December 22, 2022 Breakfast - Granola, milk, and yogurt and Tropical Fruit Salad. Lunch - Salami Salad with green cracked olives, tomato, green onions, radishes and cucumbers. Dinner - a cured ham and Jarlsberg cheese on seedsation bread

December 22, 2022 Breakfast - Granola, milk, and yogurt and Tropical Fruit Salad. Lunch - Salami Salad with green cracked olives, tomato, green onions, radishes and cucumbers. Dinner - a cured ham and Jarlsberg cheese on seedsation bread 

A wonderful day of work and food.  I filled a bowl with Granola, milk, yogurt and Tropical Fruit Salad at 10:00.  

My client arrived a bit after 10:00 with a box of homemade cookies and a bottle of Suazo tequila for me for Christmas and we started to work on a pleading until after 3:00 in the afternoon.

I then made a salami salad with the fresh produce I bought at El Super on Monday, including green cracked olives, a diced tomato, sliced green onions, diced radishes and sliced cucumber wedges.

I toasted and buttered two slices of baguette and spread them with thick slices of the fresh brie we opened on Tuesday that is perfectly ripe. The warm softly toasted bread with the soft creamy Brie was heavenly. Viola!

I finished composing the salad by 4:00 in time to watch Ari Melber on The Beat on MSNBC. I like his news show because Ari is a lawyer who has knowledgeable lawyers on his show who analyze current events from a knowledgeable legal perspective. 

I also like Lawrence O’Donnell’s Last Word, for the same reason. He often has Laurence Tribe.

After I finished the salad I started eating the delicious cookies and ate 7 or 8 by the time Suzette arrived at 4:30.

Today was another disaster in the market with the Dow down over 500 points, so I did not even look.  The volatility in the market is increasing as the market moves downward in response to a potential recession.

 Suzette had eaten a large lunch, so I lay down until she came to get me to watch a movie at 7:30.

We watched the news until 8:30 when Suzette switched to Netflix and discovered that the third season of Emily in Paris was available, so we watched the first two episodes. I made an open faced sandwich of cured ham and Jarlsberg cheese on a slice of toasted and buttered seedsation bread melted in the microwave for 30 seconds and we both drank glasses Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon from a 1.5 liter magnum bottle.

We went to bed at 10:00 after a full day of work and food.

In bed we discussed making duck Posole starting tomorrow, so I am looking forward to that.

Bon Appetit

 

December 21, 2022 Breakfast - Oatmeal Lunch - Beef Enchiladas with beans. Dinner Wild Game Dinner with the Chews and Blaugrunds

December 21, 2022 Breakfast - Oatmeal Lunch - Beef Enchiladas with beans. Dinner Wild Game Dinner with the Chews and Blaugrunds

I woke up again after 8:00 and got dressed and went to the kitchen and found that Luke had made me a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and slices of apples.  Suzette poured some milk on the oatmeal and I warmed it in the microwave. It was delicious.

I then worked at my desk until noon when I heated the 1/2 of the beef enchiladas and beans that Suzette did not eat with a dab of sour cream and 1/2 of a Negra Modelo.

I watched the President and Zelensky news conference and then started helping Suzette cook the Wild game dinner.

I diced the rutabaga, turnip, 2 parsnips, 2 sweet potatoes, and three carrots for the roasted root vegetables.

Then I minced two shallots for the Cumberland Sauce for the venison meatballs that Suzette made with the deer sausage.  I fetched sage for the marinade of the wild pig and scored the pig while Suzette made the sage, thyme, parsley, and olive oil marinade. 

Suzette made a Cumberland Sauce with lingonberry jam and tawny port.

And I butchered two whole duck breasts into four pieces.  

She then cooked the venison meatballs and the root vegetables.

She then cooked the wild pig in the Greek style slowly at 200 degrees, garnished with potatoes, onions, and tomatoes.

Nancy and Cliff arrived at 6:30 with a loaf of seedsation bread from Whole food.  Suzette mixed Cliff and Nancy an Old Fashion with the rum/rye whiskey and vermouth.

Soon Wayne and Elaine arrived with avocados and romaine lettuce, grated Parmesan cheese and a lemon and olive oil dressing, plus a baked dish that was a throw back to the 50’s, a cherry on top of a peach half, on top of a pineapple ring. The avocados in the salad were almost as creamy as the fabulous ones we ate in Uruapan last Easter.

Suzette returned to the stove and sautéed the four duck breasts in the maraschino liquid and then added several maraschino cherries. And put them on a serving plate.  She then pulled the venison meatballs, baked root vegetables and roasted wild pig marinated in sage and parsley and olive oil with tomatoes, onions, and potato wedges.  

After he made and tossed the salad and Suzette put out the food we had cooked on the cutting board. Wayne stepped in to carve the pig and duck breasts for me and Cliff and I chose and opened and poured the 2013 Calstar Sangiacomo Pinot Noir.

Soon we all assembled at the dining room table and ate the lovely salad.

Then we served ourselves some of each of the items and assembled at the dining room table.

Every one seemed to think we were amazing cooks.  I thought the food was excellent except for the pig that had very little meat and was mostly fat, although the sage marinaded flavor was fabulous.

The Lingonberry and tawny port Cumberland Sauce was wonderful on the venison meatballs and a loved the Marischino cherry sauce on the duck.

I sliced and Nancy toasted them.  The seeded dark bread was a revelation and complemented the meats and sauces.

We ate and sipped and talked as we lingered over the varied dishes.  

Then Suzette sliced slices of the Italian Cloud cake and placed them on a puddle of pouring creme anglais and creme anglais over each slice. Everyone liked the airy light meringue and custard and we conversed until 10:00, when everyone left full and happy.

Bon Appetit

December 20, 2022 Lunch - beef sausage, asparagus, couscous, onion, mushroom and brie omelet. Dinner - cheese, Charcuterie, and olives, with wine

December 20, 2022 Lunch - beef sausage, asparagus, couscous, onion, mushroom and brie omelet. Dinner - cheese, Charcuterie, and olives, with wine

I did not eat until lunch today.  I was a little shaky but managed to make a beef sausage, asparagus, couscous, onion, mushroom and brie

I drank a cup of sweetened Earl Grey tea with lunch.

Suzette picked up Luke at the airport and drove to Total Wine where she bought a wonderful bottle of Italian Vermouth for the Manhattans we planned to serve in the evening and a bottle of grain alcohol.

When they arrived Suzette poured the grain alcohol into the large bottle full of the lemon peel left from the last batch of limoncello

Dinner - we invited Doug and Crystal over for a glass wine and cheese and charcuterie.

I put a Herman Wiemer Reserve Dry Riesling in the fridge to chill that blended grapes selected from three vineyards and contained .8% residual sugar in a wine that was 12.7% alcohol by volume; a very dry yet fruity wine

Crystal brought a lovely goat cheese and bacon cheese ball covered with almonds.  We filled a cheese board with slices of Jarlsberg and Gouda and wedges of goat cheese and Stilton and a container of Boursin. On another platter we laid out the contents of a package of Becceta Cured salami, ham, and prosciutto. Suzette also put out four types of olives, two black, a dried black and a green cracked olive.

 Suzette also toasted round slices of French baguette.

Luke arrived with Suzette at 3:30. Luke heated and ate the PPI pork stroganoff while I made a double recipe of pouring custard with 15 egg yolks and 1 cup of sugar until smooth and then combined and heated  with 4 cups of milk and 1 cup of heavy cream scalded. Then Luke added 2 tsps. of vanilla and I stirred the combined liquid with a whisk until it started to thicken, which took joy about 15 to 20 minutes because of the extra egg yolks. I ate a few T.’s of custard to check its consistency and it was delicious.

Suzette poured the pouring custard into a pitcher and put it in the garage fridge and she and Luke brought in the cheeses.

At 5:00 we made a cheese board with slices of Jarlsberg and Gouda and wedges of Stilton, brie and goat cheese and a Boursin round.

On the metal pallet that Jeff and Kathy gave us for Christmas one year I laid out the contents of a package of cured salami, ham and prosciutto.

Suzette filled one ramekin with German deli mustard and the other with homemade basil mayonnaise.

Suzette also sliced thin rounds of baguette and toasted them in the oven.

Suzette also rinsed and dried six red wine Baccarat flutes and four Baccarat white wine flutes and four large martini glasses

Doug and Crystal arrived a bit after 6:00 with the aforesaid cheese ball coated with almonds and Rosemary sprigs stuck in one end that made it look like a pineapple on a 8 pointed gold colored platter surrounded by multi-grain crackers.

We started by making Old Fashions with 2 oz. of Barrett Rum/Rye whiskey, 1 oz. of vermouth and a dash of Angostura bitters in a shaker filled with ice.

I uncorked the bottle of 2019 Baldwin Family Reserve Pinot Noir to let it open up.

We sat in the living room and Willy arrived and after a few minutes of greetings, he and Luke went to dinner together.

We talked about their impending trip to La Paz Bolivia to spend Christmas with their son-in-law’s family and a proposed trip into the Amazon floodplain in Bolivia.

Everyone enjoyed the Old Fashion with the smooth rum/rye and Suzette’s wonderful maraschino cherries.

When we finished our drinks we moved to the dining room and Suzette lay out the trays of cheese and charcuterie and Crystal’s cheese board and I poured the flutes with 2019 Baldwin Family Reserve Pinot Noir.  The wine was powerful with a dried cherries after taste that mellowed into fruitiness after the bottle was open for a while. You could tell that the wine was still young.  The current release by DePonte of this wine is their 2017.

Everyone enjoyed drinking from the Baccarat crystal flutes.

Doug and Crystal enjoy good wine and it was a pleasure to share this wine with them.

After we had had several pours of the red I asked them if they would like try a Riesling and they agreed and I opened the Wiemer Reserve Dry Riesling, which has less that 1% residual sugar.  I was blown away by this wine it was a lot like Gruet’s Rose Savage made from Pinot noir that is equally dry. Both wines express the characteristic of the grape in a profound manner, perhaps because they have been fully fermented, any extra organic elements in the sugar have been converted to alcohol.

I enjoyed the Riesling more than the Pinot.  Doug made an interesting comment.  He said he was surprised how well the Riesling paired with the creamy Jarlsberg cheese.  I responded, “Perhaps that is due to the mInerality /acidity in the wine complementing the creamy butter fat of the cheese.”

The boys returned with enchiladas that we put in the fridge for breakfast with an egg and they joined us and poured flutes of Pinot and liked it.

We all talked and sipped and nibbled until 9:30 when Willy left and Suzette gave the rest of the bottle of maraschino cherries to Crystal and they gave us the rest of the pineapple shaped goat cheese and almond cheese ball.

I loved the evening of conversation and gracious living with a good drink and two bottles of good wine.

Bon Appetit

December 19, 2022 Lunch - Prosciutto and cheese sandwich Dinner - PPI Lamb chop, steamed asparagus, Sautéed Delicata Squash, and Tzatziki

December 19, 2022 Lunch - Prosciutto and cheese sandwich Dinner - PPI Lamb chop, steamed asparagus, Sautéed Delicata Squash, and Tzatziki

Today was a light food day.

I started by eating a bowl of Tropical fruit salad, granola, milk, and yogurt.

For lunch I had a small open faced sandwich with basil Mayo, a slice of prosciutto and slices of the American Morbier style Carr cheese.

I then drove to the bank and then El Super to stock up on produce.  I bought Brussels Sprouts, Romaine lettuce, radishes, cilantro, avocados, lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, red onions, cucumbers, yogurt, green onions, and tomatoes.

When I returned home at 5:30 Suzette helped unload the car thankfully.

We had a snack of crackers with Boursin and rested for a while.

I then made Tzatziki with 1/2 of a cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced and salted, 1 T. of olive oil, two cloves of garlic pressed, and a T. of dried mint  crushed and chopped, while Suzette made dinner.  

She steamed about 20 stalks of asparagus and baked the Delicata squash in the oven for about 45 minutes and then removed the skin, de-seeded the squash, cut it into 2 1/2 inch strips and sautéed the strips in the good olive oil we bought in California in May.

The result was fantastic, clearly the best way I have ever eaten Delicata squash.  The strips resembled French fries and were the edges were crisp and the sautéing released the delicata’s slight natural sweetness.  This the highlight of the meal and the day.

I opened a bottle of Perrin Famille Cotes Du Rhone, which one of my favorites with lamb.

This was the simplest, most elegant meal we have had in a long time.

The Shipment of Apple brandy and Maison Surrene cognac arrived today so I opened a bottle of French Maison Surrene cognac and we tasted it. Suzette ate vanilla ice cream and I ate Ghirardelli chocolate wafers.

There is a long story about the cognac, Robin Germain sold its entire inventory of cognac, along with its Alembic distilling machinery, name and cognac maker to Gallo five years ago with a non-compete.  The five year non-compete has now passed and Caddell and Williams re-acquired the unsold cognac inventory p, including the aged Maison Surrene cognac that they have bottled and sold.  It was elegant and smooth, so a very good cognac. My even buy more.

We watched the Antiques Roadshow and some news about the referrals of Trump to the DOJ for criminal prosecution by the Jan. 6 Committee and went to bed around 9:00.

Bon Appetit

December 16, 2022 Lunch - PPI Seafood stew. Dinner - Neighborhood Christmas Party

 December 16, 2022 Lunch - PPI Seafood stew. Dinner - Neighborhood Christmas Party 

  I slept until 8:00. I worked and then showered.  It was another down day in the market, so I worked on Johal”s issues.

At 9:45 I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and then garnished them with thin slices of onion, slices of Gravad Lax, and capers.  I drank a cup of chai.

My computer was hacked later and it took hours to get it cleared by Chuck by 5:00.

At 2:30 I showered and dressed for the Neighborhood Christmas Party.

At 3:30 I ate a container of fish soup and made a peanut butter and honey sandwich.  I ate the soup and a couple of bites of the sandwich and then watched Chuck clean my computer.

Suzette came home around 5:00 and ate the rest of the peanut butter and honey sandwich.

I lay down for a nap from 5:15 until 6:30 when Suzette awakened me.

We took a bottle of Chardonnay and a box of Belgium chocolates to the party at 7:00.

We walked the 1 1/2 blocks so we could get some exercise.  Many neighbor friends were at the party and there was lots of good food include  cream of chicken soup, Posole, taquitos and guacamole, smoked salmon canapés, melted Brie en croute, and lots of wine.

The most creative dish as a sweet potato crisp with a crunchy crisp topping of grains.

We talked with several persons and made a date with Crystal and Doug for Tuesday to drink wine and Susan and her partner to go bird watching on Christmas Day before we drive to Santa Fe for Amy’s open house.

We returned home at 9:45 and went to bed except I stayed up to watch some news and blog this blog.

I apologize for its disjointed nature but I am lying bed and watching the news while blogging.

Bon Appetit

  

December 17, 2022 Brunch - Mushroom, Spinach, onion, and goat cheese Omelet. Snack -Costco hot dog. Dinner - Cheese Sandwich and pickled herring sandwich

December 17, 2022 Brunch - Mushroom, Spinach, onion, and goat cheese Omelet. Snack - Costco hot dog. Dinner - Cheese Sandwiches and pickled herring sandwich

This was a light food day.  We watched the Third place game of the World Cup between Croatia and Morocco, which Croatia won.

Then Suzette made a lovely omelet of Mushroom, Spinach, onion, and goat cheese that we ate with a glass of Clamato juice with lime juice.

We dressed and then drove to the Tram at the top of Tramway where Suzette bought tickets for staff Christmas gifts. We then drove to Arizona Tile to pick a pattern for our front bathroom, but it was closed.

We then drove to Vara where we purchased a bottle of their excellent Rum and Rye whiskey blend for a Chanukah gift for Billy.

Then we drove to Costco and shopped for staples, including toilet paper, eggs, asparagus, spinach, tamales, charcuterie, baguettes, two bottles of Kirkland Bordeaux Superior, two bottles of Italian fruili wine, two 1 1/2 liter bottles of red wine to make mulled wine, two bottles of Kirkland Gigondas, 1.75 Liter bottles of gin and bourbon, Tylenol, and collagen.

We ate a hot dog and a cup of pink lemonade after we shopped and then loaded the items into the Highlander and drove home.

We arrive at home a bit past 4:00.

We were not hungry until around 8:00, so we snacked again.  Suzette ate two cheese sandwiches and a hard boiled egg.  I ate one cheese sandwich, a hard boiled egg, and a pickled herring sandwich.

We put on our pajamas and watched Death in Paradise in bed.

Suzette went to bed at 10:15 and I stayed up to blog and read the Book club selection for December, The Last Invention.

Bon Appetit

December 15, 2022 Lunch - Duck Leg Soup at 2000 Vietnam. Dinner - PPI lemon Chicken over Couscous covered with mashed Roasted Vegetables in Brown Gravy

December 15, 2022 Lunch - Duck Leg Soup at 2000 Vietnam. Dinner - PPI lemon Chicken over Couscous covered with mashed Roasted Vegetables in Brown Gravy

This was a big food day and a great day for my future health. I slept until after 8:00 and awakened as Suzette was leaving for work.

I checked the market and saw it was in a major meltdown.  Perhaps the Fed raising interest rates another 1/2% was not welcome news for investors, although until inflation drops a lot from its current level of over 6%, the Fed will keep the economic pressure on.  Later in the day the ECB  raised its rate for bank borrowing by 1/2%, so Europe is in lock step with the Fed.

The Dow dropped 750 points in response.

I spent the morning moving money.  This year I gave each of Luke and Willy $7,000 and will do the same for Suzette with the hope they will put some or all of it into a Roth IRA.

I also spoke for a long while with Dave, who was an old friend of Jill Pollack.  I had to tell him the sad news that she had died a year ago.  They had been friends and dated in the late 60’s growing up In Minneapolis.

He did not know how she became the owner of the Christo.

Today I did not do a lot of work, which was a relief after my busy last week.

I ate granola with milk and blueberries and yogurt for breakfast at 9:45.

I went to lunch at 3:00 to 2000 Vietnam.  There seems to be new faces there and I suspect the owners sold, but the new owners kept the same cooks. 

A funny thing happened.  I ordered duck leg soup with egg vermicelli and it was delicious, but I wondered what the restaurant did with the breasts.  At 4:15 as I was leaving the chefs brought out roasted duck breasts and rice to eat for their lunch.  I almost asked them if I could sit and eat roasted duck with them, it looked so good with its shiny glazed skin.

I went home and arrived as Suzette arrived at 4:30.

I went to the bedroom to rest until 7:00 when Suzette started cooking.

When I arrived at bit after 7:00 Suzette had poured glasses of French Rose’ and was sautéing the last of the PPI mashed roasted Vegetables with brown gravy in a skillet on the stove.

She also heated two PPI Roasted Lemon chicken thighs with the remaining couscous and plated bowls filled with couscous, then a chicken thigh, topped with the roasted root vegetables in brown gravy.

This was the second best use of leftovers this week and it was really comforting food.

But the winner of best leftover conversion was the use of the leftover fish baked in foil and rice earlier this week that Suzette combined with shrimp and herbs de Provence to make French style seafood stew.

I stuffed myself at dinner and then took the hip pills, collagen, turmeric, and Tylenol. 

I was not hungry for dessert but instead made a chai and went to bed and rested again.

I woke up at 10:00 when Suzette took off my socks and rubbed body lotion on my feet and hands.

Suzette went to sleep but I watched the news until 12:00 midnight.

There was much more news about Ukraine this evening except for Donald Trump’s big announcement that he is issuing NFT’s with images of him as a super hero and the announcement that Monday the House Jan. 6th Committee will have a final broadcast to issue its report and possibly refer recommendations for prosecution of some of those involved in the Jan. 6 Insurrection.

Bon Appetit