Lacking peanut butter satisfaction

Woke up to rain, but still longing for the long bike ride out to Montauk that I was missing. Momma-in-law came over in the morning, so I cooked pancakes for everyone, came out tougher than I thought it would, made a dozen for the freezer. In the late afternoon B, E and I went out to dinner then a nice walk up into East River Park.

BREAKFAST 1: 10:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Blended a shot of dairy milk with the coconut flesh yesterday and let it steep over night. Strained into the smoothie, had no notable coconut favor. Good yogurt, banana, blueberry, pinch of vanilla sugar, pinch of salt.

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, 3 small pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yomomma came over, I made pancakes using the c-school recipe, though this time I tried following it to the letter. Two things I don't like - a 4oz ladle makes a HUGE pancakes, the kind that covers a lot of a plate, I prefer mine the size of a large palm. The other is it calls for wiping down the pan in a neutral oil like canola -- I much prefer sauteing on a sheen of butter.

PM SNACK: noon, ounce of vanilla sugar
Used my vanilla sugar in every thing this morning, only had a dab left, not enough for much. So I ate it with my wet finger. Reminded me of that horrible candy thing when I was a kid, which was like 4 attached packets of different colored powdered sugar, and two compressed-sugar sticks to lick and scoop out the sugar. Yes, it was sweet.

DINNER PT 1: 4pm, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A good strategy: before going out to eat in the neighborhood, fill up on a big green salad at home!
DINNER PT 2: 5pm, marinated mushrooms, bread, fresh pasta with clams, 1 meat ball, chocolate tort, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Frankies, where me n' B had our rehearsal dinner. It's the summer, clams are in season, but this pasta dish was overwhelmed by lemon juice. Linguine with clams is a simple dish. Fresh pasta, olive oil, a little salt and pepper, freshly shucked clams simply warmed by the pasta, and a squirt of lemon. The two things I should taste are oceany clams and wheaty pasta -- the oil and lemon should just highlight those, not overwhelm them. Makes me wanna make this at home.

And I noticed something odd about the pasta that took me a few minutes to figure out....the flat roundness of the linguine noodle is something I'm used to in dry pasta but expect a sharp edge in fresh. This pasta was extruded through a dye, not cut by a roller like I do at home. Hmmm.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 peanut butter tofutti cuties, 6 mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
On the walk back this evening, we stopped in the local super market. We were both desiring something sweet, neither that hungry. B expressed concern that since she ate meatballs for dinner, dairy would be hard on her system. So I purchased some peanut butter flavored tofutti cuties, which tasted like cold watery soy milk with a touch of peanut in it. So when she started saying that the dark chocolate peanut butter cups she had were the most amazing thing ever, I had to stop in at the CVS on the way home and pick up a bag.

They were good, but not great. Both the cuties and the cup promised peanut butter satisfaction but neither quite delivered. My next ice cream must be a peanut butter or peanut butter fudge creation....