Yes, I AM chopped liver!

I spent the day cooking, with an interruption to pick up a pale yellow roller blind and install it in our slowly-emerging nursery. My mood was a bit intense and down -- I spoke to Chef R at the restaurant, it seems I still have 2 shifts, but they are on more of a floating basis than a regular schedule (a change from what I was originally told). It's another element of insecurity that comes out of our recessed economy. Thinking about my next move, how to position myself in the future. Got some small plans of action, but I think I better talk to the wifey about them before I share it with you, you sexy undifferentiated internet cloud!

Cooking, like bike riding (too cold) and yoga (maybe tomorrow), is a form of meditation that makes me happy. So cook I did. My friend E is having a holiday housewarming party tomorrow, and I'll be helping to direct the food. Wifey is going to a friend's holiday party which I'll be meeting her at. (My wife just LOVES dangling prepositions, yo.) And in the evening, one of B's closest friends and her new love were coming over for a cavalcade of pizza.

So first I whipped up a big batch of gingerbread cookie dough, brown sugar, molasses, the good butter, lemon zest, fresh ginger, all sorts of spicy pie spices, baking soda and powder, real vanilla bean, organic flour -- just trying to make it as fool-proof as possible with high quality ingredients. I baked off a small batch and rolling and cutting, they came out dry and cracker-like, but in a good way.

While that was going on, I made chopped liver based on the 2nd Ave. Deli recipe. Hard-boiled a couple of eggs. A pound of chicken livers were spread on a sheet after I removed weird membranes and random bits, coated in oil then broiled until cooked. While they chilled in the fridge, I sauteed mire poix in a large pot, browned a whole chicken in there, then covered with water and simmered for 45 minutes. The 'scum' that I skimmed off I reserved -- a key ingredient in chopped liver is 'schmaltz': rendered chicken fat.

I ate a boobie and reserved the other for tonight's pizzas. 45 minutes was too long, the meat was dry despite being cooked in a liquid medium. I made parsley oil (parsley, olive oil, and salt in a blender) and sliced the chicken thinly, put it all together to marinate for the evening. I also sliced some scallops and put in the oil.

I started caramelizing onions, one batch for pizzas and one batch for the liver. As this takes a few hours, I installed the shade while this was happening. One the liver's onions were cooled, I got out the food processor, put in the livers, shmaltz, hard boiled eggs, onions, some salt and pepper, and blended until chopped liver magically appeared. This is for E's party, a good crostini topper, from a technical point of view. Still, I just don't like the gamey-ness. I do like the natural browned sweetness the onions bring, and the hardboiled egg blended in lends a lightness, but still...

By this point, it was time to prep the mise for the pizza. The dough was made last night and developing in the fridge. Here are photos of each pie; descriptions will illustrate what mise had to be made:

Salad pie: crust baked with just olive oil and salt, finished with a salad of romaine, grated carrot, diced cucumber and shallot, dressed with olive oil, balsamic and salt. The crust was snappy, but too pale.

Classic margherita, with raw tomato sauce, buffala moz, and finished with basil. Went a bit too far with the crust here, very snappy, not enough chew. Tasted good, though. Nice and thin.

Cauliflower pizza, totally ripped it off from the restaurant. Layer of fresh moz topped with cauliflower puree (cauliflower and garlic steamed in chicken stock and then blended with heavy cream), roasted cauliflower, caramelized onions, and rosemary. Got the crust right, just browned right and because I left it a little thicker, stood up to the heavy toppings. Probably the most winning pie of the night.

Two scallop and parsley pizzettes and two chicken and parsley pizzettes. Two people didn't do scallops, but one peep said it was her fave, and I think scallops work perfectly on pie from a texture point of view. So each pie got a piece of fresh moz, parsley-marinated protein, and finished with a more fresh parsley. Came out a lot better than I thought it would, thought it would need something to expand the flavor profile but simple was indeed the way to go.

The last pie was a bit of a punt, a margherita with bufala moz topped with caramelized onions, mushrooms, and pepperoni. The wifey's favorite, a crowd pleaser when everyone is trying to save room for dessert!

BREAKFAST: 10am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTING: 11:30am, a bit of dough, a couple of cookies, hunger 3/5
Gingerbread, not my thing.

PM SNACK: 1pm, a small braised chicken breast, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM TASTING: 3pm, spoonful of chopped liver, hunger 3/5
Really not my thing, very funky, tastes just like....chopped liver.

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

PM SNACK: 6pm, slice of the restaurant's pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snack on pizza before spending the night making pizza, funny. Freezes surprisingly well.

DINNER: 8pm, one quarter of a pie of all the pies described above, small bowl of vanilla ice cream and a gingerbread cookie, 2 glasses prosecco, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11pm, quart of water

Tested at the STD Clinic

I went to a municipal building up on 100th Street today to take the test for my Food Protection Certificate. The Department of Health mandates that a minimum of one person must be in an operational licenced kitchen with this certificate at all times, typically a supervisor. So if I hope to ever move beyond prep, it's a proforma matter that can't be overlooked. I took the online course, which was a ridiculously slow process (due to artificial roadblocks the designers put in the test-taker's way), but I wasn't quite prepared for how dumb the in-person experience would be, either.

I arrived 15 minutes to the run-down early 70s-era building. A surly rent-a-cop directed me to a room...within the STD clinic! A locked room. A random person in the hall told me the room doesn't openuntil 1pm, the time the test was scheduled for. So I sat on the row of chairs outside the room....and was told that is only for people going to the STD clinic. Ewwww. I sat on a seat reserved only for people with STDs... so I stood in the hall with 3 or 4 others. Stupid city.

Though the test was for 1, the proctor took attendance in a variety of ways, instructed us on the proper way to take a multiple choice test, and how to fill in an ID card (I also had to stand on a long line to take a picture). We didn't actually start the test close to 1:45pm. Fifty multiple choice questions, I finished at 1:57pm. I got a 90/100, passing was 70. I'm now certified to protect your food, and STD-free to boot!

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
No apples, gotta go shopping today

LUNCH: 2:30pm, lamb souvlaki with greek salad, fries, fried pita, water, herbal tea, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Surprisingly good food at a diner on the UWS. I was expecting processed gyro 'meat', got gamey flavorful hunks of marinated lamb.

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, 1 olive oil torta, .125 bowl, hunger 4/5
Found these at the market, nice round cracker-like sweet tortas flavored with anise from Spain, had these once when I was volunteering at the James Beard house...

DINNER: 8:15pm, spaghetti with chorizo, handful of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was intending to make something totally different, but at the last second just didn't feel like it and just used the sausage. Boiled up some dry pasta, heated up some frozen mushroom tomato pasta sauce, sauteed the sausage in butter with shallots, then thin sliced it and dropped it in the sauce. It totally changed the sauce, made it taste all spicy and chorizoey. Really good, fun to see such a boring dish I've been cooking for myself for most of my life is totally transformed with some buttery spicy pork.

Can I change my order?

I recently rearranged the closets, and I now have a box of random 'desk stuff' that resides on a high shelf in the closet. I took it down to find a lip balm when a sight odor hit me like a canoe paddle on the side of the head -- it smelled slightly like the drawer of my father's desk in his home office when I was a kid...and that smell was a mixture of sunflower seed husks and a slight tinge of saliva.

My dad habitually ate sunflower seeds. They were in the shell, so he'd have to crack open the seed with his teeth, spit out the husk, then chew and swallow the tiny little seed. The whole seeds and the slightly wet husks would find their way into the nooks and crannys of his desk, giving the whole affair a vegetal, slightly earthy, slightly tangy smell. I tried eating his seeds a few times, but the effort and work to eat one seed seemed oversized compared to the reward of the tiny, woodsy tasting kernel.

Looking back now, clearly it was the repetition and the business of his mouth and lips that gave him satisfaction, the eating of the seed was probably just a bonus afterthought. That smell was my dad in his own private work fortress of solitude.

I'm recording hunks of TV for HVS's professional reasons. I'm watching this corny reality program, "Bringing Home Baby," about the first few weeks of bringing home a new born. Oh my. Uhhhhhh. The dude is changing the diaper for the first time, and poo is running down the kid's leg. Uhhhhhh. Think I can place an order for a non-pooping model? Or some how convince B that it's my responsibility to make everything that goes in, and hers to take care of everything that comes out? Like doin' the dishes, but stinkier. This blog is Learning to Feed after all, not Learning to Poop. Though I guess that may be applicable at some point...

Don't worry B, when we have our arancini, I won't invite a film crew into our house for the first month....

Weight this morning was 224, two pounds over last week. I feel light and other than the excess soda yesterday, my eating has been good, so I'm going to chalk it up to normal variation.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted onion bagel with good butter, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, homemade powerbar thingy, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4:30pm, Caesar salad, 1/4 of a turkey club, handful of fries, 1 decadent brownie, a few spoonfuls of awful ice cream, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Late lunch with B and her momma on the upper east side. My first non-vegan Caesar since c-school, good, definitely taste the tang of the anchovies. The chocolate ice cream tasted oddly sour to me, but B kept eating it without complaint, so I didn't stop her. Should I have?

DINNER: 8pm, pork cutlet curry over rice, 1 pork dumpling, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
At the place I used to eat at all the time when I worked in Times Square, just lovely. Didn't eat most of the rice that came with it, just not hungry enough.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, homemade vanilla ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
One thing for sure, my ice cream is better than that restaurant's from this afternoon.

Learning to Top

Chef R was off doing managerial stuff, so it was Chef C and me in the kitchen. A few times during the night, Chef C took off to cut meat (because as we all know, the owner thinks I can not be trusted with his prosciutto), which allowed me to make about 6 pizzas on the main station. I've watched everyone top the pizzas, but doing it is another thing. I top it and it looks right, but when it comes out the oven I've clearly oversauced or overtopped, making a thick and potentially soggy eating experience. It's exciting, looking forward to more time topping the 'za.

Sunday is the shop's holiday party. It starts after work, meaning 10pm. Fancy dress, people have been writing songs (to pop tunes) about the people and restaurant. I believe the kitchen will be closed and the event will be catered.

ADDENDA:
Upon recounting what I at today, realized I drank 4 sugared sodas at work -- something that never would have happened if I was actually paying for them, I guess. That would explain the slight headache I had on the way home, which went away when I downed a quart of water.

Damn! Forgot to weight myself! Till tomorrow, then.

BREAKFAST: 10am, 1 apple, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
An apple a day keeps Ilsa at play. Can't think of a better rhyme.


LUNCH: 12:30pm, sauteed boneless pork chop with pan sauce, wok-seared broccoli, 2 peanut butter cookies, slice of apple pie, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Some free time before work, swung by the market. For about $8, I had a large pork chop, finished with a pan sauce made with diced shallots, a shot of sake and veal stock out of a tetrapack. I seasoned the wok with some hunks of garlic and ginger sauteed in a small amount of peanut oil, removed the aromatics, tossed in the broccoli, then hit it with a shot of sake. Added a little veal stock then covered to get a little steaming action going, then seasoned it with a little soy sauce and that was it, still nice and bright green and crisp. Pork was a little overdone (though my c-school chefs would of approved, as it's supposed to be served well done) and the broccoli was good but needed some jazzing up with maybe some mushroom, cabbage, pepper -- I was trying to keep it simple, but probably didn't succeed in that part.

PM SNACK: 4pm, ricotta cheese cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 5-8pm, 1 slice, 3 sodas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Craving sugar.

DINNER: 9:30pm, spaghetti & meatballs, soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:30pm, quart of water

French toast for Wifey

I woke up early to preheat the oven and pan. Last night I brought home 9 small slices of the restaurant's focaccia. I whipped some heavy cream, beat 2 eggs into it, seasoned it generously with cinnamon, powdered sugar and salt, then placed the bread to soak in it in a plastic container over night. The liquid was kind of viscous from the whipping, but still loose enough to be soaked up.

This morning not much liquid was left in the container, sponged up by the hearty pieces of bread. A generous lump of butter browned in the pan, and all 9 pieces crowded in. After 5 minutes, I flipped it (it was nice dark brown, not burnt at all) and placed the whole mess in the oven for another 5 minutes. When I took it out, it had firmed up nicely but barely brown on the flip side so I fried it for another 3 minutes to a nice golden color. Plated with a dash of powdered sugar. Wifey claims it was the best breakfast of all time, but I think that was just her baby bump speaking (and if that were to be it speaking, not a bad thing to say!) I think I could have gone sweeter with the batter, the whipping was unnecessary and made it too viscous and maybe more salt, too.

Being that the focaccia is the pizza dough baked in a slightly different method, I guess this is the closest I'll be getting to pizza french toast...

ADDENDA:
Spent the morning finishing the closets and shifting a lot of stuff to deep storage in the hall storage room. Last time I cleaned out my closets was the week after my father passed. Now I'm cleaning them out in anticipation of his grandchild. Closets are weird metaphysical spaces that hold our stuff for the benefit of our parents and our children.

Lower back is achy. Went to yoga to work it out.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, focaccia french toast, apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, left over rice & beans, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Still good, must make this again and freeze a few batches. Very filling.

SNICKLESNACK: 4pm, portobello panino, vegan ceasar salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, scallion pancake, bulgogi, a few spoonfuls of white rice, kimchi, toasted rice tea, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, slice of apple pie and vanilla ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5