Greezy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wackadoo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ice Cream trifecta

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

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

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

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

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

Tour De Snickle, Prologue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Indulgent

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

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

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

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

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

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

Home Alone, with Edie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cooked

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

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

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

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

PM DRINK: 1-7pm, Gatorade

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

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

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

Seeds

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

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

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

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

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

I love Edie like pizza, only more so

This is from People in Pizza Slice Costumes Becoming Pizzas. Do I really need to say anything more?

Spent the morning and afternoon with B, pops-in-law and bro-in-law. We went to the High Line park for the first time, was pretty amazing, though full of tourists. Any politician who poo-pooed this project should be immediately voted out of office. There is not much commerce up there, but in the space under one of the buildings that the park pierces, there was an artisanal pastry-and-coffee vendor, and a an artisanal ice cream cone vendor, both making money hand over fist. At the base of the park at Gansevort, there were two ice cream trucks parked right next to each other. A standard Mr. Softee and an indie artisanal ice cream truck. The later had a line, the former did no business, despite a large price differential.

Spent the evening out. Went to a backyard party in Cobble Hill with some nice food. Right behind the yard was the backyard for a restaurant, of which the chef is friends with the party-hosting tenant and the person whose party it was for. The chef was constantly coming to the fence and contributing stuff to the party, a couple of bottle of wine here, a plate of sushi there. Now that's hospitality, and keeping your customer base happy! Now I want to visit that restaurant to see how they are!

BREAKFAST: 9am, watermelon, 3 apple muffins, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap, those muffins are good. Like Drake's coffee cakes, but better. As Chef M said in C-school, they're magically delicious.

PM SNACK: 12, 9 pork-chive dumplings, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the hole-in-the wall dumpling house I like, which is next to the hotel my dad-in-law is staying.

LUNCH: 2pm, 4 beef tamales, chips and salsa, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not very good compared to the tamale I had a week ago at the more authentic place in Williamsburg.

PM SNACKINGS 6:30-8pm, various crostini, a few cookies, pigs in blankets, fancy cheeses, a few glasses of sangria, bottle of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a back yard party in Cobble Hill.

EVENING SNORT: 9pm, 1 beer, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Visited a friend who just bought a place in Clinton Hill, really nice.

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

Mousse Fail

In preparation of B's poppa and bro coming over for brunch, we were a whirl of bouncing Edie, doing the laundry, cleaning the house, running out to get groceries. At one point, B was in the bathroom and Edie was howling in the swing while I made the bed. So I turned on the stereo with whatever disc was in the player, and blasted at full volume "One Fine Day" from Byrne & Eno's new record. Edie immediately calmed down in my arms while I sang to her, and she remained calm after. I think that was the first piece of music I played for her, and she liked it!

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, small amount of sesame noodles, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, 2 wholefoods cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:15am, a pickle, a snippet of smoked sable

AM SNACK: 11:45am, apple cinnamon muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made this recipe with the following changes: doubled salt, exchanged milk for cream, doubled eggs. Baked for 20 minutes. Came out super rich and moist. The recipe says serves 6, but I got a yield of 12. The diced apples make up about 50% of the batter, which is kinda neat.

BRUNCH: 1pm, bagel with cream cheese, smoked sable, onion and tomato, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, spoonful of chocolate mousse
B's dad brought me about 8 LARGE boxes of cook and food-related books (don't ask, long story). While browsing, saw a recipe for chocolate mousse that looked horrible, but realized I had left over ingredients from the morning muffins that needed to be put use. So I versioned this recipe while hanging with the inlaws. Had 2/3 of a cup of cream, and only baking chocolate, so I sugared the chocolate/butter/Kahlua mix with caster sugar. Funny, I have a bottle of Kahlua in my liquor cabinet which I inherited from my parents....they never opened it, and neither did I. Coffee cough syrup, yick, but added an interesting depth to the mousse. The spoonful I had was still warm, tasted sweet enough, but too much of an alchy kick.

(I tried a spoonful later, after dinner, it set up nicely but caster sugar left lump -- I should of sifted it -- and still tasted way too boozy. Gonna trash it and try a mousse later.)

DINNER: 6:30pm, lame pizza, 1 beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
We went to San Marzano in my hood, hoping for something better than the last time we ate there, was disappointed. Individual Neapolitan pies, wood burning oven. They still have retarded buffalo chicken pizza on the menu. I ordered a new entry, which was basically a marg with sausage, onion and mushroom. The onion was raw diced white which brought nothing to the party -- B's vegetable pizza had caramelized onions, which were sweet & packed a big flavor, why couldn't they have used those onions on my pie? The mushrooms were shitake, which gave a discordant woody flavor against the sauce and cheese -- I like shitakes, but not on pizza. And finally, the sausage -- what the hell? At first I thought they goofed and put prosciutto on my pie, but after close looking seems they thinly sliced some sort of very mild sausage, which ended up tasting like barely anything. On top of all that (or more correctly, beneath it), the pie was flibbidyflobbidy in the middle, too much sauce and DEFINITELY too much cheese. I don't care if the cheese is a fresh moz, if you add too much, it's still gross. On the (only) positive side, the crust had a nice char and I could really taste the wood in it.

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

Ridden

Woke up a 6, the time I usually woke up for school and got out of the door by 6:45pm. Took a train up to the Bronx, and road my mountain bike up the Old Croton Aqueduct trail to the reservoir about 25 miles north of the city. Beautiful ride, not many people other than dog walkers on the trail, saw some deer close up, a hedge hog too.

Contemplated the last year of school, c-arts and c-management, it occurred to me that the thing that was getting me down were a few regrets I have, but once I realized that, I also realized that I didn't make foolish choices, some choices had to be made for the good of other things. I won't babble here, but a good 50 mile bike ride that covers you in mud is good for perspective.

And dare I say, coming home to B and a little E is a great end to any trip!

BREAKAST: 7am, two donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 8-11am, water, gatorade

LUNCH: 11am, turkey and gravy, cheese tortellini in a cream sauce, fresca, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In Ossening, at the same crappy deli I always stop at when I do this ride on a non-Farmer's Market day. Rather than get my usually salty turkey-cold cut sandwich, risked the hot bar for a less-processed turkey. Not bad, not good. It's one of those meals that can be made at home so much better for so much cheaper...but not in the middle of a 50 mile mountain bike ride!

I tried Fresca because I heard an interview with some chefs discussing their dirty little secrets -- several of them copped to loving this stuff. The first ingredient after water is citric acid, and the stuff just burns. I guess it's just grapefruit soda thickened with wood rosin and bromated vegetable oil, I really did not find it appealing.

DINNER: 5pm, homemade salad, fried seitan, soy nugget and veg with peanut sauce and mixed rice, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap, when waking up from a nap hungry for something sweet and a little dehydrated, perhaps nothing hits the spot more perfectly than a piece of in-season watermelon.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 2 homemade blueberry muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Need to ride

Gave my final presentation in class this morning and attended graduation this evening, from Culinary Management. Feel weird about it, a little down and a little regretful, going to spend the day on the bike and try to clear my head. Edie came and was the belle of the ball, of course!

BREAKFAST: 7am, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10am, 2 street donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, assorted bits of BBQ, 2 beers, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to RUB on 23rd with a few school comrades. We ordered some huge platter of many different meats, and was surprised by how overwhelming mediocre it was. Since it took a short 5 minutes from ordering to coming to the table, it was unsurprising that a lot of the meat was at room temperature, not particularly moist or fresh. The brisket and pulled port was good, but everything else was a bit embarrassing -- especially their "pastrami", WTF selling this midwestern watered down version in NYC!

PM SNACK: 5:30-6:30pm, a few fried finger food things, some shrimp, half glass of wine, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 8pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

Whatever comes next

Spent most of the day working on my final project for culinary management school, a business plan for a neighborhood pizza restaurant. Really, the majority of the work got done in the last 5 days, today was just knocking off the rough edges and making an entertaining PowerPoint presentation to get a chuckle out of the class.

Still, I'm a bit sad that school is coming to an end, which means I need to do whatever comes next...

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic chex with the good milk, a blueberry muffin, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, curry ramen, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, dulce de leche ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

DINNER: 6:15pm, knish with mustard and pickled diakon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 8:30pm, slice of pizza, small box of entemann's cc cookies, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Another Double Tasting Day

School slipped by like a hazy dream, did some baby shopping, then kicked it with B&Edie. Edie is definitely growing, and getting more aggressive with her crying, but I'm starting to get a handle on talking to her in a tone that seems to settle her (after the diaper check, the finger in the mouth check, the holding up-right check, etc)

E had a spare ticket to a screening of a beer documentary with a matching beer and cheese tasting in southern Park Slope, so I joined her. I like indie beer, but I don't think the tap system at this place was cared for properly, all the beer tasted soapy to me. And the cheese was at above room-temp for too long, it was all sweaty. The film was a nice recap of some of the history I learned in class, and seeing a person struggling to start her own new indie brand is kind of the backbone culinary management tried to instill in us, though really, no class can teach that kind of motivation -- you either got it or ya don't.

BREAKFAST: 7am, organic cheerios with good milk, minted lemonade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Finished the lemonade, or it would of been funky by the end of the day.

AM SNACK: 11am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Maybe my last am school snack from Starbucks in this lifetime. With McDonald's McCafe open right next door and Starbuck's business crumbling in the recession, maybe Edie will never know the crappiness known as Starblechs.

AM TASTING: 6 sparkling wines, goat cheese and french bread

LUNCH: 3pm, watermelon, left over pad thai, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, green salad topped with sauteed shrimp, water, blueberry muffin, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wanted to get something in before going off to a tasting that might not be kind to an empty stomach...

EVENING TASTING: 8:30pm, a few mouthfuls of fneh beer, a few bites of fneh cheese, half a small chili pot pie, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, hotdog, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Muffins and Gravlax and Lemonade, Oh My!

Friends came over for brunch, include a couple with a 2 year old deep in the throes of the Terrible Twos. To prepare, woke up early, made some blueberry muffins from scratch using this recipe. I tweaked it -- doubled the salt, replaced milk with cream, scraped out 2 vanilla beans into the liquid side, and added about 25% more blueberries. Unlike the dumb recipe, I mixed it minimally, leaving in a lot of lumps, which almost ALWAYS bake out, but the minimal mixing allows for a much more tender crumb.

Rode up Grand Street to pick up bagels, buy up veg at the local farmer's market, makes it fun to be alive on a Sunday morning in a happy, functional neighborhood full of real people. Made lemonade, same as last week but in double the quantity.

On Friday, I brought home a 1.25 pound side of salmon. I packed it in a cup of salt, a cup of brown sugar and a chopped up head of dill, along with a few spoonfuls of vodka. I wrapped the whole mess in plastic wrap, placed it in a pan, and placed another pan on top with some weight on it.


Thirty six hours later, pulled it out, sharpened my big chef's knife, and got to the slicing. It was....good. Firmer and dryer than I thought it would be. Good flavor.A little too salty. A LOT of liquid expelled. Another 24 hours away from fish-jerky. Next time, gonna see what happens without pressure, less salt, more variety of herbs and spices. I used a wild caught American, next time use a fancier Norwegian or something. The side of salmon cost me $15 for the pound and a quarter...at Russ & Daughters, $15 will get you a quarter pound of the stuff. Hmmm.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, we spent the day after eating in the neighborhood playground, kibbitzing with the locals, good vibes with the good weather. Got a call from the restaurant asking for some info, made me twinge, miss the hubbub and the action. Still, damn nice to be out with the Edie!

BREAKFAST 1: 7:30am, big piece of watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9-11am, 2 blueberry muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 12:30-4pm, bagel with cream cheese, tomato and onion and homemade gravlax, minted lemonade, another muffin, 2 glasses lambrusco, seltzer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, pad thai, lemonade, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PIZZABABY!!!!

NO PIZZAS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS PICTURE! (And it was at room temp when Edie mounted it. And she immediately got bathed and changed moments after the session was done! And she smelled like a pizza! And it was so cute!)

The original plan was to ride bikes all day, but instead I woke up late and spent the day with B & E and Mommainlaw. I'm working on a presentation for class, which involves selling an idea of a pizza restaurant. I'll be showing pictures of some of the more interesting pizzas I've made at home, but for some levity, I'll be slipping in some pictures of..... PIZZA BABY!!

The pizza was tossed off -- Wholefoods dough, a small can of cheap tomato sauce, a block of whole milk dry moz. I made a second one, with less sauce and cheese, grated with parm, sprinkled with sea salt and finished with good olive oil, which was actually pretty good -- the WF dough is annoyingly good, better than my homemade dough. Gotta work on that.

Got something cool working in the fridge that I set up yesterday. All aboudit tomorrow.

Gazooks, I'm looking at what I ate today...and how little I did. School is over this week, gotta hit some regular riding and yogaing, f'real.

AM SNACK: 10am, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: noon, pancakes, bacon, homefries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

PM SNACK: 3pm, dulce de leche ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, homemade pizza, watermelon, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, pistachios, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9:45pm, dulce de leche ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Good product

Spent a good part of the day helping my friend P move within Brooklyn. I'm glad I'm not in college anymore, and most of my friends who rent now hire professionals. We spent an hour with a sofa wedged in a stairwell before we bailed on the seller. Craigslist, it's a hell of a website.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, bagel with cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, low calorie grape Gatorade, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good product. It still has corn syrup as the main ingredient, but has sucralose down lower. It's pleasantly mildly sweet, but doesn't have the cloying fake sweetness of a drink that is strictly fake sweet.

LUNCH: 2pm, 2 slices bad pizza, a slice of so-called "salad pizza", a Manhattan Special, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a run-of-the-mill pizza restaurant in Staten Island. The salad pizza was a nightmare, a load of overdressed house salad and some marinated antipasto over an undercooked shell that was mush by the time I sat to eat it. The plain slice had a blanket of cheese that after 1 bite I peeled off in one and set aside.

DINNER: 7pm, 3 sea scallops, 2 ears corn, water, a little tiramisu and a little chocolate cake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooked a nice crust onto the scallops. Corn is finally in season. B was busy with feeding the E, so I cut the kernels off the boiled ears, HVS-style, so she could eat them with E in one arm. B is like the Swiss-army knife of mommas.

DINNER 2: 8:15pm, beef lomein, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Still hungry, out for a walk with B&E, so I went for it.

Really Tubby

I hate to sound like 2/3 of the American population, but I'm starting to feel really tubby of late. I dropped to the lowest in a long time when I was in the midst of working 70+ hours a week at the restaurant, but for now that is over and another diet-controlling gig doesn't seem to be in the immediate future due to Edie Bebe and some other potential opportunities coming down the pipe.

I was surprised how I was jonesing for sugar last night, that was one of the first things I spied and got under control when I first blogging about my food intake. Now that I've finally gotten to the meat of the matter -- learning to feed Edie! -- I need to go back to the beginning.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, marble poundcake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
For old time sake, this was my default am snack for the first half of management classes, back when it was cold out. Sniff sniff.

AM TASTING: 11-noon, about half a glass of red, a hunk of gruyere, french bread, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, pepperoni pizza, cesar salad, water, rice pudding, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Me, B&E went to Lombardi's for lunch. Have ordered delivery, never eaten in before. Decent service, long narrow dining rooms. The pizza was MUCH better in person, with the coaly flavor much more pronounced with the original heat on the pie. Not a fan of pepperoni, that was B's thing.

DINNER: 8pm, green salad topped with fresh grilled shrimp, 1 bowl, hunger 4.5
Grilled some colossals in the grill pan and smoked up the whole house.

I fed her!

Felt good after 13 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep. I only wish I could gift something like that to my wife, whose sleep has been anything but uninterrupted. I guess if it's gonna be interrupted, the cause being a healthy beautiful baby girl is a good reason. Then again, we're gonna go to bottle soon so maybe we'll be able to take turns with the interruptions sooner than later...

Soon, being today. I fed Edie B's milk from a bottle today. Holding her while she sucked and slurped from the nipple of the bottle while staring at me was pretty awesome. She sucked down a good 5 ounces in a flash, and her belch afterwards was pretty charming. Then afterwards we sucked on pacifiers together!

BREAKFAST: 7am, bagel with creamcheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, beef fried rice, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Went to my favorite dumpling shop and ordered something different off the menu, something I always see the construction workers chowing down on. Surprisingly superior to typical NYC takeout, was made with steamed rice, large pieces of thin freshly cooked beef, large bits of celery. It was less salty than typical take out fried rice but more flavorful.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, small portion of eggplant parm, rootbeer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
A few hours hanging out at the resto, probably my last for a while.

DINNER: 7:15pm, cheese tortellini in garlic wine sauce, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a really tepid sauce, missing something, not sure what. Should look up a recipe.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, choco yogurt thing, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
So close to no sweets today, oh well. Needed a kick to spend an hour grinding away on final project.

More out of me

Woke up with a whisper of a hangover, but felt fine. We took the bus to Edie's first movie in a movie theater, "Bruno", and I'm glad she's not old enough that I have to explain that to her. It was cold in the theater, and half way through she got cranky enough that she & B had to step outside.

After that, a quick pizza break and we hit up the pediatrician for a check up. Edie has gained an inch and 2 pounds, and is super aware, so no worries there. After eating some farro, I sat down to watch a bit of TV before getting into some school work and then it was 9pm, dragged myself to bed and then it was 6am. Guess drinking the night before took more out of me than I thought.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, potato nick, pickled diakon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, pizza with fresh tomato, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
From PIE on 4th Avenue, not very good.

LINNER: 4:30pm, farro and sausage, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Wine, No Women and No Song

BREAKFAST: 7am, watermelon, .5 bowl. hunger 4/5
So wonderfully in season, sweet, firm, happy.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 2 street donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15, brisket on rye, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Went back to R.U.B. on 23rd Street, not too hungry but just in the mood for a meat sandwich. After touring Blue Smoke last week, some smoked meat sounded right. Ordered the "classic" BBQ dish, brisket -- I'm usually not too psyched about this meat because of all the years I've eaten Jewish-style slow-braised brisket that was tough, stringy and all together unappealing. This however, simply put, was goyisha pastrami. Same cut, same slow cooking, except instead of being brined, encrusted and steamed, it seems it is brined then slow smoked, like a flavorful steam bath. Not as good as pastrami, though, to my L.E.S.-spoiled taste buds.

PM SNACK: 3pm, chocoyogurt bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, softserve chocolate ice cream cone, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The first was eaten lying on the couch, the next after I came outside to meet B after her mom-group meeting thing. I prepped a salad and fed it to her in our park behind the building. She wanted ice cream, so we stopped by our local kosher grocery which has softserve. Wasn't craving ice cream, but was craving to eat with my B.

DINNER: 6pm, bread, grilled octopus, mousaka, a bit of sardine, a few bites of honeyed baked goods, a lot of white and red wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Class dinner with my management peeps at Peryali. Good food, good conversation, perhaps too much wine...

EVENING DRINKING: 9-midnight, lots of red wine, a bit of water
....but it kept on going. After spending 12 hours a week with these people for 9 months, it's easy to feel comfortable with them in this setting. We all dig food, and all like talking about it.

Getting minty with it

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

PM SNACK: 11:45am, slice of crappy Earth Mother pizza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
This stuff is even worse reheated. The crust is really whole wheat bread, in the old 70s hippy style of too little leavening, too much dirt flavor. Fneh.

LUNCH: 1pm, bagel with cream cheese, onion, tomato, minted lemon aide, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bunch of peoples & another baby over. I wanted to make bagels, B insisted on my going out and buying them. However, I did get to make something, inspired by the minted lemonade B bought for me from a local restaurant. A medium 12 oz cup of this stuff, watered down with too much ice, was $3.50. When I went to the market, everything (minus the sugar, ice and water) was $3.41....for SIX servings, not one. I made up the recipe based on method learned in school and from making gallons upon gallons of stuff at the resto:

Noah's Minted Lemonade Serves 6

6 lemons
1 lime
1 bunch mint
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
5 cups water and ice by volume

1. Remove all mint leaves from stem. Set aside the 6 best looking leaves. Mince the leaves.
2. Combine sugar, 1 cup of water and minced leaves in a small pot. Bring to boil, return to simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat. Let sit for 5 minutes.
3. While sitting, juice lemons and limes, strain out all seeds and pulp.
4. Strain minted syrup through a cheesecloth, squeeze out all liquid.
5. Combine syrup, lemon juice and 5 cups of iced water into serving pitcher, mix well with wooden spoon. Serve with the remaining ice cubes in the pitcher and one mint lead, shiny side up.

NOTE: The concentration INCLUDES the water from the melting cubes, so it may taste a little strong in the beginning, but mellows one the ice melts. You can add water to taste, of course.

NOTE 2: I used "vegan" white sugar so I guess this is vegan minted lemonade!!

The syrup step really makes all the difference in getting a great mouthfeel and an honest, strong but tasty mint flavor that is heightened by the acidity of the lemon.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, Korean pickle diakon, a few Japanese sweet mochi rice snacks, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:45pm, handful of pistachios

DINNER: 7:30pm, frozen pizza, orange soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Trader Joes brand, totally ass.

DINNER:

Bang-Bang is a No-No

Road 60+ miles with E and a friend up to Piermont. We left Greenpoint at 7, after snarfing some donuts I brought from my local, and hit it nice and hard -- both were stronger riders than me, which forced me to focus and push it a little. Drank about 80oz of water roundtrip.

BREAKFAST: 7am, 1.5 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 10am, 2/3 of a turkey bang-bang wrap, 20oz of gatorade, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yukky wrap, good idea, poor execution. Wholewheat wrap with nicely cut real turkey, cucumber, lettuce, cilantro, peanut sauce. It was sitting around too long, the sauce got too goopy and soaked the wrap and veg.

LUNCH 2: 1:30pm, fish taco, chicken empanada, chorizo deep fried thingy, fried green plantains, 1 beer, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pedro's in DUMBO. My two companions got one big dish each -- nachos with a ton of crap on it and a big-ass burrito. I decided to order a bunch of stuff from around the menu, and glad I did. I noticed as I was eating that while there were a lot of overlap in ingredients and spices, the thing that really made each little dish different was the cooking method -- the taco's innards were sauteed, the empanada was steamed, the plantains were pan fried (and pressed), and the deep fried thingy, was, uh, y'know. It really made for a nicely sized, but fully entertaining and filling meal.

PM SNACK: 3:30, watermelon, a little Gatorade, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, cesar salad, 2 slices of Earth Mother pizza, orange soda, dulce de leche ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from 2boots, fneh. The salad was a bit overdressed, but the pizza....they sent a wholewheat crust even though I did not ask for it, and in this thicker Sicilian style, the improper texture made by wholewheat flour really came through.

She sleeps like a baby

Woke up to B putting Lil' E on my chest so she could shower. There are few more cuter things to wake up to in this life.

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

LUNCH: 2pm, little fried meat perogis with sourcream, a cheese puff, mineral seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30, 2 ginger bread cookies, a small amount of dulce de leche ice cream, a little Gatorade, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 1.5 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
B had some amazing donuts lying around from her big adventure outside, not able to resist...

PM SNACK: 8pm, watermelon, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A little more salt won't hurt

Went home after a brief grocery shop to chill with B&E. I churned my dulce de leche ice cream, which was weird....because after the super-sweet chocolate explosion I ate for lunch, the last thing I wanted to eat was ice cream. Funny, even though I had no appetite, the taste of caramel ice cream was still pretty rocking. But I think next time, a little more salt won't hurt.

The HVS came over for dinner and a vid, really great to see B enjoying herself and comfortable in the confines of our home and Lil' Edie on her body. Didn't hurt that we shared a big fruity bottle of sweet Lambrusco, bubbly and cold and made for quaffing easily with big greasy flavors. Made a big ol' vegan meal, fun playing and failing in one dish, being a lot better than expected in another.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:30pm, "shack attack", "shack-ago dog", 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Me, the teacher and a few fellow students hit up shake shack after the restaurant tour. My hot dog was surprisingly horrible. Vienna-beef hot dog is sickly pink, not much snap. They're going for a Chicago-style hot dog, but fail due to lack of balance: WAY too much salt. Tomato, cucumber, mustard, relish, pickled peppers. Not sure what, but something was just a hunk of salt, nasty. The poppy seed hot dog bun is cool, but doesn't justify the salt lick. The "shack attack" was good, a thick chocolate shake with dark chocolate flakes that give an interesting crunch and cubes of chocolate truffle which add another nice consistency. A bit of a one-note kind of sweetness, childlike, but the textures were very adult. When you order something like that, you can't help but expect one note.

SNICKLEDINNER: 7pm, green salad, deep fried tofu cubes with mung bean noodle stirfry, vanilla coconut vegan ice cream on vegan chocolate chip cookies, several glasses of Lambrusco, 1.4 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a simple stirfry, but I need to review my method -- it tasted way too timid. However, I experimented with vegan deepfrying and it came out pretty good. First thing: instead of some nothing oil, I used vegetable shortening, hydrogenated palm oil. Not so healthy, but it does a deep fried item good. Batter, used wholewheat flour, double the recommended salt, double the recommended sugar, double the recommended baking powder, added a dash of cayenne, a dash of cumin. Cubed firm tofu, dredged in flour, dipped in chilled batter, into 350 degree oil for about 5 minutes. Crisp, ungreasy, flavorful, crunchy, airy, just right. Next time, heavier on the salt, heavier on some herbs and spices, maybe slightly smaller tofu cubes.

Wine Tasting in the Morning, Wine Tasting in the Afternoon

Yesterday I boiled a 14 oz can of condensed sweetened milk for about 4 hours. Today, I opened the can and put the dark brown caramel it produced into a couple of cups of whole milk and dissolved it with a pinch of salt and some vanilla bean scrapings. Tomorrow, dulce de leche ice cream!

Had a weird 5 hours at the restaurant today. Striving for clarity, still not sure if my future is there yet.

BREAKFAST: 7am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM WINE TASTING: 11-12am, some bread and Gruyere, sips of 8 wines, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went heavy on the bread and cheese.

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, half a Manhattan Special, cookie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, sweet and spicy couscous with a few morsels of hangar steak, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pizza chef brought in some home cooking, I sampled it. Reminds me of my farro and sausage. Candied walnuts were a nice touch, though jalapeno heat was a little unbalanced. Makes me think I should put raisins plumped in wine in my next grain-based stewwy dish.

PM SNACKS: 3:30-5:30, a wine tasting, slice of round, slice of Sicilian, half a meatball on bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This is what happens when you hang out in a slow restaurant! Weird to deal with two wine tastings in one day, this time from a salesman trying to get us to carry his vineyard's line. And I'm not even a big wine fan, oof!

DINNER: 8pm, large green salad, Singapore chow mei fun, watermelon 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Mmmm, cold Chinese leftovers.

Sweet Battery Acid

Another day just chillin', with a nice trip by foot to the food market with B & Lil' E. Tomorrow, back to school and a meeting at the resto.

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey and cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12pm, slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the walk to the supermarket with B&E, saw a slice joint around Stanton and Rivington I've never tried before. Open since 1963, worth a nibble. Strictly mediocre.

PM SNACK: 1pm, Diet Steaz Black Cherry, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the walk back from the market, drank this beverage. Even though it's marketed as "diet", it's sweetened with cane sugar, carbonated, and green tea several ingredients behind 'natural flavorings'. Very odd. Not bad, not particularly good, wonder what kind of logic went into it's marketing design.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, fresh potato knish, large green salad, chocoyogurt bar, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some Yona Shimmel knishes on the walk home. Shockingly bland, tasted like they used no salt in making the thing.

DINNER: 6:45pm, Singapore chow mei fun, shrimp toast, a few veg dumplings, a little sesame noodles, a sip of coke, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snickledinner got cancelled, hopefully later this week. Ordered in comfort food with B and momma-in-law. Because we ordered enough, they sent a few complimentary cans of coca cola. As I had nothing else in reach, I opened pone up and sipped it. Wow, people like this? Sweet batter acid. Blecch!

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, watermelon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Homed

Didn't get to sleep until after 5. Since I had to be up at 6 for school, skipped it. Felt blech, spent the day indoors on the couch and helping with Lil' E. Hope to be up ad about tomorrow. Gotta focus on school and the work sitch.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, small amount of farro and sausage, pickled daikon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, frozen beef patty, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Kinda gross, but was taking up freezer space.

PM SNACK: 5pm, chocolate cheesecake brownie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A treat from B&E's walk outside.

DINNER: 9:15pm, 2 hotdogs, a pickle, a chocoyogurt bar, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
More freezer fishing. B got these gross yogurt bars from our local kosher place, what an error. I need to make some real fresh ice cream up in here.

Consistently Horrible

BREAKFAST: 10am, leftover pasta, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 11:45pm, a pickle, a slice of pizza, a chocolate-banana donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out doing chores, collecting some brunch items, ate around the 'hood. A pickle from the pickle guys, another mediocre slice from Vic's, then an interesting donut from the Donut Plant. Most of there donuts are uni-flavored. Vanilla glaze on the vanilla donut, chocolate glaze on the chocodonut, blueberry glaze on the blueberry donut, etc. They had a banana donut with a banana-pecan glaze, but they also had a chocolate-glazed banana donut. I had to try, and it's one of those things when the first bite makes your mind shout, "YES". It just works, the banana flavor singing harmony to the chocolate. Well done, Donut Plant!

BRUNCH: 1:15pm, half a bagel and cream cheese, small piece of potato nik, a pickle, a glass of white wine, too much chocolate ruggalah, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, shrimp parm, a small amount of spag, green salad, water, Gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered from a local pizza place I haven't eaten from in many years because the quality was crap. I ordered again for me and B on a whim, hoping they had changed....relatively low priced, HUGE portions and B couldn't eat even half her salad because she didn't like it. My pasta was a bit overcooked, and came with the equivalent of 2/3 of a loaf of Italian bread....stale Italian bread. One bite of B's pizza from them and...well, I won't be ordering from them again for another 6 or 7 years.

I do have to give them credit, they may have horrible food, but they make money because they are consistently horrible. There is something to be said for that...

Ride for the Bulgogi

Didn't really sleep last night, kinda wired from the evening at the restaurant. Took a few early stabs at sleep, but was pretty much on the couch until 5am, where I dozed off then woke at 6:30 to get my ride gear together.

Met D at the Manhattan Bridge and we rode up through the Bronx into Westchester, then Connecticut, then the rolling hills of Pound Ridge. Had a spectacular outdoor grilling session with a large and rambunctious (in the best sense of the word) Korean family who took their food VERY seriously -- judging from the spread, most dishes took more than 24 hours advance thought to set up.

Bulgogi done just right, miso-rubbed pork ribs that tasted like a clearly struck 100lb bell sounds, a coriander-rubbed salmon cooked just right, and whole shrimp grilled so the whole shell had a delicious crunchy char. There was an odd 7-layer dip I avoided, but the corn on the cob was gob-smackingly sweet. And on top of all that, I got to ride on a segway for the first time. I can see why they never took over the streets.

BREAKFAST: 7am, granola with the good milk, 2 good donuts, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM BIKE SNACK: 11am, bag of munchos, water, 20oz of red Gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM BIKE SNACK: 1:15pm, bag of sunchips, 1.5 fudge brownies, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, miso pork ribs, bulogi beef, grilled whole shrimp, grilled salmon, sweet corn, a shot of shuzo, a lot of water, blueberry pie, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Amazing 4th of July meal, hosted by a friend and her family who happen to be Korean, and are really into their food. The various meat and fish were all superior to everything I've had in Little Korea, the corn was shockingly sweet.

DINNER: 9:45pm, pasta with homemade sauce, sarsaparilla soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach feeling a little acidy, a little hungry.

Chill morning, uptight evening

Chilled out with B&E in the morning, spent the later day slamming dough and cuttin' the cheese at the restaurant. Was it my swan song there, or the beginning of the long haul? I suspect the former, but we'll see Wednesday. Shnoogins! Tomorrow, I ride.

BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up hungry and queasy. This settled me well.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, farro and sausage, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

RESTAURANT HAZE: 4-11pm, a few slices of pizza, a few glasses of lemonade, a ginger ale, a cream soda, a meatball with bread, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mackin' & Snealin'

B went out with Edie to visit a friend, and I promptly fell asleep at 8:30 without dinner. I think I might be fighting a bug or something, as I slept for almost 12 hours. Looking back at what I was eating, maybe I've just been over tired.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic chex with the good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12pm, 2 slices grandma pizza, 2 slices white brussel sprout & bacon pizza, 1 pint beer, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
After class, went to a pizzeria the teacher wanted to check out. Was pretty mediocre, and crap service too. The brussel sprout pizza was interesting, and was cooked well and the cheese balanced, but the sprouts themselves were not fresh, cut in too big chunks, and kinda ruined it. The grandma pie was just a cheesy mess.

PM SNACK: 2pm, hazelnut ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was going by Jaques Torres and couldn't resist. Really good quality stuff.

PM SNEAL? MACK?: 3:30pm, tuna appetizer, ginger ale, 1 bowl
Working on a new menu time, conceptually it's good -- the star is a quality Sicilian tuna which is canned but is a cut above Starkist or whatever junk you see on TV. The execution with the minimal dressing and garnish needs work.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, large piece of watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:30, small amount of chocolate cookies n' creme ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B went to town on it, so rather than the salad I was about to eat, I gravitated towards cleaning out the freezer.

Morning Boozer

Had a midday nap yesterday, which made getting to sleep difficult. Edie was sleeping so beautifully, it would made me jealous if it wasn't for the fact it's so nice being next to her as she sleeps. It's like a zone of peace on her face, with the occasional storm of a dream of nipple or soft smooth warmness.

BREAKFAST: 7:15pm, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dead tired, but desiring a smoothie. My coffee grinder died, so no flax. Good milk, good yogurt, banana, blueberries, grapes, cherries, pinch of sea salt, vanilla sugar -- I've been placing spent vanilla bean husks in plain granulated sugar in a sealed container, and finally found a use for it. 1 tablespoon of the vanilla sugar gave a solid 'nilla kick that really brought out the broad fruit flavors. It's very blue drink, I think I should start expanding it's pallet while a lot of fruit is in season. Any suggestions?

AM SNACK: 9:30am, chocolate almond croissant, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
When I'm tired, I always eat heavier. Went to the Madeline shop on break and ate this chewy/crispy/chocolaty/buttery/almondy bomb. Really good, but just...a bit too much. Everything is just turned up to 11. I think they do a mini-version of this thing, which would probably be a more appropriate (and probably more authentic) version.

AM SNACK: 11-12:15pm, various sips of wine, french bread with goat cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
White wine tasting at school, some of the wines were incredibly delicious and had to swallow instead of spit. The sweet and thick yet still good Sauternes got my mind going once again, I gotta cook with this stuff, except it's not cheap.

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, spag with one meatball, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
A pizza cook at the resto brought in some home cooked food, pretty good.

LINNER: 5pm, large green salad, reasonable portion of farro and sausage, half a brownie, cookie , 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
B had a friend over who brought her a brownie from the Baked bakery. Nice balance of cakey and buttery.

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, ramen noodles, small cup of chocolate cookies n' creme ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got hungry after a few resto friends stopped by to give regards to Birdie and try my 'cream.

I don't know who is more beautiful...

I guess it would have to be B, because lil' Edie is looking a whole mess like I did when I was a biddy baby. When I was changing her diaper, I was reminded of the class in c-school where we had to properly truss a chicken and pork shoulder for roasting. Grabbing her ankles and lifting her butt in the air, its like the first step to putting the string under the chicken and tying the legs up! She's my little chicken, but more delicious. I just want to take her apart, dip her in buttermilk blended with fresh herbs, deep fry her in tallow, and eat her all up!!

Ummm, for legal reasons, let me state clearly NOT LITERALLY. You weirdo.

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

AM SNACK: 11am, farro and sausage, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, half a bagel and butter, pickled diakon, small piece of pawlet cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

This Korean pickled radish stuff is heavenly, and the soft cheese I picked up from the Unfancy Food show is wowzers.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 1 slice streetza, small cup of fudge brownie vegan ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Heavy weather, so B went home and I walked up to Union Square. Had a slice at St. Mark's and A, a slice joint notable for being my go-to slice joint when I worked in the music biz and the night my mom died. Totally not good, a big bed of cheap cheese. I went by Stogo, not because I particularly like their stuff, but I like how lightly sweetened it is and after all that bad diary, something defiantly not felt good. Also, it's something that's artisanal, compared to all the cookie cutter frozen yogurt places that have sprung up everywhere.

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, large wedge of watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

This morning did a rare run to the local supermarket with a granny cart and picked up all sorts of stuff that's too heavy to transport by bicycle, like 40 lbs of cat litter, 2 gallons of Gatorade, and in particular a whole watermelon. Thought it would be too early in the season, but when I knocked it, it sounded pleasantly hollow but heavy for its size, its white splotch was creamy bright and only $3 for the whole thing. Tasted sweet and clean and crisp.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 shrimp tacos, a little Gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Mediocre Mexican ordered in.

First Comes Love, then Comes Fage, then...

BREAKFAST: 10-11:30am, various chocolates, cookies, small moz and tomato panini, brownies, 5 shots of various Manhattan Special products, 2 little cheese cake cups, a bit of duck sausage, 2 little wedges of Batali pizza, some things I forget..., 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning at the Fancy Food Show at Jacob Javits, officially on school business for the second year (last year I was in culinary, this year management), but I hope to be able to swing this every year -- all the new products, some established products, different countries showing off their culture, all on overload, most wanting you to taste a sample or talk about what they do.

Highlights: Manhattan Special had a booth, a company really hard to wrangle as a product buyer at the restaurant. I had some words with them, they promise to make some calls. Low and behold they have a whole line of different sodas, but I would of never known because no one ever tried to sell me on them.

Then there was the Metromint people from last year, which was quite shocking -- various mint-flavored mildly-sweetened waters. I almost barfed last year when I tried it, because I thought I was drinking some one's toothpaste backwash. I was sure they would be out of business by now.

Batali's brand was hawking a new pizza sauce, which tasted exactly like a thousand other jarred sauces. They were making pizzas on soft pita-like shells and baking them in a toaster oven. The only good thing about the sample is that it was heavy on the sauce, usually shitty pizza is heavy on the cheese.

In other pizza-related things there, there was a booth for a horrible nightmare some company is trying to bring to the freezer aisle:

Pizza in a cone, baked in your microwave in a box that keeps it upright. In the literature, one of the selling points is "acceptable taste and aroma", I kid you not. Yikes!

It was nice to see a booth/pavilion for Fage yogurt, what I call the "good" yogurt. I was happy to see it, and felt compelled to take a picture not because I'm a huge fan, but because it's one of the few foods me and B eat and love (though she eats the crappy fat-free version), and I remember when I was wooing her, we'd go food shopping in her neighborhood, like a trial run as a real couple. When ever we'd go, we'd always end up buying some Fage, and also talking about the prices of the stuff in various markets in the neighborhood. The foundation of my marriage was cemented thanks to Fage!

DINNER: 6:30pm, big green salad, homemade farro and sausage, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Made a recipe from c-school, one I really loved and was a joy to make again. Basically: brown sweet Italian sausage in olive oil, deglaze with white wine (my added step), then soften diced Spanish onion. Add a whole mess of tomato concasse, diced fresh fennel, cubed Idaho potato, a pound of farro and cover in chicken stock. Simmer for 30 minutes, add a pound of cooked red kidney beans, simmer for another 15 minutes. Finish with salt and red pepper flake. The fennel gives a nice flavor, the starch from the farro and potato thicken the remaining stock into a nice sauce, the farro itself a nice grainy flavor to contrast with the pork and fennel, all brought together with that wonderful mouthfeel that a proper stock gives.

Went a bit too far with the pepper fake, and can probably add more salt. Should have broken the sausage into smaller bits before I threw it in the oil.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, chocolate cookies n' creme ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5