Bubbly Wine & Chocolate is Devine

Spent the day with B at the movies, literally. We made an early before-noon showing of one movie, then took advantage of the multiplex and sat for another right after. I've only done this sporadically over the years (who has the time?) and always by myself, so it was wonderful to have, as they are fond of saying on many profiles on dating websites, a 'partner in crime'. Perhaps the cheapest Valentines date ever?

We found a small neighborhood Korean joint right after that was great but the portions were too large. But there was no crazy v-day menu, and was uncrowded and no-stress.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11:30am, slice of streetza, 3 cider donuts, 3 small whole wheat pretzels, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
We walked to Union Square, or more precisely because of B's condition, we mosied. I saw a "99 Cent Pizza" place off Washington Square, and was curious. The crust was surprisingly good, crisp bottom and a nice chew, though you could see the marks of the screen they used. Strong yeast flavor, which you have to like, which I do. The toppings were a disaster, flavorless tomato sauce and orange, greasy cheese that tasted overwhelmingly of salt. Still, for a buck, it's definitely pizza.

The pretzels and donuts were purchased in the Union Square farmer's market, and got me through the movies.

DINNER: 4:45pm, kimchi pancake, bulgogi japchae, kimchi, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, left over kimchi pancake and bulgogi, chocolate bon-bons, half a glass of prosecco, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
We swung by Trader Joe's on the walk home, just because neither of us have been there in a year or so. I always tease B that she's a spoiled wife, that she just sits around all day eating bon-bons. So I couldn't resist when I saw bon-bons for sale (hor deurve sized balls of chocolate ice cream on a small chocolate cookie, covered in a thin chocolate shell) When we got home, I served a plate of them with a bottle of prosecco, which B had a few sips. I was really surprised to find that the chocolate and prosecco flavors went together f'ing fantastically. Wow! I think I want sparkling white wine with chocolate at all times now. And with my wife!

Bacon Bourbon

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, a steak, pork and shrimp taco, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Tried three tacos at a new taqueria in Soho, was pretty good, but not as good (or cheap) (or authentic) as the stuff deep in Brooklyn.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, pistachio ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM MEAL: 4pm, cheese tortellini in chicken stock, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM DRINK SAMPLING: 6:30-8:30pm, shot of bacon-infused bourbon, prosecco, gin, various tinctures, bread and cheese, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Volunteered at the Astor Center for an Infused Alcohol class, was fun though spirits really isn't my thing. Still, came home with a nice bottle of bubbly and the remnants of the bacon bourbon.

DINNER: 10:30pm. frozen pizza, pistachio ice cream, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had a California Pizza Kitchen frozen individual pie in the back of the freezer. Nice fresh tomato flavor, but inferior cheese, too much basil and an oddly textured crust.

My Good Friend, Soup

I took a tour of the facilities at Daniel, a four-star French Restaurant on the Upper East Side, then swung by an old lunch spot I ate at twice a week when I was a designer at a law firm in midtown for half a decade. It's called "Oriental Noodle Shop", and is basically a very-quick service American-Chinese restaurant with a full-service backroom, a long-ass lunch counter and a pick-up counter in the front. Their speciality is roast pork and their noodle soups, and in the winter I'd always get a bowl of roast pork noodle soup (duh!).

$7 including tax gets a HUGE bowl of soup, filled generously with fresh noodles and a lot of meat. Back when I worked near there, it was not enough -- I'd usually order an egg roll or shrimp toast to start with. Today, looking at another person's bowl of soup size, knew there would be no way I'd need something else, and wondered if I'd finish the soup, despite being really hungry. The soup itself -- beef/pork stock -- was remarkably tasty, and now that I've made stock of all sorts myself, I appreciate the subtle hand they use to get that flavor. One thing I would NEVER eat was the small pile of Chinese broccoli and kale that would give a little color to the dish. It's bitter, and, uh, healthy. Today, I ate it right up -- it's bitterness was an AMAZING compliment to the subtle sweetness of the glaze of the roast pork....and it's healthy.

I tried to finish the soup, and despite it still tasting really good, could not get the whole bowl down. I think I definitely miss this soup much more than I miss my old desk job. Thank goodness I'm still friendly with the soup!

I went straight to the restaurant after to start prep. The night was unusually busy, and looking back, used sugary stuff as a crutch to keep going -- I was expending a lot of energy, almost athletically stretching dough, getting pizzas out of the oven and into boxes and on plates. Forced to eat late, I limited myself to a kid's pizza stretched super thing --about the same width of an adult 12" pie, but much thinner.

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

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

LUNCH: 12:15pm, roast pork udon noodle soup, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, tiramisu, .5 bowl. hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, small portion of chocolate pudding, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, black cherry soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 9pm, ginger ale, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10:30pm, kid's size pizza with moz, onion, sauce, parm, sausage, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pizza training

After class, shot over to a yet-to-open pizza restaurant underneath the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side and spent the afternoon hanging out and training with a very raw team. The try-out/training period is for another week or two until the joint can actually open, but I think I do want to go back as much as possible, if only to train -- I think I have a lot to learn from the owner/chef. He whipped out an old school Sicilian pie in the Italian oven that pretty much rocked my world.

Met B for our first child-birthing class thang after, had a salad before hand to try to get my diet into some semblance of a balance, guffaw!

BREAKFAST: 8pm, marble pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, 10 pork n' chive dumplings, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
$2.50 at the tiny joint with no English speakers near the base of the Manhattan Bridge.

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 2 small slices of Sicilian pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Really good.

DINNER: 5:30pm, Cesar salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, ramekin of pistachio ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bought this flavor because I knew B wouldn't eat it. Not particularly great, the ice cream tasted more almondy than anything else, and the bits of pistachio were not so much crunchy as soft.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30, potato chips, cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Mini binge! I didn't eat enough today.

Come back, guru!

Between finding time to reassemble the house between classes, recovering from my sick days last week, shifts and the restaurant, and the try-out I'm having at a new pizza restaurant tomorrow, my yoga practice has fallen by the way side for 2 weeks. I hope to have time to get a class in on Friday, but I need my guru HVS to come back to the city and motivate me!

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, glass of cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, slice of pizza with prosciutto, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The prosciutto became a little crisp and deeper/saltier in flavor, like an interesting bacon. Could be something. At the resto, the prosciutto is usually put on after baking, allowing the fat to melt into the pie. This is much more of a hammer throw, in a good way.

PM SNACK: 3pm, chocolate pudding, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made the pudding at the restaurant. After cooling it and getting it into a sealable container, I got to scrape out the bowl into mah mouf. Problem with that is unlike home, I made a full gallon of pudding, which allows for a lot of scraping.

DINNER: 7:15pm, 'child's size' spaghetti and meat ball, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, swig of cider

Taxi food

On the way back from school to home, I swung by an Indian punjabi grocery on Houston and A that primarily serves taxi drivers. I discovered this place back in the mid-90s when I worked around the corner, and I must say it hasn't changed a bit. I got a HUGE plate of fresh potato and pea samosas smothered in chickpea curry, a couple of hearty fresh rotis, sprinkled with onion and yogurt on the side, all for $6.50. It would definitely be more expensive for me to try to make this at home, and wouldn't have been nearly as good.

Spent the evening at the restaurant on phone/bus duty. First time I've worked this position, was interesting getting a different perspective on the workings of the machine that is the restaurant.

BREAKFAST: 7am, organic chex with good milk, swig of apple cider, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, potato samosas and chickpea curry, 2 roti, pint of cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3pm, quart

PM SNACK: 5pm, tiramisu, cheesecake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 8pm, slice of banana nutella pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, square slice with onion and sausage, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report

Weekend flew by in a blur. Out to NJ on a social call, Saturday night at Ikea getting pieces for the baby room. Sunday spent at school on a food-product class, then finished painting the bedrooms and started to reassemble the house now that the floors are redone. Took the wifey out to dinner Sunday evening, looking forward to this upcoming week, working 3 days at the resto, a try out at a new place, etc etc.

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

PM LUNCHING: noon-4pm, carrots, crackers, hummus, 0lives, pickled garlic, 2 pieces of spinach pie, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out to deep dark NJ to visit a friend and her family. Awesome hanging out with her kids, a 3 yr old and a new born. Man, I can't wait to have my own bebe.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 1 McDonalds hamburger, half a medium fries, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B was craving a McD's hot-fudge sundae, so I randomly ordered a burger. Exactly as I remember it from when I was a little kid.

DINNER: 10pm, pasta with homemade mushroom tomato sauce, water. 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

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

LUNCH: 1pm, a few spoonfuls of tortellini salad, grape soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, spaghetti a lemone, half a margarita pizza, tiramisu, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out to Lil' Frankies, crap service, dishes came out haphazardly, and a few olives mysteriously were on our pizza. And the pizza was undercooked.

Pizzality

Breakfats

After class, made my way into Brooklyn for lunch with a friend. After, I popped by Jaques Torres in DUMBO to pick up some sweet valentine treats for B, and swung by a new upscale pizza place to drop off an application. As it turns out, the owner was in and got to sit for an informal interview. We hit it off and I'm going back next week for a try out. Who knows what pizza adventures lay ahead?

Spent the evening making 2 cauldrons of high quality chicken stock -- a week of chicken soup really appeals right now. My appetite never quite returned after eating 2/3 of a way-too-large sundae.

BREAKFATS (typo but I'm keepin' it): 7am, BLT on a bagel with half an order of homefries, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
At my diner around the corner from my house. Just hungry and nothing in the house. I used to be a bit of a regular here, and they remembered me -- after I ordered, the man asked, "Diet coke?" Oy. This was the only breakfast from this place I could stomach now -- their pancakes are gummy chemical messes. The 'side' of homefries just looked monstrous to me, and was easy to eat only half.

LUNCH: 2:30pm, mulligatawny soup, shrimp curry with rice and roti, water, brownie sundae, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Lunch in Brooklyn with a friend I don't get to see nearly enough. With Y, we ALWAYS over eat. She just loves the act of eating, and when we get together we just create a self-reinforcing whirlwind of gluttony. After some decent Indian, we went to a patisserie for ice cream sundaes on one of the bitter coldest days of the year. Because that's how we roll.

PM WATERING: 7pm, quart

MMMmmm fishballs!

Feeling better, almost back to 100%. Had to manage the floor refinishing project a bit after class, but got away for lunch. Went to a random restaurant on the edge of Chinatown, a dumpling house in a tiny storefront where noone spoke English and I got a monstrous amount of food for $7. I love NY. The big bowl of fishball soup was kinda gross - little balls of gefilte fish with a dark-colored fish paste in the middle. Fish balls, indeed. Very weak flavor.

Nothing in the house for breakfast, so instead of getting a crappy cart pastry, stopped by my local donut shop for some world class delights. Need to do some temp shopping for groceries.

AM WATERING: 6:30am, quart of water

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, 15 pork dumplings, couple of fishballs, 1.25 bowl

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, creme brulee donut, quart of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:15pm, bread, lentil soup, string beans, a little gnocchi, chocolate tart, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A lighter dinner with B at a local eatery. Won't be able to do this too spontaneously once Noah/Noahetta Jr. is on the scene.

Back At It

Feeling better, but not 100%. Having a friend refinish floors in the home, so me and B and a whole lotta stuff are living in the living room and the pantry is pretty bare, and will probably remain so till next week. Need vegetables.

Spent most of the day at the restaurant, lots of fun with the peeps. My appetite still hasn't returned yet, and was relieved when it was really slow and sent home early.

Had the house-made tiramisu for the first time, which I've made more times than I count. I'm not a coffee drinker, and the espresso in the recipe turned me off. However, upon eating, found it very mild and a delicious counter to the thick cream. Hrumph.

BREAKFAST: 9am, quart of water, street cart pound cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, slice of resto pizza with mushrooms, root beer, tiramisu, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2-8pm, 2 sodas, nibbles off the pizza topping station, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 10pm, quart

House Work

I resisted taking any meds last night, as I know I'm closer to the end of this episode and gotta get my sleep back in order. So I finally dozed at 6am, only to wake to B's alarm at 7. The next step in the nursery, floor scraping, is happening tomorrow so I spent the day finishing the painting and moving all the furniture out of the bedrooms into the living room. It was a bit of an exertion, which felt good, but when I went outside for the first time since Thursday to the diner around the corner, felt a bit weak and woozy.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll be back at 100%.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, banana, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, grape soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, BLT on rye, onion rings, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3-7pm, 3 quarts

DINNER: 7pm, vegetarian udon with satay, crispy seitan, veg wonton soup, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from a vegan restaurant I haven't eaten from in a while. Pleasantly surprised by the reasonably moderate serving sizes.

Lil' Less Illin'

Felt crappy but better, enjoyed staying and helping B do the laundry, read a little, watch a lot of bad TV. Postponed some housework for a day later, so I can spend the day painting and prepping tomorrow. Watched the superbowl ads -- the 2 Subway ads aimed at being diet-conscious and dirt cheap, a good place to be in this economy, I suppose.

BRUNCH: 1pm, tofu pad thai, green salad with peanut sauce, shrimp wrapped in wonton, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 dietetic ice cream sandwiches, ramekin of homemade vanilla ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
B did some food shopping without me, and ended up getting some stink bomb for the bathroom. Even more offensive than turning our john into a French whorehouse, she bought a pack of 6 'Skinny Cow' low-fat vanilla ice cream sandwiches on chocolate biscuits. These reminded me of the Carvel flying saucers my parents indulged us with a few times growing up, straight from the parlor, not a supermarket. These were similar, but ridiculously flavorless, with a chemically thin feel in the mouth, and the cookie part was crumbly and chewy at the same time.

BUT the marketing and the name is to chicks, to make women feel better about indulging. And indulge B did, eating 4 of the damn things. I have no problem with B eating a whole lot of ice cream, but it should be REAL ice cream, with full fat, full flavor, no fillers and no chemicals. And the FACT is that for all the fat but half the calories, B would have been much more satiated.

I had to cleanse my palate with some of my homemade vanilla in the freezer, and let's just say, the two tasted like two different food groups all together.

DINNER: 8pm, 5 carrots, water, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

Illin' Day 3

Feeling better, but still out of it and drained. Nice to clear out some yummy stuff out of the freezer, though. Want more fresh veg, though.

BRUNCH: 11:30am, 4 mini muffins, 2 slices of restaurant pizza, grape soda on ice, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, banana, peanut butter, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, small plate of rice & beans, small amount of vanilla ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Still Ill

Despite the Nyquil, slept shallowly and fitfully. Didn't go into the restaurant for a 2nd day, felt bad about it but there was no way I could go in in this condition. Spent the day taking baths, watching TV and napping.

BREAKFAST: 8am, swig of cider, water

LUNCH: 1pm, boca burger on whole grain toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3pm, quart

DINNER: 8pm, vegetarian maki, shrimp roll, salad, vegetable dumplings, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRUGGING: 10pm, shot of nyquil

Must've been the chicken pizza

Had a good time at school today, but felt lethargic, overheated and uncomfortable. Realized I was having cold sweats and my forehead felt warm, so I swallowed my pride and called in sick to the restaurant. I really wanted to go -- I'm paying my dues -- but if I showed up all sweaty and weak, I would have been sent home for being an unproductive health violation.

Part of it has been a little too little sleep, the stress of painting the 2nd bedroom, lots of big thoughts. And chicken pizza is evil, I ate a couple of pieces of that last night! I think I just need to eat lighter for a while, sleep more and hug up on my wifey!

I think my very first taste of alcohol was a shot of Nyquil - back in the mid 70s, there was no child-friendly non-booze version. I absolutely despised it. Now it just tastes like....Jagermeister. Still hate it, but don't need to jump up and down and scream.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM WATERING: 1pm, quart of water

LINNER: 4:45pm, falafel and salad plate with whole wheat pita, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRUGGING: 9:15pm, shot o' Nyquil

Oatmeal Returns

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, oatmeal made with the good milk, a little salt and brownsugar, glass of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Why haven't I had oatmeal this season sooner? Just getting tired of dry cereal and yogurt. The starch of the oats gave the milk a nice custardy vibe, and the mild dose of a dash of brown sugar made all the difference -- the salt turned up the notch on the whole affair. This is what those horrible packets of chemicalized instant-oatmeal try to be, and always fail. And it took 3 minutes in the micro, which makes instant oatmeal very suspicious.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, wonton soup, a small amount of curry shrimp with fried rice, 1 bowl, hunger 3.5/5
Picked up cheap Chinese on the way home, absolutely horrible. Literally couldn't eat 2/3 of the plate, the curry sauce weirdly thick and goopy.

PM WATERING: 3pm, 1 quart

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, handful of chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, olives, various salumni, moz and tomato salad, pieces of 4 kinds of pizza, ice cream and cake, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to a new wood-fired pizza place in my neighborhood with B and a couple of friends. Good, not great. But I ordered the vegan pizza in honor of the HVS. Will go back, only if HVS accompanies me.

Soup the Season

I wanted B to eat the chicken soup, as it is the perfect food food for a pregnant lady -- full of protein and bone building collagen, organic, almost fat free, big real flavor, reasonable in salt, freshly seared chicken breast pieces and vegetables. But she is feeling picky and skipped it, and it was too good to let sit in the fridge.

I think I need to make a massive amount of chicken stock and just make soups with it as the winter rolls on, cooking up additions for different recipes to keep it interesting.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, pint of cider, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, bowl of homemade chicken soup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE SNACK: 3pm, vegan Cesar salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
It ain't quite a snickle without the HVS, but it was in her honor. During the yoga class immediately before, the teacher asked us to dedicate our practice to a guru (a.k.a. yoga teacher) who inspires our thang. Of course, I dedicated it to Guru T!

DINNER: 4:45pm, potato knish, half a chocolate-cheese knish, a few slurps of cherry coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4.5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, mom style salad, flax tortilla chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the movies with a favorite friend, snarfing knishes from Yonah Shimmels next door. Snarfing knishes in art house theater from a turn of the century knishery is what makes NYC great.

Snapple is for suckaz

Not enough sleep last night. I did sleep 3 hours or so in the car coming down from Albany, but got home from the restaurant around 11, all amped up, didn't get to bed til 1:30. Up at 6:30. After my habitual pound cake at class, got jumped in the library by an impromptu ice-cream bar of extras that would of gone in the garbage if I didn't help eat it up.

At home doing chores, chopped up a big healthy chunky veg salad for the next few days. Took the quart of the excellent rich chicken stock I made a week or so out of the freezer and heated it up in a pot. In a pan, I quickly sauteed thin sliced carrot, shitakes, cubed chicken boobie and a little garlic, deglazed with mirin, and dumped it in the stock with thin sliced scallion and let the heat of the stock finish cooking the chicken meat and soften the scallion. Seasoned with salt, this is easily the best chicken soup I've had in memory.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, organic chex with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart pound cake, .5 bowl hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, selection of ice cream flavors, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A culinary class put out about 12 ice creams in the library for all comers, I had to taste a few. A dark chocolate, a white chocolate mouse, a lame maple that was more vanilla, cinnamon, yum! The problem of hanging out at a c-school.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, momma style salad, homemade chicken soup, quart of water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, hunk of halava, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pint of pork fried rice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way to meet the HVS to take a trip out to the airport, NOT a haven for vegan-friendly food, or any good food, for that matter. So took matters into my own hands

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 2/3 of a bottle of Tazo iced green tea with spearmint and lemongrass, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
It's organic, the bottle has less sugar than pop, it's cane sugar, blah blah blah. Bottom line, it tastes like over sweetened tea that someone spit a chewed up wad of mint gum into. Kind of like where a stranger's saliva meets toothpaste. Deeeesgusting. Why do people drink sweetened bottled flavored teas? Snapple is for suckaz.

A Weekend of Pizza

Spent the weekend up in Albany visiting my brother and his brood o' plenty. Stopped by the parent's grave on the way up, and slipped a copy of Baby E's ultra scan into their crypt, that gave me a shiver. In Albany (where I went to college), we visited Souvrana, which was this remarkable little grocery store that happened to have incredibly delicious pizza. Back then, the only games in town were Souvrana, JG's on Lark Street, and if you were drunk and poor, two competing 50 cent slice joints across the street from the QE2 club. Anyway, Souvrana was a family-owned joint that has since gotten rid of the groceries and put in tables, but it still has a thrown-off vibe. The pizza has VERY thick crust for a round pie, not quite Sicilian but very doughy. And I found it tasty, but kinda....gross. Undercooked, too much dough in the mouth, no balance. I guess experience has put the squash on some forms of nostalgia.

Sunday morning with the brood, made bagels from scratch in the kosher kitchen. Was fun rolling the dough with the kids, but an unfamiliar oven ran a little hot and the bottoms got slightly burnt.

Sunday evening at the restaurant, fun time with friends I haven't seen in a while. It seems a wood-burning pizza place just opened 2 blocks down the street. Which reminds me, a wood-burning joint just opened up a few blocks from where I live. And when I was in Albany, I noticed 3 or 4 new pizza joints, including one slightly upscale joint. Are we in the midst of a pizza-bubble?

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, 6 pieces of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, olive oil torta, bag of corn chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30 pm, 2 slices of Souvrana pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, small salad, 1 small matzoh ball, 1 vegetarian 'chicken' patty, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:45am, 6 mini muffins, half an unripe banana, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11am, 2 homemade bagels, hummus, cream cheese, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5-8pm, bites of pancetta, a meatball with a piece of focaccio, nibbles from the pizza topping station, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:15pm, pizza with stewed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, sausage, caramelized onion, mushrooms, basil and a light sprinkling of parm, rootbeer, small ramekin of chocolate rice pudding, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The roasted red peppers made this pie, and the sprinkled cheese made it just taste cheesy enough.