Leaving on a Jet Plane

ADDENDA:
The last two days I haven't really done anything other than stay inside, watch TV and cook a little. I guess that's depression, which I've allowed myself. Today, off to London and Amsterdam, back next Wednesday night. Give myself a day to recover, then....just do something. I don't know how long it'll take to decide what I want to do next/get a Jay-Oh-Be, but I've mourned long enough.

My internet access will be limited, but I'll take notes and fill y'all in when I get back. My friend Tania's home and town in Gillingham, Kent, has served as a 2nd home for many years, me dropping in 2+ times a year from college until I met B and my parents started passing. All sorts of food rituals....

BREAKFAST: 10am, good pancakes and good bacon, water, hunger 4/5
Experimented with whipped egg whites, the pancakes were nicely fluffy, definitely closer to an ideal.

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 homemade pizzas, fancy lemonade, hunger 4/5
Made dough from scratch again, used 1/4 less water. Dough was stiff, but pliable and workable. Didn't rise much in the oven, gotta get a new recipe. A little too cracker-like, not pizza-like enough. Had an old bottle of lemonade in the fridge, made with cane sugar, drank half of it.

PM WATERING: 5pm, 2 pints water

x

Wednesdays with Betsy

ADDENDA:
I go to England & Amsterdam tomorrow, but Betsy will not be coming with me & friends - she is taking the time to be with her father in Michigan, who is undergoing a bit of a health crisis. So today we are spending together. I spent the day indoors yesterday, too. Even though it's the 2nd day in a row, I'm feeling surprisingly good - I think laying low has avoided me getting sick, and being with B is helping elevate my spirits. There is something to this marriage thing that really works!

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, 2 shortbread cookies, pint water, hunger 3/5
Feel oddly nauseous, but better than yesterday.

LUNCH: noon, 1 superhippy grilled cheese sandwich with raw milk emmenthaller, grilled onion and grass fed butter, bowl of Betsy's homemade split pea soup reheated with extra water, olive oil and a shake of sea salt, pint of water, hunger 4/5
Betsy's soup was really delicious after being un-solidified. Made the restaurant-worthy grilled cheese again, Betsy was also impressed, she had a small one and after eating it said based on the sandwich, think it'll be nearly impossible to give up dairy!

PM SNACK: 3:45pm. last 4 shortbread cookies, pint of water, hunger 4/5
These cookies are the opposite of depression snacks. They make me happy.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 wholewheat saltless pretzel, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, spoonful of peanutbutter, small bowl of organic cornflakes and good milk, hunger 4/5
Getting hungry waiting for dinner.

DINNER: 8:30pm, Ethiopian vegetarian combo, water, hunger 3/5
Dinner out with B, didn't feel like leaving the house but glad I did.

DESSERT: 10pm, chocolate cinnamon soy ice cream, hunger 3/5
Whipped it up quick for B & I, came out good - blending the hell out of it eliminates the powdery feel. Threw in cinnamon, gave it a nice kick. Look forward to serving it to the HVS & co.

A Cookie for What Ails Me

ADDENDA:
When I was food shopping yesterday, I finished collecting my list and decided to find something that would cheer me up. I walked over to the cookie section and found Walker's Scottish Shortbread - I used to wolf this easily-digestible high-calorie fatty cookie when I was travelling cross country by bike, a lot of positive associations with it. However, something to eat while sitting on the couch....eh. I looked at the nutritional information, and noticed it had four ingredients - butter, flour, sugar, salt....hmmmm....I HAVE all those ingredients at home..... it might be more depressing to just buy a box of cookies to snarf, but if I were to snarf cookies that I made myself...

Found a simple recipe online which called for brown sugar, and left out the salt (I thought if I were to snarf a pile of cookies, at least keeping them salt-free would give me some defense against Ilsa's wrath!) After getting to bed around 3:30am, woke at 10:30 feeling ok. After vegetating in front of the TV, started working with the ingredients. Organic whole wheat pastry flour, organic unrefined brown sugar, organic butter. The recipe calls to cream the butter and sugar, had to look that up and wait for the butter to get to the right temperature - three ingredients or not, this is not brain dead work! Mixed in the flour by hand, worked the dough and felt the heat of my hands softening it a bit much, so I rolled it out on my stone counter with my cold metal roller, cut it up onto a baking dish and into the oven.

Twenty minutes later, I had a nice warm pile of comfort while I watched TV all afternoon. Hmmm, I think I may get out of the house tomorrow. Usually eating a bunch of heavy fatty cookies while doing nothing is self-reinforcing depression, but making shortbread cookies for the first time really lifted my spirits. I may cook some more later...

BRUNCH: 1pm, a pile of homemade shortbread cookies, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3pm, 2 pints of tap water

DINNER 1:6pm, half a fully homemade pizza, hunger 4/5
Made dough from scratch following a recipe on line. Unfortunately, I think it meant a DRY measure of water, which would of been about half. After rising 30 minutes, the dough was very liquidy and unworkable. So without rolling or kneading, I poured a portion onto a cookie sheet and put it into the oven. Once it solidified a bit, I took it out, topped it, and put directly on a pizza stone in the oven.

It looked pretty, but taste wise....there was a notable lack of chew - the bite was a bit crumbly. The flavor of the crust was spot-on, but no gluten was developed, making the mouthfeel a bit crumbly and dry. I also used plain fresh cow's milk mozz because no bufalla was available - nt nearly as silky or flavorful.

I shared it with B then attempted a 2nd pie, but it disintegrated in the transfer from untopped to topped. I ended up still hungry...

DINNER 2: 8:15pm, shrimp in garlic sauce with black beans and yellow rice, pint water, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from a local Spanish joint. Big portion. I guess the real usefulness of delivery is to cover when your cooking fails!

Rough Monday

ADDENDA:
My flight to Detroit was cancelled due to weather, it's for the best as yesterday's visit to my family (both living and dead) upstate took more out of me than I thought. Woke at 7, checked the flight and poof, the day is open. Tried to get up and go but after some TV, put myself to bed, felt headachey and tired all over. Felt a lot better when I woke up, but feel a bit restless. Hope my European trip later this weeks goes smoothly.

BREAKFAST: 10am, a little curry sausage and brown rice, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Out of breakfast foods. Went back to sleep for a couple of hours

LUNCH: 2pm, vegetarian dim sum, water, hunger 4/5
Four little dishes. I was hoping to cook lunch but the sleep messed up my schedule

PM WATERING: 4:30pm, pint water

DINNER: 6pm, 2 fish tacos, small green salad, 1 bite of pork chop, water, hunger 2/5
Was going to lay about and be a lump, but Betsy called that she was sitting down with her brother for dinner at Schillers, so I pulled my pants back on and got out of the house.

EVENING SNACKS: 10:30-2am, spoonful of peanut butter, 2 saltless wholewheat pretzels with chocolate hazelnut spread, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and raw nuts, hunger 4/5
Sleepless and restless.

Family

ADDENDA:
Going up to Albany with B today to visit my religious brother and his large family, stopping by my parent's gravesite on the way up. Tomorrow I go to Detroit for a couple of days to spend some time with my father-in-law, then B & I fly out for a week to London & Amersterdam. Haven't slept well the past couple of nights, must be careful as getting sick now would be a disaster.

BREAKFAST: 7am, bacon on sprouted wholewheat, hunger 4/5
Went down to the local diner around the corner at 6:45 for a BLT & homefries, but was still closed. So I cooked up 6 slices of my good organic naturally low-salt bacon and slapped them on 3 pieces of sprouted wholewheat, a triple-layer sandwich that just had 2 components, really brought out the flavor and texture of both without being messed with.

And if I'm going to spend a good part of the day in a kosher household, I better get some bacon in me!

AM SNACK: 10am, everything bagel, hunger 4/5
Noshing in the car.

LUNCH: 2pm, onion bagel with fresh homemade hummus, handful of vegetables, water, hunger 4/5
Had my brother collect all the kosher ingredients, and I made hummus with my nephews and nieces, was very cute.

DINNER: 6pm, french fries, large eggplant parm sandwich, hunger 4/5
At a rest stop in NJ on the way home. I ordered half a sub, but the thing was a full foot long!

I'm Bringing the Water Bottle Back

ADDENDA:
It's weirdly stressful being at the office, despite it being fun, cool peeps, and getting paid two weeks salary for 8 hours of work on top of my severance. There are things I will miss, though this being the beginning of the presentation season, I might get a few more cracks at bat by March.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, hunger 3/5

BP 8:15am, 138/88
High, I wonder if this is because of the meal I just ate, because I'm tired and feeling weird about spending the day in the office today, or that maybe I'm a little dehydrated.

AM WATERING: 9:15am, 24 oz still
Brought my water bottle back, a comforting totem.

LUNCH: 11am, turkey & Swiss sandwich, bag of potato chips, hunger 4/5
Got really hungry. Limited options on a Saturday in Times Square. Went into McDonalds with the idea of a veggie burger and fries, but when I got to the counter, I just felt....repulsed.

PM SNACK: 12:30, piece of garlic bread, 1 french fry, hunger 3/5
Coworkers chowing down.

PM SNACK: 2:30, slice of pizza with all sorts of crap on it, hunger 3/5
Left over pizza, feeling nibbly. Not very good.

PM SNACK: 6pm, a few bits of homemade roasted potatoes, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, 100 year old duck egg & ginger, pork dumplings, weird bbq pork chops, beef with noodles, salt & pepper whole fried shrimp, odd sauteed Chinese greens, tea, chocolate pan dan ice cream, hunger 4/5
Went to Chinatown with my friend Yana, who is Chinese herself. Went to a random place with minimal English and no white people inside (myself excepted) and she spoke to the waiter to send us stuff off the menu. A few times during their conversation they glanced at me and pointed at me, afterwards she said he was suggesting stuff that white people don't like. The 100 year old egg was a stretch, it looked a bit gruesome, but was surprisingly pleasant in it's contrasting bitterness and smooth custardy texture. We went to the Ice Cream Factory, 2nd time this week for me, and I had Chocolate Pan Dan, which had a wonderfully pleasant tone of coconut and peanuts.

Salty Sausage

ADDENDA:
Had a slow morning, raining out. Got a call from work for a quick & lucrative freelance project, so am going in this afternoon. Emotionally, feel good about it, though I have to postpone some home projects and making pizza dough for the first time...

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 2pm, curry lamb sausage with brown jasmine rice, half of a seltzer bottle, hunger 4/5
The sausage was unexpectedly salty, unpleasantly so. Sweated onions and garlic properly for the first time, but it couldn't save the meat.

PM SNACK: 5:45m, street hot dog, grape soda, hunger 4/5
In a weird mood, just checked in at the office and locked in a small but lucrative freelance gig for tomorrow. Mixed emotions. On the way to B's cousin's house, snacked on food that reminded me very much of childhood. I was a FIEND for grape soda, and this brand, Boylans, uses sugar cane as opposed to corn syrup - tastes exactly as I remember it. The hot dog, from Grey's Papaya, was surprisingly off-putting in it's salty/fake smokey taste.

DINNER: 8pm, slices of delivery pizza, 2 glasses champagne, small green salad, handful of almonds, one odd gin drink, hunger 4/5
Nice to be sitting around a table eating the same food as 4 other people!

I have always thought, Cheese & Onions

ADDENDA:
Woke up and got on the bike up to 57th Street to meet Katya at a gallery for an performance installation. Basically you walk into a bare room with white walls with a bunch of people sitting around on the floor. When someone walks in, they chant in unison, "ooooooOOOMMM WELCOOOOOMMMME" then recite a few quotes and start conversing. It was all very collegiate, until they unnerved us by asking, "What do YOU think?" I felt like I was back in college in a sociology graduate class, caught once again not fully paying attention.

But I had brought a small sack o' donuts and had a nice walk into Central Park sharing them. Katya works freelance and has a flexible schedule.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, bowl of organic cheerios with good milk, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 2 halves of 2 really good donuts, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, 2 glorious grilled superhippy cheese & onion sandwiches, 24 oz still water, hunger 4/5
I went to Brooklyn with Katya and we walked around a bit. After she split, I realized I was close to home and would be foolish to pass up the chance to cook, as I'm already obliged to eat Chinese tonight. Katya said she had packed a cheese sandwich for lunch, which inspired me.

So when I got home, I looked on line for a grilled cheese recipe, which made me feel silly in it's simplicity. But they say ya can throw on tomato, you can throw on bacon, you can throw on...ONIONS!!.....

I have always thought
In the back of my mind, Cheese and Onions
I have always thought
That the world was unkind, Cheese and Onions
Do I have to spell it out?
C-H-E-E-S-E-A-N-D-O-N-I-O-N-S-Oh no
My machine
Keep yourself clean
I'll be a has-been
Like a dinosaur
My device
For everything nice
You better think twice
At least once more

What a great song....anyway, I ended up using all greenmarket ingredients, superhippy bread and raw milk funky cheese (with caraway seeds in it), on a grill pan wedding gift with top-shelf grass-fed butter.

I've never been a fan of grilled cheese, my mom would make it with crappy crumbly white bread, American cheese and margarine. Restaurant versions are usually unpleasantly greasy and overly cheesy. My sandwiches, my lord, the dense bread took the butter and grill marks perfectly, the onions added a pleasant sweet note and the cheese (which I only had a little left) was more than enough with it's bold flavor.

Feel good but still finding my footing. Consulting with Ilsa tonight, she's my nutritionist but only source of any sort of therapy. I guess if I'm serious about culinary passions, it makes sense to consult my nutritionist for perspective!

DINNER: 8pm, roast pork & broc, beef in oyster sauce, shrimp with cashews, sauteed string beans, veg fried rice, water, a little tea, 1 fortune cookie, cup of almond ice cream, hunger 4/5
Went to a traditional Chinese restaurant with B and my cousin Iddo, Mandarin Court. The last time I ate there was with my parents and brother. Today was the 2nd anniversary of my mother's passing. Fortunately, with recent goings on in my professional life, I haven't dwelled on it too much.

Food was kinda crappy, but a fitting meal with lots of memories associated with it. I miss my parents.

Onwards

ADDENDA:
The weather was too nice yesterday to sit like a lump and get into a deep depression. Today, not so nice! Slept pretty well, wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. Perhaps after going through the loss of my parents, going through the loss of a job isn't nearly as daunting as it could be for some...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good pancakes with good bacon, hunger 4/5
Cut back on the milk to make 'em fluffy.

BP 10:15am, 130/84

AM WATERING: 11am, 24 oz still
Thirsty. Busted out my ex-work sippy bottle. Weird drinking from it at home.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, small green salad, homemade shrimp in garlic sauce, homemade roasted potatoes, 2 tofutti cuties, hunger 4/5
Spent the morning cleaning up, doing laundry. When I got hungry, read through a few cook books, found a recipe for shrimp in the NY Times seafood cookbook, a simple recipe for potatoes in the Batali cookbook. When I left the house to pedal over to Wholefoods, I was shocked by how warm it still is out - damn, I should of spent another day on the bike avoiding depression!

I've basically made both of these recipes before by winging it. I must say, both came out 2x better this time. The shrimp would of been acceptable in a good restaurant. The potatoes had an extra step of blanching which made all the difference.

PM WATERING: 3:15pm, 24 oz still

DINNER: 8pm, carrot sticks & homemade hummus, 2 twoboots slices, 2 twoboots cookies, hunger 4/5
Felt restless, but didn't feel like cooking (oddly enough.) To order from Twoboots, there is a $10 minimum, guaranteeing too much food for one person. So I hopped on the bike, and was back with hot slices before 20 minutes passed. B mooched a small piece of pizza and a quarter of a cookie.

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, 4 vanilla lemon goyisha macaroon-like vegan thingies, hunger 4/5
Snacking with wifey.

Out of Work Work

ADDENDA:
I got laid off yesterday, it was both unexpected and expected. Due to political upheaval that started months and months ago, my work load was dwindling and the department contracting. On coming back from vacation, I found myself with no new work and nothing being set up, so I asked for a meeting with my direct supervisor to discuss it - sitting around feeling uneasy for a day is quite enough - if I didn't ask for the meeting, how long would I of lingered?

To cut a boring cliched story short, the story of the political shifts explained, promises of recommendation letters were made, severance through February given (good, as I've only been there a year) and a card and a firm handshake.

Going back today briefly to tie up loose ends and clear out the desk, then uptown to a friend for dinner who has been abroad for the last 6 months and came back to find she got laid off from the job she was promised to return to.

Too early to think too much of the future, but I know it wants to involve food. Chef's school? Project management for food TV? Manage a kitchen? Start my own company? I think I need to go through the stages of grief before I really get into it.

BP 10:30am, 136/102
First time I've taken BP on an empty stomach.

BREAKFAST: 11am, organic wholegrain chex with good milk, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 24 oz still water, 2 saltless wholewheat pretzels, hunger 3/5
Got on the bike, caught the 11:30 ferry to SI, went passed the house I grew up and other places that were rich with associations with my parents. Went to Silver Lake, where my dad would take me after preschool and let me run wild with a Big Wheel that he kept in the trunk. Sat on a bench where I sat with him once and read together, sat alone and read and talked to peeps and things. It was nice communing with memories of a much simpler, happier time. As much as I knock it, I had a mostly happy childhood.

LUNCH: 4pm, 1 slice of streetza, hunger 4/5
Road from the ferry to Times Square to take the corpse-walk at the office. As I was heading over, felt both really hunger and really not. I asked myself, as much as I really need to eat less and lose weight blah blah blah, would Ilsa really think positively of this? Of course not! So I stopped at the closest pizza place and grabbed a slice. Despite being hungry, it tasted bleah. The sauce was tangy and bland at the same time, the dough was crisp but too thick so it had a mushy layer.

Took care of my loose ends quickly, said good bye, surprised by people's emotionality. The work itself wasn't horrendously captivating and I won't miss it, but the people were cool as hell. If not professional contacts, I've gained a few social friends out of the matter.

DINNER: 6:30pm, small green salad, rigatoni with homemade sauce, chocolate sorbet, 2 glasses red wine, 1 pint water, hunger 4/5
Road up to Washington Heights to visit an old friend who was in Helsinki for 6 months on a Fulbright, and just got back a few days ago to find herself laid off. It was nice meeting someone who wanted to talk about themselves (not because she's self centered, it's just that she had a lot to say - she met and got engaged to a dude there!!) AND could commiserate about the work thing (though she has lots of options and interests, I'm more of going back to the soil to grow something new altogether...)

She originally told me she was going to serve berries for dessert, and on the ride up I decided I was going to bite the bullet and eat berries for the first time since I was 5 or 6 years old. She said they didn't look that great at the market, so went the chocolate route....phew!

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, bowl of veggie booty, hunger 4/5
After spending an hour of intense/emotional/good conversation with the wifey, feel better about things. She went to bed, and my appetite returned a little.

Back at Work Work

ADDENDA:
Feels weird to be back at work. Unnatural. Just had a nice conversation with a coworker who is starting to make her own pasta, I enjoyed being able to tell her the best recipe for a beginner, which was just me a few months ago!

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 3/5

BP: 9:45am, 120/99
I took my BP after reading my work email. oy - mistake, I got several crazy readings, including this one.

AM WATERING: 10am, 24 oz still

LUNCH: 1:45pm, Indian lunch combo with spinach, chickpeas, lentils, rice & nan, hunger 3.5/5
Didn't feel hungry due to work stress until I started eating and realized I actually really was ready for a meal. B.B.T. (Before Blogging & Thinking), I'd of probably just not eaten till I all of a sudden couldn't function and realized I was hungry, then binge on cookies...

DINNER: 7pm, large green salad with organic Italian dressing, small frozen pizza, half bottle of seltzer, hunger 4/5
Weird end of the day at work, messing with my hunger. Frozen pizza been in the freezer for months, ate it before it went bad.

An Interesting Development

ADDENDA:
Woke up at 7 feeling crappy. Was going to ride bike today, but after being up for an hour, thought it best to stay in doors and be quiet and still. Tomorrow, the grind starts again. A nap around 12-1:30 on the couch made me feel a whole mess better.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, bowl of organic cornflakes with good milk, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 4 chocolate vegan macaroon-like sweet things, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade squash soup, homemade chocolate soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
I woke up from my nap to an interesting, somewhat delicious smell. Something unexpected and totally invited happened: Betsy cooked something!! And it was GOOD! She made a fresh squash soup with a recipe from her momma's. Up to this point, for the 2+ years I've been with her, she's made....let's see, our first date at her home in Brooklyn, she made salad and a stilted pizza-like item by putting cheese and veg on a Mediterranean flat bred. She's prepared salad again over the years, presented fruit and cheese, prepared, reheated, encouraged ME to cook, but hasn't actually cooked a thing.

In the fall out of my mother's generation of progressive feminism, we left cooking in the hands of industry, and they have not treated us like a parent who loves a child by nourishing them - they've treated us a like a mark to be lightened of the cash in their wallets. Betsy took a small but crucial step in righting some wrongs and guaranteeing the good health of our future children - imagine, BOTH parents liking to cook real food!

My mother was a horrible cook, who treated it like an annoying obligation meant to tie her to a history of servitude, my father didn't have enough time to enjoy it more creatively, letting that creative muscle atrophy over the years until in the end he ended up just making monster batches of hummus twice a year, a monster batch of spaghetti sauce once a year. I don't blame them, they were products of their time, as I hope to be of mine.

As a response to her call, I immediately made some chocolate soy ice cream in return, only takes about 10 minutes. However, this is the third time I made it and the 2nd time it didn't turn out as good as the first. Though it'll add a few hours to prep time, I think I'm going to cook the mix then chill it, I think that'll eliminate the slightly powdery consistency that's created when the hot melted chocolate hits the cool soy blend.

DINNER: 6pm, homemade pizza, hunger 4/5
Talked about going out for dinner, but neither of us felt like leaving the house, and ordering in didn't really appeal either, so I busted out the freezer for dough and sauce, sliced up some veg and sauteed in white wine. No mozz, just some freshly grated parm. One pizza I used the pan method and came out the roundest and thinnest of all the pizzas I've done, the other the dough didn't cooperate so I made myself a very doughy, calzone, probably the crappiest pizza thing I've made.

Upon reading the lunch entry, Betsy said, "Add that I'm a feminist!" Like actually cooking is somehow a repudiation or questioning of her feminist credentials. There in lies a problem. Has anyone written a book about resolving the socio-economic-environmental problems created by cooking becoming first gender-specific, then abandoned?

I just watched 'The Nanny Diaries' on cable, a crappy movie based on a crappy novel. The uptight Upper East Side mom insists that her son eat only organic and soy, the nanny bonds with the kid by feeding him corn-syrup laden peanut butter pre-mixed with jam straight out of the jar. At the end of the movie, where it's tied up all nicey-nicey, the formerly uptight mom eats the jar mess with her kid and admits it's good. Urgh, anality in any form is unpleasant, but dismissing eating well and non-industrially as somehow elitist, untastey and ultimately alienating is such a shitty message. But I guess the masses that eat up that Hollywood crap like to have their world-views confirmed! Rage rage rage! :)

Oh Deer!

ADDENDA:
Spent the morning at the food markets, the afternoon wandering around with B for vegan Chinese (way superior to Chinese Bricks!) and massages, and a nice unique & very personal meal in the evening.

BREAKFAST: 10am, small bowl of organic chex with good milk, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 1 wholewheat saltfree pretzel with good peanut butter, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, vegetarian dimsum including mini lotus leaf rice, mixed gluten, monk dumplings, mock shrimp in rice dough, mashed taro treasure boxes, 1 bit of yuckily sweet red bean cake, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, bowl of veggie booty, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, 3 funky cheeses with bread, olives, baby carrots and ranch dressing, prosciutto, 2 kinds of braised venison over creamed parsnips with roasted baby onions and brusselsprouts, about 1.5 donuts with a little vanilla ice cream, 1 glass champagne, 1 glass red, a few pints of water
My friend Erikka's father is a hunter out in Minnesota, sent her a care package of deer-flesh. Her boyfriend has a professional history in cooking, and whipped up this meal. I think I've eaten venison before, and it was unmemorable. This time, fully paying attention to what I was eating, it was a bit of a revelation. Shawmir grumbled a lot about messing up the meat, not accounting for the lack of connective tissue in one cut. Granted, one of the two kinds of meat on the plate was a little tough, but still thoroughly edible (god knows I suffered through many cooked-till-pale-and-shrivelled lamb chops from my mom to know the meaning of inedibly tough!) and the non-tough meat was just as good as any shmancy cow steak at a bistro. I thought the flavor would be gamey, but it was pleasantly mild, and I kinda caught a uniquely 'deer' flavor.

Still Takin' Care of Bizniz

ADDENDA:
The bedroom is a much larger job than I anticipated. Gonna try to knock it off today, then pretend like I'm unemployed and see an afternoon movie...

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla and raw nuts, hunger 3/5
Out of just about everything else, need to hit up some markets.

LUNCH: 12:45pm, wholewheat pasta a la Noah, quart of tap water, hunger 4/5
Felt lazy, indecisive, rearranging and painting the apartment all morning. Got a flash of inspiration, and cooked up some pasta, and took a bunch of garlic and onion and sweated them with olive oil and butter, then threw in a little white wine, Worcestershire sauce and salt and let it reduce, finished with freshly grated parm. Damn, was pretty damn good, though not sure what it's officially called. Could of really used some mushrooms, maybe a little less Worcestershire - three shakes out of the bottle was pretty strong. After finishing it, felt good for cooking and not ordering in or just reheating something. Good to be able to cook a casual lunch.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, 3/4 bag of popcorn, hunger 4/5
Two movies in a row at the multiplex, with a popcorn in between, like I was unemployed. This is vacation.

DINNER: 9:30pm, curry noodle soup with tofu, water, hunger 3/5
Mediocre meal at Thai resto in the hood.

Takin' Care of Bizniz

ADDENDA:
The real vacation continues. Got a lot done yesterday, laundry, sourced touch-up paint for the house, replaced a duvet cover Betsy had ill will towards, dinner with B and a good friend. Today I have an electrician taking care of business, gonna redo the placement of furniture in the bedroom, retouch the paint on the scuffed walls, get a new light fixture for the bedroom, cull my closets and my cooking pans, and catch a 3pmish train up to Westchester to spend the eve with another friend I don't see often enough. Well, I'm sure I'll get through some of it!

Betsy reported she got a good scolding at from Ilsa for changing up her diet so extremely without consulting her - funny, I also kinda went beserk on B for the same reason! (not consulting Ilsa, not me) Ilsa also expressed her concerns that I'm falling back into bad habits - that Chinese brick a few weeks ago scared the bejeezus out of her.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, hunger 4/5
Woke at 8:30 to the electrician calling, delayed eating as he was doing his business. Certain fixtures haven't worked in years, but they were relatively minor and a hassle to call a professional for - but perfect when your off the first week of the year and electricians are not!

Never delayed breakfast like this, surprised how hungry I got after about 90 minutes.

LUNCH: 1pm, whole wheat bagel with homemade hummus, glass of seltzer, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 6 'deluxe' chocolate-filled cookie tubes, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, sushi tray, small green salad, 6 shrimp shumai, 2 ok chocolate truffles, 1 fortune cookie, water, hunger 4/5
Ordered in at my friend's house in Westchester. She proposed our only choices were pizza or Chinese. I chose Chinese, wondering what I would order that wouldn't be brick-like. Fortunately, on the other side of the menu was Japanese, so I stuck with the sushi. As I was pondering the Chinese, saw their list of bricks, remembered how I felt ill the next day, and I really didn't want to waste my time off regretting Chinese...

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, 3 vegan chocolate macaroon-like thingies, 1 whole wheat saltfree pretzel, 2 mint chip tofutti cuties, hunger 4/5
I guess dinner wasn't enough, and had insomnia on top of it.

The Real Vacation Begins

ADDENDA:
Holidays are over, everyone is back to work, but because I did 3 quiet days in the office between the holidays, I'm off till next Monday! Time to eat 4 deserts a day and bricks o' Chinese for lunch! Kidding, Ilsa! Save yer wrath for B...

BREAKFAST: 7am, a bunch of mini-pancakes, hunger 4/5
Fell asleep at 9:30 last night, woke before 5am this morning. Added cinnamon and made the pancakes tiny just to change things up. Nice having B around again, twittering her way into getting ready for work, taking pictures of me while I try to eat my egg/milk/butter-laden breakfast!

AM WATERING: 10am, 1 pint tap water

LUNCH: noon, large bowl of left over wholewheat pasta with homemade meat/spinach stuff and homemade tomato sauce, 1 pint water, hunger 4/5
Never cooked with spinach before. Really good.

PM SNACKS: 3:30pm, bowl of veggie booty, half an apple, wedge of yummy weird raw cheese, a few handfuls of curry cashews, hunger 4/5
My farmer's market apples were mushy, so I ate B's left over golden delicious. The cheese had caraway seeds in it, really good. Sent in my check to the Traditional Nutrition Guild today, hopefully sometime soon I'll be chowin' down a few different raw-milk products.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 4 pieces bread & good olive oil, 1 little rice ball (very cheesy), a small amount of bufala mozz (surprisingly funky), a small piece of fried artichoke, odd little chickpea fritters, a few pieces of prociutto, a nice piece of grilled tuna with pesta, a couple of potato croquettes, chocolate hazelnut torte with a tiny scoop of gelato, 1 brown beer, 1 small piece of cookie, a few small bites of panetone, cup of herbal tea, hunger 4/5
Dinner out with B and my long lost friend Lidice at Bar Stuzzichoonikkipoopoo or whatever it's name is, on B'way above 21st. Really good food, a lot of little fried things I've read about but never tried.

Starting the Year with Left-Over Pizza

BRUNCH: noon, 1 homemade pizza, 4 pieces of biscotti, hunger 4/5
Nice 8 hour sleep, slow to hunger. Looking in the fridge, had left over dough, sauce, a small baggie of mushroom and onion. So I said screw it, sliced up some fresh garlic, grated a little parm, plucked the last basil off the plant I bought at the farmer's market, and slapped together a single pie to start 2008 off with properly.

Though you can't see it in the picture, I generously spread finely shredded parm, which wonderfully melded to the other ingredients to give a wonderfully funky overtone to the whole proceedings. Like cheese without cheese!

I experimented by putting it on a baking sheet, which then got placed on the stone, but the crust came out pale and flibbidy flobbidy, so I put it directly on the stone for another 3 minutes. This method actually gave the crust an interesting chewy/crisp character, I may need to look into that. The biscotti was not the lame stuff I got from Wholefoods, but a nice gift from Rach, which was far superior. Good to start my sweets off with something top-rate and friendly!

This, my friend, is how to live.

ADDENDA: I weighed myself before I ate, still 235. I'm surprised, as I feel fatter than usual. I guess it's in my head?

PM SNACK: 2:15, half bag o' popcorn, hunger 4/5
At the movies.

PM SNACK: 5:45 pm, 4 fresh shrimp springrolls, hunger 4/5
B & I stopped by Wholefoods on the way home from the movies, she bought a butternut squash in hopes of cooking it veganly, I bought a 'How to Cook Meat' book in hopes of cooking my next pork medallion properly!

DINNER: 7pm, left over homemade pasta with homemade sauce and homemade spinach/meat stuff, small green salad, another 4 biscotti, 1/2 bottle seltzer, hunger 4/5
The wholewheat pasta held up surprisingly well after 3 nights, as toothsome as ever. Went a little bit nuts on the biscotti, I think my sweet tooth may be kicking back in a bit. Gotta keep an eye on that.

New Years Eve Goes to the Dogs

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, 1 piece toasted superhippy bread & peanut butter, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1pm, large serving of cheese pizza, a couple of small slices of vegan veg pizza, water, hunger 4/5
Met up with Beautiful B in New Haven, I took the commuter train, she too the Amtrak down for Beantown, after he week with her momma. I wore a suit and tie, and came bearing a gift and flowers. It was literally only a 10 minute walk to Frank Pepes, the pizzeria of note we hit up on the way to and from our honeymoon. Unfortunately they had no clam pie today, I guess it's not the season?

PM SNACK: 5pm, small bowel veggie booty, hunger 4/5
Tight time tolerances between coming home and going out!

PM NYE DRINK: 7:15pm, 1/2 glass champagne
A snort in the West Village with Lisa & Leroy. Road the tandem over, the Prince Street bike lane was a dream.

PM SNACK: 8:45pm, a few handfuls of curry cashews, a couple of vanilla-lemon vegan sweety things, hunger 4/5
At the HQ of the HVS.

DINNER: 9:30pm, shrimp basil fried rice, fried littler taro pockets, a little salad, steamed veg dumplings, water, hunger 4/5
We were the last ones eating in 2007 at this Thai restaurant.

EVENING SNACK: 11-12:30am, 2 glasses seltzer, 2 ice cream-cone cupcakes, hunger 3/5
Went to a nice relaxed party in Brooklyn with the HVS was a wonderfully friendly Rat Terrier there to help us ring in the new year. After midnight, the hostess served cute cupcakes freshly baked into flat-bottom ice cream cones. It was a thing from her mother, oh so 70s. I could think of nothing better to start the new years with. A freshly baked food-stuff passed down from some one's mom. (OK, it was probably a Betty Crocker mix, but that's what my mom would of done, too!!)

Icecream 3x today - HOW'D DAT HAPPEN?!

BREAKFAST: 8:30 am, organic wholegrain cheerios with good milk, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10:45pm, small bowel of haagen daz vanilla icecream, hunger 4/5
Looking after Erikka's kitty, the kitty drove me to ice cream and playing violent videogames

LUNCH: 1pm, mixed charcutrie, tuna carpaccio, taste of 3 cheeses, eggplant/salmon/roasted pepper crostini, bread, olives, water, apple tart with vanilla ice cream, hunger 4/5
Nice lunch with my friend Katya at Fig & Olive, fanciful fingery food is fine for reconnecting with friends who've bounced around the world before pinging back into your universe.

I ordered the carpaccio without thinking too much, other than that raw tuna in a light dressing sounded good. Afterwards, as Katya was at the ladies room, I thought about it and realized I had never eaten carpaccio before - I've read about it in books, heard about it in radio and TV food programs, but never actually ate any. It was really good, kind of like a slightly more fussy sushi, which is so simple so it can stand up to the mess. Funny, even though it's a new food for me, it felt old and familiar in a good way.

DINNER: 7pm, small green salad, 1/2 a garlic and oil pizza, pizza with 5 different kinds of mushrooms sauteed in white wine, homemade soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
Pizza with the HVS. The pizza came out really well, the oil and wine prep of the mushrooms went really nicely with the raw tomato sauce, which I experimented with a bit of vinegar and de-seeding the plum tomatoes, came out really well. However the soy ice cream came out weirdly powdery tasting, I don't know what was different than yesterday.

A Day at the Markets

ADDENDA:
Feel a bit out of touch with food, haven't been to the farmer's market since before Las Vegas. So I hopped on the bike and off I went....and felt what the winter market is all about. It's literally half as big as it was around Thanksgiving, and 1/3 as big as it was full swing in the summer. The meat/dairy/baked goods peeps were all there, but other than apples and gourds, there wasn't much in way of produce. I got the crazy-good lamb sausage and superhippy bread, but not much else.

I road to Wholefoods, and bought up a full green salad and supplies, focusing on a short shopping list of vegan stuff B wants to experiment with. I look forward to her (and the HVS) trying my home-made chocolate soy ice cream, it kicks some serious ass. It puts chocolate tofutti to shame, if I don't say so myself.

After the markets and before cooking, I felt lazy and didn't want to cook, but didn't want to order in food, as you're forced to buy a lot of food for a minimum order. So in true NY-lazy style, I wanted to go to the pizza place around the corner but didn't want to walk so far....so I hopped on my bike for the 120-second ride! I know in the suburbs people will get in the car to go around the corner to drop their fat-ass kids off at the bus stop, I now know how they feel....

BREAKFAST: 10am, good yogurt with honey and raw cashews, hunger 3/5
Outta vanilla!

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 2 slices streetza, bottle of water, hunger 4/5
After getting back from the markets, put everything away and pedalled around the corner to A1, the local slice joint. This is the place my parents would order pizza from. I like it because it has character - unlike a lot of other NYC slice places, these slices have a nice thin coat of sauce and a thinner, spotty coating of cheese - no goopfest here.

DINNER: 7pm, fresh wholewheat pasta, tomato sauce, pork/veal/spinach concoction, green salad, chocolate soy ice cream, lame biscoti, 2 glasses red wine, hunger 4/5
Friend just came in to town staying with me for a couple of nights, an excellent excuse to try some experimental cooking on someone (and have a friendly face to help washup! Thanks, Rach!) It was to be meat ravioli, but I failed to mix any white flour into the wholewheat and in the end it was both too tacky and too rigid to bend to shape into the ravioli forms.

So I scrapped it and went with linguine, with the stuffing as a side of meaty stuff. I got the recipe for the meat stuffing off the internet, and it was all wrong, I adjusted a few things to keep it reasonable but it failed. It needed white wine. Also, I bought pre-ground meats, it was a bit too chunky. I need to get a meat grinder attachment for the mixer to make nicely smooth meat paste! (Mmmmm! Meat paste!)

The only non-home made item was the biscoti, which reaked of fennel, oddly enough. But the soy-ice cream (silken tofu, unsweetened soy milk, maple syrup, cocoa powder, 70% dark chocolate) came out surprisingly rich and tasty, not tofuy at all or oily-fake like tofutti. We ate it straight from the machine, so it had a smooth, soft-serve consistency.

PM WATERING: 10pm, 2/3 of a bottle of Perrier

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, small bowl of veggie booty, hunger 3/5