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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.