November 8, 2020 Brunch – Lobster and foie gras mini-souffles. Dinner – Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and steamed green beans

 November 8, 2020 Brunch – Lobster and foie gras mini-souffles. Dinner – Roasted Leg of Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and steamed green beans 

It was a beautiful warm day today.  I watched Leicester win its match, which gained it the top position in the PL standings and watched the news until 10:00. Then watched Man City tie Liverpool 1 to 1.

At 10:00 Suzette made a dish we had eaten last time we were in Paris. It is a very simple but delicious dish.  She placed 1 or 2 T. of heavy cream in a ramekin depending on its size.  She used 3 inch ramekins today so she doubled the recipe.  2 T. of cream, 2 eggs, plus foie gras and today pieces of lobster claw.  She whisked the egg and baked the ramekins in the steamer oven like soufflés for approximately 25 minutes.  That turned out to be too long because the egg toughened a bit, but that did not affect the flavor of the three main ingredients.

It was a superb dish.  I opened a bottle of white 2018 Calliers du Cotes Du Rhone for that Marsanne and Roussanne grape flavor that is a bit heavier and richer than some other grapes (Trader Joe’s $5.99).

I thawed a rib steak for dinner after brunch.

After the second soccer match around noon we grabbed our binoculars, drove to Kit Carson Park and walked into the Bosque and around the two lakes, a distance of 1.2 miles, which set a new record for me post operation.  The warm weather made it easy to walk and we stopped frequently to eye the waterfowl.  Today, it was the usual suspects: green teal, mallard, Canadian geese, and ringneck ducks. We did discover what seemed like a new beaver lodge in the northern lake next to the small island in the middle of the  lots of beaver sign of tree harvesting around the north side of the northern lake.

When we returned home aa bit after 1:00 I ate a bowl of Posole with a dab of sour cream and then lay down until 2:00 when we had our family weekly Zoom meeting until 2:45. Much of the discussion during the meeting was about marinated meat dishes.  Billy was marinating chicken for Coq at Vin and Mickie and Rebecca were marinating rabbit.  When I said I had been marinating a leg of lamb for two days, everyone suggested that we should roast the lamb, so we changed our dinner menu to lamb.  We will eat steak and Lobster Mac and cheese tomorrow evening.

 So after the Zoom meeting I peeled and rough cut four russet and 1 sweet potato and doused them with olive oil and salt and put them into a 350 degree oven to bake.

I then lay down until 4:30 after Suzette had cut the leg of lamb in half and lay it in a roasting pan and started roasting it when the potatoes were finished at around 4:00.

I then snapped about ½ lb. of green beans and put them in the steamer with water and started them steaming.

We then replaced the batteries in our favorite meat thermometer and tested the lamb, which was at 111 degrees internal.  We waited until the lamb’s internal temperature was 145 degrees to take it out of the oven.  I sliced some of it. The edges were pinkish gray and the interior was red rare. I gave Suzette the two rare pieces, which she likes best and I took several slices off the edge that were light pink in the interior.

 I fetched a bottle of 2017 Murphy Goode Pinot Noir and opened it and poured us glasses of it while Suzette piled our plates with green beans and roasted potatoes.  I the lay the slices of lamb on the plates and we were ready to eat.

We watched Pittsburgh come back to beat the Cowboys in the 4th quarter of their game and then 60 Minutes.

Then we watched an interesting Nature show on Primates around the world and the Trouble with Maggie, an English series on PBS.

At 8:00 I made chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  I added cocoa, raisins, toasted pecans, and chocolate chips to the standard batter recipe. After that we watched three episodes of Emily in Paris and went to bed.

 I am blogging at 5:00 on November 9, shortly after Pfizer announced that its 44,000 person 3rd phase test has preliminarily indicated a 90% efficacy for its corona virus vaccine.

The Dow futures were up 380 points in response to Biden’s victory until 4:50 a.m. when Pfizer made its announcement the Dow immediately rose to over 1400 points. 

A great day in America.

Bon Appetit

November 7, 2020 Brunch – Tuna and Gravad Lax, Red Onion, and Goat Cheese Omelet. Dinner – Lobster Mac and Cheese and Caprese Salad.

 November 7, 2020 Brunch – Tuna and Gravad Lax, Red Onion, and Goat Cheese Omelet. Dinner – Lobster Mac and Cheese and Caprese Salad.

We had good reason to celebrate today. Biden was declared President-elect by the news media.  We were watching People out in the streets all over America celebrating on the TV.

Trump, as Bernie has so aptly stated, was playing golf.

We watched the news most of the morning. Around 10:00 Suzette started looking in our fridge for something that needed cooking and found a PPI piece of teriyaki tuna from dinner last week.  She suggested a tuna and Gravad Lax omelet, so I cubed the tuna and some Gravad Lax and some red onion.  

Suzette whisked several eggs and squeezed out a couple of oz. of California goat £0cheese bought at Costco and made the omelet.  Suzette made her weekly Bloody Mary and I drank Clamato with the juice of ½ lime.

IWe thawed out the 2 lb. bag of lobster claws I had bought at Costco and Suzette started looking for a recipe.  We settled on a recipe Suzette found for Lobster and Pumpkin MAC and Cheese.  We had all the ingredients except evaporated milk.

 After noon we drove to the Lamp Store near Central and Eubanks to take one of our lamps for repair and buy a dimmer switch for another lamp.

We then drove to Costco for gas and on our way Lomé stopped at Lowe’s and Suzette ran in and bought a can of evaporated milk, and a head of Romaine lettuce.

When we returned home I began watching football and was lucky enough to watch Texas best West Virginia and TCU beat Texas Tech, so another week that my schools scored a daily double.  But the best game of the week was No. 1 Clemson v. No. 4 Norte Dame.  It was tied 33 to 33 at the end of regulation and went to the second overtime period when Notre Dame stopped Clemson from scoring with two defensive sacks of Clemson’s quarterback. This rivalry will likely continue this year because both Clemson and Notre Dame are in the Atlantic Coast League and will likely play each other for the league championship, when Clemson’s main quarterback, Lawrence, who did not play today due to an injury, will be healthy and Clemson will be at full strength 

 We started cooking dinner at 5:00 because we had invited Willy for dinner at 6:00. Here is the recipe,

I removed the Lobster claw meat from its shell and cubed the meat.  Suzette made the cream sauce for the dish with the evaporated milk and boiled some cassarecce macaroni. She the mixed the marsacapone, cream sauce and 1 cup of grated Dubliner Irish cheddar cheese with the lobster and cooked macaroni and put it in a soufflé dish.  She then crushed about ½ cup of bread crumbs to which I added about 1/2 cup of micro-grated Parmesan cheese for the topping.

Suzette Baked the dish in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.  

 I fetched a bottle of Gruet Brut from the garage and placed it in the indoor fridge freezer to chilling we then made the Caprese Salad. Suzette fetched two ripened tomatoes from the table ripening in the utility room and sliced them and went to our covered raised bed where our basil plant was still growing and picked a handful of fresh basil leaves.  I sliced thin slices of red onion and separated and cut slices of fresh mozzarella in half and cut the tomato slices and onion slices in half. While I was doing that Suzette made a simple balsamic and olive oil dressing and tore leaves of Romaine lettuce and lay them on salad plates to create abed for the salad.  Suzette then composed the three salads by alternating layers of tomato, onion,   cheese, and basil leaf and dressed the salads.

 Near 6:00 Suzette reduced the oven heat so the Mac and cheese would stay warm but not dry out as we waited for Willy.  Willy arrived a bit after 6:00. In time to watch all Kampala Harris and Joe Biden address the nation.  After dinner and the addresses followed by a huge fireworks show Willy left and we watched an episode of the PBS series “Body and Soul” and the end of the Clemson v. Notre Dame game that extended over 30 minutes beyond its scheduled ending, which delayed the start of Saturday Night Live beyond its scheduled 9:30 start. In short we fell asleep and Suzette went to bed.  I awakened and watch some until 11:00 and then went to bed.

 We toasted the Biden victory and drank champagne with our Lobster Mac and cheese.  We did not find any pumpkin, so deleted that from the dish.  The frozen lobster lacked the salty richness of fresh lobster so the Mac and cheese was not as tasty as we thought it should be.  So it was a new recipe, but not a successful recipe.  On the other hand the Caprese Salad was fantastic.  The utility room ripened tomatoes were delicious.  I felt like we were enjoying the last breath of summer and I relished that feeling.  

The Gruet Brut was also wonderful.  The bottle had a gold label instead of a white label and I tasted a richer portion of Pinot Noir grape in the dosage.

All in all it was a very successful celebratory dinner, if not great. 

Bon Appetit

November 6, 2020 Lunch – Vietnamese, Miso Noodle Soup with sliced meatballs. Dinner – Cassoulet with Chard and foie gras toast

 November 6, 2020 Lunch – Vietnamese, Miso Noodle Soup with sliced meatballs. Dinner – Cassoulet with Chard and foie gras toast 

I awakened at 6:30 and watched Morning Joe and Squawk Box. I drank a cup of chai as I watched the election results and market action roll in.

I was comforted that Biden’s lead was increasing and amazed that Square had a good earnings report.  In fact its earnings quadrupled.  I did not know this but it makes a market in bitcoin and bitcoin has doubled in the last few months.  From my simplistic viewpoint, the stock went up $23.00 today.  It made my portfolio reach a new high.  This was the stock I made a pan error on by buying 1000 shares instead of 500 shares.  Whatc a lucky error.  Even though the k kkjkkk’ Dow was down for the day and the NASDAQ had a small gain my portfolio had a 1% increase to a new all tcfcf cime high.  Voila.

At 8:30 I toasted a small whole wheat bagel and spread it with cream cheese and garnished it with slices of red onion, Iberico cheese and the old Gravad Lax, which amazingly did not poison me.

After breakfast I prepared the leg of lamb Suzette had brought home.  I went to the back yard and picked a handful of fresh rosemary and a handful of fennel.  I then sliced the cloves of two heads of garlic in half and inserted a ½ cloves of garlic into slits I made in the leg of lamb and stuffed rosemary into each hole. I pushed rosemary into each slit also and then covered the leg with red wine and laid it in a medium mixing bowl.

I worked until 11:45 and then heated the Vietnamese, Miso Noodle Soup with sliced meatballs.  I added a bit of water, an additional T. of white miso, and a handful of spinach and garnished with sliced green onion and hoisin sauce.  It was delicious .

I watched the Market close and recorded my gain and then lay down and slept until 4:00 and then I drafted a document and sent it to my client for review and ate three oz. of chocolate with almonds and then walked ½ mile.  

I stopped to talk to Barry on the way. When I returned a bit after 5:00 Suzette was at home.  We watched TV news until 6:30 when we went to the garden and harvested a basket of Chard.  I de-stemmed the Chard and cut it into bite sized pieces and Suzette added the leaves and heated the PPI Cassoulet and toasted 4 slices of French baguette that I then buttered and spread with foie gras. 

We drank the other ½ bottle of 2010 Tormaresca Neprica from Puglia east of Rome that was a blend of 40% Negroamaro, 30% Primativo, and 40% Cabernet Sauvignon.  It was smooth and delicious and tasted a lot like a Bordeaux.

The Cassoulet was wonderful and Suzette seemed transported back to France.  We decided to watch Emily in Paris, that Luke had recommended to us.  We poured ourselves sniffers of cognac and settled into our chairs although Suzette nearly came out of her chair several times when we saw sights we had been to.  She kept saying, “We need to go back to France” and “I got divorced and then I went to France .” Of course I agreed with her because I thought going to France would help get us over our respective divorces.

We watched three or four episodes of Emily in Paris and then went to bed.

I awakened at 12:30 and finished this blog.

Bon Appetit

November 5, 2020 Lunch – PPI Cassoulet. Dinner – Sautéed Duck breast with Cottage Fried potatoes and steamed green beans

 November 5, 2020 Lunch – PPI Cassoulet. Dinner – Sautéed Duck breast with Cottage Fried potatoes and steamed green beans

Today was pleasant.  The weather was sunny and cool but windless.

My portfolio rose another 2 ½% ending a mere 2 ¼% from its all time high.  I am definitely in the comfort zone again.

I ate a bowl of Posole with a toasted buttered flour tortilla for breakfast at 9:30.

Then at 1:00 I ate a bowl of Suzette’s Cassoulet.

I took a nap until 2:00 and then had an appointment until 4:00 when I watched Mad Money for a few minutes.  The big news today is Cramer said he thought big Tech was a more secure investment for those who wanted to preserve their capital than bonds, the traditional secure investment, mainly due to bond’s low return and big tech’s growth potential.

 At 4:30 I rode five miles south and got back after 5:00 so missed zen meditation.

Suzette was at home when I returned.  We decided to cook the thawed duck breasts and make Cottage fries and steamed green beans for dinner. Suzette sautéed the duck breasts weighed down with a pan filled with water Bobby Flay style.  I sliced two potatoes thinly and about 2 oz. of onion. Suzette sautéed the potatoes and onion in a large skillet until browned. Unfortunately the onion charred black.

I snapped about 2/3 lb. of green beans and steamed them in the steamer until tender, about ten minutes.

I opened a bottle of 2019 H & H Cotes Du Rhone, which was actually a bit tannic.  I suspect aging it for a few years would have helped.  I bought it at Total Wine for approximately $15.00 a few weeks ago.

                              A poached pear sauce I made by adding lemon zest and Marsala to pears

 

   

 

 

 

 We loved dinner.  It was fresh and healthy. Unfortunately, after dinner I ate several pieces of Halloween candy with another glass of wine and later a couple of chocolate chip cookies

We watched TV election coverage and read and blogged after dinner until 8:00 when Midsomer Mystery started. 

At 10:00 when it ended we went to bed.Bon Appetit      

November 4, 2020 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup with meatballs. Dinner – BLT Sandwiches and Bananas Foster and Gruet Brut

 November 4, 2020 Lunch – Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup with meatballs. Dinner – BLT Sandwiches and Bananas Foster and Gruet Brut

This turned out to be a memorable day for three reasons.  Suzette’s clients at her facility tested negative for Covid 19, I had the best day ever in the stock market, and it looks like Biden will win the presidential race.

I attended the on line Business Law seminar from 9:00 until 4:00.  It was mostly about Cannabis and diversity, but I enjoyed it.  I checked my portfolio gain at 2:00 and was amazed that it had had the best day ever with a gain of 3.5%.  All the big tech went up by past my buy back value.

At 11:00 I started a 2 quart pot of water with 1 tsp. of dehydrated beef stock, a Pho seasoning cube, three types of noodles (40 mm. Rice wafers and bundles of wheat and bean thread noodles), four meat balls   from Suzette’s cassoulet, four leaves of Napa cabbage and three mushrooms sliced, 2 oz. of onion, and after the noodles had cooked for 30 minutes, 1 T. of white miso, four fresh beef meatballs sliced, and some more water because the noodles had absorbed most of the water.

I then thinly sliced two green onions.  I ladled a bowl of noodles and soup and garnished it with green onion slices, cilantro leaves, and a generous squirt of hoisin sauce.

I ate another ½ bowl of soup as I watched a Bar Association lecture on a diversity survey for the seminar.

After lunch I fetched a package of four duck breasts to thaw.

 A few minutes after 2:00 I checked the Market close and almost every stock I owned was up except for a couple of utilities. The NASDAQ was up over 400 points and most of my tech stocks returned to prices above where I bought them in the last market slide in the middle of October, leaving my portfolio within 3.5% from my all time high. I was encouraged that my strategy to add to my positions with the money I made from the sales in October appeared to be working, even though I bought back too early before the market hit its mini-bottom.

The seminar ended at 3:00 and since it was a beautiful warm sunny breezy day I walked ½ mile.  When I returned Suzette called and asked if there was anything we needed from Costco and I said, “Please bring home a package of baguettes.”

Suzette arrived at 5:30 and was hungry because she had not eaten lunch.  After buying bacon at Sprouts yesterday I had been thinking about a spinach salad with bacon dressing, but with the fresh bread and a home grown tomato ripened and sitting in the kitchen window sill, I suggested a BLT sandwich.  Suzette’s eyes opened wide and said, “That would be great. I took a rotting Roma tomato out of the fridge so we could each have a tomato, but Suzette went to the utility room where she was ripening a large quantity of 

tomatoes we picked from out garden the day before our first snow and brought a lovely red tomato.

I fried five slices of bacon and sliced two pieces of bread to the approximate length of a piece of fried bacon.  I fetched the salad mix and mayo from the fridge and Suzette sliced the two tomatoes and an avocado. After toasting the slices of bread we each made our sandwiches.  Suzette’s was with both slices of bread on either side of the bacon, tomato, lettuce, and avocado slices and mine was open faced with a pile of lettuce on the side.  Here is a picture.

 

  After dinner I ate a slice of toasted bread with butter and slices of brie with a glass of 2015 Paton-Clemente Spanish Crianza from La Mancha that I think I bought at Trader Joe’s for $4.99 a couple of years ago.

 Later Suzette made Bananas Foster by sautéing two ripe sliced bananas in butter and brown sugar.  She then added a big splash of rum and lit the rum to flambé the bananas.   

 

 Suzette served the Bananas Foster over a scoop of vanilla ice cream and glasses of champagne to celebrate the three blessings we had received today.

Soon wen were both tired and went to bed at 8:30.

I awakened at 12:30 to finish this blog and watch the continuing coverage of the 2020 General election.

Bon Appetit

November 2, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – PPI Cassoulet

 November 2, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – PPI Cassoulet

I finished reading White Guilt this morning and then ate granola, milk, yogurt, blueberries, and ½ banana sliced.

I then dressed and returned the book to the library and drove to my dental cleaning appointment at 10:30.  After the dental appointment I drove to Sprouts where I bought 1 ½ lb. of smoked bacon, 2 lb. of 16-20 count shrimp for $13.98, a red bell pepper, green beans, yellow squash, green onions, and sour cream.

When I finished shopping at Sprouts I called 2000 Vietnam and ordered a No. 21 to take out.

I wanted some items from Talin, so I drove there next and bought Aji Mirin, Seville orange marmalade, shallots, beef meatballs, pork meatballs, fresh rice vermicelli, White beech Mushrooms, a bag of tanka Choy, red miso, and medium firm tofu.

I then drove to 2000 Vietnam and picked up my lunch.

It was 1:45 when I returned home. At 2:00 when the Market closed I checked my portfolio’s performance and it registered a small gain.  

After I put up the groceries I took the boxed lunch with a glass of water and the bag of fresh cilantro to the garden table. As I walked to the garden there was a tussle of feathers and I saw the Coopers Hawk that was sitting on the bird bath fly up into a tree and then take off. The Cooper’s hawk has been visiting the bird bath for over a month.  It is very exciting to have a wild hawk visiting our garden so often.

I ate the entire box of Bun Cha Gio with grilled marinated pork with boiled rice vermicelli and chopped salad, cucumbers, and mung bean sprouts.   It was pleasant sitting in our garden in the warm afternoon.

After lunch I worked in my office until the mail was delivered around 3:30.  

I had received a check so I drove to the bank and deposited it.

When I returned it was after 4:00, so I started to make Posole.  I washed about 1 lb. of Posole to leach out any residual lime and then started cooking it in water to which I added 2 lb. of diced sautéed pork and 1 cup of sautéed onion.  Later I added 2/3 cup of chopped oregano leaves and two heads of chopped garlic from our garden. 

I also added three dried red chiles that looked like they were New Mexico Big Jim’s but could have been anything.  They seemed very hot as they cooked and rehydrated. I simmered the Posole until 8:30 and then took it to the fridge in the garage.

Suzette arrived with a bowl of Cassoulet left from the larger quantity  she had made for the residents at the Center last week.  The thing that made the dish unique was the inclusion of small meatballs with the carrots and two types of beans and chicken into a thick stew. She put the stew into a large casserole and

 heated it at about 6:00 and ate a pasta bowl of it because she had not eaten any lunch.  Suzette is very busy these days keeping everyone safe and getting them tested at her facility. 

Here is a picture of the Cassoulet.

Suzette wanted to drink a glass of Spanish Tempranillo with her Cassoulet, so I directed her to the bottle of 2015 Faustino Rivero Reserva from Rioja. I took a glass also and found it to be a very clean, drinkable red wine, a bargain at $7.99 at Costco.

 

At around 7:30 I became hungry and added 1 cup of water to the Cassoulet and heated it and ate a bowl of it over a bed of spinach leaves Suzette had de-stemmed and laid in the pasta bowl earlier.  The bean and meat stew was not as heavy as I thought it would be, but it was very filling.  

Suzette ate a bowl of vanilla ice cream doused with chocolate syrup and sprinkled with her homemade maraschino cherries as I was eating my bowl of Cassoulet so later I also ate a bowl of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and her maraschino cherries.

We went to bed at around 9:30.

I enjoyed my day of food and food shopping, including Suzette’s wonderful Cassoulet.

I recall the first time Suzette cooked for me.  It was on Valentine’s Day 23 years ago and she cooked Cassoulet. So, tonight’s meal brought back happy memories and confirmed that Suzette cooks an amazing Cassoulet.

Bon Appetit

November 1, 2020 Breakfast – Lax and Bagels. Lunch – PPI Enchiladas Dinner – Eggplant with Garlic with tuna and Scallops

 November 1, 2020 Breakfast – Lax and Bagels. Lunch – PPI Enchiladas  Dinner – Eggplant with Garlic with tuna and Scallops

I awakened at 6:45 that was really 7:45 except for the fall back of the clock. I watch news programs and Newcastle beat Everton in PL.

All the news is covering the election, which is interesting and boring at the same time.

At 9:00 I toasted four slices of bagel, smeared them with cream cheese and lay slices of red onion and Gravad Lax on them. Suzette and I added several capers to each bagel for a lovely breakfast.

   

 

 At 10:00 I went to the garden and picked all the lavender.

At noon Suzette heated the last two pieces of enchiladas and I fetched the sour cream and we enjoyed a lovely light lunch.

 

  I then read more of White Guilt by Shelby Steele and dozed some until 2:00 when we had our weekly family Zoom meeting.  This week it was great to see Luke in his new house beside his wood stove.

I read from the end of the meeting at 3:00 until 5:45.  We watched the Denver beat the Las Vegas Raiders by one point.  

 We had decided to use three of the eggplants we grew in our garden to make Eggplant in Garlic sauce which is probably Suzette’s favorite Chinese dish.  Here is the recipe from Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking.

 I sliced and chopped ½ red bell pepper, ¼ of an onion, and 6 cloves of garlic.

I then sliced 3 eggplants into 2 to 3 inch strips that Suzette deep fried in peanut oil while I cubed about 2/3 lb. of Aji tuna and four sea scallops. 

 Suzette made a seasoning sauce with soy sauce, hoisin, cornstarch, Chinese Cooking wine, and sesame oil.

 Then she removed some of the oil from the wok and stir fried the onion, pepper, and garlic and then added the scallops and tuna and then the fried eggplant strips and finally the seasoning sauce.

    We heated the PPI rice and I de-stemmed and rinsed and spun a handful of spinach.  

 I filled the bottom of pasta bowls with spinach and then lay a bed of rice on the bed of spinach.  Then we each served ourselves the eggplant dish.  We eat this dish a lot and we both agreed that this may have been the best we have ever tasted.

  

 After dinner we watched The Trouble with Maggie Cole and Dallas lose to Philadelphia in Sunday Night Football.

 This was a very relaxing and satisfying day of food.

Bon Appetit