Definitely Indulgent

Due to B's sore throat and Edie's multiple poos yesterday, our overnight trip to CT was cancelled (along with my plans to ride my bike there today and home tomorrow.) I woke late, then packed Edie on the bike and we road the Summerstreets event to Union Square for a little shopping in the Farmer's Market.

In the afternoon, we three made it to the Hester Street Fair and spent a fair amount of time in a playground. We did some food shopping on the way home for the evening's dinner, and got to bed before 10pm.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Mashed Potato with Chili Veg: Made potatoes with the technique I learned in C-school: Boiled the peeled, cut up spuds until soft, baked them for 5 minutes to make them totally dry, ran through a food mill, a small amount of hot heavy cream, melted butter and salt, folded in minimally and poof, perfect mashed potatoes. Softened onions in peanut oil, added bell pepper and mushrooms, added a few tablespoons of chili powder then half a head of crushed garlic, a bit of salt. It was a nice dinner.


BREAKFAST: 10am, toasted bagel & cream cheese, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, brown rice & lentils, 2 ears boiled corn, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, bite of a Mexican ice pop


DINNER: 6:15pm, sauteed mushroom, peppers and onions in chili sauce, mashed potatoes, cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought a box of shmancy cookies to share with B while watching TV, definitely indulgent.

Good morning, bleah day

I was planning to ride this morning, but when I woke up at 6, I just felt like hanging out with Edie more, and Saturday and Sunday had riding plans anyway which would minimize my Edie time. So I fired up my old cast iron waffle iron and was in mid-waffling when Edie woke. I was able to whisk her into the kitchen for fresh waffles whilst Lady B slept away. Once waffling was done, Edie & I spent a nice couple of hours outside around the building, in the garden, in the playground.

Unfortunately, that was the high point of the day. Both Edie and B seemed to be a little ill in the afternoon, plans cancelled. I felt grumpy and did a fry-up for lunch. A lot of sugary snacking in the afternoon, culminating in a lazy order-in in the evening.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Waffles: The c-school recipe, doubled, with three vanilla beans scrapings. The main challenge is working with the 1918 campfire waffle iron, an old caste iron beast that is very temperamental, but fun because you never quite know what your gonna get. I end up eating the burnt ones on the spot, so the 7 or 8 that get to go in the freezer look reasonable.

Corn Tortilla Chips: A pack of corn tortillas cut into 6 wedges each, fried in peanut oil around 400 degrees. I let them go a little too brown, I found that when I took them out of the oil they continue to brown a little - lesson learned. I forgot to tell B, but the only way to make these cost effective is to strain the oil and keep it in the freezer until the next fry-up. Oh well.

BREAKFAST: 7am, 3 waffles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, corn tortilla chips, health salad, pickle, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, bites of assorted donuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, roti canai, Malasian style shrimp and stringbeans with white rice, chocolate donut, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Streetza for Dinner

Had a hard time falling asleep last night, life on my mind. Got through it with just a snack of watermelon, so that's not too bad!

Seriously reconsidering my weight regimen -- may go from three times a week to two times a week, but greatly increase a combination of weight and reps -- maybe even split it so one day is from the abdominals down, one day is from the chest up.

TODAY'S COOKING
Rice & Lentils: An experimental batch, to be adjusted then made later in larger quantities to live off for a week. One cup of long grain brown rice, one half cup of green lentils, simmered in 3 1/2 cups of water, a dash of salt, a drop of olive oil, some freshly chopped up dried porcini's from Tay-Tay's stash, a little dried taragon. Simmered about 40 minutes until the moisture was absorbed. Tasted ok, tenderness right, probably could have used twice the amount of all add-ins.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk

LUNCH: 12:45pm, shrimp, rice & lentils, health salad, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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


DINNER: 6:15pm, 2 slices streetza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Papa Corn?!

Had a check in with a dermatologist in the morning (all is well), a meeting at the high school about the coming 2 semesters of the culinary class I'll be teaching. Though I served Edie pasta for dinner, which she likes, when she saw my corn, her eyes lit up and basically started pointing and chanted, "Papa corn?!" over and over again until I got up and cut off a third of an ear and put it on her plate. She finished that, maybe another 1/4 of another ear, all her pasta, and almost an entire "ice cream" (smoothie) frozen pop. Ahhhh, I love her so much, she's a good eater.


TODAY'S COOKING
Hamburgers: Got 1/2 pound of organic, 85% lean local beef from WF, wanted to grind my own but the chuck I saw didn't look very fresh. Mixed in one grated onion, a shot of Worcestershire, a small shot of Tabasco and a pinch of salt. According to FDA, you need to bring ground meat to 160, which I did in my caste iron pan with a electronic thermometer. Got a nice seared crust on the the burgers, sauteed in butter. I found it a bit overcooked -- 160 is definitely well done. I really gotta grind it myself, so I can more comfortably eat it at a medium temp.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 1 plain slice, 1 square slice, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


DINNER: 5:30pm, 2 hamburgers, 2 ears of corn, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, dark chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

 EVENING SNACK: midnight, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sweet attack

Tried to go without sweets, and it just made me feel urgggg and I ran out to the corner shop to pick up some sweets. Part of it was the meal prior -- pasta has a high glycemic index, the other part was since I didn't have anything sweet on hand where I could have had a small amount and cut it with nuts or peanut butter, instead I ate a lot more sweets. I need to keep chips or the like on hand, but keep them hidden from my ravenous wife! Unfortunately, all she has to do is read this blog if she wants to know if there are sweets in the house. Hrumph.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Tomato Sauce: Experimented a little on this batch. While cooking my aromatics -- onion, carrot, thyme, roasted garlic -- I added a tiny can of tomato paste and cooked that, too, before adding the whole canned tomatoes through a mill. Seasoned with salt, a little Tabasco, a little Worcestershire.

When making beef stock in culinary school, some tomato paste would be added and roasted on the bones to add richness. Even my dad would always add tomato paste to his sauce. Here in this sauce, I could taste it....and I don't like it. Yes, it gives a certain richness, a certain umami  edge to the sauce, but it also gives a more cooked, almost canned flavor to the sauce that is counter to the bright freshness that I like about making a homemade sauce -- it should taste like it's proud not be from a jar, not just a better version of a jarred sauce, if that makes any sense.


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


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, breaded tilapia, health salad, water,  .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, handful of sunchips 

DINNER: 6pm, pasta with sauce, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 2 cheap ice cream cones, small pack of chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Kraft Fail n' Cheese

Spent the day in chore-mode, shopping for food, diapers and the like. In the evening, I attended a test run of a knish lecture for a conference in California, it was a small, informal group of friends of the lecturer, writers, food-mavens and the like. For some odd reason she chose to serve pizza, which was all very nice but not a knish!


TODAY'S COOKING
Homemade Kraft Dinner-style Mac n' Cheese: Used this recipe. Came out...disgusting. I did eat a bowl, but trashed the rest -- I'm not a fan of throwing out edible food, but this stuff was just wrong. The main problem was the cheese: I used a low-quality sharp cheddar and it's off-notes were amplified by this recipe. There was too much mustard in it. And when it slightly cooled, the cheese sauce started coagulating at room temp into a very unappetizing paste. Oh well.

BREAKFAST: 8am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk


AM SNACK: 11am, slice of homemade ww bread with freshly ground peanut butter, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH:1:30pm, mac n' cheese with mushroom & onion, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, watermelon

PM SNACK: 7:45pm, 1 slice of streetza, 1 pint of beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 10:30pm, shrimp toast, shrimp fried rice, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

On the couch

Woke up feeling tired, soon discovered I was a little off, and spent most of the day on the couch in and out of consciousness. Thank goodness for B to cover Edie, it would have been a nightmare if I had to rouse myself. Started to feel better by the evening and was able to get to sleep at a normal time.

BREAKFAST: 9am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, leftover shrimp vindaloo with rice, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, breaded tilapia, spinach knish, health salad, sun chips, small amount of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5