Cutting Boards

My dad had a thick butcher block cutting board. It never looked great -- he used it a lot, it always looked a bit beat up, and my mom complained about it a lot. My dad never got rid of it, it was too expensive to replace.

In their senior years, my parents loved going up to the crafts fair at Lincoln Center once a year. I went with them a few times, but the stuff there never really did anything for me. In the early part of this decade, one evening a few days after this crafts fair, my parents told me they got something expensive....something expensive for ME....something expensive that will be my wedding present....and this is years before I even met my wife.

When B moved in, she put my father's dank cutting board under the sink and replaced it with her own, a rather thin board, but wider and fresher. Recently, due to sitting in a small pool of water, the board finally split in half. B has been on my case for a while now to get a new board. When hers bit the dust, out came my dad's old warhorse.

Yesterday, after trudging to the Church St post office to get Edie's application in for a passport, we worked our way up to Sur La Table and found a good hardwood butcher block -- $68, but I got 10% discount with my culinary-school ID, which would have made my father very, very happy. It's pretty much a new version of my dad's old board.

B wanted to bury dad's board in the small plot we have in the community garden, but I want it to go back under the sink to pop up in times of need. My dad's wife couldn't rid us of this board, my wife will not rid us of this board, and hopefully Edie's college apartment will be graced by this board.

After mom and dad passed away, it was up to me to clean out their apartment, a rather frighteningly charged task. In the back of one of the hallway closets, on a high shelf, wrapped in four or five plastic grocery bags, was something stashed away that I did not recognize. Everything else in the house, from the furniture to the books to the clothes to the nick-knacks to the kitchen supplies to the picture frames, everything had some point of reference to some point in the life I shared with my parents. Just looking at a box in the closet, I could tell you what was in it and when it was from. Old plastic utility box with green top, that's all string, cords and power lines from the basement on Staten Island. Cardboard box with torn top, that was dad's school papers.

This bag, however, didn't fit. My parents were not big on secrets, so I instantly knew that this had to be the wedding gift. I opened it up, and in it was a cutting board. It was made up of multi-colored bands of wood, and had rounded corners on one side, and rubber bumpers on the other. A variety of emotions ran through -- my god, what a horrible wedding gift! Relief, my parents would never know how I didn't like their gift. Sadness, my parents never got to see me get married and present it. Amusement, is this their way of trying to prevent me and my spouse from having the same aggro they had in their marriage? And damn, how expensive could a cutting board be?!

I think when it comes time for Edie to furnish her first apartment, I'm going to try to pawn off my dad's board on her, and B will put her foot down and give her the new, multi-colored board that I could never bring myself to use, it's just too precious to use myself.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with agave and cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, mac n' cheese, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry right before going out -- it was this or cookies, and I didn't want to report cookies on this blog!

DINNER: 7pm, roasted mushrooms, sausage n' polenta, water, 1.5 cupcakes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B, E & I went out to visit the jewelery designer who did our wedding bands who just opened up a shop in our hood, then out to dinner at Frankies, where we held our rehearsal dinner for our wedding. Then around the corner to Sugar Sweet Sunshine for cupcakes! A few rough nights lately with not enough sleep, a nice date-like night out with a sleepy baby was just what the doctor ordered.

Ache

A dorky, dorky day. Woke up late, wiped out from my mountain adventure yesterday. Got the laundry done by noon, made it to the passport agency but have to go back tomorrow to complete Edie's paperwork as the bureaucrats are very sloppy. Ate lunch at a businessman's spot on Fulton, then took the ferry to Ikea. Didn't get most of what was on my list, and on the way home went to Pathmark for produce. With Edie on my front and all the groceries on my back, my feet were aching by the time I got home.

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

LUNCH: 1:15pm, roast pork in a sweet and sour sauce over white rice, shrimp empanada, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, large green salad, 2 slices of streetza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 6 newman-o cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Up a mountain

Spent the day with K, we took a train up to Beacon and just walked around in the sunny crisp air all day. It crescendoed with an attempt to walk up Mt. Beacon, but the slushy snow, long shadows and steep paths only got us 2/3 of the way up.

It did make me hungry, though. We ate lunch at a deli right at the base of the park of the mountain -- it was kinda crappy, but it was all that was available and was fuel in the truest sense. When I got home, I had the kind of hunger that emerges after an all-day bike ride. And I slept like a log.

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

AM SNACK: 9:45am, chocolate chip cookie, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, turkey and swiss on a roll, corn chips, gatorade, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, large green salad, mac n' cheese, mint ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, funyons, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Rainy

Spent the rainy afternoon at a party nearby of other parents. Children and babies thick like locusts. Lots of food.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, BLT on toasted rye with mustard, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: noon, mac n' cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM GORGING: 1pm, a few brownies, assorted cheeses, a piece of pork rib, flat bread with potato, pumpkin seeds, a few carrots and string beans, a few cups of rum punch, a snort of prosecco, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, large green salad, popcorn, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 3 meatballs, 2 vegan chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tribute

Again, no appealing breakfast food so went for a pizza. Promptly went shopping at the local supermarket and bought....funyuns, a highly processed mock-onion ring that took me straight back to 4th grade. Kinda gross, kinda delicious.

Had lunch with Y before hitting up Wholefoods, finally stocked up on breakfast elements and the like. HVS came over in the evening and I made c-school vegetable soup, though I finished with the juice of a lemon, but it was a large lemon, and the soup ended up tasting a bit like lemon soup, blech. How ever, I took some WF whole wheat pizza dough and topped it with hummus, thinly sliced tomato, home-roasted red peppers, olive oil and salt and it came out pretty not-nasty.

On one of the first dates between me and my wife, she invited me back to her place to cook me a meal. Boy, was that ugly! She took pitas, topped it with some vegetable matter and shredded cheese, undercooked it in the oven, then presented it as "pitza". BLECH! Good thing I don't subscribe to the whole "a woman's role is in the kitchen" or we would have had problems. This pizza was my tribute to my beautiful, intelligent, sexy, capable, motherly but culinarily-challenged wife.

BREAKFAST: 10am, frozen pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, funyuns, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, chirashi sushi, age tofu, hot chocolate, molten chocolate cake, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

SNICKLEDINNER: 6:15pm, green salad, vegetable soup, "pitza", vegan chocolate chip cookies, a glass of red wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hold the meat

After a sleep shortened by Manhattan Special, woke up with a small knot in my stomach, most likely the meat still digesting. Ate a little meat today, not intentionally, but looking forward to a homemade snickle tomorrow.

This evening, B, E & I attended the first tentative meeting of a LES food coop, very interesting. I volunteered for the steering committee, let's see what comes out of it....

BREAKFAST: 9am, 2 small soy-sausage patties, a few spoonfuls of mint ice cream, hunger 2/5

LUNCH: 1pm, civilatta with potatoes, a little green salad, cream soda, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Not much in the mood for sausage, but L prepared it for me and it would of been rude not to eat it.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the Brooklyn Borough Hall farmers market, a big juicy Honey Crisp. Hit the spot.

DINNER: 5:45pm, black pepper soy protein slice thingies over broccoli greens, summer rolls, miso soup, mint ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Ordered in from Wild Ginger, definitely feeling non-meaty.

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, boiled leek dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Meaty meat

Weird eating day. Woke up feeling OK after a solid 11 hours of sleep. Out of milk, couldn't do cereal or smoothie, and found myself hungry. Frozen pizza.....bread, tomato sauce, cheese, three good things for breakfast.

School was mighty meaty, as today was meat day. It was fun making the same meatballs I made in the restaurant with the students, but I ended up eating way too many. After that, I couldn't do more than a bite of everything else just for taste. I think soon I need to hit up some vegetable matter in a big way. I think the HVS will be upon us Friday, I got some good vegetable stock to work with and I think I need to bust out some vegan cookies....

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, frozen pizza, pint of apple cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

CLASS EATING: 3-7:30pm, about 6 meatballs, a few cups of sweet tea and mint lemonade, a snippet of pasta and sauce, a snippet of polenta, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRANK: 8pm, Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 2/5
Stopped by the restaurant to have L sample the student's meatballs, based on his recipe. He dug it. I wasn't hungry, but couldn't resist the pull of a complimentary Manhattan Special.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, flax tortilla chips, fresh salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Stomach felt weird, needed something new in it that was not meat. Caffiene kept me up until 3am.

Over engineered

BREAKFAST: 8am, glass of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:30am, fillet o' fish sandwich, fried, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Walking around downtown, doing chores, stopped in at McDonald's for lunch. Burgers there are just frightfully over engineered, went with a fish sandwich -- something I last ate when I was a little kid going there with my mom and grandmom and brother and cousin and aunt, when the fish sandwich was a new addition to the menu. I was surprised how tiny it was, probably hasn't changed since the 70s. Small rectangle of fried fish stuff, a yellow slice of cheese, a slather of tartar sauce. According to the nutritional info hidden underneath the place mat, this meal had 760 calories -- half from the sammich and half from the drink. My drink was a medium - 20 friggin' ounces!! That's 2 and a half cups! More than a full pint!

I think I went because it reminded me of going with my mom. We'd probably go, at most, once every couple of months, it was special. I hope when Edie is an adult and indulges in food nostalgia, it'll be something less evil than McDonalds....though it'll probably be pizza!

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, 2 small wedges of "pizza", 2 small brownies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the drop in at the center, the leader made some weird thing called pizza that involved hummus, tomatoes and spinach. B would've probably liked it.

PM SNACK: 5pm, flax tortilla chips with salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, lemon ricotta pancakes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B wanted pancakes for dinner, so I tried to adult it up. Took the c-school recipe, added a cup of ricotta and the juice of a lemon, came out a bit heavy but tasty. Could have used a 2nd lemon.

All day dinner

Caramelized onions are a beautiful thing. They can't be rushed. I woke at 6am, and got to work on the evening meal at 6:30. First thing up was caramelized onions. Wide slice, 9 onions, enough to crowd a 12" pan. A heaping dollop of the chicken fat I rendered the night before, and the flame the notch above low -- and then I went about my business, coming back to it every 10-15 minutes to move the onions around the pan.

Before leaving for the market at 12:30, I made a flourless chocolate cake, churned mint ice cream, made a large quantity of vegetable stock, rehydrated dried morrels and porcinis for risotto (and made a deep mushroom stock that went into the same dish), and made a batch of pasta. The meal didn't have pasta, but I wanted the chicken soup to be alphabet soup, with all the names of the guests:


I guess it was a lot of work for little payoff, but it was fun, and I have 4 servings of fresh linguine in the freezer to eat on for the next few weeks. After we got home from market, I prepped the mise for the soup (slivered nappa cabbage and carrot coins, diced parsley), cooked off the the red chard in a water bath and combined with the 4-hour onions and diced olives and got the whole thing into the warm oven to hold until dinner time. Then I did the full risotto method, which demanded me standing in front of the oven for a full hour, washing dishes between strokes of stirring.

By the time my guests arrived, risotto and chard were in the oven, the soup was ready to go with each person's name in a separate strainer, and the meat trimmed, prepped and pan heated. The meal went off without a hitch, though I slightly overcooked the chicken, slightly under seasoned the soup and the flourless chocolate cake came out unexpectedly dense. However, the risotto was on point and the chard surprised me -- between the sweetness and depth of flavor of the fatty soft pillowy onions and the brininess of the olive shards, the chard just glowed like a hero.

I had two friends who were coworkers at the restaurant, really good to see them and Edie really got on swell. I miss the comraderie and community that working in that pressurized no-BS situation brought.

I think Edie likes dreads. Maybe she'll be the Jewish white dread girl in high school!!

Today was all about the cooking, tomorrow back to Edieworld....

BREAKFAST: 10am, rice & beans, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 1 slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, 2 wholefoods cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, glass of apple cider, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, chicken soup, sauteed chicken breast with pan sauce, triple mushroom risotto, chard with caramelized onion and kalamata olives, flourless chocolate cake and mint ice cream, some mint lemonade/sweet tea concoction, 2 glasses wine, glass of homemade ginger ale, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bikes & Friends

Probably the best non-Edie day since she was born. B took over baby duty today completely, and I set out around 9am on the bike and road out to Coney Island by myself in the crisp fall air. Started out very slow and tight, but really enjoyed just being there and moving. Ended up in Bed Stuy at C&T's house, where C is very very pregnant. I know what they're going through, very much the nesting instinct kicking in and they haven't gotten out much. I felt very appreciated coming that far out just for a casual and brief hello.

From there road up to the 59th Street bridge and met with the HVS for lunch and a walk through Central Park, good catching up and just having some time to focus. After parting, hit up the super market for some groceries to start on some parts of the multi-course meal I'm cooking for friends tomorrow. After confabbing with B & the Edles, shot off on bike again to E's place in Greenpoint, where we toured around the abandoned industrial areas on bikes before ending up at Roberta's in Bushwick for a beer. I wasn't hungry, but they're pretty well-known for the wood-fired pizza, so I had to try some.

Saw a lot of good friends, got a good 40-45 miles in on the bike, and feel totally fired up to spend quality time with the Edles starting tomorrow!

BREAKFAST: 8am, good granola with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9am, chocolate donut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: noon, 2 diet cokes

SNICKLESNACK: 2:15pm, gruyere with whole wheat bread and condiments, a bit of dirty healthy stuff, a huuuuge chocolate chip cookie, 1.5 bowl (half being just cookie), hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, Stouffers Frenchbread pizzas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, pint of beer, half a small margerita pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 10pm, quart o' the wet

Mochi all around

x

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, the good yogurt with agave and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 ice cream mochi, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, glutenous rice in lotus leaf, pan fried mock-pork dumplings, mock shrimp wrapped in rice paper, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 2 ice cream mochi, flax seed tortilla chips with salsa, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, marinated grilled chicken breast strips, potato nick, 2 ice cream mochis, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Extravaganza!

Saw some pictures of myself from Thanksgiving, oy. I think I've gained the equivalent weight of Edie since Edie has been born. I don't have the heart to step on a scale. When I think about it, I don't think my weight is going to be significantly changed until I either go back to work, Edie goes into day care of some sort, my bike riding steps up in the Spring, I carve out some time for yoga and/or I revise my diet.

I was in the restaurant in the morning, then B&E joined me for lunch. We walked around Brooklyn, hitting up various bookstores and Trader Joes for groceries (food and books, that's our idea of a shopping extravaganza). I saw this book, pictured above, a lot of pictures and big words, that postulates that the real reason Americans are fat-asses are because dinner plates went from 9" to 12" some time in the 70s or 80s. It runs along the same idea why I measure my food intake in "bowls". Ilsa wanted me to get to 3 bowls a day -- today was 3.5.

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

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 chocolate covered graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: noon, 1 small slice of pizza, Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, meatball appetizer, half a pizza, half a Manhattan Special, 3 chocolate covered graham crackers, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, most of a cheap sushi platter, 4 ice cream bon bons, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving lost in the wilderness. All my life Thanksgiving was my family unit's holiday -- one aunt had Hannukah, one grandmother had Passover, one uncle had the other day of Passover, another aunt had 4th of July, and we always had Thanksgiving, from when I was a kid growing up on Staten Island to my parent's apartment on the LES. My father died a week before Thanksgiving, and my mom and a few friends had Thanksgiving at my house, a first but it felt right. The next year, my mom was sick but home from the hospital, and we had Thanksgiving at her house, with a cousin and her kids visiting from California.

I started dating my wife then, and mom passed away in early January. By next Thanksgiving, I started attending her family's Thanksgiving, something they've been doing since my wife's childhood. It was warm, welcoming, appropriately Jewwy, but full of long associations and memories that were not my own.

But now with the fourth Thanksgiving with my wife and her family, and the first with my daughter, that's starting to melt a little, kinda like making compound butter in a mixer. The hard cold butter cubes go in, and beating it with the paddle eventually makes it smooth and fluffy, ready to accept whatever mix-ins you provide it before rehardening it in the fridge.

Where ever B's mom is, is Thanksgiving, and this year for the first time it was in her 1 bedroom apartment on the UES. There were about 10 of us, plus Edles. About 2/3 of the food was ordered in from a local diner, and the rest either brought in or made there (me & B & E arrived early so I could make the creamed potatoes from scratch, and I brought homemade ice cream and brownies, tea and lemonade from school.) The food was good. Could be a lot better.

Thanksgiving growing up was a....THE cooking holiday, which I imagine it is for most of America. Many family members brought something, but except for one particular fur-wearing non-cooking aunt, everyone either brought homemade stuff or wine. The menu was pretty much exactly the same year after year. My dad would make a crudite plate with hummus or French onion sour cream dip and roasted chestnuts to start. Dinner would be a roast turkey with gravy (from a jar), cranberry sauce (from a can), stuffing (Stove Top, what I'd be assigned to "make"), buttered lightly steamed string beans with mushroom, baked yams, soda, booze for the older folks, a random brought side dish, and desserts. Desserts were always brought, except for Dad's pumpkin pie (premade crust and filling out of a can.) Ice cream from the supermarket and usually a pie or two extra from guests. For many years through the 70s and early 80s, an uncle made chocolate mousse from scratch and it was fanTASTic. When he passed away in the late 80s, I missed his mousse more than I missed him.

Anyway, B's mom is great, but even with the catering, it's a lot of work on her shoulders. I really hope next year, now that Edie is here, this cooking holiday migrates from the UES to the LES, and B's mom chooses to have her Thanksgiving (and it will always be HERS, and everyone else just guests) in Edie's home, preparing us for the time when the torch has to be passed. I've been in training for this -- I just knocked off a Thanksgiving meal for 150! I can do 10!!

On a side note, when we got to Yomomma's house, the table was already set. Yomomma mentioned she had set it the day before. She got NOTHIN' on my momma -- she'd set the table on Monday for the Thursday meal!! And day of she'd have to go over every piece and dust it -- about the same amount of time it would have taken to just set it. But I understand it now -- it's the pleasure of allowing yourself to relax by being early.

AM SNACK: 9am, a few spoonfuls of freshly churned vanilla ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 11am, pumpernickel bagel with homemade butter, 5 slices o' organic uncured bacon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

THANKSGIVING DINNER: 3:30-8pm, handful of pigs in blankets, potato chips, sliced turkey boob, stuffing, gravy, salad, creamed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, parker house rolls, sweet tea, mint lemon aid, 1 glass prosecco, water, vanilla ice cream, brownies, 2.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sillier Dinner

Woke up at 5, was pedaling to Red Hook by 6, was knee-deep in prep and cooking by 6:30. Students started rolling in by 7, the dining room started getting set up around 11, the 150 mouths at 12:30 service at 1, and like a swarm of locusts, was all over by 1:30. It was fun to operate this machine, with many moving parts, warming it up early (literally and figuratively) and bringing it to one crescendo, followed by a smaller crescendo (dessert!)

The only thing I was really unhappy with was the turkey -- I've never actually roasted a turkey before (because, well, I don't like turkey and we roasted plenty of other meats in c-school) and I now know why it has such a bad rep. I don't mean bad rep, like evil factory farms, animals bred into unwalking, unhappy mutants or unhealthy hormones, antibiotics and chemicals stuffed into these poor birds. I mean it's REALLY difficult to roast a bird this size AND have it all come out good. If you get the center of the meat to 165˚, the outside is gonna overcook, period. Brining only got us so far. Looking at the pic above, yes, it's a nice color and yes, the butter basting let the skin come out nice n' crackly, but about 1/4 of the dark meat and 1/3 of the white was dry and tough, despite me following every method and maxim drawn from my experience.

If I were to do the bird again, I would either a) forgo roasting the bird all together and fry the mother or b) choose 3 smaller birds instead of 2 large, brine for 8 hours instead of 4 and baste twice as much. Oh well.

I missed Edles today. She is such a snuggly person to hang with.

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

KITCHEN TASTING, TESTING & SNACKING: 6:30am-2:30pm, bits of turkey, bits of ham, bits of creamed potatoes, a couple of brownies, a half piece of pumpkin cheese cake, several cups of mint lemonade and sweet tea, a few spoonfuls of cornbread stuffing, a taste of mac n' cheese, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Nice to overhear some students saying how much they liked the food. Overheard others that didn't. Hrumph.

PM SNACK: 4pm, slice of pumpkin cheesecake, 3 quarts of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, Cesar salad, half a Lombardi's pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Silly dinner

Busy day finishing up recipes and thinking of organizing the kitchen, then going to the school and directing my students to prep a meal for 150. Not as all-consuming as spending a day in a restaurant through service, but a close second.

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

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2/3 of a Wholefoods frozen pizza, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 2 pieces of pumpkin cheesecake, 1 small piece of cornbread, strong brewed sweet tea, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yes, a stoopid dinner, but this was what we had, after doing prep for tomorrow's school Thanksgiving. A lot more will be on offer tomorrow.

EVENING WATERING: 9pm, quart o' water

Everyone is a critic!

While the laundry was in, I peeled, chopped, and boiled a pear for about 5 minutes, then turned it into sauce in the spice grinder. It was still way too hot, so I placed it in a ramekin, placed a plastic sandwich bag with 2 ice cubes in its center, then placed it in the freezer for a minute. It came out pretty close to room temp.

While cooking this up, I strapped Edie into the high chair and tied a napkin around her neck to act as bib. She could tell what was happening, and started flapping her arms and giving the cry of expectancy. It didn't occur to me that making the pear would take this long (adults like hot n' steamy stuff, babies not so much), but when it arrived to her chair-shelf, her eyes were trained on the ramekin, and she started doing her panting. Unbelievably cute.

The first spoonful I put into my mouth to test temp and texture. Only a few weeks ago I had my first pear -- I did not like its texture, but I was hopeful. The temp today was tepid, the texture like, well, apple sauce. The first baby spoon goes into Edie's mouth and....she screws up her face, her eyes squint, her mouth opens in a distinct frown. She swallows, her face unscrews. She pants; I place another spoonful to her lips and she pulls forward to take it in. Repeat of face, a little cry now. We do this about 2 or 3 more times before she refuses to take the pear. It was like she didn't remember from spoonful to spoonful that she didn't like it until the last.

We go down to get the laundry in the dryer, and when we come back, I see her eyeing the leftover food. So I tie the bib around her neck and we go for it again. The first 2 spoonfuls got no frown!! But the third did, and the fourth was refused. She was rubbing her eyes. I picked her up and gave her a solid burping, just in case, then lay her down in the crib. Within a minute she was out cold. Enough food experiments for my beautiful daughter for one day, the rest of the day will be mommy milk and a little rice cereal.

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

LUNCH PT 1: 12:30pm, rice & beans, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH PT 2: 2pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, baby carrots, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, pasta with homemade sauce, shrimp and ricotta, small amount of chocolate chips, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 2am, spoonful of peanut butter, small bowl of yogurt with agave, vanilla and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I fell asleep around 8, woke up around 1:30 and watched TV until I fell asleep again at 3.

Mitt-full

B left the house in the morning to meet a gal friend for brunch while me and Edles hung back and kept the home fires burning. E came over around noon to join me for a bike ride and when she went to pick Edles up out of the bouncy seat, she got a mitt full of baby poo -- it was quite hilarious, at least from my 5 year-old sense of humor.

B brought back some donuts, a good pre-ride munch. We were planning to ride up to City Island, but E wasn't feeling well so we ended up stopping in Harlem for beer and a rib, then riding back over the mighty Triboro. I got home by 3ish, wanting to take B & Edles out in the crisp fall air, but B wasn't feeling up to it. Instead, we danced around to psychedelic Temptations songs in our lair. A lazy Sunday evening with Thai delivery and too much TV ensued.

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

LUNCH: 12:30pm, potato nick, 1 donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, 2 ribs, a taste of mac n' cheese, a pint of beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, shrimp panang curry with sticky rice, curry puffs, salad, water, vanilla ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Gargantuans

Woke up at 5 after a short night of fitful sleep, getting over a cold in it's final stages. Got myself to the farmer's market in Union Square and picked up supplies for brunch for 2 couples and their babies. Made a selection of bagels, nice small ones that aren't "mini" but aren't the gargantuans we get today -- a nice ratio of crust to innards. A set a side of salmon to cure a couple of days ago, busted that out and practiced my slicing skills. Whipped some heavy cream until the fat came together and formed butter.

I roasted some chestnuts for the first time. This was my dad's thing -- every Thanksgiving, he'd slice Xs into the tops of the nuts, brush them with oil, then roast them in this horrible electric counter top toaster oven -- what is up with those things? They were good, but once they came to room temp were a little rubbery. Going to experiment with this.

Edie was wonderful as always, enjoying the company.

BREAKFAST: 5am, small slice of flourless chocolate cake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: half a piece of praline french toast, a breakfast sausage, a slice of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the breakfast bar at Wholefoods.

BRUNCH: noon-3pm, 2 homemade bagels with homamde gravlax, homemade butter and veg, several pieces of homemade flourless chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream, a glass of cider rum punch, a glass of prosecco, a handful of roasted chestnuts, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 2 slices streetza, a green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cooey

Not much going on today. Didn't feel like leaving the house, with a warm cat on my lap and a warm cooey Edie nestled in my arm.

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

LUNCH pt 1: 12:30pm, large green salad, small amount of cous cous salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH pt 2: 2pm, shrimp with broccoli, pork fried rice, shrimp toast, diet coke, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, pasta with homemade tomato sauce and ricotta, a handful of chocolate chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

I never met a piece of tofu that isn't better deep fried.

The started high-stress, taking Edie to the drop in at the pediatrician to have her little cough checked out -- just a little cold, her disposition is fine. Subway wasn't running, and instead of being 15 minutes early, arrived a solid 20 minutes into the 45 minute drop in time zone.

Edie's feeding has increased, and the cough sounds like it needs liquid to soothe, so we've started Edie on straight water. She's taking to it straight away, reminding me of the 3-4 big bottles of water I down every day!

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

LUNCH 1: 10:15am, large turkey & cheese sandwich, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Almondine, before hitting up the restaurant. Just hungry, a remnant of my unbalanced day yesterday. This was not just a sandwich to throw back and fill you up, a la Subway. A nice brown hearty crusty bread, a mild but interesting cheese (maybe gouda), moist smokey sliced turkey, a house-made mayo, it all just worked.

LUNCH 2: 12:30, 3 small slices pizza, 2 Manhattan Specials, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, rice-batter fried sprouted tofu cubes, spinach sauteed with chard and shitakes, sofrito rice & beans, butternut squash soup, apple crisp, vanilla ice cream, flourless chocolate cake, 2 glasses wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooked dinner for Ilsa, the mother of this blog, and C & B. Ilsa doesn't eat wheat, C doesn't eat meat, so had to get a little inventive. Just bought the rice flour at the market today and as a goof, did a basic fry batter with it instead of wheat flour -- actually came out surprisingly well, had a certain snap that wheat flour does not. I think I'd go halvsies with wheat next time. Ilsa supplied the apple crisp, which was very different than mine, and paired well with my ice cream.

Intense

An intense food day. Woke up with Ediebird before 7, fed her some rice mush and fed myself some smoothie mush, then got cooking sofrito for the rice n' beans I'm making tomorrow. I caramelized onions for a solid 2 hours before adding the peppers and garlic, came out more flavorful and full-bodied than before.

Momma-in-law came over to take the Edie, and I took off for school. We were cooking the sweets and the cornbread for next week's Thanksgiving blowout. We cooked, in large quantities, brownies, apple crisp, corn bread, pumpkin cheesecakes and sweet cinnamon compound butter. We jammed for a solid 4 hours, and I stayed behind while the cheesecakes set in the cooling oven's water baths.

Got home late n' spent, happy to be among my wifey and baby!

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Little did I know that this would be pretty much the only nutritious thing I'd eat until the end of the day....

PM SNACK: 12:30p, ramekin of good chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACKING: 3-7pm, apple slices dressed with sugar, cinnamon and lemon, a few small squares of buttermilk cornbread, a juice box, some apple juice, tastes of brownie batter, pumpkin cheesecake batter, taste of raw apple crisp topping, .75 bowl hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, Israeli cous-cous salad, lots of water, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, boiled leek dumplings, 5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Did not eat enough today.

Just eatin'

BREAKFAST: 8am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12 noon, left over spinach pasta with tomato sauce, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, a few tortilla chips, a few oven-dried tomato slices, 2 choco chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snacks at the baby drop-in.

DINNER I: 6:15pm, spinach knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER II: 7:15pm, WF-brand frozen pizza, 2 pieces of goyish chocolate rugellah, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cider

Laundry early, then up to the Museum of Natural History with Edles to hang out with D and her 2 year old tot A. Lots of babies everywhere, lots of nannies, and lots of shops, eateries and tochke spots with stuff at knee level to tempt kids. I know the museum is dependent on donations to stay in business, but isn't this busking of the younger set a little out of step with it's mission to educate?

Stopped through the Union Square farmer's market on the way home, picked up some beautiful apples and some spectacular cider, as well as some day boat scallops from the shores of L.I.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, Israeli Couscous, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't feel like breakfast food.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, falafel salad box, lemonade, half a pita, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the Upper West Side with D and her 2 year old girl. I filled that salad box to the brim, and felt like it weighed something fierce. Really filling.

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got a half gallon of spectacular fresh unpasteurized cider from the farmer's market. Hot diggity! The purity of the cider uncooked, there is a whole other flavor profile that is masked by pasteurization. Same thing with milk, except uncooked milk is illegal, boooo!

DINNER: 5:15pm, fresh spinach linguine with tomato sauce and pan-seared scallops, with ricotta and parm, apple cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Some beautiful scallops from the farmer's market. Made some off-the-cuff pasta sauce with stuff lying around. Unlike the Batalli recipe I've used in the past, here I throw wine in the onions and cook it off, and use dried herbs on hand.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 2 buttermilk pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
Hungryish, not for sugar, not because my stomach was rumbling, something else. Need for chewing and the feeling of eating?

A Catered Affair

Woke up to an alarm clock for the first time in a long time. Had to get together everything for the baby shower into a cart, get B and Edie together, and get out the door by 9am. Nothing like taking your family on the subways on a Sunday morning with about 65 lbs of food and stuff in a granny cart. I gotta hand it to B, she tolerates my shtick like no other, with good humor and makes this potentially awful morning smooth and fun.

And no, I dealt with the cart while she carried the Edie. I would of done both, but it was too dangerous going up and down stairs with that kind of weight.

The baby shower I cooked the food for went smoothly. The food was a hit, got a lot of compliments, though I was surprised that my favorite dish, the cous-cous salad, was probably the least popular. Another friend of C's did the sweets, of which I couldn't help but think how I'd do it all differently, a little less sweet there, a little more sweet here. Oh well.

I made a rum punch which went down really well: 4 parts apple cider, 1 part OJ, 1 part cranberry juice, 1 cinnamon stick, garnished with 4 orange slices with whole cloves studded in them. Heated, then 1 part spiced rum added. Very seasonally appropriate, gonna do it again for the mothers at some point.

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

ALL DAY SNACKING: 10:30am-5:30pm, some Israeli cous-cous salad, a bite of mac n' cheese, 1 beer, 1 cup of rum punch, a handful of cream puffs, a slice of lemon cake, a thin slice of flourless chocolate cake, a handful of vegetable sticks, a handful of chocolate chip cookies, a few small cups of soda, a few bites of random cheeses on crackers, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Simple Day

Cooked up large quantities of food today, for a baby-shower I'm cohosting at a friend's house tomorrow. Went to Wholefoods in the morning, then B split for a bookclub while Edie watched me work in the kitchen. B came home in the late afternoon as I was finishing up, I ordered in some dinner, and got to bed early. And that was the day that was!

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

DAY OF SNACKING: 12-5pm, cheese cubes, bits of mac n' cheese, Israeli cous cous, some potato nick, water, 1.25 bowl hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, roti canai, pad thai, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5Simplke

Mothers

I did a quick shop in the hood while doing the laundry. I stopped into the kosher bakery on my block, and picked up some potato nick and ruggelah. There was an old man beside me ordering, had to be in his 80s and a life-long Lower East Sider. Hearing aide, tweed sports coat, wool flat-cap, thick glasses, hunched a bit. He opened an old thick wallet to get his money out, and in the plastic part which holds cards and IDs, on the top facing out was a photograph.

It was a photograph of an old smiling woman wearing a house-coat/mumu kind of thing, pointy cat-eye glasses, gray hair tied back and piled on top of her head, and an ornate curtain behind her. She was smiling broadly, which seemed to accentuate the globular nature of her Eastern European nose. The picture looked faded, the colors turning black and white, probably taken in the mid to late 60s. At first I thought this was his wife, but the picture was too old for a person in it looking that old....it must of been his mother. It made me really sad for a moment -- is this old man hanging on that closely to a memory of his dear departed mom? I think of my mom daily -- it's hard not to when you have an infant that shares her name -- but that picture both made me miss my mom and made me thank goodness that we had appropriate bounderies when she was alive. I mean, dude. It's your mom. Get over it!

Saw "2012" this evening. Question: If all the wealthy people in the world were to get into arks to save themselves from massive floods, and they were to take 2 of every animal like they did in the biblical story, and THEN you crammed 10s of 1000s of extra people who weren't planned for onto said ark, after a month at sea don't you think most of those animals would get eaten? That the ark would be kinda like Superdome II? Stupid Hollywood blockbusters.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good yogurt with homemade vanilla extract, honey, cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
My vanilla extract tastes different than the store bought stuff, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Is it more vanilla-y? Less boozy? It sure looks different, like a liquidy milk chocolate rather than watery black coffee.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, hot dog, potato nick, some chocolate rugellah, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
D from SI and her 2 year old A came over for a visit, I offered either homemade pasta with spinach and shrimp or this lunch, this lunch was much more 2-year-old friendly. I saw first hand what "Terrible 2s" mean, I wonder if Edie will ever be like that. Totally cute but really exhausting to even watch. Like watching a really long special-effects driven disaster movie...

DINNER: 10pm, 2 sices sausage pizza, salad, 1 beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out at Patsy's after a movie with friends. Not my idea, but enjoyed it. In the basement, going to the bathroom, saw a large stack of #10 cans of roasted peppers. Lazy bums!

Baby Brain

Didn't do much today other than spend a lot of time on the couch snuggled with Edie. Attempted to go to yoga, but between leaving my metrocard behind and misreading the time of the class, was a bit of a farce. Still, it was good to be out in the bracing cold without concern whether the lil' bebe is uncomfortable or at risk of getting sick n' wot not.

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

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 lotus leaf wraps, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked these up from a street vendor on the walk over to the supermarket, little pockets of saucy pork surrounded by fragrant sticky rice. Each piece is $1.10, and the vendor offered to sell me a cold bag of 10 for $8.50. Mmmmm, I could eat those all day, and I don't think I need that much mystery meat in my life. Maybe I should try to make these at home, using good meat.

PM SNACK: 3pm, popcorn, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Stomach is feeling weirdly unhungry. Maybe it's because I'm spending the day indoors staying still with lovely Edles snuggled up on me? Used good butter and sea salt to make this popcorn I pucked up at the farmer's market.

DINNER: 6:30pm, slice of streetza, large chocolate chip cookie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was supposed to be yogaing at this time, but got the time wrong so I hung out until the HVS was done.

SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, pea soup, glass of cider, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I served myself the bacony version while HVS had the appropriately vegan version, along with the rice n' beans. Why am I not hungrier?

Ovaries

Spent the morning at the restaurant, then off to Union Square to pick up some stuff for the baby shower I'm cohosting Sunday. In the evening, Me, B & Edles trekked out to Brooklyn for the Corduroy Appreciation Club Grand Meeting. E was the only baby there -- there was another child, maybe 3 or 4, but that was the daughter of the president. Nice/Weird being at a gathering of non-baby folk.

I tried to pull back on the eating today, but I just stayed hungry. I ate a hot dog and rice at home before leaving, thinking that might be it for the day, but my stomach had different ideas. Is it the weather? The season? My ovaries?

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It tasted too sweet today. Huh, I wonder if it's me or inconsistency in the product.


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

DINNER: 5:15pm, hot dog with kraut, mushroom rice pilaf, a swig of cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, half a falafel sandwich, .33 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 7:45pm, glass of red wine

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 2 small churros, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 2 pancakes, small quantity of potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Maintenance dose

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45pm, 1 cold potato samosa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some ingredients at Wholefoods, felt a little nippy. Not very good.

LUNCH: 12:15pm, tomato soup, half a salami and tallegio sandwich, a piece of bread, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
After a baby book reading group, grabbed lunch with a couple of the muthahs. Sandwich was surprisingly tame, was expecting a bigger flavor.

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, a bite of white bean dip, a square of cookie crumble, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
At the playdate drop in, would be rude not to try the organizer's homemade snacks.

PM SNACK: 3:15pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER PT 1: 5pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I knew I was going to be downtown and would probably be unhealthy, so got this in as an appetizer before leaving.

EVENING SNORT: 6:15pm, 1/4 pint of a Guinness
I was surprised to find my wife didn't know I didn't like Guiness. I don't mind stouts, but Guinness never seemed to balance the bitter/smooth for me.

DINNER PT 2: 7pm, shrimp empanada, McDonalds "Medium" Fries, small plate of tuna rolls, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
As B enjoyed a reading by a friend a a bar, me n' Edie enjoyed the warm weather between the tall buildings of the financial district. Lots of fast food. Stopped in three joints to complete this meal. Always amazed by the size of McD's fries. What they call a medium was my childhood's extra-large. And yeah, when I finished them, I craved more.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, ice cream cone, small quantity of chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
As Edie slept in the carrier, I swung by a drugstore before going home. I did not want a repeat of last night. This was like a maintenance dose of heroin for a junky, not enough to get me high, just enough to curb the cravings and get a good night sleep.

Evil Snack

B went out with friends this evening, so Edie's welfare was really on me today. After having a go at a few bottles of milk and formula, I decided to feed her some rice cereal around 4pm. Extra thick I prepared it, to see if a) she liked it that way, b) if it would cut down on the mess, c) if it would make any difference with her level of satiation. Definitely positives on A and B, C harder to tell. She definitely enjoyed the paste-like rice cereal, panting excitedly between little baby spoonfuls. Ridiculous!

I spent the day knocking out laundry, food shopping and cooking. Bleah pancakes in the morning, and 3 large pots of double-strength chicken stock all afternoon. This is a key ingredient in making the Israeli cous cous grain salad for a baby shower this weekend, as well as proper stuffing for the 200+ people me and my students will be feeding on Thanksgiving. Stock-making is a time-consuming and messy task, and I just don't have that extra day with the kids to just do this step, so I'm knocking it out at home with Edles at my side.

After dinner, had the biggest craving for sugar, but resisted -- I had to, as there are no sweets in the house, and Edie just got to bed, and there is no way I'm either waking Edie or leaving the house with her alone, just to get a sugar fix. Thank goodness I ain't a junkie.

BREAKFAST: 10am, buttermilk pancakes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
While the laundry was in process and Edie was in a happy state, I dug up a random buttermilk pancake recipe and went for it. Made a lot, enough for another 3 breakfasts in the freezer. However, did not like how they come out. There was a 1 to 2 dry to liquid ratio, and while the result was very tender and moist, even the very-cooked ones tasted on the verge of being mushy/raw. Very filling.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, glass of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cider season is here again. Gotta constrain myself -- this stuff has just about as many calories as corn-syrup-laden soda.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, large green salad, small quantity of potato chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, seared pork loin, mushroom rice pilaf, a large swig of apple cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 Mushroom pilaf came out ok, just ok. Sauteed long grain brown rice in butter, along with some minced dried mushroom and shallots. Salted it, added chicken stock from the last batch, and cooked slowly covered until soft. Not enough salt, mushroom flavor fell flat. The pork rocked, though. Cut the loin into cubes, salted, then made the pan super hot with chicken fat in it. After resting the meat, I found I had cooked it just as I liked it. Crispy seared crust on the outside, juicy with a hint of pink at the middle. Pat myself on the back for that one.

EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, the good yogurt with extra honey, homemade vanilla extract and cashews, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I thought the sugar craving would fade as dinner worked into my system, but it just got worse. This breakfast became a good after-dinner sniggidysnack.

EVIL SNACK: 12-1am, potatochips, pancake
Not so much hungry but craving fat, craving salt. Very odd. Am I pregnant?

Hello old friend

Odd eating day. Woke up late and had to rush off with Edie to Grand Central. Got a commuter muffin in the station, a big ungainly thing that was more like a corny cake thing than a muffin. Went up to Tarrytown to hang with J, ended up spending all our time by the river enjoying the weather that there was no time for lunch. Me n' Edles ate again in Grand Central, stopping by the 2boots booth I used to lunch at often when I worked up there. A big vegan slice of spinachy goodness down, rocketed home and left again to go purchase the old bike I road cross country on.

I'm not the biggest hoarder of material goods, but when I picked up this bike and started riding it down the west side drive, it was like being reunited with your best friend you went to high school with, you haven't seen them since graduating, and he/she just moved into your neighborhood after living overseas all this time. When you start speaking, all the time rolls back and it's like your back in high school, having the time of your life. This bike, this bike...I'm not about to go cross country again, but come spring, I'm going to drop out for a couple of days and do an overnight to Albany on it....

Got home, ordered in pizza with the B and the E, was a good night.

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, big-ass corn muffin, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, kitkat bar, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 2:45pm, cheeseless earth mother pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, half a large pizza, Caesar salad, 4 pieces of short bread, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Get behind me, burger meat

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, several pieces of chocolate dipped short bread, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3pm, burger, fries, a small portion of tiramisu, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B ordered a veggie burger, EK ordered some veggie wrap, I almost ordered something less meat-o-centric but just felt like ordering something contradictory. I asked for the burger well done, especially after reading that NY Times article on the beef industry and...it wasn't worth taking my health in my hands to eat chopped meat, straight up.

DINNER: 8pm, sauteed shrimp with sofrito rice, 2 pieces short bread, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sofrito revelation

Spent the morning doing laundry, cooking rice n' beans, developing the Thanksgiving menu for the school and cuddling with Lil' E. Went out to lunch in Soho with Y, then met up with B after work and walked home.

BREAKFAST: 9am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 12:45pm, sofrito rice & beans, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I've thrown around the word 'sofrito' but really haven't gone whole hog on it. I've cooked some of the ingredients of this Spanish cooking base together (onion, bell pepper, garlic, cilantro) but didn't take the last step. I noticed an old jar of commerical sofrito in the fridge at school....and it is a paste, not chunky. Hmmmm.

So I minced and softened a large sweet onion in olive oil, added minced red bell pepper and a wallop of minced garlic. All till almost mushy, hit it with a little wine and cooked off the booze. That all went into a blender with a large handful of cilantro and blended to a paste. BAM! Sofrito. Brown shortgrain rice, 2 cans of black beans, water, bay leaves, salt and a pinch of red pepper into the rice cooker, along with all the slightly-grean sofrito paste.

After an hour of cooking, I ate a small ball and....wow. I usually don't surprise myself, but this is really good, better than rice and beans cooked with chicken stock....maybe not salt pork and pork fat, but a big big flavor.

PM SNACK: 2:15pm, pumpkin donut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 3:15pm, sesame noodles, large spinach salad, hijiki soy patty, some frozen vanilla yogurt, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Dojo with Y and Edie.

DINNER: 8:30pm, Stouffer's french bread pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not the healthiest, but the alternate was much worse. I was cooking another batch of shortbread cookies -- I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from everyone who tried them, so wanted to make them again, but with a little bit more attention. But I knew if I was hungry, when they came out a large number would disappear down my maw. The only quick and easy thing I could make while on cookie duty were the frozen pizzas.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 4 small wedges of fresh short bread

Winey

Wanted a smoothie, but B went bananas and ate them all. Spent the morning at the restaurant, sipping on wine, then to an informal mother's group in the neighborhood, also sipping on wine. B & I ordered in food, and she suggested cracking open a bottle, but I had to put my foot down.

Randomly started reading a chick-book, about something I find very attractive in women but never quite understood why. Now if I can get B to indulge me....

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerioes with organic dead milk, cheesecake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cheesecake messed with my sleep again last night, so thought maybe if I STARTED the day with it, it would be a little easier on the back end...

LUNCH: 11am, apple-wood smoked duck confit, farro&sausage, Manhattan Special, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
At the restaurant. I brought L the farro and kasha, and he had a sample of duck confit from a supplier, so he heated both up in caste iron. L liked the farro, which was nice, because as out-there as he is, his palate is very discerning and honest.

PM SNORT 1: 12:30pm, mouthfuls of 6 different high-end wines
Wine tasting of tasty reds at the resto.

PM SNORT 2: 1 glass of malbec
Tasty red at an informal play group with a bunch of local mommas.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, hunk of smoked mozzarella, .1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, sushi, tempura, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in with the B.

Varnishkes

Spent part of the morning planting garlic cloves in our little plot of garden by the side of the building. Who will enjoy this? The rats or my friends and family? We'll have to wait until spring to find out!

Prepped left overs from last night for Yomomma, who came down to look after Edles while I was away teaching. We made kasha varnishkes, something I never made at home or c-school, but it came out perfectly anyway -- my self-confidence cooking just stepped up a small notch. I've been eating packaged frozens stuff my whole life, it's really nice to be able to replicate it without having done it before, and coming out better than the packaged stuff. Yep, chicken fat vs. soybean oil, there ain't no competition, sorry!

BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Felt queasy from a lack of sleep due to too many pumpkin cookies and cheese cake. Still wanted to eat breakfast.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, large green salad, pea soup, 5 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, kasha varnishkes, farro & sausage, a couple of juice boxes, a soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, more kasha and farro, a piece of cheese cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wow, cheesecake is still here. Two more slices, two more days to go, unless B wants a piece...

Ooooh cookies!

While in the local crappy supermarket picking up sponges and buttermilk (for pancakes this weekend), I gave a close look at the bags of beans and grains -- I'm doing a class tomorrow on grain, making a simple rice pilaf and a farro & sausage dish. I saw a box of buckwheat, and it made some bells ring -- kasha varnishkes. I have some in the freezer, the same brand I've been eating since my parents introduced it to me as a kid.

The real thing is some serious Jewish Eastern European soul food -- like matzo farfel, it's a bit of a delivery system for chicken fat. I looked up some recipes on the iPhone and it's really dirt simple -- cook some buckwheat in stock to fluffy. Caramelize some onions in chicken fat. Toss with egg bow tie noodles. Season with salt and lots of black pepper. We already have the fat, stock and the onion at school, so I'm gonna bring in some egg noodle and buckwheat as a bonus recipe...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Two new elements to the standard smoothie: frozen organic raspberries and a teaspoon of homemade vanilla extract. This was a seismic shift to the flavor profile. All of a sudden, it tastes somewhere between fruit punch and a red lollipop (in a good way.) Curious what pineapple would do to this mix.

LUNCH: noon, Stouffer's french bread pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, spinach linguine with pumpkin, spinach and bacon, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, a small wedge of cheesecake, 1 glass of wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B's friend A came over and we baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies together from a Southern recipe. Shortening instead of butter, a wallop of freshly pureed pumpkin, they came out nice. We took bets as to how long it would take B to start mowing down the cookies -- A said 15 seconds, I said 30. When B got home and saw the cookies, it was about 8 seconds before she was gobbling. If she skipped the "OOO COOKIES!" shout, she probably could of gotten it down to 5...

I sauteed some pumpkin chunks with bacon lardons and some spinach, spiked it with wine reduction, grated parm, a shake of thyme and basil, mixed in a beaten egg at the end. Pretty groovy.

The cookies were OK, but it was the cheesecake that got me. Ahhh, sweet reward!

Cheesecake, it's a hell of a drug

Today B, E & I went to our little plot in the building's garden and laid down a raised bed of soil. This week, we plant garlic for the spring.

Got some cooking done. In the morning, made a batch of spinach linguine from scratch, took apart a few small pumpkins and roasted the flesh, as well as the seeds tossed in peanut oil, sea salt and paprika. The pumpkin will become pumpkin cookies and an ingredient in a pasta dish tomorrow. In the afternoon, I made split-pea soup from the recipe we did early on in c-school. We did it with lamb bacon we cured ourselves, so I replaced that with a beautifully fragrant piece of locally sourced (from a farm down state) slab bacon from Marlow & Daughters, which I had to pop over to to pick up some farro for Wednesday's class. I made one big batch with all the yummy stuff, bacon lardons, bacon fat and chicken stock, and another for B, with, ummm, water and salt. Fneh. I guess it can live in the freezer until the HVS comes over for another snickle conference...

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, 1 bowl, hunger 4.5

AM SNACK: 11:45am, small wedge of cheesecake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I'm determined to make this 8" cheesecake last. E brought it over last night. She told the story of when we were dating, my parents took us to a nice dinner in the East Village, then we popped over to Venerios for cookies and tea. My parents treated us to a small cheesecake to take home (E was living with me at the time.) When we got home, I busted open the cheesecake, but E did not want any. The next day, she went to eat some cheesecake and....it was gone. I had eaten it in one sitting. She was quite shocked, to say the least. That's the kind of thing I did back then. Cheesecake, it's a hell of a drug.

Last night with dinner I had a wedge, ate half of E's wedge, then caught B with the box, spooning cheesecake into her mouth, without thought of portion or control. So this morning while cooking other things, I slice the remaining cake into 5 pieces, ate one (because it looked so damn good), wrapped the remaining four in parchment, placed it on it's cardboard doily and into a plastic freezer bag, and into the locked freezer in the hallway. My challenge:

• Make this cheesecake last all week.
• No more than 1 piece a day.
• Share it with my wife.

Oy.

LUNCH: 4pm, hot dog with mustard, onion and kraut on whole wheat bun, large green salad, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNINNER: 6:15pm, puree of pea soup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Damn this was good. Chicken stock and bacon playing against the rootsy/grassy flavor of the peas, with a few crisp hunks of bacon cubes giving a little texture....

Hypnotized

Woke up at what is now 4am, thought about riding bike, but it was raining. Fell back asleep 9ish, woke up at 11 and found us too lazy and hypnotized by Edie to even order in. Kitchen is out of almost everything, had to use a scrap of cheese to top a bagel, toasted in the broiler.

We eventually rolled out in the early afternoon, stopping for donut deliciousness on the way. Weird how B was insistent she would not eat any sweets on the way, and within 50 feet of the donut shop she started getting really excited about the idea of a pumpkin donut. Go figure.

Bought a lot of ingredients for several dishes this week, but on this lazy Sunday evening, E came over bearing, of all things, a cheese cake! We ate some freshly made salad, ordered in Malaysian, then had a little cheese cake.

BREAKFAST 1: 4am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:30am, toasted pumpernickel bagel with cheddar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, donut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, green salad, roti kanai, shrimp puff, Singapore noodles, cheese cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Slice o' Edie

Fell asleep around 9:30am, so waking up at 5 was no big deal. Got hungry, but didn't food shop this week, so went around the corner to the local diner I used to go a lot to with my parents on weekends. The food quality is pretty poor, but standard in a very American way. I pretty much stopped eating there when I went to c-school -- I found I couldn't stand the dish I got there regularly. After learning to make the most delicious pancakes ever, having their gummy, chemical pancakes from a mix just didn't cut it. Still, it was nice to slip on some flip-flops, slip out of the house while B and Edie slumbered in each other's arms, and walk slowly through a drizzly, over caste sky to go commune with memories of my parents.

Last night, I had the privilege of feeding Edie. We mixed a couple of tablespoons of Gerber "Rice Cereal" with some breast milk to make a smooth creamy gruel. The stuff is basically commodity white rice milled into flour, then spiked with a cabinet's worth of vitamins, minerals and stuff. We placed Edles into a highchair, and fed her with a long-handled metal baby spoon. I placed the bowl of the spoon, full of gruel, into her mouth and tilted up. Edie immediately started gumming wildly, and I felt the pressure of her tongue against the spoon. I removed the spoon and she continued to jaw wildly, food going in all directions -- down her throat, coating her mouth, around her lips, down her chin and pooling on the wash clothe tucked into her collar.


Pretty much the moment I take the spoon away, Edie starts WAILING! Did she not like the food? Is she uncomfortable? Is something wrong? The next spoonful comes to he mouth, and she stops wailing and greedily, anxiously, joyously eats the next spoonful with gusto. She couldn't wait for the next spoonful, and with a full mouth loudly let us know. Essence of cuteness. She is learning to feed.

BREAKFAST: 7am, BLT on rye, homefries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 1: 11:30am, falafel, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At Maoz.

PM SNACK: noon, popcorn, one piece of shortbread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 2:30pm, salad, 2 slices of pizza, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, samosa with chickpeas, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, leek dumplings, .75 bowl, hungert 4/5


Bonus picture: PIZZA VS. HOTDOG!

Vanilla

B used up the vanilla extract, so this morning I took down the glass jar which was packed full of used vanilla beans from baking surrounded in grain alcohol. It's been sitting up there for a solid 6 months or so. I through the contents in the blended to make a muddy liquid, then strained it through a wire mesh and cheese cloth. I added about 50% water to cut down on the alcohol smell and bring forth the vanilla. Voila! About a pint of vanilla extract, more vanilla-y than anything you can buy on the market, and cost me about $5 (for the booze, as the beans were already used once) versus about $100 for this quantity of good extract.

A little splashed on the counter, now the whole kitchen smells like vanilla.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with cashews and honey, a piece of shortbread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 8:30am, another piece of shortbread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, small amount of scrambled eggs, pickle, salmon, cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, 2 slices Sicilian pizza, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, some cheese, bread, a few cookies, glass of wine, glass of beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, samosa with chickpeas, vanilla ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5