The lid on my head

Took the mini-mes to a playdate in the 'hood in the morning, then put Edie on a bike and rode around downtown with B and his son for a few hours in the afternoon, before bringing Edie to a regular check up at the doc. Ordered in Indian food in the early evening.

Not making any progress on the knish front, due to being busy with the kids, and looking that Edie does not have school these two weeks, have realized I can not do special order holiday knishes without really putting a lot of stress on my family. Bummer, but I'm glad I have a great family, so it's not that big a trade-off.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea, a couple of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies


BREAKFAST: 11am, PB&J on wholewheat, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, health salad, potato chips, pickle, a little mint ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, whole wheat focaccia, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp korma & rice, roti, samosa, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
One of the first times ordering in didn't seem unnecessary or lazy or indulgent, but very necessary to keep the lid on my head from boiling over.

Sunday Thinkin'

Took Edie out in the morning, with the specter of no school for her for the next two weeks hanging over my head. B had some good friends over in the early afternoon, brought some wonderful homemade pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with them. Off to a friend's kid's birthday in the early evening, feeling zoned out and tired (and a rum & cider drink probably didn't help, but did make me think about making a rum/apple flavored ice cream.)

BREAKFAST: 8:15 am, iced green tea, oatmeal, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oatmeal sat out over night, didn't taste quite right, too salty with a tang. Gonna toss it, redo it later.

BREAKFAST 2: 10:15am, pancakes, bacon, home fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 12:45am, handful of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:45pm, large green salad, potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, slice of streetza, chocolate cake, rum & cider drink, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 8:30pm, health salad, pototo chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Oatmeal Reverie

Last night was rough: an email came in late from Edie's school that due to a bed bug situation, the school will be shut down for two weeks...ugh, parent problems. MAP & D came over with gifts from abroad and helped entertain Edie while B & Mil slept. I was supposed to go to a party with the ice cream cake, but me and Mil stayed behind and tried to sleep. TV in the evening, sleep around 11.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Steel cut oatmeal: For expediency, I cooked it up in the microwave, with a dash of salt, butter and brown sugar. Wow, I forgot what a perfect food that oatmeal can be, especially when it's seasoned and flavored correctly -- it tastes healthy, in a way that makes you want to be healthy every day of the week. Though salt, butter and brown sugar is considered "sinful", the oaty flavor is so complimentary to them with only a slight nudge. Why the packets of flavored oatmeal over salt, over sweeten and add creepy shiz to approximate what I just did in the microwave bowl astounds me -- I know why they do it (hello, capitalism!) but it's still amazing people eat it and think, "this is oatmeal."

I put on 4 cups of steel cut with 12 cups of boiling water, table spoon of salt, 1 oz of brown sugar and 1/4 cup of butter, turned off the heat and going to let it sit overnight. Tomorrow, with a minute reheat in the zapper (vs. the 8 minutes it took this morning), I'm gonna have perfect oatmeal on tap for the next few weeks.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea, chocolate covered espresso beans


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, steel cut oatmeal, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, snippet of knish, a few whole wheat crackers


LUNCH: 3:15pm, large green salad, large chocolate coin, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, orechiette pasta with spinach, shrimp and asiago cheese, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, mint ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Despite Chaos, still produced a nice cake.

Due to a bed bug scare at Edie's school, class was cancelled with little notice. B went off to get her hair did, I strapped on the Mil and strapped Edie in to a stroller, and went to another parent's house for a playdate (good thing I had fresh knishes on hand to be sociable with!) Afterwards, the three of us did some light food shopping and strolled to a neighborhood friend of the Knishery to deliver some complimentary knishes in exchange for a sample of their family's favorite "mince" (cut up dried fruit reconstituted with juice and booze). In ER Park, Edie refused to sleep, but was able to take off her jacket, shoes, socks, clawed her way out of the straps and went for the cutest barefoot run along the river -- I had to chase after her and reshod her, while a sleeping baby was strapped to my chest. It was both annoying, fun, exciting, tiring and silly. Despite me being officially scolding, I could not be more proud of the happiness, energy, excitement and joy that my daughter exudes.

Picked up some slices on the way home, and after eating, whipped up a fancy dessert for a friend's kid's birthday party tomorrow. B came home, and we got on with it.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cake: A friend gave us a cheesecake in a collared pan last week, and we're going to their house tomorrow for their 3 yr old's party, so I thought it would be nice to return the pan, with something in it. Baked a simple chocolate flourless cake and froze it. Made a batch of mint ice cream, steeped 2 bunches of mint for an hour before cookingin the eggs. Added a few drops of green food coloring simply because this is a kid's party and, well, mint ice cream should be weirdly green at a kid's party. Did that in the early afternoon. In the evening churned the ice cream, added some chocolate chips and poured over the cake in the pan to set in the freezer over night.


AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

AM SNACK: 10:30-11:30am, handful of cookies

LUNCH: 2:30pm, 2 slices streetza, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, spinach knish, fried potato knish, health salad, pickles, 3 chicken nuggets, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, mint chocolate chip ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Dough Boy, I am, I am.

228.2--->231.0

No surprise on the weight gain -- since the baby came on the 10th, I have not ridden a bike (other than for transportation), have not lifted any weights (other than an 8 lb baby and a 30 lb toddler on occasion) and have been eating quite poorly, in large quantities. But the I suspect the tide is turning.

Two things exciting on the knish front today: one, this was published, and two, I made a round of experimental deep-fried knishes that were much better right off the bat than I expected them to be. More importantly, I made filling for, and cooked off, about 72 knishes while dealing with an infant who needed constant feeding, burping, touching and the occasional put-down for sleep, and it went ok, except for maybe a Baby Bjorn that ended up covered in flour.

TODAY'S COOKING
Spinach Knishes & NY Style Knishes: I had left over dough to use up from the Thanksgiving knishes, so made nice batch of spinach/potato filling -- if I'm going to eat knishes AND be healthy, a knish with more than 1/3 very nutrition-dense greenery seems smarter than, say, a chicken skin knish. But looking ahead to the future, took a crack at the square 'Gabila' style fried knish, the kind that used to be sold at all hot dog carts (and you can still find them on occasion.) I used the same dough, the same plain potato filling, just wrapped it totally and in a square. Used hot oil - 450, because it didn't need to cook through, just needed to crisp the dough -- hotter and shorter fry means less oil is absorbed. On the first bite I knew that this was special. Hmmmm. How American of me.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 spinach knishes, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AFTERNOON SNACK: 4:30pm, 3/4 NY style knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, sushi, shumai, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
After cooking all day, needed to order in. Few things more fun than having your 2.5 year old daughter sample sushi and shumai for the first time. Fortunately, I was paying attention when she was about to put the little green ball of wasabi in her mouth, and prevented a night's worth of misery on every one's part.

Feeling Lardy

Food shopping after Edie delivered to school. Taught pizza at school in the afternoon. Feeling lardy, took a solid step back to healthier eating today. Now have to magically find the time and energy to start lifting weights again.


TODAY'S COOKING
Health Salad: Got to get some healthier eating back on line, craving vegetables. Made the big green salad, also made a big bowl of cabbage slaw, haven't done this in too long -- and now it's season appropriate!

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1pm, breaded tilapia fillet, health salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL FOOD: 3-7pm, various bits of pizza, lemon aide, a few oreos, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, graham crackers, pretzels,.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

More juggling

Had a rough night with GI tract issues, fortunately B took care of things in the morning and I was able to sleep until 11:15am -- with out which I would have probably been groggy, sick and achy. Spent the early afternoon looking after Mil and watching TV while B got her sleep in, then picked up Edie with Mil and took them to a playroom while it rained out. It was a bit of a juggling act, and only was able to keep it contained for about 30 minutes before we had to head home.


BREAKFAST: 11:30am, iced green tea, chocolate covered espresso beans, toasted bagel & cream cheese, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 4:30pm, meat tortellini with a little sauce & grated cheese, cheesecake, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DNACK: 9pm, 2 slices of frozen pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Good intentions turn to cheese cake

Ate extremely poorly today, due to the chaos of figuring out the 2-kid thing, running out of salad and fresh veg at home, the building lack of exercise and lack of sleep. I originally intended to go out biking today due to good weather but just felt to run down and fuzzy after dropping Edie at school. Didn't eat much, but when the 4 of us were out on the town, had a meal of greasy pizza with a fig leaf of salad on it. Intended to have a good dinner, but between a lack of fresh produce and a cheesecake from a friend showing up, that was derailed. I was up late with stomach issues....

Soon, I must get back on the weight lifting thing, and fill the fridge with some fruit and veg...

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea, small handful of chocolate covered espresso beans

PM SNACK: 2pm, potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:30pm, 2 slices of pizza, green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cheesecake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Juggling

Woke up groggy, got Edie out in the morning, went to the local diner, then took off to DUMBO on bike to hang out with K for a couple of hours. Edie fell asleep on the ride over and had an early nap, and on the way home picked up a lunch at my favorite cheapy dumpling house in Chinatown. The afternoon saw a low key family outing to the local park, and the evening saw a lot of juggling getting various little ones fed and to sleep. Not tiresome, but tired.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:45am, corn muffin, bacon, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, shrimp fried rice, pork dumplings, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, french fries, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A long, intense, good, life-loving day.

A busy but good day. The morning and early afternoon was taken with food shopping and laundry while juggling Edie, Mil and a very tired B, immediately followed by taking Edie out on the bike to ER park: not to ride, but to lull her into an afternoon nap. Once she konks out, I stop, remove her helmet and make her comfy (in a sleeping bag that attaches to the seat, hood up, bike on stand tilted back a little) and read until she wakes in 45 to an hour - a little pool of quiet much appreciated.

This is the second day I tried this format -- Edie has been resisting naps outside of school -- and it works like a charm, the LES equivalent of a parent jumping in a car with their toddler to get 'em to sleep. I only hope when she's older she'll get excited about going out for a ride and not just associate it with falling asleep, he he.

In the afternoon, D came over, visiting from the other coast, and after playing with the kids and wife, we went out to meet E, then walked across Central Park to Telepan, a good restaurant of a chef who I saw lecture while in c-school. The room was beautiful, very NYC 2011, nice to be able to sit for 2.5 hours with good friends and talk -- something you can't do at a crowded joint where they need to flip your table ASAP. Most of the food was on point, but a pasta middle course was surprisingly unspecial -- and at this level, everything is expected to be a minimum of special. But regardless, a great night out, makes me want to cook good food for my family.

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea

LUNCH: 11am, green salad, potato chips, breaded shrimp, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, potato chips, chorizo, grenadine soda, handful of chocolate covered espresso beans, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
D brought an amazing chorizo as a gift, what an incredibly tasty snack. I may have to find some of this in NYC to have on hand .



DINNER: 6:30pm, smoked trout on a blini, spaghetti bolognese with a little lobster, pork with kraut & potato, variety of desserts, bread, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Bad Knish

Walked over to Wholefoods with Baby Mil to pick up some ingredients -- who the hell buys a Xmas tree the day after Thanksgiving? Won't it be dead in a month's time? B's fam came over in the afternoon, and I made them the BEST grilled cheese sandwiches in the world, and made a sheet cake (specifically requested) for B's mom's birthday.

TODAY'S COOKING
Vanilla sheet cake w/buttercream icing: Used this recipe, but in a 9 x13 glass pan, and upped the vanilla substantially. Teaspoon of quadruple strength extract, scrapings of 3 beans AND 2 cups of vanilla sugar. Made it for B's momma, whose birthday was recently

Grilled Cheese: B's family was over, and I'm just tired of ALWAYS ordering in when they're here. Grill pan and press, nice 7 grain bread, raclette and sharp cheddar, maple bacon, freshly sliced tomato, some caramelized onion from my stash, lubricated with brown butter. Real grilled cheese, not for the faint of heart.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, iced green tea, onion bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, potato knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
This is the first time I've eaten a Yonah Shimmel knish since starting to cook and sell my own. Can't really write about this on my business blog, or I'd sound like a snivelling lil' bitch. The good: It's impressively large for $3.50. A nice hint of black pepper. And, ummm, thats about it. The bad: Underseasoned, practically no onion flavor, a limp and unsubstantial crust overwhelmed by the filling, a big mouthful of uninspired mashed potatoes. Fneh.


AM SNACK: 11:30am, chocolate cupcake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Despite knowing I was going home to make cake, the journey to Wholefoods with Milli Mil strapped to me deserved a stop at Sunshine bakery. I got an all-chocolate one, which is substantially different than the all vanilla cake I was making later!

LUNCH: 3pm, grilled cheese with bacon & tomato, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, pasta a la Noah, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Boiled up some rotini, the last 3 minutes threw in some diced raw shrimp to give everything a shrimpy flavor. Once drained, sauteed fresh garlic, chopped tomato, oregano and a dash of cayenne. Mixed together, topped with a large grating of parm.

Thankseating

Betsy woke me up luxuriously late. By 11 me n' Edie were on the big bike to Central Park. By the time we got there, Edie was comfortably napping so we sat in the Poet's Walk while watching the tourists, reminiscing about my dad and I sitting there, and making phone calls. Edie ate her lunch while sitting on my lap in a playground  across from Mt. Sinai, then we went to B's Aunt S on the UES for Thanksgiving lunch -- lunch instead of dinner, due to all the senior citizens and babies involved. Most of the food was ordered in, but someone brought some glorious mashed potatoes, and I brought some pumpkin knishes and some local pickles.

It was a nice affair, but I look forward someday to hosting a family thanksgiving in my own home, just like my parents did and gave me such wonderful, warm feelings of family. That I really hope to be able to pass along to my children.

E & I left around 4:30 by bike to catch the last of the sun, and we went down Central Park and Broadway to Times Square -- the first time Edie really saw Times Square in full throttle. It was pretty groovy.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, fruit smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, turkey &gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, string beans, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5:30pm, graham crackers & nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, frozen pizza, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chinese memories

Woke at 5am, got to school by bike by 7. From 7 to 1pm, cooking, reheating, prepping, preparing with a handful of students. We actually got all the food on the tables by 12:45, and while they ate I plated about 100 slices of cheesecake. Some food was more popular than other, but over all the feedback was positive.

Got home by 3, took Edie out to a playroom and picked up Chinese food on the way home. I remember coming to this joint many times with my father -- my parents did not believe in wasting money on "free" delivery because the place was only a 5 minute walk away. My mom would call in the order, my dad and I would walk down and pick up, and when we arrived back my mom would have already set the table.  Waiting there with Edie, it made me remember what it was like to be there with my dad. It was nice.


AM SNACK: 5:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 8am, brownies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL SNACKING, 11am-2pm, little bites of turkey, cheese cake, stuffing, mac n' cheese, string beans, salad, lemon aide, fruit punch, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:45pm, beef lomein, shrimp toast, wonton soup, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Cooking for 200

Rush to get chores done in the morning, afternoon and evening teaching, with a lot of food made for the Thanksgiving lunch we're serving to 200 the next day.

AM SNACK: 8am, iced green tea


LUNCH: 11:15am, hot dog with onions, handful of pumpernickel pretzels, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SCHOOL SNACK: 6pm, scoop of mac n' cheese, small slice of cheese cake, lemon aide, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9pm, large green salad, baked french fries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Adventures with Mil

The day hinged around taking Mil to the doc for a 1 week check up. B slept, and I strapped him on in a Baby Bjorn, and we took the bus to the Union Square Farmer's Market & Holiday thing. We walked, he slept, I hugged, it was nice. He's put on a good amount of weight, a pound. Edie is getting harder and harder to pick up, solidly built, getting taller, but Mil is light as a feather for now. Got home by bus, but took a nice walk-about down Grand Street. Picked up Edie, got the food shopping done. Cooked up 15 lbs of onions for future knishing, just to have it on hand.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, grenadine soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, Stouffers french bread pizzas, slice of mousse cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7pm, chicken nuggets & kasha varnishkes, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Knishes all around

Spent the morning uptown for a suit fitting, as I'm in a wedding party this coming summer. Swung by a Chinese businessman's lunch spot I used to dine at all the time when I worked in midtown. It was Sunday so it was pretty empty, but the food was expectedly delicious. This place literally pumps out thousands of meals every day during the week, it must be nice to be chill on the weekends. Got home by 1 to greet some friends and some strangers (but now new friends) to come visit the baby and pick up knishes. After 3, I got on the bike and delivered knishes to various friends. The evening was chill, spent some quality time with Milli Mil.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, iced green tea, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, eggroll, tofu & baby shrimp with rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 1:15pm, slice of mousse cake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 5pm, handful of french fries, slice of mousse cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, breaded tilapia fillet on whole wheat toast, potato leak soup, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A friend gave us some homemade soup, a little underseasoned but delicious.

A visit from the snicklefamily

Visited some friends with a toddler and newborn in the morning, brought a selection of donuts from the Donut Plant. Took Edie outside on an unseasonably warm Fall day in the afternoon to play in leaves. Stopped by the local diner for bad quick food, before coming home and having the Snicklefamily over to meet Mil and play with Edles. Chill evening.


AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 11:30am, iced green tea, donut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2:30pm, burger, fries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLESNACK: 4pm, half a kasha knish, vegan cupcake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The kasha knish has been in the fridge more than a week, and with 10 minutes of heating, came right back to life.



DINNER: 9pm, tortellini with sauce, 2 slices black out cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Last week a friend broought over a huge cake. Just starting to work through it now.

Good, busy

Got to bed at 11:30, woke up at 7 feeling a bit drained and confused, but ok. Got straight to work on baking some pumpkins n' stuff, and after delivering Edie, got down to the business of making pumpkin knishes. B's mom & bro came over in the evening and we ordered in a pizza, it was a good busy day.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Pumpkin Knishes: Three rounds of 36, a few went down me n' Betsy and our friend T's throats -- a little saltier than I aimed for, but tasty. I initially feared I didn't make enough, but the filling kind of hit the nail on the head, though I made almost 2x as much dough as necessary....which means I may have to make more knishes later this week, he he. Perhaps experiment with dough in the middle of the filling...

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, 4 whole wheat waffles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, small bowl of farro & sausage, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, pumpkin knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Had to taste after the first round came out of the oven. A little too salty, but not unreasonable. Pretty good. I'd not feel ripped off being charge $3 for this.

LUNCH: 2pm, baked ziti, kasha varnishkes, grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tossed the salad because it smelled like old fridge. I zapped some baked ziti and by the time I finished half of it, I realized it was unusually "tangy" like sour cream, so I tossed it. Kasha was still good, however. -phew-

DINNER: 6pm, pizza, water, a little bownie & ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Peaing in a Pod

Didn't get much sleep, couldn't fall asleep until 1am, Edie was up a couple of times to interrupt the night that was supposed to be our first night smoothly with the night nurse. B got up and comforted Edie, and I was too zonked to step up. Grouchy morning, but B took Edie to class and spent her first time out doing her own thing since the baby came, while I had some nice quiet time one on one with Milli Mil.

After a while of him getting up and going back to sleep repeatedly, I just strapped him on in the Baby Bjorn while I went about my house business and it worked like a charm. Poppa and son peaing in a big pod.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Knish Dough: Making the pumpkin knishes tomorrow, so got a leg up and boiled off 15 lbs of potatoes, half of which went into a large batch of dough. The rest will be mixed into the pumpkin filling to give it a bit of heft.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted pumpernickel bagel, cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

AM SNACK: noon, cookie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30, frozen pizza, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, hot dog, fries, pickles, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Warm & Fuzzy

Got to bed around 10:30, and Edie slept through the night, but sleep was interrupted several times by Baby Mil. Woke up feeling a little warm and fuzzy (not in a good way), and after getting Edie to school, got a healthy smoothie down, did some essential prep then got a few hours of sleep in before eating a sandwich and riding my bike in the rain to Red Hook to teach.

Last week was a bit stressful, but this week the class went great -- 8 recipes in quantity in preparation for serving Thanksgiving to the school next week, went very smoothly. Rather than have an awkward meal of bits and pieces, my supervisor ordered in a couple of pizzas for us, it was a nice change of pace.

When I got home, snuggled with Edie but she insisted Betsy put her to sleep. For the first time, a night nurse came to look after Milli Mil while Betsy & I got a proper night's sleep.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, turkey and Swiss on wholewheat, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM TASTING: 3-6pm, tastes of cheesecake batter, brownie batter, Cesar dressing, biscuit


DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 slices pizza, soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, brownie

EVENING SNACK: midnight, a big bowl of farro & sausage, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
I brought this home from school, we made it last week, and DAMN is it good. It's a relatively easy recipe from c-school I've had my students make to demonstrate different grains. It's an Italian version of Spanish "Soupy Rice" made with whole wheat kernels, a lot of chicken stock we made ourselves, and fennel -- potato, beans and sausage are secondary players. Very filling, very real.

Someday I will sleep again

Sleep was a little better than the night before, but not by much. Edie is definitely expressing her disapproval at not being the only star in the sky, but is still very curious about and affectionate towards Milli Mil.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, 4 whole wheat waffles, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:15pm, cheese ravioli with sauce, chocolate donuts, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

DINNER: 6pm, hotdog, kraft dinner, green salad, chocolate donuts, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Back to Life

It's been a bit of a roller coaster with the new baby, the under slept wife, the having friends over, the doting grandma helping out a lot, the maintaining a normal schedule and level of attention for Edie. I will not lie, I've been eating massive amounts of junk food for almost four days, and need to come correct soon or I'll get sick. I made a big green salad to have on hand, which should help a bit.

No time to lift weights, and even if I did, I'd be too tired to be effective on them, hopefully I can resume next week.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted bagel with cream cheese and sable, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left over fish from yesterday's get together. I fell in love with sable when people sent it over when my dad died, and I gorged on it when my mom died. It's a good coming & going food for me, I guess.


LUNCH: 2pm, spaghetti with sauce, pickle, ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
A neighborhood friend dropped off some food, including homemade sauce. A bit sweeter than I like, but still much better than any jarred stuff.


DINNER: 7:30pm, rice & beans, guac, corn tortillas, green salad, water, peanuts & chocolate chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Teeter....TOTTER!

Emil Isaac Wildman, 7 lbs 7oz. All are doing well. Like Edles, Mil took to feeding from the Mothership like a duck to water.

For reasons that should be apparent, this blog is on hold until Sunday. See ya then!

Teetering Teetering

Edie has been recovering from a cold lately, and in the cutest froggy voice/snotty nose has been making her discomfort known. It's not the greatest time for Edie to be putting the terrible into 2, with the waking up and shouting at 4am and such, as Betsy is even more pregnant than she was yesterday. Just in case, we've schedule a pediatrician appointment for E to make sure nothing else is causing her frustration.

After dropping Edie off, checked into McD's for breakfast, I was hungry and couldn't go home and just needed to destress for a minute. Amazing how my parent's bringing me there as a kid has imprinted this on me.

Got laundry, cooking, some light housecleaning done while Mrs. B slept off the night before. I went to vote, kinda annoyed for seven spots there were....7 people running, all Democrats except for one, who was running as both a dem AND a Republican. I'm a strong believer in our civic responsibility to always vote no matter what, but this kinda pushed my patience. Went out to dinner with a knish-friend.

TODAY'S COOKING
Baked Ziti: Comfort food, not from a fast food joint. Followed Batali's recipe loosely. 2 lbs of mini ziti, 4 cups of sauce outta the freezer, 4 cups of besciamella cooked up on the spot, 2 lbs of moz ($17, the only 'expensive' part of this huge sheet of food), a head of basil plucked and torn right off the plant, topped off with whole wheat panko bread crumbs. Forgot the romano, oh well.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, sausage mcmuffin, hashbrown, diet coke


LUNCH: 12:15pm, baked ziti, half a kasha knish, green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 wholewheat waffles, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8pm, bulgogi, kimchi pajun, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10pm, a handful of girlscout cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Teetering Still

Lifted weights after delivering Edie, and got a good smoothie in right after -- it's said that weight lifiting is potentially more effective, if you eat right after.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, milk, good yogurt, cherry, blueberry, mango, peach, flax, vanilla, salt. Purty good. Enough to make 4 mini frozen pops for Edles.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 small ham & swiss knishes, popcorn, pint of grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, frozen pizza, large green salad, cookies, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Comfort.

Existential Pain

A difficult day entertaining a toddler who decided to act on the "terrible" in "terrible twos", while B needed to sleep and keep her belly intact for now. Edie is experiencing the existential pain of only being able to be in a single place at once -- she can not both be at home and out side on the swings at the same time, and she's letting her displeasure at this fact be known.

Eventually I got her out to the swings via a shared slice of pizza, and B was up enough to let me tune out in the evening. Any day now.

BREAKFAST: 8am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and peanuts, iced green tea, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

NOON SNACK: 12pm, spinach knish, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter, a little jerky, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACK: 3pm, most of one slice of streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, shrimp with broc, pork fried rice, wonton soup, egg roll, 6 small donuts, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

On Standby

Took Edie out in the morning to Smorgasburg with friends, she fell asleep and we hung out in a park for a few hours while she napped. Mellow afternoon in the hood. On standby to B's tummy.


TODAY'S COOKING
Caramelized Onions: Had 15 lbs of onions left over from the Knishening, cooked them all off in two pans in the oven over 5 or 6 hours, will be good to have on hand for random knishing.

Kasha: Made a box of the stuff to finish up some knish dough. Followed box recipe, except added an extra egg yolk to the pre-simmering toasting to see what effect would come up.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pumpernickel bagel with cream cheese, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt 1: 11:30am, lobster roll, shot of soup, a macaroon, a donut, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Eating around Smorgasburg. Picked up a nice packet of beef jerky.



LUNCH pt 2: 3:30pm, spaghetti with sauce, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, chicken nuggets, kraft dinner, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 
Nice to eat the same thing with Edie at her dinner, albeit in larger portion.

Still teetering

After Edie got to school, lifted weights, went to midtown for an appointment, got laundry and food shopping done, then did little in the evening other than eat too much cake. Betsy is still teetering. The veil between being born and not being born is thinning.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


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


LUNCH: 1:45pm, frozen pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER:  7pm, large green salad, small amount of chips & guac, small amount of rice pudding, large amount of chocolate cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A nice day

After Edie was delivered to school, me and Big B went to the movies with her brother, taking in street sandwiches with us. In the afternoon, got a nice cooking session in before meeting E uptown for a nice late dinner. I actually swung by Knish Nosh in Central Park in hopes of sampling one, but they were closed at 7:30pm. Hrumph.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Potato & Spinach knishes: Knocked out a couple dozen with left over filling from last week, dough I made this week, and a lb of frozen spinach I cooked up today with 3 heads of roasted garlic. As a goof, spontaneously made a sweet peanut butter & chocolate chip knish which came out better than it should have been.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


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

AM SNACK: 11am, potato knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5 
I'm a little sheepish to admit that this knish cooked last week was actually the first one I tried. As I was going, I did taste the mix for balance and flavor, and sample bits of cooked dough to make sure it was right, but I didn't actually have time to taste it all together in finished form -- there was nothing I could do to make it better once it was browned properly and out of the oven. So I guess I'm happy to find that, hey, this is really good! Maybe a tad close to being too salty, but pleasantly balanced between heavy and light, redolently oniony in the caramelized sense, and despite microwaving out of laziness, the crust had  a nice chew to it. I may have something here!


LUNCH: noon, falafel sandwich, popcorn, diet coke , 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large green salad, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:15pm, sushi, gyoza, edemame, sake, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, nutella & pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Drained & Teetering

Woke up totally exhausted -- between being up until 1am then Edie & B up in the middle of the night & crawling all over me, it was a rough night. Also woke up a little sore -- lifted weights for the first time in a few weeks yesterday, it was a great pleasure to get back to that.

Got chores done in the morning without napping some how, then rode to school for a pretty good class. Totally drained when I got home. Betsy & her belly is teetering, the expansion of this family is coming soon I suspect.


AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Yesterday's was just too good not to do again.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, pasta with sauce, potato chips, large green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL DINNER: 5:45pm, chimichurri flank steak, mac n' cheese, snapple, a few cookies, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, frozen waffles, peanuts & chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weigh-in

?---> 228.2

Have not weighed in in a couple of months, due to batteries being dead in the scale and....just not wanting to know. Now with the Knishening behind me (for now), trying to get back to some of my better habits. As for my weight, it's pretty much where it sits without interference, with out calorie restriction, without binging. I do wonder if my muscle to fat ratio has changed at all, though, as over the past 3 or 4 months I can feel them getting stronger,  a little more pronounced....underneath my blubber.

Had a reporter over in the afternoon for a couple of hours. After he left, got cooking on three things at once. By the time I was done, I was a little bit too tired to d o anything else, but still had a hard time falling asleep.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Tomato Sauce: Fresh oregano and thyme, extra onion sauteed as I have several bags of onion left over from the Knishening.

Granola: Standard recipe, though replaced the variety of sweeteners with just one - half cup of brown sugar.

Knish Dough: Had a small amount of potatoes left over from the Knishening, just enough for a batch of dough. Good thing, as I have a large container of potato filling in the fridge. Gonna make the knishes in the next two days.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, yogurt, banana, cherry, mango, peach, blueberry, flax, vanilla ex, salt. Ahhhh, I wish I could get this on tap. It's a bit of a mess with the blender to make, but when it's freshly blended, it's great. Bottled stuff, store bought stuff, it just doesn't cut it.


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 Stouffer's Frenchbread pizzas, large green salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, potato knish, glass of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Entertaining a member of the press, would be rude not to eat too when plying a person with knishes.

DINNER: 7:30pm, chicken nuggets, potato chips, pickle, cookies, ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lazy dinner. Just didn't feel like cooking.

EVENING SNACK: 11:30pm, potato chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Recovery Day

Had a hard time falling asleep last night, and woke up exhausted. After getting Edie to school and doing some basic chores, plopped in front of the TV and napped for 3 hours. With just enough time to eat, picked up Edie and did a proper food shop to restock the kitchen after the knish blowout. Still felt low powered and drowsy the rest of the day.

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


LUNCH: 2pm, cappelini with garlic, oil and romano, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, ice cream, a few chocolate chip cookies, .75 bowl, hunger 2/5
Not hungry in a sick kind of way, but thought something, anything would make me feel a little less unsteady.

Another installment of dues, paid in full

Woke up rested but grumpy -- I had come this far, and though far reduced in it's hope and excitement, the Knishening had to go forward. The last minute change of date, location and price structure (from a set price to a donation box), on top of bitterly cold wind and a meager sun, had me standing out in my yard for three hours, hustling knishes and keeping a smiley face on.

I guess setting aside your bad feelings and sucking it up is a key definition of what being an adult is, but it doesn't make it sting any less. I did have some good conversations (a # of a purveyor who sells chicken fat!) and a lot of compliments on the knishes, so in all a bad situation was slightly made less bad. Still, I need to think long and hard about if this is what I want to do. Restauranting is a very weather sensitive business, and it was bad luck that my premiere event had to be both outdoors and on the snowiest October day in all recorded history. I'm glad I had the experience and the forethought to keep expenses to a bare minimum -- despite the loss, the future of Knishery NYC will not be determined by the financial outcome of this past weekend.

After four or so hours of being cheerful and outgoing when I felt like being the exact opposite, kinda went home and collapsed into myself, making my very pregnant wife not very happy. She had dealt with all my hyper focused knish making/mess generating all week, and I guess she was hoping for a more happy me when it was over. -sigh-


BREAKFAST: 9am, BLT on rye, corn muffin, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


AFTERNOON SNACKS: 2-3pm, a couple of sweet knishes, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, shrimp burrito, chips & guac, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 8pm, half a pint of ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

A Day Away from Knishes

Got to bed around 11, woke up at 9:30 to a happy B&E. Horrible weather, sleeting and windy and freezing, it would have been a disaster to have a debut knish stand today. Had a cleaning person over to do the laundry and clean the house top to bottom, and B went out to get her hair did while I took Edles out to a local restaurant to feed. It was even worse weather on the way home. Me n' Edles watched a little TV when my momma in law came to help out with Edie, and I quickly passed out on the couch for a solid 4 hours -- 5 days of intense knish making will do that to a guy.

We ordered in pizza, as the fridge is still in lock down with too many trays of knishes. Tomorrow they will be disgorged to the world, and hopefully I will get some good vibes, personal and business related, back.

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, blueberry pancakes, bacon, potatoes, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, 3 slices pizza, green salad, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7:15pm, box of entemann's chocolate chip cookies, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Knishening is (was) Tomorrow

Hoo boy. Edie is a little feverish, B is a little pregnant, I woke up with not enough sleep and the final day of knishing ahead of me.

AM SNACK: 7:15am, diet coke

----

That's all I wrote, in the morning. I don't quite remember what I ate the rest of the day, except it involved a 2 liter bottle of diet coke fueling me. I baked 166 potato knishes while juggling other things, like a phone call from Edie's school saying she was 102 degrees and needed to be picked up. I picked her up, she was in a good mood, and Betsy was able to cut her day short and meet me when we got back so I could go back to the knishes.

The last round of knishes, the last round of the day, the last round of the week, the last round before setting up shop tomorrow, was in the oven when I sat down to check my email. I heard the weather was going to be iffy so I thought to email the fair organizers to see if they have any arrangements with food banks or charities in case I have a lot left over. There was an email from the organizers cancelling the event, due to predictions of rain, wind, snow and freezing, sleety weather.

I first called Betsy to tell her the news, who was at the pediatrician with E (E is fine, but better safe than sorry.) Then I stood by my living room window and stared out the window for a solid 10 minutes, wearing nothing but floury boxer shorts, hands knitted in a ball behind my back. What does one do with 500 knishes and no place to sell them? My permit to sell is temporary, limited to one day in one place, any other day in any other place requires a new permit, not to mention publicity, time and a host of other arrangements. Being that I've been working from a home kitchen, I've been banking knishes -- after the weekend, they will seriously start to lose quality. They gotta move, and they gotta move this weekend. An email to the fair organizers brought back no suggestions.

Sunday is better weather. So Sunday it has to be. Where? I live next to two green spaces. I send an email to my coop board and the organizer of a group that cares for the public park next door. In a few hours, I get permission to distribute and ask for donations from my backyard, but to be discrete about the money thing. I quickly update my blog, my facebook, create a facebook event, get in contact with the media that has been friendly to me the past month to spread the word. I'll be hosting the equivalent of an adult lemon aide stand on Sunday. Who said giving birth to a business would be easy?

Sitting around, mind racing in the evening. For all is said and done, with the refund of the cost of the table, the money I'm in for is not that much in the scheme of things, even if I don't make dollar 1 this time around. But this was a one shot deal --- I can not put my household and family through an entire week of full time production for such a meager yield -- I should be able to pop out 500 pieces in 1 eight hour run in a properly scaled industrial kitchen, not 5 twelve hour runs where my family has to crawl around a grumpy knish maker, and a fridge that is barren of everything but the bare essentials to get through the week.

Contemplating the next move, gonna give it some thought while enjoying this baby coming up. Which could be any day now.

The Knishening - Day 4

Woke up at 6am after some fantastically graphic stress dreams. Got some knish-related work done before getting Edie to school, did some food shopping in the morning and spent about 11 hours cranking out brocolli cheddar knishes and spinach & roasted garlic knishes. All in all, almost 200 pieces. I actually ordered in a sloppy breakfast from the local diner because at the moment, the oven, the stovetop and the microwave were all working, he he he.

Edie & Betsy went over to a friend's for dinner and they brought me back some left overs, which helped. It was good to be able to start winding down around 8pm, allowing me to clean a little and prepare for the final day of cooking tomorrow.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, pancakes, sausage, potatoes, diet coke, 1 bowl


PM SNACK: 12:30pm, greasy corn muffin, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2pm, broc cheddar knish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 1: 6:30pm, chicken nuggets, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 2: 8pm, 2 slices of pizza, can of diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Knishening - Day 3

Woke up worn out from yesterday's knishening, but the knish shall not be denied. Spent the morning delivering trays to friend's houses for storage, as my fridge is limited. Made 4 big batches of dough which will hopefully get me through, cooked off the rest of the pumpkin filling, then went to Brooklyn and taught.

Got home totally blown out. Got through part of a short list of things that needed to be done, passed out around 10.

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

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, pumpkin knish
Last knish out of the oven was a 13th, and so I ate it. It's good, but could use a little bit more salt -- why didn't I catch that earlier. Oh well, it's not bad, just not perfect.

SCHOOL SNACK: 3pm, chocolate covered pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL DINNER: 6:30pm, shrimp in sauce, Cesar salad with fresh croutons, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, potato chips, chocolate chips & peanuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Knishening - Day 2

Woke up at 6am to get the onions in the oven, but only 2 of the trays fit. Peeled potatoes as Edie and B got up, and soon after I delivered E to school, got back to cooking the potatoes, cooking up the filling for the pumpkin knishes and kasha knishes, made a buttload of knish dough.

By 2:30 got everything cleaned up, cooling in the fridge or the counter and picked Edie up from school. First we went to the market to pick up some supplies, then to a park, where I ate some Chinatown vendor food. I dropped Edie off with our friend B and his son (sons, I guess, since he has a new sprog) while I did a shift at the CSA. Once home, I got to the process of assembly and baking until I couldn't no mo'. Ran out of dough, that was all. A little ahead of my production schedule, but as a few bumps have shown me, I'm really figuring this out as I go.


AM SNACK: 6:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:30am, good granola with dead organic milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:15pm, fishball with rice noodle, lotus leaf wraps, a donut, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 9pm, mini kasha knish


DINNER: 10:30pm, 2 hotdogs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Knishening - Day 1

Had dreams about making knishes, kind of. I had a made a huge amount of crisp thin dried round apple slices, and I was attempting to smear peanut butter on them and reassemble them so they looked kinda like lined apples. I was only able to make a handful of perfect ones, as a lot of the apple broke or was misshapen.

After taking Edie to school, went straight home and attacked the mountain of knish making. Today, did the dough, filling, assembly and baking of 125 apple-cheese and chocolate-hazelnut sweet knishes. Diced 15 lbs of onions before showering and picking up Edie at school at 3. When B got home a little after 6, started again and diced another 30 lbs. Pretty much got done what I wanted, but I suspect I'm going to have to go late Thurs and Friday nights....

AM SNACK: 7:15am, iced green tea


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


AM SNACK: 11:45am, pint of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 4pm, shrimp lomein, egg roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, white castle burgers, water, peanuts & chocolate chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

The Knishening is Koming - Prelude

Woke up about 15 minutes after the time I was hoping to leave for the bike ride in the Bronx. Despite almost 11 hours of sleep (with an hour of TV watching around 2:30am), felt groggy and achy -- back is better yet, but still sore, though reasonably so. Nose is still stuffy.

But it's good, today I got to help Betsy out with Edie, and knock out some of the food shopping necessary to start production tomorrow. Brought home 150+ lbs of groceries on my bike for the beginning of the Knishening tomorrow, got the laundry done, played with Edie in the backyard for a few hours. In the early evening, a reporter from jewcy came over to interview me, don't think the piece will be published before the event, but perhaps after. So focused on planning today, kinda forgot to eat lunch.

Had a hard time falling asleep --between 11 hours of sleep last night, anxious about starting knish production tomorrow, and a bunch of Sunday night television shows I watch, I didn't get down until 1am.


AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 11am, toasted sesame bagel with cream cheese, pint of grenadine soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 2pm, tortilla chips, a little guac, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by a local Mexican joint where B&E were eating, on the way to the supermarket.



PM SNACK: 4pm, a couple of sweet knishes, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a sweet knish, glass of grenadine soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 8:30pm, eggplant parm hero, green salad, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Run Down

Woke up at 9:30, stuffy nose. Back feels even better, but still a little bit sore. Skipped weights, and will probably sacrifice them next week, too. After pancakes, Betsy went to work to get on top for her last week coming up before officially leaving to give birth, and I watched Edie while doing some knish-related chores. Got to bed a little after 9pm, feeling run down and hopeful I'll feel better for tomorrow's Tour De Bronx.


TODAY'S COOKING
Pancakes: Trying to empty out the fridge (milk, eggs, yogurt), and stock the freezer for this coming week's knish onslaught. No buttermilk on hand, but a half cup or so of the full fat Fage had a similar effect.

Burgers: Grated onion, Worcestershire, salt and this time some  garlic powder. Better distro through the meat than if using fresh. It was good.

BREAKFAST: 10am, iced green tea, pancakes, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, breaded shrimp, cheese tortellini in olive oil & garlic, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 burgers on whole wheat buns, potato chips, butternut squash soup, milano cookies, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Ramping up

Spent the day getting smaller details of next week's knish table done, stuff I may forget or overlook when I'm in the heat of multiple days of production . My back feels better, though still not 100%. Was going to lift weights, but think perhaps to wait another day rather than risk a recurrence.

Nose is getting stuffier, head a little heavy, better be careful or my weekend will be 86ed.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted onion bagel with cream cheese and whitefish, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:15pm, 2 slices streetza, grape soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4:30pm, black cherry soda, a beer, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a 2yr old's party.



DINNER: 6:15pm, butternut squash soup, large green salad, mashed potatoes, a little sliced turkey, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Zoo

Woke up with an achy back, but not as bad as last night, which is a relief -- it's muscular, not spine-related or torn-something. Edie had off from school, so we rode over to the Prospect Park Zoo in the morning. Visited an auntie in Park Slope in the afternoon, and had a nice rollicking evening with the ladies after.

Looking over today's eating, it's a bit of a roller coaster. Super healthy breakfast, super evil lunch, super healthy dinner, then rather crappy snack-explosion in the evening. I guess 50% is better that 0%, but I do know I can do better.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Milk, yogurt, banana, blueberry, cherry, mango, peach, flax, salt, vanilla, a small dash of sugar. Used a frozen banana and made the whole thing too thick to blend, had to add extra milk. Still had to eat it with a spoon!

LUNCH: 12 noon, quarter pounder with cheese, fries, diet coke, 2 mcnuggets, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 4pm, rice noodle & fishball, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, breaded tilapia, butternut squash soup, green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 9:15pm, popcorn, peanuts & chocolate chips, 5 chicken nuggets, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Backy back

Spent the morning riding in the rain taking care of some chores. In the afternoon, taught and rode home in the rainy dark with 50+ lbs of borrowed equipment that'll help with the knish-production next week.

I'm not sure what caused it, but during class my back started hurting really bad, making it hard to lean over - maybe I lifted a large pot of water the wrong way? I'm not sure. It continued to hurt on the ride over, and by the time I got home, it hurt to stand from a sitting position, and I needed to just lie down and be still -- good thing, because that's my main activity in the evening nowadays?

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10:45am, good granola with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45am, butternut squash soup, green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL SNACK: 3pm, chocolate covered pretzels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


SCHOOL EATS: 6:30pm, grilled chicken, mashed potato, swiss chard w/caramelized onion & olives, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 9:15pm, mini cheese raviolis with homemade sauce, whole wheat ritz with nutella, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Soup n' Sweet Knishes

TODAY'S COOKING
Various Cheese Knishes: Due to scheduling of life n' shiz, today was my last chance to experiment with some knish making. Desert-centric cheese knishes tend to be an afterthought, so there is two good things -- no one expects much, and the definition of what a sweet cheese knish must be isn't as codified as the savory potato.

I was not that thrilled with the apple-cheese knishes from last week, so for inspiration (and to dispose of 12+ lbs of CSA apples) over the weekend, I baked off 5 apple pies & crumbles. The essence of the pie is the flavorful liquid of the fruit that cooks out and becomes a thick, gelatinous sweet jam-like substance. How that happens is simple -- the fruit is tossed in flour, sugar and a little salt, and between the gluten of the flour and the pectin of the fruit, when the juices cook out it becomes that wonderful goo. I don't want to make pocket pies, but I want some of the wonderful goo in my fruit-cheese knishes.

So I scavenged around the kitchen and got myself a line up o' fruit: for the fresh team, we had banana, apple and pear, for the frozen team, blueberries, cherries & mangoes. I did up a mise-bowl of equal parts flour, sugar and a little salt, and dredged the fruit handful by handful before inserting them into the open mouths of plain and chocolate knishes. Everything except bananas I paired with the plain sweet cheese, threw the bananas in the chocolate.

I tweaked the recipes as I went, the main change was doubling the sugar in the plain cheese, as it just wasn't sweet enough before. This made the batter noticeably looser, which reminded me of what I was taught in c-school: sugar is always considered a wet ingredient, not a dry. Now I appreciate that more -- it dissolves or gets slushy in the presence of wet, adding to wet's mass.

Upon baking, it came clear that for the wetter fruit (everything but the banana), the fruit sweated enough to make a slight to large amount of gooey goodness on top of the cheese layer. As for the banana layer, the jury is still out, it may need some more thought.

Another thought is that the chocolate-hazelnut is not hazelnutty enough. I'm depending on nutella, but amping it with dutch cocoa powder. I may go full on cocoa powder and hazelnut butter for production....

Butternut Squash soup: I got some butternut squash, leeks and fresh apples from the CSA, so a quick blender soup seemed to make sense. The B-nut-S soup I made last week kinda rocked my world, so I had high hopes for this one, but it came out strictly...bleah. I did lots different with this one, and the end product couldn't be more different. Sauteed the chopped leeks in olive oil, put in a half head of minced garlic at the end of saute, then deglazed with some white wine I had in the fridge. Boiled up the processed squash with 2 apples instead of 2 sweet potatoes. Blended it all together, finished it with what I had on hand -- sour cream instead of plain ol' cream. Seasoned with salt and...fneh. The wine, the tart apples and the sour cream all added to a sligthly vinegary overtone, which made the garlic pop, but it was....vinegary. On the other hand, if I served this soup at a high-falutin' pretentious over-priced restaurant, people would probably think it was very sophisticated n' refined. Fneh.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:30am, pumpernickel bagel with creamcheese and smoke white fish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought some kippered white fish form WF on a grocery run this morning. Reminded me a bit of when I lived in England -- salty, tough, and not very good.

LUNCH: 1pm, 5 falafel balls with hummus, pickle pint of grenadine soda, pear & apple knish, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was gonna also have salad, but smelly funky and the cuces went icy.

DINNER: 6:45pm, breaded shrimp, large green salad, butternut squash soup, 2 chocolate knishes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, kraft dinner, mini waffles, peanuts & chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Rotten Avocado

Spent the day working on Knish PR and taking care of the Edie. Got notice my new iPhone should arrive on Thursday, made me oddly excited.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


LUNCH: noon, sardines on homemade wholewheat, green salad, multigrain chips with school salsa, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Few things more disappointing then cutting open an avocado and finding it completely rotten and stinky.

DINNER pt 1: 5pm, meat tortellini in homemade sauce, 5 falafels w/hummus, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 2: 8:15pm, Stouffers French Bread pizza, chocolate chips & peanuts, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

I didn't eat it, it just jumped in my mouth and made me swallow.

Woke up early, and some pie jumped down my throat. Did a slow 30 mile bike ride in relatively cold weather, fueled by junk food, and when I got home, more pie attacked me and jumped down my throat. On top of that, my momma-in-law was around in the afternoon and they ordered in Chinese, and low and behold, a bunch of greasy carbs jumped down my throat...twice! How did that happen?!


BREAKFAST: 6:45am, iced green tea, apple pie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:15am, gatorade, potato chips, peanut butter cups, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


PM SNACK: 1:30pm, apple pie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:45pm, beef lomein, pork fried rice, egg roll, grape soda, .75 bowl hunger 4/5


DINNER pt 2: 7:30pm, beef lomein, pork fried rice, veg dumplings, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pie vs Crisp

A nice day with Edie, took her to Occupy Wall Street and the Imaginarium playground in the morning and a 2 yr old friend's b-day in the afternoon, with pie making bracketing Edie-time.


TODAY'S COOKING
Apple Pie: Wanted to make pancakes this morning, but not enough ingredients. Made pie dough instead using this recipe (I was too lazy to dig up a proper pate sucree recipe in my c-school journals), with shortening I had in the freezer. Freezing it made it easy to cut the fat into the dry ingredients in a quick moment in the food-processor, without it becoming paste - the key to a light and flaky crust, little pockets of fat that melt into the flour and leave pockets. I could cut by hand, but that would take minutes instead of seconds, he he. The dumb recipe says hold in the fridge 10 minutes, but I know that's wrong -- you'll have a sticky mess with warm dough like this, so I did it in the morning and held until the evening.

Betsy wanted me to make crisps to give to a few friends, but I wanted to go full-throttle on pies for two reasons: 1) any buffoon can make a half-decent crisp with minimal work and 2) I need to refresh myself on pie-filling, because all cheese & fruit knishes can be regarded as one part unique simplified cheesecake, 1 part pie filling. For the apple knish I pan-fried some apple slices in butter and seasoned with salt, brown-sugar and cinnamon, but it didn't have the thickened sweet liquid that really makes a pie so unctuous.

Granola: I've pretty much got this recipe down to a science. This recipe, with these adjustments: 4 cups oatmeal instead of three, 1 cup of raw cashews instead of 1.5 cups pistachios, 1 cup slivered almonds added, 1/3 cup maple syrup and 1/3 cup brown sugar as the total sweetener, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract added. Replace fruit with 1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped. Damn good.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea

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


LUNCH: 12:30pm, 2 small hamburger, a handful of fries, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 3-5pm, a few bites of chicken quesidilla, diet Dr. Pepper, a handful of chips, half a cupcake, 3/4 of a slice of cake, a few stuffed grape leaves, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:15pm, wholewheat boboli pizza, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
My dad was a fan of this product, and I saw a whole wheat version, so I gave it a whirl. Topped with my own spaghetti sauce, cut up some of Edie's string cheese, dried oregano and basil, shaved some romano on to it. Crust still tasty kinda meh.


EVENING SNACK: 9pm, small bowl of ramen noodles, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Sabbath Dinner

Lifted weights in the morning, while hungry. I read somewhere that while eating before lifting is neither here nor there, eating after the lifting enables the body to process more efficiently and deliver the repairative aspects stronger when needed. I wonder if that's true, or just hooy.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:45am, the good yogurt, honey, homemade vanilla extract, raw cashews, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, breaded tilapia, brown rice pilaf, large green salad, 2 small apple cheese knishes, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Happy with this last round of knish. The chocolate is good to go, the apple needs sweetening and maybe more vanilla, but the crust is great.

PM SNACK: 4:30am, multigrain tortilla chips & school made fresh salsa, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6pm, salmon, brussel sprouts, roasted potatoes, 1 glass of wine, 1 chocolate cheese knish and a snippet of ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Over at a neighbor friend for sabbath dinner with our kids. Haven't put on a kippah and said prayers over candles n' stuff in many years, was weird but nice. Definitely helped that the host was also any excellent cook -- I usually despise salmon and brussel sprouts, two things very easy to over cook, but these two dishes was perfectly done.

Apple on Top

Edie had off from school today, so kept busy doing the laundry, baking knishes, given Edie mid-day showers, feeding myself, cleaning the huge mess Edie made in her path, took some phone calls resulting from the press release I've issued for the knish venture -- one even resulted in a piece on a blog the same day! Between baking, publicizing, taking active care of Edie, feeding myself homemade food, visiting a friend's new baby in the afternoon, all in all it was a busy day. When B came home, I ordered in dinner and collapsed on the sofa.

TODAY'S COOKING
Chicken Paillard: Hammered out the last piece of chicken, dunked it in a little peanut oil and Worcestershire -- definitely the best, salty, umami, just right. Gonna do this with my students next week.


Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese & Apple Cheese Knishes: Up until this point, the sweet knishes I've made were an afterthought, using left over dough. This time, it was all about the cheese knishes.

Instead of using the tougher, potato-based dough that has been my go-to for the savory, I consulted a book I plucked off of Amazon recently, Love & Knishes, long out of print, my edition from 1958. There were two dough recipes, one with and one without baking powder -- I chose the later, hoping for a flakier lighter lift. 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp "salad oil" (I assumed vegetable oil)1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. It warned it may be too try to come together, and to add water. It did not come together, but water would just develop gluten without adding anything, so I threw in a 3rd egg and all was copacetic.

For the fillings, I did a second attempt at chocolate hazelnut and a first attempt at apple. For the first one, used 1 pack of farmer's cheese, half a container of nutella, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 flour, 1 tbsp cocoa powder (dutched), 1 egg, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla. For the apple's cheese filling, the same with nutella swapped out for sour cream and no cocoa powder. I took three apples from the CSA, peeled, cored, sliced, fried in butter with a little cinnamon, cardamom, salt and brown sugar, until firm but a little soft. I made a slurry with 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 tbsp water, and added it to the pan once off the fire just to give the juices a little body, and prevent them from watering down the cheese mix.

Used a cupcake pan again, and after panning most of them, decided 4" square is enough dough for this pastries. For the apple, some I put the apples on the bottom, some on the top, but once they came out of the oven (300 degrees instead of the brown-inducing 425 for the savories, 20 minutes instead of savory 30-45), clearly the apple-on-top just looks more appetizing. Two hot ones went into my mouth with lunch and they were good, but the real test is when they are cold. The apple cheese didn't taste sweet enough (the apples were REALLY tart), but cold always makes things sweeter.

AM SNACK: 7:45am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, chicken paillard, brown rice pilaf, 2 small cheese knishes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

DINNER: 7pm, pad thai, fried tofu, 1 beer, water, 2 small cheese knishes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

First day of class again

After dropping Edie off at school, took care of a few things at home before off to school to teach the first class of the semester -- food safety, knife skills, the wonder of salt: salsa with a lot of chopping of vegetables, smoothies that are tasted before and after salt. Small but good bunch of students. This is the fifth time I'm teaching this class, hmmmm.

TODAY'S COOKING
Chicken Paillard: Took hammer to chicken breast again, with a lighter touch, oil, soy sauce and cayenne, a lot less stinky than with fish sauce. Better.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 8:45am, 2 pancakes, bacon, a little homefries, diet coke, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 12:30, chicken paillard, large green salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SCHOOL SNACK: 6pm, chips and freshly made salsa cruda, cup of smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, shrimp fried rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, pint of grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

A whole lotta pasta

A good day, got a bunch of social media stuff done for the knish project, volunteered at the CSA in the afternoon.

TODAY'S COOKING:
Chicken Paillard: Haven't hammered a chicken breast since c-school. I picked up the tenderizing hammer from the supermarket on a whim. Lay meat between two pieces of plastic wrap, then give it a few wacks until it's an even sheet. It's easy to over-flatten and put holes in it. Still, it grilled up quicker and more evenly. I did marinate it briefly in a simple concoction of oil and fish sauce, which gave it a wonderful flavor, but kinda stunk up the house. A fish-saucy cloud is not something you want in the same house as a pregnant lady.


Brown Rice Pilaf: Fried the dry rice in butter before adding water and spices (salt, onion powder, cayenne, dried thyme) but added a little too much butter, came out a bit greasy.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good granola with dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The supermarket was out of whole organic milk, bummer.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, large green salad, capellini with a little sauce & romano, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I didn't want any capellini left over because Edie makes a huge mess of long noodles. I cooked half the box, realized once in bowl that 1/2 lb of pasta is a LOTTA PASTA. I didn't intend to finish it, but it just went down. Next time, I'll weigh out 1/3 or 1/4 of a box....

DINNER: 7pm, chicken paillard & brown rice pilaf

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, ritz crackers & nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Darned Science

Edie did not have school today, but had coverage in the afternoon, so spent a nice Columbus Day afternoon with none other than the HVS. Movies, then some extreme vegan food at Quintessence -- raw, vegan, room temp, a waiter who seemed a bit too happy to be a waiter.

I noticed on their menu they have a page of cooked foods, with a bunch of text explaining that in some circumstances, cooked food can be just as healthy as raw food. No shit, Sherlock. Some could argue (with that darned SCIENCE) that the whole reason people started cooking food way back in prehistory is a) it disinfected food but more importantly, b) cooking makes more nutrients available for digestion, more than making up for the nutrients it destroys. The company made up for the mushy rawness of it all, though.


AM SNACK: 8:15am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10AM, 1 pancake, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt.1: 12:30pm, green salad, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH pt.2: 1:30pm, slice of streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


SNICKLESNACK: 4:30pm, raw Indianeque mush, a little greenery, water, vegan ice cream cone, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 potato knishes, pint of lime rickey, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Almost too salty, gotta pull back on the salt on the next batch.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, chocolate chips & peanuts, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spreading the Knishes

Woke up early and got a good ride in to the Rockaways. In the afternoon distributed the last knish batch to local friends to get some feedback. Kinda collapsed into the TV in the eve.

BREAKFAST: 7am, iced green tea, organic wholegrain cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 9:30am, 32 oz gatorade, small bag of tortilla chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 10:45am, wholewheat bagel with bacon cream cheese, snickers bar, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


BIKE SNACK: 12:15pm, 24oz gatorade


LUNCH: 2pm, breaded shrimp, potato chips, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 6:30pm, kraft dinner, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 9pm, chicken nuggets, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Bundt 2: Electric Boogaloo

A nice day. Cooked a little in the morning, took Edie out on the big bike to Central Park to meet up with MAP and her parents, 2 Okies from what I assume to be Muskogee. Edie napped on the bike while I snarfed down a lamb and rice platter from a street cart. Ended up at Grandma's house for the holiday's break-fast, had a little nosh but nothing huge. Ride home in the dark down 2nd ave was fun (Edie was taken home by cab separately for those keeping score.)


TODAY'S COOKING
Apple Honey Bundt: Went back to this recipe, for the break fast at my mom-in-law's house in the eve. This time made a crumble top (1/2 cup of butter, brown sugar and flour each, salt, cinnamon) and placed it in the bottom of the bundt, and also filled 12 cup cakes with extra batter.

AM SNACK: 8:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, half a cold potato knish, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 apple honey cupcakes


LUNCH: 2pm, lamb over rice, diet coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:15pm, 1/2 bagel with fish & cream cheese, apple honey cake, diet coke, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


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

Knish 6.0

Knocked out weight lifting after delivering Edie to school. Cooked, had lunch with L, who is helping me out in my knish adventures, picked up Edie, played in a park, got home, off to yoga with the HVS, then a snicklemovie, then home.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Knishes: Well, THAT was educational! I was paying closer attention to each one in all steps. Here are my discoveries so far:

• Potato: This is the first time I used russets rather than Eastern. Eastern is good because they're potentially local, but they're like the AP flour of potato -- good for most things, but not if your making pastries or hearty bread. Russets milled a lot lighter and flakier, but developed a nice smoothness when worked in with the other ingredients. For the basic potato, it was caramelized onions, eggs, some vegetable shortening, several grinds of black pepper and salt, nothing more. Had to go back and add salt and taste a few times before it started singing.
• Sweet Potato: This was gonna be sweet potato curry, but realized at the last minute I threw out my curry powder last week because it didn't smell fresh. The sweet potato mash alone is very moist, so I mixed about 2/3 sweet potato with 1/3 plain potato to get it firm, along with onion, egg, a little vegetable shorting & salt. For this round, instead of curry, I added a little cayenne not so much for heat as much as roundness of flavor. Due to moisture, they spread a little more than others.
• Broccoli Cheddar: This is like the retarded little kid you think will be a drain on your baseball team but you have to have on to be a good guy, and turns out to be a great team player. Broc, shredded mild cheddar, potato, egg,  and pepper (no shortening or salt needed due to the cheese.) They baked up nice and firm, no problems.
• Spinach: Like with the sweet potato, added about 1/3 plain potato to the garlicky cooked spinach for firmness, along with some egg. No need for shortening as the spinach was already cooked in it, salt to make it hollah like yo momma.
• Kasha: Problematic. I was hoping for this to perhaps be a "vegan" dish, but the grain was just too....grainy, crumbly, loose. So egg and potato had to go in to firm it up, and some shortening and salt to amp it up, as well as a bigger black pepper grind than the others. I had to trash a few with the original mix because they would just flop open when sealed.
• Chocolate Hazelnut Cheese: Interesting. This is essentially V 1.0 of this knish. Lined cupcake tin with dough, scooped in the filling, folded flaps over the tops. They came out goonish, the filing expanded and burst, the bottoms burned. But despite that, the filling was firm, sweet, chocolaty and cheesy in the right way. Needs some cocoa powder, maybe some hazelnut extract, lower temp, less filling to account for expansion, but it's a solid first step.
• Misc: Found out that adding scraps of dough to fill out the square pieces cut out of round sheets works well without harming quality, good efficiency saving. Oven ran at 425 convection mode. First round I did the cupcake tray on the bottom, elevated by another cupcake tray which was fine, but on the second round put knishes on a broiler pan on top of tray -- they burned. I added another protective pan and it was good, but prevented the two trays above from browning. If I'm going to run three sheets per batch in my home oven instead of the standard two, I gotta figure this out.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, smoothie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good yogurt, dead organic milk, banana, frozen blueberries, cherries & peaches, vanilla extract, ground flax, salt. First time I used peaches, funny. I don't eat peaches, as I hate the feel of them in my mouth, but the flavor it gives is very familiar -- concentrated peach juice is a common ingredient in overly sweet juice drinks.

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, 1 small chocolate hazelnut cheese knish, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, halves of five knishes & a choco knish, lime rickey, butternut squash soup, pickle, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLESNACK: 8pm, popcorn, sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, curry ramen, seafood rice, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Things to Come

Edie to school, banged out some knish prep, out with Edie all afternoon, more knish prep in the eve, then TV & sleep. Could this be a pattern of things to come?


TODAY'S COOKING:
Knish fillings, dough: The challenge was to get a number of steps done in a restricted amount of time, to give me an idea of how to expect production to go in this home kitchen. In a three hour window, I peeled, boiled and riced 10 lbs of russets and 3 lbs of sweet potatoes, baked off 9 lbs of chopped onions to a light golden sweetness, and made a double batch of potato-based dough. In the evening, in under an hour I made some garlicky spinach, cooked and cut some broccoli, shredded cheddar, made a pot of kasha and free-made a batch of cheese filling: 2 lbs of farmer cheese, 1 lb of nutella, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, dash of vanilla. Tasted good but we'll see how it bakes up.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 9am, toasted bagel with creamcheese


PM SNACK: 12:45pm, grenadine soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Used 1/3 cup of syrup for a pint of fizzy, better balance. Next I'll do it with a wedge of lime.

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, green salad, potato chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5


DINNER: 5:30pm, sardine & avocado on whole wheat, kraft dinner, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 7pm, a few spoonfuls of nutella

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, 4 falafel balls, potato chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Burgers Need Fish Sauce

 Got a good ride up into the Bronx in the morning, had to cut short due to techinical difficulties. Got a little cooking done in the afternoon.


TODAY'S COOKING 
Burgers: Got  a half pound of ground beef yesterday, mixed half  grated onion, a little salt and a little fish sauce into it. Fried in butter. Found it a bit too salty, forgot the salty kick of the fish sauce. Good, though -- fish sauce adds more of that umami than worchestire.


Grenadine: 2 cups pomegranite juice, 2 cups tart cherry juice, 4 cups sugar, brought to a simmer then left to cool. For soda, combined 1/2 cup of syrup in a pint glass with carbonated water to the top. Very tasty, but a but strong and too sweet. Will try 1/3 cup syrup next for a pint. Kinda like how you wish fruit punch could taste, just needs a little citrus and mango or pineapple for the full throttle.




AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


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


BIKE SNACK: 12:30pm, cheesy poofs, gatorade, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 3:30pm, 2 burgers on wholegrain buns, pickle, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, falafel, butternut squash soup, pint of grenadine soda, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, peanuts & chocolate chips

Good soup

Chores during the day, some cooking in the early afternoon, then went to a catering kitchen with some of my students to help put together an app and a tour of the huge kitchen. It was purdy cooool.

TODAY'S COOKING
Butternut Squash soup: 2 squashes, 1 sweet potato, chopped up and boiled for about 20 minutes, blended with it's water, salt, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne and some paprika, cup of cream. Came out surprisingly good, the spices really made it work.

Whole wheat 7 grain bread: Eliminated the dried milk powder from this recipe, added a cup of hydrated 7 grain cereal. Bread came out pretty good, not as sturdy as I'd hope. Maybe try some gluten next time.


AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea


BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey and peanuts, 2 ice cream sandwiches, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 2pm, brown rice shrimp California roll, seaweed salad, rainbow roll, 2 ice cream sandwiches water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, butternut squash soup, freshly baked bread, 1 ice cream sandwich, Stouffers fresh bread pizzas, 1 beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Another off day

Woke up feeling awful, unfocused and fuzzy and tired. Got Edie to school, took a nap when I got home, watched TV the whole morning and foods shopping in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll be back on track and more focused tomorrow.

AM SNACK: 7:30am, iced green tea

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, organic wholegrain cheerios, organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large green salad, 2 ice cream sandwiches, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5 


DINNER: 7:30pm, breaded tilapia, pasta & homemade sauce, 2 ice cream sandwiches, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5


EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, chocolate chips & peanuts

Off

Felt off when I woke up, but still took Edie out in the morning to visit MAP and her family visiting from out of town. Made lunch when I got home, then promptly fell asleep for about 4 hours. Felt off in the evening.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, iced green tea


AM SNACK: 11am, salty peanut doughnut, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5


LUNCH: 1:45pm, breaded shrimp, mushroom brown rice, pickle, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, kraft dinner, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

AutoBundt

The battery on the scale died, will weigh in when I fix it later in the week, as it takes these annoying tiny round watch batteries.

Woke up late, spontaneously took another crack at the apple honey cake, took Edie on the bike over the Ferry to SI for an old friend's 4yr old's bday party (only in SI would they server pizza and scungilli at a kid's party), home by 6, then out again for an adult's bday. I was surprisingly tired, but made it through.


TODAY'S COOKING:
Apple Honey Cake: Was underwhelmed earlier in the week by this recipe when I halved the sweeteners. So I remade it, kept closer to the original recipe, replaced allspice with cardamom, and topped it was a crumb topping (stick of butter, half cup of flour, half cup of brown sugar, some salt and cinnamon, beaten in stand mixer until crumbly)

I used 2 small collared pans, and baked at 325 for 45 minutes. It looked good, golden on top so I took them out and put them on the window sill to cool. Come back 30 minutes later....and the middles had completely cratered -- not cooked long enough. I refrigerated one, and cut open the other, scooping out the liquidy middle. In the end, it looked kinda like...a bundt! A recipe this moist, it needed the increased surface area to cook through. And me adding all the fat in the crumb topping to this very moist cake did not help at all. Still, what I did salvage was about.... 10x more delicious than the first round, so I'm tempted to go again in a bundt....

AM SNACK: 9am, iced green tea


BRUNCH: 11am, pancakes, sausage, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30, apple honey cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 

LUNCH: 4pm, pizza, scungilli, half a beer, a few potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 

EVENING SNORT: 7:30pm, 1 beer
Out at a bar in Brooklyn for a good friend's bday. 

DINNER: 10:15pm, bbq duck, lamb shoulder, corriander bacon, eggplant dip, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Late night dinner at Fatty Cue with friends -- we ordered 2 entrees and 2 apps to share with the 4 of us, was enough food for a small but very fatty, filling meal.