Food Day

What is Edie going to look like as an adult? I look at her now, and imagine a 5 foot, 7" baby -- a huuuuge head, stubby fat legs, flailing short arms, a protruding pot belly, short short hair with a swirly bald spot. And no talk, just crying, gurgling, cooing and her latest discovery, the raspberry a.k.a. the Bronx cheer. I can't help but think she's going to be a baby forever!

Spent a good part of the day at the restaurant, stuck around for a wine tasting, as L wants to put some expensive bottles on the wine list, so I got to taste a bunch of wines that would list at $80-$120. Indeed they were tasty, but I've also had $20 bottles that were just as good, just a bit less dependable.

When I got home, went into the process of cooking chicken stock, making dinner, eating then finishing frying off my latke stuff. All in all, a very foodie day. And Edie was pretty much strapped to my chest the entire day, only leaving the sling to make a special guest appearance for my friends!

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

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 1 latke, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30, 2 small slices tex-mex pizza, half a Manhattan Special, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNORT: 2pm, equivalent of 1 glass of wine

PM SNACK: 3pm, large chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left the restaurant hungry, wanted to avoid the McDonalds situation from last week. One high-quality chocolate chip cookie definitely has less calories and impurities than a McD's value meal, and I wouldn't be surprised if it had more nutrients...

DINNER: 6:45pm, large green salad, sauteed shrimp, 3 latkes, 2 ears boiled corn, 6 chocolate truffles, water, cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACKING: 9pm-3am, shrimp chips, 3 cold latkes, 6 remaining chocolate truffles, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
This was both the cause and result of insomnia.

Hootin', Hollerin'

Dinner was satisfying, cooked up a dish that I wouldn't of known how to do before c-school. Brown a sausage in a little oil till nice n' crispy, deglaze with wine (sake), then add liquid & stuff (cider, apple slices and kraut), cover and simmer on low heat until cooked through. Came out pretty good. Made latkes to go with, very good but a bit greasy.

Did laundry and food shopping this morning, all with one hand, as Edie was in the sling being secured with the other. Went over to the local community center for a baby 'drop-in', which B was doing until she went back to work. Was a bit odd, talking about 'birth experiences' with the two other ladies there, but it was fun. My birth experience centered around leaving the hospital when it was time to push to try to find a piece of pizza.... if memory serves, all that I came up with was donuts, and by the time I got back, there was still another 45 minutes of hootin' n' hollerin' before the Edie was upon us...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, left over samosa with chickpeas and roti, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:15pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, green salad, pork sausage braised with kraut and apples, potato latkes, halavah, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Half Portion Future

I kinda did well eating through the day, keeping portions small, until dinner. I guess it's one of those heritage meals -- I used to get the same exact thing for many years, and it seemed all well and good, but sitting down in front of it today, I see the portion is just crazed. Mentally, I think it's normal, but getting down the last few bites was a bit of a struggle. Really, should the end of a meal be a struggle? Next time, gonna order a half portion, it's more than enough.

Finding myself really desiring caffeine lately, particularly Manhattan Special. Where did this come from?

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
New blender, a little stronger than before. That's good, as all the fruit except the banana was frozen

AM SNACK: 10:45am, 2 lotus leaf wraps, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From my fishball vendor by Seward park. Glutinous rice and ground pork is not every one's idea of a yummy breakfast, but it hit the spot.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, cup of fresh apple cider, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
From the Union Square farmer's market.

LUNCH: 1:45pm, turkey and cheese sandwich, cherry diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lunch at a sandwich shop with my friend C. Desiring caffeine for some reason.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, 1 piece of plum ruggelah
Yuck. At my aunt-in-law's house. Tasted very in-lawish.

DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 potato samosas with curry chickpeas, roti, seltzer, halavah, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up Hindi-friendly Indian food from a favorite taxi stand on Houston off A. As I was eating, realized it was a tremendous amount of food - probably could do with half. But for $5.50, it's a hell of a meal.

Vegetarian for a day!

B, Edles & I took the subway up to 42nd Street, hit up Ethiopian in Hell's Kitchen, then slowly wandered our way home, stopping through Times Square, Macy's, B's brother's house, Tompkin's Square and all bits in between.

BREAKFAST: 9am, apple, raw milk cheese, 2 soy sausage patties, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not sure why I picked up this Morningstar-brand vegetarian sausage from the market, I guess I just wanted some variety, and real breakfast sausage is a bit of a production -- the fake stuff just needs to be reheated in the micro, unlike raw meat. Then again, the vegetarian stuff is not very yummy, but it is a pretty good texture.

LUNCH: 1pm, vegetarian Ethiopian, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ethiopian was my go-to for a first date, if a gal wasn't comfortable with the strangish food and strangish method of eating, she probably wasn't supple-minded enough to be of continuing interest. It's not for nuthin' that B loves Ethiopian food!

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, street ice cream cone, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, 1 slice streetza, small amount of buttery popcorn, ritz crackers with peanut butter, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Odd meal that never was. Got a slice at the place I like on Rivington on the way home, cooked the last of the popcorn at home for B but she was asleep by the time it was ready. Only hungry enough for a small snack after that.

A Pleasant Saturday

Went to yoga in the morning, and it started with a very uncomfortable seated position sitting on fully extended ankles -- I guess it's good because cycling encourages a very tight and limited range of ankle motion, but my ankles felt stretchy and rubbery the rest of the day. Makes me think I should yogacize more often. A Mommy & Me class may be in my future this week.

When I got home from yoga with the HVS, B went on a bike ride and I put Edles in a sling and walked her up to the Union Square farmer's market. Ate pizza at a few random slice joints I never tried before, none that good.

Went with D for Korean BBQ in the evening, fun as always. We took a wander through the Korean grocery store after, some very odd stuff -- dried sweet n' crunchy crabs, stuffed pancake mix, sardines packed in soy paste, a children's shaved-ice kit.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices of streetza, chocolate ice cream cone, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The first slice from a new hole in the wall on ave A, a typical mess of too much cheese. Second slice for the $1 slice shop on Ave A, it tasted amazingly like....nothing. Very chewy.

DINNER: 7:30pm, bulgogi, rice, sour tofu stew, kimchi pan jeon, 5 or 6 samplings of starter dishes including jellyfish, cold fishcake, seaweed crunch stuff, kimchi, apples in mayo, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, men's pocky, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
A score from the Korean grocery store. Thin pretzel sticks coated in "bitter chocolate", but tasted pretty sweet to me.

Pirate of the HIgh Seas of Pizza

With B home with Edles, I rode out to Coney Island, a nice relaxed trip. Stopped by my fishball vendor on the way home, but by the time we were in a cab going uptown to B's family for a holiday dinner, realized I was starving. We stopped in the slice joint across from my mommainlaw's home, but was told they were 4 minutes away from the next slice. Talk about poor management. If you're a friggin' slice joint, YOU HAVE TO HAVE SLICES ON HAND!! It's cool they're baking them fresh and not 15 pies in the morning to reheat all day. But they should always be one pie ahead of running out. I wanted to jump behind the counter and slap each counterperson, then hijack it like a pirate of the high seas and declare myself manager-captain.

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

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, cherry ice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Near the end of my ride. Felt warm and a little dehydrated, making this ice extra delicious. There should be a book about exercises matched with the foods that will be even more delicious after performing them. Here is a sample:

DO: An hour and half yogacize withthe HVS
TASTES BETTER: Vegan Cesar salad with woody bits of tempeh!

LUNCH: 2pm, fish balls with rice noodles, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, potato chips, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, asparagus, homemade cookies n' creme ice cream, flourless chocolate cake, 2 glasses wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Roshashana dinner at mother in law's, catered by Fresh Direct. Everything was pre-cooked, a reheated, except for the ice cream I brought. Nothing was served that I couldn't have made myself, better and fresher, all could have been knocked out in about 2.5 hours, for about half the expense. But this is the world we live in, I suppose.

Cheesus does not love his pretzel.

Today was a slow start, but got out of the house and made it to Central Park. In the subway, a man playing steel drums dedicated a song to Edie, then a smelly-looking man asked me what "his" name was. I didn't want to engage him, so I just said "Eddie". What's an extra D between strangers? Moments later, the greasy-looking beardy quasi-hipster I was standing next to in the crowded uptown 5 train announces loudly, in a comically high voice, that we were all saved because "Cheesus" loved us, etc etc.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic cheerios with the good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:45am, large green salad, homemade risotto, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wow that risotto is rich, had maybe a cup's worth but it sure packs a filling punch.

PM SNACK: 2pm, "cheese" pretzel, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Edie & I trekked up to the south east corner of Central Park to read a bit, and ended up spending some time in the massive FAO Schwarz toy store, lured in by the promise of a bathroom. After, found myself hungry but there are no cheap restaurants and all the vendors just sell hot dogs. The Central Park vendors sell three kinds of pretzels -- plain, cheese and "pizza". I said what the hell, let's see what a pizza pretzel is, and the vendor said "No! Cheese!" Uhhh, ok. What I got was a none-too-fresh pretzel with a line of flavorless sub-cheezewhiz cheese product in the middle of the dough. I can only shudder at the thought of a pizza version.

DINNER: 6pm, pork panang curry, shrimp & chicken dumplings, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordering in with B&E.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, oreo cookies, some cookies & cream ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bringing ice cream to dinner at yomomma's house for the beginning of the holidays.

Somebody save my soul

In the evening, B, E and I went to a meeting of our coop's gardening club to get keys to the gate of the plots that we'll be planting on -- a small step to recover from today's soul-destroying lunch. What does one plant in late September?

BREAKFAST: 8am, toasted bagel with homemade hummus, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
My homemade hummus is horrible. Tastes like slightly gritty earthy chickpeas, and that's it. I went too skimpy on everything -- tahini, lemon, salt, oil. I guess I'm not ready to do this without a recipe just yet. My dad could rock out gallons of this stuff without a recipe, but he had his ratios down. Then again, was his hummus as good as I remember it?

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, roasted venison shank with marrow on croutes, bottle of Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the resto, sampling an appetizer special. Good, especially the marrow, though the cut is a little bit tough for that cooking method. The Manhattan Special made me want to drink 4 more bottles of it.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, 2 cheeseburgers, fries, sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I did not intend to go to McDonalds. After the restaurant, walked around DUMBO with Edles, popped in La Bagel Delite but didn't see anything appetizing. I took the F train one stop over to East Broadway, intending to get a snack from my squid n' rice noodle vendor, but she was absent today. Shopped at the supermarket, picked up a donut to cover myself until I got home but one bite and....urg, stale and through it out. Now ravenous. all the restaurants were dirty looking Hispanic diners and dirty looking Chinese worker spots. Carrying groceries, Edie in a sling around my neck, I just wanted....easy, fast, no hassle, clean.

The counter person was spacing and looking at her colleague playing on her cell phone, but the food still cam within 15 seconds of ordering. The burgers were room temp and unburger-like. Fries were good, though this 'medium' was the extra-large size of my youth. I should of just ordered one hockey-puck burger and a children's fries, and skipped the corn-syrup solution. Edie will NEVER eat this shitty food, the only reason it clicks with me is because I was introduced to it by my parents. Well, she may eat it on her own to experiment, but it won't be associated with my company and love.

While eating this, my first thought was, "Ugh, this isn't that good but I'm hungry" and the second thought was, "Ugh, I'm going to have to confess this in writing tonight."

DINNER: 6:30pm, homemade pizza, a little Gatorade, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
I made up for the damage to my soul at lunch by producing the best pizza I've made in a long time at home. Wholefoods wheat dough, left over homemade pizza sauce out of the freezer, a ball of buffala moz, generous freshly grated parm, good olive oil in a squeezy bottle, a pinch of sea salt. Let the dough defrost in the fridge this morning, and stretched it halfway an hour before finish stretching right before topping. Only used the stone on the bottom of the oven for more intense heat, let bake for 6 minutes. Luckily I got to that place where the crust is dark golden brown with dark brown splotches -- another 30 seconds and it would of gone bitter. I put the cheese down first, and everything was wet BUT minimal, so it became a really nice thin layer that all melded together into, urm, pizzaness.

I think the only fault I would have with it was that the dough wasn't home made (and because of the wholewheat element, added a whole-grainy taste to the affair) and my stretching was a little uneven, leading to a few thin and a few thick spots.

A Review of Orthodox Pizza

Spent the day indoors with the Bird, leaving only to vote and read in the park next door, and when B got home from work, I jetted off and met in Williamsburg for a trawl through the religious section looking for good pizza. The first place we went was the only kosher pizzeria in Williamsburg that had any sort of presence on the internet, and....it was now a schwarma and schnitzel joint.

This was on Lee Avenue, the central business strip of the religious neighborhood, with lots of black coats and frumpy dresses and quadruple-wide strollers everywhere. I leaned out of the window of L's car and called to the group of Orthodox men sitting on the stoop, "Excuse me, do you know of a kosher pizzeria around here?" They said ah, your looking for the pizza place that used to be here! One guy asked if we liked schwarma, as this new place has the best. One gave me instructions for another place a few blocks away. I asked if it was kosher, one guy said yes, the other guy wobbled his flat hand to indicate "kind of", whatever that implied.

So me and L were off, slowly driving to a 2nd place, looking closely at the storefronts , the make up of the retail business. Every block had about 3 bakeries, 1 "dry goods" store (old fashioned term for clothes), every other block a hat store or a Judaica shop. After parking and stopping more random men on the street for directions, we found our first open kosher pizza place, a "Dairy Restaurant & Pizza". This did not look promising. Bright lights, dirty linoleum tile floor, cheap fake wood furniture uncleared, lots of people crowded in (mostly women and their many kids), pizza boxes stacked up in weird places. One side of the room was one long service area, 3/4 dedicated to a hot bar full of things like liver blintzes and eggplant souffle. (I assume the liver was vegetarian.) The other 1/4 in the corner was a fairly standard pizza set up, with a crappy 2-deck Baker's Pride oven and 3 South Americans making the pizza. The front guy, an older Yiddish gentleman took our order and were served our undercooked, pale slices on red plastic trays. $2.50 a slice, and quite horrible.

L & I walked out and started stopping random Orthodox gentlemen about where to find pizza in the neighborhood. Many directed us back to where we came, but we said we were looking for other pizza. One young man asked us what was wrong with where we were, and when we said it wasn't very good, he said, hey, that's good pizza, it's what you get for Jewish pizza (his term). Other men we stopped didn't have much of a grasp of English, a few seemed, quite honestly, mentally retarded. But everyone was actually pretty cool, helpful and didn't judge us for our lack of religious apparel or head covering (though we were both sporting full beards!)

We got directions for a 3rd place finally, and we were quite confident that this must be it for Williamsburg. We trawled down Lee, popped into one of the many bakeries for a black & white (L has a sweet tooth equal to mine), and made it the pizza place, oddly called "Cafe Au Lee", a French name but the food was again 3/4 dairy restaurant and 1/4 pizza, with South Americans churning out deli-quality stuff.

We were impressed that this very low quality pizza was so popular -- on an early Tuesday evening, they were all doing booming business. So I asked L, really, is this population really looking for better pizza? Between the high bar set for entry by the religious crowd, the low bar set for quality expectations and the seemingly total lack of profits from alcohol, is an Italian-style pizzeria here really viable? After a bellyful of some crap pizza, I think he may of lost a bit of enthusiasm for the neighborhood. But it was a fun trawl.

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic cheerios with the good milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was going to buy the organic dead (i.e. homogenized and cooked at the hotter faster temp) but the expiration date was so close to the good stuff, it just didn't make any sense.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, large green salad, hot dog with kraut, mustard, onion relish, Gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, risotto, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6-7pm, 2 kosher slices of pizza from 2 different joints, half can of kosher cola, 1 black & white cookie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The three issues with the quality of the kosher pizzas was, umm, the crust, the sauce and the cheese. Both crusts were slightly crumbly/sawdusty to the bite, indicating fresh dough that did not rest or proof. The sauce was oddly sweet, probably sugar or corn syrup was added to allow the sauce to taste 'fresh' longer. The cheese on both were surprisingly normal, by crappy standards. Both slices were of the quality of any deli in Manhattan that happens to have pizza.

Screaming Parsley

I was supposed to have a kosher pizza adventure today, but L postponed until tomorrow at the last minute. So unexpectedly I had the day, Edie covered by mommainlaw, and a body recovering from the 100 mile ride the day before. So I took myself to the movies and lunch, though it felt kinda....I felt like I should be working on something, not just relaxing. A focused trawl through Wholefoods made me feel a little bit better.

BREAKFAST: 9am, good yogurt with honey and almond extract, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really running out of food, must do a food shop soon. Wasn't in the mood for yogurt, but it was either that or hotdogs! To change it up, I swapped out vanilla with almond, which I will...never do again. Blechch!

AM SNACK: 11:45am, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:15pm, spinach salad with carrot dressing, hijiki tofu patty, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 Lunch at Dojo.

DINNER: 6pm, sea scallops, risotto, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made dinner for B & yomomma. I got these huge sea scallops from wholefoods, they were advertised as "wild", but what I didn't know until I cooked them is that they were treated with a saline solution which does two things -- preserves their color and freshness, and makes them absorb a huge amount of water. So when I cooked them, it a) took longer to cook, b) they shrunk and released a lot of water into the pan, preventing browning and c) ended up just not very good. And I paid $19.99 a pound for a lot of water.

The risotto, on the other hand, was off da hook. I used my simple c-school recipe to make an unadorned risotto, something I was craving after trying the HVS's subpar rice pudding. Used up the last of my chicken stock, last of my sherry, finished wth a lot of freshly grated parm, a container of marscapone and a half stick of butter. When I finished it with minced parsley, the parsley just SCREAMED flavor, enhanced by the fat, the salt, the underlying shallot and garlic and reduced wine. Wow. A little bit rich, though.

Even though quantity-wise this meal was maybe .75 bowl, I suspect calorically it was closer to 1.25. I haven't thought that way in terms of bowls before, but it seems more honest. Which begs the question, how many calories in a "bowl"? A bowl of water is different than a bowl of ice cream. Oh well, the silliness of a blog...

A day on the bike

Woke at 4:30 again, ate, then got to the start line in Central Park around 6am and met D. We road the NYC Century, a 100 mile ride that is not a race, more of a casual excursion that takes in a lot of the city. Avery 15-30 miles is a supported rest stop, with water, food and restroom facilities.

You see all sorts of things, but the thing that got my attention the most were the children and the parents with their older children, One guy in his 50-60s was riding with his daughter, who was probably a late teen, early 20s. Man, I so hope that to be me in 15-20 years. To be able to share this ride with Edie would be amazing. Our route transposed over some of the shorter routes, and people on the 30 mile route took kids as young as 7 or 8. I imagine next year, instead of riding 100 miles, I'll have Edie strapped on to ride the 15-mile route with me.

BREAKFAST: 5am, good granola with organic dead milk, pint of gatorade, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM BIKE SNACK: 7:30am, bagel with pb&j, small amount of potato chips, 1 crappy crispy creme donut, little baggie of graham crackers 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM BIKE SNACK: 9:30am, small amount of potato chips, a few pieces of pita with hummus and tabouli, 2 mini cliff bars, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM BIKE SNACK: 1pm, 2 whole wheat pbj sandwiches, spicy pita with peanut butter, handful of pretzels, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM BIKE SNACK: 4pm, small vanilla ice cream cone, handful of pretzels, baggie of potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:45pm, beef lo mein, wonton soup, shrimp toast, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sugar Headache

Woke up at 4:30am, as I'm attempting another 100 mile ride tomorrow and need to get up without being worn out. Also woke up with a headache, which started last night. It's either from not enough water or....lack of sweets! Could I be going into sugar withdrawal?

BREAKFAST: 6am, organic cheerios with dead organic milk, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9am, emthaller cheese, green apple, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Watching a DVD of short films about food justice, this farmer's market snack seemed appropriate.

AM SNACK: 10am, potato nick with mustard and onion relish, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got lunch-level hungry, but going to yoga in a few hours. I took the last piece of potato nick out of the freezer and into the microwave. When I took it out to check temp, I noticed it was reheating slow....because it was a big piece. My instinct is to just eat the whole thing, I'm hungry and don't want scraps lying around....but should I make myself the human garbage can? I cut it in half, one half back into the micro, the other into the fridge for an easy-to-heat snack at a later point.

SNICKLESNACK: 2:15pm, falafel on whole wheat pita, a couple spoonfuls of vegan rice pudding, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The HVS & I hit up Maoz on Union Square after yoga. As we were sitting in the window, every other person was walking by carrying several cans of Coke Zero, a newish line of the coke brand. I was thirsty, but didn't want to buy a soda (all restaurants should give water away for free, damnit!) So I popped my head out and indeed, 20 feet away at the corner the cokes were being given out for free. So I jogged over, falafel in hand, and got a can.

This product has the same artificial sweetener and flavor profile as the European diet coke, a less overpowering sweetness, but still tastes fakey and acidy. Still, I remember both my parents drank tons and tons of diet coke, and my dad loved buying large amounts when it went on sale. So to score a free can, at a time when you really want to drink something, well, it almost made that fake acidy mess taste good!

DINNER: 5:30pm, homemade spinach cheese ravioli in butter sauce, halava, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Too grim

Edie has good taste in food, it seems -- she drinks mother's milk all day, but on the day I ran out and tried to feed her formula, she'd take a few sucks then push it away. Ain't nuthin' like the real thing.

It rained all day, and me and Edles stayed in doors. We went down to the lobby to get mail and looked at the rain and the wind, and we both agreed that the world was too grim to enter today.

BREAKFAST: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Replicated yesterday's, came out just as good. I need to have some one else taste this, is it this good or is it just me?

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, pumpernickel bagel with hummus, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, Stouffer's Deluxe French Bread Pizzas, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, catfish buritto, pork taco, guacemole and chips, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Fneh Mexican food ordered in, while watching a movie with B&E. We were watching 'State of Play', which I saw in theaters with the HVS, but fell asleep during because I was exhausted from the restaurant. This time, I fell asleep because I was exhausted from lovin' on the Edie all day!

One smal step for Noah, one giant step for Smoothie technology

Looking back at yesterday, the farmer's market was extra fun, with an awake and happy Edie charming all-comers as we walked through, but afterwards popping into Wholefoods was a bit of a stress, with Edie getting cranky and one hand on a cart that just wanted to veer left into every display. The advantages and disadvantages of food shopping with a baby writ large, with immediacy!

The ingredients on the Haagen Daaz "Vanilla Bean" ice cream is: cream, skim milk, sugar, egg yolks, ground vanilla beans, vanilla extract. (The HD plain vanilla is the same, minus the ground beans.) My vanilla ice cream, if it had a label, would be: organic cream, organic whole unhomogenized milk, organic egg yolks, organic sugar, vanilla bean seed scrapings. The Haagen Daaz, compared to my ice cream, has a weird fluffy fatty texture, and is soooo vanilla to the point of overwhelming any flavor of cream, which I guess is fine, since under the vanilla it tastes....cooked. My vanilla ice cream is more subtle, more clean tasting. And, I imagine, if I were to sell it by the pint, to make a profit would be $15/pint instead of HD's 5.

Edles n' I walked over the Manhattan Bridge to the restaurant. L has an idea he wants me to help him with -- open up a 2nd location.....in Williamsburg....in the RELIGIOUS section....and make the place glatt kosher.....this is definitely going to be a either a funny footnote anecdote or a chapter heading in my book....

BREAKFAST: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
On my harried run through Wholefoods yesterday, I picked up a bag of frozen mango chunks and a bag of frozen depitted cherries. Cherries because they are out of season, mango because they're hard to cut up and go bad before I use them up. In addition to fresh blueberries, banana, good yogurt, dead organic milk, a pinch of vanilla sugar and a pinch of sea salt, I finally added a few spoonfuls of freshly ground flax, now that I have a new spice grinder. I eliminated the ice cubes, as the frozen fruit served the same purpose, minus the dilution.

And wow, this was the best smoothie yet. Thick, sweet but balanced with tartness, and the fruit flavor just tasted...fruitier, due to lack of ice cubes.

LUNCH: 12 noon, 2 small slices texmex pizza, 8 oz sprite, glass of lemonade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
L has a Tex Mex pizza on the menu as a special, but there are so many ingredients on it that he substituted a bunch of stuff on this pie -- red onion for scallion, cherry peppers for jalapenos, avocado slices for guacamole. The chili-fresh corn-cheddar cheese combo would have been enough, really, but the vinegary cherry peppers kinda blew everything else out of the water with it's overpowering flavor.

PM SNACK 3:30pm, apple, emmathaler cheese, 5 Milano cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Green apple and raw milk cheese from the farmer's market, so good.PM

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large green salad, small amount of vanilla ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Too hungry to wait for dinner, this was a semi-healthy stopgap.

DINNER: 7:30pm, chirashi sushi, fresh uni sushi, mini salad, edemame, 1 glass sake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Met E on the UES to go to Candle Cafe, but there was a long wait for a table -- the Hungry Vegan Society must be multiplying and taking over that neighborhood or something. So we went up the street to a nice Japanese joint. They were offering a special -- fresh live sea urchin. So many Japanese sushi places in the city just make no effort, so I had to order this special -- I kinda hate sea urchin, because invariable it's funky, pasty and smells off. This sea urchin, which came presented on it's spiny black shell, was redolently fresh, smooth and creamy, tasting like the ocean, like caviar but more pleasant.

Little Steps

Rolled Edie downtown to try to buy a Beatles box, ended up in City Hall Park reading the paper. A slow walk home found us back at the fishball and rice noodle cart by Seward Park, this time I ordered some lotus leaf wraps off the weird little menu. I've only eaten vegan versions of this street snack, but this one had ground pork in a surprisingly subtle brown sauce, really good. I think I'm going to attempt to eat my way through that little menu, though the curry squid will probably be last, he he.

After a few hours at home, we set off again, this time with Edles in a sling. We ate lunch at 2Boots, which technically is pizza, but really is more like pizza-styled food. The Earthmother is an inch thick whole wheat crust topped with tomato sauce and cooked veg, which is good....but it ain't really pizza.

Afters sitting in Union Square a bit, I hit the farmer's market for the first time with Edie. She was awake, and her head propped up out of the sling, looking around and generally being a happy baby. We got a LOT of color commentary from the market goers, all female of all ages. Yep, Edie got the cuteness going for her. Where was Edie when I was a lonely teen, aching for female attention?

So far so good. B went to work, I got out of the house for a full day with Edie, and a lot of little thoughts fluttered through my mind through out the day. Little steps.

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2 pancakes, glass of Gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:15am, chocolate donut, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 lotus leaf wraps, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, 1 slice square pie, 1 slice earth mother pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 2:45pm, lemon lime seltzer
After pizza, walking up Ave A, found myself desiring desert, but thought it just might be thirst. After a drink, it indeed was just thirst. Weird how a sweet tooth and dehydration feel similar.

DINNER: 6pm, green salad with sauteed shrimp and mushrooms, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:15pm, a little bit of ice cream, 10 Milano cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
After a relatively healthy dinner, found my sweet tooth coming up again, and gave in. I did only eat 2/3 of the bag of cookies, which is an improvement over my old habits of easily getting down a full package when I'm in this mood.

And Edie had milk all day long...

For a day that is a bit of "this is the first day of the rest of your life", it was pretty fun. Betsy got out the door by 7:30, leaving me not quite awake with a quite awake baby. Around 9am, got a panicked call from L -- it seems there was a gas main issue on the restaurant's street, and he was in Connecticut, so I needed to go over and give access and represent. So me n' Edles focused, got our gear together, and made our way out to Brooklyn.

After spending an hour at the restaurant, we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, a first for Edie no doubt. Around this time, I had my first phone call with B from work, who seemed to be doing really well. I met a friend for vegetarian dim sum, then a slow walk home with a stop in a park to change a diaper.

I carried Edie in a sling all day, and the motion of my walking seemed to lull her to sleep for a lot of the day. It was nice.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with dead organic milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
When alone in a restaurant with a baby and no ovens working, this is what one grabs.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, vegetarian dim sum, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost done with my Chinese food ethnography book. The author gives short thrift to the Chinese Buddhist vegetarian tradition.

DINNER: 5:30pm, leftover shake n' bake chicken and buttery pasta, 1 piece of Stouffers french bread white pizza, Gatorade, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Home with B! We both feel like a weight lifted -- this just may work out after all. I couldn't wait 30 minutes for frozen pizza, so I finished yesterday's leftovers, then shared the pizza with B. This was a new "5 cheese white" version, which I must say, was vastly inferior. It basically tasted like a cross between grilled cheese and the sauce from macaroni & cheese, smashed together with garlic bread. Three flavors I guess people like, but it ain't really pizza...

Last day of summer

Spent the day with B&E -- tomorrow, B goes to work, and the test runs of days with Edie become my work day.

BREAKFAST: 10am, large piece of watermelon, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, falafel platter, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, 2 prepackaged ice cream cone things, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, shake n' bake chicken breast, fresh pasta with mushrooms in a butter-wine reduction, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A high/low dinner. We three capped off our walk with a shop at the local Pathmark, slow and leisurely, walking down each aisle even if we didn't need anything there. I found a box of "Shake n' Bake Original Chicken", something I had not eaten or even seen since I was a child, it was a new product, and my mom made it for us. I could not remember what it tasted like, but wanted to see...

It's kinda gross, but good. Essentially flour, salt, spices, preservatives, decaking agents and some fats absorbed into it, it's kinda retarded how it gives you a plastic bag to shake the meat in, before you bake it. The flavor is definitely unique, definitely salty, and definitely took me right back to Staten Island as a 10 year old, having dinner served to me from my mom, and thinking that because the leg or thigh I was eating was so stringy and creepy, that I may one day be a vegetarian. I think I need to make my own shake-n-bake mix, it'll be much tastier.

On the high side, I boiled up some of the fresh pasta I made a week or so ago, and in a pan experimented with the concept of buerre blanc. Shallot minced, softened in safflower, then through in a bunch of thin sliced mushrooms and salt. About halfway cooked, I poured in some cooking sake and some distilled white vinegar, and cooked it to almost dry, Added a cold half stick of butter, seasoned. The vinegar makes it, totally makes it, why haven't I been cooking butter sauces with vinegar my whole life? My lord, more than salt, it just made the pasta come alive. I'm gonna start vinegaring all my basic no-recipe sauces, to see what happens.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 2 prepackaged ice cream cone things, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
B has been nervous, emotional and stressed about going back to work for weeks now. Me, it just hit me the night before, and lead me to scarf some junk. I'm gonna focus on better eating now that the days stretching out before me are me n' Edles vs. the world....

More brownies, in much larger quantities

B, Edles and I did another shopping/strolling trip to get B ready for work, this time to Park Slope. Wow, lot of strollers competing for space. They need bike lanes AND stroller lanes.

We popped over to Clinton Hill to visit my friend C, who is about 6 months preggers, who are in a new condo with her husband near Bed Stuy. A few days ago, I gave her a produce and equipment list, and when we got in around 3:15pm I got straight to work in their new kitchen, pushing out about 3 courses and an pre-dinner cooler, serving the final desert around 6:15pm. Working 7 or 8 different recipes, from the super casual (lemonade) to the first time since c-school (beurre blanc, from my classroom recipe card) at once was fun, and reminded me a) I enjoy cooking ornately and b) I'm not bad at it. I goofed a few little things, but despite working in an unfamiliar kitchen with a loose pantry, I think everyone was happy.

I've been contemplating projects for the upcoming months involving, among other things, cooking. This meal was a nice reminder that fun is on the horizon. Now if only Edie would start eating stuff I can make for her, now THAT will be amazing...

The problem with pot brownies is that no matter how good it tastes, having more than one dose can lead to an unpleasant time. So I made brownies at C's house using the same recipe, minus the active ingredient.

BREAKFAST: 10am, slice of cold pizza, gatorade, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pizza is a lunch and dinner food, but whenever it's brought up as a breakfast food, it's "cold pizza from the night before." Fresh-moz pizza a day out is kinda gross, but this pizza was from a slice joint. Still not very good cold, I don't care what nobody says yo.

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

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, small piece of cheese sandwich, 1 chocolate covered graham cracker , .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, pan fried scallops with beurre blanc, cooked spinach, brown rice pilaf, bruschetta, lemonade, wine, water, brownies, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
First thing when we got to C's house, I made a simple syrup and busted out a pitcher of lemonade. Made the brownies and got them into the oven. Then I set up the pilaf to cook, which would take an hour. Once on, chopped tomatoes and fried a hearty multi-grain bread in olive oil, got out the bruschetta appetizer. Fried a mess of spinach in chicken fat, shallots and garlic, finished with salt. Made beurre blanc: reduce wine and vinegar with shallot, bay leaf and peppercorns. When almost dry, whisk in cubes of cold butter. Strain, season, reserve. Lastly, coated scallops in flower and fried in chicken fat in a cast iron skillet, turned once and finished in the oven.

Once in a blue moon

The family and I made our way to Cobble Hill for wandering and B's back-to-work shopping, then went to my friend K's house (on the same block HVS used to live!) for a nice home-made lunch in a beautiful backyard. K made some superb vittles, all of which I want to recreate myself. I brought a batch of the special brownies I made a few days ago, and within 2 hours realized they were, indeed, quite strong.

We parted close to 6pm, and made our way home by subway. On the walk from the subway, we ordered a pizza from our local slice shop -- I've never ordered a pizza from there, but it seemed like the ideal food for my state.

I enjoyed the brownie, but it incapacitated me a bit more than I had hoped -- a proper amount is half a brownie, not a whole. I really have no desire to indulge again any time soon, so I imagine I'll bury a couple in the back of my freezer and give the rest away. B was great, but being stoned was kinda like leaving all the responsibility on her shoulders. Which is fine because we talked it through beforehand, but at the same time it's not a place I want to visit more than once in a blue moon.

BREAKFAST: 10am, pumpernickel bagel with peanut butter, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, Boylan's grape soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, Asian chicken salad, watermelon and avocado salad, mint ice tea, 2-3 glasses of wine, a magical brownie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, 4 slices of pizza, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chinatown with Edles

After sleeping away a large part of the afternoon, I couldn't get to bed until close to 4am. Today is the last experimental Edie day for me, which really is to give B some time to herself to get her matters in order, as she returns to work next Tuesday. So I got up as B was leaving around 8:30, and after changed her diaper, Edie was calm until she started getting cranky.

She would stop being cranky when I picked her up, but I wanted to, ummm, do stuff like email and, urrr, blog. So after a moment of discordance, a -duhhh- realization came into my head and I popped her into the sling as I sat at the kitchen table eating my breakfast. She wiggled a little, shouted a little, snuggled her face a little tighter to where my heart was (literally! - and figuratively), gave a coo, then shut her eyes. Ahhhhhh! After a few minutes I laid her down on the bouncy, sling and all.

Looking over what I ate today, realized my body is recovering from a bug -- feel a little worn out for no reason, eating a little less than usual.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 3 pancakes, a little peanut butter ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Freezer fresh, he he. Thing is, you can buy frozen pancakes in the supermarket, but a) they're about 3x more expensive than making your own from top-shelf organic ingredients, b) taste like cardboard because they were probably made months ago and c) involve a lot more packaging (OK, maybe c isn't a big deal for me, but it makes people happy!)

LUNCH: 1:45pm, "rice noodle with fishball", 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Leisurely walking through Chinatown with Edles, thinking about the "Chop Suey" book I've been reading, I noticed all the little hole-in-the-wall restaurants, which are more like food carts that evolved into shops, kinda like mobile homes that lost their wheels and ended up on cinderblocks. The only one that had any English at all had a handwritten sign, "Lunch Special: 3 items $3.25", and I'm sure that was on top of rice and not in a small portion. These places have buffet hot bars in front, a few dingy tables in the back. No room for a stroller, and Edie is just too small and unprotected to leave outside by herself while I popped in (how unEuropean of me, I know.)

It the corner of Rutgers and East Broadway, there was a street cart with a line of Asian peeps in front of it, so I got on. The tiny menu was in Chinese, with a few annotations in English. Their big specialty was Curry Squid, but I went for the more friendly sounding rice noodle with fishball. For $2.25, got a full pint of rolled tubes of meifun rice noodles, about 7 small fishy-tasting fried ground fish-balls, and on top the woman squirted 4 different sauces in rapid succession, a sweet, a salty, a spicy and something else I couldn't put my finger on. She shook some sesame seeds over the top for good luck, too. I ate it in the park while Edie slept, surrounded by Asian children and Asian grannies. I feel fortunate to live so close to such a thriving neighborhood, right next door to my thriving neighborhood. Only one block away from my noodle cart are the best pickles and best bagels in NYC!

DINNER: 5pm, pad thai, 3 little fried thingies, a beer, water, small cup of gelato, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Walked to the hepper section of the LES on Orchard to try a new Thai joint, walked Edles in the sling and met B there, ending her big day out without us. Food was surprisingly good, a lot of thought in the presentation and nicely balanced flavoring -- I could taste the galangal, a Thai sweetener similar to brown sugar, but with it's own special funk. Went to Laboratorio del Gelato after, where we both got 2 flavors in small cups and ended up eating half of each other's.

To be a Bohemian in the 1890s...

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

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

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

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

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

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

A day out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Terrible pot-head

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preparing the Kitchen for Edie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Peanut Butter Cup Reverie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lacking peanut butter satisfaction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Pizza Fail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Epic Pizza Fail

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soothe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Antsy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editions with the HVS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sense memory

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

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

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

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