To be a Bohemian in the 1890s...

Woke up before dawn to prep for a bike ride -- I was hoping to do 100 miles. Got out the door by 6am, but as I was riding up the west side bike path, found myself getting more and more tired, less and less focused -- the opposite of what should, and usually, happens on a ride like this. By the time I was near the GWB, I stopped and ate the bagel I had hoped to munch on in the wilds of rural New Jersey. After eating it, got on the bike, pedaled a a few minutes and realized I felt even more drained than before the bagel -- something was not right.

I road home slowly, took a shower and put myself to bed, not arising until 3pm. I think yesterday's burger did a number on insides -- I like burgers, but ground meat that's not thoroughly cooked (like meat balls) never sat well with me. And if I have an Edie to look after, a burger is not a risk I should be taking!

I spent most of the day in bed with Edie while B did household chores, and got half way through "Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the U.S." I've been eating take out Chinese most of my life, but unlike pizza, know very little about it's history. The book is quite an eye-opener, starting from the first American trade ship to China in the 1780s, through the anti-Chinese problems in California after the railroads were completed, and right now I'm up to the part about NY in the late 1800s, when "bohemians" decided to stick a thumb in the eye of the upper crusties and started to be the first Westerners in the history of the world to thoroughly enjoy Chinese food. Yup, it took some uppity artsy NYers with a little money and a little annoyance with foofy rich people to get me today's mooshoo shrimp...

BREAKAST: 5:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 7:30am, pumpernickel bagel with peanut butter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DUNCH: 4:30pm, egg roll, mooshoo shrimp with a little brown rice, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

A day out

B got out the door at 8:15am, and then it was me and Edies vs. the world. She got cranky so I got her into a stroller and out the door we went -- the motion immediately soothes her, or perhaps in it's the world around her constantly changing. We took the train over to the restaurant and I spent an hour with L talking business and menu stuff, Edles performed remarkably. Our first work-trip together, maybe it won't be the last!

We made our way up to Brooklyn Borough Hall and she slept while I ate a cart muffin. We trained it up to Grandmamma's house, and on the train no one gave me a seat while I squatted over Edie and fed her a bottle. Grandmama took over and I took B out on our first date minus a baby since Edles came.

We hopped in a cab and made a matinee of "Julie and Julia". I loved the half of this movie about Julia Child, her good spirit and love of food, the context of the times, etc. Like many watchers of this film, I think in the next few days I'll be making Beouf Bouginion (which from my understanding, is just a braised stew -- c-school 101, literally. Cube some cheap cut of beef, brown it, cover it in wine and beef stock, braise it, add some sauteed veg and bacon, finish with, I'm guessing, butter. Never made it in c-school, but did other similar French braises)

The other half of the film, about the blogger Julie Powell who cooked every one of Child's recipes from her famous cook book in one year, well, I liked the book, could have done without the movie. She come off as self-obsessed and maybe points out whats wrong with blogging in general (and I don't except myself here) -- it's all me me me, with little by way of substance. Julie Child brought substance into the world, Julie Powell just....cooked in her kitchen and blotivated. Me, I just blotivate! He he.

Which makes me think I should reboot this blog for a third time, less me me me-centric and more thoughtful towards a goal. According to the Department of Health's Body-Mass-Index, my ideal weight for my gender, age and height is around 165 lbs, and my current weight makes me 'obese'. I would have to lose over 55 lbs to be "normal" according to this index -- I think I'd look like a malnourished castaway on the edge of death. Should I attempt it? I dunno. Let's blotivate along here...

After, we went to a bistro with a lame menu, where I ate a burger, which was tasty but didn't sit well with me later in the evening.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:15am, street corn muffin, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, cherry icee, popcorn, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4:15pm, burger and waffle fries, some spaghetti & garlic bread, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, glass of mint lemonade, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

Terrible pot-head

Got to bed late, but B didn't wake me and I arose close to 11am. Between B on the phone with her dad, Edles crying for food and no bottle prepared, L from the restaurant calling me on the phone, and me just trying to package my special brownies for the freezer.... the thought did occur to me to sample a brownie, but the idea of not being fully present for my beautiful daughter (and not to mention, the better half of Team Wildberger) gave me the shivers in a not-good way. I'd be a terrible pot-head.

OK, OK, pizza and hotdogs, ice cream twice, but also 2 green salads and a large dose of fruit in the morning....

BREAKFAST: noon, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
It almost hurts when I get this smoothie right, because it makes me wish I measured everything out prescisely, timed the pureeing, etc. I guess it wouldn't matter, because it's rise or fall so depends on the quality of the fruit going in. This time: banana, red grapes, mango, kiwi, good yogurt, organic dead milk, spoonful of vanilla sugar, dash of sea salt and one thing I never used before: tiny wild Maine blueberries. Could that have made the difference?

LUNCH: 2pm, half a medium pizza, Cesar salad, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lombardies with B&E, very mediocre, couldn't taste the coal of the oven at all.

PM SNACK: 4pm, soft serve ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, hot dog with small amount of potato chips, peanut butter ice cream, 3 mini peanut butter cups, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Preparing the Kitchen for Edie

My friend is is off to the Minnesota State Fair for a week, so I met up with her before she left for the airport to give her a 'survival ration' made up of raw vegetable, hummus, high-fiber cereal and packets of lube from CVS (to assist with getting her pants on and off!)

As I was uptown and hungry for dinner, I swung by the noodle shop near my old employer for a meal. I remember enjoying the food highly, and I ordered a simple dish of sliced roast pork over a fried rice. For $6.50, it was easily 2 bowls of high-calorie dense vegetable-free food. Holy crap! I ate the whole thing, but I would have also been satisfied if it was half the size. Wow. I was packing this in while I was riding a desk for five years. No wonder even though I feel fat right now, I'm still 15-20lbs lighter than I was then.

In the evening, I made peanut butter ice cream and a round of "adult" fudge brownies. I had the key ingredient lying around for more than a year (I'm not a very good druggie), and figured better make something I can give away and indulge in maybe. Don't want stuff like that hanging around the house as Edles gets older. ESPECIALLY laced brownies! Memories of me scouring the freezer as a kid looking for treats, and finding my dad's pork breakfast sausages hiding in the back. These brownies will be gone before Edles gets to that point, that's for sure. And she will only find hidden stashes of healthy high-fiber unprocessed foods! Yeah!

BREAKFAST: 10am, 3 pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, hotdog with kraut and onions, potato nick, gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, roast pork with fried rice, wonton soup, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, a few mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups, a spoonful of freshly made peanut butter ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, ramakin of peanut butter ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Very curious how this came out. I kinda made up this Philadelphia-style (no egg) ice cream recipe, trying to keep the number of ingredients to a minimum:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 2 scraped out vanilla beans
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 pt heavy cream

Creamed the peanut butter, vanilla and sugar. Used the good peanut butter, ground fresh at the market, with nothing else in it. Added the milk and let it loosen everything. Added the cream and loosened some more. Into the ice cream machine, then into the freezer.

Tasted clean and pure -- can taste the peanut, can taste cream, not too sweet, just sweet enough. Next time may play with a maple or molasses sweetener to play against the peanut flavor. A dash of salt probably wouldn't hurt.

Peanut Butter Cup Reverie

I remember when I was a young teen at summer camp, food was pretty regimented, with all campers and staff piling into the dining hall three times a day, every day, for communal meals. On top of that, there were afternoon snacks distributed in mass, ocassionally ice cream on sticks, but too often unpopular fruit.

The exception to this was the canteen, where we could buy junkfood. Only at certain times, and limited in amounts. The prices were less than in the real world, so they weren't doing this for a huge profit -- it was more to head off the 2ndary black market that would emerge when kids would get care packages from parents then distribute the junk food for cash and power.

My parents weren't big on the sending of junk food, so the canteen was where I got to indulge in a way in which my parents would not approve. One thing I loved were Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I just loved them. I loved them so much that when the camp took us on a day trip to the Hershey's Amusment Park in Hershey, PA, I went and got myself a Reese's t-shirt. So at every opportunity, I would purchase the cups at the canteen. The problem was, once I ate them, they were gone...

So I remember one summer I decided to save them. When I got back home, I would not have such easy and casual access to the peanut butter cups. I would not be able to eat them in the presence of my parents, would have to dispose of the wrappers carefully if I ate them at home. I remember that by the time the summer was over, I had horded about 20 packs of peanut butter cups -- that's 40 or so individual cups. Seeing them piled geometrically in my wooden cubby was a pleasure. But the summer was over, and here was my well-curated collection, a supply of pleasure defered, that if were to be greeted by my parents, would be at best doled out to me over time in limited quantities, and at worst confiscated and destroyed.

This only occurred to me the day we were being brought back to the real world to be reunited with our parents after the summer. On the 3-4 hour bus ride from the Poconos in PA to NYC, I ate the entire collection of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups right up, first quickly, them working through, a little bit slower. I was sitting next to a friend, and shared, but he could only get through 2 packs. I didn't eat breakfast that morning, because barfing would of been such a waste of cups. I remember feeling queasy getting off the bus but happy to be in my parent's warm and loving arms. I was proud of myself that I was able to ingest all my peanut butter cup freedom before coming back to my parent's control of my diet. It was a duality I never really resolved. I hope Edie never has these issues.

As I was struggling with tummy issues stemming from my peanut butter cup gorging in the morning, came upon this article in the NY Times. Food for thought, indeed.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, dark chocolate peanut butter cups, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B took Edles this morning and met up with a gang of her gal friends for early afternoon alcohol while I made a matinee movie. I brought the bag of peanut butter cups and reverted to a 14 year old in the dark for a few hours.

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, Shrimp Scampi a la Noah over fresh spaghetti, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Sometimes when I wing it, it comes out the way I hope. Jumbo shrimp unfrozen, shelled and deveined. Salted water boiling, 1 serving of pasta in for 4 minutes. Fry pan heated, olive oil to 1/4 inch, minced shallot and shrimps in. Salt. 2 minutes, flip. Add a dash of Worcestershire, a dash of hot sauce, a pat of butter. With a minute left, crush 4 small cloves of garlic into it, turn it all together. Pasta drained, plated, pan of shrimp and sauce poured over, mixed. Freshly grate parm over.

The buttery garlicky scampy came out with just the right amount of subtle spicy kick, shrimpy in a fresh balanced way. Pat myself on the back. Now if a) I can figure out how to make pasta where it doesn't stick together then b) duplicate this for multiple people, I'll be in business.

Lacking peanut butter satisfaction

Woke up to rain, but still longing for the long bike ride out to Montauk that I was missing. Momma-in-law came over in the morning, so I cooked pancakes for everyone, came out tougher than I thought it would, made a dozen for the freezer. In the late afternoon B, E and I went out to dinner then a nice walk up into East River Park.

BREAKFAST 1: 10:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Blended a shot of dairy milk with the coconut flesh yesterday and let it steep over night. Strained into the smoothie, had no notable coconut favor. Good yogurt, banana, blueberry, pinch of vanilla sugar, pinch of salt.

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, 3 small pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yomomma came over, I made pancakes using the c-school recipe, though this time I tried following it to the letter. Two things I don't like - a 4oz ladle makes a HUGE pancakes, the kind that covers a lot of a plate, I prefer mine the size of a large palm. The other is it calls for wiping down the pan in a neutral oil like canola -- I much prefer sauteing on a sheen of butter.

PM SNACK: noon, ounce of vanilla sugar
Used my vanilla sugar in every thing this morning, only had a dab left, not enough for much. So I ate it with my wet finger. Reminded me of that horrible candy thing when I was a kid, which was like 4 attached packets of different colored powdered sugar, and two compressed-sugar sticks to lick and scoop out the sugar. Yes, it was sweet.

DINNER PT 1: 4pm, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A good strategy: before going out to eat in the neighborhood, fill up on a big green salad at home!
DINNER PT 2: 5pm, marinated mushrooms, bread, fresh pasta with clams, 1 meat ball, chocolate tort, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Frankies, where me n' B had our rehearsal dinner. It's the summer, clams are in season, but this pasta dish was overwhelmed by lemon juice. Linguine with clams is a simple dish. Fresh pasta, olive oil, a little salt and pepper, freshly shucked clams simply warmed by the pasta, and a squirt of lemon. The two things I should taste are oceany clams and wheaty pasta -- the oil and lemon should just highlight those, not overwhelm them. Makes me wanna make this at home.

And I noticed something odd about the pasta that took me a few minutes to figure out....the flat roundness of the linguine noodle is something I'm used to in dry pasta but expect a sharp edge in fresh. This pasta was extruded through a dye, not cut by a roller like I do at home. Hmmm.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 2 peanut butter tofutti cuties, 6 mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
On the walk back this evening, we stopped in the local super market. We were both desiring something sweet, neither that hungry. B expressed concern that since she ate meatballs for dinner, dairy would be hard on her system. So I purchased some peanut butter flavored tofutti cuties, which tasted like cold watery soy milk with a touch of peanut in it. So when she started saying that the dark chocolate peanut butter cups she had were the most amazing thing ever, I had to stop in at the CVS on the way home and pick up a bag.

They were good, but not great. Both the cuties and the cup promised peanut butter satisfaction but neither quite delivered. My next ice cream must be a peanut butter or peanut butter fudge creation....

Another Pizza Fail

Overcast and rainy all day. Tomorrow was to be an organized ride to Montauk, but it looks in doubt. A ride in the rain would actually be fun, but because of dying hurricane off the coast, it looks like a potential coastal flooding situation and predictions of 30mph winds from the east - a head wind. If it were coming from the west, it would be on like Don Cornelius.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I got a selection of fruit from the local conventional supermarket yesterday. The mango and kiwi, when cut open, didn't look right so I tossed them. Banana, blueberries, grapes, good yogurt, dead organic milk, ice cubes, vanilla sugar, sea salt. And then there was coconut....

I picked up a coconut at the market, thinking it could add an interesting angle to the smoothie. We never did coconuts in c-school, so when I got home, got on google and found howtoopenacoconut.com. I got the nail and hammer, and put all sorts of holes in the nut, but only a few drops of water leaked out -- I suspect maybe they were drained by an evil coconut water conglomerate? With a towel and hammer, knocked it into pieces. With a paring knife, I cut the white meat from the shell, rather poorly, leaving a lot of meat behind.

This morning, I first placed some coconut meat in the blender with some milk, and pureed for a minute. Stuck my finger in and....fiber and grit. It's like I placed some balsa wood in there. Not much coconut flavor, either. Everything else in, let rip for 3 minutes. Pour, taste, first reaction is to throw it out. Sat with it, four sips, mouth full of grit. So I passed it through a fine metal mesh strainer, and now it was quite smooth and nice....but really, not as a healthy as when I leave it unstrained.

What did I do wrong? Does the coconut need to be baked, like a gourd like squash, to be usable? Any one have any ideas out there in Internetsland?

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, 2 pieces wholewheat toast with hummus, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Betsy said she was hungry. I was hungry. "Hey Betsy, are there eggs in the fridge? I can make pancakes." Betsy says yes, she was planning to hard boil them. Then makes me promise I'd make her banana walnut pancakes. Get to the fridge, no eggs. -sigh- She thought a box of butter were eggs for some reason. I love my wife, but if she were the cook, we'd starve or...

AM SNACK: 11am, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 ....eat popcorn every day as a major meal! But I used butter as the popping agent -- no air popper or neutral oils.

LUNCH: 2pm, burger and small quantity of fries, small piece of "chocolate pizza", water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Max Brenner below Union Square, B, E & I dined with friends of B visiting from Boston, a group of 3 other adults and 4 other kids. I don't enjoy restaurants like this, with a hokey theme that sacrifices quality for entertainment -- the theme being a retarded Jaques Torres crossed with Willy Wonka. A big menu, I was looking for something light and painless. But everyone at the table ordered burgers, which indicated to me this place must move a lot of them, and if I ordered something from an obscure corner of the menu, perhaps it wouldn't be fresh.

I was impressed by the size of the meal -- a relative scant amount of fries (by American standards), 2 large pickle spears, a large but not stupid burger. I guess this makes sense, as the desert menu is even larger than the food menu, and room must be left for this profit center. As it turns out, one of the owners of the restaurant was doing a taste test of new dishes right next to us, and some of the kids were staring him down. So he sent over a complimentary chocolate pizza for the table.

After being impressed by the meal, I thought hmmm, maybe I misjudged this place, especially if their signature -- chocolate desserts -- are good. And it's pizza, right? Oh boy. Basically, this was nutella and roasted marsh mellows on a crust, similar to the smores pizza I've made in restaurants and at home. The marsh mellow was neutral, the milk chocolate spread was ok, but the crust was gross. Obviously machine stamped, obviously pre-baked who knows how long ago, reheated quickly to melt the toppings. The result was a bready, tough crust that just made me fall back to my original position that this place is for tourists, kids, and kid tourists. Still, it was very nice of the owner to comp us. He kinda looked like a clean-shaven bald version of my cousin Iddo, who is also Israeli.

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, vegetable Stouffers french bread pizza, 1.25 bowl
Feeling bummed about the weather and not being able to ride tomorrow. Frozen pizza of my childhood always meets my needs.

Epic Pizza Fail

Popped Edie into a sling, and took a walk into Soho to pick up a spice grinder for smoothies. Within 30 seconds of starting walking, Edles blinked out and didn't come to until I got home a few hours later. It's nice to have these pockets of calm with her, one on one. I guess I finally ate pizza with my daughter -- the next step is to have her eat some, too!

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

AM BITE: 11:45am, moz & tomato foccacia, hunger 4/5
On me n' Edles walk, I stopped in Balthazar Bakery for a sweet. I was desiring pizza, but I was so close to this world-class patisserie, might as well have pizza later and get a tarte or pain au chocolate now. When I got to the small counter, there were three piles of focaccia: potato and rosemarie, a mixed vegetable and....a moz and tomato, which looked suspiciously like pizza!

I got excited -- the head chef I externed for got hired by the Balthazar group to help open a new pizzeria this fall. Is this the first signs of her influence? I must try some! And the moz and tomato was the logical first step. The counter person asked if I wanted it heated, I said yes, I saw them put it on a metal warming tray and into a small oven in the back. Hmmm. Warming tray. That's not going to crisp anything. I should have run out then...

For $4.75, I got a very hot, very attractive square slice of "focaccia", but I'm not sure this really was focaccia -- focaccia is supposed to be thick, at least an inch, and this was less than half an inch. On the first bite, everything that was wrong became very apparent. Under the (admittedly high quality) moz were two layers of rounds of fresh tomato, giving off a LOT of water, diluting any salt or spice that may of been added. Underneath the overcooked tomatoey mess was a flibbidy flobbidy base, pale on the bottom, dissolute on the top. One bite was just unpleasant. The second bite found me putting the rest in the trash.

OK, they weren't selling this as pizza, but if this were focaccia, it's still an unexpected epic fail.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, crepe with lemon and sugar, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 At Creperie on Ludlow. I got a little too much powdered sugar on Edle's head.

PM SNACK: 1pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost home, at the Rivington slice place that was surprisingly good last time I had pizza there. This time, just ok, I guess they can't be that good AND consistent.

DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, curry shrimp with string beans, chocolate chip cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cookin'. Boiled the beans for 2 minutes then shocked them, could of gone for another minute or two. Marinated the shrimp in a mix of safflower oil, Worcestershire, kuzu and a large dose of curry powder. After pan frying the shrimp, tossed in the beans and remaining marinade. Either the powder has expired, or I was missing something, it just tasted a bit chalky. Maybe a little sugar and salt would have made it pop.

Soothe

Edles was up late last night, and B was out at her bookclub, and I did everything I could to keep Edles on an even keel. Feeding her, bouncing her, singing to her, walking her around in my arms, patting her back, giving her a floaty bath for the first time while holding her head up (so cute!), sitting down in spurts.

When I woke up today, I just felt a little....beat up, and found myself just wanting to stay on the couch as long as possible and do nothing. While the night before wasn't horrible or frightening or bad, it was a bit of a combination physical/mental athletic event. I need to get in shape for it!

BREAKFAST: 11am, chocolate babka, banana, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, a few little bits of pretzel, large piece of chocolate babka, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B, E and I were supposed to take an adventure our, so I ate this to hold myself over. A bit gluttonous.

LUNCH: 4:30pm, fresh spaghetti with homemade sauce, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
They kept sleeping, I got hungry. What looked like a small portion in the freezer was actually two small portions, he he. Gluttony again!

SNICKLE DINNER: 8:30pm, small miso soup, vegetarian maki roll, a spoonful of lemon-vanilla pudding, a bite of oaty sweet cookie, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Out to Souen with the HVS. It was a little hard extracting myself from the day indoors, but she's going to her country of origin for more than a week, so it was snickle now or forever hold your peace (forever, 10 days, same thing). We spoke of perhaps me and the family and the HVS dog this trip together in the next few years, which would be amazing -- Snicklevacation!!

The meal itself was a bit ick, and not being hungry did not help. I'm down on 'build your own' things at restaurants, because with the exception of certain sweets like Sundaes, the general public will not appreciate the art of matching flavor and textures consciously, and will disappoint themselves -- people who order pizza with pepperoni or bacon matched with any lightly flavored topping are silly, as those meats will always dominate everything (cheap pepperoni will even dominate cheese and sauce!) So with this build-your-own maki roll, I just ordered 4 things I liked, without consideration: ume (pickled plum), avocado, seitan and burdock. The ume was a salty pickle instead of the sweet I'm used to, the avocado with hard and unripe, and the seitan and burdock will indistinguishable. I couldn't finish it. A chef who is familiar with the kitchen and it's ingredients would of never of made (or presented) this combo. I should of stuck to the list of the kitchen's combos.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, hotdog, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edles up late again, eating strictly to soothe.

Antsy

Between waking up a little late, and B going out to lunch with a colleague then out all night to her bookclub, most of the day was either in front of the computer or entertaining Edles. In the afternoon, she seemed a little antsy and I put her in the sling and just went -- no supplies, no food, no nuthin'. We didn't go far from home, in case we needed anything, but the motion and fresh air and ambient noise put E to sleep for a solid 90 minutes. Sitting on a bench in a park, sleeping baby strapped to my front, spouse out livin' it up, this is what a parent is.

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
Stomach felt a bit off after last nights feast. Used up the rest of the fruit, had to toss the rest of the cherries as they were a bit shweaty.

AM SNACK: 11am, momma style salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dressed simply in olive oil and salt.

LUNCH: 12:45p, 1 hot dog, potato nic, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, chocolate babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, Stouffer's french bread pizzas, chocolate babka, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was going to cook something, but the distraction of a baby on the edge of being cranky made me keep it simple.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, popcorn, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edles was in full cranky mode, and when she woke up an hour after I put her down with a full-throated wail, I knew it was time for freshly popped popcorn made with butter and sea salt...

Editions with the HVS

Woke up at 5, then woke up again at 6:15, fighting the good fight to get myself to an early edition of Yoga with the HVS. Had a hard night last night. It started ok -- B was released for a late edition of Movies with the HVS, which meant my first edition of Bedtime with Edles. It started off good, with the usual bouncy seat here, a bottle there, a little shower in the sink over there. Then she just cried, and cried, and cried. I never let it get to the 'bad cry', but it took up my full attention and physicality for a solid 90 minutes before she started to settle down. She blinked out on my stomach on the couch finally around 8:30, just in time for all my phones to start ringing off the hook, as B was looking for an update. Edles brief awakened state allowed me to quickly transfer her to the bed.

The three of us were all a little roley poley in bed last night, leading to a glazed feeling when I got up this morning. My tandem broke down on the way out to yoga, so I had a nice early morning walk over the Brooklyn Bridge with 50 pounds of rolling uselessness. When I got back to the neighborhood, I consciously did NOT want to be in a bad mood and transfer that bad mood to B, so I stopped in my local diner and had a bigger breakfast. Ghosts of my parents there in full force, we ate at this greasy spoon many times, every time a happy time. Makes me think -- since coming back to the city after school, pretty much every time I would meet up with my parents, it put me in a good mood. Not many people in this life have that effect. B, Edles, HVS, and maybe 2 others, and that's it.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST 2: 8:30am, BLT on rye, home fries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, potato nic, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Right before my second breakfast, stopped by Moishe's, my local kosher bakery. Picked up 2 potato nics and a chocolate babka. The old Yiddish woman behind the counter asked me if I was sure, because both were from yesterday, but I said it was fine. She discounted everything (I paid $9 instead of $15), and chatted about how she felt like how she was about to die, even though she's been doing nothing. I said perhaps its because she was doing nothing, and she gave me the same exact grimace/smile/sideways glance my mom would give me when I said something cheeky to her.

Anyway, at the birthday party/baby infestation I attended on Sunday, I had a long conversation with a guy my age about pickles and potato nic, we're both fans. No where else have we had potato nick like Moishe's, and we both have looked up recipes that resemble potato kugel more than what this dense savory potato bread is. Makes me want to reverse engineer it. If I had to make a recipe, it would be kind of like a cross between a potato kugel and a potato latke, with some whole wheat flour, salt and fresh ground pepper thrown in to shake it up a bit. Hmmm.

PM SNACK: 4pm, momma style salad, remnants of the ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B decimated the homemade ice cream last night, and ate more today, so if I didn't finish it myself, B would have absorbed it through osmosis or something.

DINNER: 7:30pm, roasted and braised suckling pig, wagyu beef carpaccio, roast quail, cauliflower, puree of potato, Swiss chard, onions, gazpacho, bread & butter, chocolate souffle and cheesecake ice cream, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Took Y to Craft for her birthday, we ate like crazy. Haven't seen in a while, but when we sit and eat, it could be one day or 10 years and it just doesn't matter. Only with Y (and maybe E) could I pull out my fart-maker on my iPhone at the end of the meal and get a huge laugh from both of us, despite disapproving looks from the surrounding tables.

Sense memory

Went up town to see an ailing relative, was a bit of a bummer. He's doing well but brought up a lot of sense memories of both my parent's last days. Seeing what I ate today written out like this kind of makes it apparent how it is effecting my eating. Wow, I filled up on crap today.

BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted bagel and cream cheese, 3 pieces bacon, small cup of cookies n' creme ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Clunked out before 9pm last night, so when I woke up at 7, was hungry but not sure what -- haven't gone food shopping in a while. Had some bacon lying around, 1 bagel left in the freezer, and when all that left me desiring more, finished with something sweet. It looks like an unhealthy breakfast, but I feel satiated and comfortable. To lose weight healthfully, does comfort and satiation be sacrificed?

LUNCH: 1:30, 3 slices of streetza, 2 pieces of shortbread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Up at Yomama's house, visiting the inlaws.

DINNER: 7:30pm, pork dumplings, beef with stringbeans over brown rice, cookies n' creme ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B went out partying and pillaging with the HVS, so lil' ol' me was left at home all alone with Edles. She cried a lot, demanded a lot of attention. I was gonna cook something but realized I needed to simply order in.

Fried Coconut Fishburger

Road up and down the Summerstreets event with D, with a loop around Central Park. Met up with B&E at Petisco in the neighborhood for lunch. Then B, E and I hopped in a taxi to Eastern Parkway to a birthday party of a friend's 1 year old. Holy crap, this place was infested with babies, crawling all over the floor and walls. Edie slept through a lot of it. So this is what adulthood is like!

There was an especially clunky menu item at lunch. Due to several options on the item, I ended up asking for a "fried coconut fishburger", which was actually a lot more appetizing than it sounds.

BREAKFAST: 9am, glass of lemonade, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, "fried coconut fishburger" with fries, a blueberry pancake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, 2 beers, half a small beef taco, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 7pm, foot long Subway veggie burger sub, cookies n' creme ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

All Lamb, all the time

Spent another full day (8:30-5:30) with Edie while B went out, went well again. She ripped through three full bottles of milk, which was amazing, I guess due to the heat. While she was napping/staring/cooing, baked off another round of cookies, churned some ice cream and washed dishes.

In the evening, off to Brooklyn for a movie with D, went to the all-Lamb, all-the-time Yemeni restaurant, great food but remarkably shady. No menu unless you ask for it, soup, salad and wonderful bread included but not on menu. No check, just a number told to you at the end of the night, no tax included.

BREAKFAST: 7:30pm, good yogurt with vanilla and honey, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9-11am, cookies and ice cream!, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Churned the custard and added the cookie crumbs for cookies n' creme ice cream, then baked off another round of c-chip cookies. Some just slid into my mouth, unawares!

AM SNACK: noon, glass of mint lemonade, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, homemade spinach ravioli with salad, ice cream & cookies, lemonade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
K came over to hang and play with Edie, made a nice homemade lunch.

PM SNACK: 6pm, finished the cookies!, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:15pm, lamb chops with rice and roti, lamb soup, salad, water, small cup of sweet tea, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:45pm, 2 glasses lemonade, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Powernap

Woke at 5am after a brief night of restless sleep. Dark, hot and humid. Got my gear on and got out the door with the sun around 6 and road my bike up to Nyack, a 70 mile round-trip. Got home around 1:30, with the intention of hitting up yoga at 2:30. Showered, got on the couch at 1:45 with the idea of chilling for 10 minutes, and then....it was 8pm. -sigh-

Drank over 80 oz of water on the ride out of a Camelback, and stopped 3 times to eat instead of the typical once on this ride, due to high heat. Ate a really good pumpernickel bagel and lox in a very suburban neighborhood in NJ, a little bagel shop that was outside of any commercial district, just randomly thrown in a corner of a residential neighborhood. The fact of it's high quality speaks to the probability of a whole lotta fellow Jews in the area. We can do without a dry cleaner or a grocery nearby, but we better have fresh bagels and lox at our beck and call!

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 8:30am, lox and cream cheese on a pumpernickel bagel, 20oz Gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cheesy poofs, 20oz Gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 1 slice streetza, 16oz bad root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a place I like in Queens by the Triboro. On a plastic bottle of A&W Root beer designed to look like an old fashioned brown-glass bottle, there was a little call-out, "Made with Aged Vanilla!" It's unusual for a mass-produced soda to trumpet ingredients, so I had to try it. Same old corn-syrup sweetness, same old loud generic root beer taste....and conforming with the law, did not list vanilla as an ingredient, just "artificial and natural flavors". Hrumph.

DINNER: 9:15pm, big home made salad, sushi, shumai, seaweed salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cookilishisness!

I write "Hunger 4/5" over and over again, without much of a change, but I'm glad I do -- every time I type it reminds me to only eat when I'm hungry, and be hungry when I eat. Many years I ate out of habit, because of the idea of three big meals a day was what I was taught, disassociated from actual desire for food.

Woke up at 6 and did graphics work for the restaurant, made my power smoothie, then spent the morning at the shop. Spent the afternoon cooking: custard for cookies n' creme ice cream, chocolate chip cookies (so I can make ice cream cookie sandwiches tomorrow, with X-tra cookilishisness!), and a large batch of fresh pasta. Half cut into spaghetti for the freezer, the other half into small ravioli. I had some yummy spinach mixture from last week's pizza explorations -- chopped spinach, caramelized onion, criminis, salt, olive oil and added left over ricotta, nutmeg, parm and whole egg. Seriously good, after tossing off the rejects, got about 5 entree servings of nice and perfect looking dough dumplings.

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Same as yesterday, though a little less of everything, still came out to 1.5 pints. Yummers!

LUNCH: 1pm, clam and bacon pizza, no cheese, half a sprite, half a Manhattan Special, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the resto, kinda lacking. No lemon, no salt, not enough garlic. L threw on some unasked for bacon, which I love, but like pepperoni, once you add that, any lighter flavor will be masked.

PM SNACK: 4pm, chocochip cookies and cookie dough, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, fresh pasta scraps and sauce, more cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
All the trimmings from making ravioli, instead of dumbly trashing it, simply cut into pieces and boiled it up for a dinner for 1. Pieces are irregular, some stuck together, but eating them seems like a lot more sane than trashing perfectly good food.

Smoothie Absolution

Rode bikes with a friend from the restaurant out to Coney, indulged in the Cyclone and a hot dog (in that order), then popped out to Breezy Point for a dip in the ocean. It is hot out.

Started the day with a healthful fruit smoothie, and quelled my post-ride hunger with a large homemade salad before going out to a restaurant. Feel good.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, smoothie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Filled the blender with: banana, blueberries, cherries, red grapes, half a kiwi, quarter of a mango, a heaping spoonful of the good yogurt, enough good milk to cover the blades, 5 ice cubes, a tablespoon of vanilla sugar and a pinch of sea salt. (I need to get a spice grinder, so I can add flax.)

I usually go heavier on the dairy, sugar and salt, but after the HVS's consternation yesterday, wanted to go a little lighter to....be more righteous or something. And survey says: excellent. The sweet and the tart worked in tandem, thick in a satisfying way. This thing is easily 2/3 fresh fruit, probably hard to make affordable in a restaurant setting.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, hot dog with kraut and onion, half a small fries, large lemonade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Odd, I used to think 2 hot dogs was a meal, and less than that was somehow less than satisfactory. Out on a hot day at Coney Island, on the bike, ONE was a bit too much.

DINNER PT 1: 5pm, large green salad with olive oil and vinegar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER PT 2: Shrimp in a tomato vinegar sauce, rice, chips and guac, ginger mojito, water, chocolate hazelnut gelato, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B, E & I took a walk to the hipper part of the neighborhood and ate at Barrio Chino, then around the corner to Il Labratorio for gelato. My shrimp dish was way out of balance, so vinegary I thought it might have been pickled. When you taste something and you immediately ask yourself, "Does this supposed to taste like this?", it means it's either really good or really...not.

Smoothie Aggro

Woke up early and made an early yoga class with the HVS. Not getting into a grind and treating my body better has been on my mind later -- how will Edie be a happy baby if her caregiver isn't happy to be with her? Attempted a snickleride, but the tandem failed again, and ended up back at the bike shop. Spent the day napping, then went out and did a big food shop. Lots of fruits and veg in the house now!

SNICKLEBREAKFAST: 9am, blueberry banana smoothie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I watched the counterperson make this, and was very unimpressed. Ice, milk, frozen blueberry and mango, a banana. No yogurt, no sugar, no salt. It was tepid. The HVS expressed concern that by adding that stuff you make something thats rather virtuous something that'll clog my arteries. I think its all about balance. A spoonful of yogurt, a teaspoon of vanilla sugar, a shake of salt goes a LONG way in improving something like a homemade smoothie. Industrial food go CRAZY with the salt, sugar and fat, not caring for balance, just the right blast of stuff to addict you into getting more and more. When you have such an overload of that bad stuff, everything else will just taste wrong. My smoothie will be right from the getgo.

LUNCH: noon, rice pilaf, gatorade, spoonful of the good nutella-like spread, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, blueberry muffin

DINNER: 8:15pm, boneless thick sauteed porkchop, brocolli and shitake in pansauce, corn on the cob, water
I'm learning that cooking with sweet wine (I've had an old bottle of rose in the fridge for a while now) just sucks, dry wine is the way to go. Bacony pan sauce was nice, though now that I've done it once, will do it differently next time. (Render bacon lardons first, then add onion and mushroom. Add broc with the wine, instant flavorful steam. Use pre-reduced stock so as not to overcook veg.)

Goofed on the meat, c-school came back to me as eating it. I seared one side, attempting to cook it half way...but it was 3" thick. After 8 minutes, the cooked color only came up .5", so I flipped it to find a thick, crunchy fond developed -- a bit too far. So I put it in a 400 degree over for 6 minutes while I finished the sauce, the veg and the corn, and when it came out the 2nd side had no fond, but after letting it rest for a couple of minutes, it was great -- very juicy, very flavorful, and cooked to medium-well all the way through. I was aiming for a medium-rare, should of cut back to 3 minutes in the oven. I never cooked such a thick fillet in school, it was always thinner, even the thickest steaks were maybe 2" thick...next time, I'll have my method down.

I am now a father. Or maybe baby-daddy.

Sorry for the unannounced break, I thought I'd be able to update from my phone from where I was, but realized I had to set some prefs on the account before doing that. It's for the best, as the last 36 hours contained some revelations.

I was invited by a friend to stay at their family's house in the Hamptons, we were all invited. B did not want to travel so soon, after our weekend out in Greenport, so I decided to go with a friend. Instead of the whole weekend, went out Friday late afternoon by train and came back by 10pm Saturday. I had a good time -- a beautiful house on the water, pizza by the water first night, a yard full of wild sea grass, a kayak across the bay, local clams on the halfshell, a beach with drinks, a raucous nude 2 year old acting the clown.

But still, I found myself missing B&E. Though it had all the bits of a perfect short vacation out -- great friends, great hospitality, great food, lots of cool non-urban things to do and relax -- it just didn't seem that great with out them. I couldn't help but feel that the entire time I was out there, some key element was missing from making this a truely great time, without it just kinda marking time until that element is back.

I guess you never know gravity is there until you try to defy it. I hopefully won't make the same mistake again. And hopefully when E is a little bigger, even if B is not up to it, I can take her out on little adventures like this.

On a positive tip, my friends were showing me their childseat bike rig, a fully padded a protected device that sits right behind the handlebars. They took their child on it as soon as she could hold her head up -- 8 months. And when their kid hits 30 lbs, they're going to lend it to me. It's rated for 18 lbs minimum (Edie is only 6 lbs away) and if she has full head control by then, nothing will stop us from riding across county on the drop of a dime! Nothing can stop us!

So far I've gotten up and played with Edie about 6 times since starting this entry. Today, B left out around 8:30am and won't be back until 6pmish -- replicating what it'll be like when she's back at work in early September. I'm finding wearing Edie in a sling around the house has been calming her and freeing me up to do chores, clean up, read the paper, etc....wait, she's crawling and wiggling in my arms again....

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, left over pad thai, Gatorade, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, prosciutto & moz panini, small salad, lemonade, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, rigatoni with homemade sauce & ricotta, watermelon, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Yoga n' Sausage

Met L at the General Store in DUMBO for breakfast, so I could have his undivided attention while I gathered the info I needed to do the graphics work for the restaurant. Went home after and marvelled at Edie, she gained another few pounds and an inch since her last visit, she's like a whole 'nuther baby since we were introduced. Fantastically fantastic!

Went to yoga at the center on Union Square for a basics class on forward bending, really good teacher, felt really good and at ease after, and my legs a little wobbly and stretchy, a good thing. Did some errands, picked up some stuff I need to make for breakfast for some family visiting in the morning.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, corn pancakes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, left over pizza, Gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 2 wholefoods cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bad idea to go food shopping after yoga when your hungry. Should of eaten somewhere first.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, spoonful of peanut butter
Was looking at ice cream and potato chips, as I started dinner. Salad would be nice, but none on hand. If I eat this ice cream, I'll probably eat most of it, then I'll have to admit it on the blog. So I just ate some peanut butter. Good goin', blog!

DINNER: 6:15pm, 1.75 fresh sausages, 1.5 baked potatoes, ramekin of ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some random sausages at the market, experimented with frying in a pan. In butter, finished with crushed garlic. Removed sausages, through in a splash of rose wine and Worcestershire sauce, cooked out the alcohol. Salted, poured over the potatoes. A strong flavor, the rose was a bit too sweet, though.

All day pizza

Spent the morning hectically at the restaurant, a breakfast divereted by L's lack of concentration. Had a meal at the resto, then went grocery shopping so I could go home and, urr, make pizza. My cousin and her kids were here visiting from ol' Cali fornia and made 'em a nice selection: a margarita, a garlicy spinach and ricotta, a shrimp & bacon, then a nutella and banana topped with powdered sugar.

LUNCH: 1pm, half a medium pizza, 2 pieces of bread, half a cream soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, slices of 4 different kinds of homemade pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, lemon cupcake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, large piece of watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

iPizza

I was supposed to be off on a trip today, but things got tangled so I stayed home. Spent the morning getting a new phone, then playing with it. B went out, and I spent 5 hours alone with the Edie. Off to the movies and dinner with friends.

Got a 'Pizza Finder' app on my phone -- now where ever I am, my phone will tell me where the nearest slice joint is...

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, last night's rice with yuzu shrimp, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Gave the raw shrimp a big squirt of yuzu along with some oil, Worcestershire and hot sauce, really nice.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, a couple of cookies, half a pint of ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, smoked trout over fava beans, roast pork loin and belly, chocolate tart, 1 beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice dinner out at Hearth with E&D.

Yuzu-fever!

B & I are talking about this Sunday being a trial run -- she'll leave the house at 8am and not come back until 5:30. Between those times, me & Edie will strap on our guns & go out big game hunting, ride 125 miles on bikes, compete in a yoga chatarunga-off, swim the length of the Hudson River, cook a 12 course meal. Or maybe try to get her to nap while I see a movie. What ever is more reasonable.

Thinking about this piece, about how scientists have codified what I already knew -- exercise and going to the gym is not a good way to lose weight, if you're just gonna eat more to make up for the calories you burned off. I weighed myself for the first time since I stopped working at the restaurant: 223.6. I was surprised -- I thought I'd be heavier, as I've been eating horribly. My fatty-fatt range is between 230-235. I think I only went 10 lbs lighter with the crazy minimal eating I was doing at the resto.

My friend P, who makes me look like Kate Moss when I stand next to him, has always expressed amazement about how I ride my bike so much, but don't lose weight. My bike riding makes my body strong, great cardio, etc, but to ride distance then NOT take in the calories I just expended makes me tired, cranky, uncomfortable and unable to hang out with the human race. I've accepted that biking is not really a weight-control thing. Even when I went cross country, I made sure to take in enough calories to maintain a very steady weight loss -- too much and there could be trouble on the road.

So what to do? It occurred to me if I'm gonna do this, there are two main things to tweak my life habits. 1) Eat a little bit less the majority of times, excluding logical times like bike riding and social occasions. 2) Cook more at home. I think as the months start to cool down, yoga and weights are gonna get ramped up, but the real way to maintain a slow, steady weight loss is by eating more home cooked food, and less food over all.

Unfortunately, around 9:30, the combination of the heat, the baby crying and both B & I having the same idea at the same time -- ICE CREAM! -- made me leave the house, get some, come back, and gorge a bit too much. So much for being good.

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

LUNCH: 12:45pm, slice of streetza, quart of gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
As I was up on the northern tip of Manhattan on my bike, realized I would like a slice of pizza. Mediocre slice joint, slightly crumbly crust, gluey cheese. Thought it was the most northern slice joint in Manhattan (Dykman and Broadway), but I saw a Papa John's about 5 blocks north near the Columbia fields.

DINNER: 7pm, grilled chicken breast with rice pilaf, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice having a load of chicken stock in the freezer that I made a week or two for no reason. Covered the bottom of a pan with olive oil and butter, sauteed minced shallot, then fried some sushi rice in it before covering with the stock, salt and a few bay leaves. In 20 minutes, it was some of the best rice I've made yet. Not "light", but toothsome and bursting with flavor that white rice is not known for. Some of the chicken breasts spared from the stock process, I sliced thinly, coated in a mix of oil, worchestire, dash of hot sauce and a splash of yuzu juice, a tangy Japanese citrus I've had in my fridge for a while -- kinda like a concentrated grape fruit flavor. Cooked up on a grill pan, topped the rice, this was kinda like a decadent, over-the top version of the sloppy chicken-and-rice plates you get from a vendor on the streets nowadays. The citrus acid splash made everything just pop nicely, gonna go yuzu-crazy next time I cook. Maybe seafood?

EVENING SNACK: 9:30-11pm, 4 ice cream cones, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
-sigh-

Need to get my pizza on.

Heard a story on NPR about this Japanese dude who keeps a log of everything eats...by taking pictures of everything. The story went on about software that analyse what is in the picture and give a nutritional breakdown, which is both cool, crazy and scary. Scary: what if I ran a picture of Edie through this software. 132 oz protein, 84 grams of fat, 456 cc of carbs, 28 mg salt? ALL DELICIOUS?!

I'm getting a new phone with a better camera this week. I think I may mix up LTF (and Snicklesnack) a little by trying an all-photo format for a week. I mean, the public must see what the "good milk" looks like, how much .5 bowl of "good yogurt" is and just how big a sandwich is when placed next to a sleepin' bebe!

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, 2 good donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up at 6, got on the bike by 7, while eating these powerfully stimulating donuts, the overcaste sky started to drizzle -- the weather reports said thunderstorms all morning and afternoon, so I packed it in. Of course, said storms never happened...

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, 4 falafel balls, Israeli salad and a dollop of yogurt sauce, Gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
...which is fine, because I got to eat these good leftovers and play with Edie. Her smiles are really a result of interacting with people, and bouncing her on my lap to some of my favorite music while she gleefully shook her arms, legs and head randomly just kinda....ugh. I hope I don't get too sappy.

SNICKLE: 1:30pm, 1 vegan chocobite thingy
Still needing to go out and no rain, made it to what I was gonna do after the rain anyway -- yoga in the park with HVS and her posse!! Yaaay. On the grass (which smelled.....weird), with HVS helping me with the more difficult poses, it was hard but my body was happy after. Looking forward to more HVS-yoga-snickle action later this week.

LUNCH: 2:15pm, shrimp burrito, tiny salad, diet coke, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to mommainlaw's place on the UES to meet B&E, ordered in Mexican, cheap, plentiful. Funny, my memories of eating with my grandmom are 97% home cooking (BAD homecooking) and 3% McDonalds and Arthur Treachers. Will Edles food memories of her grandma be 3% bad home cooking and 97% restaurant food?

PM SNACK: 8:30pm, pizza slice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the bike ride home, wanted to try the pizza joint on Rivington, whose slice was a few notches above the typical, to see if it was a fluke. And they were closed! 8:30 on a Sunday? That's not a good business plan for a slice joint, when there is so much competition....like the new slice joint on Clinton right above Delancey. Another shoebox, nicely designed decor, and the slice was not good, bad cheese, slightly dry crust. Maybe because dude behind the counter did not reheat long enough...

DINNER: 9:30pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, momma-style salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Still, after one little slice, hungry and needing to get my pizza on. But went home because I wanted to be virtuous. Unfortunately, I had these in the freezer, got 'em for E who catsat for us this past week, but didn't gobble them up.

Greezy

Too much bad falafel last night gave me insomnia. Woke up at 10, got on the bike at 11ish, and road up and down the protected route that is a special event for the summer, from Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park, before meeting up with B&E at South Street Seaport. Weirdly not hungry, though B wanted ice cream, so ice cream it was.

Edie is moving her arms and legs a lot, rocking her head back and forth, and starting to make more complex cooing noises. While I was giving her a shower in the sink, I noticed she has the faintest signs of auburn eyebrows.

Hope to have a more active, body-centric day tomorrow...

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, soft serve ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, Superior Lemonade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made mint syrup yesterday, made the lemonade when me and the fam got back from a long walk down in the seaport. This is what I did this time:

• 1 cup mint syrup*
  
• 5 cups water and ice
• 4 lemons, juiced over a strainer
  
• 1 lime, juice over a strainer
  
• 1 large pinch of salt

Mix everything with wooden spoon. (*Mint syrup: bring 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water to a simmer. Add half bunch of mint leaves (no stems), simmer for 2 minutes, let sit off heat for 30+ minutes. Strain through cheese clothe. Can be made in advance and refrigerated for 1 month.)

OH MY, the salt definitely kicked everything else up a notch. I remember Chef Chris in c-school talking about a fizzy Mexican lime drink where salt is always added, and that any sweetened juice drink will come to life with salt. I guess that just didn't register because it seems, so, well, decadent. Sodium is the devil, right? Well, it makes the angels sing!

DINNER: 6:15pm, whole wheat fusilli with homemade tomato sauce, more lemonade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Funny, I've never made simple tomato sauce for pasta without a recipe until today. Merging the Batali recipe I've done a zillion times with memories of making sauce with my dad, I just winged it and it came out (forgive me dad) better than either, at least with me at the helm. Some whole canned tomatoes hand crushed, another can through the food mill. Long sauteed onion and shredded carrot, fresh thyme and lots of fresh diced basil. Sea salt. Simmered for about 30 minutes, really nice.

On the other hand, all I had on hand in the cupboard was whole wheat pasta, which is a bit ass.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, popcorn, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie being cranky, B in need of comfort food. Half corn oil, half butter in the covered pot, finished with sea salt, pretty damn good -- only if movie theater popcorn always tasted this good.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 2 cold falafel balls
Weirdly tastier than when fresh, though a bit greezy.

I'm back, and cookin' (Falafel FAIL)

The week away was nice in the North Fork. Edie was a pleasure, she really seemed to not mind all the fuss and bother of travelling -- stuffing into a car for 3 hours at a time, a new and strange room, less than ideal diaper change times, a momma's boob in all sorts of new and wonderful public spaces! Got some good riding in, maybe 125 miles over 2 days.

Ate a spectacularly bad slice of pizza in East Hampton -- you'd think they'd have some snooty uppercrusty pizza there. Our hotel had a surprisingly good James Beard-awarded restaurant attached to it, had a nice dish of Asian-style mussels there. Had a nice fresh lobster roll after the main ride of the weekend.

Felt a bit heavy and out of shape on the bike. Time to rededicate myself to paying attention to what I eat, and what I cook. Thought a lot about what is going to happen when Betsy goes back to work, and I become the main care provider for Edles during the week during the day. It was a lot to chew on, but feel good about things. The cogs are turning.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, several mouthfuls of Israeli Salad
W0rking up the components for tonight's falafel dinner. Simple recipe from here, needs to sit a few hours to come together. Unlike that silly recipe, I just winged the components by amount. Tomatoes ripe, in season and tasty.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 2 slices, grape soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out for a walk with B&E, I decided to try 2 different slice joints that have opened up in the vicinity in the last year. The first, on Rivington off Clinton (names, simply, "Pizza") looked like a place that just needs a coating of age and grime to be a typical slice joint, but the pizza was surprisingly good -- a nice snap on the bottom, a thin layer of chew on top, and a nicely thing layer of moz, oregano-tinged sauce. Cheese tasted a little cheap, but over all a very good showing. Then I walked past Solo Pizza on Ave B below 3rd. Impressed by the nice design, good selection of good bev, nice wrap-around counter. They had the ultimate soda to eat with pizza - Boylan's Grape. The slice, unfortunately, was over cheesed and the sauce underseasoned. Oh well. I noticed the guy behind the counter was also the guy on the Food Protection cert on the wall -- the owner/operator? Solo operation? Hmmm. I could work there, but right now I'm I bit burned out on questionable pizza owner operators....

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, several spoonfuls of yogurt sauce
16oz container of the good yogurt, about 4 ounces of sesame tahini, juice of half a lemon, a generous dash of salt. Funny, I eat this stuff for breakfast all the time and jazzing it up this way instead of with honey and vanilla, it's a whole different foodstuff. It's the same thing, but one rich and sweet, the other rich and savory.

DINNER: 7:15pm, falafel balls with yogurt sauce, Israeli salad, whole wheat pita, several glasses Lambrusco, vegan chocolate hazelnut ice cream, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oy. I followed the falafel recipe from c-school, and as I was putting it togeher, I remembered there were issues of it, but could not remember how we fixed it. Well, I made an attempt, but it came out wrong. It came out hollow and mushy in the middle, crisp and thin on the outside. Flavor was about right, but too much moisture in the batter, too much flour to chickpea pulp. Hmmm.

Wackadoo

Got to bed around 9:15, but didn't fall asleep until 11:30ish. Set the alarm for 5am, saw rain, went back to sleep and didn't get up until 9:30 this morning -- and it's raining still. I was going to take the first train out to upstate and visit my parents and ride my bike home, but it will just have to wait until next week. Had dreams (see addenda).

Contemplating rain riding, then contemplating yoga, then contemplating a movie, but none seemed like it felt right. Then B came in the room with lil' Edie, and it was obvious -- I'm staying home with my family close by! Simple pleasures in life. In the afternoon, E was getting a bit cranky so I slipped her into a sling and took her for her first solo poppa-daughter walk. Once I exited the building she quickly fell asleep. We walked to the building my parents used to live in and I traced many of the pathways I walked with them. After an hour, while in the local supermarket, Edie started howling and felt the looks of strangers...why is this weird bearded man alone with an infant? What horrible things is he doing to it? Fortunately, I had a bottle of breast milk in my back pocket and the second it hit Edie's lips, she was silent except for a mini-slurping sound.

Did not eat that great today, but I stayed in control of it and went to sleep a little hungry. I suspect part of the reason for that is that we're going away for 4 days on vacation to the North Fork, and I'm bringing my bike -- we haven't restocked the cupboard. Anyhoo, I'm taking a break from this blog thang....will restart the home fires on Friday!

ADDENDA:
In those last 3 hours of sleep between seeing rain and seeing more rain, I had a wackadoo dream. I visited the restaurant, but the layout was different. Instead of just the front of the restaurant building being old-styled brick, the entire dining room was 100s of years old, and long and narrow. Behind the pizza oven, the kitchen was new and cheap like it is now, but L decided to put down carpeting in there. A & J were in the kitchen, busy little beavers, and there was T, taking a break -- haven't seen T in a while as she works in the evenings, and I'm usually visiting in the afternoons. We're happy to see each other, big hug, I ask her how things are, she says they are the same as before, but "only more so". She gives me a new soda they restaurant is carrying, a "60 year old witch hazel" flavored carbonated beverage, and it is laughably disgusting. I tell T to come with me on a walk, so we can talk about our lives and cooking, but I need to go to the bathroom first to wash my mouth out.

I step out front, and L is teaching A (a very sweet but language-limited Iraqi) how to make a chocolate omelet (?) L walks away because he's so busy, so I help A finish this monstrous creation, basically a simple french omelet wrapped in chocolate angel cake. (I hate eggs, by the way, but love chocolate, hmmmm) I proceed to the bathrooms, which are to the right of the long narrow dining room. It's old style, with a water tank close to the ceiling and a long pull rope. There is a window to the front, wooden frame all bent with age. I look out the window, it's raining, I'm glad I'm not subject to L's whims.....and I wake up.

I guess I need to get in touch with T(from the restaurant, not the HVS!). Yo T, you reading this? Send me yo email!!

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 5 cold veg dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, home made baked ziti, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, hot dog, baked potato, Gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 45

One drink doesn't make you an alcoholic, right?

I fell asleep around 9:30 last night, so waking up before 5am felt good and natural. A little hungry, but found myself desiring... fats and sweets. Hmmm. Ate the last of the amazing muffins I made last weekend, very satisfying. Muffins of this sort are definitely on the junk food continuum, but because I made them myself with good ingredients and nothing suspicious, didn't feel too bad.

As B&E slept, I rode over to the farmer's market on Union Square, haven't been there for opening in too long. As we're going away on Monday for a good part of the week, did not buy up a salad. Picked up all the key ingredients for grilled cheese: a raw milk mild cheddar, super hippy bread (8 grain sour dough bread encrusted in sunflower seeds, nice and tangy and solid), and a sweet onion with it's greenery and dirt still on.

Riding home on this early Saturday slowly, contemplating what's in the future. B is going to go back to work in a little bit more than a month -- during the day, it's going to be me and Lil' E. Will I get super fat with comfort food? I need to redefine comfort food, because ice cream three times a day ain't gonna work.

BREAKFAST 1: 5am, 2 apple muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, 2 ends of superhippy bread, the good yogurt with honey, vanilla, cashews, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 12 pm, grilled cheese with mild cheddar and grilled onion, small handful of potato chips, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The cheese was too mild, and I should of salted everything. Still, the superhippy bread grills up wonderfully when slathered in the good butter.

LUNCH 2: 3:30pm, spaghetti & meatballs, lots of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B, E & my friend Y all ate at a hole-in-the-wall Italian joint on Hudson Street, pretty good food, and a nice normal sized portion.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, chocolate ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I didn't particularly want ice cream, but I was with 2 Boston gals and we went by an Emack & Bolios (Whose the mack & Corn holios) and didn't want to make 'em feel weird by abstaining. Like when you go to the bar and have a drink because everyone else is....

DINNER: 8pm, beef&brocolli, fried rice, egg roll, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Comfort food again. -sigh-

Ice Cream trifecta

Oy, writing this I realize I had ice cream with every meal today. Ilsa is rolling over in her garlic patch.

I woke up late, as snickledinner weighed on me from the night before. We got it together and took the subway to Dumbo. The Sicilian at the restaurant was disappointing, as L decided to reformulate that pizza for ease of production, but it's a vastly inferior product. Still, it was a nice time, and we were able to retrace the steps of our first date/proposal/marriage in the park nearby with Edie. The weather was heavy, raining in fits and starts. Instead of a huppah, we had an umbrella.

BREAKFAST: noon, 2 pancakes, 2 mini ice cream cones, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3pm, house salad, Sicilian pizza, presecco, chocolate ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
We three went to the restaurant, nice seeing the peeps and introducing everyone to Edie.

DINNER: 8pm, green salad with grilled shrimp, water, 2 mini ice cream cones, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tour De Snickle, Prologue

Swung by the restaurant in the morning for an unproductive few hours, pedaled in the heat to the Upper West Side to chill with B&E and cousins and momma, then me and my ladies walked into Central Park for a nice stroll.

Road down and picked up the HVS (as we were riding on the tandem) and shot over to Greenpoint for some yoga action on a rooftop. Reminded me of two things: I actually like yoga, but since Edie arrived, have been very remiss in my practice -- the free time I've had has been dedicated to bike riding, hopefully will find a new balance soon. The other thing is I love hanging out on roof tops, there is so much sweet observational peace to take in, it's just like riding a train. Unfortunately, that's not good for yogic concentration!

The tandem jammed up on our travels south and we ended up on the LES at a restaurant B loves but I've held a grudge against since it opened -- it's hummus is not very good and it replaced an Eastern European diner that me and my parents hit up often in the years before their passing. But the new place is Israeli run, it's concept (not too dumpy, not too fancy) is exactly what my parents wanted for the neighborhood, and the food I had this evening was surprisingly spot-on (though HVS's felafel tasted weird.)

I was hungry from eating light n' crappy all day, and a bit dehydrated. By the time I got home by 11pmish, my digestion would not let me sleep until 4:30am. However, for love of the snickle, totally worth it!

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 2 pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: noon, small piece of bread with roasted red pepper & anchovy, half a black cherry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the resto. New soda in stock, contemplating a bruchetta-like appetizer.

PM SNACK: 1pm, beef patty, Gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Riding in the hot sun to meet B & some of her cousins, overcome by weakness from the heat. Stopped by a street vendor. It was this or a hot dog, blech. I'm really over Jamaican meet patties.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, 2/3 of a felafel sandwich, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLEDINNER: 9:30pm, fresh pasta with meat sauce, brownie & ice cream, mint lemonade, lots o' water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Indulgent

Spent a little time at the restaurant this morning, then the rest of the day with B&E. Picked up a lot of trashy food at the supermarket this afternoon, maybe a little too indulgent.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 2 pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I froze a batch of pancakes yesterday, they definitely degraded more in the freezing than a typical pancake -- a lot heavier and less fluffy then when they are fresh.

AM SNACK: 11am, half a Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
This stuff is Restaurant Rocket Fuel.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, green salad with chili grilled shrimp, 1 bowl, 3 dark chocolate covered graham crackers, hunger 4/5
Grilled some raw frozen shrimp, coated in safflower oil, a shake of worchestchire sauce and a sprinkle of chili powder, came out really nice. I'm finding that I don't like grilled things in non-fine dining restaurants because things tend to be pre-grilled and reheated, but grilling fresh at home totally rocks.

DINNER: 5:45pm, Stouffers French Bread pizzas, 4 mini ice cream cones, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Comfort.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, too many potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
My inner Ilsa is not happy with me.

Home Alone, with Edie

Today was not boring. I hoped to wake early and ride, but couldn't fall asleep last night. B left Edie & I alone at 11:30 to get her hair worked over. I now have a new appreciation for what B is going through -- this baby does NOT want to be put down, ignored or left alone. Her sleeps are unmercifully brief. I was determined to do what I was going to do AND be Poppa Supreme.

So I filter chicken stock, rendered chicken fat and made really good buttermilk pancakes from scratch. I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, which involved buttermilk (duh), creme fraiche, eggs galore, and melted butter. They came out amazing, both rich and hearty and light and fluffy at the same time, as impossible sounding as that is.

AND I did all that (and washed the dishes) with my right hand, as my left arm was wrapped around Edie against my heart (literally and figuratively). She was just...chillin'. OK, it took 2x longer to do all that with one hand, but better than not doing it at all. Now if I was working with Edie 24/7, maybe my energy wouldn't be so focused. But I can't wait to have Edles assist me in my cooking expeditions.

B checked in, and after finding all was well, strolled home. I put on clothes and plopped Edes in a sling and we met momma for a sit in the park by our building. A nice calm way to end me & Birdie's first adventure together!

K, a friend I haven't seen in WAY too long, came over for dinner and to see the baby. Being that everything was made yesterday, it was easy to whip out a 3 course meal for her with minimal effort.

BREAKFAST: 10am, apple muffin, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 5 buttermilk pancakes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 1: 5:45pm, large green salad, 2 ears of boiled corn, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER pt 2: 8:15pm, baked ziti, mint lemonade, shortbread, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cooked

Cooked up a bunch of good stuff, including the tomato sauce and bechamel to make some good baked ziti. Between going out and collecting ingredients, then firing several items it once (a 4 hour chicken stock, the ziti ingredients and fabrication, short bread, mint syrup, green salad) made for a full-feeling day.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, bagel & cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 1pm, grilled chicken tenders, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 3pm, farro & sausage, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM DRINK: 1-7pm, Gatorade

PM SNACK: 5pm, homemade short bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, homemade baked ziti, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 1am, ramen, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Seeds

The coming week is my first with no school. All of a sudden, no structure. Tomorrow, gonna cook.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 1 muffin, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 12:15pm-2:30pm, several plates from the buffet, including salad, Shepherd's salad, hummus, eggplant, lamb prepared in various forms, a few pieces of fish, lots of honey-soaked desserts, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, pistachios
My dad's home office was always overrun with seed and nut shells, usually pistachio or sunflower seeds. He'd crack the sunflower seeds in his teeth, spit out the shell, leaving a saliva mess in a pile, bits everywhere. My mom would never clean his office, located in the finished part of the attic space. These seeds were so tiny, they weren't a nourishment thing, just a keep your hands busy thing, with a small amount of crunch and flavor involved.

DINNER: 8:30pm, 2 slices of pizza, ice cream bar, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Comfort food from my block. Had a "twix" ice cream bar, total junk but reminded me of the free sample of the twix me, my brother and my mom got at some shopping center when the bar was just being introduced. My mom was very strict about junk food, but she let us eat these free candy bars. The combination of free and my mom enjoying junk food with me was a heady combination.