Slow

Found myself drinking a lot of water this morning, probably balancing out after my ride yesterday. Very slow day at the restaurant, slowest I've ever seen, due to rain and being Monday.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 12:15pm, prosciutto pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5Funny, easy to resist the sugared sodas after sipping water all morning.

PM SNACK: 4pm, house salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 5:45pm, meatballs, Sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, Cranberry-Lime soda


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, cheezy poofs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ride

Today was the NYC Century, a 100 mile ride in the city sponsored by Transportation Alternatives. This was my first 100 mile ride back in 1999, and my mom and friends met me at the finish line that year, it was quite dramatic. I've only missed it once or twice, once because I was riding my bike cross country, the other time because I was sick or in England or something.

This year it started raining about halfway through, and I ditched after the rain became steady, around 11am. Still, it was a good 70 miles all told, though the food supplied by the organizers was a bit meager. I did find by eating a minimum and taking no longer than 3 minute breaks at the rest stop, my energy level stayed pretty well even. I was feeling the burn by 11am, but mentally I was ready to go on, except for the danger of riding on wet, slick roads with cars -- on a different bike, less of a big deal, but this bike had thin, slick tires that weren't meant for this weather.

The rest of the day was bathing, ordering in Chinese food, dropping in on a neighbor's 1yr old's b-day, and taking it easy with the family.

AM SNACK: 5am, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans
BIKE SNACK: 7:15am, peanut butter on whole wheat bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
BIKE SNACK: 9:15am, small bag of potato chips, small cliff bar, a pretzel stick, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
BIKE SNACK: 11am, jelly on wholewheat, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:15am, slice of pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 2pm, shrimp toast, wonton soup, Singapore Chow Mei Fun, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4pm, espresso ice cream with chocolate sauce, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:30pm, small serving of veg lasagna, pasta salad, alcoholic punch, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8pm, hotdog with sour kraut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

TCB

Spent the morning at the restaurant taking care of business, visited a neighborhood friend who sells hotdogs and sampled his wares, then met D&E for a movie before hitting up a crappy Mexican restaurant. Got Edie to bed while B got some me-time, and put myself to bed early so I could wake up for the NYC Century the next morning....

Today was September 11th. After 9 years, still feels weird.

AM SNACK: 6:45am, vanilla ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST: 8am, cinnamon banana buttermilk pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 slice cantaloupe


AM SNACK: 11:45am, hotdog with mayonnaise sauce


PM SNACK: 1:15pm, cherry icee


LUNCH: 4pm, chips & guac, shrimp fajita, 1 beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Laughy

Edie day! After her nap, we rode bikes over to Crifdogs to meet Y, played in Tompkins Square Park, went over to Ben & Jerry's for some sweets, then home. The afternoon of not-quite-healthy eating left me satiated most of the day, and a small bowl of fresh pasta simply prepared topped me off. Edie is getting more smiley, more willful, more walky, more climby and more laughy every day.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with the good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 hotdogs, tater tots, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2:30pm, chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, small bowl of fresh pasta with olive oil, garlic & parm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, multigrain tortilla chips & salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Hunch

On the bike ride to work, the sun was behind me and I noticed the shadow stretched before me. My shoulders were up, too close to my head, undoubtedly exaggerated by the angle of the sun, but I could feel that they were hunched. The last time I was on a tandem with the HVS, she reached out and grabbed my shoulders and pushed them down. And this past Monday, when B and I went to get back massages, the masseuse did a number on my shoulder-neck muscles that left them sore for a couple of days.

I unhunched my shoulders, sat a little bit taller and forward. Didn't feel natural. But with all this hunching, this can't be a good thing. Any advice on how to break my hunching habit?

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea


BRUNCH: 11:30am, meatballs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, nutella and peanut butter


DINNER: 6pm, linguine with crab, a meatball, a little mushroom, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 11pm, hotdog, espresso ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Damn, ice cream!

B had off today, and before I even left they jetted off to Connecticut to be with family. Not exactly jealous, just wish I could have been on the train with them, then magically appear at work on time. I like train travel. It was odd leaving for work from an empty house, no cute little hobbit to shout "buh buh!!" at me with an uncoordinated little wave. Makes me appreciate how less my life would be if I did not have B&E in it. B&E, that would make a good name for a neighborhood restaurant concept...

Why do I constantly, unendingly, repeatedly write "hunger 4/5" after every entry if it never seems to change? Because the habit of writing it reminds me to ask myself if I was actually hungry when going to eat this item. I was raised to eat on a schedule -- breakfast, lunch, dinner -- without regard to if I was hungry or not. I'm pretty good at eating when hungry and not eating when not hungry, but this is my own constant reminder.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios with the good milk, half a banana, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 10am, Manhattan Special
LUNCH: 12:30pm, 3 slices Sicilian with mushroom and onion, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 4:45pm, green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:15pm, chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Damn, Jaques Torres has some of the best chocolate ice cream in the world. I sometimes amaze myself because when I make ice cream, it's better than any Haagan Dazz or Ben & Jerkys, but being better than a mass-produced industrial item is not that big of an accomplishment. JT's chocolate ice cream is like mine, in that it clearly is made fresh without gums or preservatives, but his balance of chocolate and the temp it is served at is so crystal clear and pure, my ice cream has only come out a few ways like this by luck, while every time I've gotten ice cream from this place, it's perfect. Damn.

PM SNACK: 6pm, 1 meat ball, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5


EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, multigrain wholewheat bread with nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Saying vs. Doing

Woke up with seriously sore muscles at the base of my neck, from the painful back massage I received yesterday. I assume this is supposed to be good for me...

I wanted to eat breakfast, but I just wasn't hungry. How do I make sure I'm hungry for breakfast? I know it's sound nutritional science that says a big breakfast, a medium lunch, a small dinner and small snacks in between make for the best health, but saying it and DOING it are two different things.

Well, at least

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 11:45am, nutella pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I made the rare pizza at the restaurant as the guys set up and prepped. A few chunks of refrigerated nutella, olive oil and salt. The nutella never really spread, it started to char before it could melt. Though it looked a bit gross, it had that burnt-marshmallow caramelized-sugar flavor you get on a smores.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, green salad, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
After my frustration with a monster 20oz bottle of soda this past weekend, it was nice to sip on a glass 8oz bottle of soda at the 'rant. They're kinda old-timey in terms of both size and shape as well as material, and because of the cold temp of the glass, one could think it tastes different, too. Ironically, this true single-serving bottle has no nutritional info on it, as it's packaged for restaurant sale, not in a market.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, small plate of roasted potatoes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 6pm, slice of ricotta pizza, slice of clam pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, slice of pizza, sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, small amount of espresso ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Riding with B

Both B & I had the day off, but still had a baby sitter, so we took off on bikes and trekked through Brooklyn. We ate bagels from La Bagel Delite in Prospect Park, and got lunch at the ball fields in Red Hook. We got messages right before we went home, where my masseuse really did I number on my lower neck -- is this supposed to hurt this much? The HVS came over to hang in the evening, bringing all sorts of snicklesnacks. Edie was in fine form. A good day.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic chex with good milk, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese & veg, grape juice "beverage", 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I grabbed what I thought was juice at the bagel shop, but when I tasted it, hoping for a pure natural taste, I was surprised to find that it kinda tasted like flat grape soda. I looked at the ingredients, and indeed the second ingredient after water was corn syrup -- only 30% juice. After the words "Grape Juice"on the label, it had the word "beverage" right underneath. What a scam.
 



LUNCH: 1pm, shrimp chalupas, roasted corn, tamarind drink, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLESNACK: 6pm, rustic bread, a little wine jam, a little olive oil, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, saag paneer & rice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bagel Labor

A weird eating day. Woke up at 6 to make a double batch of bagels, as well as mint lemonade, adult lemonade with gin  & lemoncello, churn custard for espresso ice cream and prep bagel condiments. We invited a whole mess of local families to meet us in a local playground for Labor Day brunch, was a lot of good baby vibes, a lot of compliments on the bagels.

Ended up not eating much, and the alcohol made me nap 1-3. Woke up weirdly hungry, and foraged through the cupboard. Yomomma was around all day, so we ordered in Indian, but mine was quite substandard and ended up eating too many donuts.


AM SNACK: 8am, snippet of espresso ice cream


AM SNACK: 10am, most of a 2oz bagel


AM SNACK: 11:45am, bite of bagel, a few cups of mint lemonade, a few cups of mint lemonade with lemoncello and gin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3pm, hotdog, a little chips n' salsa, chocolate and good peanut butter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, a little dry chicken tikka and rice, a little naan, 4 Entemann's donuts, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Soda

While Edie napped, I went to the Hester St Fair for a lobster roll, then a short walk over to East Broadway for some Chinese street food. I found myself desiring grape soda, and I picked up a bottle at a bodega near by. Twenty ounces -- that's more than a pint, and according to the label, 2 & one half servings. Huh? 2.5? This is supposed to serve two and  a half people? In my mind, this is a large single serving, and I think myself a thoughtful person on these matters.

At 130 calories per serving, I drank about half the bottle and tossed the rest. My desire for the soda was the same as a desire for a candy bar, rather than a drink. No way I was going to eat a massive chocolate bar, and no way I was going to drink more than a pint of sugar water. Ick. If there was an 8-oz serving bottle (an actual single serving), I would have bought that, but that ain't the way it is now...I could of bought 20oz of 0 calorie artificially sweetened ick...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, onion bagel with butter and tomato, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, lobster roll, lotus leaf wrap, fishballs with rice noodles, half a bottle of grape soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, shrimp and white rice, guac & chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bread & Butter

I took B out to dinner this evening while a babysitter squat on Edie. Today we celebrated three years of marriage, and we went to Blue Hill, a restaurant we went to initially to celebrate our engagement. It's all very green and PC, associated with an upstate farm from which it gets most of it's produce. The tomato salad was unremarkable, but tomatoes this season have been a bit fneh in general. I'm not a huge veal guy, but the deliciousness of having such an un-PC item in such an earth-friendly place was just too appetizing to pass up. They really had my number!

But in the end, it's three years with B, and over all it's been a fantastic three years -- and just because of Edie this past year, though that is definitely a high point. B is my Bread & Butter!!


BREAKFAST: 9am, corn muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BREAKFAST 2: 10:30am, 1/2 a pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese and sable, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, a piece a of chocolate


DINNER: 6pm, tomato salad, bread & butter, veal, potatoes and string beans, chocolate bread pudding, a glass of cider, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Vittles

And on the fourth day, God said let there be lots o' Edie! Before B could even get out the door, Edie was in her bike seat jetting off to the supermarket to pick up supplies. My friend V came over and we cooked up some fancy vittles, baked some cookies, took Edles out swingin'. In the eve took care of chores and a loud wife. Looking forward to a long weekend with my family, my bike and my Edie!

BREAKFAST: 8am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 11am, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:30pm, cod with Parmesan-dill sauce, fennel orange salad, slice of pound cake with orange syrup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 6pm, 2 slice whole grain bread with chocolate hazelnut spread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, curry chicken, pork fried rice, egg roll, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weigh-in

(227.4 --->) 221.8 ---> 226.8

So while I may be 5 pounds over last month, I'm about a pound less then where I was the month before. I suspected last month was an anomaly due to dehydration and day-to-day variables. I'm still seeing a nice slow downward trend, which is ideal. My wifey and various people say I look thinner, and I do feel a bit lighter, and biking is going swimmingly. I suspect I've gained a little muscle mass in my lower half, too. And there ends the boring weight obsession.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stopped by Jacques Torres on the way to work. Not the healthiest way to start, but I was too hungry and it was too early to start wolfing down pizza.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3:30pm, 3 meatballs, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 6:15pm, chocolate ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, slice with bacon and maple syrup, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, half a special brownie


EVENING SNACK: midnight, burgers and fries
No comment.


EVENING SNACK: 1am, fresh pasta with pistachio pesto, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tasting Sodas

Slowish day in the resto. Found myself craving sugar. Hmmm, gotta get back into the habit of drinking water through the day -- a little dehydration can be mistaken for sugar-desire...

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 banana pancakes, iced green tea, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
AM SNACK: 11:30am, Manhattan Special, snippet of freshly baked bread
Very odd, usually a bottled soda tastes pretty much the same every time, but this morning this espresso soda tasted....better. A little less overwhelmingly sweet, a little more bitter, more balanced. Still too sweet, but nice. It's made locally a few miles away, I know it's a relatively small company, but still, consistency in a product like this is key. Don't they have tasters who test every batch? I imagine dealing with a natural product like coffee beans must call for some tight controls. Maybe this is a new formula to appeal to people like me? I somehow doubt it, usually these kinds of products are dumbed down to appeal to the maximum amount of consumers....

LUNCH: 2pm, 2 slices clam & shrimp pizza, 1 small slice salad pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 3:45pm, roasted potatoes, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I experimented with diet soda this past weekend, but I didn't really taste it. I tasted diet coke today, with mindfulness, and was surprised how lackluster it was. The lack of real sugar makes it feel more watery in my mouth, none of that coating clinginess that sugar does that feels good in the mouth but is so bad for the teeth. The sweetness was both too sweet and not sweet enough, artificial tasting compared to the real thing, which is clear and ringing. Nope, definitely not going back to a diet coke habit.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9:45pm, 1 small slice of pizza, sprite, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: midnight, small bowl of cornflakes and dead organic milk, 5 falafel balls with humus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Recap

Over the weekend, B, E & I rented a car, threw my bike on the back, and went to Greenport on the northern tip of L.I. for a getaway. I road my bike to Montauk Saturday morning, and road in the Northfork Century Sunday morning.

Eating-wise, I let myself go in a slightly different way, drinking a few diet sodas here and there -- it's amazing how highly acidic Fresca is. It's so acidic, citric acid is the second ingredient on the label after carbonated water -- before flavor, before sweetener,  before all the weird-ass ingredients in that grapefruit flavored elixir... anyway, it did not do my body good, all that acid cause a flush of a certain kind, bleah.

On Friday evening, had some nice oysters with dinner. While yes, they are a bit like boogers on the half shell, their salty goodness tastes remarkably how you wish ocean water would taste like -- salty, briny, balanced with a fresh fishiness, a tender bite.

Sunday felt a little off due to the hard ride the day before and the acid working out of my system, and ate relatively light for such a long bike ride. By the end, a little wiped but felt...cleansed.











Today was moderately busy in the restaurant, it went by quickly, and after last week's rain washout, thank goodness.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 3 slices white Sicilian with bacon & onion, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 2:45pm, cranberry lime soda
PM SNACK: 4:15pm, small slice of pizza
PM SNACK: 4:45pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm,cranberry lime soda


PM SNACK: 8pm, vanilla cream soda

DINNER: 10pm, 1 slice white pizza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cooking

Me n' Edles went to Wholefoods in the morning to collect what was needed for the evening meal, and I sample some prepared foods as I hadn't had a real breakfast, bleah. My friend V came over around noon and we prepped the evening meal, as well as bang out a tray of special brownies.

D & has new gal (which he is moving to Portland for) came over for dinner. Started with thick cut heirloom tomatoes and vidalia onion, served with a tomato-based "steak" sauce that replicated Peter Luger's. The entree was fresh linguine with a pistachio pesto, and the pesto came out much better than the first attempt (which ended in a cream sauce), but still needed work -- perhaps more oil. That was served with a side of green beans, quickly blanched than sauteed with garlic, olive oil, wine and a little lemon. For dessert was a citrus-almond pound cake and a little green tea ice cream. It was pretty good, though I should of used cake flour for a slightly lighter finished product.

The day flew by, though the hour I spent with Edie in the park in the morning was pure pleasure. During cooking, she was either napping or mostly amusing herself in the safety of her room, with breaks to come out and get some huggin'.

The fam & I are decamping to the Northfork of Long Island this weekend, so this blog will go dark until Monday, which will have a short recap. Until then, my 1.2 readers!!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 2 small pancakes, a chicken sausage, a lame shrimp summer roll, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM NIBBLING: 1-4pm, a little tomato & onion, a little pasta and pesto, a little ice cream, water
Didn't really eat lunch, but sampled the dishes I was making for dinner.

DINNER: 7pm, fresh pasta with pistachio pesto, sauteed green beans, tomato & onion with steak sauce, pound cake, a little green tea ice cream, 2 glasses wine, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

I love food.

Slapped on the rain suit and road over the bridge to work -- sheeting rain all morning, without pause. These slow days are more tiring than fast days.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, watermelon, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
LUNCH: 11:15am, turkey & cheese sandwich, chocolate chop cookie, Manhattan Special, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
To break up the monotony of a sheeting-rain day at the resto, I popped out to the local fancy bakery and picked up a killer sammich -- fresh semolina roll, nice creamy french stinky cheese, some sort of herbed mayo, fragrant red onion. The cookie was huge and chocolaty. Ah, food, I love you!

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, meatball
New batch made, had to test.

LUNCH 2: 3:15pm, piece of calzone, 1/2 a pint of beer
No customers, but a pair of regulars who eat for free came in, so I shared a meal with them while we chatted in the empty restaurant. Did not need the beer, but felt like the friendly thing to do.

PM SNACK: 6pm, small slice of pizza, sprite, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
DINNER: 8:30pm, a little salad, a little artichoke, a couple of squares of Sicilian, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, special cookie
No comment.

Smiley Happy

Edie woke up about an hour after I got home last night, I fed her a half bottle of milk while snuggling on the couch, but I think it woke her up more, rather than get her back to sleep when she's with her momma. I can't say I minded too much, as I missed her all day. I turned off the lights in the living room and watched Mad Men with her, hoping the drone of the tv would get her down, but after it was over, she wanted to get off my chest and run around the living room a bit -- B woke up around this time and was not amused with our 1am TV party. I brought Edles back to bedroom to relax on my tummy, it was a long evening.

Woke up tired, but woke up to Edie slamming her tummy into my head and giggling wildly, so that ain't too bad. The weather is overcast, and after the rain killing business yesterday, didn't expect too much different today. Slow days at the resto are hard to get through sometimes, but it helps to know I have a comfy home with a smiley happy wife and a smiley happy Edie.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea
BREAKFAST: 9:15am, 2 banana pancakes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
LUNCH: 1:30pm, 3 slices white bacon & onion Sicilian, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
PM SNACK: 5pm, cranberry lime soda
DINNER: 10pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, multigrain tortilla chips with salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5

Plant!

I saw "Inception" yesterday, so it should be of no surprise to anyone that I had a freaky dream last night. I was working, running home to sleep and play with Edie, trying to wine and dine my wife and ride my bike, too, and in the process my chest hair started really growing thick and tangled and Robin Williams-esque. I had a wound, small and round and right in between my pectorals, but because of the excessive chest hair, I forgot about it -- I just assumed it would scab up and go away.

So months later, after running around busy with life, I decided my chest hair needed some grooming -- not cutting, just some combing and washing to get the detritus out. And low and behold, where my wound was is...a plant!! A vine-like plant growing out of the wound, camouflaged by my salt-and-pepper chest hair!! Thick at the root, thin and pointy and woven into the hair all around, and basil-like small leaves sticking out here and there, Swampthing like. I freaked out and pulled the thing out by the root, immediately relieved I found it before it attacked my internal organs, but worried it would grow back.

That was basically it. What did the plant symbolize? The bigger picture? Losing the forest for the trees? Maybe I need to eat more salad... After hanging out with my father-in-law, my mind has been going back more to my parents lately, maybe that could have something to do with it, but usually when they are on my mind, they make direct appearances in my dreams, not abstract things growing from my corpus...

It occurred to me this morning that because I'm on a 40-hr 3-day schedule, my Monday is actually my Monday and half of Tuesday. And my Tuesday is a sliver of Tuesday and all of Wednesday. And my Wednesday is Thursday and Friday all rolled into one.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
AM SNACK: 10:45am, 3 bites of cheap pastries,  a Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
PM SNACK: 12:45pm, green house salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
LUNCH: 1:30pm, 3 slices white Sicilian with bacon and onion, cranberry lime soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
 A new combination, voted pretty delicious by the staff.

LUNCH 2: 4:45pm, meatball appetizer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
 
PM SNACK: 6:45pm, apple juice

PM SNACK: 9pm, sprite

DINNER: 11pm, 5 pork dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pancake School

It seems like such a long time since culinary school. Bike riding was cancelled today due to rain, so I hung out in the house until my father in law came over. I made banana pancakes from scratch, and all sorts of memories of what I learned came back to me.

• When wet goes into dry, mix minimally to avoid toughness i.e. gluten. Whisking is a no no
• When the banana side of the pancake goes down, wait until you smell the sugars of the banana caramelizing. There is no point to making banana pancakes until this happens
• A fish spatula is ideal for lifting sticky things out of a fry pan like, say, caramelized bananas -- it ain't just for fish.
• A cooling rack is essential if you plan to store these -- if left on a solid surface while hot, condensation will collect and you will have a permanently mushy pancake

One thing I forgot:

• One your comfortable, experiment with the recipe. It ain't the Bible.

I should of jazzed it up with vanilla bean and cinnamon, added extra eggs, supplanted some milk with cream and maybe even a subtle dash of hot pepper or hot sauce to add that little round note.

AM SNACK: 8:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11am, homemade banana pancakes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ate them as they came out of the pan. The ones that were a little too dark went into my maw, so the nicest ones are saved for B & Edles.

PM SNACK: 2pm, seltzer, "small" popcorn, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
That popcorn had 320 calories, according to the listing at the theater...

DINNER: 6pm, beef carpacio, shrimp scampi, canolli, pepper soup, water, bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out with El at a nice restaurant, excellent quality but small portions...he he.


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, scallion pancake, 3 pork dumplings, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left over from the reign of the father in law.