Fixin's for Chicken Pho. Oct 25
Breakfast: one fried egg, Drunken Goat cheese, banana yogurt (as it turned out, a sickly sweet glop-- brand name La Yogurt), and green pepper slices from the CSA. A strange combination.
Lunch: I got off work very early, so my husband and I walked a little ways down the street to Capital City Cheesecake, which makes great sandwiches as well as baked goods. I had a bagel with house-made veggie cream cheese, tomato, and onion, as well as a side of bacon and a horrendous cup of coffee than tasted vaguely smoked, like Lapsang Souchang. I got used to it eventually and drank most of it.
Dinner: Deb Perelman's Chicken Pho, which was Jesus-Christ good. Recommend, on the basis of some of the most amazing broth I have ever had. And frying the shallots was fun.
Snacks: 5 cups of coffee with half and half (3 regular, 2 decaf). Several spoonfuls of peanut butter milkshake, leftover after making one for a customer. Couple of pieces sweetened dried potato. Glass of Riesling.
Oct 26
Breakfast-- leftover Pho, a few pieces fresh pineapple.
Lunch-- apple slices, dried potato, dates (I accidentally spilled half of my huge, beautiful container of dates on the floor, down behind the recycling bins where it is too dirty to salvage them), boiled egg.
Dinner-- Madhur Jaffrey's Corn Cooked in Yogurt, plus naan and roti and lamb biryani purchased from our local Indian restaurant. The Corn Cooked in Yogurt was kind of a lengthy recipe resulting in a messy combination of sauce and tiny chunks of corn-on-the-cob that you had to pick up and eat with your fingers. The flavor was not my favorite, either. However, the culprit here may have been the not-very-fresh "fresh" corn-on-the-cob that I bought at the New Grand Mart. In October. Wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray. What else might I expect?
Snacks-- 4 cups coffee (2 reg 2 decaf), 3 dates, couple of raw peanuts, glass of Riesling.
Oct. 27
Breakfast: eaten late, at about 10 am while a) waiting for a call back from the vet about the fact that my cat hasn't pooped in five days, b) trying to figure out whether I have time to go in to the restaurant and work this afternoon on "my day off" because somebody else called in, and c) fielding a call from my mother about details of the bamboo steamer and picnic blanket I requested for my birthday. My daughter stayed home from school because she was overwhelmed and behind on homework and sleep, and I am still emotionally overwrought from 8 am couples therapy with my husband. I ate leftover pho. I had wanted to spend today writing. Actually, I had wanted to spend yesterday writing, but my husband stayed home sick from work, so I chose to take care of some domestic tasks instead.
Lunch: at work unexpectedly. A sausage, egg, cheddar and tomato sandwich on English muffin.
Dinner: red lentils and rice, baked yams. Dessert: these pistachio cookies from Bon Appetit. I discovered that, yes, there is such a thing as too-buttery cookies. These cookies contain an entire pound of butter, and yielded 13 large sandwich cookies. I brought several of them in to work to give away. Also, I had to order the pistachio paste on the internet. Warning: it is delicious all by itself.
Snacks: 4 cups coffee (2 reg, 2 decaf), chunk of coffeecake made as an experiment by the kitchen manager at work, piece of Drunken Goat cheese (first thing in the morning), lots of licks of cookie batter.
Oct. 28
Breakfast: leftover pho (the end of it), leftover corn with yogurt sauce.
I don't know if it's clear what happened over the past several days of shorter and shorter entries, but I had desperately wanted by this point to have some time to myself to write and work on the blog. It was just not working out. My family kept deciding they needed to stay home from school or work. My job kept calling me in at unexpected hours. I needed to focus on getting ready for a houseguest. I refer you back here. Eventually I just gave up even trying, for a while.
Breakfast: one fried egg, Drunken Goat cheese, banana yogurt (as it turned out, a sickly sweet glop-- brand name La Yogurt), and green pepper slices from the CSA. A strange combination.
Lunch: I got off work very early, so my husband and I walked a little ways down the street to Capital City Cheesecake, which makes great sandwiches as well as baked goods. I had a bagel with house-made veggie cream cheese, tomato, and onion, as well as a side of bacon and a horrendous cup of coffee than tasted vaguely smoked, like Lapsang Souchang. I got used to it eventually and drank most of it.
Dinner: Deb Perelman's Chicken Pho, which was Jesus-Christ good. Recommend, on the basis of some of the most amazing broth I have ever had. And frying the shallots was fun.
Snacks: 5 cups of coffee with half and half (3 regular, 2 decaf). Several spoonfuls of peanut butter milkshake, leftover after making one for a customer. Couple of pieces sweetened dried potato. Glass of Riesling.
Oct 26
Breakfast-- leftover Pho, a few pieces fresh pineapple.
Lunch-- apple slices, dried potato, dates (I accidentally spilled half of my huge, beautiful container of dates on the floor, down behind the recycling bins where it is too dirty to salvage them), boiled egg.
Dinner-- Madhur Jaffrey's Corn Cooked in Yogurt, plus naan and roti and lamb biryani purchased from our local Indian restaurant. The Corn Cooked in Yogurt was kind of a lengthy recipe resulting in a messy combination of sauce and tiny chunks of corn-on-the-cob that you had to pick up and eat with your fingers. The flavor was not my favorite, either. However, the culprit here may have been the not-very-fresh "fresh" corn-on-the-cob that I bought at the New Grand Mart. In October. Wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray. What else might I expect?
Snacks-- 4 cups coffee (2 reg 2 decaf), 3 dates, couple of raw peanuts, glass of Riesling.
Oct. 27
Breakfast: eaten late, at about 10 am while a) waiting for a call back from the vet about the fact that my cat hasn't pooped in five days, b) trying to figure out whether I have time to go in to the restaurant and work this afternoon on "my day off" because somebody else called in, and c) fielding a call from my mother about details of the bamboo steamer and picnic blanket I requested for my birthday. My daughter stayed home from school because she was overwhelmed and behind on homework and sleep, and I am still emotionally overwrought from 8 am couples therapy with my husband. I ate leftover pho. I had wanted to spend today writing. Actually, I had wanted to spend yesterday writing, but my husband stayed home sick from work, so I chose to take care of some domestic tasks instead.
Lunch: at work unexpectedly. A sausage, egg, cheddar and tomato sandwich on English muffin.
Dinner: red lentils and rice, baked yams. Dessert: these pistachio cookies from Bon Appetit. I discovered that, yes, there is such a thing as too-buttery cookies. These cookies contain an entire pound of butter, and yielded 13 large sandwich cookies. I brought several of them in to work to give away. Also, I had to order the pistachio paste on the internet. Warning: it is delicious all by itself.
Snacks: 4 cups coffee (2 reg, 2 decaf), chunk of coffeecake made as an experiment by the kitchen manager at work, piece of Drunken Goat cheese (first thing in the morning), lots of licks of cookie batter.
Oct. 28
Breakfast: leftover pho (the end of it), leftover corn with yogurt sauce.
I don't know if it's clear what happened over the past several days of shorter and shorter entries, but I had desperately wanted by this point to have some time to myself to write and work on the blog. It was just not working out. My family kept deciding they needed to stay home from school or work. My job kept calling me in at unexpected hours. I needed to focus on getting ready for a houseguest. I refer you back here. Eventually I just gave up even trying, for a while.