Took Edie out to various playgrounds in the morning while B slept. Had a bunch of friends over in the afternoon for knishes and salmon, was nice. Mellow day over all.
BREAKFAST: 9:30am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH 1: 1pm, small amount of left over pasta and sauce, nutella with pumpernickel pretzels, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH 2: potato knish, wedge of chocolate cheese knish, 2 slices of home-cured salmon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7:45pm, large green salad, singapore mei fun, roti canai, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Saturday, September 10
Friday, September 9
Love Life
Left out early to the Prospect Park Zoo to meet up with C and her daughter Autumn. After the zoo and some lying about in the park, we walked over to Prospect Heights to a nice homey restaurant, then to an ice cream shop after. It was a nice day out with my daughter with a life-long friend who also has a baby daughter. I love living in NYC at this time in my life.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with organic dead milk, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2:30pm, BLT, small side salad, diet coke, scoop of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7:30pm, pasta with sauce and grated parm, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with organic dead milk, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2:30pm, BLT, small side salad, diet coke, scoop of chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7:30pm, pasta with sauce and grated parm, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Thursday, September 8
Pretty pictures
The highlight of the day was picking out the prettiest knishes and try to get some good pictures of them before Edie inevitably busted into frame and pushed her hand through the chocolate-cheese knish.
BREAKFAST: 8:45am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 12:45pm, breaded shrimp, large green salad, bite of chocolate-cheese knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 7:30pm, spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Didn't feel like cooking after the big cooking days, ordered in a cheap meal from a local pizza & stuff place. I should have known better, it was pretty awful, though a large portion. It annoyed me that I can make meatballs soooo much better, garlic bread soooo much better, sauce soooo much better, even cook dry pasta soooo much better. I guess sometimes you just need someone else to cook for you, and Betsy is NOT that person, he he he. At least not right now, with all she's juggling.
Wednesday, September 7
Knish 4.0
Woke up late, as Edie was up in the middle of the night in need of milk and comfort. Lifted weights finally, and then went out to an amazing meal with a friend I haven't seen in about a year. Took care of some shopping on the way home, took a conference call on the bus in regards to the class I'm teaching this fall, and when I got home busted out about 40 individual knishes and one sweet knish loaf.
TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Three trays of potato, spinach-potato, broccoli-cheddar-potato, kasha-mushroom and cabbage. Rolling out the dough, shaping the knish, baked at 425 for about 30 minutes seems to fit. Upon tasting the broccoli, made me wonder if baking the potato instead of boiling was a good choice -- the potato seemed a bit lumpy, not as smooth as I'd like. Gotta eat more to make an executive decision.
I also made a chocolate cheese loaf. Winged it, based on a brownie recipe. Melted a stick of butter with about a cup of unsweetened chocolate. Turned off heat, cup of sugar, 16 ounce of farmers cheese, scrapings of 3 vanilla beans, pinch of salt, 4 whisked eggs. Tasted, not chocolaty enough, added about a 1/2 cup of dutched coco, definitely amped up the chocolate. Put in a loaf pan lined with the potato dough, covered totally, brushed with a milk and egg wash. Baked at 375 for about 40 minutes. It expanded a little and cracked the top, will have to account for that if I do this recipe again.
Cured Salmon: Put up a side of fish for brunch this Saturday. About 2.5 pound side, in a dish wrapped in plastic, dill, parsley, cilantro, brown sugar, a lot of salt, creme de cassis, all under about 20 lbs of pressure. Will flip in Friday morning.
LUNCH: 12:30pm, prosciutto wrapped cabbage, lobster finger sandwich, shot of tomato broth, assorted rolls with lardo, pork sausage lump with lentils and stewed veg, raw & poached seafood in a spicy tomato water, chocolaty thingy with olive oil gelato, various petite fours, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Del Posto, very very impressed, the most I've been impressed with a restaurant in a long time. I try to avoid being an amateur restaurant critic here, and especially an amateur critic talking about such a known star like Batali, but I gotta say something. The room was beautiful and understated, the main aural component was a live piano player tinkling in the background, the service was attentive but not overbearing. The food was pretty much perfect from the get go. A few nice touches, like lardo (rendered pork fat) along with the butter for the bread was fun. The broth of my entree was achingly perfect -- I sometimes get annoyed with restaurants because I feel I can make the same exact dish for a lot less money at home, or I can do it a lot better, but this broth -- it was the perfect balance of fresh vegetal notes, salt, acid and spice -- any one of those notes would have made this soup taste anywhere from humdrum to just nasty, but this was balanced, perfectly, complex, wonderful. Two other good things -- it was just enough food to feel very satiated but not stuffed, and because it was lunch during the week, all three courses, and all the in between amuse bouches and petite fours, were $29 all in! I really expected it to be closer to double that, and I feel like the combo of food, service and atmosphere justified it. Gottta take my wifey there ASAP.
PM SNACK: 7pm, bite of cabbage knish, small broccoli-cheddar-potato knish, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of health salad, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK 11pm, pumpernickel pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
TODAY'S COOKING
Knishes: Three trays of potato, spinach-potato, broccoli-cheddar-potato, kasha-mushroom and cabbage. Rolling out the dough, shaping the knish, baked at 425 for about 30 minutes seems to fit. Upon tasting the broccoli, made me wonder if baking the potato instead of boiling was a good choice -- the potato seemed a bit lumpy, not as smooth as I'd like. Gotta eat more to make an executive decision.
I also made a chocolate cheese loaf. Winged it, based on a brownie recipe. Melted a stick of butter with about a cup of unsweetened chocolate. Turned off heat, cup of sugar, 16 ounce of farmers cheese, scrapings of 3 vanilla beans, pinch of salt, 4 whisked eggs. Tasted, not chocolaty enough, added about a 1/2 cup of dutched coco, definitely amped up the chocolate. Put in a loaf pan lined with the potato dough, covered totally, brushed with a milk and egg wash. Baked at 375 for about 40 minutes. It expanded a little and cracked the top, will have to account for that if I do this recipe again.
Cured Salmon: Put up a side of fish for brunch this Saturday. About 2.5 pound side, in a dish wrapped in plastic, dill, parsley, cilantro, brown sugar, a lot of salt, creme de cassis, all under about 20 lbs of pressure. Will flip in Friday morning.
LUNCH: 12:30pm, prosciutto wrapped cabbage, lobster finger sandwich, shot of tomato broth, assorted rolls with lardo, pork sausage lump with lentils and stewed veg, raw & poached seafood in a spicy tomato water, chocolaty thingy with olive oil gelato, various petite fours, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Del Posto, very very impressed, the most I've been impressed with a restaurant in a long time. I try to avoid being an amateur restaurant critic here, and especially an amateur critic talking about such a known star like Batali, but I gotta say something. The room was beautiful and understated, the main aural component was a live piano player tinkling in the background, the service was attentive but not overbearing. The food was pretty much perfect from the get go. A few nice touches, like lardo (rendered pork fat) along with the butter for the bread was fun. The broth of my entree was achingly perfect -- I sometimes get annoyed with restaurants because I feel I can make the same exact dish for a lot less money at home, or I can do it a lot better, but this broth -- it was the perfect balance of fresh vegetal notes, salt, acid and spice -- any one of those notes would have made this soup taste anywhere from humdrum to just nasty, but this was balanced, perfectly, complex, wonderful. Two other good things -- it was just enough food to feel very satiated but not stuffed, and because it was lunch during the week, all three courses, and all the in between amuse bouches and petite fours, were $29 all in! I really expected it to be closer to double that, and I feel like the combo of food, service and atmosphere justified it. Gottta take my wifey there ASAP.
PM SNACK: 7pm, bite of cabbage knish, small broccoli-cheddar-potato knish, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of health salad, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK 11pm, pumpernickel pretzels with nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tuesday, September 6
Potato Memories
While cooking today, I had a strong food memory pounce on me, unexpectedly. As an experiment, instead of boiling peeled potatoes, I baked them whole for 2 and half hours, then split them while hot to let out steam before discarding the skins and sending the flesh through the food mill. The smell of the steam coming out of the over-baked potatoes sent me back....
It was in the kitchen of the house I grew up on Staten Island. My mom was making some sort of chicken or lamb chop, along with mashed potatoes. This evening was a little unusual, because my mom had a friend over from work, it was her assistant or secretary, maybe one and the same. My brother was there, too. For some reason, I told my mom that I wanted baked potatoes, not mashed potatoes. I didn't have some big preference for one or the other, but for some reason I insisted that THAT was what I wanted. She took one of the potatoes she was going to peel, boil and mash, and placed it in the oven. Being that dinner was 2 hours out, this was probably the longest that Mom would ever bake a potato. I remember when we sat down at the table, she was just finishing cooking but my potato was the first thing to come out. I cut it in half and a fragrant poof of potato steam came out of the spud, giving a wonderful scent all over the kitchen. Mom's friend said, "That's the potato yeast", and I could see her staring hungrily at my potato. I started eating it immediately, I think I was 4 or 5 and had no great desire to be polite or classy. I did know that I enjoyed my baked potato more than anyone enjoyed the mashed.
I was not a big pain in the ass when it came to food and special meals, but I guess getting my mom to bend to my will in front of one of her professional friends was some how exciting.
TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Prep for potato, sweet potato, cabbage, kasha, spinach, broccoli cheddar and the dough. Dough needs to rest upwards of a day. Baked 5lbs of potato, caramelized 5 lbs of chopped onion. Found I didn't have enough potato, so got more potato from today's CSA, peeled and boiled them and used them for the broccoli and spinach fillings. Cooked up a cup of kasha, added the sauteed onion as well as garlicky sauteed mushroom. Sauteed 1/4 of a cabbage with a little vinegar, salt and sugar.
Heath Salad: Used 3/4 of a head to make the standard recipe, definitely need more raw veg in me soon.
BREAKFAST: 9:45am, good granola in organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, 2 ears of boiled corn, can of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, potato chips, frozen pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was going to have gnocchi for dinner, but for whatever reason, boiling them from frozen turned them into a homogeneous mush. When I boiled them the day I made them, they retained their shape. Oh well.
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
It was in the kitchen of the house I grew up on Staten Island. My mom was making some sort of chicken or lamb chop, along with mashed potatoes. This evening was a little unusual, because my mom had a friend over from work, it was her assistant or secretary, maybe one and the same. My brother was there, too. For some reason, I told my mom that I wanted baked potatoes, not mashed potatoes. I didn't have some big preference for one or the other, but for some reason I insisted that THAT was what I wanted. She took one of the potatoes she was going to peel, boil and mash, and placed it in the oven. Being that dinner was 2 hours out, this was probably the longest that Mom would ever bake a potato. I remember when we sat down at the table, she was just finishing cooking but my potato was the first thing to come out. I cut it in half and a fragrant poof of potato steam came out of the spud, giving a wonderful scent all over the kitchen. Mom's friend said, "That's the potato yeast", and I could see her staring hungrily at my potato. I started eating it immediately, I think I was 4 or 5 and had no great desire to be polite or classy. I did know that I enjoyed my baked potato more than anyone enjoyed the mashed.
I was not a big pain in the ass when it came to food and special meals, but I guess getting my mom to bend to my will in front of one of her professional friends was some how exciting.
TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Prep for potato, sweet potato, cabbage, kasha, spinach, broccoli cheddar and the dough. Dough needs to rest upwards of a day. Baked 5lbs of potato, caramelized 5 lbs of chopped onion. Found I didn't have enough potato, so got more potato from today's CSA, peeled and boiled them and used them for the broccoli and spinach fillings. Cooked up a cup of kasha, added the sauteed onion as well as garlicky sauteed mushroom. Sauteed 1/4 of a cabbage with a little vinegar, salt and sugar.
Heath Salad: Used 3/4 of a head to make the standard recipe, definitely need more raw veg in me soon.
BREAKFAST: 9:45am, good granola in organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded tilapia, 2 ears of boiled corn, can of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, potato chips, frozen pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was going to have gnocchi for dinner, but for whatever reason, boiling them from frozen turned them into a homogeneous mush. When I boiled them the day I made them, they retained their shape. Oh well.
EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Monday, September 5
Mainecentric
The weekend was nice, we were in Portland (Maine) for the wedding of a good friend, and stayed in the home of B's cousin, who was out of town. My eating habits were a bit crappy, as options were limited, but the food at the wedding was spectacular, very-Mainecentric: lobster and corn boiled up together, clam chowder, mussels, cornbread, whoopie pies, too much alcohol.
Today, B was off and we had a nanny looking after Edie, so we took a date day -- a vacation away from our vacation. We walked to Union Square for a movie, stopping in on Odessa off of Washington Square for a late breakfast. I was greatly disappointed to find they did not have ANY Polish food on the menu, just a short crappy diner menu. Cheap, but not good at all. After the movie we walked a bit then took a cab to Chinatown for massages. By the time the massage was over, I was hungrier in a way like I haven't been in a long time. Maybe the massage and high humidity didn't help, but my legs were were rubbery, my head was feeling light, and I needed something immediately. On the walk east, we passed a gelato stand and I scarfed some. We passed a little cart making tiny little egg cakes, and I scarfed a baggie. B had a big snack after the movie, so we went to one of my favorite holes, C&L Dumpling, and I gorged on rice and dumplings. Still felt beat up, but functional.
Went grocery shopping in the evening, looking forward to getting back on a better eating track. Didn't lift weights, woke up too late.
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
LINNER: 4pm, shrimp fried rice, pork chive dumplings, egg cakes, chocolate gelato, sugary apple juice, 2 bowl, hunger 5/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Today, B was off and we had a nanny looking after Edie, so we took a date day -- a vacation away from our vacation. We walked to Union Square for a movie, stopping in on Odessa off of Washington Square for a late breakfast. I was greatly disappointed to find they did not have ANY Polish food on the menu, just a short crappy diner menu. Cheap, but not good at all. After the movie we walked a bit then took a cab to Chinatown for massages. By the time the massage was over, I was hungrier in a way like I haven't been in a long time. Maybe the massage and high humidity didn't help, but my legs were were rubbery, my head was feeling light, and I needed something immediately. On the walk east, we passed a gelato stand and I scarfed some. We passed a little cart making tiny little egg cakes, and I scarfed a baggie. B had a big snack after the movie, so we went to one of my favorite holes, C&L Dumpling, and I gorged on rice and dumplings. Still felt beat up, but functional.
Went grocery shopping in the evening, looking forward to getting back on a better eating track. Didn't lift weights, woke up too late.
BREAKFAST: 10:30am, pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
LINNER: 4pm, shrimp fried rice, pork chive dumplings, egg cakes, chocolate gelato, sugary apple juice, 2 bowl, hunger 5/5
EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
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