A Weekend of Pizza

Spent the weekend up in Albany visiting my brother and his brood o' plenty. Stopped by the parent's grave on the way up, and slipped a copy of Baby E's ultra scan into their crypt, that gave me a shiver. In Albany (where I went to college), we visited Souvrana, which was this remarkable little grocery store that happened to have incredibly delicious pizza. Back then, the only games in town were Souvrana, JG's on Lark Street, and if you were drunk and poor, two competing 50 cent slice joints across the street from the QE2 club. Anyway, Souvrana was a family-owned joint that has since gotten rid of the groceries and put in tables, but it still has a thrown-off vibe. The pizza has VERY thick crust for a round pie, not quite Sicilian but very doughy. And I found it tasty, but kinda....gross. Undercooked, too much dough in the mouth, no balance. I guess experience has put the squash on some forms of nostalgia.

Sunday morning with the brood, made bagels from scratch in the kosher kitchen. Was fun rolling the dough with the kids, but an unfamiliar oven ran a little hot and the bottoms got slightly burnt.

Sunday evening at the restaurant, fun time with friends I haven't seen in a while. It seems a wood-burning pizza place just opened 2 blocks down the street. Which reminds me, a wood-burning joint just opened up a few blocks from where I live. And when I was in Albany, I noticed 3 or 4 new pizza joints, including one slightly upscale joint. Are we in the midst of a pizza-bubble?

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, 6 pieces of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, olive oil torta, bag of corn chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30 pm, 2 slices of Souvrana pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, small salad, 1 small matzoh ball, 1 vegetarian 'chicken' patty, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:45am, 6 mini muffins, half an unripe banana, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11am, 2 homemade bagels, hummus, cream cheese, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5-8pm, bites of pancetta, a meatball with a piece of focaccio, nibbles from the pizza topping station, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:15pm, pizza with stewed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, sausage, caramelized onion, mushrooms, basil and a light sprinkling of parm, rootbeer, small ramekin of chocolate rice pudding, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The roasted red peppers made this pie, and the sprinkled cheese made it just taste cheesy enough.

Baby is Fo' Reals, Yo

I went to the hospital with B today for an ultrasound to make sure all the parts of the baby were intact, and on a side note found out the gender. My wife doesn't want to know, so it's my secret...but if you want to know, scroll down to the bottom of this post to find out. Finding out was one of those moments...you don't think it's gonna be a big deal and then, when you do find out, it's like whack: a concussion. You don't remember what happened and yet you feel a huge excitement welling up from all directions...but you're not quite sure why. Then you remind yourself, and it's, oh yeah. He he.

Felt like a quick celebratory meal, pizza but something weird. Went to Viva Herbal, an odd vegetarian/vegan pizza place in the East Village. I'm quite familiar with it from the dark days of the years I was vegetarian & vegan, and fooled myself into thinking it was...pizza. On the bottom shelf they have traditional pizza, with cheese n' stuff, which seems silly (you don't get fish at a steak house, you don't get pizza at a burger joint, etc), but I thought it could be interesting. There traditional slice was WAY over-cheesed with a blanket of flavorless moz. I had a vegan picante, which is a snappy whole wheat crust with no chew, topped with a thick layer of relatively mild tomato stew, thickened with soy meat balls and roasted red peppers. It was actually pretty tasty, but a stretch to call it pizza.


Cooked up a bacon corn bread for a party I attended late in the evening. The theme was the Depression. Cheap, filling, full o' lard -- that's what I think when I imagine what people ate. And apples. (All those pictures of apple carts.) The party had a real working old-fashioned fireplace, and we toasted marshmallows in the living room of a well-appointed Carroll Gardens apartment, an odd experience. Riding home over the Brooklyn Bridge, my mind wandered as to what it's will be like raising this kid, this kid who just became a lot more defined today. Not that gender is the be-all end-all -- I still intend to go strictly gender neutral on the stuff side of things, and if my kid is born and naturally blossoms into something decidedly queer (or whatever the PC word is today), that'll be perfectly fine, too. I mean, Rufus was just fine living as a dude until his gender reassignment! Oy, it's 2 in the morning and I'm slightly buzzed and really tired. Good night!

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

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 2 weird slices, chocolate cigar, 1.5 bowl

PM SNACK: 3pm, bacon cornbread drippings, swig of apple cider, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, small bowl of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING DRINK & SNACKS: 9pm-1am, 1 beer, 1 manhattan, 1 gimlet, small plate of bland rice & beans, small wedge of bacon cornbread, small piece of smoked moz, 3 smores, 1.5 bowls, hunger 3/5

EVENING WATERING: 1:30am, quart


It's a.....



...First, this political message....




OK, OK. It's a.....

BIRL!!!

Because it sure aint a goy! I've been sworn to secrecy!

Kati Rolls are yummy

I got 10 hours of uncomfortable sleep on a small bed with an enlarged heated pregnant lady, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Still, waking up and still tired to a pantry I'm unfamiliar with is a little disconcerting, letting the graham crackers comfortably nudge me awake.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, water, a couple of graham crackers, cart roll & butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, homemade mac n' cheese, 4 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's nice when you finish the left over of a large dish that's been sitting around a while and it tastes just as good as the day it was made.

DINNER: 6:25pm, potato kati roll, lamb mince kati roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
D took me to a favorite lunch place in midtown before a movie, really good concept, nice looking space, good food, but the place was EMPTY and took 10 minutes to get our relatively simple food.

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cherry icee, popcorn, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Usually I'd say 1 or 1.5 bowls, but according to the posted labels, this snack was about 1000 calories, so...

Tired again

Only got 4 hours of sleep last night, couldn't get to sleep. The restaurant called earlier and signed me up for multiple shifts over the next few weeks, guess the 2nd new guy didn't work out, either, or something.

After class, went to a kitchen class room at a community college to volunteer to set up for a student competition, for an organization that awards students scholarships to go to c-school. After, I went to join B at her brother's house to watch bad TV and eat pizza that Brother B insists is some of the best in the city.

BREAKFAST: 6:15am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, pint of apple cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10am, cart cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, falafel & hummus sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, cart hot dog, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pizza, 1 diet soda, a chocolate thingy, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Wood-fired roman pizza from a place called Waldy's, kind of rendered impotent by arriving cold.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, graham cracker, small piece of chocolate, seltzer, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

ILSA! What is she good for? UHH! Absolutely SUMTHIN'!

(The title is sung to the tune of "War" by the Temptations....anyhoo....I've been thinking about my nutritionist Ilsa lately -- she's movin' on from NYC and going to embed herself on a farm out in Massachusetts, and our active bi-weekly meetings will be coming to an end. Next time we meet, we're going to work on just what has come out of the work we did.

Well, the first thing that's come out of it is kinda obvious -- this blog! Originally under the name "I Am What I Eat, I Eat What I Wish to Become" (snappy, huh?), it came out of Ilsa's request for me to keep a food journal for a week or two, and the reflectivity of it just made it too easy to roll on.

It was the original iteration of this blog where I started really cooking for myself, and thinking about what I was cooking....and with a little knowledge, I quickly learned how little I knew about cooking. Which lead to 8 months of culinary school....and my current part time job as a pizza cook. And another blog, Culinary School Confidential, to go along with it.

Yesterday, I ate really poorly....but upon reflection, it makes sense. It's winter, I'm craving the heavy, not feeling the light. One thing Ilsa has caused me to really reevaluate is portion size. The portion of mac n' cheese I ate yesterday was big enough for me, but a few years ago I would of easily eaten 2.5x more on one plate....in fact, if I were to put that much in front of me, I probably still could eat it without too much trouble. It's just now I know that if I cut my portions down, for some reason psychologically it just seems like I ate a full portion and enough is enough. For that, I definitely have to credit the work I did with Ilsa.

As I just mentioned, I'm now conscious of the seasonality of my eating. Before Isla, I would mindlessly make the same exact salad 12 months a year, whether I enjoyed it or not, regardless of what was in season. After Ilsa's assignments to choose random in-season veg from the market (and the skills acquired from c-school to prepare them), I can't imagine eating my standard salad outside of late spring and summer -- it just doesn't taste so good in the colder months.

I guess the biggest thing I gained was my control over my sweets intake. I still occasionally eat 2-3 sweets in a day....maybe once a week, if the sweets on offer are special. Before Ilsa, it was 2 to 3 of ANYTHING sweet, prepackaged industrial junk, as long as it had that fix. I enjoy sweets more now! It's not a habit, there is thought behind it.

This thread needs to be picked up later, I'm getting sleepy.


The HVS is back from overseas, spent a good part of the day eating with her -- I've been making food for her the past few days, but her front door key was changed at the last minute, so she came over this evening for an unprecedented snickle dinner. It was nice being able to serve a fully homemade 3-course vegan dinner with almost no prep or cooking! I was worried the chocotofu pie would be nasty, but was pretty good and rich and redolent of molasses.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with the dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

SNICKLE SNACK: 2pm, large vegan Caesar salad, bowl of dahl, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, swig of apple cider, small wedge of halavah, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, one glass of black cherry/orange soda cocktail, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE DINNER: 7pm, grilled seitan, orzo salad, butternut squash soup, chocotofu pie, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hungry for the Heavy

It's winter, I fully realized, as I ate pizza for the second time during dinner, after a lunch of not-light mac n' cheese for lunch. OK, I did make everything myself (including the pizza from the restaurant), but damn, not even craving veg. This morning I cooked up some killer vegan butternut squash soup for the HVS's homecoming, but outside of tasting it for balance, just wasn't....rich enough. Hungry for for the heavy.

Speaking of heavy, I weighed in at 226.2 this morning. The way I've been eating, I thought I was more than just a few pounds over where I've been. My body is handling things well. When I start going in for salads and lighter food in the spring, maybe I'll be in a good spot.

Saw an old episode of Seinfeld this evening, Kramer had an idea for a 'build your own' pizza restaurant, and was trying to convince the owner, Poppy, to go for it. When Kramer puts cucumber on his pie, they get into a fight -- Poppy believes it is NOT pizza if you put bad toppings on it, while Kramer believes it's not a pizza till it comes out of the oven. Hmmm.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, organic corn flakes with bad (i.e. homogenized, dead) whole milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, street slice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
While riding home through Cobble Hill, stopped by an old slice joint on Court St. Classic big greasy triangle, too much salt. The menu said $2.75, the dude charged me $3. They also have 'brick oven' pizza, separate on the menu. They have a gas-burning standard pizza oven AND a built-in brick oven, very odd.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, mac n' cheese, grape soda & potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not horrendously healthy, but the portion was right, and primarily home made.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 frozen resto slices, 4 freshly baked home made chocochip cookies, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

I got my mind on the pizza and the pizza on my mind...

You can google just about any term and 'porn' and find something interesting...

There are two pizza conventions: one in NYC in the beginning of March, and a national convention in Las Vegas in mid-March. Going to the local one is no biggie, $30 for a pass and I can ride my bike there. Las Vegas would require a hotel, an airline ticket, time off from school, being in Las Vegas and a $170 pass. Not sure what the significant difference between the two conventions are, other than it's 'industry' stuff. Definitely going to the first, maybe to the second. Does any one know definitely what the difference between the two are?

My mac n' cheese was luxurious but....bland, all these nice cheeses but skipped salt. For some unknown reason, I've been feeling fat -- I tried on a baby bjorn and even at the most extended, barely fits around my waist.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, 1 glass cider and 1 cookie while cooking, 5 small pieced french toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooking for B & the guests. I was low on cream, so I did a 2/3 whole milk 1/3 cream batter mix, it was actually better than 100% cream, it was a better vehicle to get the focaccia to soak in the egg element, so when it came off the burners into the oven, it firmed up all the way through in a nice way. Very french-toasty.

LUNCH: 12 noon, mushroom risotto, chocolate chip cookies, handful of carrots and hummus, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, ramekin of vanilla ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, home made mac n' cheese, orzo salad, grape soda, small amount of chocolate, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 8pm, quart of water.

Orzo Salad and Cookies and Pizza, oh my!

Got into a little cooking fit this afternoon. Finished the vanilla ice cream whose batter had to chill over night, then I made a big batch of vegan Basil Lemon Orzo Salad, made it up with out a recipe, pretty good. Box o' orzo al dente in well-salted water. 2 finely shredded carrots, carton of cherry tomatoes, quartered, juice of 1 whole lemon, cup of chickpeas. Lightly sauteed in olive oil: shallot and garlic, diced yellow pepper, diced de-finned portobello, a little chive, salt. Mixed in, finished with fresh diced basil, more olive oil, more salt to taste. Bright, fresh, and after it sits for a day or two, the flavor is really gonna mesh. And a big ol' portion of it will be waiting for the HVS when she gets home!

Also made focaccia french toast to soak, to be served to our guests tomorrow. Had some chocolate chips laying around, so made a small batch of cookies.

Made pizza for a friend of B's and her 2 little kids, boys age 2 and 4. It was fun showing them how to stretch dough and top the pizzas. Though MY kid's pizza is gonna be soooo much better then theirs!

I just got an email message from a distant relative, saying she just made beef stew from a recipe of my father's. I hope she has a hand-written copy by him, I would love to study it.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, organic chex with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, basil lemon orzo salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 1:30pm, a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, a snip of chocolate chip cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM WATERING: 2:30pm, quart

DINNER: 7pm, 1 cookie while cooking, homemade pizza, slice of s'mores pizza, 1 cookie, 1 spoonful of ice cream, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Least. Healthy. Snack. Ever.

I found this while trying to find an image to illustrate "Bacon Porn":


"Tastes great, just needs more salt!"

In culinary school, one item that had almost universal popularity was honey-bacon. Ridiculously easy to make: brush raw bacon with honey, lay on a drying rack set in a sheet-pan, place in a cold oven then bake at around 400 until done. Flat, crispy, sweet & salty. I'm not a big fan of honey-flavor, and all the intense smokey fat really ratchet up that particular note.

Now the snack I had today, oy. Over all, I think I hit a new low in unhealthiness, but for not horrible reasons. I felt good, enjoyed working last night, have some new ideas, B worked from home and I had extra time to admire her belly, Rufus the Wonder Cat was super snuggly, and I had a really good yoga basics class with my favorite teacher focusing on my favorite yoga practice (back bending). Also maybe a lack of sleep, only 5 hours. So I'm not weirdly punishing myself, maybe celebrating by indulging myself?

While eating the bacon, I desired something sweet, and I reached for a grape soda. What a great combination!! I should make something like a loose grape jam, and spread it on the bacon! Mmmmm! Grape bacon! I posted on facebook, and people chimed in with "No! Orange!" or the like.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, nuts, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 6 slices bacon, grape soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Least. Healthy. Snack. Ever. But so delicious! Hit the spot.

LUNCH: 4:30pm, curry ramen, pork fried rice, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACKAGE: 6-8pm, bits of chocolate, taste of cream anglaise, tofu pie batter, vanilla wafers, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Cooking. Vanilla ice cream for tomorrow's guests, a chocotofu pie with an experimental vanilla cookie crust for the HVS.

EVENING SNACK: 11:30, tortilla chips and salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

I am what I eat, but do I HAVE where I eat?

I got called in to the restaurant at the last minute to do a shift, so I had to find a fast convenient place to go eat on the way there -- it's bad to show up for service while hungry if you won't be able to eat when you come in, you'll end up snacking for hours. I was going through Chinatown, not in the mood for my regular vegetarian dim sum. Along Mott, there are the old restaurants that have been there forever, with a classic Americanized menu for the tourists. 'Big Wong' had a name that said, "Hey, if you go here, you can write "BIG WONG" all over your blog today!" -- definitely not the best way to choose a restaurant, but hey, the menu was cheap, so I bet the turn over was fast.

And it was. I had my first dish seconds after I ordered and my bill before finishing my meal. I think this was the way all Chinese restaurants used to be, particularly in the 70s. Big portions, cheap, harried, a bit dank, and funky of flavor. The first item I got was "fresh" shrimp wrapped in rice dough, but literally feet away from me I saw the waitress pop it out of the microwave. The shrimp was definitely a bit tough. The wonton soup was filled to the brim with pork/shrimp dumplings, at least 12 of them, and the broth was pleasingly/oddly gamy -- I imagine they must use EVERY bit of meat in their dishes, and the really scary unusable stuff....goes into making the broth! My main noodle dish, which was under $7, was enough for two people....and after that huge bowl of wontons, could only get through half of it. Am I glad I went? Yes. Did I enjoy my meal? Sure. Will I go back? Not any time soon.

Yesterday's weiner schnitzel brought back some strong parental memories. In the mid-nineties, me and my parents took our first and (now it turns out) last big trip as a family unit together. As my parents aged, they were never big on travel -- too expensive, too uncomfortable. (With my encouragement, they took a couple of cruises in the early 2000s, thank goodness, but that was without me...thank goodness!) We flew to England, London, stayed in Kensington, saw a bunch of my friends, travelled to a friend's for dinner up North, was really nice. Then we took a plane over to Vienna, where my father was born.

This was my second time there, the first time was in the early 90s as a student with a rucksack. I remembered all the pastry shops there, which my father remembered fondly and was undoubtedly the ground work for his diabetes later in life. We visited where he was born, where he grew up, the bench along the Danube River where he remembered "NO JEWS" painted on them. It never occurred to the three of us to bring a camera, that's how out of practice we were with exotic vacationing. (Fortunately, a friend had a camera when they visited, and my 2 pictures from that vacation are some of my most treasured possessions.)

The best time the three of us had in Vienna was probably when we went to some generic local restaurant for weiner schnitzel. Weiner schnitzel is simply a pork cutlet that is hammered out flat, breaded and deep fried to crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside -- not so far from fried chicken in concept, thought the spicing and presentation is very different. It was served, as it was last night, with a German potato salad, a little cooked shredded red cabbage, and a little cucumber salad. The food was good, we relaxed in the restaurant, pausing to appreciate where we were and let it enter our bodies. These were pre-Euro days, and there was something like 3,385 Austrian marks to the US dollar. My father, being my father, paid for the meal. As we were down the street from the spot, we calculated my dad left about 17 cents in tip on an 80 dollar bill. He felt horrible, but me and my mom refused to let him go back -- they don't really tip in Europe anyway, and even so, will we ever be back there? But really, me and mom just wanted an excuse to tease him, which we did for, oh, on regular occasions until the day he died!

Weiner Schnitzel was a food my dad grew up with, and eating it with him in the place he was born was a treat and an honor, and I'm glad I got to do it. Weiner Schnitzel will never just be a hammered pork chop to me.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, banana, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, marble pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was hoping the pint of juice would of calmed me, but no. I know, I know, I feel like a broken record, I need to motivate.

PM SNACK: 2pm, olive oil torta, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4:15pm, singapore chow mei fun, wonton soup, 'fresh' shrimp in rice crepe, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, half a soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, pizza with stewed tomato, sausage, parm, basil, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:45pm, 1 quart

B's Baby Bump

While at school today, my wife had a check up with her doctors. She's 20 weeks pregnant and looks friggin' great, and I'm not even talkin' about the boob situation; I am not a boob guy, I've always been about the....well, thats for a different kinda blog. Anyway, B is in good health, the miniB seems to be in good health, but the doc made a comment about her weight. (And yes, dear friend, I asked permission to talk about her weight in public before posting this!)

The doc says she should be gaining about 25-30 pounds by the time she's ready to give birth. We're about 5 months in, and she's gained about 20lbs. Gaining too much could lead to prenatal diabetes. I see (most of) what B eats, she definitely does not go crazy overall, even though a lot of her steady habits have dropped in and out over the past half year. For a few weeks she couldn't eat a fruit or veg, but french fries were all the rage -- that was fun! She's back to eating veg, but between her growing bump, the cold weather and the inappropriateness of a preggers lady riding a bike is not working in her favor.

I suppose the doc's 25-30 lb limit is a bit different for every woman. B is hardly sitting around gorging on bon bons all day (though I would love it if she did that for a day -- just so I could lovingly complain about it), and I'm hesitant to encourage any sort of dieting for her n' Lil' Fetus (That's gonna be the name of our baby, Lil' Fetus. Middle name: Cletus.) Whenever B has expressed any sort of urge for a food, I've either made it or we ordered it in. She doesn't eat weirdly large portions, either -- if anything, she ate weirdly small portions matched with weirdly large binges late in the day. I would love a chubby wife -- so cute! Like one of them sexy German farm maids, with the ruffly sleeves....but that's for another kind of blog, once again!

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, organic chex with the good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10:15am, marble pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was hoping the more substantial breakfast would take me through to lunch. I was wrong.

LUNCH: 1pm, mushroom risotto, small amount of chocolate gelato, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, Weiner Schnitzel with German potato salad, cucumber salad, cooked cabbage, French Onion soup, half a dark beer, water, a few pieces of bread, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dinner with friends before a movie at BAM in Brooklyn at a newish Viennese restaurant. This was the food of my father's childhood -- I think the last time I had a weiner schnitzel was in Vienna with my mom and dad in the mid 90s, very lucky to have done that. Still digesting it, figuratively and literally, perhaps more to say about it tomorrow.

Risotto, and how we got there.

Had a nice but odd experience at a restaurant I'm auditing for class. It was a fix prix lunch menu, both me and B were paying the same amount for a first and second course. However, my panino and fries was a large amount of food and her tortelli were 6 little halfmoons all lonely on the plate.

Met with Ilsa this evening, seems she's flying the coop this year to pursue her life on the farm -- I need to start thinking in terms of how I've changed in my eating and food perspective since starting with her. Anyone out there following this blog from the beginning who can summarize the whole shebang for me? 100 words or less, please!

Nyquil gave me the sleep of the dead last night, feel better but stuffed up. Appetite came back, but worried about waking up predawn again tomorrow. Got to work out a new breakfast/food routine for the mornings.

As I was cooking risotto this evening (which takes a solid 45 minutes of constant activity), I snacked on dessert, tortas and gelato, but just a little. Earlier the sugar goes in, the theory goes, the less it'll effect my sleep.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, swig of apple cider, 7 slices of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to make bacon or let it go bad. Was delicious, and nice to feed bits to Rufus out of my hand.

LUNCH: Noon, prociutto & buffalo moz panino with fries, Caesar salad, 1 glass prosecco, small scoop of lemon sorbet, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 Spanish sweet olive oil tortas, 3 spoonfuls of chocolate gelato, 2 bowls homemade mushroom risotto, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Hadn't made risotto in a while, pretty good. Using the chicken stock from yesterday, sauteed a shallot, added all the sliced mushrooms, sauteed the rice then added stock a ladle at a time till all absorbed. Added a cup of dry sherry and cooked to get ride of the alcohol. Cut the heat and finished with a half stick of the good butter, a half cup of marscapone and half cup of parmesan. Salted to taste and bammo, some kick ass risotto!

If an Alien assumed we were monodietetic...

Not sick, not well. I think I'd be a lot sicker if I was unhappy with life. I think I'm more unsatisfied than unhappy, thanks to the B and her little b baking.

Was going to cook this evening, and went so far as to make chicken stock with a baggie of 'chicken parts' from the market -- mostly spines and belly bones. After boiling them for 3 hours, added mire poix with mushroom stems, some dried porcini, pepper corns, thyme and a clove of garlic for an hour. Strained, put in the freezer to coagulate the fat. (What should I do with this yummy disc of shmaltz?) I was going to make mushroom risotto, but the tiredness and the laundry and the househusband duties got the best of me,

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 2/5
Felt hungry and nauseous from lack of sleep, this was the only thing that could slip down easily.

AM SNACK: 9:15am, thick slice of street pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Again, out of sorts and no plan while at school

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, bottle of grape soda, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Not quite sick, not quite well, just riding the low-energy edge. Need sugar to continue to move.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 2 olive oil tortas, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Sweet, savory, mildly like fennel, crispy, melty, all Spanish n' delicious

DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 slices restaurant pizza, ramekin of store-bought chocolate gelato, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Feeling better, low energy, not enough to continue with the stock to make risotto. I'm glad I have a lot of slices banked in the freezer, it's kinda like an alien's idea of what a human would stock up on to survive. Bee's stock up on honey, squirrels stock up on nuts, and human's stock up on pizza slices.

I bought a fancily packaged, high-priced gelato from the market today, as an experiment. Disappointing -- chocolate gelato should be deep and rich and hit a harmony of chocolate notes from milky and sweet to dark and pleasingly bitter.

EVENING WATERING: 8pm, quart o' da wet stuff

EVENING DRUGGING: 9:30pm, a shot of da Quil

This ain't a burger, Selma!!

On Sunday evening, B and I ordered in Ethiopian food. We got an odd call from the restaurant asking if we got our food (we hadn't.) It seems the delivery person was intercepted by someone in the building who thought the food was theirs and paid for in by credit card. If they were expecting burgers and fries, boy, are they in for a surprise....

B and I were given gift certificates to a high-end Thai massage place. The dude greased me up and twisted me around a bit into yoga-lite shapes. I guess if I was filthy rich and ridiculously lazy, this would be my new yoga regimen.

SATURDAY
AFTERNOON SNACK: 1pm, a handful of chocolates, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 2:30pm, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACK: 3pm, the rest of the box of chocolates, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I decided the temptation was too much - I was going to take a little nibble of each remaining chocolate, eat only 1 or 2 that was really good, and throw the rest out. However, they were all really good!! Damn me and my expanded palate!

DINNER: 8pm, 2 slices of restaurant pizza, momma style salad, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
AM SNACK: 8:30am, swig of apple cider

AM BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 4 mini muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, spinach dumpling, mixed gluten, mini lotus wrapped steamed rice, deep fried dough wrapped in rice paper, mashed taro treasure box, a couple of mouthfuls of ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Vegetarian dim sum after ridiculous massage. B was hungry as all-git-out, so we got her some ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, I didn't get any but had a bite or two of hers.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, swig of apple cider

DINNER: 7:15pm, small amount of momma style salad, Ethiopian combo platter, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The beef and lamb were both kinda nasty, will stick to the vegetarian combo next time. Beef was a tough cheap cut, lamb was braised but still stringy and fibrous.

If Zambonis were food, they would be lucsious chocolate.

Went ice skating at Bryant Park this evening with a friend, which sharpened my appetite for a meal in Koreatown one neighborhood south after -- it's been a while since I did a real bike ride due to the season. Before that, yoga. Hunger really is the best seasoning, after salt! Ever since I was a kid, I've always found the circles the Zamboni makes on the ice hypnotizing and calming, just like watching a freight train in motion. What's that about?

Tried to eat healthier today, but got run off the rails by a gift of a box of chocolates and feeling not too well late into the evening. I think part of it is that tomorrow (the 10th) is the 3rd anniversary of my mother's passing.

I had an odd dream last night. I was walking on a sidewalk somewhere in the neighborhood late at night with a very pregnant B, the sidewalks are bit icy. B pauses and says, "Oh, I forgot to show you our new book!" and takes out a large food-related soft cover book. The authors are her (under her maiden name) and my name, co-authors.

There are a couple of blurbs on the cover about her, saying how great she is, and 1 blurb by my name, that said my writing is blank, dull and needlessly ornate. I asked B why they would put such a negative comment on the cover, she said that was the only person who read your work. I open it up and it's just the first iteration of this blog, laid out in order with out any editing. It's horrible! I asked B if I gave permission for this stuff to be reprinted, she reminded me of a brief conversation we had in passing a year ago. I said, "Oh." All my 'would of' and 'could ofs' are all there, my belly-button ruminations, etc.

BREAKFAST: 9am, momma style salad with a little homemade hummus, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
Felt good to eat something different and healthy and momma-honoring for breakfast.

LUNCH: 11:45am, homemade rice & beans with a spoonful of salsa, grape soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wow, this stuff really keeps well! I have a lot in the freezer, but this container was in the fridge, and still tasted really good.

PM SNACK: 2pm, handful of chocolate, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got another holiday gift in the mail today, a box of Sees chocolates. Uh oh!

DINNER: 7pm, bibimbop, scallion pancake, beef broth, kimchi, assorted little Korean plates, a spoonful of red bean ice cream. 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: midnight-3am, a few chocolates, tortilla chips and salsa, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Couldn't fall asleep.

Momma in my salad

Didn't get enough sleep again last night. Put myself to bed around 10, but got restless and went to watch TV till 12:30. Felt crappy and sluggish when I woke up, unsurprisingly, with pictures of burgers and Chinese food working through my system. The little Ilsa in my ear started shouting, "Keep it simple! Veg! Fruit! Don't overcomplicate it!"

I had pre-opera dinner planned already tonight, so an apple spoke up when I wandered into the kitchen. It was that or a really ripe banana, but Ilsa said an apple a day keeps the nutritionist at bay, so down it went. Unfortunately, it was a bit mushy, and getting half of it down was a challenge.

Of course, at break time during class, I was hungry. Funny how speaking of food related matters for 2 hours will stimulate the appetite. There is my old class room on the same floor, but by 10am they're cooking, not eating. In front of the building is a coffee cart, so I got a piece of cake. I must think of a plan. Maybe bake stuff to bring in for the other students?

On the way home, thought that I ought to eat salad for lunch. But the idea of green lettuces and dressing really didn't appeal to me -- that stuff works for me when it's warm out, but just not interested right now. Maybe a big ramen soup? That's really just a big bowl of pasta.

So, thinking about salad, I soon recalled the two kinds of salads from my youth. There was the Dad Salad and the Momma Salad. My dad's salad: Iceberg lettuce, shredded red cabbage, cubed carrot, cuce, green pepper, scallion, celery, radishes, and red onion. All vegetables were was finely chopped and/or diced. My mom's, however, was not; she thought that effort was ridiculous and fussy, and that the flavors got too mixed up. She would take cuce, carrot, green pepper, and maybe onion if she was feeling crazy and chop it all into large mouth-sized chunks. A sprinkling of salt was all the dressing it needed. Maybe a side of hummus to dip in.

So I made Momma Salad for lunch, pleasingly simple to make. I kicked it up a notch by squirting a half a lemon on top in addition to the salt, which was still in the spirit of keeping it simple. I baked up a slice of pizza from the resto, but it was more salad than pizza, kind of like a side dish.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, half an apple, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
A little bit mealy, unappealing.

AM SNACK: 10am, big slice of poundcake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, momma-style salad, 1 slice of restaurant pizza

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, 4 chocolate truffles, .33 bowl, hunger 4/5
Christmas gift food lying around, evil.

DINNER: 6:30pm, raw fish crudo, fresh taglitelle in meat ragu, tiny chocolate mouse cake, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pre-theater dinner at a midtown Italian joint, pretty good. Italian-style sushi is always good, wonder why someone doesn't try to do a whole restaurant on this theme.

Tired, New Begining

After working at the restaurant last night and not getting to bed till 2, getting up to be in class at 8am was a stretch. After popping into a crappy faux-50's comfort-food diner-type place with B for lunch, I went home to nap, go over school stuff and get my head in order.

I don't often eat burgers, I find greasy chop meat disagrees with my digestion. But this place's central theme was 'comfort food', and I just sat through a morning of being told how central concept is to the core of a restaurant. And to me, the most central item that lives at the heart of all-American comfort food is a hamburger. So it's gotta be good, right?

Nah, strictly mediocre. I'm glad I skipped the fries, B got a dish of sub-par chili-mac laced with tortilla chips she didn't want. I'm just glad I asked for it medium-well instead of my usual medium-rare, as I wouldn't trust that place with my health.

For a detailed rundown of culinary management school, hop on over to Culinary School Confidential. I'm bringing this blog back from the dead to ruminate on what I'm doing in school, while I continue to log everything I cook, eat, and feed my friends & loved ones (and customers) in this space.

BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted bagel with butter, swig of apple cider, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, hamburger, a few tortilla chips, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, peppersteak with fried rice, egg roll, wonton soup, ramekin of caramel ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not the healthiest, but what I was in the mood for. Must be the lack of sleep. If I'm going to see Ilsa next week without feeling like a total gooneybird, I gotta come correct.

Bad Fish & Poop

I swung by the market to pick up ingredients for lunch. I got a little broccoli, thought maybe rice with steamed broc. I saw some very large jumbo tiger shrimp in the fish section, I couldn't resist.. I was thinking how crappy store-bought stock was, then it occurred to me I could make a quick stock from the shrimp shells, so I got an onion and a couple of carrots, too.

At home, I deshelled the shrimp and noticed....a slight off odor. I get moving, and made the stock. Set up the rice cooker with a little crumbled dried mushrooms, salt, brown rice. After 20 minutes, the off-odor of the shrimp blossomed by boiling their shells....a cross between bad fish and poop. Fail! So I through it all out. After a handful of mini muffins, I found I wasn't very hungry anyway.

Spent the afternoon and evening at the restaurant, covering for the fellow who never showed up for his shift and never called again. Once again, this was my last day until someone else mucks it up. If the next person mucks it up, I have an agreement from Chef R to try me out -- she was very nice about it, wanting someone with years experience, not months like me. Good vibe, helping out at the last minute has cemented a bridge that I may need to trod over again sooner or later.

Well, tomorrow I start the culinary management program. Experience is lying out in front of me. I brought home about 25 slices and a bag of focaccia for French toast to get me through until they call again!

AM SNACK: 9am, swig of apple cider

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, a handful of apple mini muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4pm, pizza slice, chocolate cake, root beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKING 6-10pm, a couple of small wedges of margarita pie, cheese cake, ginger ale, bits from the topping station, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:45pm, quart of water

Overcooked, Tough Monday

Spent the day cooking and doing errands. Was back at c-school taking care of some paperwork, ran into Late Kid -- he was late every day and eventually got expelled. He had to re-enroll and do a bunch of classes over, hence him having a whole month to go. Also ran into my friend/advisor A, had a nice chat about things. Looking forward to being back in school the day after tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, good yogurt with vanilla, honey and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
When I was at the market today, was disturbed by the high price of vanilla extract. So when I got home and was preparing french toast for dinner, I took the two spent vanilla beans I used and placed them in a mason jar full of cheap vodka. I'm going to keep on adding spent beans and in a month or so when the liquid is near black, I'll strain it and -voila- a pint of vanilla extract for cost of a tumbler of assed-out vodka.

LUNCH: 2pm, sauteed pork chop in pan sauce, 1.5 baked potatoes, ramekin of caramel ice cream, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooked up the chop as I learned in c-school, came out medium, despite me aiming for rare. I think the pan was not quite hot enough. The other thing was the store-bought stock, I reduced it before adding it to the sauce but it still tasted...watery and salty. Stock should never be pre-salted for just that reason, but tell that to the boneheads who package the stuff. I gotta make my own stock.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, handful of apple cinnamon mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a new batch of these muffins, substituted whole wheat pastry flour for AP. Maybe overcooked them a bit, they're denser and bit tougher and overcooked than the previous batch.

DINNER: 6:45pm, french toast, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
It only soaked in the batter for 3 or 4 hours, and the pan and oven were both running too hot, it came out a little bitter and a little tough. Seems to be the theme of the day!

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, salsa fresca with flax corn chips, a few mini muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made this salsa today, with left over ingredients from the Israeli salad, though I swapped out parsley for cilantro and forgot the garlic. Too much lemon, not enough salt, not much flavor. I really blew it cooking-wise today.

Pizza Luv

On Saturday, B, her friend B2 and I took the morning train from Grand Central to New Haven to dine at Pepe's, an old-school Connecticut pizzeria that B's father remembers fondly from his college days. (This is also the same place B and I hit up on the way to our honeymoon in Cape Cod, and also on the way back. And 5 or 6 times since) They are known for what is my favorite pizza on the East Coast, the white clam pie:

I paid particular attention to it this time, as this was the first time eating it since working in a pizzeria for several months. The first thing that stands out is the coal-tinged crisp crust -- you really taste the oven, the one thing that is the most difficult to replicate in a location. The second thing is the generous portion of fresh clams, something the very definition of the local. Third is the balance -- garlic, parm, olive oil, perhaps a dash of cooked-off wine, salt. Generous, but not enough to overwhelm the crust. Weird to enjoy something so pizza-like that has no moz or tomato.

The three of us stuffed our selves silly, then wandered giddily around a local park and downtown before making our way back to the train station for a very contented and sleepy ride home. Sure it was 4 hours and $28 per person on a train, but the ride was relaxing and had beautiful views of the sound, the food was cheap, the environs far from home and the mood just happy to be together and alive. Too bad more of our friends weren't able to hop out of the groove for a day.

As we were heading back to the train, I got a call from Chef R, asking if I could come in ASAP -- it seems someone didn't show up. I said I couldn't, but could come in tomorrow. So I spent Sunday at the restaurant. It seems the new Chef they hired was scheduled to work all weekend, and just didn't show up, and didn't call. Opportunity? It was nice coming in, seeing my friends who work there, topping more pies on the main station than usual and just getting into the groove. Near the end of the night, I was asked to cover hours on Tuesday.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bagel with smoked salmon and butter, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, one medium white clam pizza, 2 bowl, water, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, Israeli salad with flax tortilla chips, caramel ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: midnight, 4 mini muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 11am, organic cornflakes with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, 1 slice of pizza, cheesecake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4-7pm, 2 sodas, 2 tiny random pieces of pizza pie, water, bits from the toppings station, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:45pm, rigatoni with mushrooms, chocolate cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:45pm, quart of water

Battleplans for 2009

It's 2009. Last year I left graphics behind and freelanced while attending culinary school. I graduated with honors, and briefly worked at the restaurant where I externed. This year B and I are going to have a baby, and I plan to freelance in graphics and look for another gig at a restaurant. But I'm also...gonna do something bigger and better. My first move is going back to school.

On January 7th, I'll begin the management program where I attended culinary school. It's not strictly a restaurant management program; it's an entrepreneurial program, the focus of which is the food world. I just need to be my own boss; I don't know if I really want to be in the restaurant world, but to be able to produce something -- and/or feed people -- hmmmm.

I'm going to continue this blog but focus more on what I eat, what I feed my family and friends, and other musings on the fun of food. I will restart my old blog, Culinary School Confidential, while I'm in the management program, reporting and ruminating on everything that is taught and discussed. While this blog will be daily, CSC will go part time, as the program is only 3 days a week.

On a personal front, I want to push myself farther at home on the cooking front. I'm pretty happy at the trajectory my home cooking is taking -- my pizzas are becoming more complex and have potential to take on personality, and I surprised myself yesterday by baking bagels that could seriously compete with my local bagel bakeries. I want to keep pushing.

I'm happy with my health, but I need to do better. I've kept a consistent 10 or so pounds off since c-school, but I want to train myself to eat smaller portions. Or more particularly, cook smaller portions. This evening's stir fry, for instance, I purposefully tried to do smaller portions of all the ingredients, going so far as putting more than usual into the stock. Still, it all added up to enough for two, which didn't stop me from eating the whole thing, it was so good!

I also wish to eat more seasonally. Ilsa has been riding me a little to eat more fruit and veg, eat more simply. On the positive, I'm really conscious of my urge to eat wintery -- heavy on the carbs, starch, oil, light on the more typically healthy stuff. Hopefully I'll spring back in, uh, spring.

Woah. I just did a spell check and got 'entrepreneurial' on my first go! Maybe I AM smart enough to have my own biz!

ADDENDA:
I went uptown to do yoga with a friend I've never yoga'd with -- the HVS is on the opposite side of the world, and I had to do something after that miserable class I took earlier in the week. It was a beginner hatha class, a style of yoga I've never experienced and...I think I still haven't. The class was fun, as I was able to do 100% of the positions and when people had the option to do a full wheel, NO ONE did, they all were like me and stayed in half-wheel. The HVS would not approve at all! :) It kind of felt like the first half of a vinyasa class, without all the super-flexible model-types downtown. I want to try a more middle-level hatha class, now.

BREAKFAST: 11:30am, half a wholewheat bagel, smoked sable, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The smoked fish was not a hit yesterday, must eat as much as possible before it goes bad. Goyim, hrumph!

LUNCH: 4pm, club-style BLT with fries, half a pint of good beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
First bacon of the new year, pretty yummy.

DINNER: 8pm, stir fry with shrimp, veg, brown rice noodles, freshly made shrimp/veg stock, mirin, soy, sesame, nori, caramel ice cream, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went all-in on a stirfry, happy with how it came out. All the extra veg and trimming along with the shrimp shells went into cold water and boiled for 20 minutes, before being strained and reduced to about 1/3 of a cup. Peanut oil got infused in the hot wok with fresh pieces of ginger and garlic, then cooked the shrimp half way and held aside. Removed the ginger and garlic, then put in the veg, from slow cooking to fast cooking, hitting with a little soy sauce along the way. When that got far enough, hit it with some mirin, let the booze cook off. Added the shrimp and stock, covered for a minute for some steaming action, then uncovered and added the noodles, which were loosening in cold water but were still crunchy -- they did a good job of soaking up whatever liquid was still in the pan, bringing the whole thing together. A hit of sesame oil, a hit of sesame seeds and chopped up nori, a hit of hot sauce, one final jooj and into the bowl and into mah mouf, yo.

A nice balanced flavor, lots of umami. The stock and mirin (which gave the needed subtle sweetness) really made this the best stir-fry I've done yet, I just wish B wasn't on a bagel-and-butter kick this evening so she could've shared it with me. -wah-

Bagels: In the Raw!

Above are some raw rings of bagel dough, ready to be dropped in a large pot of boiling lightly-sugared water for a minute before being dredged in sesame seeds then baked for 20 minutes. I spent the morning making the bagel dough, 4 different kinds of mini muffins, and finishing the caramel ice cream from yesterday. Three of my closest friends from childhood came over with their respective partners and babies and just had a fantastic afternoon. The food helped, sure, but when you're so intimate and friendly with people you've known forever and don't see nearly enough, food is secondary....


....but it's still nice to get compliments. I bought Kossar's bagels as a back up, but my bagels came out pretty well indeed. I stuck to this recipe, and I was worried because the dough was SO stiff, it was near impossible to knead....but I left it to rise for an extra 30 minutes on the first go, and an extra 15 after it was shaped. They browned up perfectly, nice and chewy and still a good crispness to the outer shell.

I was lazy and didn't scale out the dough, so the bagels were different sizes, but all were maybe 1/2 the size of the current American bagel, more like what our parents would expected a bagel to be. Eating two of these bagels is a perfectly reasonable portion, and twice the opportunity for different toppings!

While the bagel dough was proofing, I whipped out 4 different muffin batters, baked off two at a time: lemon muffins which came out like biscuits, apple cinnamon muffins, corn muffins with whole sweet corn kernels, and a non-reciped oatbran-apple sauce-banana thing which tasted really healthy, but I didn't quite like. They looked faaabulous though:


The size worked to their advantage -- no way peeps would've eaten four muffins if they were full-sized. I had some good fish on hand for the bagels, but the homemade toppings got a lot of love, like the Israeli salad...


...and the hummus, to which B threw in some pine nuts to class up the joint....


....and the home-made butter, which to my palate was nothing special but was a show-offy kind of thing....

There was so much food, I forgot to make the bacon, oh well. To think I started 2009 by forgetting to make the bacon. Tomorrow, I'm going to do a run down about plans-hopes-goals for the year. This blog may be taking some interesting zigs and zags in the near future...

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic cheerios with good milk

AM TASTING: 11am-2pm, mini corn muffin, mini apple cinnamon muffin, mini lemon biscuit, mini banana oat bran muffin, half a homemade bagel, a spoonful of caramel ice cream, a slug of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 2pm-5:30pm, bagel with smoked sable, a few muffins, a small ramekin of caramel ice cream with a cube of brownie in it, glass of cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, Boylan's Grape Soda, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
I actually ordered a 12-pack of this stuff on-line because it's gotten so hard to find in shops. Easily the best grape soda out there, a real treat.

DINNER: 8pm, curry-flavor shrimp over a bed of Israeli Salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Needed something unsweet, defrosted some raw shrimp, salted and through in some curry powder, nice compliment to the lemonness of the salad.

Prediction for 2009

Tomorrow, friends are coming over for brunch. I won't give away too many surprises, but I boiled 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk to make dulce de leche, which will be turned into a caramel ice cream. I made a small batch of hummus and a small amount of Israeli salad, two things that taste better when left to develop overnight. I also whipped a cup of heavy cream into butter -- a c-school, they warned if you walked away from a mixer while whipping cream, it would turn into butter....but never demoed it. So I put the cream in and walked away....and when I came back, the fat had separated from the liquid into pale yellow curds, and the whey left behind kind of looked like skim milk. I rolled the curds into a little tube of parchment paper.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, chug of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, veggie burger, fries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, small bowl of homemade rice & beans, half a brownie, apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, sausage onion mushroom pizza, assorted antipasto, 1/3 of a slice of chocolate cake, 1 glass prosecco, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Last dinner of 2008 should serve as a warning. B, a couple of friends and I went to Little Frankies for dinner on 1st Ave and 1st St. It's Italian enoteca style, with brick-oven trad style pizzas. Undercooked, overtopped, got flibbidy flobbidy within seconds of presentation, a real lack of chew OR snap. The only thing that stood out as above average was the house-made sausage. Pizza has been trendy for a while now in NYC, and sooo many gourmet pizza places have opened and are about to open. Well, it's places like this that are going to break the trend's back and shake out shitshows like these.

Evilly Delicious

I woke up at 8 to get things done around the house and try to reset my recent late-wake late-sleep habits. In the afternoon, an evilly delicious brownie made me nap and make me feel weird, so I stayed in with some felafel.

ADDENDA:
Went to a noon yoga class with an unfamiliar teacher. Was in a good mood, avoided eating before the class, felt a bit yawny but psyched to be there. Once the class started, it was straight down hill. After an annoying anecdote, the first thing that pulled me out of the zone was the WORST. MUSIC. EVER. Led Zepplin is not yoga music. King of Pain by the Police is not yoga music. F@cking BRUCE HORNSBY AND THE RANGE IS NOT F@CKING YOGA MUSIC!! Evil mid-80s top 40s light pop took me back to when I was 13, hating everyone, and plotting how I was going to rebel (ska music! shave my head! combat boots!) against the twits who actually unquestioningly listened to this piffle. Then a long stretch of poses I've never seen and could not do, and during headstand practice several people fell with frightening force. I was lying on my stomach, and once some new-wave pink-suited Eric Clapton came on, I found myself unthinkingly rolling up my mat and leaving 15 minutes before the end. I felt aurally assaulted.
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, homemade brownie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh my. After refrigeration, these bad boys got yummier. The chips solidified, giving a nice textural breadth to the otherwise soft, gooey and stretchy interior. They taste so deeply chocolately and...unhealthy.

HONORARY SNICKLE SNACK: 1:30pm, spinach salad, hijiki tofu patty, cold sesame noodles, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The HVS was supposed to join me, but life got in the way. I was thinking of her when eating this vegan meal at Dojos.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, brownie, quart of water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Damn, they're good.

DINNER: 9pm, felafel platter with hummus, whole wheat pita, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in.

Mario, c'mon!

B and I finally got out of the house and got ourselves to a pizzeria. We met up with her momma and brother at Otto, Mario Batalli's joint. I've eaten here several times over the years, and I must say every time I like it less and less. Maybe it's because I've become more pizza-aware over the time?

The service was unusually lousy, but I can easily forgive that for great food. But this was not great food. I started with a shrimp appetizer, which was really a small bowl of chickpeas and hot pepper, with some small blanched freezer-fresh shrimps strewn in. This is Italian cooking, man, simple recipes that live or die by the quality of the ingredients! This one was DOA.

There are basically two columns of pizza on the menu, classic and neuveau. B went for a simply pepperoni pie, and momma got the quatro stuzzini (or some such Italian name), which was basically a margarita with a different topping in each quadrant -- cooked prociutto, butternut squash, mushrooms and something else. I ordered from the funkier side of the menu -- fungi & tallegio. I learned to love the soft, wine-flavored ripe cheese in c-school. The pizza was....fneh. The crust was nicely colored, brown and spotty like a good crust should be. But it's not really baked -- it's cooked on a griddle, and it's snap-to-chew ratio is much closer to a cracker-like snap than any significant chew. (Good pizza should have a balance.) The tallegio itself was good, but there was too much of it and there were too much cooked mushrooms. Every bite was just gobs of cheese and mushrooms, overwhelming the sense of crust. It was just....unpleasant to eat.

B went out this evening to a girls-nite-out kind of thing, so I was the good house husband and stayed home and baked brownies. I used this recipe, replaced extract with the scrapings of 2 vanilla beans, doubled the salt and replaced walnuts with a cup and a half of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Makes me want to make chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream and a hot fudge sauce to pour all over the hot mess. Porno a la chocolate!

All the tallegio and hot chilis weren't too kind to me this evening, but was greatly soothed by two warm, gooey brownies.

ADDENDA:
While picking up groceries at the market, had the pleasure of running into two famous people. One was the author Sarah Vowel, of whose historical political diatribes I've read several. The other one was our very own HVS!

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, organic cheerios with the bleah milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, bread & olive oil, a few bread sticks, chickpeas with shrimp and chilies, tallegio & mushroom pizza, small slice of pepperoni pizza, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, swig of apple cider, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:45pm, 2 homemade brownies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5