My Wife and Her Evilly Nice Ways

Hit up the Union Square farmer's market with the slow-strolling B this morning, then had the most delicious nap with her and her big belly on the couch before taking off for the Prospect Heights restaurant for a pizza cooking shift. After spending the week in an unopened restaurant thinking about all the systems and policies and training we need to get in place, it's nice to slot into a well-run well-oiled machine.

BREAKFAST: 8am, pancakes and bacon, lemon soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't made pancakes at home in a long time. I remembered the pancakes we made in c-school were SO much better than the ones I made that it was a little infuriating. So this morning I busted out my course books and looked up the pancake recipe and it became immediately apparent why this recipe was superior to the one I've been using, a modified recipe of one I pulled off the internet. Two things: it uses both baking soda and baking powder in larger amounts to achieve a fluffier, springier product and secondly, it uses a shot of melted butter in the batter to give it that distinct pancakey flavor you won't get even if you fry the damn thing in butter, like I've been doing! Hot damn! Made a half recipe, still had 6 pancakes left over for the freezer.

Picked up a Boylan's Lemon soda the other day, a new flavor. It's their spin on 7-Up/Sprite, and damn if it's not superior to those brands. Best lemon soda I've had, helped by the pure cane sugar flavor.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, most of a cider donut, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
At the farmer's market, B said she wanted a cider donut, but only a bite. To my surprise, she was telling the truth!

AM SNACK: 11:45am, pint of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3pm, slice with sausage & onions, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, rigatoni in mushroom sauce, water, chocolate cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 12:15pm, chocolate cupcake, quart of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
This is what happens when you have a loving wife who leaves you sweet snacks for you -- you eat chocolate cupcakes after midnight! Blaaaaaaag!!

From lamb to pork

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, half a buttered bagel and 6 slices of bacon, .75 bowls, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, roast pork wonton soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Midtown cheap lunch with D, absolutely wonderful. Love in the air? Nah! Pork is in the air!

PM SNACK: 2pm, toll house cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, packet of peanut m&ms, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Airports make me eat sweets. I had to search for the single serving m&ms, as they put the movie theater-size bags up front and hide the normal size. One of those big bags, which one could mistake for a single serving, has over 800 calories!

PM NIBBLE: 6:45pm, forkful of halava
Sweets from HVSland, B is already knocking it back!

DINNER: 8:30pm, Cesar salad, spicy garlic bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from a local pizzeria, Two Boots Tavern, who just reopened yesterday. Couldn't bring myself to order pizza.

Lamb 5 ways

After school, spent the day at the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge. Eating pizza, stretching dough with the kitchen staff, chewing the fat with some front of house staff, revising the menu with L, then going out to dinner with him and D. Long, intense day.

Tomorrow, the HVS comes back to us! YAAAAY! I gotta come correct and either yogacize or ride bikes tomorrow morning....

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cornflakes with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, cart poundcake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices various pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 slice minted Sicilian, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, lamb broth, a spoonful of lamb liver, slow roasted lamb, lamb chop, lamb and rice, sweet mint tea, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
My friend met me at the restaurant after hours and hung out with me and L, and after a discussion about how we all could go for some lamb, both D and L expressed a love of a Yemenite restaurant on Atlantic and off we went. From soup and appetizer to three entrees, it was a demonstration in all the ways secondary cuts can be be made fantastic by method and correct seasoning. A spectacular meal.

Tired But Good

Long day, but it passed in a hot moment. Woke up at an ungodly hour to make a 4:30am trip for a tour of the Hunt's Point fish market with the school, then home and off to the restaurant under the bridge by 11am for pizza training and hanging out. Working on a graphics package for the shop, but not enough time to make real head way. Had to go to a drinks thing to send off my nutritionist, who is ditching NYC to go get an organic farm up and running all the way over in the wilds of Massachusetts, then to an opening of a design store in Soho which a close friend is managing. I'm so tired, but good.

BREAKFAST: 3:45am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 7:30am, large muffin, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, whole wheat unsalted pretzel, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:15pm, 2 slices pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, shot of Manhattan Special, half glass of white wine, 3 shots of various natural sodas, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Tasting various stuff we may serve in the shop.

PM DRINK: 6pm, glass of shiraz, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
At Ilsa's good-bye party, we'll miss hah.

DINNER: 7:45pm, shrimp burritto, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, caramel ice cream. water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Binging like I'm 28 again!

Intense day at the pizzeria, dealing with a lot of managerial responsibilities that I've taken on. DOH inspection is hopefully next week. We don't have any flour in store, and the pizza cooking training doesn't continue until tomorrow.

By the time I hit the supermarket before getting home, realized I was in a bad place -- starving in a supermarket. I just went to my base instincts and bought frozen White Castle and pre-packaged onion rings. I almost bought a box of Enteman's chocolate chip cookies, but remembered how not great they are and how much cookies from scratch roooool over them.

As I was peddling home, I regretted the onion ring purchase -- the beer battered onion rings we made in Culinary were so good, and so easy to make. And if I was going to deep fry anyway, it's really not that much work...unfortunately after busting out a simple recipe, I realized I had everything in my cupboard except....onions. D'oh! The White Castle frozen burgers were filling, but....they didn't taste like anything, very weird. They're definitely more an idea of a burger than actual burgers. The original intention was to make grilled cheese for B, which I did, but I couldn't wait for her, so I downed all those burgers and onion rings while I waited.

Tomorrow, back to some pizza. Eating like I did 10 years ago is a nice place to visit once every bunch of years, wouldn't want to live there again.

BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted bagel with hummus and smoked salmon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, half a Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, half an apple, snip of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, 6 pack of frozen white castle, deep fried packaged onion rings, half a grilled cheese sandwich, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Pizza free, day 2

Woke up just not hungry, but by the time I went on break at school, I was hungry enough to feel a bit nauseous. Went straight to the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge fully expecting more experimental pizzas, but the dough was done and no flour, so the time there ran towards menu design and construction until Louis had to take off to take care of insurance details. Tomorrow, I'm going back to observe an pre-inspection by the DOH, should be interesting!

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, cart poundcake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:45pm, shrimp and veg in red curry sauce over sticky rice, shrimp chips, water. 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, butternut squash soup, flax sesame corn chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had the soup in the freezer for a good few months, glad it still tasted pretty good out of the microwave.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, peanut butter and nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pizza-free Sunday

Spent a wonderful day with B, and it was a day with out pizza. Woke up before 7 on my own, which was nice as my body clock is finally used to 8am classes. Got out of the house at 8 to go to Russ & Daughters for some fishes and cream cheese, then stopped by Kossars for a bag o' bagels. Made some freshly squoze OJ and baked some apple cinnamon mini muffins based on this recipe, but swapped out the milk for heavy cream. Unfortunately, I didn't adjust enough for the miniature size of the muffin, and many burnt on the bottom. Next time, drop the temp to 350 and lessen the time to 18 minutes or so instead of 25.

B's momma came over for the brunch spread and we had a nice afternoon, though in the Frankenberger style, we napped and when I woke up, momma was gone.

BREAKFAST: 7am, 2 freezer waffles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, tops of burnt mini apple muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, a few mini apple muffins, onion bagel with cream cheese, sable, thin sliced purple onion, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, momma style salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Felt the need for salad, glad I had stuff in the fridge. The colors and landscape of the salad was so pretty, had to take a pic. Now, if a pizza could look like that...

DINNER: 7:15pm, egg roll, shrimp toast, Singapore chow mai fun, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
While B was sleeping, I was watching an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares where he was complaining that the chef deep-fried 90% of his menu. Nothing better than a comfy Chinese take out to watch some of the Oscars, featuring 2 deep fried appetizers while my wife continues to bake our baby in her oven as she rests.

And yes, this is a hell of a lot of more reasonable portion than a combination brick, Ilsa...

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, homemade caramel ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5