Celebrate Me!

Got to the restaurant around 11 to help with mise, random friends of the restaurant rolled in around 1pm, friends of the me around 2-3, and we just rolled out assorted pizzas until close to 6:30, was really nice and relaxed and social in a good way. I had the idea of a table situation, but once people bellied up to the bar, it just seemed natural, and I got to hold court behind the bar and get a good chat in with everyone and serve various beverages. Definitely probably the most enjoyable birthday party I've ever thrown for myself, though it's not often one gets to take over the majority of restaurant in downtown Brooklyn for an afternoon without having to pay a lot o' money.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, spoonful of yogurt, honey and vanilla
Not that into it without nuts, kinda amped for the coming day of pizza.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 pancetta balls, a few bites of vegetable mise, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Prepped at the restaurant a bunch of salad stuff, including celery, cucumber. We reheated some 4 day old deep fried pancetta balls in the pizza oven and they came out quite good, may be a menu item because they held so well.

LUNCH: 2-6pm, various slices of pizza, various sips of wine and beer, a small portion of gelato cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Normally I would eat a massive amount in a situation like this, but I was just having too much fun talking to people.

DINNER: 9pm, matzoh ball soup, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh my! My mother-in-law gave me a pack of homemade frozen matzoh balls today for my b-day, and poking around the kitchen, considering ordering in, then found these...right near my frozen chicken stock I made a while back!! BWAAAAH!!! The code in my DNA made me immediately crave bits of chicken and noodle in the soup, but I made it straight up with just the stock, balls and a bit of salt and pepper. Man, my momma-in-law is good to me.

Intense Day

A long but fun day at the restaurant. A blurb on line got a few more people popping in and calling, asking what and when it's all going to happen. Tomorrow, I've invited friends to come to the restaurant for a pre-soft opening / birthday lunch. We've been talking it up to some locals who might join us, and a harpist hungry for work is playing for free, which is nice/weird. Never had a harpist play at a birthday party for me!

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl

AM SNACK: 11:30am, samples of 3 different kinds of soup with excellent baguette, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Almondine down the street, really high quality.

PM SNACKING: 12noon-8pm, various snippets of gelato, a sampling of cheeses, celery and olives (an appetizer we're figuring out the presentation), a few sodas, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tired again!

Weird day. After class, took the subway to work as my bike had a flat. Led the first staff meeting of the restaurant, was a good vibe. Still absorbing everything.

BREAKFAST: 7am, BLT on toasted bagel with homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to the diner on my block, something I used to do often before I went to c-school and realized how shitty the food was. Still, I'd gone there with my parents, and it was nice to commune with them for a few minutes before starting the day. Though it does make me wish that my parents took me to, say, a juice bar rather than a greasy spoon!

PM SNACK: 12:30, pretzel roll with a small dollop of cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Right before work, from Almondine, really nice.

PM TASTING: 5pm, several wines, a few olives and cheese, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, roast chicken, mussels, piece of bread, glass of wine, bite of cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Vinegar Hill with L and his daughter V, who is also the head of front of house. Really nice place, in an out of the way corner of the greater DUMBO area. Usually don't eat chicken or mussels, but it was on L's recommendation and he was right: they were both fantastic, honest dishes.

I can cook that!

I attended a birthing class with B this evening. Before, I was a bit skeptical about the utility of FIFTEEN HOURS (spread over 5 lessons) talking about birthing, and after...I still am. Unfortunately, they closed the class with a video, including exploding vajayjays and and wrinkly blue baby-monsters. One thing they talked about in the film is the minor contractions after the birth that dislodge the placenta (afterbirth)....of course, they had to show that, too. And the doctor playing with it in a bucket, showing us the bits....all I could think was, huh, that looks like sweetbreads from culinary school....I could cook that! Sorry. I'll spare you the method.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Falling asleep in class, didn't want cart cake as it tends to give me a stomach ache. Wandered around the corner to evil Starbucks, was actually good. And a smaller portion than the big cart cake.

LUNCH: 1pm, street gyro, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In a rush, on foot downtown doing restaurant errands. Had to eat, grabbed this because it was cheap and available. Good the first 3/4 of the way, disgusting the last 1/4 -- not a good sign.

PM GELATO TASTING: 3pm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
We got gelato in! Me and a bunch of folks just sat around and had little spoonfuls of the stuff and talked about the flavors. Hard work, but someone's gotta do it.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, half a Manhattan Special

PM WATERING: 5:45pm, bottle of seltzer

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp and stringbeans, a little brown rice, shrimp toast, quart of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Chinese food, not very hungry, tired, busy.

Tired

Absolutely exhausted. Was at the place under the bridge from 8:30-5:30, then at the Prospect Heights joint cooking 6 to 10:30. Now that we're aiming for a soft opening next week, there is too much to do and not enough time in the day. It was nice to be able to go into a fully set up operation and turn off the brain a little and just toss dough and pull pizza. I'm so tired right now.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, a few olives

PM SNACK: 12:30, a couple of square of my rice crispy bar from the weekend

PM SNACK: 2pm, quarter bottle of Manhattan Special

PM SNACK 4pm, a few tastings of dry sausage

DUNCH: 6pm-10pm, slice of pizza, 3 sodas, tiramisu, chocolate cake, 1 meatball, water, a few snips of bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's easy to graze when working in a fully operational restaurant!

Wine makes sense all of a sudden!

I spent the evening volunteering at class about pairing wine and food. I've taken a bunch of wine classes related to my culinary education that were mildly interesting, but in the end kind of unappealing and too full of hi-falutin' wine culture. This class, however, pretty much rocked my world from beginning to end. I never liked port, it's kinda like cough syrup mixed with wine and corn syrup. However, when matched with dark chocolate, the grosser elements of port got calmed down and it was all of a sudden like drinking a luscious cherry cordial. Wow! I still don't know a lot about wine, but all of a sudden it makes a lot more sense.

Between school and the class, spent a few hours at the restaurant -- we passed the DOH inspection! Now the only excuse we have for not being open is ourselves. I'm spending the day there accepting and inspecting deliveries. L referred to me twice today as the manager...which is fine, as long as I get to cook, too....

AM SNACK: 6:45am, bunch of baby carrots, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

BREAKFAST: 8am, cart sesame bagel with butter, water, .75 bowl hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, 10 pork & chive dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, quarter of a roast beef sammich, half a cup of mulligatawny soup, 8oz of coke, .75 bowl
We got some food from Almondine Bakery. Oh my, this was the best mulligatawny soup I ever had -- same flavor profile as the thin stuff I've had at crappy Indian restaurants, but this had a cream element to enhance the chicken stock and the lentils were fresh and the spicing just right. Wow.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, prosciutto balls, Manhattan Special soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The landlord stopped by to help celebrate us passing the DOH inspection today, brought us these amazing breaded deep fried balls of chopped up prosciutto and ricotta, spiced with a touch of black pepper, fresh and ungreasy and amazing. And the espresso soda to get me wired.

EVENING SNACK & WINE: 6:30-8:30pm, equivalent of 1.5 glasses of wine, tastes of prosciutto, salt, smoked almonds, piave cheese, dark chocolate, barbecue potato chips, honey, hot sauce, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING WATERING: 11pm, quart o' water

Wasn't supposed to happen, but pizza snuck in

I think I lazily ate too many sweets today, I just feel it in my stomach and head.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2/3 of a pint of B&J's "Half baked", .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the computer doing restaurant business all morning, didn't want to think about food, just sucked in what was convenient. Made me feel a bit bleah. Half-baked is one half chocolate chip cookie dough (bits of dough in vanilla) and one half fudge brownie (brownie chunks in chocolate ice cream) -- the ultimate B&J's-style garbage ice cream. Made me appreciate how little gelato goes such a long way, with those big clean flavors.

PM TASTE: 1pm, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter chocolate bar components
Made a recipe out of the Baked cookbook for one of B's best friends, who we hosted a little birthday get-together this evening. The base is cooked sugar to the softball stage mixed with butter and rice crispies, then a milk chocolate-peanut butter ganache, topped by a dark chocolate ganache. It's all very tasty, I just hope the consistencies come out right...came out ok, a bit chewier/tougher than I hoped, but definitely edible.


DINNER: 5pm, 1 glass white wine, handful of tiny sausage & kraut pizzas, 2 peanut butter chocolate bars, handful of baby carrots, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The focus of the canapes were supposed to be sausages and home-fermented kraut, but I couldn't stand to put it on a boring croute, and I had dough just sitting in my fridge from Friday night's Roman pizza class....so I banged out tiny 2" pizza shells, and topped them with pre-cooked sausage and kraut. For a laugh, I lined some mini-muffin tins with dough and filled them with a little raw kraut. I pinched the tops and baked them off...they were a similar vibe to the wonderful cabbage peroshki I had when I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, a few years ago. I really need K to come over and do some Grandma-style Ruskie cookin'....