August 9, 2026. Breakfast - Baguette with cherry jam and Jarlsberg cheese. Lunch - Sautéed Cabbage and Apple with Smoked Pork Cutlet. Dinner - Pasta with eggplant and lamb spaghetti sauce, sautéed Shiitake mushrooms, wood ear, and shallot

August 9, 2026. Breakfast - Baguette with cherry jam and Jarlsberg cheese. Lunch - Sautéed Cabbage and Apple with Smoked Pork Cutlet. Dinner - Pasta with eggplant and lamb spaghetti sauce, sautéed Shiitake mushrooms, wood ear, and shallot

I slept until 8:15.  After Fareed Zacharia I toasted three slices of baguette and spread butter and cherry preserves and garnished wupith slices of Jarlsberg cheese and drank a latte macchiato.

Then we rode our bikes around the neighborhood.

When we returned I rested for a few minutes and then we picked the dozen or so apples from our tree that is looking half dead.

Suzette then simmered figs and cooked peaches from our trees with cooked quince from last year, one vanilla bean, 3 cups of sugar, juice of one lemon, and 2 T. of fresh lemon thyme. After 30 minutes of simmering she filled sterilized jars and processed the sealed jars in a water bath for ten minutes to seal the jars.

At noon while the jam was cooking she also sautéed a smoked pork cutlet and the added tha leftover cabbage and apples we prepared last week.

We then drove to Goodwill and picked up five pants and one shorts to try on to see if they fit.

Then we drove to Total Wine and bought two bottles of scotch for Suzette.

When we returned home we rested until 5:00 when we started preparing dinner.

Dinner - I sliced three shiitake mushrooms, about a handful of fresh wood ear and a medium shallot that Suzette added to the leftover orecchiette pasta mixed with the leftover eggplant stuffed with a lamb, capers, and spaghetti sauce made from fresh tomatoes to which we added three purple tomatoes plus a handful of orange tiny cherry tomatoes, three cloves of garlic minced, 1/2 cup of fresh minced oregano and four larger red cherry tomatoes. I cannot explain how delicious the flavor of fresh ripe tomatoes is, especially joined with grilled lamb and a good Italian red wine.

Suzette opened a bottle of Susemaniello red from Puglia. It was a birthday gift  last month. It was dense, but flavorful, with just a hint of tannins on the finish.

After dinner we watched the last two episodes of season two of Castle Impossible with sips of cognac and a chocolate truffle and went to bed a bit after 8:00.

Bon Appetit