Oh Deer!

ADDENDA:
Spent the morning at the food markets, the afternoon wandering around with B for vegan Chinese (way superior to Chinese Bricks!) and massages, and a nice unique & very personal meal in the evening.

BREAKFAST: 10am, small bowl of organic chex with good milk, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 1 wholewheat saltfree pretzel with good peanut butter, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, vegetarian dimsum including mini lotus leaf rice, mixed gluten, monk dumplings, mock shrimp in rice dough, mashed taro treasure boxes, 1 bit of yuckily sweet red bean cake, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, bowl of veggie booty, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 3 funky cheeses with bread, olives, baby carrots and ranch dressing, prosciutto, 2 kinds of braised venison over creamed parsnips with roasted baby onions and brusselsprouts, about 1.5 donuts with a little vanilla ice cream, 1 glass champagne, 1 glass red, a few pints of water
My friend Erikka's father is a hunter out in Minnesota, sent her a care package of deer-flesh. Her boyfriend has a professional history in cooking, and whipped up this meal. I think I've eaten venison before, and it was unmemorable. This time, fully paying attention to what I was eating, it was a bit of a revelation. Shawmir grumbled a lot about messing up the meat, not accounting for the lack of connective tissue in one cut. Granted, one of the two kinds of meat on the plate was a little tough, but still thoroughly edible (god knows I suffered through many cooked-till-pale-and-shrivelled lamb chops from my mom to know the meaning of inedibly tough!) and the non-tough meat was just as good as any shmancy cow steak at a bistro. I thought the flavor would be gamey, but it was pleasantly mild, and I kinda caught a uniquely 'deer' flavor.

Still Takin' Care of Bizniz

ADDENDA:
The bedroom is a much larger job than I anticipated. Gonna try to knock it off today, then pretend like I'm unemployed and see an afternoon movie...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and raw nuts, hunger 3/5
Out of just about everything else, need to hit up some markets.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, wholewheat pasta a la Noah, quart of tap water, hunger 4/5
Felt lazy, indecisive, rearranging and painting the apartment all morning. Got a flash of inspiration, and cooked up some pasta, and took a bunch of garlic and onion and sweated them with olive oil and butter, then threw in a little white wine, Worcestershire sauce and salt and let it reduce, finished with freshly grated parm. Damn, was pretty damn good, though not sure what it's officially called. Could of really used some mushrooms, maybe a little less Worcestershire - three shakes out of the bottle was pretty strong. After finishing it, felt good for cooking and not ordering in or just reheating something. Good to be able to cook a casual lunch.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 3/4 bag of popcorn, hunger 4/5
Two movies in a row at the multiplex, with a popcorn in between, like I was unemployed. This is vacation.

DINNER: 9:30pm, curry noodle soup with tofu, water, hunger 3/5
Mediocre meal at Thai resto in the hood.

Takin' Care of Bizniz

ADDENDA:
The real vacation continues. Got a lot done yesterday, laundry, sourced touch-up paint for the house, replaced a duvet cover Betsy had ill will towards, dinner with B and a good friend. Today I have an electrician taking care of business, gonna redo the placement of furniture in the bedroom, retouch the paint on the scuffed walls, get a new light fixture for the bedroom, cull my closets and my cooking pans, and catch a 3pmish train up to Westchester to spend the eve with another friend I don't see often enough. Well, I'm sure I'll get through some of it!

Betsy reported she got a good scolding at from Ilsa for changing up her diet so extremely without consulting her - funny, I also kinda went beserk on B for the same reason! (not consulting Ilsa, not me) Ilsa also expressed her concerns that I'm falling back into bad habits - that Chinese brick a few weeks ago scared the bejeezus out of her.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 4/5
Woke at 8:30 to the electrician calling, delayed eating as he was doing his business. Certain fixtures haven't worked in years, but they were relatively minor and a hassle to call a professional for - but perfect when your off the first week of the year and electricians are not!

Never delayed breakfast like this, surprised how hungry I got after about 90 minutes.

LUNCH: 1pm, whole wheat bagel with homemade hummus, glass of seltzer, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 6 'deluxe' chocolate-filled cookie tubes, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, sushi tray, small green salad, 6 shrimp shumai, 2 ok chocolate truffles, 1 fortune cookie, water, hunger 4/5
Ordered in at my friend's house in Westchester. She proposed our only choices were pizza or Chinese. I chose Chinese, wondering what I would order that wouldn't be brick-like. Fortunately, on the other side of the menu was Japanese, so I stuck with the sushi. As I was pondering the Chinese, saw their list of bricks, remembered how I felt ill the next day, and I really didn't want to waste my time off regretting Chinese...

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 3 vegan chocolate macaroon-like thingies, 1 whole wheat saltfree pretzel, 2 mint chip tofutti cuties, hunger 4/5
I guess dinner wasn't enough, and had insomnia on top of it.

The Real Vacation Begins

ADDENDA:
Holidays are over, everyone is back to work, but because I did 3 quiet days in the office between the holidays, I'm off till next Monday! Time to eat 4 deserts a day and bricks o' Chinese for lunch! Kidding, Ilsa! Save yer wrath for B...

BREAKFAST: 7am, a bunch of mini-pancakes, hunger 4/5
Fell asleep at 9:30 last night, woke before 5am this morning. Added cinnamon and made the pancakes tiny just to change things up. Nice having B around again, twittering her way into getting ready for work, taking pictures of me while I try to eat my egg/milk/butter-laden breakfast!

AM WATERING: 10am, 1 pint tap water

LUNCH: noon, large bowl of left over wholewheat pasta with homemade meat/spinach stuff and homemade tomato sauce, 1 pint water, hunger 4/5
Never cooked with spinach before. Really good.

PM SNACKS: 3:30pm, bowl of veggie booty, half an apple, wedge of yummy weird raw cheese, a few handfuls of curry cashews, hunger 4/5
My farmer's market apples were mushy, so I ate B's left over golden delicious. The cheese had caraway seeds in it, really good. Sent in my check to the Traditional Nutrition Guild today, hopefully sometime soon I'll be chowin' down a few different raw-milk products.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 4 pieces bread & good olive oil, 1 little rice ball (very cheesy), a small amount of bufala mozz (surprisingly funky), a small piece of fried artichoke, odd little chickpea fritters, a few pieces of prociutto, a nice piece of grilled tuna with pesta, a couple of potato croquettes, chocolate hazelnut torte with a tiny scoop of gelato, 1 brown beer, 1 small piece of cookie, a few small bites of panetone, cup of herbal tea, hunger 4/5
Dinner out with B and my long lost friend Lidice at Bar Stuzzichoonikkipoopoo or whatever it's name is, on B'way above 21st. Really good food, a lot of little fried things I've read about but never tried.

Starting the Year with Left-Over Pizza

BRUNCH: noon, 1 homemade pizza, 4 pieces of biscotti, hunger 4/5
Nice 8 hour sleep, slow to hunger. Looking in the fridge, had left over dough, sauce, a small baggie of mushroom and onion. So I said screw it, sliced up some fresh garlic, grated a little parm, plucked the last basil off the plant I bought at the farmer's market, and slapped together a single pie to start 2008 off with properly.

Though you can't see it in the picture, I generously spread finely shredded parm, which wonderfully melded to the other ingredients to give a wonderfully funky overtone to the whole proceedings. Like cheese without cheese!

I experimented by putting it on a baking sheet, which then got placed on the stone, but the crust came out pale and flibbidy flobbidy, so I put it directly on the stone for another 3 minutes. This method actually gave the crust an interesting chewy/crisp character, I may need to look into that. The biscotti was not the lame stuff I got from Wholefoods, but a nice gift from Rach, which was far superior. Good to start my sweets off with something top-rate and friendly!

This, my friend, is how to live.

ADDENDA: I weighed myself before I ate, still 235. I'm surprised, as I feel fatter than usual. I guess it's in my head?

PM SNACK: 2:15, half bag o' popcorn, hunger 4/5
At the movies.

PM SNACK: 5:45 pm, 4 fresh shrimp springrolls, hunger 4/5
B & I stopped by Wholefoods on the way home from the movies, she bought a butternut squash in hopes of cooking it veganly, I bought a 'How to Cook Meat' book in hopes of cooking my next pork medallion properly!

DINNER: 7pm, left over homemade pasta with homemade sauce and homemade spinach/meat stuff, small green salad, another 4 biscotti, 1/2 bottle seltzer, hunger 4/5
The wholewheat pasta held up surprisingly well after 3 nights, as toothsome as ever. Went a little bit nuts on the biscotti, I think my sweet tooth may be kicking back in a bit. Gotta keep an eye on that.

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.