Cook-on

A relaxed Saturday. Spent the morning making some granola bars made with some homemade granola from a NY Times recipe -- way too sweet, next time I make it, I'll halve the sweetener aspects. Fell asleep in front of the TV for a nice afternoon nap, then loaded Edles on the bike and we spent the afternoon in Park Slope with a high school friend I had not seen in 20 years. Brooke is now married to a woman with twin 2 year old boys, but it STILL seemed like only a few days had passed.

Got my cook-on for dinner, something I haven't done in quite a while. Had some sofrito in the freezer from march, so cooked up a pot of brown rice & beans with extra porcinis and morels. Cooked a mess of shrimp in olive oil and sake with garlic and parsley in a caste iron pan in the oven, for a Spanish-style dish -- never cooked it, just eaten it, and my approximation was surprisingly good.

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


LUNCH: 12:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with student made salsa, hot dog, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, homemade granola bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, shrimp in wine, evoo and garlic with sofrito brown rice & beans, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Push & Pull

Got out of the house and made it uptown by bike for a dermatologist appointment by 8:15 (as with yesterday's general doctor, all is well.) Rushed back and had a proper Edie day. After napping and feeding, we pedaled over to the supermarket, and after we got home and had a quick snack, spent a couple of hours in the playground.

I almost went to yoga, but I had two forces preventing me. Push: the HVS would not be teaching it. Pull: MAP called me a few hours before with a spare ticket to a panel discussion at the NY Times with Frank Bruni, Daniel Bouloud, Jean Georges Vichtrewhatever and Michael White, so I took off for that. Ironically, despite being part of the Food & Wine festival, absolutely no food was allowed anywhere in the building, so I took myself to my favorite lunch spot from when I used to work in the area. Got home at a reasonable time, got to bed at a reasonable time, all in all a well rounded day.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 11:30am, 2 Stouffer's French bread pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3pm, multigrain tortilla chips, student-made fresh tomato salsa cruda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:45pm, pork tonkatsu over curry rice, shrimp shumai, miso soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, small piece of dark chocolate with the good peanut butter

My Inner-Louis

I had my check up this morning, my blood pressure is 120/90, which the doctor & I were very happy about. Pending some blood, pee & chest x-rays, all signs point to perfect health for a 39 year old guy.

Spent the afternoon teaching the first class of the culinary after-school program. 15 students, a good start, hopefully we'll retain 8-10 by the end of the semester. Went really well -- I found since all the students were new and didn't know me, it was an opportunity to change up my teaching style a little bit. I called on my inner-Louis and made myself a bit more aggressive, a bit more shouty, and a bit more full of side-stories from my time in the biz to illustrate points -- less academic, more 'street', but with a focus on the content. It seemed to work, because the kids snapped too, the work got done efficiently, the cleaning process was good from the get-go, and on the end-of-class discussion, every one seemed to be a little bit glowy with excitement.

I rode over to Brooklyn Borough Hall to hang out at an Italian Heritage month even in their main room, celebrating Italian food and restaurants -- the resto had a little space among the many restaurants for people to sample food. It was fun running around stuffing myself, though honestly most of the food was very unremarkable, except for one spot that was doing thin little slices of octopus terrine with the most wonderful cucumber-salsa.

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans,  1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, ramen noodles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL TASTINGS: 5-6:30pm, about a cup worth of fruit smoothies, some chips and freshly made salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5\'
DINNER: 7:30pm, lots of different samples of Italian dishes, a few desert things, pelegrino, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Satisfying

I really enjoy making breakfast pancakes and waffles from scratch on the weekends -- the best part is it's easy to make many extra to freeze, so Edie can enjoy them all week long. And enjoy them she does, I think it's my first non-baby dish that she can't get enough of. Making enough money to support a family, providing a roof from the elements, those are all great, but being able to make something from raw pantry items into something my child just loves, there are few more satisfying feelings. Other than, maybe, squashing a multi-day heated argument with my wifey.

Tomorrow is two milestones -- in the morning I got to my generalist for a check up (and a blood sample, ick!) and in the afternoon I go to teach the first class of the culinary after-school program at the Brooklyn High School. Yes, I look forward to Friday (only hitting up a dermatologist to get some skin tags removed) and Saturday (dentist - cleaning) where I can spend some quality time making waffles for the McFeedles.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, 2 banana pancakes, iced green tea, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 12:15pm, half a medium Sicilian pizza with onion mushroom & sausage, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6pm, 2 cookies
PM SNACK: 7pm, 1 slice cheesless shrimp pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 2 little burgers and fries, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Inspirational Sandwich

Woke up late, had a lot chores to do on top of Edie needing attention, rocketed out without a proper breakfast. Picked up a fantastic sandwich on Almondine on the way to work, fresh as can be, a nice focacia, rosemary mayo, tomato-tasting tomatoes, turkey and a creamy gruyere. Clearly, this place has a vision of good food that doesn't pander to the lowest common denominator, to make a humble turkey sandwich so outstanding. When I have my own thing, I hope to project a similar vision.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 10:15am, turkey gruyere sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2pm, 1 slice of chicken-salad pizza, small Sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5The guys in the kitchen made a cheeseless pizza with salad, but hidden beneath was pieces of deboned buffalo chicken wings, yuck!

PM SNACK: 4pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:45pm, a few spoonfuls of nutella
LINNER: 6pm, half a calzone, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, chocolate digestive biscuits, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Grind

Rainy-ass Monday. Feel good, though I worry how 3 days of rain are going to grind on me.

From today's NY Times:

"When people make numerical estimates, they are notoriously subject to the distorting influence of “anchors”: numbers previously observed that linger in the mind and drag up or down the later estimate. A new study describes a related but opposite effect: when the anchor is in a very different category, it can drive the target estimate away, rather than pulling it closer.
In the study, students who contemplated a rich, calorie-laden food (a “decadent” cheesecake) followed by another caloric food (a cheeseburger) saw the cheeseburger as relatively low in calories. But when they first contemplated an organic fruit salad, the cheeseburger looked 33 percent more caloric than before.
“When we see items which are intuitively classified in different categories, that leads to contrast effects,” said the study’s author, Alexander Chernev, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University. The study is to be published in the Journal of Consumer Research. ■"

I think I've been looking from the higher end of the calorie scale lately, when I should be looking from the lower. I think I will be focusing on the color code system again soon.

BREAKFAST: 8am, 3 banana pancakes, iced green tea, .75 bowl hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:30am, Manhattan Special, piece of freshly baked bread, handful of olives, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, 3 small slices of shrimp and clam pizza, small sprite
PM SNACK: 5pm, green salad, bread, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7pm, meatball appetizer, 1 slice white pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

gut.

For the past 2 nights, I've been sleeping for about 11 hours, and it can't just be chalked up to jet lag anymore. My nose is a little stuffy and I feel a little low energy, so I assume my body is fighting (mostly successfully) a bug. My original plan was to wake up before the sun and do a mega ride out to my parent's resting place or up the Croton Aqueduct to the reservoir, but when I woke up and took stock, my first thought was not to ride at all and take it easy. But with the family and the job and all that, riding is very much a rarer privilege that is not to be taken lightly, particularly with my weight concerns and winter's cold blanket descending rapidly.

So I did a slow tug out to Coney, a ride I've done hundreds of times but enjoyed it thoroughly anyway. When I got home, Betsy herself was in a bit of a bleah stay-in mood, but I got her, Edie and Grandma to come out to the playground and enjoy Edie's running-about. Once home, we ordered in and I spent the night zoned out on the TV and zoned out in Edie's room helping her wind down into her sleep.

Just when I think Edie couldn't be more fantastic, she unveils another trick -- she's earnestly starting to mimic language, rather than randomly make sounds that sound like words ("papa", etc) -- her first word may well be "good", but with a German accent.

Me: "GOOD!"

Edie: "GUH!"

Me: "GOOD!"

Edie: -- pause -- "GUT!"

Me: "GOOD!!"

Edie "HAHAHAHHA! gut."


BREAKFAST: 8:30am, pumpernickel bagel with butter and sable, iced green tea

BIKE SNACK: 11am, clif bar

BIKE SNACK: 2:30pm, cherry ice

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, baby carrots, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, crappy chocolate ice cream cone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, shrimp panang curry with sticky rice, spring rolls, small green salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5