Overcooked, Tough Monday

Spent the day cooking and doing errands. Was back at c-school taking care of some paperwork, ran into Late Kid -- he was late every day and eventually got expelled. He had to re-enroll and do a bunch of classes over, hence him having a whole month to go. Also ran into my friend/advisor A, had a nice chat about things. Looking forward to being back in school the day after tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, good yogurt with vanilla, honey and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
When I was at the market today, was disturbed by the high price of vanilla extract. So when I got home and was preparing french toast for dinner, I took the two spent vanilla beans I used and placed them in a mason jar full of cheap vodka. I'm going to keep on adding spent beans and in a month or so when the liquid is near black, I'll strain it and -voila- a pint of vanilla extract for cost of a tumbler of assed-out vodka.

LUNCH: 2pm, sauteed pork chop in pan sauce, 1.5 baked potatoes, ramekin of caramel ice cream, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooked up the chop as I learned in c-school, came out medium, despite me aiming for rare. I think the pan was not quite hot enough. The other thing was the store-bought stock, I reduced it before adding it to the sauce but it still tasted...watery and salty. Stock should never be pre-salted for just that reason, but tell that to the boneheads who package the stuff. I gotta make my own stock.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, handful of apple cinnamon mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a new batch of these muffins, substituted whole wheat pastry flour for AP. Maybe overcooked them a bit, they're denser and bit tougher and overcooked than the previous batch.

DINNER: 6:45pm, french toast, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
It only soaked in the batter for 3 or 4 hours, and the pan and oven were both running too hot, it came out a little bitter and a little tough. Seems to be the theme of the day!

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, salsa fresca with flax corn chips, a few mini muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made this salsa today, with left over ingredients from the Israeli salad, though I swapped out parsley for cilantro and forgot the garlic. Too much lemon, not enough salt, not much flavor. I really blew it cooking-wise today.