Making the HVS proud

I got to bed around 11:30pm, but when I woke up at 3am, I just knew I would not be going back to sleep: the beef and chocolate were coursing through my veins, and I wanted to ride. I had set the alarm for 5:30am, so it wasn't THAT much earlier. I felt a bit off -- it was humid and a little stuffy in the apartment, a sheen of sweat on my brow. 

I left the house at 4:45am in the moist darkness and did a loop around Manhattan, almost giving up because of tiredness at the northern tip, but pushed through. At the end of the ride, I met up with my friend E in Greenpoint and had breakfast at a usually-crowded hipster joint, but due to the unusualness of both of up and about at such an early hour, it was quite calm.

When arriving back home at precisely 10am, I was just in time for a meeting of the group who are responsible for the composting barrels right outside my building -- I got a key, and am now ready to get on down with the browns and greens! The HVS would be so proud.

B & Edles went to her brother's to hang out with her family, while I promptly passed out at 12:15 for 4 hours. I awoke to their arrival, when I promptly ordered in a pizza and salad from Lombardis. Gawd bless NYC. Green tea helped my resolve not to stuff down any sweets.

I spent the evening making my own version of Chunky Monkey ice cream -- basically my Creme Anglais ice cream custard with 4 ripe bananas blended into it, and a tray of cinnamon candied walnuts and a dish of banana liqueur-spiked dark chocolate ganache that will be cut into cubes, all going to be mixed in. I was happily resisting the urge to eat sweets when Betsy ripped open a box of chocolates I received as a gift and started taking a bite out of each piece. I could not help but sweep up after her, with my mouth! On the negative side, I was eating sweets, but on the positive side, it's part of why I love my wife so much! Hrumph!

BREAKFAST 1: 3:45am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST 2: 8:45am, gravlax with a little cream cheese on a soft roll, bacon, green tea, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, glass of iced mint green tea

DINNER: 5:45pm, pizza with mushroom and onion, Cesar salad, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, bites of random chocolates, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:45pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Edie the Destroyer

Edie, Destroyer of Computers: As I was typing away on the couch this morning on the laptop, Edie stands herself up between my legs, reached to the top of the screen and yanks backwards with all her weight --- CRACK! The spin of the laptop snaps, the screen falls back and the colors go all blinky and crazy. An hour later at the computer repair shop and $700 lighter, the true cost of a baby becomes apparent... but she was so gosh darn cute while she was destroying!

Ate reasonably most of the day, lifted some weights, a friend with baby came over and I fried up the rest of the latkes. In the early evening I took off on bike to Coney. Before I left, I was getting hungry and craved sugar, flourless chocolate cake was taunting me but took a detour to grapes. By the time I got to Coney, I realized I was REALLY hungry, the kind of hunger that would make me bonk if I didn't eat something a bit heavier. So Nathan's beckoned with a hot dog, something I would eat (2x as much) casually just a year ago, now I considered it. Tastes great, well made despite being fast food. The signage has calorie counts -- the dog is about 300 calories. A large chili cheese fries is about 1900 calories. Weird. 

Hunger really let loose when I got home, went freezer fishing and ate three once-a-week items in combo, oy. Very satisfying, though.

AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 8am, wholewheat buttermilk waffle, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, latkes with apple sauce, iced mint green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, grapes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK:6:15pm, hotdog, clif bar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 8:30pm, hot unsweetened green tea

PM SNACK:9:45pm, smoothie pop

DINNER: 10pm, homemade beef chili over fresh pasta with cheddar, flourless chocolate cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bourginon

I made (and ate) a complex dinner, with lots of help from my friend MAP, for 7 people, and while it was very rich food, two things saved me: I served very modest portions (a few people wanted seconds, which was nice), and I ate very lightly all day, which was easy because the food was quite laborious.

MAP came over around noon, and we immediately started on Julia Child's famous beef bourginon, which is basically just cheap beef cubes braised in stock and wine. We had to brown bacon lardons, cube some bottom round and brown it all in the bacon fat a few cubes at at time, then brown the veg, then bake it all in a coating of flour and seasoning to get some crust going, then cover it in wine and stock with herbs and aromatics, then bake it covered for 3 hours, while braising pearl onions separately, sauteing white mushrooms separately, and after the braise, separating the braising liquid, defatting, reducing, and tossing everything back together. While all that was happening, we dashed out latkes and apple sauce, a flourless chocolate cake, and most interestingly, mint linguine.

I never made mint linguine, but thought in terms of lamb with mint sauce -- the vegetal character of mint in a savory dish really sets off a heavy red meat, and there are few red meats heavier than braised stew meat. Using the same method as spinach pasta, I blended eggs with mint leaves until there were no more leaves, and incorporated it into AP flour as I always do. The final product was pleasingly minty in a laid-back way, and really sang nice high harmony to the bourginon's deep bass-profundo chorus of flavors. The beef it self was a little dry and stringy (should of stopped at 2.5 hours, but we went out to get Edie on a swing and ended up cooking 3.25 hours, oy)

Peeps seemed to like the food, many bottles of wine consumed, Edie slept like a, well, baby. I hope I have more casual mid-week dinner parties like this as Edie gets older, so she sees how adults enjoy each other's companies, mediated by no more than good food and a few drinks.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, brown rice spicy shrimp nori roll, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, sardine sandwich on demihippy bread, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, mini latkes with spiced apple sauce, beef bouginon over mint pasta, chocolate plate including macarons, truffles and flourless chocolate cake, 2 glasses of wine, shot of amaretto, 1.75 bowl hunger 4/5

Happy happy joy joy!

Edie & I attended a baby swim class at a local indoor pool, one that I did not know about that is literally a 5 minute walk away from our door, but hidden in the depth of public housing. Surprisingly well maintained, clean, and almost entirely run and used by Asian peeps. Odd. I had a moment of concern, but literally 5 seconds after Edie hit the water, she was all smiles and happy happy joy joy!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, wholewheat buttermilk waffle, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:15am, grilled cheese on demi hippy bread, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't made grilled cheese in a while, not a light dish but definitely makes life taste good. good raw milk cheese, hearty whole grain bread.

PM SNACKING: 4-6:30pm, bits of pizza and pizza ingredients, a couple of juice drinks, a can of seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made pizza with the class, we served about 50 people. Funny, as we did this class it kinda reminded me just how deep my knowledge of the pizza making process is compared to someone who knows nothing. When the kid's pizza started sticking to their boards when trying to get the pies in the oven, I would pick up an edge and blow, making a little air wave under the raw pie. They thought that was cool. Now that I think about it, yeah, that is kinda cool!

DINNER: 7:30pm, small portion of lasagna and half a meatball, soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not my choice, this is a new menu item at the restaurant I needed to try, to write a menu description...

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, a little homemade granola, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Smoothie Ice Cream Experiment

Once I shook off the morning haze and got some smoothie in my, I did some weights and exercises -- my reps on push ups and sit ups are already improved. Still ridiculously low numbers, but nice to see any progress.

After a little book reading with Edie and lunch with a mom friend, got in the cooking groove and popped out a dinner for 4. After, spent pretty much the entire evening making beef stock (a 6 hour simmer time on top of 45 minutes of roasting bones) and preparing for tomorrow's class, my visit to the restaurant, and anticipating me n' Edies first swim class!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced mint green tea

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The smoothie pops I've been freezing with the excess have been good, but unless I lick it, I bite into large ice crystals that are unappealing in the mouth. So as an experiment, I ran today's excess through the ice cream maker -- whipping air into it as it froze, preventing large crystals and adding air to the volume. It seemed to work, but I only got two pops out of it -- so much was wasted getting stuck to the barrel's walls.

LUNCH: 12:15pm, half a porcetta pizza, 2 cured sardines on crusty bread, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Pulino's with a mom after the library baby event. Fortunately, she suggested the sardine app, a big green code. I am not red-lining the pizza despite it having pork on it because a) it was a relatively small amount on a small amount of pizza and b) it was a house cured whole-meat product, not a scary industrial dry sausage or something.

DINNER: 5:15pm, homemade mushroom ravioli with tomato sauce, roasted asparagus and portobello mushrooms, green salad with whole wheat croutons, 2 macarons, 4 truffles 1 glass wine, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A nice dinner with another couple in the 'hood with baby. 7 ravioli, 5 spears of asparagus, very moderate portions in my book. The croutons, made from whole wheat and toasted in the oven with butter and salt, really made the otherwise ordinary salad pop.

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, homemade granola, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

I GOTS FEETS!!

I was surprisingly sore in the legs from my ride yesterday -- that's good, that means my body is getting up to 100-mile abilities again. It was a slow 80 and dizzy at the end, but the next one will be stronger.

Me n' Edles went out to the BK to visit C and her 2 month old, then hit up the food market and spent the late afternoon and evening cooking. Made chicken stock (and shmaltz), salad for the week, dinner for myself, then macarons for the dinner party we're having tomorrow eve.

This was my third attempt at macarons -- the first was clownish, the second was better but still a bit amateur. This time I used proper professional food dye gel, not the liquid drops you get at a supermarket. Also, the kitchen was quite warm when drying out the batter after piping. Plus I cracked the oven open while baking to encourage drying. I gots the feet that make 'em look professional! Wooo!

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

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12 noon, mozzarella panini, small portion of fries, half a brownie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
There goes the first desert of the week!! Out to lunch with C and her baby, she wanted to share a desert, seemed unfriendly to say no.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, glass of black cherry soda

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, sauteed red pepper & garlic chicken sausage, roasted asparagus, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Simple asparagus -- tossed with a little olive oil and salt, put on a baking sheet and baked at 350 for 10 minutes. The tips were slightly brown, crisp but slightly soft, nice.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips and salsa, bits of macaron cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Unfortunately, the lack of a starch or carb left me awfully hungry as the evening went on.

Ride

Last week on my bike ride, I ate cheesy corn puffs that were imported from South America. On today's bike ride, I came across another bag of savory chips, this one proudly made in New York. How the packaging proclaims the potato stick as some sort of symbolic NY snack is beyond me.

After yesterday's heavy desserts, had a hard time falling asleep. Got to bed around 1, was up at 5:30am and out on the bike by 6:30. Was supposed to ride with others, but they all punked out, but I needed to ride -- if not today, the next ride will be Friday. What's 4.5 but a number?

Approached the bike-eating a little differently. Small things a few hours apart, a few spiked with caffeine. Worked pretty well, got me through without any lags until the last few miles of the 80 mile trek. A podcast I listened to during the ride proclaimed that the human brain is only about 2% of the body's weight, but consumes about 20% of it's energy. By the end of this ride I could believe it, I felt drunk and slow....in a good, expended way.

I originally planned a homemade pasta and beef chili dinner, but after the last few eating days I had, that will just have to wait until the end of next week!

AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced mint green tea

AM SNACK: 6:30am, chocolate donut

AM SNACK: 8:30am, caffeinated cliff bar

AM SNACK: 10:30am, small bag of dipsy doodle corn chips, 20oz of Gatorade

LUNCH: 1pm, turkey on whole wheat bread with let, tom, on & roasted red peppers, potato sticks, a Manhattan Special, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:15pm, shrimp and string beans over brown rice, steamed vegetable dumplings, shrimp toast, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, smoothie pop

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small amount of homemade granola