Oyster stew with Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles

August 28, 2025 Breakfast - Chocolate Croissant and Earl Grey tea. Lunch - Cobb Salad at Harry’s Roadhouse and Book Club. Tea at Amy and Vahl’s Dinner - Leftover Japanese Oyster stew with Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles 

I woke for an hour during the night but slept 6:00 to 7:30 so got a good night’s sleep because we went to bed at 9:00.

I needed two issues to resolve themselves, certification of ownership of all the units in an LLC for a title company and an extension of the deadline in a litigation.

Miraculously both issues resolved themselves by 10:15 and I was able to drive to Santa Fe for book club. Since book club was at Eldorado, I called Amy and she told me there was going to be a group for tea at 3:00 or 4:00 and invited me to join them. I grabbed a bottle of wine and set cruise control on 80 and arrived at Harry’s Roadhouse at 11:47, only 17 minutes late. There were seven of us. The other six had ordered when I arrived and ordered a Cobb salad, but I was served when their food was served several minutes later. I loved the Cobb salad, made in the most traditional manner, diced turkey, crumbled blue cheese, avocado slices, diced tomato and cucumber and chopped fried bacon on a bed of chopped romaine served with a blue cheese dressing. Karl ordered tacos and Travis ordered a tuna sandwich.

After lunch I dropped my bottle of 2014 Red Newt Bullhorn Riesling at Amy’s to have it chilled by tea time and drove to book club. We discussed Twist by Cullum McCann, with its plot twist at the end.

After book club I returned to Amy and Vahl’s and talked to Laura and Ari and Johnnie until 6:00. Andy is Doing really well. There was a cheese board, Rick and Mary brought a delicious orange cake and there were cheese sticks and foccacia.

Vahl opened and served the Red Newt.

I drove at 6:00, arriving at 7:15.

Suzette had made a mackerel omelet for dinner.

I heated some of the oyster stew with lots of oysters and added water, a diced shiitake mushroom, red cabbage strips and sliced leek and some wood ear.

It was delicious and I ate both bowls I heated.

We watched a 1974 movie on Netflix titled Penguin Lessons that is based on a true story about a professor at a b boy’s private school befriended a penguin. It was funny and sad and engaging.

We went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

August 27, 2025 Breakfast - Granola, milk, mango yogurt, and fresh peach Lunch - Pita and Bologna Sandwiches Dinner - the best Mapo Dofu over and Rice

August 27, 2025 Breakfast - Granola, milk, mango yogurt, and fresh peach Lunch - Pita and Bologna Sandwiches  Dinner - the best Mapo Dofu over and Rice

Today was a really good food day because lunch and dinner were completely spontaneous and wonderful.

I had a meeting in the morning with Jody. Then I modified my Motion from one to Extend to a Motion to Modify.

Then I made a quick lunch by toasting two halves of a pita and filled them with thin slices of Lebanon Bologna, a smear of creamy feta cheese and a dash of the horseradish and basil flakes Suzette made with water and three dill pickles.

After lunch around 1:30 I filed my Motion to Modify and then went to Bill Turner’s office for a meeting.

I returned home at 3:30 and listened to the Nvidia 2nd quarter webcast for an hour. The stock lost $5.65 in after hours trading. I can’t imagine why anyone would sell Nvidia. 

Then at 5:00 I lay down for a few minutes.

Dinner - At 5:30 we discussed dinner. What we would make for dinner turned on the quantity of pork and herb sausage Luke had bought at the Farmers’ Market last Saturday. When Suzette determined there 1 lb. of sausage we devoted 1/2 lb. to her future bean dish and 1/2 lb. to making Mapo Dofu. Tonight’s Mapo Dofu was the best I have ever made due to the availability of so many fresh ingredients, including fresh eggplant, shiitake mushrooms, red onion, edible chrysanthemum leaves, ginger, seasoned pork sausage, dashi broth, and fresh black wood-ear.

We sautéed the chopped pork sausage, onion, and ginger and then added the eggplant, wood ear, and sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms, about 10 oz. of tofu, and a cup of dashi broth.  I then added the seasoning sauce that included, soy, sesame oil, cornstarch, and water to create a brown sauce.

 

Suzette heated the leftover rice and in a couple of minutes when the sauce thickened we served ourselves Mapo Dofu. We garnished the dish with Szechuan peppercorns and green onion ringlets.

Suzette drank white wine and I drank a cup of green tea.

Fresh ingredients made this the best Mapo Dofu I have ever made and I have made it for over fifty years.

Bon Appetit

August 26, 2025 Breakfast - Vietnam noodles and Rice Omelet. Lunch - Chirashi Dinner - River Bank Oyster Stew

August 26, 2025 Breakfast - Vietnam noodles and Rice Omelet. Lunch -  Chirashi  Dinner - River Bank Oyster

We cooked a new dish for dinner in a hectic day. 

For breakfast I sautéed a few T.s each of sushi rice and Vietnamese rice vermicelli noodles, the pork filling of two pieces of egg roll and mung bean sprouts and stirred in an egg to make a delicious egg foo young. I drank a cup of the good green tea YoYo gave us.

Then I drafted a motion to extend discovery deadline in the LRGA and worked on a real estate closing.

I ate the leftover chirashi from last night’s dinner for lunch at around noon with a cup of green tea.

Then I took my shoes to Coronado Shoe Repair be re-soled and picked up next month’s book at the main library. 

When I returned at 3:15 I checked the market and was very pleased that my portfolio gained .7%.

Suzette picked six pita at Cafe Istanbul on her was home, arriving at 4:00.

At 4:30 we decided to make a Japanese oyster stew named River Bank Oyster Stew from our Japanese cookbook.

It involved several unusual ingredients that we did not have, such as white miso, leeks, Shiitake mushrooms and Enoki mushrooms, and edible chrysanthemum leaves, so we drove to Talin. Amazingly, we got a bag of chrysanthemum leaves at Talin.

We also bought two mackerel that we had the attendant fillet.

When we returned home at 5:30 I chopped the leeks, red cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, and chrysanthemum leaves off their stalks.

Suzette mixed the red and white meat so with Mirin and spread it on the side walls of a Le Crueset casserole and rinsed and dried and cut in half 18 oz. of fresh oysters.

Suzette spread some of the horseradish and herb mixture and butter on the mackerel fillets and baked them and served them on toasted fresh pita as an appetizer.

We made a broth by boiling wakame seaweed chips and dehydrated dashi.

We took a break at 7:00 to watch “finding your roots” and doze in front of the TV.

Then at 8:00 we heated the broth in the miso walled casserole and added the ingredients, allowing each to cook the oysters going last.

The broth clouded up instantly as the miso River bank slid off the enamel walls of the casserole into the broth (River). We realized that the use of a ceramic donate, which we did not own with its slanted ceramic walls was an essential element of the dish.

Still the flavor of the dish was good although rather salty from all of the miso.

We have lots of vegetables and soup left so we can make more broth and reduce the impact of all the miso going into solution.

We drank a bottle of Go and Row Riesling we bought at the Finger Lakes with dinner and enjoyed its slight sweetness with the strongly flavored salty broth.

Unfortunately, the delicate flavor of the oysters was overwhelmed by the miso.

We learned a new recipe and a further introduction the Japanese Cuisine, such as Chrysanthemum leaves, as well as the importance of having the equipment necessary to make the dish properly.

We watched some House Hunters International until 10:00, when we went to bed.

I count the dish as a disaster but the learning experience as a terrific introduction to traditional Japanese Cuisine.

Bon Appetit