Monday, December 20, 2010

Grazing like a gazelle at the holiday party

Feeling colicky, I stayed at home from work, the nearer (my god) to be to thee (the restroom). Louisa, if she's reading this, will probably blame my crap diet for my crapulous gut, but I know better: bacterial conspiracy, deliberate, clandestine, dangerous.

Before Jenna left for her day, I made a five-egg omelet with a small handful of shredded cheddar cheese, condimented by ketchup and Frank's per her preference. I ate less than half of this.

After a few hours of waxing and waning (bed-rest and sickness), I roused myself because, under the weather or not, I had to prepare for the party at night. I cleaned the house and prepared food, much of which I nibbled on in a small way during prep. The menu:
  • turkey keilbasa pan-fried with garlic
  • turkey keilbasa pan-fried with grape tomatoes
  • cocktail meatballs, in a sweet-and-sour sauce made of ketchup and grape jelly
  • crudité, consisting of cucumber, celery, baby carrots, and steamed green beans
  • bruschetta of whole-wheat Triscuit crackers (rosemary, and black pepper flavors, I think I recall), with a topping of roasted diced tomatoes with vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, pepper, and herbs
  • bean dip, of cannellini white beans, vinegar, olive oil, herbs, a bit of mayo, and a bit of horseradish cream sauce
  • fillo cups with a filling of smashed white potatoes with broiled bacon, horseradish, and cheddar cheese
  • baked ziti, with low-fat ricotta, an outofajar ragout with onions, peppers, and mushrooms, and shredded mozzarella
  • brownies

There were cookies, of course -- dulche de leche and coco Maria cookies, generic sandwich cookies, some fudgey crisp graham cracker things Erin brought, the whole gamut -- as well as other nosh: caper berries, stuffed olives, cashews. A real colorful mish-mash it was. And much to drink; I stuck mostly to calimocho or plain diet cola. Jenna obstructed my plan to sneak a glass of low-fat eggnog. Horrid of her, I know, but people get crazy around the holidays, you know. Many sips of the open bottles were had -- a raspberry ale Ethan and Erin had brought, a muscadet from our own wine rack, whatever was being passed.

I didn't eat so much, really; just browsing throughout the evening. When I went to bed, I wasn't groaningly full (not like the day before, as I pushed away from the table, admitting defeat to my enchilada), but I still felt pleasingly decadent.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

A single-meal Sunday

Brunch with Julie A. at Border Café up on Route One, before we went to see The Fighter. My usual -- a tumbler of their orange soda (not diet -- shame, shame) and Gulf Coast seafood enchilada, with black beans instead of jambalaya, and a scoop each of sour cream and guacamole. Toxic, savory, creamy, delicious. Recognizing my folly halfway through the meal, I pulled up short, and set aside a little less than half of the plate to take-away. That, later, was dinner, reheated, with Jenna on the couch. Also three pastelitos with a sweet cilantro dipping sauce -- Julie was on the prowl for an appetizer. Following her lead, I also ordered and emptied a Corona light.

In the car on the way to the cinema, Julie shared her stash: a baggie of cake balls, leftover from a party the night before whose culinary theme had been just that: balls. Red velvet cake from a box mix, shaped into truffle-sized spheres and rolled in icing and candy sugar. Crazy good. I had maybe five.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Back again with two quick meals

Breakfast: a packet of Hostess Twinkies given to me by a faculty member with more brains than appetite. Lunch, at 11:30: a slide of cheese pizza from T Anthony's, purloined from the faculty grading party going on in our conference room, washed down by a mugful of Sprite I found in the fridge. I will now have some water. There, that should neatly cancel out the calories from the soda. Right? Help.

I couldn't resume my blogging earlier? As last week, when I had a lovely meal with mah gal over at Grafton Street? Or earlier this week, at a birthday party in Allston held at a great Indian restaurant, or last month when one of the faculty shared leftovers from a Persian class dinner the night before -- khoresht e baamieh, oh la la. No. I had to restart with Junk Food Friday. 



A question for the day: in the long run, will the money I save by scavenging food and eating food gifts, by more than the money I have to pay to remedy all the health problems I develop from eating pizza and snack cakes regularly?

Saturday, December 4, 2010

4 xii 10

Yes, I faltered out of the blocks. But here I am, back to paying attention to my diet, after resolving once again to be more disciplined in my posting.

In the morning, before hopping on the Red Line north, a few handfuls of Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berry cereal. Dry. Out of the bag. Neat.

At the South Street Diner, we had a late breakfast. Feeling sluggish, I ordered a 6 oz sirloin steak with two eggs over-easy; the red meat to refresh my hungry hemes. The consumption of mammals makes me uncomfortable. Also two pieces of raisin cinnamon toast with butter, and a hearty helping of thick-cut hom fries with ketchup. Two glasses of diet cola, one and a half of ice water. I also between a third and a half of Jenna's meal, an egg white omelette with American cheese, bell pepper, onions, and spinach. A mouthful of her raisin cinnamon toast, and some of her home fries. And, sigh, a brownie sundae. The brownies had nuts; the sundae had a scoop each of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. Chocolate sauce and whipped cream were present and consumed. She had some; I had most.

I don't like my tendency to turn this blog into a record of my guilt. It isn't a confessional -- what's the confess? That I have impulsive eating habits, sometimes? I'm not the worst.

Dinner I made with Ellen Adair, a dear friend who is visiting from New York City, where she is an actress and, when she finds the time, a writer for her own pleasure. We fried crab cakes, made with claw meat, wheat crackers crushed on the spot, mayo and eggs for binder, tumeric for color and flavor, and bell pepper and onion for texture. Also a nice handful of finely chopped herbs leftover from the Thanksgiving preparations last week: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. And black pepper. I ate one cake, with a sauce made from brown mustard, mayo, and chopped parsley. Also on the plate were: a spring mix salad with saltanas and grape tomatoes with light Italian dressing; a scoop of last Thursday's cranberry-apple-orange peel relish; and a hash made from leftover ham, mushrooms, potatoes, and onions. I also had two pieces of very nice bread with oleo. Three (!) cans of Coke Zero, and a glass of Martinelli's apple cider with a splash of pinot grigot.

Dessert was a ginger shortbreat, made with light brown sugar, almond oil, ground ginger, butter, flour, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I had, oh, about half of the one-sixth slice I brought upstairs to Jenna the Studious, when I also gave her the framed print I made for her for her birthday. Cake and art: am I not the best? Confession, I am the best.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Resumption

I regret not having kept up with this. There have been some good meals recently, which I should have liked to record. One day's lunch, when S.T. shared his leftovers from the previous evening's classroom dinner, was Persian: flat bread, salad-e shirazi, khoreshteh bamieh, roast chicken, and polo, or boiled rice, though with none of the tasty crusty rice from the bottom of the pan, tah-deeg -- I suspect Sassan ate all of it, leaving none for me. Then there was Thanksgiving: a starter course of crab cake and msclun salad with Caesar dressing; a corn chowder with haddock; then the Big Show, roast turkey and apple-cranberry stuffing, boiled corn, sweet and sour stewed cabbage, whipped squash, mashed potatoes, cranberry-orange relish, french bread, Durkee green bean casserole, spiral-cut ham. And of course the days before and after of holiday eating: snacks and pie and pudding and so on to excess.

So, back on track, with today's consumption to be detailed tonight after the last meal is eaten. 

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Hunger knows no friend but its feeder.

Breakfast on the train: two pieces of toast with peanut butter and banana. I also had another bottle of Hannaford Kiwi Strawberry Sparkling Water. A bite of blueberry muffin left over from the Sunday evening's dinner at Cracker Barrel, and one stale leftover pancake.

A lukewarm Snapple, light green flavor.

I felt nauseated before my optometrist appointment, so I stopped a Starbucks at Copley Place to pick up a sandwich (tarragon chicken salad) and an Izze (clementine).

Lunch was a windfall sourced by J.: a cup of diet Coke, a slice of cheese pizza from Bertucci's, and a room-temperature dipped in salad dressing.

Dinner was leftovers from the office fridge: two chicken wings from the Chinese-American menu; a cup and a half of pork fried rice; a few spoonfuls of vegetable jambalaya; the rind of that slice of blueberry pie from the day before. Not a terrific lot of food, but with all that rice it felt like a big meal. All with a bottle of water, and another of diet Mtn Dew., And a honeybun from the Campus Convenience store across the street, since I was feeling low and wanted a pick-me-up.

But the story doesn't stop there! At nine I went to the House of Blues to see my friend play with East Coast Soul. I thought it was acceptable to have a snack, so I ordered a pan of their rosemary cornbread. It was great when warm -- fragrant and light. We put some Cholula chipotle hot sauce on it.I also ordered a diet cola.

When J. arrived, she hadn't eaten, so I ordered her some items from the cheap game day menu: a cheese panini with fries, a half-dozen oysters for the table, and at her request, an order of buffalo wings. I ended up eating three-quarters of the sandwich muself, and a third of the fries, and half the buffalo wings, and three of the oysters. Three refills of cola.

I am discouraged by the impulsiveness I showed today.

Monday, August 16, 2010

A day

Breakfast was waiting on the friendly counter when I managed to rouse myself downstairs. I ate on the drive to Boston: two pieces of toast with peanut butter and banana. A bite of fresh strawberry (no me gusto las fresas). A bottle of a unique and pleasant beverage, Hannaford Kiwi Strawberry Sparkling Water.

At eleven, a coffee break with scientist-friend Martha: a bottle of Ethos water at Starbucks, and a slide of pumpkin bread.

Lunch was leftover Chinese-American food with J. at the office conference room table:  a nibbled chicken wing, some spoonfuls of cold pork fried rice, a good cup of vegetables (me gusto el bróculi). A few bites of a rather confused slice of blueberry pie.

A cup of water at work. A bottle of Coke Zero on the way to my medical appointment at Tufts (me requieren orinar).

Dinner was eaten on the car: a foot-long wheat sandwich from Subway, with buffalo chicken and some gunk on it I couldn't identify. Also a chocolate chip cookie shared with J., and a bag of Sun Chips. Diet cola in a waxed cup. At the Green Day concert, I had a Magner's cider in the parking lot, whose cap I had to wrench off with a key. Brute strength solves many, though not all, problems. Inside the Comcast Center, I bought and ate half of a bag of $5 Cracker Jack.

In retrospect, an underhydrated day. Also a green day. A Cracker Jack day.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

A meal of unexcusability

The morning started off optimistically: without any urge to binge. Good.

I split J.'s portion of iced coffee. We thought we were going to brunch at the Asgard in Central Square with  our friendly neighborhood atheists, but the Red Line suffered great delays (over an hour with no train, and no announcements!) so we missed out. We disembarked, after finally catching a ride, at Downtown Crossing, and decided to seek out a meal in that area.

We ran into my old friend Emily Small from Isle au Haut; small world. She was munching a panini from UFood Grill; being highly suggestible, J. and I elected to follow her lead. Subsequently I enjoyed my Southwest Turkey sandwich: turkey, sliced; turkey, baconed; tomato; some kind of sauce; flat hot crispy chewy bread. And an order of baked sweet potato fries, a diet cola (two cupfuls), and my half of a chocolate-peanut butter smoothie. Health food! But probably too much of it.

At North Station, wanting not to be left on the train to Lunenburg without sustenance, we got a small vanilla Coolatta and a chocolate chip chunk cookie. We split the drink evenly, but the cookie was mostly my responsibility.

A can of Coke Zero in the car on the way to dinner.

Dinner at Cracker Barrel in Sturbridge was not a proud moment. In retrospect, I believe I wanted to avoid seeming finicky in front of my two old high school friends Kim and Jeff. So I went whole hog (cf.: "pigbelly") and ordered Grandpa's Country Fried Breakfast, consisting of two eggs cooked to order (over easy, mine), with grits (I mix in an egg with broken yolk, and salt and pepper), buttermilk biscuits, a spadeful of "hashbrown casserole," and a portion of friend fried chicken with more gravy. J. gave me her bacon, probably just to marvel at my ever-moving maw. I drank diet cola, since irony is a good condiment.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The spirit is willing; but the stomach is weak.

A bowl of Fruity Pebbles and Frosted Toasters, mixed in roughly equal portions, with 2% milk. Incongruously, I also ate two leftover pork ribs before leaving the house. I suppose I didn't want to seem like a pigbelly at the picnic later that afternoon. Or, on some thrifty impulse, I wanted to eat them before they went bad. Bizarre.

Camilo drove over to pick us up, so J. and he and I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee. I had half of a vanilla kreme [sic] doughnut, and a sip of her iced latte.

At the picnic, I kicked things off with a plate of pasta salad, turkey kielbasa, our potato salad, and a cracker with goat cheese. A bit later, I snatched up a chicken patty from the grill, and made a sandwich of it on a generic white bun with a smear of boursin cheese spread. After the desserts were brought out, I had two chocolate chip cookies and a half-cup of rainbow sherbet. I drank three cans of Fresca during the afternoon. Let's not forget the half of a black-and-white cookie which J. bequeathed me in a show of appreciably unconventional baked good largesse. Also a plastic cup's worth of white wine mixed with apple cider.

Unexpectedly, we felt peckish before meeting Julie at the movies that night. I ate perhaps three generic wheat Ritz-type crackers on the way to the train. And before we stepped into the cinema, the three of us stopped at McDonald's. I had a Southern-style chicken sandwich and a small diet cola. This sandwich is as close to pure candy as I can think of in non-confectionary form. To be more accurate, I really had five-eights of the sandwich; the girls each had a bite or two. And murmurs of gladness were heard.

During the movie, I finished not more than half of a large bag of popcorn, and a bucket of Coke Zero. It could have been a gallon. Certainly it felt that way. "Eat, Pray, Love, Pee."

It doesn't stop there. In high spirits we stumbled over to Peach Tree on Tyler Street in Chinatown. From all we ordered, I ate perhaps half again as much as I should, maybe more -- chicken and corn soup; a really fine sweet-and-sour chicken; shrimp with cashew nut; pork fried rice (I had none of this); and scallion pancake. This, with hot tea and diet cola.

I want to bed contrite, overfed, and a bit despairing. It is normal to eat more than one's appetite demands at social occasions, sure; but I really have to learn to push back against this tendency, when I have a day like today stacked with such events.

Friday, August 13, 2010

My reheated life

Two slices of wheat bread, toasted, with oleo and grape jelly. Can you believe it? I can't hardly.

An entire half-serving of coffee with Splenda and fat-free half-and-half. Usually I just get the leftovers.

For lunch, a tureenful (volume impossible to estimate) of leftover "drunken lobster" noodle dish, from J.'s lunch the day before at Tavern on the Water: artichokes, tomato concasse, Parmesan, lobster meat, and cavatappi. A bottle of diet Mtn Dew. A few bite of J.'s leftover vegetable jambalaya from the previous evening's dinner. A third of a bag, and not more, truly, of Cape Cod Five Cheese potato chips. These were oversalty and underdelicious.

A bottle of water during the afternoon.

Dinner at Panera: low-calorie chicken noodle soup, a hunk of baguette, half of their Sierra Turkey sandwich. Tabasco in the soup, and lemon in the diet cola. I admit that the clerk convinced me to take her up on their $0.99 deal for a bakery item. I am helpless before the chocolatine. I refilled the soda cup twice. Why did I need so much? Because I felt a strange compulsion, and obeyed it, to share a slice of coffee cake and a blondie with J. I had half of each. We are complicit in the crime.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Seafood enchiladas, NSFW brownie implications, guilt

Another day, another crumpet; this one like yesterday's was covered in an amber-colored stickum which I have been told comes from the bellies of garden-bees. Most sticky, most disturbing. To wash this down, I shared a cup of the usual Keurig brew. I have been informed that the half-and-half is fat-free.

Lunch was a six-inch buffalo chicken flatbread sandwich at Subway, with black olives, lettuce, and tomato. The fun stuff? Provolone cheese and a swath of light mayonnaise. Diet cola.

Dinner at Border Café in Harvard Square. An order of Cajun-spiced fried shrimplets, with some kind of honey-mustardish sauce. Nearly a quart of orange soda from the fountain. A few sips from a margarita so over-salted that when she first took a sip, J. asked, to bring me into the experience, if I had ever swallowed seawater: "Like that," she grimaced. My margarita was melon-flavored, blended, made "New Orleans-style" with a splash of Cointreau. Sure it is. We mixed some of the orange soda into the saline cocktail, and it was much improved. Well, more palatable, if not improved.

Half a basket of fresh fried corn tortilla chips and salsa. I chose for the main course a plate of Gulf Coast seafood enchiladas, kind of a smothered/drunken dish, consisting of shrimps and crawfish and unidentified sea-bits stuffed along with green bell pepper and maybe it was onion inside flour tortillas, then buried in a few ladlefuls of creamy sauce. With jambalaya on the side, and sour cream and guacamole atop it all. And rice. So much rice. And a bite of J.'s cornbread.

Afterward, at Tory Row, with Erin and Ethan before his show with East Coast Soul over at Tommy Doyle's on Winthrop in the old House of Blues, a bottle of Harpoon hard cider, a diet cola, and a shared portion of brownie à la mode brownie with, according to the prevailing fashion, a large scoop of vanilla ice creamI probably ate a little more than she did. Definitely did. How often this record turns confessional.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Either/(h)or(chata)

Breakfast was a honey-daubed crumpet, toasted in a mucky toaster which lives in our walk-through pantry. And a to-go cup of iced coffee, which as usual was adulterated after leaving its Keurig cup with Splenda and half-and-half. I believe we keep half-and-half in these days, rather than milk, because milk gets purloined by non-coffee-drinking residents of our apartment, and would leave someone else's cereal milky but our coffee black.

On arriving at work, I bought and drank a diet Mtn Dew.

Lunch was taken at Uno's, and was a real belly-churner. We opted for the all-you-can-eat soup buffet, which bubbles lusciously beneath an insouciant sign saying "Soup's On." Ignoring this sensible advice, I ate considerably more than a soupçon despite J.'s best efforts to discourage my consumption. I took a total of two and two-thirds bowls of New England clam chowder and broccoli and cheddar soup, mixed in various proportions. Liberal use salt and pepper and of chowder crackers was reported. At least two refills on my diet cola. I also shared an order of avocado-filled egg rolls with a cashew dipping sauce. By share, I mean I ate half of the order, and then ate the evacuated wonton skins that were all that remained after my lunch companion gobbled the insides up for herself.

After work, while walking about doing errands, I ate half a sprinkled donut from Dunkin Donuts on Beacon Street, and an "oven-toasted" sandwich on wheat English muffin, filled with a mysteriously spongy disc of egg white and turkey sausage. A bottle of Coke Zero from the 7-11 in South Campus.

Later, buckling in the face of temptation, I bought a Mexican plate meal from Ana's Taqueria at the MIT student center, where I was meeting four fellows to discuss the Harvard Book Store Philosophy Café: al pastor, with pinto beans, a little schmear of sour cream, salsa fresca, steamed tortillas, and rice. And, wanting to accessorize appropriately, a large order of their horchata.

Before bed, a few generic, wheat, Ritz-style crackers. And half a glass of orange juice.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Many cookies at the end of the day

A peanut butter and banana sandwich on the way to work, on wheat bread. A few sips of water and of iced coffee (with Splenda and a splash of half-and-half). Lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a Red Delicious apple, and a bottle of diet Mountain Dew. For dinner, I visited Qdoba in Kenmore Square and bought myself a grilled chicken burrito with a sauce known deliciously as "3-Cheese Queso." This with diet cola with lime, and a large chocolate chip cookie. At the seminar with MGH, I had perhaps five home-baked chocolate chip cookies. I don't regret it.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Sandwiches, pizza, cola

A crumpet with oleo on the walk to the train. To clear my addled head, on the off chance that some blood sugar imbalance was to blame, a chicken salad sandwich (cranberry, not buffalo) from CampCo, and a diet Mountain Dew. At lunch, a foot-long buffalo chicken sandwich on flatbread from Subway, with tomato, lettuce, black olives, and a smear of light mayo. Split between us, a bag of original flavor SunChips, and a bag of baked Lays potato chips. Diet cola.

Not knowing if we were going to dinner, we stopped at BerryLine, where I had one spoonful of original flavor, active-culture frozen yogurt with sliced banana and too many rainbow sprinkles. Dinner was at Cambridge One; a half dozen crisp breadstick straws, too much spiced with red pepper flakes. Three of us shared two half-portions of two different charcoal-grilled pizza, one with tomato, fontina, romano, garlic, and basil, and the other, less pleasing, with artichoke hearts and feta and spinach and god knows what else. Diet cola with this, as well.

Nothing before bed.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The brownies topped it off

Brunch with Louisa at The Blue Room, consisting of two and a half plates of food, with a sample of most of the desserts on offer. At least a bite of each of the following: pork ribs; Grecian green bean salad; scrambled eggs with tomato & feta cheese; beef brisket; bacon; fries; pork sausage; Moroccan spiced chicken; mesclun greens with corn vinaigrette; sweet plantains; salted watermelon; buttered cranberry-nut bread; hot salted shrimp; grilled salmon with chunky fennel vinaigrette; avocado quesadillas; lemon buttermilk pudding; Persian rice pudding; pineapple upside-down cake; lime tequila  cheesecake; mango muffins; chocolate nut brownies; coconut macaroons. It really wasn't as much food as this list would have it seem. Also several glasses of water, and a glass of grapefruit juice.

Back at home, dinner was Chinese-style dumplings. We minced chicken breast, with shredded carrot and cabbage, egg, green onion, and ginger, and wrapped them in ready-to-wrap dumpling wrappers. We fried these in vegetable oil, and served them with a broth made from vegetable stock, orange juice, light soy sauce, green onions, Napa cabbage, and spices. I had six dumplings all told, I believe, and probably two cups of broth. Also many cans of diet cola throughout the evening, and one Corona. The evening was topped off with two brownies, made especially for the occasion by Jenna. Also two generic Ritz-style wheat crackers, sometime during the night during a bout of hankering sleeplessness.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

A day at home

Two pieces of wheat toast with oleo. A shared three-egg scramble, with Parmesan, diced tomatoes and a rosemary-besprinkled chicken breast. Two wedges of Laughing Cow product, spread on Wheat Thins, some of which were fused in monstrous parodies of the usual baked cracker form. Water with this.

A can of diet cola on the train after grocery shopping; a shared bag of Hot 'n' Spicy [sic] Chex Mix, on sale for ninety-nine cents. Then at home, a brace of defrosted beef ribs; a chop salad with iceberg lettuce, green bell pepper, shredded cheddar cheese, sunflower seeds, and light honey-mustard dressing. And a crab cake, perhaps the tastiest crab cake I have ever had, consisting of store-brand Ritz-type wheat crackers, mayonnaise, green bell pepper and fresh sweet corn, picked white crab meat, an egg, chopped green onion, and spices including tumeric, dry mustard, chili powder, and black pepper. All this was rolled in bread crumbs and fried quickly, and I have to say perfectly, in vegetable oil. I processed the remaining sweet corn and bell pepper with a little horseradish mustard and mayo and a splash of Tabasco, for an excellent remoulade. I often express my enthusiasm for cooking, but rarely brag about something I've made. These crab cakes, I have to say, where to-notch.

The girls had a zinfandel mixed with pear nectar, but I drank several cans of diet cola. I also had one-third of a pint of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food frozen yogurt. Really shameless of me.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Resuming the record

After a long hiatus, I resume blogging my meals. That is, my blogging was suspended, not my consumption. That continued all the while without abatement. Getting back to business, today's intake:

Two pieces of wheat toast that, working together, had managed to trap a peanut butter bug between them. The bug had been reduced to a smear. At work, a sandwich of mesquite-smoked turkey (not really), mozzarella, tomato (roma, even!), FRESH basil and a sweet red pepper mayonnaise on rosemary focaccia, from the inimitable Charles River Bread Company. A glass of water with this.

Halfway through my afternoon, a bottle of diet Mountain Dew (or Mtn Dew now, is it?), and a Reese's Crispy Crunch bar. Dinner with Louisa at Panera, of chicken noodle soup with a dash of Tabasco, a hunk of baguette with 10 grams of oleo, and a two servings of diet Pepsi. Half a blondie bar. A medium cup of ice cream from Coldstone, with Louisa's infernal participation, and in celebration of her looking departure to Italy. (In the flavor of Oreo Cookie Filling, with the addition of graham cracker crust and three Oreos, and hot fudge sauce. The staff sang when I gave them a dollar tip.)

Another cup of diet Pepsi at poetry workshop. Water at home before bed, and approximately half a cup of cooked taco meat (just on the verge of spoiling, blech), folded into a cup of Kraft dinner. With Frank's Red Hot sauce.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter brunch, and a Sunday dinner

Easter brunch at Harley House (not part of the Harvey House, chain, sic) in Lunenburg, Mass., with the Dee family. A miscellaneous plate to start: slice of watermelon, a slice of bacon, a scoop of homefries, a scrap of fried ham, half a mini-bagel with herbed boursin, a slice of salami, and a slice of tomato. Also the last sad wrinkled wretch of a corn fritter. Then a hot dish made to order: "eggs Charleston," poached over a sausage patty with hollandaise all on an English muffin. Dessert was half a chocolate cupcake and a slice of very nice homemade cheesecake minus the bite J. stole when she knew I was looking. Also a pair of counterfeit jellybeans, meant just for the kids and regrettably just awful. During the meal, I refilled my 8-oz glass with cocktails of orange juice, cranberry and apple, three times, in varying proportion.

Back at the house, I had a mouthful of kiwi-strawberry seltzer before getting into the car with J. to stop by a carnival open for its last day on the parking lot outside the city civic center. Bleak. But we shared a can of Coke Zero.

At home at Melville, I had a glass of lightly sweetened iced tea from the week before, while continuing to watch portions of the Planet Earth documentary on the back porch while N. read and sunned herself and the cats mewled their meows. Thinking to dinner, I defrosted from old ground beef for shepherd's pie: the beef browned with onions and garlic, and seasoned with a can of tomato paste and lots of black pepper. Above this a can of creamed corn, and finally a mortary cap of just-sprouting potatoes mashed with garlic powder, oleo, milk, and salt and pepper. We baked this about half an hour -- quite good, little grease, and strong flavor. While cooking I whipped a can of cannellini beans with some Italian salad dressing and horseradish mustard for a creamy sharp dip, well-matched to Ritz crackers. I drank thirstily of diet cola all the while. Also had a piece of wheat bread with olea and DeRuijter Hagelslag. Dessert was an apple knobby cake. I sliced three heirloom apples which we'd gotten in December from Allendale Farm, the same day we picked up the Christmas tree. This combined with the two cups of shredded apple I found in the freezer (remains from juicing for cider in the days following the great apple picking trip we took to Honeypot Hill on my birthday) made enough for a nice firm cake, with white sugar and just a single egg, and baking soda and spices and flour and a splash of the apple pie-flavor liqueur Jennifer Z. gave us for Christmas.

While rummaging in the freezer, I found a Tupperware container with berries I'd picked with N. and Sean in the early autumn, from elderberry bushes on the bank of the Muddy River at the Commonwealth Avenue culvert. I boiled these down for juice, drained them, and then boiled the juice with sugar and pectin, and a sliver of butter and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Popped the adamantly purple concoction even as it begin to jell right into a jelly jar, in which it now sits and waits on a shelf in the fridge.