October 16, 2020 Lunch – Duck Noodle Soup. Dinner Baked Penne with fresh bitter greens.

 October 16, 2020  Lunch – Duck Noodle Soup. Dinner Baked Penne with fresh bitter greens.

I have not been hungry for breakfast during the last few days.  Perhaps my body is starting to go into hibernation in the winter.

At 10:00 I used the PPI duck stock from yesterday’s dinner to make a noodle soup with three types of noodles, rice sheets, bean thread, and a bundle of wheat noodles. I added old vegetables and fresh spinach plus tofu and a bit of red onion.  

 

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As it turned out the soup did not agree with me. Perhaps the use of old vegetables.

Suzette came home around 4:30 and we decided to plant lettuce and radishes in one of the raised beds and cover it with plastic.  

  After we finished that I suggested making Baked Penne for dinner.  Suzette said she would help.

I started a pot of water heating to boil pasta.  We went to the garden and picked two eggplants and a basket full of greens, mostly Chard, kale and arugula.  As I de-stemmed the greens, Suzette composed the dish in 

a 9 x 13 Pyrex baking pan.  

Suzette sliced and sautéed about 1/3 lb. of white mushrooms and sliced and grilled the two eggplants.  

Then she assembled the dish with layers of eggplant, requeson cheese, sautéed mushrooms, boiled pasta, and grated Pecorino-Romano and Parmesan cheeses.       Then she baked the dish in the oven for thirty 

minutes to melt everything together.

The result was fabulous.  Suzette lay a layer of the de-stemmed fresh greens in the bottom of pasta bowls and lay large squares of baked pasta on them.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

I opened a new bottle of 2015 Flor a Vino Reserva Chianti Classico I bought at Trader Joe’s a few days ago for $6.99.  We liked it.it was a lot lighter and smoother than the Aquino Chianti Reserva that Trader Joe’s sells for $5.99.  It looks like time to move up to a better Chianti.

 

 

 

After dinner we made bananas Foster with butter, light brown sugar, a tsp. of fresh lavender, two bananas sliced and sautéed in the butter and sugar sauce and then some rum added and flambeed.  Suzette dipped large scoops of vanilla ice cream and she poured the bananas and sauce over the ice cream for a delicious dessert.

We agreed that we did a really good job making dinner tonight.  Later we watched Pete Souza’s film about his years as Reagan and Obama’s WH photographer,  How I see it.  It was moving and made one feel what it was like to have a truly empathetic President in Obama.    

I can’t wait until Biden becomes President, because he is a genuinely empathetic person.

Bon Appetit

October 14, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – New Recipe, Creamed Pumpkin Ancho Soup

 October 14, 2020 Lunch – 2000 Vietnam No. 21. Dinner – New Recipe, Creamed Pumpkin Ancho Soup 

I was awaken by the garbage truck passing the house at 7:30.

I worked until 10:00, showered and grabbed a cookie on my way out the door to my podiatry appointment at 11:00.

After the appointment I drove to Trader Joe’s and waited in line to get in. I bought a 1 lb. bar of Belgium milk chocolate with almonds, six wheat bagels, and 12 bottles of wine.  I then drove to Total Wine and bought six more bottles of Famille Bougrier Vouvray and two bottles of Cotes Du Rhone (a 2019 Saint Cosme and a 2016 Coudoulet de Beaucastel).   

I guess shopping- for wine and food is my way of dealing with depression 

 Here are some of the wines I bought.

 

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    While I was talking on the phone Suzette found a new recipe for pumpkin soup and then modified to the following recipe:

 Creamed Pumpkin Ancho Soup 

 3 dried ancho (Padilla) chilies soaked in hot water to rehydrate

1 T. of Knorr Tomato chicken powdered stock dissolved in 1 cup of hot water.

2 T. of butter plus 2 T. of flour to create a roux

Then add the bouillon and destemmed  and de-seeded rehydrated chilies and 2 tsp. of smoked paprika.

Purée sauce with blender or emulsion hand blender

Add 1 ½ cups of pumpkin purée plus 1 cup of half and half and 1 T. of Worcestershire sauce and heat for 45 minutes.

Garnish with diced avocado and Powdered pipian.   

  We ate the soup with toasted buttered flour tortillas.

Suzette made it clear that she adapted the recipe to the available ingredients.  For example, the recipe she chose called for chipotle chili’s, which are dried jalapeño chilies but what she Tuesday’s were ancho chilies, which are the milder more flavorful dried Padilla chili.

We now have a contest to see who can create the best dish.  Suzette has started with a super creative effort that used the PPI puréed pumpkin.

My effort will be to create a dish with the 2 PPI Duck Breasts. I am thinking of combining them into a stew with winter vegetables.

We drank a very interesting wine, with dinner; a 2006 GV Cellars Estate Merlot Blanc from Solano County Green Valley.  We visited this winery many years ago when we would visit the land I had an interest in in Green Valley which in the next valley to the west from Napa near Fairfield, CA.  In fact it is right across the road from our land, so we could see it from our land.

 

It is rather sweet so was perfect with the slightly spicy nutty flavor of the soup.  An amazingly perfect pairing.

After dinner we watched Rachel Maddie’s interview with Kampala Harris, drank a cup of chai and a chocolate chip cookie, and then lay down.  I read until 9:00 and then watched Trevor Noah with Suzettec  cc ccc cc cc cc cc cc and went to bed.

The market faded a bit today. My portfolio was down about .6%.  If the news st 11:00 p.m. is correct that the WH and Pelosi have failed to reach agreement on a stimulus package, then the market may fall far further than a slight fade in the next few days and weeks.

This reminds me of the final days of the Bush presidency in 2008 when the administration gave up dealing with the economy and the wheels went off the market.

Bon Appetit

 October 13, 2020 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup Dinner – Salmon Fish Tacos with Cole Slaw and Refried Black beans

I could not sleep well last night.  Perhaps because the market rose dramatically yesterday and for a while it looked like Apple might soar again today but that was not to be.  Apple actually fell today and my portfolio dropped about .3% today.  So it still was at its all time high.  I promised myself I would take some out of the market to reduce my indebtedness and that is what I did today.  I took out the amount of yesterday’s gain and reduced my indebtedness by almost ½.

I spent a casual day today, mostly working on family business and went to the library, the bank, and Lowe’s Market

I had one client call me with a new case in the evening as I returned from a 1/3 mile walk with Suzette.

I heated PPI Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup for lunch but it later did not agree with me, so at 5:30 I ate a snack of hummus in toasted pita bread and a herring in wine sauce open faced sandwich.

Then Willy called and we invited him to join us for dinner.  We had decided to make fish tacos with the ¾ lb. salmon filet I had bought at Smith’s for $4.97/lb. last week.

I diced the salmon and Suzette fried the diced chunks in about 1/3 inch of canola oil until almost crisp. 

I also chopped about ten leaves of Savoy cabbage and added ½ cup of prepared mayo and 1/3 cup of Pickle relish and a T. of olive oil.

 Suzette sliced ½ avocado to garnish the tacos and steamed 6 corn tortillas.  Suzette also heated the last ½ can of Refried Black Beans in a skillet with chopped cilantro leaves and green onion.

Willy and I took several tortillas and lay coleslaw on them, then pieces of fried salmon and garnished them with avocado slices and chunks of fresh radish. 

We carried our plates out to the garden table.

We ate and chatted for an hour. When Willy left we cleaned the kitchen and went to bed.

Bon Appetit

October 12, 2020 Lunch – Shrimp Salad Dinner –Sautéed Duck Breast with Pear Sauce and Brussel Sprouts.Pumpkin, onion, and Pinon casserole

 October 12, 2020 Lunch – Shrimp Salad Dinner –Sautéed Duck Breast with Pear Sauce and Brussel Sprouts.Pumpkin, onion, and Pinon casserole 

This. Was an amazing day in the Market and a wonderful food day, including three of my favorite meals.

Fo pr breakfast I ate granola, milk, blueberries, bananas, and yogurt.

At noon I cooked 10 shrimp and made a shrimp salad with Romaine lettuce , perfect vine ripened tomato 

, ½ cucumber, a hard boiled egg, two green onions while Suzette made an avocado, cream, sour cream, and olive oil dressing.

Suzette opened a merlot rose and I drank the last glass of Italian Pinot Grigio white wine.

 

We took our glasses and salads to the garden and ate outdoors in the warm sunlight at 1:00.Then suzette drove to Home Depot and I watched the last 15 minutes of trading in the market.  The big Apple release day has arrived tomorrow and it was bid up $7.50 per share today.  I had the best day in a while with a 2.33% increase of my portfolio.

I worked until 5:00 while the plumbers hopefully fixed my boiler and turned on the heat.

Suzette started on dinner by chopping pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, red onion slices, and piñon nuts that she lay in a Pyrex baking dish, covered with aluminum , and baked at 350 degrees.

Then I made a pear sauce by dicing slices of poached pear and heated them in a small sauce pan with some of the maraschino sauce, some Marsala, about 1 T. of sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice.

We cooked the sauce until the sugar thickened the sauce.

Suzette cooked four duck breasts in the Bobby Flay manner weighted down with a smaller skillet filled with water, which made the skin crisp.

I went to the basement and fetched A bottle of 2014 Chateauneuf du Pape I bought at Trader Joe’s for $17.99. 

See above

This was a simple but elegant dinner.

  

We finished the wine by eating chocolate chip cookies and sips of cognac.

Then later I ate the last of the javachocolate chip ice cream.

I can not resist a full meal when we have have a great meal and wine.

The wine was smooth from first sip to last sip. I recommend it. 

We watched Antique Roadshow until 8:00 and then watched a James Corden interview.

Bon Appetit

October 11, 2020 Brunch – Vietnamese Chicken Omelet. Dinner – Poached Salmon with garlic cream sauce and Broccoli and Cauliflower Couscous

 October 11, 2020 Brunch – Vietnamese Chicken Omelet. Dinner – Poached Salmon with garlic cream sauce and Broccoli and Cauliflower Couscous

I slept until 8:30.  Then watched the news while Suzette worked until noon when we made brunch.  I went to the garden and picked kale, arugula and Chard, chives, and basil

I de-stemmed and chopped the greens with four green onions and a PPICooked Bobby Flay Chicken thigh.

I then sautéed the chopped ingredients and after they seemed somewhat cooked added a handful of mung bean sprouts and after those softened I added three beaten eggs with the last tsp. of the Vietnamese fish sauce. After about ten minutes the egg began to congeal and I lay some chopped cilantro and parsley leaves on one side of the omelet and flipped one side onto the other and after a minute more I cut the omelet in half and served it.

We drank glasses of cold sake outside in the garden as we ate our omelet.

After lunch I shelled cloves garlic from their heads and watched football and the finish of the Paris to Tours bike race and then read and napped until 4:30.  I then helped Suzette plant the garlic cloves and then watched the Cowboys win against against the Giants.

It was 5:45 and after the news we watched 60 Minutes until 7:00 and then the Fareed Zacharia’s special on the Diminishment of America’s stature in the world.

While I watched I peeled and sliced 6 Bosc pears I had bought for $.99 at Smith’s.  I then went to the garage and fetched bottles of the sauce Suzette made for maraschino cherries and covered the pears with it

 and simmered the pear slices until they were cooked and absorbed the liquid.

At 7:30 Suzette began cooking.  She Poached a ¾ lb. salmon filet in wine, garlic, water, shallot, chicken stock and butter.  After the salmon was Poached, Suzette added broth to flour to made a paste and then added the paste to the skillet holding the poaching medium and made a cream sauce.

I removed about 1 ½ cup of cauliflower and broccoli from their heads and then Suzette processed them in the Cuisinart into small chunks resembling Couscous   She then sautéed the Couscous in a skillet with butter and olive oil until the vegetables were cooked.lli poured glasses of Pinot Grigio while Suzette served the salmon drizzled with cream sauce on a bed of Broccoli and Cauliflower Couscous.

It was a simple and delicious dinner that I loved.

I did not need dessert, but Suzette ate a small bowl of ice cream with some of the poached pears. I tasted the pears before going to bed and they were delicious.    

We watched the two newPBS Masterpiece thrillers (Flesh and Blood and Cobra) and then went to bed at 10:00.

Bon Appetit

 

October 10, 2020 Lunch – Huevos Rancheros. Tea at Los Poblanos Dinner – Beef Pho

October 10, 2020 Lunch – Huevos Rancheros. Tea at Los Poblanos Dinner – Beef Pho 

This was a unusual day of food.

It started with helping Suzette assemble our newly arrived Scott’s electric roto-tiller. I then toasted two slices of French baguette and smeared them with goat cheese and lay thin slices of onion and Gravad Lax on them and ate them with a cup of green tea.

 While I was eating Suzette found the 100 foot extension cord and I  then helped her till one of the raised beds.  The electric tiller worked beautifully. While I tilled the first raised bed she added grub poison and two bags of compost.  

Then she found the shorter 25 foot extension cable and after we connected the two, we tilled the second raised bed.

We finished by 10:30 and Suzette was hungry, so she made Huevos Rancheros, essentially fried eggs laid on a mixture of Refried Black Beans and Sausage laid on toasted corn tortillas.

We then showered and dressed and I watched some of the Texas V. Oklahoma 116th Red River Shoot Out, football match up, we left for the Brown Estate in the ritzy area just north of Los Poblanos in the north 

valley. It was a large approximately 6000 square house filled with all kinds of stuff.  We bought an Indonesian ikat table cloth for $45.00, a Spanish hand painted Olive serving bowl, five tea towels 

stenciled with images such as the sun, a melon, or a pineapple for $3.00 each, and a small painted ceramic box for $10.00.  Suzette’s intention is to fill the small box with some of the holy dirt we gathered at the Chimayo Santuary and send it to Luke with three tea towels as a house warming gift for his new house.

After we put our purchases into the Highlander we drove the three blocks to Los Poblanos.  We had agreed to meet Nancy and Cliff at 3:00 for tea.  Penny said she would meet us for a few minutes.

We arrived thirty minutes early so we walked around the gardens and sat in the park behind the La Quinta complex until 3:00 when we went to the reception area in front and met Nancy and California.  We were seated at a round six top table among the tables seton the wide portal surrounding on three sides, the reflecting pool in the front.

Soon Penny and Armin joined us and we talked for a while.  They had gone to the Brown Estate sale at 

9:00 when it opened and bought lots of things like an espresso machine.  Penny is among the group of avid estate sale attendees like us because she is buying for Los Poblanos and their extensive collections, just as Suzette is always buying for the Center and we are buying for our collections and house.

After we were served drinks, Armin showed Cliff and me the large library that forms the northern wing of La Quinta.  It is huge and filled  with thousands of books and 200 kachinas andan equal number of santos and retablos collected by Penny and Armin, plus lots of other things like pictures of Penny’s family, a Picasso vase and a painting by Orozco.

We spent a long time talking before we returned to the table. After Penny and Armin left, each couple ordered tea and we talked until closing time at 5:00.

We walked back to the parking area and said goodbye and drove home.

  

Neither of us was hungry.  I wanted to make pumpkin cookies andi soon found a Martha Stewart recipe for Pumpkin Whoopi Pies filled with Chocolate butter icing.

Suzette soon joined me in the kitchen and directed me to stew the pieces of pumpkin in water to cook it to the point that it could be emulsified into a purée.

While we cooked the pumpkin I gathered the dry and wet ingredients in two large mixing bowls. We then made the chocolate filling using some of the finely powdered Mexican chocolate we bought in Merida and added a tsp. of almond flavoring and put it in the fridge to chill and stiffen.

Here is the recipe.

We then blended the ingredients for the cookies in the Kitchenaid

We then chilled with the cookie batter because it was warm from using the hot pumpkin purée.

After an hour we lay parchment paper on cookie sheets and Suzette spooned batter onto the paper and we baked about twenty cookies.

At 9:00 we decided to eat some dinner, if you can call picking through the PPIs in the fridge dinner.  Suzette heated a bowl of Chicken Curry and rice and then ate a piece of cold Bobby Flay Chicken with mayo.

I heated the Beef Pho soup and ate a bowl with mung bean sprouts, fresh basil and cilantro leaves and hoisin sauce.

We watched Death in Paradise and went to bed at 10:00.

I awakened at 2:30 to blog and Suzette awakened briefly to eat some yogurt to help digest her dinner.

Both my alma maters lost today, Texas in the fourth overtime to Oklahoma and TCU to Kansas State 21 to 14 in what must have been a defensive battle.

I am glad I was taking tea at lovely Los Poblanos instead of suffering in front of the TV.

We will finish our Whoopie Pies tomorrow morning before we leave for Santa Fe for another Estate sale.

Bon Appetit

October 9, 2020 Lunch – Greenhouse Bistro, Los Lunas. Dinner- PPI Chicken Curry

 October 9, 2020 Lunch – Greenhouse Bistro, Los Lunas. Dinner- PPI Chicken Curry

I am reading Educated by Tara Westover and the craziness of the members of her family is beginning to depress me.  

Today the food I ate although delicious did not seem very exciting.

I ate my usual granola! Yogurt, blueberries, sliced banana, and milk for breakfast.

After a difficult telephonic hearing during which Peter arrived at 10:30 we drove in Peter’s newly acquired 40th anniversary 2005 Mustang convertible, which is an incredibly sporty vehicle.  We drove down 2nd street to Rio Bravo and then on Broadway until it joined NM 47 just north of the Isleta Casino.

We saw Suzette when we arrived and she showed us the exhibit of 33 works by female New Mexico artists she has curated and hung in the spa on the campus.  After she left we viewed the exhibit further and then at 12:40 walked to the Bistro and mentioned we were ready to eat lunch. We then sat at a table under the tent in the park near the stage.

In a bit Suzette and the chef brought three plastic covered aluminum boxes.  Two contained Chicken salad salads garnished with sliced Armenian cucumbers and cherry tomatoes with fresh power greens with a large dollop of fresh chicken salad in the middle and small containers filled with raspberry dressing.  The third box contained focaccia bread sticks.  Suzette also brought a jar of her bread and butter pickles for Peter.

After we ate our salads Peter dipped the remaining three bread sticks into the bread and butter pickles and ate about ½ of the bottle of pickles.  It was a lovely lunch as we sat and enjoyed the calm quiet of the country and beautiful view of the garden next to the park.

We all then drove back to town around 1:45.

When we returned home I checked the Market and it was another up day of over 1% and a new all time high for my portfolio.

I rested after that until 5:30 and when Suzette arrived a few minutes later we then walked ½ mile.

We did not want to cook, but instead decided to eat the PPI Chicken Curry.  I made rice flavored with a stick of cinnamon and a few cloves.       

Willy came by around 7:00and joined us for dinner.   We heated the chicken curry and fetched the Major 

Grey’s Mango Chutney, the mixed pickle, the onion chutney, chopped peanuts and shredded coconut.

Willy fetched a ginger beer, a Bohemia, and a Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer from the garage.

Willy sat outside at the table on the patio about ten feet away from us as Suzette and I sat at the table in the TV room with the door open so we could see each other and carry on a conversation.

Willy left after Dinner and Suzette and I watched Washington Week on PBS and then the opening skit of last week’s Saturday Night Live about the Presidential debate and then went to bed.

Bon Appetit