Gout

AM SNACK: 8:30am, 8oz glass of iced mint green tea
Made this last night -- 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of water boiled. Turn off heat, put in the leaves of 2 bunches of mint, let sit for an hour covered. Boiled 8 cups of water, turn off heat, place 4 high quality green-tea bags in for 3 minutes, then removed bags. Put 1 cup of strained syrup into the hot tea, let sit for an hour before refrigerating. This morning, took a sip and....was way too sweet. Added about 1/4 water, still too sweet but better. Next time will do half the amount of syrup. Very tasty, honest green tea vegetal flavor, well complimented by the minty sweetness. My concern like yesterday, is this sweet enough to be considered a dessert?

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pint of smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, green grapes, mango, blueberries, cherries, acai juice, the good yogurt, fresh ground flax seeds, homemade vanilla extract, sea salt. The acai juice definitely gives a too-berry flavor to the proceedings, and there added-sugar in it. Hmmmm.

LUNCH: 11:45am, sofrito brown rice & beans with cheddar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap, the salty-gooeyness of this high-end sharp Australian cheddar made the rice n' beans pop like crazy, a 1 star dish became 3 stars with that adjustment. Glad I made so much now! Still needs more sofrito and beans in it, though...

EARLY DINNER: 5:30pm, 1/2 baked chicken breast, sauteed fresh spinach, samples of 3 kinds of mac n' cheese, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooking with the students. The center of the class was sauce, so the mac n' cheese was the star, with three versions -- plain, bacon and mustard, and a jerk & onion. Pretty intense, but my once-a-week pasta...

LATE DINNER: 8:30pm, this menu plus about 5 inter-course (he he) amuse-bouches , one gin cocktail, 1 glass of wine, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5 at the beginning and 1/5 by the last amuse-bouche
No pasta during the meal, or anything totally forbidden, but suffice to say, there was red meat, there was alcohol, there were 2 dessert courses and 2 dessert amuse-bouches. Though each plate was tiny, over the course of 2.5 hours, it really accumulated in the stomach. All of the dishes were tiny pieces of art, with many foods in either tube, coin or ball shape.

Two thoughts: This was a fantastic present from my friend E, it was easily the highest-end meal I've had since culinary school, and the privilege of taking so much time with each little thoughtful dish really brought to light how much more I taste and understand the contrasts, harmonies and little jokes a high-falutin' chef can make on a plate. Second: More than once a year of a meal like this is guaranteed gout and obesity.