Rutabaga!!

On Saturday, I soup-chopped a variety of seasonal veg, and on Sunday, I chopped the more delicate veg and cooked it all down, blended and strained, then seasoned what became an apple-squash-rutabaga soup. Chef A just kind of let me go at with only a list of ingredients and ratios at the beginning, then tasted it a few times while I was finishing with cream, cayenne, maple syrup and salt.

Rutabaga is one freaky vegetable, like a turnip on steroids, poised to beat the crap out of any other vegetable on the table. It smells sharp but pleasant, adding a nice harmonizing tone to the soup.

ADDENDA:
Saturday and Sunday nights, went out to just-OK restaurants with friends. Amazing how friends came make bleah food fun.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, 2 frozen waffles, glass of cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Fresh cider is magically delicious.

LUNCH: 11:30am, mini pizza with tomato sauce, caramelized onions and grated cheeses, chocolate cake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 1 slice of pizza, orange soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, so-called shish kebab with grilled veg, rice, salad, 1 beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Went to a restaurant with B and friends before a show, very nice setting but horrible faux-Mediterranean food. The meat was all wrong, too salty, underspiced, overcooked, dry and not even cooked on a skewer. One of those meals that's totally great because of the company, not the food.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, organic cheesy poofs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3pm, potato, moz, parm, caramelized onion and rosemary pizza, rootbeer, cheesecake, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, 1 curry puff, pad see ew with shrimp, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 3/5

Ohhh, baby baby!

Now that the cat is out of the bag (and like my wondercat Rufus, not sure whether it's a boy or a girl), I can confess when anything food-related sends me on a baby-related line of thinking. Last week, a man came in with a 4 year old daughter, both sat facing each other, each ordered one slice of pizza, he got a red wine, she got a soda. I swooned at the thought of someday having a tea party-like pizza experience with my mini-me.

Today at the restaurant I made mini-tart shells during prep for an off-the-menu dessert. On Sunday afternoon, a waitress is hosting a baby-shower of a friend at the restaurant for about a dozen women. Chef R is making a 'baby' version of the pie nut tart and chocolate pudding tarts. I thought, "Jeez, I thought I'd have to stretch a little to somehow talk about babies and the restaurant!"

The night went well, not crazy busy but busier than last Friday. I've been asked to come in the day before Thanksgiving, as the day before and after tend to be unusually busy in restaurants.

ADDENDA:
Started the day off with a proper breakfast, haven't been doing that enough lately. Gotta get on that.

BREAKFAST: 11am, banana, everything bagel with humus, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, mini margarita pizza with pancetta, flourless chocolate cake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 8pm, black cherry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, mac-and-cheese-like pasta, 2 meatballs, cheesecake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The pasta special was basically chopped rigatoni with melted moz, provolone, butter, bread crumbs and pancetta, maybe a tang of nutmeg, not as good as it should of been. Needs some bechamel to really amplify the cheeses.

Learning to Feed

Wifey's got a bun in the oven! Truth be told, I started this blog a bit after the time I found out, but could not say anything because, y'know, wouldn't have been appropriate. Learning to feed the little bugger, it'll be a challenge.

I've told most of my friends, but it you're a friend whose finding out from this blog, my apologies. If you are a friend of B's, well, call her!

A lot more to ruminate on this subject, obviously, but I think I'll take it slow.

ADDENDA:
To think, I cooked a fantastic dinner almost from scratch (B is repulsed by the idea of sausage making equipment), and it's been demoted to addenda. That's what a baby'll do to ya.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't had this healthy breakfast in a while, felt good.

AFTERNOON DRUGGING: 12:15pm, 2 Tylenol
Thumping headache. Got 12 hours sleep last night. Could be related?

LUNCH: 2pm, baby spinach salad with oil & vinegar, butternut squash soup, organic cheesy poofs, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to make and eat salad, or toss the stuff because it'll go bad in a few days. Simple salad, baby spinach, grated carrot, diced cucumber and red onion, dressed with olive oil, balsamic and sea salt. Ate the soup with Garden of Eating puffed cheese doodles, not that great but a good crunch compliment to blender soup.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 1 small lump of cookie dough, one freshly baked peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Made cookies for the wifey when she gets home. My headache receded greatly when I ate this, which makes me think it's sugar related. Hmmmm.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 cookies, .25 bowls, hunger 4/5
They wouldn't fit in the cookie jar! They had to be eaten!

DINNER: 7pm, garlic pork sausage poached in cider and kraut, 1 cookie, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Browned the fresh sausage from Whole Foods in peanut oil, then considered what to cook it in. Had all this fresh fermented kraut, salty and tangy, needs sweetness. Thought of peeling and cooking in an apple, then saw the fresh quart of cider in the fridge! Ahh! Liquid and sweetness and appliness all in one! Through in the kraut and cider, covered, and simmered for an hour, a shallow poach in c-school language. Came out surprisingly well, the funkiness of the stinky kraut brought into mild range with cooking and sweetening, a slight apply taste. The sausage was well done but still juicy.

Museum food

Good casual day out of the house, no cooking. Went to the 'Climate Change' exhibit at the Museum of Natural History in the morning with the HVS, an interesting and informative display. Other than the hordes of teenage students making noise and getting in the way, the what got my goat was the commentary about food in relation to the subject. Under 'considering food choices', it included 'transportation' and 'eat more fruit and veg,' but did not explicitly say 'eat less animal product' or more importantly, 'EAT LESS'. I guess if you're going to suggest personal choices to solve a social problem, you don't want to alienate your audience by suggesting solutions that might be more difficult than previously thought. If food is going to get into proper perspective for a healthy planet, we're all going to have to pay more for less. In my humble opinion!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 3 peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, water, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, dirty water dog, kraut mustard & onion, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In front of the Natural History Museum, hungry and no other options. Haven't had one of these in a long, long time and was surprised how....bland it was. A hot dog is basically lips and buttholes ground up into a paste, then a ton of fat and salt is added to it to give flavor. This dog was a big crumbly, not particularly moist and flavorless. If I'm going to eat something so unhealthy, it should at least taste good. What I tasted was mostly condiments -- it could of been a soy dog, I wouldn't of tasted much of a difference.

PM SNACK: 2pm, square Sicilian 2boots slice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Quick slice on the run, not very good, but 2Boots usually isn't.

LATE AFTERNOON MEAL: 4:45pm, large falafel sandwich on laffa bread, a few sips of peach drink, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner with wifey at a hole in the wall Israeli falafel joint on 12th and University. Cheap, but too much food that's so heavy.

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, pint of Ben & Jerry's Creme Brulee Ice Cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oy. I went in with the intention of eating half and I blinked and it was gone! Tomorrow needs to be better. No point in beating myself up now. Perhaps I didn't eat enough beforehand.

Half a face

Eating with a mouth and face that is numb on one side is revelatory. About an hour after coming out of root canal surgery which involved not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 injections of numbing chemicals to my mouth, I sat down in front of the TV in a comfortable position and ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brown ice cream. It's a familiar and monochromatic flavor, with the texture broken up with the fudgey brownie bits and slightly more caramelized and salty tones in it.

On my left side, I felt the smoothness, cold, sweet, chocolaty, density, a certain give of the ice cream and firmness of brownie. On the right side, the sensations tapered off into blankness, like all the words on the right side of the page were erased. The tension of the skin on my face indicated that part of the mouth was full, as was the resistance that my jaw pushed through, but it just....wasn't there. I sat there and really focused on what I was eating. It tasted good, but not....as fresh as the chocolate ice cream I made a week or so ago. I feel like I tasted Ben & Jerry's chocolate fudge brownie ice cream for the first time.

BREAKFAST: 10am, 8 mixed fried perogies with sauteed onion, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

I thought they'd be boiled then sauteed to form a little crust, these were deep fried and a little tough and chewy. Still, fun to eat all the left over side dishes of a Polish restaurant on one plate. Creamed spinach in one, kasha in another, a wallop of stewed kraut in a third, a pillow of crumbly but moist meat here, a smear of sweet potato there.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, apple, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

About to see Ilsa, assuaging a little bit of guilt with some fruit.

DINNER: 7:15pm, fried spring roll, beef masamam curry with sticky and jasmine rice, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, 2 peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl
Spending the evening in with wifey, somehow we ended up spontaneously baking cookies.