Cookin' like I mean it

Spent part of the morning making simple syrup for sorbet. Sorbet can be relatively easy to make with an ice cream machine, but not if you ain't got no sorbet syrup. Pint of water, on the fire stir in a mix of 11 oz of granulated sugar and quarter ounce of powdered gelatin. When it's all dissolved, drop in about 3 oz of light corn syrup, bring to a rolling boil. Pour into a clean container (any stray bits will cause crystallization), chill until ready to use.

When I got home from grocery shopping, I put my barefoot & pregnant wife to work depitting about a quart of cherries, which I then simmered in a quarter inch of water to loosen them up. Ran them in the food processor into a fine puree, and in the blender I placed the pint of gelatinous syrup, a dash of cinnamon, juice of half a large lemon, and a quarter ounce of kirsch...

I pulled this recipe from my c-school text, didn't make this one in class, I think I did lime sorbet then. The recipe calls for "kirsch", which when plugged into google comes back as a cherry brandy. After food shopping, I stopped by my local liquor store in the heart of the Lower East Side, and I ask the counter guy, "Do you carry kirsch?" To which he replied, "Are you making German chocolate cake?" To which I replied, "Nah, cherry ices from scratch." "Ah," he replied, turned around and pulled out a bottle of "Kirschwasser". Something tells me that if it wasn't the L.E.S., this would not of been so easy to source. Anyway...

Poured the cherry puree into the syrup mix, and blended for a solid two minutes. Poured through a fine metal mesh into a plastic container, which removed a surprisingly large amount of cherry pulp, and into the fridge.

Was hoping to catch a yoga class with the HVS today, but an hour before our cradle arrived and I made the mistake of immediately setting it up. After some frustration, I came to the conclusion that a key piece was defective, but by then I realized class was starting in 10 minutes... -sigh- ...third time in a row I flaked on a class, you think with me not on a work schedule I'd be less flaky.

Took my time making a massive quantity of asparagus risotto, kind of merging a Batali recipe, a c-school recipe, and just kind of winging it by eyeball. It came out very creamy and pretty good, though after eating a portion I had to go seriously up on the salt. Almost as an afterthought, got some chicken breasts out of the freezer, zapped them, coated them in olive oil, chili sauce and Worcestershire sauce, light salt, and off to the grill pan, where I got some nice marks going on. After all that, just didn't have the time or the space to make creamed spinach, maybe tomorrow.

After dinner, I got the cherry sorbet mix into the freezer barrel, but even though it took on air, it was way too loose to eat, needs to set overnight. -sigh-

BREAKFAST: 7:30 am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Using what was left: a very ripe banana, good yogurt and good milk, heavy on blueberries and cherries, fresh ground flax, vanilla, salt, sugar. Came out good but without the grape and kiwi, definitely not as well-rounded.

I wonder how many calories are in this thing. Less than 3 hours later, I got hungry again...

BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, toasted sesame bagel with whipped cream cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 1:15pm, pasta with olive oil, butter, Worcestershire sauce and garlic, snippet of cookie dough, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 3:45pm, a couple small slices of artichoke pizza, half a diet Manhattan special, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
I miss L's pizza, but this variation was not the best.


DINNER: 9:30pm, one and half grilled chicken breasts, reasonable scoop of asparagus risotto, small amount of crappy Wholefoods trailmix, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I'm glad I was able to cook my ass off AND resist overeating. In the past, when I cooked lots of complicated heavy food, I used the excuse to eat an extra portion. This time, I got a whole mess of extra portions into the fridge and freezer, 'cause when the bebe comes, I may not be able to take a night to cook in peace with my B as my personal dish washer...