Cheeky

The day was centered around having lunch with some friends at Pulino's, then having a date with B in the evening, involving dinner out at a restaurant. Lunch included an afogato, a scoop of gelato in a shot of espresso. The espresso was cooled, so the gelato didn't melt too fast, causing me to drink a little of the minimally sweetened stuff before the ice cream really hit it.... hmmmm. I think I like espresso. I've never really drank coffee (or smoked cigarettes) because I was bummed by my mom's addictive behavior, but I think I may have to reconsider a good cup of espresso. Manhattan Special snuck in, but now it seems too sweet, acidy and carbonated.

Definitely ate a little too much, and ate a little too much at dinner, but in both cases it was sharing such pleasure with who I was eating with, it seemed wrong to eat less. I ordered beef cheeks at dinner, an extremely tough, gristly piece of meet that when slow braised properly in beef stock becomes amazingly tender and flavorful -- this was the first time I've had it since c-school, and made me sorry my wife is attempting vegetarianism, as this is the kind of dish that kind of encapsulates how good an extreme "beefy" flavor can be.

I gotta get on the wagon, eating-wise.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, glass of iced mint green tea, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:30am, a pizza's worth of pizza, a little smoked sable, a little fennel salad, lemoncello cocktail, water, afogato, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4.5

DINNER: 6pm, braised beef cheek with potato and polenta chips, eggplant parm, various chocolate things, bread, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pizza Della Tazza

Woke up with my buttocks sore -- the lunges of my work outs of the day before definitely felt. I originally hoped to work out 4 times a week, but allowing myself to fully recover seems it will be more like 2x a week. Are buns of steel too far off?

I had 2 pints of beer the night before and not enough sleep, and with the rain outside, the day was mellow. Put away laundry, cleaned up the house a bit, took a walk with Edie for some chores in the hood.

I baked up some cupcakes for my friend MAP's event, Cupcake Camp, basically a cupcake exchange on steroids at a local bar. Doing a sweet thing would be...excessive, so I went in the savory direction. Cupcakes have been trendy for a while, and my own preference for pizza has been trendy, so I thought to jam the two food trend together, however awkward. Using this buttermilk corn muffin as a base, I added minced fresh oregano & basil, a dash of red pepper, threw in the egg yolks, and a large fist of grated parm. When in the cup, I inserted a small piece of browned hot Italian sausage, then topped with a small piece of moz, drizzled some tomato sauce on top of the cheese, then baked. Once cooled, used a star-tip to pipe some ricotta (smoothed with a little heavy cream and olive oil) to add a florette, and topped with half a grape tomato.

I went to the event, but a) it was super crowded in a small space and b) it was way more sugar than any body should eat in one sitting. I purposefully ate dinner right before going, so resisting the siren's call wasn't too difficult.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, whole wheat matzo farfel, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 pizza-cupcakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, shrimp, sauteed spinach, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, 1 tiny 1-bite chocolate cupcake

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, homemade granola, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Haggis ain't all that

Did a weight regimen in the morning, made some good waffles, ate pizza in Union Square with a friend, and went out to a Scottish restaurant with bunch of peeps for dinner. Haggis ain't all that, minerally like a blood sausage, gritty in a good way from oats. The Beef Wellington I ate was surprisingly good, makes me want to go out and braise something, but if I'm trying to keep red meat to once a week, that may have to wait. Dinner involved carousing, which involved 2 beers, which was a bit too much for me, but considering my company all downed 4+, I guess that's restraint, right?

AM SNACK: 7:15am, glass of mint iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 2 wholewheat buttermilk waffles, 3 slices bacon, quart o' water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Experimented with the waffles again, replacing whole milk with buttermilk, keeping wholewheat pasty flour and light brown sugar. Damn if it just didn't get a bit better. This was almost restaurant quality, if I can only tame the persnickety caste-iron...

LUNCH: 1pm, low-cheese pizza, seltzer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 slice demi hippy bread with hummus, some granola, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, Beef Wellington, a few cockles, a little lamb sausage roll, a few pieces of cured meat, a spoonful of haggis, 2 pints of beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Amazing jumping cookies!

Slept for 13 hours, it just snuck up on me. Still a little sore from the weight work out on Monday, but tomorrow should be ready for another lifting session. Took it easy and stayed in and played with the Edie until Yomomma arrived around 1, then took off to teach. We prepared a very rich risotto, and my supervisor supplied unusually good chocolate chip cookies which jumped down my throat.

But despite that cave, I did avoid drinking soda at school and eating pizza and sodas at the restaurant after. I was hoping the risotto would get me through, but found myself scavenging in the kitchen in the evening. I need to reup on my snacks, to get me more in the green zone...

AM SNACK: 8am, glass of iced mint green tea
I made a batch of mint syrup yesterday, and I noticed something weird about it this morning -- it had recrystallized in the plastic container!! I knew this was possible, but I never saw it happen before. I guess I need to reheat it, but I wonder if that will effect the mint flavor...

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: Noon, herring on demihippy bread with avocado, flax corn chips with salsa, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, cranberry lime seltzer

DINNER: 5pm, sausage fennel risotto, 3 chocolate chip cookies, lime seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, flax corn chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, Ritz cracker-like crackers with good peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Worn out

Only got 6 hours of sleep last night. First thing after breakfast, hauled ass to the supermarket with Edles strapped to me. Once I got home, between getting stuff away and dealing with Edie, pretty much took off again to meet Y for lunch in Chinatown. When I was coming home from that, started to realize just how tired I was. I decided to skip Food Coop business, which is a good thing -- I fell asleep at around 7pm on the couch, transferred myself to bed at 8, and would not wake until B needed to split at 8 the next morning...

AM SNACK: 8:30am, glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla and raw cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 1: 12:30pm, large green salad, flax corn chips with salsa, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 2: 2pm, crab-pork dumplings, spicy string beans, sauteed shrimp with vegetables, a little white rice, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, left over shrimp and string beans, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, freshly baked banana bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wholewheat flour, extra bananas. Despite the butter and eggs, this is definitely in the green zone.

Monday, with strengths and weaknesses

I had some crazy idea that being it's Monday, I'd try for an all-green day, but the social meal of the day knocked me out with sweets and alcohol.

Did my first whole weight-work out this morning, felt a little feeble but it was fun with the music and the Edie observing from her crib. Improvised a potato salad with stuff laying around the kitchen, then attended a baby's birthday party. Edie was feeling awfully clingy, crying every time I put her down for the first hour, but she loosened up. Good thing I love holding her! Afterwards met up with B and walked home, rode out to Coney and back. Feel good.

AM SNACK: 9am, glass of iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, crispy brown rice cereal with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON TASTING: 12:30pm, bites of potato salad
Made a batch of potato salad for a kiddie party attending this afternoon, using stuff laying around the house. Bag of red bliss mini potatoes, egg yolks & olive oil with some mustard powder to make mayo, fresh rosemary, parsley, carrot and celery, salt, Worcestershire, some hot pepper, voila, potato salad...

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 wedges of eggplant and zucchini hero, bits of industrial potato salad, macaroni salad and some of my own potato salad, 1 brownie, 1 piece of carrot-cream cheese cake, 1 glass wine, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a 1 year-old's birthday party. They had a several feet of vegetarian hero and some bland sides, to which my potato salad sat with. Funny, the industrial potato salad was bone-white and was simply potato slices in loose white mayonaisy blandness. My potato salad was a rich yellow color (from the yolks in my mayo), studded with crunchy bits, herbs and the loose red skins coming off the quartered potatoes.

DINNER: 9pm, baked ocean perch, sofrito brown rice & beans, smoothie pop, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got a frozen fillet of perch, sprinkled a bunch of old bay seasoning and wacked it in the oven -- before c-school, I'd be too intimidated to just cook a simple piece of fish without instructions, now it seems ridiculously easy.

Peeps, fneh!

An enjoyable, though not healthy, eating day. Out to brunch with a friend at Schillers, out to dinner with a bunch of B's friends at Otto. Dinner was in honor of Easter, and marsh mellow peeps were passed around -- the first time I've ever had one. Very...unremarkable. Thank goodness that tomorrow is a brand new week, wipe the slate and try to do better.

AM SNACK: 9am, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 10:30am, bagel with cream cheese and lox, side of sausage, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:45am, chocolate donut, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5pm, bread, a peep, various seafood antipasti, various slices of pizza, gelato, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5