Pie vs Crisp

A nice day with Edie, took her to Occupy Wall Street and the Imaginarium playground in the morning and a 2 yr old friend's b-day in the afternoon, with pie making bracketing Edie-time.


TODAY'S COOKING
Apple Pie: Wanted to make pancakes this morning, but not enough ingredients. Made pie dough instead using this recipe (I was too lazy to dig up a proper pate sucree recipe in my c-school journals), with shortening I had in the freezer. Freezing it made it easy to cut the fat into the dry ingredients in a quick moment in the food-processor, without it becoming paste - the key to a light and flaky crust, little pockets of fat that melt into the flour and leave pockets. I could cut by hand, but that would take minutes instead of seconds, he he. The dumb recipe says hold in the fridge 10 minutes, but I know that's wrong -- you'll have a sticky mess with warm dough like this, so I did it in the morning and held until the evening.

Betsy wanted me to make crisps to give to a few friends, but I wanted to go full-throttle on pies for two reasons: 1) any buffoon can make a half-decent crisp with minimal work and 2) I need to refresh myself on pie-filling, because all cheese & fruit knishes can be regarded as one part unique simplified cheesecake, 1 part pie filling. For the apple knish I pan-fried some apple slices in butter and seasoned with salt, brown-sugar and cinnamon, but it didn't have the thickened sweet liquid that really makes a pie so unctuous.

Granola: I've pretty much got this recipe down to a science. This recipe, with these adjustments: 4 cups oatmeal instead of three, 1 cup of raw cashews instead of 1.5 cups pistachios, 1 cup slivered almonds added, 1/3 cup maple syrup and 1/3 cup brown sugar as the total sweetener, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract added. Replace fruit with 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped. Damn good.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic cornflakes, dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 small hamburger, a handful of fries, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 3-5pm, a few bites of chicken quesidilla, diet Dr. Pepper, a handful of chips, half a cupcake, 3/4 of a slice of cake, a few stuffed grape leaves, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, wholewheat boboli pizza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
My dad was a fan of this product, and I saw a whole wheat version, so I gave it a whirl. Topped with my own spaghetti sauce, cut up some of Edie's string cheese, dried oregano and basil, shaved some romano on to it. Crust still tasty kinda meh.


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of ramen noodles, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sabbath Dinner

Lifted weights in the morning, while hungry. I read somewhere that while eating before lifting is neither here nor there, eating after the lifting enables the body to process more efficiently and deliver the repairative aspects stronger when needed. I wonder if that's true, or just hooy.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, the good yogurt, honey, homemade vanilla extract, raw cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, breaded tilapia, brown rice pilaf, large green salad, 2 small apple cheese knishes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Happy with this last round of knish. The chocolate is good to go, the apple needs sweetening and maybe more vanilla, but the crust is great.

PM SNACK: 4:30am, multigrain tortilla chips & school made fresh salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, salmon, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, 1 glass of wine, 1 chocolate cheese knish and a snippet of ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Over at a neighbor friend for sabbath dinner with our kids. Haven't put on a kippah and said prayers over candles n' stuff in many years, was weird but nice. Definitely helped that the host was also any excellent cook -- I usually despise salmon and brussel sprouts, two things very easy to over cook, but these two dishes was perfectly done.

Apple on Top

Edie had off from school today, so kept busy doing the laundry, baking knishes, given Edie mid-day showers, feeding myself, cleaning the huge mess Edie made in her path, took some phone calls resulting from the press release I've issued for the knish venture -- one even resulted in a piece on a blog the same day! Between baking, publicizing, taking active care of Edie, feeding myself homemade food, visiting a friend's new baby in the afternoon, all in all it was a busy day. When B came home, I ordered in dinner and collapsed on the sofa.

TODAY'S COOKING
Chicken Paillard: Hammered out the last piece of chicken, dunked it in a little peanut oil and Worcestershire -- definitely the best, salty, umami, just right. Gonna do this with my students next week.


Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese & Apple Cheese Knishes: Up until this point, the sweet knishes I've made were an afterthought, using left over dough. This time, it was all about the cheese knishes.

Instead of using the tougher, potato-based dough that has been my go-to for the savory, I consulted a book I plucked off of Amazon recently, Love & Knishes, long out of print, my edition from 1958. There were two dough recipes, one with and one without baking powder -- I chose the later, hoping for a flakier lighter lift. 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp "salad oil" (I assumed vegetable oil)1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. It warned it may be too try to come together, and to add water. It did not come together, but water would just develop gluten without adding anything, so I threw in a 3rd egg and all was copacetic.

For the fillings, I did a second attempt at chocolate hazelnut and a first attempt at apple. For the first one, used 1 pack of farmer's cheese, half a container of nutella, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder (dutched), 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla. For the apple's cheese filling, the same with nutella swapped out for sour cream and no cocoa powder. I took three apples from the CSA, peeled, cored, sliced, fried in butter with a little cinnamon, cardamom, salt and brown sugar, until firm but a little soft. I made a slurry with 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 tbsp water, and added it to the pan once off the fire just to give the juices a little body, and prevent them from watering down the cheese mix.

Used a cupcake pan again, and after panning most of them, decided 4" square is enough dough for this pastries. For the apple, some I put the apples on the bottom, some on the top, but once they came out of the oven (300 degrees instead of the brown-inducing 425 for the savories, 20 minutes instead of savory 30-45), clearly the apple-on-top just looks more appetizing. Two hot ones went into my mouth with lunch and they were good, but the real test is when they are cold. The apple cheese didn't taste sweet enough (the apples were REALLY tart), but cold always makes things sweeter.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, chicken paillard, brown rice pilaf, 2 small cheese knishes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 7pm, pad thai, fried tofu, 1 beer, water, 2 small cheese knishes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

First day of class again

After dropping Edie off at school, took care of a few things at home before off to school to teach the first class of the semester -- food safety, knife skills, the wonder of salt: salsa with a lot of chopping of vegetables, smoothies that are tasted before and after salt. Small but good bunch of students. This is the fifth time I'm teaching this class, hmmmm.

TODAY'S COOKING
Chicken Paillard: Took hammer to chicken breast again, with a lighter touch, oil, soy sauce and cayenne, a lot less stinky than with fish sauce. Better.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, 2 pancakes, bacon, a little homefries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30, chicken paillard, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL SNACK: 6pm, chips and freshly made salsa cruda, cup of smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, shrimp fried rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, pint of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A whole lotta pasta

A good day, got a bunch of social media stuff done for the knish project, volunteered at the CSA in the afternoon.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Chicken Paillard: Haven't hammered a chicken breast since c-school. I picked up the tenderizing hammer from the supermarket on a whim. Lay meat between two pieces of plastic wrap, then give it a few wacks until it's an even sheet. It's easy to over-flatten and put holes in it. Still, it grilled up quicker and more evenly. I did marinate it briefly in a simple concoction of oil and fish sauce, which gave it a wonderful flavor, but kinda stunk up the house. A fish-saucy cloud is not something you want in the same house as a pregnant lady.


Brown Rice Pilaf: Fried the dry rice in butter before adding water and spices (salt, onion powder, cayenne, dried thyme) but added a little too much butter, came out a bit greasy.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good granola with dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The supermarket was out of whole organic milk, bummer.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, large green salad, capellini with a little sauce & romano, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I didn't want any capellini left over because Edie makes a huge mess of long noodles. I cooked half the box, realized once in bowl that 1/2 lb of pasta is a LOTTA PASTA. I didn't intend to finish it, but it just went down. Next time, I'll weigh out 1/3 or 1/4 of a box....

DINNER: 7pm, chicken paillard & brown rice pilaf

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, ritz crackers & nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Darned Science

Edie did not have school today, but had coverage in the afternoon, so spent a nice Columbus Day afternoon with none other than the HVS. Movies, then some extreme vegan food at Quintessence -- raw, vegan, room temp, a waiter who seemed a bit too happy to be a waiter.

I noticed on their menu they have a page of cooked foods, with a bunch of text explaining that in some circumstances, cooked food can be just as healthy as raw food. No shit, Sherlock. Some could argue (with that darned SCIENCE) that the whole reason people started cooking food way back in prehistory is a) it disinfected food but more importantly, b) cooking makes more nutrients available for digestion, more than making up for the nutrients it destroys. The company made up for the mushy rawness of it all, though.


AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10AM, 1 pancake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt.1: 12:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt.2: 1:30pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLESNACK: 4:30pm, raw Indianeque mush, a little greenery, water, vegan ice cream cone, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 potato knishes, pint of lime rickey, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost too salty, gotta pull back on the salt on the next batch.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spreading the Knishes

Woke up early and got a good ride in to the Rockaways. In the afternoon distributed the last knish batch to local friends to get some feedback. Kinda collapsed into the TV in the eve.

BREAKFAST: 7am, iced green tea, organic wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 9:30am, 32 oz gatorade, small bag of tortilla chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, wholewheat bagel with bacon cream cheese, snickers bar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 12:15pm, 24oz gatorade


LUNCH: 2pm, breaded shrimp, potato chips, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, kraft dinner, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 9pm, chicken nuggets, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5