Mochi all around

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BREAKFAST: 7:30am, the good yogurt with agave and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 ice cream mochi, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, glutenous rice in lotus leaf, pan fried mock-pork dumplings, mock shrimp wrapped in rice paper, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 2 ice cream mochi, flax seed tortilla chips with salsa, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, marinated grilled chicken breast strips, potato nick, 2 ice cream mochis, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Extravaganza!

Saw some pictures of myself from Thanksgiving, oy. I think I've gained the equivalent weight of Edie since Edie has been born. I don't have the heart to step on a scale. When I think about it, I don't think my weight is going to be significantly changed until I either go back to work, Edie goes into day care of some sort, my bike riding steps up in the Spring, I carve out some time for yoga and/or I revise my diet.

I was in the restaurant in the morning, then B&E joined me for lunch. We walked around Brooklyn, hitting up various bookstores and Trader Joes for groceries (food and books, that's our idea of a shopping extravaganza). I saw this book, pictured above, a lot of pictures and big words, that postulates that the real reason Americans are fat-asses are because dinner plates went from 9" to 12" some time in the 70s or 80s. It runs along the same idea why I measure my food intake in "bowls". Ilsa wanted me to get to 3 bowls a day -- today was 3.5.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic cheerios, organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 chocolate covered graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: noon, 1 small slice of pizza, Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, meatball appetizer, half a pizza, half a Manhattan Special, 3 chocolate covered graham crackers, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, most of a cheap sushi platter, 4 ice cream bon bons, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving lost in the wilderness. All my life Thanksgiving was my family unit's holiday -- one aunt had Hannukah, one grandmother had Passover, one uncle had the other day of Passover, another aunt had 4th of July, and we always had Thanksgiving, from when I was a kid growing up on Staten Island to my parent's apartment on the LES. My father died a week before Thanksgiving, and my mom and a few friends had Thanksgiving at my house, a first but it felt right. The next year, my mom was sick but home from the hospital, and we had Thanksgiving at her house, with a cousin and her kids visiting from California.

I started dating my wife then, and mom passed away in early January. By next Thanksgiving, I started attending her family's Thanksgiving, something they've been doing since my wife's childhood. It was warm, welcoming, appropriately Jewwy, but full of long associations and memories that were not my own.

But now with the fourth Thanksgiving with my wife and her family, and the first with my daughter, that's starting to melt a little, kinda like making compound butter in a mixer. The hard cold butter cubes go in, and beating it with the paddle eventually makes it smooth and fluffy, ready to accept whatever mix-ins you provide it before rehardening it in the fridge.

Where ever B's mom is, is Thanksgiving, and this year for the first time it was in her 1 bedroom apartment on the UES. There were about 10 of us, plus Edles. About 2/3 of the food was ordered in from a local diner, and the rest either brought in or made there (me & B & E arrived early so I could make the creamed potatoes from scratch, and I brought homemade ice cream and brownies, tea and lemonade from school.) The food was good. Could be a lot better.

Thanksgiving growing up was a....THE cooking holiday, which I imagine it is for most of America. Many family members brought something, but except for one particular fur-wearing non-cooking aunt, everyone either brought homemade stuff or wine. The menu was pretty much exactly the same year after year. My dad would make a crudite plate with hummus or French onion sour cream dip and roasted chestnuts to start. Dinner would be a roast turkey with gravy (from a jar), cranberry sauce (from a can), stuffing (Stove Top, what I'd be assigned to "make"), buttered lightly steamed string beans with mushroom, baked yams, soda, booze for the older folks, a random brought side dish, and desserts. Desserts were always brought, except for Dad's pumpkin pie (premade crust and filling out of a can.) Ice cream from the supermarket and usually a pie or two extra from guests. For many years through the 70s and early 80s, an uncle made chocolate mousse from scratch and it was fanTASTic. When he passed away in the late 80s, I missed his mousse more than I missed him.

Anyway, B's mom is great, but even with the catering, it's a lot of work on her shoulders. I really hope next year, now that Edie is here, this cooking holiday migrates from the UES to the LES, and B's mom chooses to have her Thanksgiving (and it will always be HERS, and everyone else just guests) in Edie's home, preparing us for the time when the torch has to be passed. I've been in training for this -- I just knocked off a Thanksgiving meal for 150! I can do 10!!

On a side note, when we got to Yomomma's house, the table was already set. Yomomma mentioned she had set it the day before. She got NOTHIN' on my momma -- she'd set the table on Monday for the Thursday meal!! And day of she'd have to go over every piece and dust it -- about the same amount of time it would have taken to just set it. But I understand it now -- it's the pleasure of allowing yourself to relax by being early.

AM SNACK: 9am, a few spoonfuls of freshly churned vanilla ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 11am, pumpernickel bagel with homemade butter, 5 slices o' organic uncured bacon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

THANKSGIVING DINNER: 3:30-8pm, handful of pigs in blankets, potato chips, sliced turkey boob, stuffing, gravy, salad, creamed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, parker house rolls, sweet tea, mint lemon aid, 1 glass prosecco, water, vanilla ice cream, brownies, 2.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sillier Dinner

Woke up at 5, was pedaling to Red Hook by 6, was knee-deep in prep and cooking by 6:30. Students started rolling in by 7, the dining room started getting set up around 11, the 150 mouths at 12:30 service at 1, and like a swarm of locusts, was all over by 1:30. It was fun to operate this machine, with many moving parts, warming it up early (literally and figuratively) and bringing it to one crescendo, followed by a smaller crescendo (dessert!)

The only thing I was really unhappy with was the turkey -- I've never actually roasted a turkey before (because, well, I don't like turkey and we roasted plenty of other meats in c-school) and I now know why it has such a bad rep. I don't mean bad rep, like evil factory farms, animals bred into unwalking, unhappy mutants or unhealthy hormones, antibiotics and chemicals stuffed into these poor birds. I mean it's REALLY difficult to roast a bird this size AND have it all come out good. If you get the center of the meat to 165˚, the outside is gonna overcook, period. Brining only got us so far. Looking at the pic above, yes, it's a nice color and yes, the butter basting let the skin come out nice n' crackly, but about 1/4 of the dark meat and 1/3 of the white was dry and tough, despite me following every method and maxim drawn from my experience.

If I were to do the bird again, I would either a) forgo roasting the bird all together and fry the mother or b) choose 3 smaller birds instead of 2 large, brine for 8 hours instead of 4 and baste twice as much. Oh well.

I missed Edles today. She is such a snuggly person to hang with.

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

KITCHEN TASTING, TESTING & SNACKING: 6:30am-2:30pm, bits of turkey, bits of ham, bits of creamed potatoes, a couple of brownies, a half piece of pumpkin cheese cake, several cups of mint lemonade and sweet tea, a few spoonfuls of cornbread stuffing, a taste of mac n' cheese, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice to overhear some students saying how much they liked the food. Overheard others that didn't. Hrumph.

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of pumpkin cheesecake, 3 quarts of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, Cesar salad, half a Lombardi's pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Silly dinner

Busy day finishing up recipes and thinking of organizing the kitchen, then going to the school and directing my students to prep a meal for 150. Not as all-consuming as spending a day in a restaurant through service, but a close second.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2/3 of a Wholefoods frozen pizza, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 2 pieces of pumpkin cheesecake, 1 small piece of cornbread, strong brewed sweet tea, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yes, a stoopid dinner, but this was what we had, after doing prep for tomorrow's school Thanksgiving. A lot more will be on offer tomorrow.

EVENING WATERING: 9pm, quart o' water

Everyone is a critic!

While the laundry was in, I peeled, chopped, and boiled a pear for about 5 minutes, then turned it into sauce in the spice grinder. It was still way too hot, so I placed it in a ramekin, placed a plastic sandwich bag with 2 ice cubes in its center, then placed it in the freezer for a minute. It came out pretty close to room temp.

While cooking this up, I strapped Edie into the high chair and tied a napkin around her neck to act as bib. She could tell what was happening, and started flapping her arms and giving the cry of expectancy. It didn't occur to me that making the pear would take this long (adults like hot n' steamy stuff, babies not so much), but when it arrived to her chair-shelf, her eyes were trained on the ramekin, and she started doing her panting. Unbelievably cute.

The first spoonful I put into my mouth to test temp and texture. Only a few weeks ago I had my first pear -- I did not like its texture, but I was hopeful. The temp today was tepid, the texture like, well, apple sauce. The first baby spoon goes into Edie's mouth and....she screws up her face, her eyes squint, her mouth opens in a distinct frown. She swallows, her face unscrews. She pants; I place another spoonful to her lips and she pulls forward to take it in. Repeat of face, a little cry now. We do this about 2 or 3 more times before she refuses to take the pear. It was like she didn't remember from spoonful to spoonful that she didn't like it until the last.

We go down to get the laundry in the dryer, and when we come back, I see her eyeing the leftover food. So I tie the bib around her neck and we go for it again. The first 2 spoonfuls got no frown!! But the third did, and the fourth was refused. She was rubbing her eyes. I picked her up and gave her a solid burping, just in case, then lay her down in the crib. Within a minute she was out cold. Enough food experiments for my beautiful daughter for one day, the rest of the day will be mommy milk and a little rice cereal.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good granola with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH PT 1: 12:30pm, rice & beans, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH PT 2: 2pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, baby carrots, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, pasta with homemade sauce, shrimp and ricotta, small amount of chocolate chips, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 2am, spoonful of peanut butter, small bowl of yogurt with agave, vanilla and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I fell asleep around 8, woke up around 1:30 and watched TV until I fell asleep again at 3.

Mitt-full

B left the house in the morning to meet a gal friend for brunch while me and Edles hung back and kept the home fires burning. E came over around noon to join me for a bike ride and when she went to pick Edles up out of the bouncy seat, she got a mitt full of baby poo -- it was quite hilarious, at least from my 5 year-old sense of humor.

B brought back some donuts, a good pre-ride munch. We were planning to ride up to City Island, but E wasn't feeling well so we ended up stopping in Harlem for beer and a rib, then riding back over the mighty Triboro. I got home by 3ish, wanting to take B & Edles out in the crisp fall air, but B wasn't feeling up to it. Instead, we danced around to psychedelic Temptations songs in our lair. A lazy Sunday evening with Thai delivery and too much TV ensued.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, the good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, potato nick, 1 donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, 2 ribs, a taste of mac n' cheese, a pint of beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, shrimp panang curry with sticky rice, curry puffs, salad, water, vanilla ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5