New Years Eve Goes to the Dogs

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 1 piece toasted superhippy bread & peanut butter, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1pm, large serving of cheese pizza, a couple of small slices of vegan veg pizza, water, hunger 4/5
Met up with Beautiful B in New Haven, I took the commuter train, she too the Amtrak down for Beantown, after he week with her momma. I wore a suit and tie, and came bearing a gift and flowers. It was literally only a 10 minute walk to Frank Pepes, the pizzeria of note we hit up on the way to and from our honeymoon. Unfortunately they had no clam pie today, I guess it's not the season?

PM SNACK: 5pm, small bowel veggie booty, hunger 4/5
Tight time tolerances between coming home and going out!

PM NYE DRINK: 7:15pm, 1/2 glass champagne
A snort in the West Village with Lisa & Leroy. Road the tandem over, the Prince Street bike lane was a dream.

PM SNACK: 8:45pm, a few handfuls of curry cashews, a couple of vanilla-lemon vegan sweety things, hunger 4/5
At the HQ of the HVS.

DINNER: 9:30pm, shrimp basil fried rice, fried littler taro pockets, a little salad, steamed veg dumplings, water, hunger 4/5
We were the last ones eating in 2007 at this Thai restaurant.

EVENING SNACK: 11-12:30am, 2 glasses seltzer, 2 ice cream-cone cupcakes, hunger 3/5
Went to a nice relaxed party in Brooklyn with the HVS was a wonderfully friendly Rat Terrier there to help us ring in the new year. After midnight, the hostess served cute cupcakes freshly baked into flat-bottom ice cream cones. It was a thing from her mother, oh so 70s. I could think of nothing better to start the new years with. A freshly baked food-stuff passed down from some one's mom. (OK, it was probably a Betty Crocker mix, but that's what my mom would of done, too!!)

Icecream 3x today - HOW'D DAT HAPPEN?!

BREAKFAST: 8:30 am, organic wholegrain cheerios with good milk, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10:45pm, small bowel of haagen daz vanilla icecream, hunger 4/5
Looking after Erikka's kitty, the kitty drove me to ice cream and playing violent videogames

LUNCH: 1pm, mixed charcutrie, tuna carpaccio, taste of 3 cheeses, eggplant/salmon/roasted pepper crostini, bread, olives, water, apple tart with vanilla ice cream, hunger 4/5
Nice lunch with my friend Katya at Fig & Olive, fanciful fingery food is fine for reconnecting with friends who've bounced around the world before pinging back into your universe.

I ordered the carpaccio without thinking too much, other than that raw tuna in a light dressing sounded good. Afterwards, as Katya was at the ladies room, I thought about it and realized I had never eaten carpaccio before - I've read about it in books, heard about it in radio and TV food programs, but never actually ate any. It was really good, kind of like a slightly more fussy sushi, which is so simple so it can stand up to the mess. Funny, even though it's a new food for me, it felt old and familiar in a good way.

DINNER: 7pm, small green salad, 1/2 a garlic and oil pizza, pizza with 5 different kinds of mushrooms sauteed in white wine, homemade soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
Pizza with the HVS. The pizza came out really well, the oil and wine prep of the mushrooms went really nicely with the raw tomato sauce, which I experimented with a bit of vinegar and de-seeding the plum tomatoes, came out really well. However the soy ice cream came out weirdly powdery tasting, I don't know what was different than yesterday.

A Day at the Markets

ADDENDA:
Feel a bit out of touch with food, haven't been to the farmer's market since before Las Vegas. So I hopped on the bike and off I went....and felt what the winter market is all about. It's literally half as big as it was around Thanksgiving, and 1/3 as big as it was full swing in the summer. The meat/dairy/baked goods peeps were all there, but other than apples and gourds, there wasn't much in way of produce. I got the crazy-good lamb sausage and superhippy bread, but not much else.

I road to Wholefoods, and bought up a full green salad and supplies, focusing on a short shopping list of vegan stuff B wants to experiment with. I look forward to her (and the HVS) trying my home-made chocolate soy ice cream, it kicks some serious ass. It puts chocolate tofutti to shame, if I don't say so myself.

After the markets and before cooking, I felt lazy and didn't want to cook, but didn't want to order in food, as you're forced to buy a lot of food for a minimum order. So in true NY-lazy style, I wanted to go to the pizza place around the corner but didn't want to walk so far....so I hopped on my bike for the 120-second ride! I know in the suburbs people will get in the car to go around the corner to drop their fat-ass kids off at the bus stop, I now know how they feel....

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey and raw cashews, hunger 3/5
Outta vanilla!

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 2 slices streetza, bottle of water, hunger 4/5
After getting back from the markets, put everything away and pedalled around the corner to A1, the local slice joint. This is the place my parents would order pizza from. I like it because it has character - unlike a lot of other NYC slice places, these slices have a nice thin coat of sauce and a thinner, spotty coating of cheese - no goopfest here.

DINNER: 7pm, fresh wholewheat pasta, tomato sauce, pork/veal/spinach concoction, green salad, chocolate soy ice cream, lame biscoti, 2 glasses red wine, hunger 4/5
Friend just came in to town staying with me for a couple of nights, an excellent excuse to try some experimental cooking on someone (and have a friendly face to help washup! Thanks, Rach!) It was to be meat ravioli, but I failed to mix any white flour into the wholewheat and in the end it was both too tacky and too rigid to bend to shape into the ravioli forms.

So I scrapped it and went with linguine, with the stuffing as a side of meaty stuff. I got the recipe for the meat stuffing off the internet, and it was all wrong, I adjusted a few things to keep it reasonable but it failed. It needed white wine. Also, I bought pre-ground meats, it was a bit too chunky. I need to get a meat grinder attachment for the mixer to make nicely smooth meat paste! (Mmmmm! Meat paste!)

The only non-home made item was the biscoti, which reaked of fennel, oddly enough. But the soy-ice cream (silken tofu, unsweetened soy milk, maple syrup, cocoa powder, 70% dark chocolate) came out surprisingly rich and tasty, not tofuy at all or oily-fake like tofutti. We ate it straight from the machine, so it had a smooth, soft-serve consistency.

PM WATERING: 10pm, 2/3 of a bottle of Perrier

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, small bowl of veggie booty, hunger 3/5

My Wife Done Leave Me

ADDENDA:
Only for the week, though, to be with her momma while I stayed behind to attend to work! Feel good. Starting to miss B a little - it's nice having her flittering around the house, getting ready for work as I emerge from the fog of sleep. She's kinda easy on the eye, too. And a lot less furry than Rufus, who woke me up by pushing his side into my face just gently enough not to wake me up, but so I couldn't breathe.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, wholewheat pancakes and good bacon, hunger 4/5
Good night sleep, whipped up a new batch of pancake mix using 2 different kinds of whole wheat flour, unexpectedly yummy. Why are whole-wheat recipes so hesitant to use 100% whole wheat?

AM WATERING: 11:15am, 24 oz still
Rolled into work late after communing with Erikka's cat all morning.

LUNCH: 1pm, 3 potato samosas, cold pumpkin noodles with tofu, turkey chili over brown rice, hunger 4/5
A nice hunk o' food from the organic hot bar trough at Green Symphony. Had the turkey chili just to have something different, was surprisingly enjoyable, though the meat is so processed as to be generic "meat stuff" - it might as well be a soybean-derivative.

PM SNACK: 3pm, large chocolate chip cookie, hunger 3/5
Got the sugar cravings, haven't felt them in a while, so I indulged it. All that was available was a grocery store generic cookie in cellophane, no ingredients listed. YUK! I ate it, my stomach felt icky for 2 hours. Never again.

DINNER: 8pm, 1/2 pastrami sandwich, matzoh ball soup, mound of cabbage salad, 2 pickles, handful of fries, large piece of chocolate babka, water, shot of chocolate soda, hunger 4/5
Went with my friend Yana to the new 2nd Ave deli, where we used to go regularly when it was located on 2nd Ave. Food just as good, memories of me and my dad eating there a lot, too. Unfortunately, though I tried to limit myself to just a half sandwich and soup, I over-ate anyway. I wanted to share 1 slice of babka, but Yana insisted on getting our own. Oof! Chocolate Babka is a magically delicious food stuff, but next time, I'm going to insist on sharing a piece!

PM SNACK: 10pm, half a pint of beer, hunger 1/5
Out at a bar with a good DJ with Yana and friends, but I was just too full to fit in more than 8 oz of beer. Even then I didn't feel good. But there was a photobooth!

Cookin' With Booze

ADDENDA:
Made multiple trips to the bathroom through the night, the late night Indian did not agree with me. Was weird wandering around my home in the middle of the night without concern for turning on lights or watching the television loudly. Rufus slept where B sleeps, wasn't quite the same thing. Except in the morning he usually chews and head butts HER, this morning he inflicted his Rufusness on me.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 2/5
After last night's roiling, didn't feel much like eating but wanted to start off on the right foot.

AM WATERING: 10:30am, 24 oz still

LUNCH: 3:30pm, beer-boiled shrimp in a wine butter sauce over a baked potato, vanilla soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
Felt tired, left work around 2:30. Picked up shrimp and a potato and improvised this meal. Have left over beer from the party that I'll never drink so sacrificed 4 of them to boil the shrimp in. Made a sauce, starting with a roux just like the mac n' cheese, but added fresh garlic and white wine and a drop of lemon instead of milk n' cheese. Microwaved a potato and through it all together in a bowl, looked so purty I had to take a picture. The smell was....French n' stinky, but good.

DINNER: 8:30pm, sushi & sashimi plate, edamame, small green salad, tea, a cookie, a few chocolates, hunger 4/5
Road my bike up to 102nd on the west side and back to visit a friend I don't get to see nearly enough. She almost cooked, but couldn't get her stuff together so we went out for Japanese. The food was nothing special but her company was, which is the point of most restaurant food, I guess.

Early Bike Ride Turns My Head Around

ADDENDA:
Got out of the house by 8am and road over to Park Slope to look after Erikka's cat. Very cute, all rubbin' up on me for the entire time I was there. Then I road up the waterfront of Brooklyn to the 59th St Bridge. Cold and crisp, with minimal traffic, maybe 10 miles. I've forgotten a little just how stress-relieving a bike excursion can be.

After all the holiday hullabaloo and house guests and stress, Betsy has now gone to Boston to be with her mom for the week, my house is empty, and work is deadly quiet. Maybe if the weather cooperates, I'll take the road bike out tomorrow morning to the cat and to work...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cornflakes with the good milk, hunger 4/5
Nice to wake up with an appetite - it's like being driven by a need for caffeine, only much more satisfying when satiated. I should try it more often.

AM WATERING: 10:30am, 24 oz still

AM SNACK: 10:45am, overly sweet corn muffin, hunger 4/5
Morning bike ride left me hungry. From the company cafeteria. I can taste the corn syrup and stabilizers.

LUNCH: 2pm, .5 lb organic cow burger on wholewheat bun, side of vinegary slaw, hunger 4/5
The HVS and I hit up Better Burger on 9th ave over 42nd St. I'm about 1/2 way through the Omnivore's Dilemma, reading about the meaning/meaninglessness of what we accept to be 'organic' - the author uses the example of an organic TV dinner as how an organic analogue of something at the end of a long industrial food chain is just that - something at the end of a long industrial food chain, just with less pesticide and petroleum-based fertilizer. I imagine the organic fast-food burger is in a similar bucket.

The burger itself tasted surprisingly salty, almost unpleasantly so, and tasted a bit gamey, not what I expect from a burger.

PM WATERING: 2:45pm, 24 oz still
Feel a bit parched from the morning ride. Really feel good from it.

PM SNACK: 5pm, homemade vanilla soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
Dinner with a friend is late tonight, so I was gonna get some donuts as a special afternoon sweet snack, but remembered the Donut Plant is closed Mondays. I plan to make soy ice cream for the HVS this weekend, so it occurred to me to try making it as a trial run before presenting it for mass consumption.

Surprised how good this tasted - like tofutti, but without the fakey aftertaste. Only 4 ingredients - tofu, plain unsweetened soy milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, all organic. Came out of the machine kinda like softserve.

PM SNACK: 7pm, handful of tortilla chips, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp butter masala, a little eggplant curry, rice and nan, 1 potato samosa, muligatawany soup, water, 1 glass red wine, hunger 4/5
Nice dinner with a friend, makes the holidays much more tolerable.

Eating Through the Holidays

ADDENDA:
Like stirring cooking milk and bringing up black bits unintentionally, the relatives staying with me have brought up some emotions from the family strife I endured when my mother passed away. It's unintentional and I hold no grudge (towards my guests), but it's still a bummer.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good yogurt with honey, raw nuts, vanilla, hunger 3/5
Immediately from breakfast I whipped up a batch of hummus and mac n' cheese for B's cousin's Jewish Xmas thing.

AM MEDICATION: 11am, 2 tums
Knifing sensation in my chest, over my stomach and below my throat. I suspected it was an acid thing, so I took 2 tums and it promptly went away. I've never had a pain like that before. I suspect it's emotion/holiday-related.

LUNCH: 2pm-5pm, bagel with hummus & smoked salmon, 3 large butter cookies, 10 or so small pieces of Jaques Torres chocolates, medium portion of homemade mac n' cheese, 1 glass presecco, water, hunger 4/5
Holiday party at B's cousin Cathy's house. This is the third time I've been to this party since I've known my wife, it's nice to see how these things remain stable year after year. My mac n' cheese came out pretty good, I've been refining the balance of ingredients and I think I'm getting closer. The hummus I made was way too garlicky, gotta pull back on that. Felt stressed thinking about my own family, overdid it on the chocolates, and my acidy stomach came back again.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 1/4 homemade cookie, 1/2 apricot turnover, seltzer, hunger 2/5
Stopped by another cousin of B's on the way home, an excellent baker he is.

PM MEDICATION: 7:30pm, 2 tums

PM SNACK: 9pm, small handful of tortilla chips, 2 saltless pretzels with peanutbutter, hunger 3/5

Merry Xmas, Goyim!

ADDENDA:
B & I had a nice bike ride over to Cobble Hill to lunch with T & friends. Nice Jewish Xmas eve with Ethiopian food (instead of the traditional Chinese, yer welcome, Ilsa!) and a movie.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11am, curried cashews, saltless pretzels, baby carrots, water, hunger 3/5
Sponsored by the Hungry Vegan Society.

LUNCH: Noon, hummus with fresh pita, smoked salmon on a croissant with small amount of potatoes and salad, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, small amount of tortilla chips, large amount of baby carrots, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, Ethiopian vegetarian platter, vegan chocolate cake, water, hunger 4/5

Sunday Slips Away Quickly

ADDENDA:
Had a good time last night, but between getting to bed at 1am and drinking a little too much, it was a struggle to wake up after 10 hours, shooting my chances at yoga in the foot. Well, it's the holidays. Thinking of holidays past, I'm grateful for not being depressed right now. More on that later.

BREAKFAST: 11:15am, organic chex with homogenized organic milk, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 8 mixed boiled perogies, water, hunger 3/5
Little Poland on 2nd Ave and 12th has the greatest perogies. 8 pieces, and 7 different kinds! Potato, sweet potato, cheese, meat, kasha, kraut, spinach. True soul food.

DINNER: 6:30, bread & butter, wild mushrooms in a puff pastry, hanger steak with frites, chocolate mouse and a little chocolate souffle, 1/2 glass of wine, water, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Les Halles with the Israelis and co.

EVENING SNACK: 2am, handful of tortilla chips, hunger 3/5
Could not sleep.

The Long Weekend is Here (or: Food is All Sorts of Love)

ADDENDA:
At 11am, B is bringing me to Union Square for a 4-hour surprise involving pizza. I'm going to assume it's a pizza-making class or a pizza tour. Tonight, a multi-course dinner party at a friends house. I suspect today, like the last few days, will be an eating disaster. But underlining it is the association: food is love. Or perhaps the conduit of socializing on all sorts of levels.

Thinking about the last few days, I don't think I'm purposefully trying to fatten myself up, it's the holiday season. (Well, except for that Chinese brick incident, grumble grumble...) I would of thought my eating doesn't change much during this time of year, but I've never kept an obsessive blog about what I eat....

ADDENDA II:
A few months ago after reading about this particular pizza tour, I suggested off-handedly that it would be cool and weirdly romantic if we were to do an intense foodie-pizza journey together. So for Hanukkah, Betsy surprised me with this pizza tour today. Basically, if these two tours were ice cream, today's tour would of been a Carvel Fudgey the Whale, and the tour I wanted a fine selection of artisinal gelatos over a freshly baked puff pastry. We were on a tour-bus with a bunch of families from Florida, and the tour guide spent most of the time talking about movie locations and standard factoids about the city, interrupted by a total of two (2) pizzerias, one of which (Grimaldis) is good but kinda over rated. So once we figured out we weren't really the target audience, we decided to ditch at the first stop - which happened to be at Brooklyn Bridge Park right in front of Bubby's, where we got married!

The tour guide dude, Tony, was actually nice, and offered to arrange for someone else to use our tickets in the future. He then said, heeey, I know you.....you're Adam from Sliceny.com! (See picture to the right, huh, he actually DOES look a bit like me!)

So if you (or a couple of friends from out of town) would like free tickets for the Slice of Brooklyn Pizza tour (which is really a tour of Brooklyn with a couple of stops at pizzerias thrown in), give a hollah!

BREAKFAST: 8am, 3 spoonfuls of mint chocolate chip ice cream, hunger 3/5
Small but satisfying.

AM SNACK: 11:45am, 12 oz wicked hot chocolate from Jaques Torres in DUMBO, hunger 3/5
After ditching the pizza tour, we stopped by and bought a YOOOOJ box of chocolates for Jewish Xmas gathering at B's cousin's. We also got their famous hot chocolate, which I never had before. Basically it's melted chocolate in whole milk and cream, with a dash of spicy spices...yummy....but after only having a few spoonfuls of ice cream in the morning, found myself with not quite an upset stomach as much as a total lack of desire to eat anything....til...

LUNCH: 3:30pm, 2 sweet sopresseta sandwiches on sprouted whole wheat bread with grated parm, local mustard and a big side of leftover vegetables from Monday's party, hunger 4/5
Left overs made a good lunch. Sopresseta is kinda gross on it's own, but in the context of a thin layer on a sandwich with complimentary tastes, was quite good. Was good on that pizza, too. Funny how something by itself is nasty, but compliments foods so well.

PM SNACK: 4pm, small handful of tortilla chips, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, 3 slices mozzarella with balsamic vinegar, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, 2 bacon-wrapped dates, 3 vegan stuffed mushrooms (much superior to mine), 1 piece of bruscetta, a handful of mini-blinis with smears of really good caviar, small amount of mashed potatoes, 1 small slice of foul-tasting sausage, small amount of pigeon-peas n' rice, 2 beers, 1 glass champagne, hunger 3/5
Pleasant dinner party in Brooklyn at Erikka and Martha's. One guest had a boss who received a gift of a $1500 tiny tin of caviar at the office, but was already gone for the holidays so he gave it to her. The only caviar I regularly come in contact with is the roe in sushi, which I absolutely despise. This black stuff was a different food altogether - I never tasted anything quite like it. It basically tastes like a good fresh mild smoked salmon minus the smokey part, salty in a neutral way, but somehow the consistency was both mushy and firm at the same time. And when you pressed it in your mouth with you tongue, the flavor intensified like if you were turning up the volume of a piece of music that you particularly like at just that moment. It was yummy, but not worth the $200-odd amount of it I scarfed.

Feelin' like a lazy fat cat

ADDENDA:
Not to sound too much like a chick, but I do feel fat. The pants around my belly are tight, my back has been aching a little the past few days and I can't help but think it's because of the weight I'm dragging around. Not been riding my bike at all, no time for getting into the beginning phases of a yoga habit, haven't been to the farmers market in too long. Look forward to getting back in a rhythm.

BREAKFAST: 6am, good yogurt with raw nuts, honey, vanilla, hunger 4/5
House guests arrived in the wee hours, couldn't get back to sleep so I ate and watched the tube. Funny how interrupted sleep can rev the appetite.

AM SNACK: 8am, banana, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 10am, 24 oz still

BP: 10:15am, 129/97

LUNCH: 1:30pm, bread with three olive oils, asparagus over mushroom, pancetta and puffy dough, pumpkin & funky cheese raviolis, 1 glass white wine, chocolate soufle with vanilla icecream, 3 small pieces of chocolate, hunger 4/5
Nice holiday lunch at Fig & Olive on 13th street. The HVS forced those three chocolates on me, she almost got violent.

DINNER: 6:30pm, small green salad, assortment of pieces of homemade pizzas, chocolate and mint ice cream, 1 glass presecco, water, hunger 4/5
Cooked up a storm for some house guests, relatives staying with me from Israel. Pizzas came out pretty good this time. Used fresh sweet sopressetta as the featured meat - on the pizza, came out like the perfect alternative to pepperoni - thin so it got crispy on the edges, pleasingly fatty but did not leave pools of grease on the 'za.

In Praise of Dirt Pills

ADDENDA:
Though I don't really mention it, I've been taking 1 multivitamin a day since I dedicated myself to improving my well-being through diet. Yesterday, I ran out of a 90 tablet bottle, marking about 4 straight months of consuming these religiously. I was a bit suspicious when Ilsa recommended them - shouldn't I be getting all the nutrition I need from the food I eat? But if it wasn't going to do harm, I'd try it.

Unfortunately, I implemented a number of changes at the same time I started taking these tablets, so I can't say with certainty what they've done for me, but they certainly have not harmed me. The combination of cutting back the sweets, cooking more, thinking more about what food does to me, being married n' stuff.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic wholegrain crispex with whole homogenized organic milk, banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 10:15am, 133/90

LUNCH: 12:15pm, curry ramen soup, 3 pork gyoza, 1 large chocolate chip cookie ice cream sammich, hunger 4/5
Didn't get the pork, as I porked out last night. The ramen soup was curry-ful, but unsatisfying, not tasty enough and not enough food! So I got this dessert from the commissary in the building, very industrial tasting....but satisfying. Still, something is lacking in it. Like McDonalds, it's over-processed and full of shitty ingredients, so it gives the impression of the food it's supposed to be, but doesn't quite deliver.

PM SNACK: 3pm, handful of m&ms, hunger 3/5
Snarfed these in the common area, immediately regretted it. I blame the holidays.

DINNER: 6pm, sampling of hummus, baba, redbean stew, zuchini pancake with yogurt, bread, entree of grilled lamb and veg with rice and potatoes, 1 glass wine, small sampling of sweets including almond pudding, halava, weird moist grainy cake, baklava, water
Dinner at Turkish Kitchen with B, Corinna and Tom, a proper holiday-time couply get together over food. Ate a bit too much.

More Mood, Less Food

ADDENDA:
Had an interesting meeting with Ilsa last night. I'm feeling a lot of anger and ill will towards my work in general since the since-backed off corporate directives a few weeks ago, despite never feeling more happy with the people I actually work with day to day. That brick o' Chinese I scarfed the other day was probably a result of that pressure. I shouldn't let it get to me that way.

I had a friend who when she got upset at herself, would literally smack herself on the head till she bled. Is scarfing a block of sodium-infused lard with some noodles in it so different, especially when I'm not even that hungry? Ilsa is afraid pressures will cause me to backslide, when I should be simply maintaining my healthier habits through these cold winter months. I got to get a handle on this.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with raw nuts, honey, vanilla, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 9:50am, 137/91
Despite being tired, did not sleep well last night, kept on #2ing for a few hours, then watched bad TV for an hour. Determined to eat better today, aim to go home tonight and aim for some quality ZZZs.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, superhippy peanutbutter sandwich, hummus with carrots, cuce, red pepper, celery, a few bites of cod, hunger 4/5
Cod tasted fresh, but underdressed. Next time, I'll get you, Cod!!

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, organic Fuji apple, raw milk appeller funky cheese, hunger 4/5
Chocolate being spread around the office, I heroically resisted.

DINNER: 7:45pm, 4 fresh spring rolls with shrimp, sauteed pork medallions in a mushroom wine sauce over brown jasmine rice, liter of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Oh my, this was an interest mealing meal. Click on the pic for an upclose look! Too bad these computers don't do smellovision - while the final result proved this to still be in the experimental stage, the smell in the kitchen was overwhelmingly intensely delicious.

When Ilsa was scolding me about how she doesn't care if I eat good pork every day, as long as I stay away from the bricks o' Chinese food. So I picked up a thick pork medallion and mushrooms on the way home. Rather than simply grill it and throw it over rice, I went on line and got an interesting recipe. However, I kinda winged it and added white wine, subtracted whatever 'savory' is, crushed dried rosemary in a pestle, replaced chicken stock with a container of veal stock I had in the freezer (picked up on a random shopping trip ages ago) and let rip.

Two things surprised me. One is the veal stock. I bought it originally because I read somewhere that veal stock is the 'secret weapon' of many chefs - it has the magical ability to make anything tastier. And my god, it does! I've eaten veal stock many times before but didn't know it - it's that indescribable delicious mouth feel that is like eating velvet. Damn, it's good.

Second is even though I tried to undercook the meat (browned 1 minute on each side instead of 2, let simmer in the sauce for 10 minutes instead of 15), it was STILL a little pale, dry and overcooked. Next time I do this recipe I'm going to brown it at higher heat for less time, simmer it in the sauce for less time, and get a fattier cut of meat that is still on the bone.

The Morning Afer

ADDENDA:
I brought some green M&Ms to work this morning, thinking I didn't want to eat them but peeps will. However, I had an unopened 2 liter bottle of Coca Cola I didn't think twice about pouring down the drain. Over lunch I just read the final parts of the third of the Ominvore's Dilemma about corn, and of all foods that are derived from corn, soda is 100% from that plant. I poured corn down the drain, which was grown with fertilizer that was refined from the same barrels of petroleum that gasoline is refined from. Pouring oil down the drain. Such a tremendous waste, no wonder countries with food shortages hate us.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic homogenized milk, hunger 3/5
I could taste the difference in the homogenization, just tasted....less milky, more watery, despite being full-fat.

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still
On the ride to work in the cold, I was actually looking forward to drinking water. The good thing about riding a desk for a living (and keeping this blog) is I'm starting to appreciate how this little things make a bigger difference than I thought. Maybe I should start watching my water intake closer on the weekends.

BP: 10:15am, 126/90

LUNCH: 1pm, setain sesame medallions over broccoli with brown rice, 2 spring rolls, large scallion pancake, 2 glasses water, hunger 4/5
Nice sit down lunch at Zen Palate.

PM WATERING: 3pm, 24 oz still
I guess I was a little dehydrated.

PM SNACK: 4pm, 1 small chocolate-coated ice cream nugget, hunger 3/5
Giving buckets of this stuff away at the general staff meeting. I'd rather have sick days paid. Is there any food stuff that can't be processed into nugget form?

DINNER: 9pm, baked cod with butter and garlic, 2 baked potatoes, large piece of mud pie, pint of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Never cooked cod before, did it very conservatively, came out eh. Realized afterward I cooked it EXACTLY like my mom would cook it. Grease pan, place pieces of hard butter over the top, through on a little crushed garlic in lumps, into the oven. Next time I will melt the butter in a pan, infuse it with sliced garlic, reduce some white wine into it, then kind of bathe/poach the fish. Maybe a little bit of sea salt, a few mushrooms or maybe stringbeans in the pan to enjoy the bath. Now THAT could be good.

Got the mud pie on purpose, just one large serving so as to not to let it roll over a few days that would otherwise be potentially sweet-free. In the past, I've gotten this cake to go along with store-bought gelato. Without it, it was just not that remarkable. Didn't enjoy it as much as I did, and the fact that it wasn't extinguishing some sort of sugar lust didn't help.

Party at my house!

ADDENDA:
Good day. Was given the day off and a budget. Spent the morning chopping veg, then went out in the cold to hit up Little Italy, China Town, the Pickle Guys, Pathmark and a couple of cupcake bakeries. Spent the afternoon winging it on vegan stuffed mushrooms (surprisingly un-gross, HVS approved), 2 huge trays of mac & cheese and prepping the house.

Learned from my mistakes of the mac & cheese the day before, adjusted a few things and it came out pretty good, not to toot my own horn - if I was served it in a restaurant, I would of been satisfied - now if it was more bubbly/crispy on top and maybe had a Parmesan crispiness layer, now THAT would of been kick ass!

After 5 years of briefly attending depressing law firm holiday parties (and a year of no biz parties to go to), this was a welcome change in my life. A lot of cool people, cohosted by my partner in life, people who I see everyday but actually enjoyed having in my house and getting drunk with Rufus!

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 local slices, bottle of water, hunger 3/5
Forgot to eat breakfast. Too distracted to be hungry

PM SNACK: 2-4pm, 32 oz bottle of seltzer, hunger --/--
Cooking.

PRE-PARTY FOOD: 6pm, baby carrots with homemade hummus, 1 cupcake, hunger 3/5

PARTY FOOD: 7-11pm, small plate of homemade mac & cheese, a few handfuls of green M&Ms, 3-4 homemade vegan stuffed mushrooms, 4-5 drinks of wine & beer (I didn't keep track), 2 cupcakes, 1 shot of Jack Daniels, hunger 4/5

All Day Breakfast

ADDENDA:
Woke after 10 hours of weird dreams and felt terrible. Spent a few hours in the bath with the Sunday paper and realized I was in no shape to go to yoga at noon. Cooked pancakes and couldn't move far from the couch. After pistachios, fell asleep on the couch and missed a Grand Street News event at 4pm, which B woke me up for...at 3:55.

Why did I eat that brick o' Chinese last night, when I wasn't even that hungry? Partially because I felt like I needed a proper third meal but my kitchen is too jammed up with supplies for tomorrow night's office-cum-house party to cook anything healthy. Partially because it's a personal ultimate comfort food. Partially after a crazed weekend in Las Vegas and an upsetting week at work, just needed that calming familiarity.

BRUNCH: 12:30pm, pancakes and bacon, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm. handful of unsalted shelled pistachios, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, toasted onion bagel with good butter, hunger 4/5

DINNER-LIKE SNACK: 6:30pm, a few meatballs on toothpicks, 1/2 a cosmo, 2 cups of seltzer, small portion of homemade mac n' cheese, two squares of weirdly greasy cheese n' onions on white bread toast, 2 fistfuls of crappy Hershey's kisses, hunger 3/5
Holiday party at a friend of B's, known for it's drinks-over-food policy, so this year I brought a tray of mac n' cheese. Tasted a bit bland to me, but will pump it up next time I make it....which will be tomorrow. This is the third time I've been to this party, definitely enjoyed it the most - this particular clutch of B's femmy friends are actually pretty cool.

Chillin' Out Saturday

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with nuts, honey, vanilla, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, sweet sausage torteloni and 3-cheese tortellini with homemade tomato sauce, grated parm, large glass of water, 1 oz dark chocolate, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, handful of baby carrots with peanut butter, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, handful of tortilla chips with fresh salsa, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, brick o' Chinese, hunger 3/5
Thought I was hungrier than I was, but finished the brick anyway. What's going on here?

Not the book to read when feeling down

ADDENDA:
Going to movies/dinner tonight with peeps, so I took the bus to work this morning, finally getting back into "The Omnivore's Dilemma" after a pause. Great book, but not a happy read. Reading about the wet-milling of corn to make those 20 extra ingredients that appear on the label of a processed food. The industrial food complex just seems so....inescapable. But as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so I better move on and finish book, hopefully it proffers a sunny side!

BREAKFAST: 8am, 4 pancakes, 6 strips of bacon, hunger 4/5
Sleeping 10 hours and no sweets the day before will do this to you. The bacon is the organic nitrite-free kind from the farmer's market. Amazing how much tastier and, ummm, baconier it is than the stuff I got served in Vegas.

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 10:15am, 130/84

LUNCH: 1pm, chickpeas, black lentils, saag paneer, rice, naan, yogurt sauce, raw onion, hunger 4/5
Kept reading over lunch, it just gets scarier. Now he's recounting the history of the 'super-sized' meal, and our evolved predilection not to eat till we're full, but to eat as much as possible to get ready for the lean times that don't come anymore.

PM WATERING: 3:30pm, 24 oz still

PM DRUGGING: 3:30pm, 2 extra strength tylenol
Feel a little parched, headachey, almost a pre-fever state. Thought the sleep last night would knock out whatever was up, but I guess I better take it easy this weekend. If I get sick, it's all Sumner Redstone's fault!

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, 1 saltless wholewheat pretzel, half bag of salty popcorn, hunger 4/5
At da movies

DINNER: 9pm, pasta with pesto, few bites of wild boar lasagne, chickpea pancake thing, few bites of duck salami, 1 glass presecco, water, hunger 4/5
Nice dinner with B & Danny in Hell's Kitchen. Good upbeat way to close down an otherwise crappy week, due to work.

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, salad, 2 slices cheeseless mushroom pizza, hunger 4/5
Still hungry. Kinda craving sugar, but the chocolate in the cupboard will keep me up. Ate these left overs, very satisfying.

In Need of a Sweet Methadone

ADDENDA:
Why did I eat that brownie last night? I don't ask that because I feel guilty (I don't), it's just that I'm trying to understand my behavior. I had a relatively healthful meal out that I enjoyed with my B, then we went to the movies at the Anjelika. I was still a little hungry, as barely 20 minutes passed between finishing the meal and sitting down for the movie. However, my sugar-cravings came back as hard as they ever were. B was buying coffee, so I said fuck it, and got a big ol' brownie with a choco-peanut butter frosting.

The frosting tasted kinda fakey and not horrendously fresh. The brownie itself was too cakey to be really decadent. Even as I was eating it, I was thinking, "Eh." However, the blood lust I had for sweet pretty much dissipated after the 2nd bite, allowing me to focus on the flick, until maybe 5 minutes later I realized I had a small emerging headache and a stomach that felt like I just drank a shot of liquid latex. Very odd.

This morning I was thinking about how I much I would of rather not of felt crappy because of a sweet I didn't enjoy. Heroin addicts take their methadone to curb their cravings, maybe I need a methadone for sweets. Maybe carry packets of brown sugar around, and just down it when the cravings attack and there are no top-shelf sweets available? Then I remembered - I've been carrying these spearmint mints around with me for months in my bag for that very purpose, bu I forgot about them! Doh!

Advice to all the lovers of the world: If you're gonna get all kissy on your husband or wife, don't let coffee and stinky cheese be the last 2 things you ate. I'm just sayin'.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic corn flakes & good milk, small banana, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 10am, 134/94
Do have that pre-headachey feeling. Maybe just thinking about that brownie last night is doing it to me.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, baggie of saltless shelled cashews, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, sesame tofu, small container of baby carrots, hunger 4/5
Got the tofu from wholefoods the other day, good but my serving has 860mg of sodium, about 1/3 of the USDA recommendation. Didn't TASTE salty, but I know that doesn't mean much. I guess this means this is 3 days straight of taking lunch to work, but it's only because I knew I'd be eating out last night and tonight....and come to think of it, tomorrow night. I think limiting myself to a maximum of 1 non-homemade meal a day is a good rule. Then again, how is a container of salty fried tofu from Wholefoods really "homemade"? Hmmmm....

PM WATERING: 3pm, 24 oz still

PM SNACK: 3pm, 3 saltless whole wheat pretzels, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, large organic fuji apple, piece of funky cheese, hunger 3/5
Feel tired. Gonna go home and cook instead of going out to an openning with a friend. Betsy won't be home for dinner so I can cater just to my taste...

DINNER: 6:30pm. half a cheeseless mushroom pizza, large quantity of green salad with too many olives in it, water, hunger 4/5
Seems the HVS had some free time before yoga, so we supped before I went home at Patsy's. The pizza was good, the lack of cheese made me focus more on the two other main ingredients - the sauce was a bit too sweet and the crust lacked snap in the middle - the lack of cheesy grease should of allowed to to get firmer.

Watched TV for a bit, but fell asleep so I put myself to bed around 9. Was craving sugar during TV but was too tired to motivate. I think I'm still a bit depressed about work, even though a lot of what was happening is now moot, I just feel a little bit dissed and disrespected. I know I shouldn't act emotionally to the actions of a soulless, faceless corporation, but I just can't shake the feeling I'm selling myself short by staying there indefinitely. Come next month after the holiday madness, I'm going start properly looking for new work to advance the goal of creating a stable financial base to raise a family AND a position where I can advance.

Adventures in Creme Fraiche & the Dopey Delicacies of my Mom

ADDENDA:
I never liked sour cream much. I remember when I was really small, I believe my mom made a really lame rendition of matzohbrie, and she served it with sour cream. I refused to eat it, and she said that sour cream was a delicacy, that I was foolish not to eat it. By delicacy I thought she meant rare and very expensive. Years later, in my teens, I saw that sour cream was neither rare nor that expensive, and the seeds for years of parental-challenging eating were planted.

Last night as I was shopping for ingredients for latkes, I almost couldn't find matzoh meal - I thought, my god, am I such a bad Jew that I shop at supermarkets that don't have such a soulful staple? At Wholefoods it wasn't in the baking aisle, but segregated with the Semitic foodstuffs like jarred gefilte fish and beety horseradish. I went to the dairy case to find creme fraiche - and found a variety of expensive organic sour creams but none of the French stuff. I eventually stumbled onto it in the cheese section, along with the more unusual, pricey imported cheeses. Now THIS is rare and expensive!

The latkes came out good, but I have ideas how to make them better next time. However, the creme fraiche....was a delicious delicacy. Though I've had it served to me before, I never quite knew what it was or paid it much mind. When I saw this latke recipe, I first thought it was pretentious language for fresh whipped cream. It's actually a mildly cultured heavy cream, somewhere between sour cream and mild yogurt, but much more buttery & creamy tasting. Eating it with my latkes was a revelation. I wish my mom was around so I could both share this 'delicacy' with her, at the same time nervily rebutting her assertion that sour cream was somehow something to be held as dear. Maybe she was right, but the arguing of such a silly matter would of brought us both a lot of giggles. And I could hear her enjoying it, but complaining about how expensive it was for such a tiny little tub...

On a lighter note, my employer just caved in on a few key points, things may turn out OK yet.

BREAKFAST: 8am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5

AM WATERING: 9:45am, 24 oz still

BP: 10am, 131/88

PM SNACK: 12pm, bag of unsalted shelled pistachios, hunger 4/5
Donated about 1/4 of the bag to the HVS holiday drive.

LUNCH: 1pm, leftover lamb sausage and latkes, creme fraiche, hunger 4/5
The microwave was very unkind to this meal. Still, yummy.

PM SNACK: 4pm, big crunchy fuji apple and a small piece of apenthaller funk-cheese, hunger 4/5
Quite good.

DINNER: 6:15pm, hijiki tofu patty on wholewheat pita, large spinach salad with carrot dressing, small plate of cold sesame noodles, water, hunger 4/5
Quick dinner before the movies at Dojo.

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, large peanut-butter brownie, hunger 4/5
Oy, what a mistake. Killed my cravings, but I immediately felt a little physically yucky.

Feel like la-la-la-latkes tonite!

ADDENDA:
Not surprised my BP is a little high this morning, feel a slight headache, know I haven't been eating as well as I normally do lately. Today is the day to snap back. Started with a good breakfast, packed a lunch even the HVS would approve of (minus the raw goat's milk cheese to compliment the apple), and tonight I'm going to hit up the market for supplies then attempt a latke recipe out of Saveur magazine.

My grandmother made latkes, but my mom never did. The recipe in the mag is surprising straight forward - grated potato and onion, matzo meal, egg, chive, salt and pepper and oil. They do, however, get all fancy pants and suggest alternates to apple sauce or sour cream, like creme fraiche...hmmmm. I kinda feel like I'm in the experimental stages of creating a new tradition, so when my kid/kids come along, I'll already have something yummy up my sleeve to pop on them.

Just received the Global sharpening steel in the mail today, I feel like a kid with a new toy - I can't wait to hone my blades tonight before chopping something!

My recent stress at work has been getting a lot of news coverage lately. Though it's hitting the papers now, I feel for the most part it's over, at least for me.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, 1 small banana, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 10:15am, 24 oz still

BP: 11am, 132/96

LUNCH: 1pm, superhippy peanutbutter sammich, baby carrots with homemade hummus, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple and a small amount of funky cheese, hunger 4/5
I think my funky cheese turned or something. Oh well.

PM SNACK: 5pm, Roberts Smart Puffs, hunger 4/5
Very hungry, don't want to go nuts as it'll take an hour or so to make dinner once I get home. Craving sugar, cookies looked good, but damn, after eating crappy for the last 4-5 days, I gotta focus on making sweet-free days not so special!

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, unsalted pistachios in shell, hunger 4/5
Picked these up as a potential interesting daytime snack, but felt too hungry to start cooking without a handful of something.

DINNER: 7:30pm, curry lamb sausage with mushrooms, homemade potato latkes with creme fraiche, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Oh my. This came out good. I thought I used a lot of salt, as the preparation called for salting the shredded potatoes and onion over a sieve to sweat out the liquid. I guess salt got sweated out too, because the final product was not salty at all - I imagine some might even call it bordering on bland (but was just right for me!) Couldn't find chives at the market, next time if I can't I'll go nuts with some scallion, that might excite the flavor profile.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 1.5 oz chunk of Sharfen Berger 70% dark chocolate, hunger 3/5
Betsy snarfed those horrid soy ice cream sandwiches right after dinner, I couldn't be bothered. However, after an hour I started craving sugar and by 9:30 the drums were so loud in my ears. I went to into the kitchen, thinking, "Good! I know there is no sweets here so I'll be able to resist!" Unfortunately, on the top shelf there was a high-quality piece of cooking chocolate, left over from my gelato-making. I only ate 1/3 of it, and for the next 30 minutes I craved more, but it passed.

I was surprised - I had a very satisfying, heavy meal for dinner. Maybe it was because of the potato factor?

I feel like crap

ADDENDA:
Woke up nauseous and tired, combination of jet leg and the late-night Indian food. Lolling around on the computer this morning, some interesting developments at work. On top of that, have 2 work-related holiday parties I'm not looking forward to...

AM WATERING: 9:30am, 24 oz still

BP: 9:45 am, 133/92

LUNCH: 1:30pm, curry pork with rice & cabbage, small miso soup, 3 pork dumplings, water, hunger 3/5
Stomach still feeling weird but head is clear, must be jet lag. Nice catching up with Erikka, it's like when I'm socializing over food, it actually makes the food more appetizing.

PM SNACKS: 7-9pm, 1/2 weird sweet mixed drink, 3 bottles beer, small amount of assorted snackies including mini-empinadas, small piece of cubano sandwich, meat n' potato ball, a few garlicky shrimp, hunger 3/5
Attended a few work parties downtown, was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, as despite the corporate shenanigans, I actually like most of the people I work with - some I'd even hang out with if I didn't happen to spend almost more time with than I do with my wife.

DINNER: 10pm, vegan garden burger on sprouted wheat bread with mustard, 2 small soy ice cream sandwiches, hunger 3/5
Got home, felt snacky but not hungry. A little buzzed but not really. B had done a little food shopping, so I ate of her harvest. The burger was bland and gooey (though the bread I got last week was really good, a nice light-weight counterpoint to superhippy bread). If the soy ice cream crap wasn't there, I would of been sweet-free today....and they tasted awfully fake, reeking of artificial vanilla and an oily mouth feel.

Lost in Las Vegas

ADDENDA:
Las Vegas was a lot to take in by itself, meeting my buffet-crazed father-in-law made for an interesting overlay. We managed to wrangle him into a nice eatery, the San Marco at the Venetian, the Las Vegas Batali outpost. Note in the picture our next-table neighbors with the hats. Them cowboy hats were everywhere. Also note that it was not actually al-fresco dining, but a not-that-amazing simulation in a large vaulted room with the ceiling painted like the sky, with the walls to give the impression we were in Venice...if Venice were packed with cowboys and branches of NYC restaurants...

Friday
BREAKFAST: 9am, 1 pancake, 1 cheese blintz, potatoes, 1 apple crepe, bacon, biscuit w/sausage gravy, smoked salmon, banana, small donut, water, hunger 4/5
The buffet at our hotel was pretty horrible food, and such large portions. The bacon was incredibly salty, and the sausage gravy tasted like someone dumped a whole shaker of salt in it by accident.

PM SNACK: 1pm, half a G&T, hunger 2/5
At the MGM Grand, my father-in-law advised that if we looked like we were gambling at the slots, we could order $1 drinks instead of $5 at the bar. So I toodled away the first gambled dollar of my life as we waited to place an order.

PM SNACK: 2pm, bite of crappy everything pretzel, hunger 3/5
At the 'New York, New York' casino. If they tried to serve this pretzel on the street in NYC....well, I guess tourists will eat anything, he he. I was tempted to get a slice of 'NY style pizza' there, but LOOK at it! My god, man!!

PM SNACK: 4pm, crappy chocolate gelato, hunger 3/5
The Bellagio is trying to be all hoity-toity, but the gelato in my neighborhood totally trumps that gooey crap.

DINNER: 7pm, chips, guac, salsa, shrimp with rice & refried beans, water, hunger 4/5
Crappy Mexican back at the hotel, me and B were happy with how the way went but too exhausted to go out to hunt a proper meal. The 'fancy' option in the hotel was Bennihanna....

Saturday
BREAKFAST: 7am, waffle & bacon, water, hunger 4/5
Room service, same crappy food at 10x the price.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, bread, prosciutto, zucinni flowers, small slice of goat cheese pizza, veal & ricotta meatballs w/ polenta, chocolate malt gelato, water, hunger 4/5
At the San Marco at the Venetian. Really yummy, as good as anything in NYC. The pizza was Batali-style, which I don't like that much, but interesting.

DINNER: 6pm, 1 sip of wine, shrimp cocktail, fried shrimp, eggroll, California rolls, carrots & cucumber, 3 bites of prime rib & stuffing, 1 small bite scary pizza, chocolate ice cream with choc syrup, hunger 3/5
Final crack at the buffet, wasn't very hungry but it was all about the company, not the food. However, the small bite of the buffet pizza was perhaps the worst ever...

Sunday

BREAKFAST: 7am, waffle, bacon, potatoes, water, hunger 4/5
In the diner at the hotel, getting ready to go, saying good byes.

AM SNACK: 11am, small Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza, hunger 4/5
The flight had no meal service, so this was the least evil of options near the gate. Pizza Hut pizza is very....greasy.

PM SNACK: 2pm-1pmish, airline cheesy crackers, airline cookies, good saltless wholewheat pretzels, small apple juice, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, chana sag with basmanti, pakoras, nan, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Starving when I got home. Ordered cheap Indian food from the hood, very satisfying.