On Standby

Took Edie out in the morning to Smorgasburg with friends, she fell asleep and we hung out in a park for a few hours while she napped. Mellow afternoon in the hood. On standby to B's tummy.


TODAY'S COOKING
Caramelized Onions: Had 15 lbs of onions left over from the Knishening, cooked them all off in two pans in the oven over 5 or 6 hours, will be good to have on hand for random knishing.

Kasha: Made a box of the stuff to finish up some knish dough. Followed box recipe, except added an extra egg yolk to the pre-simmering toasting to see what effect would come up.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt 1: 11:30am, lobster roll, shot of soup, a macaroon, a donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Eating around Smorgasburg. Picked up a nice packet of beef jerky.



LUNCH pt 2: 3:30pm, spaghetti with sauce, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken nuggets, kraft dinner, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Nice to eat the same thing with Edie at her dinner, albeit in larger portion.

Still teetering

After Edie got to school, lifted weights, went to midtown for an appointment, got laundry and food shopping done, then did little in the evening other than eat too much cake. Betsy is still teetering. The veil between being born and not being born is thinning.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, frozen pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER:  7pm, large green salad, small amount of chips & guac, small amount of rice pudding, large amount of chocolate cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A nice day

After Edie was delivered to school, me and Big B went to the movies with her brother, taking in street sandwiches with us. In the afternoon, got a nice cooking session in before meeting E uptown for a nice late dinner. I actually swung by Knish Nosh in Central Park in hopes of sampling one, but they were closed at 7:30pm. Hrumph.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Potato & Spinach knishes: Knocked out a couple dozen with left over filling from last week, dough I made this week, and a lb of frozen spinach I cooked up today with 3 heads of roasted garlic. As a goof, spontaneously made a sweet peanut butter & chocolate chip knish which came out better than it should have been.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


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

AM SNACK: 11am, potato knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5 
I'm a little sheepish to admit that this knish cooked last week was actually the first one I tried. As I was going, I did taste the mix for balance and flavor, and sample bits of cooked dough to make sure it was right, but I didn't actually have time to taste it all together in finished form -- there was nothing I could do to make it better once it was browned properly and out of the oven. So I guess I'm happy to find that, hey, this is really good! Maybe a tad close to being too salty, but pleasantly balanced between heavy and light, redolently oniony in the caramelized sense, and despite microwaving out of laziness, the crust had  a nice chew to it. I may have something here!


LUNCH: noon, falafel sandwich, popcorn, diet coke , 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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


DINNER: 8:15pm, sushi, gyoza, edemame, sake, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, nutella & pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Drained & Teetering

Woke up totally exhausted -- between being up until 1am then Edie & B up in the middle of the night & crawling all over me, it was a rough night. Also woke up a little sore -- lifted weights for the first time in a few weeks yesterday, it was a great pleasure to get back to that.

Got chores done in the morning without napping some how, then rode to school for a pretty good class. Totally drained when I got home. Betsy & her belly is teetering, the expansion of this family is coming soon I suspect.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yesterday's was just too good not to do again.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pasta with sauce, potato chips, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL DINNER: 5:45pm, chimichurri flank steak, mac n' cheese, snapple, a few cookies, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

Weigh-in

?---> 228.2

Have not weighed in in a couple of months, due to batteries being dead in the scale and....just not wanting to know. Now with the Knishening behind me (for now), trying to get back to some of my better habits. As for my weight, it's pretty much where it sits without interference, with out calorie restriction, without binging. I do wonder if my muscle to fat ratio has changed at all, though, as over the past 3 or 4 months I can feel them getting stronger,  a little more pronounced....underneath my blubber.

Had a reporter over in the afternoon for a couple of hours. After he left, got cooking on three things at once. By the time I was done, I was a little bit too tired to d o anything else, but still had a hard time falling asleep.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Tomato Sauce: Fresh oregano and thyme, extra onion sauteed as I have several bags of onion left over from the Knishening.

Granola: Standard recipe, though replaced the variety of sweeteners with just one - half cup of brown sugar.

Knish Dough: Had a small amount of potatoes left over from the Knishening, just enough for a batch of dough. Good thing, as I have a large container of potato filling in the fridge. Gonna make the knishes in the next two days.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, yogurt, banana, cherry, mango, peach, blueberry, flax, vanilla ex, salt. Ahhhh, I wish I could get this on tap. It's a bit of a mess with the blender to make, but when it's freshly blended, it's great. Bottled stuff, store bought stuff, it just doesn't cut it.


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, large green salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, potato knish, glass of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Entertaining a member of the press, would be rude not to eat too when plying a person with knishes.

DINNER: 7:30pm, chicken nuggets, potato chips, pickle, cookies, ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lazy dinner. Just didn't feel like cooking.

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, potato chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Recovery Day

Had a hard time falling asleep last night, and woke up exhausted. After getting Edie to school and doing some basic chores, plopped in front of the TV and napped for 3 hours. With just enough time to eat, picked up Edie and did a proper food shop to restock the kitchen after the knish blowout. Still felt low powered and drowsy the rest of the day.

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic corn flakes with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, cappelini with garlic, oil and romano, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, ice cream, a few chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 2/5
Not hungry in a sick kind of way, but thought something, anything would make me feel a little less unsteady.

Another installment of dues, paid in full

Woke up rested but grumpy -- I had come this far, and though far reduced in it's hope and excitement, the Knishening had to go forward. The last minute change of date, location and price structure (from a set price to a donation box), on top of bitterly cold wind and a meager sun, had me standing out in my yard for three hours, hustling knishes and keeping a smiley face on.

I guess setting aside your bad feelings and sucking it up is a key definition of what being an adult is, but it doesn't make it sting any less. I did have some good conversations (a # of a purveyor who sells chicken fat!) and a lot of compliments on the knishes, so in all a bad situation was slightly made less bad. Still, I need to think long and hard about if this is what I want to do. Restauranting is a very weather sensitive business, and it was bad luck that my premiere event had to be both outdoors and on the snowiest October day in all recorded history. I'm glad I had the experience and the forethought to keep expenses to a bare minimum -- despite the loss, the future of Knishery NYC will not be determined by the financial outcome of this past weekend.

After four or so hours of being cheerful and outgoing when I felt like being the exact opposite, kinda went home and collapsed into myself, making my very pregnant wife not very happy. She had dealt with all my hyper focused knish making/mess generating all week, and I guess she was hoping for a more happy me when it was over. -sigh-


BREAKFAST: 9am, BLT on rye, corn muffin, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AFTERNOON SNACKS: 2-3pm, a couple of sweet knishes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, shrimp burrito, chips & guac, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, half a pint of ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5