Bowl Me Over

ADDENDA:
Had my bi-weekly with Ilsa last night. Of late our consultations have swung more towards my employment situation and more general matters, and now it's swinging back more on to our original topics at hand - mah big fat ass!

She pulls out a bowl. It is a ceramic 6.75" wide, 2" deep round bowl that holds about 2.5 cups of liquid when filled to the brim. This bowl is my new measure of portion. For now, I just need to be aware of how many bowls I'm eating a day.

My first thought was how many slices of pizza I could fold into the bowl. The second was, "Wow, that would hold a whole lotta bacon!" At home, I will eat out of it or measure from it, when I'm out at a less-fancy place, I may bring it at the risk of looking totally insane, but out with friends or nicer places, I'll just guestimate how many bowls I'm eating. Last night at the Turkish restaurant me and B ate at, I busted out the bowl and eye-balled the meal against the bowl. It's safe to say I ate 2 full bowls of food, though if there was an appetizer and dessert and drink, it probably would of added a bowl and a half.

This blog was originally a temporary tool to be used with Ilsa, but the thinking it's made me do has me continuing. However, I think this bowl is a tool which will help me with my thinking, but will not be a permanent fixture in my dining habits. Though if it is, maybe I should draw face on it, and attach legs and arms!

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, Noah's decadent Oatmeal (pictured above), 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
To inaugurate the bowl, I made organic slow-cooking oatmeal with whole unhomogenized milk (2 to 1 with water), grass fed butter, sea salt, unrefined cane sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. I used 1 cup of oats to 1.75 cups of liquid, which according to the cannister is two servings. As you can see in the picture, it filled the bowl but was not an obscene serving.

LUNCH: 2:15pm, homemade chirashi with tuna, 24 oz still water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went shopping properly at WF today. Picked up a piece of tuna steak, and already had all the ingredients at home to make sushi rice. After washing the California sushi rice several times, put it in the cooker. I then cooked the rice dressing, which is rice vinegar, sugar, salt and mirin (a clear brewed flavored soy product) Plopped the cooked rice in a big wooden bowl, but an electric fan over it (instead of the traditional fanning by hand) and cut the dressing into it slowly, trying to keep the rice from becoming wet.

I took the tune and cut strips against the grain. The rice was a bit too wet, so rather than attempt sushi-style, I plopped the rice into the bowl and laid the fish on top, chirashi-style. I reconstituted some wasabi powder (really, horseradish) for a little punch in the corner of the bowl.

I wouldn't say this was very good. First and foremost, the fish was not fresh at all. Secondly, I overdressed the rice and it tasted REALLY tangy and strong. I used organic unrefined sugar, which gave a dingy tint to the white rice. The rice was a bit too sticky and wet, and I didn't let it cool enough. I've read about how sushi chefs will spend years just cooking the rice before moving on to cutting fish, which takes another few years, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

Still, making it myself was a little bit eye-openning. That vinegar/salt/sugar mix that flavors the rice really cuts nicely against the flavor of raw fish. When the fish is fresh and the rice done properly, it's really subtle - what was good about mine is all the parts were yelling so loudly, making how they fit together apparent (and apparent how out of wack they were in my creation!)

DINNER: 7:15pm, homemade mushroom cheese calzone, extra tomato sauce, water, 12 entemann's chocolate chip cookies, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
I find the process of making ravioli is extremely wasteful, when the shapes are cut out of the form, a lot of excess dough goes into the trash. I did have extra filling that I couldn't bare to trash, but it wasn't enough for another batch of dough. Then it hit me - real calzones! The filling (ricotta, bufalla moz, parm, spinach, parsley, garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper, egg) is perfect for a real calzone, not the stuffed pizza I played with before.

Bought a small box of cookies, felt a craving. It LOOKS like a single-serving box, as it's 1/4 the size of a normal Entenmann's box, but according to the label, a serving is 3 cookies. B had 2 cookies, but that still left me with 12, a full 4 servings! How the hell is 3 tiny cookies a serving?

PM SNACK: 12:30, 1 whole wheat pretzel with good peanut butter, hunger 4/5 Insomnia kept me up till 3, B thinks it was the cookies but I think it was more emotional.