Upscale

I'm giving two talks this week - one in Chicago to an association of trust companies and one in Reno to an association of debt collectors. I like to think that I am providing the bookends to the financial world - gobs of money on one side and dead beats on the other.

The group in Chicago is staying a very, very upscale hotel call the Peninsula. I don't usually - no never - stay in these kinds of places so I thought the room was worth some pictures.

Entering the room there is a hallway

A side hallway leading to closets, a bench, and the bathroom

The Bathroom

Sleeping area

Fruit was hand delivered to my room.
What, you say you don't get fruit delivered to you at the Best Western?
I'll bet Jules delivers fruit to all her guests.

I'm having my talk video taped (look for the viral explosion on You Tube) so the videographer and I were checking out the meeting room. I told him as we were going up these stairs to the room that it felt like 'Gone with the Wind'. I also told him I felt mostly like Jed Campett being in a place like this so now he calls me Jed.

This Post Is Brought To You By - Work!

I don't know who turned on the faucet and I am not complaining after 8 months of business blah, but suddenly things are going crazy (as in crazy good). On top of that - mucho travel this month. This week it's Chicago, Reno, and Las Vegas. I'm giving two talks - one for a group of trust companies and the other for an association of debt collection agents. I like to think of it as book ending the financial world - those with gobs of money and the dead beats.

Bits and Pieces

Back to Normal

Mrs. de-I is amazing. She just shrugs off jet lag and jumps into her daily routine


de_I Sandia Outfitters (You Have Nothing To Lose But Yourself!)

Cabinet Lady told me she was being stalked by some gansta woman and hired me to find a way to take care of this problem

Here CL is with the problem.
Look at her with her baggy pants, hat on backward, sweat shirt.
No wonder CL came to the pros

Foodie Find

There's a new Vietnamese restaurant (though we have tons already here) that has some very interesting appetizers. This one (which you really can't see in the picture) has this kind of jelly substance on the bottom of the plate, which is warm, and all these flavorings on the top. You scoop the whole thing out. It was very yummy though I suspect many might be put off by the texture of the bottom layer.

Wife Home

HAPPY :)

Decoding the de-I Family Code

So blogmate Terri posed the question..."What's with the 1A, 1.1, 1.2 stuff?"

de-I has so much significant stuff rattling around in his head. Things like "How am I ever going to collect on the GD contract if he's too afraid to book again with de-I Sandia Outfitters (you have nothing to lose but yourself)" and "I need to encourage Steve that Pommard is our go to wine when he's paying" and "What crazy ass meal thing can I do next". Important stuff like that.

Remembering all the names of those grandchildren and all those sons-in-law. For crying out loud they don't even blog - any of them - so how am I to remember them? So I came up with simple system. Works like this.

• Each daughter has a number according to their age so Motherrocker is 1, Pulisha is 2, AinA is 3
• Each of their children gets a number according to their birth rank - 1, 2, 3, etc.
• Each son-in-law gets a letter according to their sequence. Only have had one husband? The letter is A. If you're on the second husband, the letter is B.

It is simple for me then to remember them.

• AinA's new first baby - 3.1
• Pulisha's second husband - 2B
• Motherrocker's second and youngest son - 1.2

Easy peasy for the megalomaniac on the go.

Gone and Back

Only one more day til Wifepoo returns!!!! Let me tell you 3 weeks without the love of your life is a long time...unless you were in the centuries preceding this when couples regularly were gone for months and years at a time...or your one of the many people in the military today serving in South Asia...or...well OK I'll stop bitching.

I decided that I needed a little get away time during this period so I combined some business and personal stuff and went to the Bay area on Friday. My flight to San Francisco left at 5:49 AM!! Not happy about that. I had two business meetings in the afternoon. Then I drove down to Salinas California to spend Friday night through Sunday morning with good friends Steve and Lady Di. There is always much enjoyment of food and drink when we are together and Lady Di is a killer cook. On Friday we went to this one place and had a wonderful meal with a great wine, a 2005 Pommard. They have a top rated wine cellar which we got to see.

Saturday was mostly just lying around. Work has been busy and with covering for Wife's functions at the business my days have been stretched to the max. Lady Di cooked one of her fantastic meals on Saturday night. It was big ass lamb chops which Steve and I are very partial. I had bought a bottle of reserve Malbec which was very interesting. Even with decanting and letting sit for an hour, it was very tightly wound and clearly could have aged for a number of more years.

I am not partial to desserts but Di knows this and makes things that are very light on the sweetness.

This was trio of a almost panna cotta like cream with fresh strawberry topping, a fresh apricot tart (killer crust) and a flourless chocolate cake that was extremely airy and chocolatey but not too rich or sweet.

On Sunday it was driving up to Contra Costa County in the East Bay where daughter Motherrocker, Son-in-law John the Armenian (1A) and grandchildren 1.1 and 1.2 are now living (having moved from Chicago). We had fun hanging around watching 1.2 (who is not quite 2 years old) showing that he clearly has no intention henceforth of listening to anything that his parents say. We (I mean everyone even 1.2) all participated in preparing Mexican style skirt steak and shrimp on the fire with all kinds of condiments we made and fresh tortillas.

On Monday, I had scheduled video taping. I have started to put video posts on my business blog. The first ones were done on the cheap and I wanted to up the production value so I hired a firm to handle it. It's really nice to get the star treatment.

We drove all around the area to various parks taking shots on location.
Very different from the just sitting behind a desk shots we'd done before.

When you're a big star like me, you get your own dressing room!

Plus you get a black German car to drive you around with a driver and your own handler.

It was another 6 AM flight to get back to Albuquerque on Tuesday. Definitely feeling the effects.

Making A Fine Meal Fast

So Wife is off in Amsterdam doing her super Mom-Grandma thing (she looks so happy every time we Skype) while I'm holding down the fort. Does that mean I'm going to just hole up and be a hermit. Well actually yes for the most part because I'm mostly troll with equal parts spiritual recluse. BUT I do occasionally have the need to be social. So I invited my friends K and A over for dinner.

Now it turns out that the same night that I invited them over was the day I did the hike to the summit. So I my challenge was how do I cook a meal that meets my standards with minimal time and energy available?

Ah acolytes - you do it by falling back on simple things with a twist and the trusty freezer.

THE GUESTS

Why do they look so terrified? Oh they probably read all of the de-I Outfitter posts instead of the foodie posts. Worry not. Your in for a totally safe experience...unless you decide to go hiking with me (ominous dun dun dah)

Dish One - Spanish Flavored Chard with Egg

This is a stand by for me. It looks complicated but isn't. Since Wife has Chard growing in the garden it's easy to access but you can do this with lots of vegetables.

Clean, chop and dry the chard

Start your flavor base by sauteing onions and garlic in olive oil.

Now the other flavor elements
Chicken stock base, pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika) and some tomato paste.

Add some water and dry sherry and cook for 10 minutes to meld the flavors.

Add the chard. Our chard is very tender so it only takes 10 minutes to get it tender.

This is done before the guests arrive.

Now take some pancetta (Italian salted bacon)

Saute until nice and crisp

This is done all in advance and takes around an hour. It was the most time intensive thing I did.
Then before serving, fry an egg, warm the chard mixture in the microwave, put egg on top of chard and sprinkle with the crispy pancetta and some pecarino cheese.

Dish Two - Shrimp Salad with Asian Mayonaise

Frozen shrimp from Costco. Love it. Defrosts in about 10 minutes
Marinate in some oil, spicy Szechuan Garlic Paste, some garlic, and some Thai fish sauce.

Shred some jicama and carrot, put in water with ice to get nice and crisp

Saute the shrimp for just a minute or two on each side.

Add some of the chile paste to prepared mayonnaise with a little soy sauce and sesame oil.
Drain and dry the jicama and carrots and mix with the mayo.
Plate with a scoop of the veggie slaw in the center, the shrimp around the salad and a scoop of the mayo in the center.

Dish Three - Linguine with Meat Sauce

Thank you freezer!
A trusty container of long, slow cooked meat in tomato. Ideal for a quick pasta.
I jazzed it up with a slurry of parsley, basil and garlic from the garden.

This takes no time at all. Cook the pasta, Finish it in the sauce with some fresh Parmesan and olive oil.

When guest asks what they can bring, tell them to bring dessert and that saves time too :)