Book Club Dinner for 8

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

AM SNACK: 10:45am, 2 pieces superhippy bread with freshly homemade hummus, hunger 3/5
About to pedal out to Coney with cousin-in-law, this should help power me through till lunch.

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, half a large chocolate chip walnut cookie, hunger 4/5
Jenni works in a bakery, she helped make this ridiculously large cookie herself. Though it was half a cookie, it was about 1.5 cookies in real life. We ate it on a bench on the Coney Island boardwalk, birds and seagulls begging us for crumbs.

LUNCH: 4pm, half a pastrami on rye, half a portion of fries, half a side of pickles, lots of water, hunger 4/5
Road out to Coney on the commuter back with Jenni, was a lot of fun giving a bit of a saddle-eyed tour of the city to a newcomer. Her goal was to experience Katz's, so off we went at the end of the ride. We shared what was intended to be a meal for one, but it easily satisfied our hunger, with fries left over.

DINNER: 8:30pm, potato latkes with creme fraiche, roasted nuts, fresh hummus with veg, raw millk cheeses, apple crumble and home made french vanilla icecream, 1 glass presecco, water, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Betsy's book club rolled through, and as the support crew, I made dinner for everyone. The last time B hosted, she was living in Brooklyn and the food consisted of ordering in pizzas. I saw this as a great opportunity to try to cook something a little bit nicer for a larger group of people (I usually just cook for 3 or 4 at the most).

The beginings were easy, I whipped up fresh hummus before the bike ride, quickly got the apple crips into the oven before showering after the ride. After the shower, ran the potatoes and onions throught the rotary grater of the mixer, salted it down to sweat it, and stuck it in the fridge, ready to fry. I winged it with the roasted nuts, using butter with a drop of soy and worstchester, salt and dried rosemary.

The day before I cooked the mix for the ice cream (2.5 cups of half & half, 2.5 cups of heavy cream, 8 egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, 4 tb of vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon salt) which freaked me out a little - I slightly overheated it and the eggs on the bottom started curdling and smelling like my greatest enemy, scrambled eggs. Torwards the end of the evening, I plated the crisp, and used ramekins to hold what would be a quick-melting icecream. Everyone said the meal was good but I knew it was just ok, the pancakes were a little bit too greasy and not enough salt. However, the ice cream....it was easily the best vanilla ice cream I've had in recent memories. The richness, the deep flavor, creaminess...some one remarked how 'clean' it tasted, which someone sounds suitable. Really over the top.