December 24, 2033 Bagels with cream cheese/goat cheese, lax, red onion, and capers. Lunch - French Onion Soup. Dinner - Posole with a small scoop of sour cream over a freshly made beef tamale

December 24, 2033 Bagels with cream cheese/goat cheese, lax, red onion, and capers. Lunch - French Onion Soup.  Dinner - Posole with a  small scoop of sour cream over a freshly made beef tamale

Christmas Eve is always special and busy in our neighborhood because homes are busy putting out rows of luminarias and cooking in anticipation of Christmas Eve guests who walk the luminaria lit streets and visit friends.

We woke up and I sliced and toasted two of the fabulous Kaufman bagels into thirds and tasted them.  There was not enough cream cheese so I opened a fresh log of goat cheese to spread on the bagels and thinly sliced 1/3 red onion and a small pile of Gravad lax and Suzette fetched the capers and when Bill and Elaine joined us we ate bagels and lax for breakfast.

We then got dressed and drove to the Bosque and hiked to the two lakes.

There were lots of water fowl on the south lake and the paths were muddy from all the rain yesterday but it was sunny and not too windy, so pleasant.

When we returned at 11:00 Willy arrived and ate a bagel and then he and Billy and Elaine put out the 200 luminarias it takes to surround our property, while Suzette made beef broth with the leftover steak, mushrooms, and two t bones and then Julia Child’s French Onion Soup recipe and I made guacamole with the four small avocados I bought at El Supper , 1/4 onion, two cloves of garlic, juice of a lime, and several dashes of salt.

After the luminarias were set everyone snacked on the Murray’s cheese ball with water biscuits.

In the afternoon I ate two bowls of a French onion soup and then made the guacamole while watching the Cowboys play The Dolphins and Suzette and Elaine made brownies and put them in fancy metal boxes to take to neighbors as gifts in the evening.

Then at 5:00 Willy returned and everyone except me went out to light the 24 hour votive candles in each bag.

As the sun set we were welcomed to the view of thousands of luminaries illuminating the dozens of houses along Park and 15th Streets.

Around 6:00 Jody arrived with two trays filled with fresh tamales, one filled with roast beef and the other tray filled with sweet tamales stuffed with pineapple.

This seemed to be the signal for dinner. The pot of Posole had been cooking on the stove for several hours, so we each shucked and put one of the large beef tamales in a pasta bowl and covered it with posole and a dab of sour cream.  We again sat around the table for a family meal of posole, guacamole, corn chips, and Modelo beers.

Willy left to visit friends in town for the holidays and we got dressed and walked to the Palmer’s house, then the brazier in Tom and Janice’s driveway and finally the big party at Barry, and Kylene’s house on Los Alamos where we ate Mexican Christmas Cookies, and Suzette made a wonderful burrito by heating a flour tortilla and filling it with Carne Adovado and beans that Barry and Kylene had made.

I was impressed that this year there were policemen directing traffic to stay on the designated routes which kept Park a lovely open walking street until 8:30. 

We returned home around 9:00 and watched the last half of Nyad starring Jodi Foster and Annette Benning and went to bed around 10:30.

Bon Appetit

December 23, 2023 Breakfast - Granola with tropical fruit, and yogurt Snack - Pain au Chocolate and 1/2 slice of bagel with cream cheese and lax. Dinner - Grilled Porterhouse steak, Potato Latkes, apple Sauce, and Green Beans

December 23, 2023 Breakfast - Granola with tropical fruit, and yogurt Snack - Pain au Chocolate and 1/2 slice of bagel with cream cheese and lax. Dinner - Grilled Porterhouse steak, Potato Latkes, apple Sauce, and Green Beans

There was lots of family activity in the morning and afternoon that did not include me.

 

Billy went to Manzano Senior Center to play pickle ball and then ate breakfast at the Range, Suzette and Elaine went to see the big Henry Moore and Georgia O’Keefe exhibit at the Albuquerque Museum and buy Kaufman’s bagels.

I ate a bowl of the lovely granola Elaine made and gave me with milk, yogurt, and tropical salad and watched Lutron beat Newcastle.

Then I walked to the country club and back from around 10:20 to 11:00.

When I returned I made a cup of chai and heated a pain Au chocolate are started watching the Arsenal v. Liverpool game that was already tied 1 to 1.

Shortly after 11:00 Elaine and Suzette returned with fresh Kaufman’s bagels and Suzette sliced and toasted the bagels and spread the slices with cream cheese and garnished the slices with lax, red onion, capers and tomato.

Suzette offered me 1/2 of one other two slices.  The dense bagel was chewy and was another small meal.

We had decided to grill steaks and make potato latkes for an early 

dinner so Suzette thawed two Porter house steaks did not eat anything else until dinner although Suzette and Elaine made fresh apple sauce with the five or six gala apples I had bought at El Super on  Wednesday.  They cored and peeled the apples and cooked them with processed quince and then pureed the cooked apples and quince in a hand cranked food mill. Suzette and I then seasoned the apple sauce lightly with a dash of ground cinnamon and 1 T. of sugar because the apple sauce had some natural sweetness.

In the afternoon Willy, Elaine, and Bill went to Willy’s gym and played pickle ball while Suzette and I drove to the crowded Total Wine store to buy beer and vermouth and decided not to drive to Trader Joe’s.

Dinner - 

At 5:30 we started cooking dinner. Elaine snapped the bag of green beans I bought at El Super and chopped about 1 cup of whole almonds into pieces. I sliced a pile of white mushrooms and brown beech mushrooms and 1 1/2 shallots and three cloves of garlic.  Suzette blanched and then sautéed the green beans to which I added the almonds.  Elaine grated two potatoes and 2/3 onion and added whisked egg to those two ingredients to make the latkes. 

I sautéed the shallot and garlic in four T. of butter and three T. of olive oil and then added the mushrooms and about 2 tsp. of our homemade herbs de Provence. After a few minutes I added about 2 T. of amontillado sherry to the mushrooms.  

Willy arrived a bit after 6:00 and helped Suzette grill the steaks.

We all drank a glass of vermouth as we cooked.

Then Billy and Elaine sautéed the latkes in canola oil.

I fetched a 2914 Sangiacomo Calstar Pinot noir and opened it and the 2019 De Ponte Reserve Pinot Noir. and poured the Calstar.

Soon the steak came in and we covered it with aluminum while Billy and Elaine sautéed the potato latkes in oil until they were golden brown on both sides.

As they finished cooking latkes, I sliced the two steaks and we served ourselves, steak with green beans with toasted almonds and potato latkes.

Suzette put a bowl of the freshly made apple sauce and a small bowl of sour cream on the table and we added generous amount of apple sauce and sour cream to the flaky crisp potato latkes and ate a very enjoyable dinner.

After dinner Suzette served slices of the cheese cake one of her employees gave her.

Then we ate a few of the lovely Neuhaus chocolates Billy and Elaine brought with sips of Kelt cognac.

It was a lovely day and family dinner.

Bon Appetit

December 22, 2023 Brunch - Sausage, potato, onion, and egg Sauté Lunch/Dinner - Vietnam 2000, Duck Leg Soup 

I got up and heated a pain au chocolat a grabbed a cup of tea and worked until 8:30 and then showered and dressed. I had a teleconference from 9:30 to 11:00 and then wrote a letter and then ate the sausage, potato, onion, and egg Sauté Suzette made for breakfast at 8:30. 

At 1:25 we drove to the airport to pick up Billy and Elaine and after dropping documents off at James’ office and driving home to pick up three gift packages on the porch, we drove to Vietnam 2000.  I had recommended was duck leg soup.  We ordered an appetizer of 4 fried egg rolls with a fig sauce dipping sauce and three bowls of duck leg soup.Two were a duck leg in a broth with a pile of either wheat or rice noodles with some diced green onion and a dried shitake mushroom.

It was delicious and the least expensive duck dish I am aware of in Albuquerque, unless you want to share 1/2 of a roasted duck for $24.95 at East Ocean.

After lunch we went to Walgreen’s and Suzette bought 6 boxes of candles for Luminarias.

We then went home at 4:30.

Billy and Suzette went to the basement and pulled two ports, a 1990 Osborne Late bottled port and a 2012 Late bottled port.

When we opened the 1990 it had turned to sherry, but we drank some with Gulden Belgium chocolates

At 7:30 I made two pita pocket sandwiches with tabouli, feta, and labni with black olives and home made pickles.

They were delicious. Elaine and Suzette ate small portions of tabouli and Willy came by and ate a bowl of Posole and we talked until 9:00 when everyone went to sleep to leave me to blog about the day’s food.

Willy talks of moving to Spain or Argentina and now he can  because he just received a large amount of money for his interest in a warehouse Mother gave each child.

We decided to grill steaks and make potato latkes with a vegetable for dinner tomorrow evening.

Celebrating the festivities of the holidays are wonderful, especially with family.

I lost a small amount in the market today. The market is getting more volatile lately but continues to make new highs over time, so is continuing its upward movement.

Bon Appetit

December 21, 2023 Lunch - O’Neill’s. Dinner - Posole and a Beef Tamale

 December 21, 2023 Lunch - O’Neill’s.  Dinner - Posole and a Beef Tamale 

I awakened at 7:30 and watched the Market take off again and a review of the new movie, “Ferrari”, on Morning Joe.

Suzette was still at home at 8::00 so I toasted two slices of bagel and spread them with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of red onion for me and  slices of lax and a tomato for both.

Unfortunately I got busy with a call and getting dressed and did not eat my bagel until 10:20.

Charlie came at 11:10 and I grabbed a bottle of Hermann Weimar Bio Riesling and a yellow pad and drove us to O’Neill’s on Central at Washington for our book club luncheon.

Everyone was in good spirits. I ordered a Rueben Sandwich with a small salad, Charlie ordered a Chicken Chili sandwich and most of the other five ordered Bankers and mash, which is several grilled sausages leaning on a pile of mashed potatoes with brown gravy covering both. We were seated in a cozy room that appeared to be the club room of the High Desert Pipes and Drums with a picture of the group winning a competition in Glasgow, Scotland in 1999.

The menu featured Scottish specialties like Shepard’s Pie and Bangers and Mash and there were lots of folks eating lunch.

After lunch we drove to Peter’s home for the meeting. The book was It was a cold and rainy night - Snoopy by Charles Schultz, but the discussion flowed through lots of topics with the main focus being the first sentence from famous novels. Peter read from a list of famous first sentences and the group would guess the author for a while.

We left at around 3:00 and I rested for a while and checked the Market and it regained about 1/2 of what it loss yesterday, so I was happy that we are not falling into the abyss again.

At 4:00 I opened the mail and found a check, so at 4:30 I walked the two blocks to the bank and deposited it.

As I walked home at 5:00 it was starting to get dark,so I enjoyed a walk at dusk on the shortest day of the year.

I had taken Tylenol and Collagen tablets at 4:00, so began to feel better by 5:30 when I returned home.

When I returned home Suzette was heating the pot of Posole and asked whether were tamales and I told her where to find them in the garage freezer.

She then heated a bowl of Posole covering a beef tamale.  I heated a flour tortilla but only ate 1/2 of it.

After dinner watched Alex Wagner and then a Christmas movie until 9:15.

Suzette decorated and I fetched wine from the basement and we even hammered a nail into the humber  4 on our porch wall that was missing a nail.

We went to bed at 10:30.

Bon Appetit