Bundt 2: Electric Boogaloo

A nice day. Cooked a little in the morning, took Edie out on the big bike to Central Park to meet up with MAP and her parents, 2 Okies from what I assume to be Muskogee. Edie napped on the bike while I snarfed down a lamb and rice platter from a street cart. Ended up at Grandma's house for the holiday's break-fast, had a little nosh but nothing huge. Ride home in the dark down 2nd ave was fun (Edie was taken home by cab separately for those keeping score.)


TODAY'S COOKING
Apple Honey Bundt: Went back to this recipe, for the break fast at my mom-in-law's house in the eve. This time made a crumble top (1/2 cup of butter, brown sugar and flour each, salt, cinnamon) and placed it in the bottom of the bundt, and also filled 12 cup cakes with extra batter.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, half a cold potato knish, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 apple honey cupcakes


LUNCH: 2pm, lamb over rice, diet coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:15pm, 1/2 bagel with fish & cream cheese, apple honey cake, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knish 6.0

Knocked out weight lifting after delivering Edie to school. Cooked, had lunch with L, who is helping me out in my knish adventures, picked up Edie, played in a park, got home, off to yoga with the HVS, then a snicklemovie, then home.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Well, THAT was educational! I was paying closer attention to each one in all steps. Here are my discoveries so far:

• Potato: This is the first time I used russets rather than Eastern. Eastern is good because they're potentially local, but they're like the AP flour of potato -- good for most things, but not if your making pastries or hearty bread. Russets milled a lot lighter and flakier, but developed a nice smoothness when worked in with the other ingredients. For the basic potato, it was caramelized onions, eggs, some vegetable shortening, several grinds of black pepper and salt, nothing more. Had to go back and add salt and taste a few times before it started singing.
• Sweet Potato: This was gonna be sweet potato curry, but realized at the last minute I threw out my curry powder last week because it didn't smell fresh. The sweet potato mash alone is very moist, so I mixed about 2/3 sweet potato with 1/3 plain potato to get it firm, along with onion, egg, a little vegetable shorting & salt. For this round, instead of curry, I added a little cayenne not so much for heat as much as roundness of flavor. Due to moisture, they spread a little more than others.
• Broccoli Cheddar: This is like the retarded little kid you think will be a drain on your baseball team but you have to have on to be a good guy, and turns out to be a great team player. Broc, shredded mild cheddar, potato, egg,  and pepper (no shortening or salt needed due to the cheese.) They baked up nice and firm, no problems.
• Spinach: Like with the sweet potato, added about 1/3 plain potato to the garlicky cooked spinach for firmness, along with some egg. No need for shortening as the spinach was already cooked in it, salt to make it hollah like yo momma.
• Kasha: Problematic. I was hoping for this to perhaps be a "vegan" dish, but the grain was just too....grainy, crumbly, loose. So egg and potato had to go in to firm it up, and some shortening and salt to amp it up, as well as a bigger black pepper grind than the others. I had to trash a few with the original mix because they would just flop open when sealed.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese: Interesting. This is essentially V 1.0 of this knish. Lined cupcake tin with dough, scooped in the filling, folded flaps over the tops. They came out goonish, the filing expanded and burst, the bottoms burned. But despite that, the filling was firm, sweet, chocolaty and cheesy in the right way. Needs some cocoa powder, maybe some hazelnut extract, lower temp, less filling to account for expansion, but it's a solid first step.
• Misc: Found out that adding scraps of dough to fill out the square pieces cut out of round sheets works well without harming quality, good efficiency saving. Oven ran at 425 convection mode. First round I did the cupcake tray on the bottom, elevated by another cupcake tray which was fine, but on the second round put knishes on a broiler pan on top of tray -- they burned. I added another protective pan and it was good, but prevented the two trays above from browning. If I'm going to run three sheets per batch in my home oven instead of the standard two, I gotta figure this out.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good yogurt, dead organic milk, banana, frozen blueberries, cherries & peaches, vanilla extract, ground flax, salt. First time I used peaches, funny. I don't eat peaches, as I hate the feel of them in my mouth, but the flavor it gives is very familiar -- concentrated peach juice is a common ingredient in overly sweet juice drinks.

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, 1 small chocolate hazelnut cheese knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, halves of five knishes & a choco knish, lime rickey, butternut squash soup, pickle, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, popcorn, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, curry ramen, seafood rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Things to Come

Edie to school, banged out some knish prep, out with Edie all afternoon, more knish prep in the eve, then TV & sleep. Could this be a pattern of things to come?


TODAY'S COOKING:
Knish fillings, dough: The challenge was to get a number of steps done in a restricted amount of time, to give me an idea of how to expect production to go in this home kitchen. In a three hour window, I peeled, boiled and riced 10 lbs of russets and 3 lbs of sweet potatoes, baked off 9 lbs of chopped onions to a light golden sweetness, and made a double batch of potato-based dough. In the evening, in under an hour I made some garlicky spinach, cooked and cut some broccoli, shredded cheddar, made a pot of kasha and free-made a batch of cheese filling: 2 lbs of farmer cheese, 1 lb of nutella, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, dash of vanilla. Tasted good but we'll see how it bakes up.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted bagel with creamcheese


PM SNACK: 12:45pm, grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Used 1/3 cup of syrup for a pint of fizzy, better balance. Next I'll do it with a wedge of lime.

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, green salad, potato chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat, kraft dinner, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, a few spoonfuls of nutella

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 4 falafel balls, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Burgers Need Fish Sauce

 Got a good ride up into the Bronx in the morning, had to cut short due to techinical difficulties. Got a little cooking done in the afternoon.


TODAY'S COOKING 
Burgers: Got  a half pound of ground beef yesterday, mixed half  grated onion, a little salt and a little fish sauce into it. Fried in butter. Found it a bit too salty, forgot the salty kick of the fish sauce. Good, though -- fish sauce adds more of that umami than worchestire.


Grenadine: 2 cups pomegranite juice, 2 cups tart cherry juice, 4 cups sugar, brought to a simmer then left to cool. For soda, combined 1/2 cup of syrup in a pint glass with carbonated water to the top. Very tasty, but a but strong and too sweet. Will try 1/3 cup syrup next for a pint. Kinda like how you wish fruit punch could taste, just needs a little citrus and mango or pineapple for the full throttle.




AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, organic wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, cheesy poofs, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3:30pm, 2 burgers on wholegrain buns, pickle, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, falafel, butternut squash soup, pint of grenadine soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips

Good soup

Chores during the day, some cooking in the early afternoon, then went to a catering kitchen with some of my students to help put together an app and a tour of the huge kitchen. It was purdy cooool.

TODAY'S COOKING
Butternut Squash soup: 2 squashes, 1 sweet potato, chopped up and boiled for about 20 minutes, blended with it's water, salt, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne and some paprika, cup of cream. Came out surprisingly good, the spices really made it work.

Whole wheat 7 grain bread: Eliminated the dried milk powder from this recipe, added a cup of hydrated 7 grain cereal. Bread came out pretty good, not as sturdy as I'd hope. Maybe try some gluten next time.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey and peanuts, 2 ice cream sandwiches, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, brown rice shrimp California roll, seaweed salad, rainbow roll, 2 ice cream sandwiches water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, butternut squash soup, freshly baked bread, 1 ice cream sandwich, Stouffers fresh bread pizzas, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Another off day

Woke up feeling awful, unfocused and fuzzy and tired. Got Edie to school, took a nap when I got home, watched TV the whole morning and foods shopping in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll be back on track and more focused tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios, organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large green salad, 2 ice cream sandwiches, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 


DINNER: 7:30pm, breaded tilapia, pasta & homemade sauce, 2 ice cream sandwiches, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts

Off

Felt off when I woke up, but still took Edie out in the morning to visit MAP and her family visiting from out of town. Made lunch when I got home, then promptly fell asleep for about 4 hours. Felt off in the evening.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 11am, salty peanut doughnut, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded shrimp, mushroom brown rice, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, kraft dinner, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5