January 2, 2023 Lunch - Pork Bao buns Dinner - two Pita pocket sandwiches and Chicken Salad sandwiches and salami sandwiches

January 2, 2023 Lunch - Pork Bao buns  Dinner - two Pita pocket sandwiches and Chicken Salad sandwiches and salami sandwiches

I ate granola with milk, yogurt, and blueberries for breakfast around 9:00.

Then I worked at my desk until 12:30 when a PL soccer match began between West Hampton and Brighton.

It was a rather unexciting match without a score in the first half, so I heated two pork bao buns and made a dipping sauce of soy, green onion ringlets, and a few drops of chili oil and drank a mug of Chinese Green tea.

I then finished a project I had started before lunch by 3:15.

I then got dressed and walked around the block and returned at 4:30.

Suzette arrived shortly thereafter and we alternated between watching the news and home decorating shows until 5:30 when I mediated for 1/2 hour by Zoom with my small meditation group of four today.

We then discussed dinner and Suzette snacked on toasted baguette rounds spread with chicken salad with a vermouth and I spread basil mayonnaise on toasted slices of French baguette and garnished two with salami and one with cured ham and drank green tea.

Suzette was not feeling well and went to bed at 8:00 after we watched Finding your Roots.

I stayed up to watch several shows on PBS about democracy and at 8:30 made two pita pocket sandwich by cutting and opening each half of a pita and toasting each to soften them and filling them with pork belly, tomato, labni, thin red onion slices, and feta cheese plus black olives, three radishes, three pickles, and a green onion. I drank a cup of water mixed with the last 1/3 glass of Olarra Rioja Reserva red wine.

Later I made another cup of green tea and ate two French liquor filled chocolates.

There was a major melt down in the NASDAQ today with the NASDAQ dropping over 300 points. It really pisses me off that the IRS sets the RMD for IRA’s based on the December 31 value, when that usually is the end of the Santa Claus rally and there is almost always a precipitous drop in early January, as it was today.  I didn’t even look at the result today.

The NASDAQ rose over 43% last year, so if it drops 10% in a few days all a long term holder can do is grit one’s teeth and bear a short term melt down if you believe there will be a soft landing of the economy.

 And went to bed at 11:30 after I finished this blog.

Bon Appetit

January 1, 2024 Brunch - Pork Roast and Sauerkraut. Dinner - Posole and Tamale

January 1, 2024 Brunch - Pork Roast and Sauerkraut. Dinner - Posole and Tamale

I got up during the night so I slept in until almost 10:00 following my New Year’s Resolution to get more sleep.

As soon as I dressed we cut the 6.3 lb. Pork sirloin in half. Suzette salted and peppered one half and baked in a 375 degree oven for two hours.

I also diced 1/2 apple and 2 oz. of onion that Suzette mixed into the sauerkraut and baked in a Pyrex dish with the pork roast.

I cut a deep groove in the other 1/2 and we made a fruit stuffing with sage, mincemeat and peaches and filled the groove with the stuffing.

When we took the first pork roast out of the oven, we put the second one i and baked it to 145 degrees.

We also made chicken salad this morning.  Suzette hard boiled five eggs and made deviled eggs with two of them that were delicious and I diced the other three after Suzette peeled them.  I also diced three stalks of 

Celery, about three oz. of red onion, four green onions and then stirred in the dressing Suzette made of mayonnaise, mustard, and tartare sauce.

We then ate brunch, a slice or two of roasted pork on a toasted ciabatta roll spread with a Durkee’s style mixture of mustard and mayonnaise topped with sauerkraut. I drank a glass of De Ponte Melon de Bourgogne and Suzette drank a beer.

We then watched Liverpool beat Newcastle and then the two college football championship playoffs. The first game was a grueling defensive slug fest between Alabama and Michigan that Michigan won.

The second game between Washington and Texas was much more exciting and Texas had a chance to win it in the end, but Washington had the better passing attack and Texas lacked an effective pass defense to stop ‘s passing. Phoenix the Washington quarterback completed passes for 430 yards.  In the end Washington won by 6 points.

Willy came over around 7:15 and Suzette served him pork roast and sauerkraut and a bowl of Fabada with pork belly.

Later Willy made tea and we ate several of the lovely cookies Diane Souder gave us yesterday.

I went to bed after the game and finishing this blog entry.

Bon Appetit

December 31, 2023 Brunch - Lax, bagels, red onion, and cream cheese Dinner - Roasted Duck, steamed Broccoli, and wide egg noodles

December 31, 2023 Brunch - Lax, bagels, red onion, and cream cheese Dinner - Roasted Duck, steamed Broccoli, and wide egg noodles 

We woke up at and TR turned on Fareed Zacharia.  I had a Keurig cup of caramel latte that Suzette did not want because it was too sweet so I drank it. Linda heated me a chocolate croissant and made me a cup of French vanilla latte coffee with the croissant.

T.R. was walking Gypsy for a while so I sliced red onion, bagels, and Gravad lax.

When TR returned we toasted three bagels cut into three slices each and each person spread their own with cream cheese and added red onion and Gravad lax slices.

After breakfast we drove back home.

I watched the Cardinals beat the Eagles which was exactly the gift the Cowboys needed to share division leader status with the Eagles.  God bless the Cardinals.

Willy came by in the afternoon and Suzette cooked some wide egg noodles and broccoli and then sautéed some noodles and broccoli with chicken meat for him to eat before he went out for his New Year eve’s celebration.

We decided to cook one of the duck halves we had bought at Costco for our New Year’s Eve meal with mincemeat, onion, and peaches picked from our tree and serve it with the remaining cooked broccoli and wide egg noodles for a simple meal.

I sliced 1/4 onion and fetched the bottle of mincemeat and Suzette fetched the frozen peaches from the garage.

Suzette cooked the onion, mincemeat and peaches into a sweet sauce and then roasted the pre-cooked duck half in the oven to heat it and steamed several broccoli flowerets and heated the noodles.

It was a perfect dinner. I sliced the leg, thigh, and breast and divided them equally between us and Suzette added broccoli, sauce, and noodles.

I opened and poured glasses of the bottle of Roederer champagne Cyndy and Dan gave Suzette for her 65th birthday.

The champagne was fabulous ans the star of the meal, which was also great.

We watched midnight fireworks during the day starting with Indonesia.

After Canada at 9:00 Suzette went to sleep.  I stayed up until after NYC at 10:00 and then went to sleep.

A good meal and a good night’s sleep is a great way to celebrate New Year’s Eve for us.

Bon Appetit

December 30, 2023 Lunch - La Boca. Dinner - Fabada and Meatballs with Romesco Sauce and apples sweetened with wine syrup and ice cream

December 30, 2023 Lunch - La Boca. Dinner - Fabada and Meatballs with Romesco Sauce and apples sweetened with wine syrup and ice cream

I got up at 5:30 to watch Luton lose to Chelsea and then the Wolves beat Everton.

Then we packed and ate a bowl of granola with tropical fruit salad.

We left a bit after 11:00 and drove to Santa Fe.

We first went to Trader Joe’s where Suzette bought a container of whipped cream cheese.

We then drove to Stephen’s Consignment where I again rested in the  Highlander while Suzette looked at the offerings.

We then went to Owings Gallery and inspected my Juanne Quick to See pastel in its new hand carved golden leaf frame and were amazed that the asking price was $125,000.00. I had guessed it would be offered for 1/2 of that.  I now want to sell other pieces if they are that desirable.

.

After that heart stopping experience, we walked the two blocks to La Boca

For a tapa and a drink.  We ordered a crabmeat canolone to share. Suzette ordered a glass of beer and I ordered a glass of cider but we did not finish them because soon we after we began asking for Guerra vermouth, E-mail, chef owner James Campbell Caruso’s daughter, came to our table and we began in intense discussion of Spanish        vermouths and a free sample her favorite white and red on the menu of about 12 vermouths?

We then drove to Peyton Wright to say hello to John Wright. There were a few interesting pieces but mainly it was a photography show of petroglyphs, mainly located in Arizona.

We then drove to Museum Hill to see the Parka exhibition. It was fascinating with parkas made with many different materials, including light weight summer parkas made from seal gut and salmon skin.

By the time we finished it was 4:45 so we then drove to Linda and T.R.’s house on Pecos Trail, where we had accepted an invitation for dinner and an over night stay.

We really like them and we are very simpatico about just about everything.

We brought a Spanish dinner of Fabada and meatballs with Romesco sauce plus lax and bagels and cream cheese for breakfast.

We were welcomed by a table filled with Spanish tapas, including beer nuts and toasted garbanzo beans, an olive medley, cheese, cubes, little bread strips, Seasoned mini bread sticks, and fresh and sautéed slices of chorizo.

Linda had also bought three bottles of Spanish wine. She opened a bottle and poured us glasses.  Later Suzette poured glasses of Lustau red vermouth for her and Linda.

Soon T.R. came in from soaking in their hot tub.  I was recalling the Presidential election of 1912 in response to Linda’s question about the possibility of a presidential run by a third party candidate.

Soon TR reminded us that the Cowboys were playing football against the Detroit Lions, so we turned it on.

Suzette and Linda prepared dinner by heating the Fabada and meatballs with Romesco sauce and sauteeing pieces of previously baked  pork belly and slices of chorizo to add to the Fabada.

The only thing not already cooked were the roasted potatoes. I cut three russet potatoes into six full length wedges each and Linda coated them with olive oil and salt and roasted them in the oven at 350 for 45 minutes.

Then at halftime we ate dinner in the formal dining room.

First a small bowl of Fabada with the heated chunks of Pork Belly and chorizo slices were served. It was just like in Spain and TR, who is a soup person, liked it a lot.

Linda, Suzette, and I drank red wine and T.R. drank one of the Carlsberg Elephants we brought for him.  After a second Elephant TR seemed to get a little tipsy, which is natural because they contain 7.2% alcohol by volume  and double the alcohol typically found in normal beer.

The entree course of Albondigas (meatballs) with Romesco sauce and the roasted potato wedges was served next.  I gagged on the black pepper in them once or twice, but was able to eat my two if I covered  bite of meatball with Romesco sauce. I took pieces of potato wedge, dipped it in Romesco sauce, and speared a small piece of meatball to make a lovely bite of food.

After dinner we returned to the kitchen table where the TV was located and watched the last of the game, which ended in a controversial decision that caused Detroit to lose the game.  A Detroit lineman apparently did not report himself eligible to catch a pass was thrown a pass that scored a two point conversion. Instead of wining 21 to 20 Detroit was penalized 5 yards for an illegal touch and missed its second attempt to complete its 2 point conversion and the Cowboys won 20 to 19.

Suzette and Linda then served us dessert of the apple balls Suzette and I had made cooked in a red wine syrup over scoops of vanilla ice cream.

At 9:30 we all went to bed. Suzette and I slept in the guest bedroom connected to the kitchen and TR and Linda at the other end of the house in their bedroom.

We prepared a perfect dinner, because we all loved the Fabada (bean stew) made with the huge Asturian white beans and the Romesco sauce made with pimiento, crushed almonds and Spanish paprika and saffron that was served with the meatballs and roasted potato wedges.

Bon Appetit