Rain, Wind

Did not sleep well, got to bed around 4, woke a little after 10. Good thing both B and her mom are here to cater to Edie's wants and needs. Rain started this morning, growing to a light weight storm in the evening, though the hurricane eye is suppose to blow over us around 8am, which should be exciting. I did not leave the house today, though the three ladies took a walk to the corner CVS to bring me cookies (and B snarfed down a pint of ice cream by her self.) Not a good eating day, in fact this past week has been pretty gruesome -- eating poorly due to sickness and soreness rolled right into the stress of thinking of how potential loss of power and running water will effect my ability to keep my beautifully unaware toddler comfortable and happy.

God, it was great to be a kid, it only started sucking when I wanted control of things for myself.


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, pizza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, rustic pasta, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, falafel balls, hummus, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

There is a storm a-brewin'

Plans got cancelled today, as the whole city is gearing up for Hurricane Irene which should be hitting us tomorrow night. My Sunday Northfork Century has been officially postponed. B's mom, who lives far uptown on her own, came down during the day and will be staying with us until Monday or Tuesday. Instead of doing family stuff, I spent a few hours at the local supermarkets picking up some basic stuff, particularly geared torward's Edie's needs. Everything should be fine. The only real bad thing that might happen is that we'll lose electricity, and if that goes on for a while might make it difficult to restock on things by the time we run out mid-week.

TODAY'S COOKING
Rustic Pasta: Had an excess of onion and plum tomatoes from the CSA, so I sweated the onion cut into half moons in olive oil, minced 4 cloves of garlic and rough chopped tomatoes along with chopped CSA basil. Poured an 8 oz bottle of champagne into it and cooked off the liquid. Added dried thyme and oregano, a bit more salt. Simple, but fragrant and happy-tasting.

BREAKFAST: 9am, brown rice crispies with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, rustic pasta, emergency pie, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pizza, 1 glass wine, water, orange sorbet, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Better

Still feeling ill, but a bit better. B had a doc appt in the morning, but was able to cover Edie in the afternoon while I glued myself to the couch. Ordered in Chinese for lunch, which also became dinner. Legs still sore, but better -- I guess the Monday work out combined with a bug made recovery very difficult for them.

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 10:45am, 5 falafel balls with hummus


LUNCH: 3pm, sesame beef with white rice, shrimp toast, water. 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, sesame beef with white rice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, orange sorbet, chocolate chips & peanuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sickly

Tried to wake at 8:30 to cover Edie until the babysitter came, but felt destroyed and B hung out. Finally woke up at 12:30, feeling tired, sore all over and cloudy in the head. Never been sick like this. Gastric system seems to be fine, don't have a temp, just worn down for no particular reason. Legs very sore.


BREAKFAST: 12:45pm, brown rice crispies with dead organic milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 3:45pm, cashews & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LINNER: 5:30pm, 1 2/3 slices of streetza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Engagement Liver

Last night, I found out my close friend E got engaged to her steady. About a week ago, we had this email exchange:

From: e gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: both jewy and waspy
To: Norbert <norbert@gmail.com>

devilved eggs w/ chicken livers http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Toltott-Tojas-Chicken-Liver-Stuffed-Eggs
looks delish!

From: Norbert <norbert@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 17, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: both jewy and waspy
To: e gmail.com>

U placing an order? :). I'll make em for your engagement party, he he he

Sent from iNorbert

So this afternoon I made them, and brought them over to her house in the evening! Fortunately it just required a saute pan and a food processor because...my oven doesn't work! The burners and broiler works fine, but the oven won't get hot -- probably the element burned out. Have an appointment on Friday, but until then, no baking. I was planning on doing sweet knishes today, hopefully the dough will hold out until then. Additionally, I was about to pop a sheet of granola in the oven when I found it dead. It's sitting raw in the fridge until the oven is back up.

In the evening, started feeling unusually tired and sore in the legs -- usually soreness from a morning work out peaks the next morning when I wake up, but this soreness seemed to be getting worse the following evening...

TODAY'S COOKING:
Orange Vanilla Sorbet: Mixed the ingredients with three more vanilla bean scrapings, ran through the ice cream maker, waiting for it to set. Tasted some of the loose batter, oh my, very vanilla-y.

Chicken Liver Deviled Eggs: I tasted a bit of the mousse for salt, but holy crap do I hate this stuff. Tastes minerally, funky, eggy, yucky!

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey, peanuts and vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, falafel balls, hummus, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, boxed kraft mac n' cheese, a beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Starting to really feel tired and off. Despite making salad from CSA veg, needed something fast, easy and filling.


EVENING SNORT: 7:30pm, 1 beer
In Brooklyn with E&T, celebrating their new engagement. Feeling tired.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon


EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, chocolate chips and peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

A Favorite Underrepresented Food

Baby party in Prospect Heights in the morning, a nice bike ride with Edie there and back. Stayed local with Edie in the parks around the building while B slept the afternoon away.

Ordered in some Malaysian food in the evening as a special treat -- their version of Singapore Mei Fun has little bits of sweet Chinese sausage, which is definitely one of my favorite underrepresented foods. I remember making it in c-school: it's dry sausage that is sweeter than most, but the sweetness is balanced with soy and other dark, rich flavors. Hmmmm, maybe I should attempt to make some, though I don't know if B would be down with me hanging sausage links around the house, waiting for them to get nice and hard. It's not a smell-free process...

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic whole grain chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BRUNCH: 10:30am, whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, salmon & trout, small chocolate coconut milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, bean burrito, large green salad, pita chips with nutella, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a kasha knish, a little lime sorbet, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, singapore mei fun, roti canai, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5