My hot greasy balls

I don't know if my weight will be up or down this month, but this is for certain -- I now have small, hard muscles underneath my flabby midsection that never existed before. As I was stretching this morning in preparation for one of my new more intense 2-a-week sessions, I felt a few more muscles I never felt before, and again my first thought is, uh oh, is that a hernia? A bit of my intestine poking out? If it was, I would be in intense pain, and not raising the number of sit ups by a full 1/3...

By evening ends, my shoulders and legs were sore and stiff, usually it takes a night's sleep before that kicks in....



TODAY'S COOKING:
Falafel: I've made this twice in c-school, and twice at home. Once in c-school it failed, and both times at home it failed -- all because the batter was too wet and in the deep frying, it became hollowed-out falafel skins. I followed the recipe again, (20oz onion and 12 garlic cloves processed to liquid, bunch of parsley and bunch of cilantro processed to past with cumin, cayenne, turmeric and salt, then 4 cups of chickpeas processed to pebbly, then all mixed together with flour and baking soda.) THIS TIME I used whole wheat flour, and instead of sticking the recommend 4-6 ounces, I just kept adding until the consistency looked nice and firm, probably about 16 ounces of flour in the end. I refrigerated the mix for an hour or so, then scooped into balls and fried in 400 degree peanut oil.

First did 2-ounce scoops, but they were not cooking in the middle, so ended up doing 1/4 of that (which is a tablespoon, as we all know) which cooked to the center while getting nice and mahogany on the outside. They stayed intact, and while a little bit too spicy for my palate, were just right in terms of chickpeaness, aromatics, seasoning and greasiness. Over all, a success. Glad I went heavy on the whole wheat flour. And they're vegan! Did not need any egg to hold them together.


Sorbet Components: Made meringue again, as well as a quart of the basic sorbet syrup, this time with vanilla sugar in each, and in the syrup I added the husks of a bunch of spent vanilla pods that the vanilla sugar was resting with as well as the zest of a full orange as the mixture came from room temp to rolling boil. I figure building as much flavor into the components will make the final product all the more strong when I toss in the freshly squeezed juice (of orange, with a little lemon for snap.)

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: noon, 1.5 pieces of tomato and moz focaccia, water, one chocolate street cone, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:15pm, nutella & whole wheat pita chips, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, large green salad, 8 or so falafel balls, one ear of boiled corn, 1 beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't had beer in the house for casual drinking in the longest time. It's Rolling Rock, a crappy industrial brew, but I drank it a lot in college and it has a very light, sweet taste that is enjoyable with heavy food. Really made the meal special.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon