May 22, 2026 Breakfast - Granola Lunch - Leftover Spring Roll Dinner - Cream of Mushroom Soup and Lobster Salad

May 22, 2026 Breakfast - Granola  Lunch - Leftover Spring Roll Dinner - Cream of Mushroom Soup and Lobster Salad

I woke up at 7:00 and went back to sleep until 8:00.

I ate a bowl of granola with milk and tropical fruit salad at my desk.

At noon I made a tall glass of iced Vietnamese coffee, a cup of coffee infused with a heaping T. of condensed milk and filled with ice cubes.

I took the iced coffee to the garden table and ate a spring roll from Coda Bakery and read several pages of The Lover by Duras.

At 2:00 I checked the market and my portfolio was up .18% even though Nvidia was down $4.18.thanks to Apple, Cat, and AMD.

I then napped until 3:30 when I walked around the middle circle that helped me accumulate 3700 steps for the day.

When I returned home at 4:30 I made a stock with the leftover steak, steak bones, and chicken and chicken circus

Dinner - When Suzette arrived at 5:00 we decided to make cream of mushroom soup as we had discussed yesterday.  Suzette found this recipe.

I chopped two shallots, a head of garlic, and a lb. of portobello mushtooms that Suzette then sautéed with some flour in mutter and olive oil and then added Marsala wine, cream, and some of the stock.

Suzette picked a handful of lemon thyme and parsley that I minced for a garnish.

Then Suzette picked lettuce in the garden and we made a lobster salad  with lettuce, cucumber, and radish slices. I butterflied the South African  lobster tail and Suzette sautéed it.

I made a light Dijonnaise dressing with Spanish sherry vinegar, a heaping tsp. of seeded Dijon mustard, a squeeze of lemon juice and a tsp. of minced parsley and thyme.

I cut the tail in half and removed the two halves and we sliced them into segments and marinated them briefly in the dressing and then dressed the salad.

I fetched a bottle of Kirkland New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

We enjoyed the soup and then the salad with its chunks of warm lobster.

At 8,00 we watched Washington Week and then Firing Line.

Around 8:30 we watched Colbert’s final show.and James Coburn drive around Liverpool and singl

At 10:30 we went to bed.

Bon Appetit

May 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit salad. Lunch Mary and Tito’s with Monica and Aaron. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak, green peas, sautéed Mushrooms, and Baked Potato

May 21, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit salad. Lunch Mary and Tito’s with Monica and Aaron. Dinner - Grilled T-bone steak, green peas, sautéed Mushrooms, and Baked Potato

Today I woke at 6:50 and watched the Market open, slightly down. Nvidia’s was under pressure and closed down $3.96. So my portfolio had a small loss of .2%.

I ate granola with milk and tropical fruit salad for breakfast. Then I worked at my desk until 10:30 when I walked around the block.

At 12:30 I drove to Mary and Tito’s and met Aaron and Monica for lunch.  They ordered Mexican turnovers that are stuffed sooapillas with beef and beans and guacamole.

I ordered the Thursday special of two beef tacos with double beans and red chili on the side. Today I was hungry and wrapped spoons Ful of beans and red chili in pieces of the flour tortilla served with the dish to make mini burritosl.

After lunch I drove to Smith’s where I bought milk, 8 1 1/2 thick T-bone steaks, 10 chicken thighs, a marked down South African lobster tail, a container of sour cream, and two bunches of lovely asparagus, the butcher was kind and cut me steaks 1 1/2  inch thick with large filet sides approaching porterhouse steaks in configuration.

After I returned home and unloaded it was 4:00. I tried to watch Ari in bed but fell asleep until 5:30.

Dinner - I went to the garden and picked sugar snap and snow peas that are prolific this year.

Suzette baked Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes.

She then seasoned one of the T-bone steaks with salt and ground Nepalese peppercorns and grilled the steak. We de-stemmed the peas and Suzette blanched them and then enriched them with butter.

I sliced five or six portobello mushrooms and the last three lobster mushrooms and 1/2 of a shallot and sautéed the ingredients in olive oil and butter.

                                          Sunset in the garden

I opened a bottle of Calstar 2024 Sangiacomo Pinot Noir.

Willy joined us around 7:45 under the gazebo in the garden. At 8:30 we came back in to watch Midsomer Murders and Willy left.

Suzette made parfaits of vanilla ice cream with Suzette’s homemade maraschino cherries.

Suzette went bed at 9:30 and I stayed up to watch George Gentlely until 11:15 when I blogged and went to bed.

Often I feel the best around 11:00 at night.

Bon Appetit

May 20, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit Salad. Lunch - Vietnam 2000 with Keith Dinner - Chicken with Red Cabbage and Peas from the garden

May 20, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and fruit Salad. Lunch - Vietnam 2000 with Keith  Dinner - Chicken with Red Cabbage and Peas from the garden

Another simple day of food, but a huge day in the market.

Pi did not sleep well again, so I got up at 6:30 and took the trash receptacle to the curb and ate a bowl of granola with milk and fruit salad asI watched the market open very positively. After three losing days finally we had a winning day, probably because Nvidia was announcing its revenues after the close of the market.

Strangely, I went back to bed at 9:00 and slept until 10:30. I guess my body was telling me I needed to catch up on my sleep..

At 10:30 I showered, shaved and dressed and drove to meet Keith at Vietnam 2000 at 11:30. Keith was waiting for me when I arrived having walked from the senior center at Cooper and Monroe.

I ordered one of the specialties of the restaurant No 87, a layer of sautéed mung bean sprouts and cucumber sticks covered with boiled sheets of 2 inch wide rice noodles garnished with egg rolls and marinated and grilled slices of pork, without salt. This time the chef made the dish with a special noodle that did not contain any salt. It was less salty but the dish was served with a small bowl of sweetened fish sauce that I lightly dipped the ingredients into for added flavor. The sautéed vegetables make their own sauce and unique flavor and the pork and egg rolls have lots of flavor, so the dish does not lack for flavor and each bite can be enhanced by dipping in the sauce, which is very flavorful and only requires a tiny fit of sauce to flavor the entire bite of food.

Keith wanted spring rolls without meat, so he ordered an order with fried tofu. 

We enjoyed a pleasant lunch as he described the complex legal situation with one of his properties and retained me to represent him.

After lunch I drove him back to the senior center and returned home at around 1:45. 

I watched the market close and waited for Nvidia’s to announce its earnings at 2:45. Nvidia went up $2.86 during the day but then went went down after the earning announcement, which seems to be a common characteristic of Nvidia stock and does not bother me.

Typically the stock will start going back up as the President, Jensun Huang, is interviewed in the next few days and tells people how well the company is doing. In fact as I write this blog from 1:30 to 2:15 the stock has gone from -$1.33 to +$.53 in after hours trading, so it is on the move higher. As people realize that its investement in many of the leading high tech companies makes Nvidia a mini-conglomerate or investment vehicle in the most advanced companies in the high tech sector.

At 3:00 I lay down and napped until 4:00 when I completed the documents for the probate case I am working on. 

Dinner - At 5:30 Suzette was home, working in her office when I finished my probate documents.

We decided to roast the duck quarters we bought at Talin, to sauté the remaining half head of red cabbage with strips of carrot and a red sweet pepper and ground cumin in olive oil, and blanch the sugar snap peas and snow peas from our garden and then enrich in butter.

I opened a bottle of 2018 Rivallana Rioja Gran Reserva I recently bought at Costco for around $10.00 that took about an hour to open up and express its mellowness.

Suzette cooked the duck in the steaming oven to try to soften it but it was freezer burned and so tough as to be inedible, so we threw the duck away and Suzette quickly microwaved slices of chicken breast.

She also flavored the red cabbage with sugar and apple cider vinegar in the German manner.

Dinner was saved as we watched Denver play Las Vegas in the NHL Western finals and then a Nova special on the Paleologic evidence that whales evolved from land walking mammals as we sipped the last of the wine with squares of a Trader Joe’s Belgium milk chocolate bar.

We went to bed around 9:30 and I slept until 1:30 when I awakened to blog and drink a cup of chai to start my May 21st.

Bon Appetit

May 19, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Fruit Salad. Lunch - Bun Cha Gio Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice

May 19, 2026 Breakfast - Granola and Fruit Salad. Lunch - Bun Cha Gio Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu and Rice

I love Mapo Dofu and I made a lot of it several evenings ago and extra rice, so I was happy to eat it again for dinner today. The big event today were the two PL matches, Man City v. Bourmouth and Chelsea v. Tottenham. Man City lost and thereby finished second to Arsenal and Tottenham lost to place within potential relegation if West Ham wins on Sunday.

I ate granola with milk and lots of tropical fruit salad for breakfast.

The market was down most of the day and took a deeper dive toward the close. My portfolio is still at a historic high, but losing ground fast. Tomorrow will be important, when Nvidia announces its quarterly earnings.

At 1:30 Suzette brought home an order of Bun Cha Gio from Coda Bakery. I have really become fond of theT takeout dish because there is a large enough portion to share and because the four hot from the fryer egg rolls are wrapped in a separate paper dish that keeps them really hot.

Suzette also brought home an order of two spring rolls with chicken and ate 1/2 of one. I will try one tomorrow. I drank a Vietnamese iced coffee and Suzette drank a glass of Carlsberg beer.

After the matches ended I drafted six deeds for a probate after the matches and finished around 5:20.

Dinner - After a bit of news I heated PPI rice and Mapo Dofu and hulled about 2 tsp. of Szechuan peppercorns and thinly sliced two green onions to garnish the re-heated food and made a cup of green tea. I ate 2/3 of the bowl of food and Suzette finished it 

We watched a Stanley Tucci episode from the Discovering Italy series on Veneto, the region around Venice up to the Dolomites and went to bed at 9:30.

Bon Appetit

May 18, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad. Lunch Tacos at Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu with Rice

May 18, 2026 Breakfast - Granola with Fruit Salad. Lunch Tacos at Mary and Tito’s Dinner - Leftover Mapo Dofu with Rice

I woke up after 8:00 and watched the TV until 9:00 and then I ate a bowl of granola with milk and tropical fruit salad.

At 12:00 I drove to Mary and Tito’s and ordered my new low-salt dish: beef tacos with refried beans and red chili on the side.

I love this dish and may return on Thursday when it is the daily special for $7.95. Today it was $8.50. All of Mary and Tito’s are similarly inexpensive. I often order blue corn enchiladas with ground beef and a fried egg for $10.50, which I think is the most expensive item on the menu.

I said hello to Gerry Dixon and Steve Scholl, who were eating at the table next to my booth.

When I returned home I watched Arsenal beat Burnley 1 to 0. The result was to be expected since Arsenal is In first place in the English Premier League and Burnley next to last and soon to be relegated from the PL.

In contrast to the quality and excellent prices at Mary and Tito’s, after the soccer match and the celebration by the Arsenal fans at around 3:00 I checked my portfolio and found the NASDAQ was down 134 points and my portfolio lost .95% today, a second day of big loses as Trump fumbles the War gin Iran and the economy.

At 4:00 Suzette arrived, tired from a hard day and stayed. At 4:15 I watched AriI and at 5:00 I walked around the block.

When I returned I cleaned a T. of Szechuan peppercorns by removing their hard pits. The husk is what carries the unique flavor.

I also thinly sliced three green onions for garnish and Suzette heated some Mapo Dofu and rice. We garnished bowls with the peppercorns and green onion and ate a lovely dinner.

I drank green tea and Suzette drank water.

After dinner we watched the Antiques Roadshow, suzette was tired and went to bed at 8:00.

I stayed up to watch two episodes of Stanley Tucci’s  Discovering Italy on Abruzzo and Marche and went to bed at 11:00.

Bon Appetit