Category: bug stuff

May 25, 2008

more champagne. less caffiene. taking the poo out of spacepoo.

i'm in Va this weekend. for as long as we've been together, J and i have kept lists of restaurants we want to visit together, one in his area and one in mine.

this weekend J decided we should try what is perhaps the fanciest of all the places on the list (or maybe both lists): The Inn at Colonial Williamsburg. they have brunch there, one of our favorite meals.

oh my. here's how it worked: it was a fixed price menu. you select an entree, and then help yourself to the extensive tasting table which included an omelette station (of no interest to me, but of great interest to J). the tasting table had many hors d'oeuvres, salad, and small desserts. they brought a basket of little bread things to your table (strudel, coffee cake, muffins, and of course real southern biscuits) and-- surprise-- all the champagne you can drink. a man who i assume was the sommelier (from the possessive way he spoke of the wine cellar) just kept stopping by and topping off our champagne flutes.

for me it was more like dinner than breakfast or lunch, because i didn't want an egg-based entree. for J it was like breakfast with a side of lunch, i think.

:|:

and in our continuing wide world of food, we had breakfast at CW yesterday too-- at The Lodge, which is, as the woman at the pancake station said, the "red-headed stepchild" to The Inn. i told her that no place that offered large piles of bacon and sausage next to a large pile of hash browns could really be considered in such a way. they had a quite good buffet, and we only wished we'd gotten there earlier.

we also tried a chain restaurant for dinner last night. i think i had never been to one, and J had not been to one in many years. i hesitate give them free advertising, but the initials are R.T. discerning the name can be an exercise for the reader. i was quite pleasantly surprised. they seem to have re-made themselves from being a burger joint to being something a little nicer. i had strawberry lemonade made from fresh strawberries and lemons that they mix at the bar. very tasty. the food was good, but the strawberry lemonade was the highlight.

:|:

a week ago i eliminated caffeine from my diet. the result has been surprising. as i hoped, i am more relaxed, less stressed and have been sleeping quite well. i am surprised to find myself less hungry and far, far less prone to having blood sugar crashes. in general i just feel much better. i did finally have some coffee today after brunch because the champagne gave me a splitting headache, but i plan to continue to lay off the caffeine for a while to come as it seems to suit me.

:|:

i have to hand it to the folks at the carolina auto spa in cary. i gave the spacepod over to them to try and get rid of the rotten leaf and mildew smell that has permeated his interior since fall of '06. they impregnated the porous surfaces with hospital disinfectant, shampooed and extracted, ran an ozone machine in the car for an hour with the engine on and the a/c on full blast, then overnight with the engine and a/c off. finally, they put down another layer of chemicals on the seats and carpets and detailed the interior.

the odor, as far as i can tell, is gone. there's just no trace of it. i am not fond of the disinfectant smell but J says he likes it. i have been letting the car air all weekend, though.

they said that if it creeps back they can re-treat it for up to 30 days for no extra charge. i can also get free car washes during that time.

it cost more than our brunch this morning (even including tip), but after living with the stank for a year and a half, i think it's worth it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 04:28 PM | Comments (1)

Category: food

April 07, 2008

late menu

so, aside from watts grocery and mellow mushroom, where can one get a good dinner after 10pm on a Friday night around here?

i never feel like cooking then, and that's when J tends to get into town when he comes on Friday.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:15 PM | Comments (4)

Category: food

March 16, 2008

waffle report

I preferred the bacon waffle. J preferred the sausage waffle. we put whole pieces of bacon or sausage into the waffles. i think crumbling the pork product would be a better approach, in both cases.

on saturday night we cooked small bits of fish and shrimp in broth over a live flame-- fondue, but not cheese. a very civilized, slow way to have dinner.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:13 PM | Comments (4)

Category: food

March 11, 2008

Fully waffle-enabled

Waffle irons get a bum rap from proponents of de-cluttering and home organization, but you know what? When I owned a working waffle iron, I used that sucker all the time.

I've really missed my waffle iron, but wanted to hold out for a model with removable plates that I could clean easily. Surprisingly rare!

So. I found one:

wafflebaker.jpg

I think it may be the exact same model my mom had when I was growing up. The plates snap out, flip over, and then you can make awesome grilled cheese sandwiches that are all pressed flat. Since I grew up with pressed flat grilled cheese, this is how I believe grilled cheese is meant to be eaten. Even better was when you'd forget to flip the plates before heating the grill, and you'd have to make a grilled cheese on the waffle plates. Awesome.

This one also lays flat, giving you a perfect flat surface for, say, pancakes. A little minimal if you're doing pancakes for a lot of people, but still probably better than trying to do them on the stove in a frying pan.

So, a little pricier than I thought a waffle iron would be, but it's not just a waffle iron, so I guess that's okay.

This weekend's plan is to replicate the bacon waffle I got on my sole trip to Vegas. J says he'll eat pretty much anything I cook, so he's in.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:18 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

February 16, 2008

it's all about the dairy fat

a low sodium day, if you don't count the bacon. this was my comment as i realized i'd forgotten to salt the pasta water tonight.

three meals cooked in my kitchen, eaten at my dining room table. have not done that... well, ever.

breakfast was buttermilk pancakes and bacon; eggs for J (no eggs for me, thanks). potent coffee and fresh squeezed oranges J's mom sent up from Fla.

we walked the dog to the farmer's market after breakfast; too late to get any eggs, but we did get fresh farmer cheese and raw honey.

went to the open house/tour at triangle brewing company. thanks to bb for tipping us off to that. very tasty golden belgian; did not like the stout so much. i bought a half-gallon jug of the belgian (a growler, in brewing parlance); i can get a refill during any open house for $8. much daydreaming about living in a warehouse in downtown durham.

lunch was the farmer cheese with ham and mayo on bits of soft oatmeal bread. the cheese was very fresh and tangy, the salty of the ham was good with it.

for dinner we made fresh pasta and tossed it with melted butter, cream, and parmesan: fettuccine alfredo. the dairy fat quotient was so high neither of us could eat much, which was fine.

in the checkout line at the store i spotted bars of vosges bacon chocolate which i have wanted to try for some time now. the cashier tried to convince me to just try a sample first, but i confidently put it in my stack of purchases. she was quite incredulous that someone might actually like the stuff. in fact i know at least three people who like it. so there, doubting cashier lady.

J is doing some handyman stuff and i am waiting until he is done to break open the chocolate. start the day with bacon; end it with bacon. now that's a motto.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:43 PM | Comments (1)

Category: food

November 13, 2007

freedom toast, redux

sunday morning we decided to go to IHOP for breakfast, but found it a little on the crowded and people standing on the sidewalk waiting side, so we headed on to other sources of pancakes.

we wound up (after much driving, and finally calling w. for directions) back at the place that has, no kidding, freedom toast on the menu. i've mentioned this place before. it's right smack next to langely.

so J ordered the freedom toast this time. i could see he was having trouble keeping a straight face while ordering. i looked away to keep from cracking.

i asked him how it was.

it's good, he said. it tastes like VICTORY.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

benefits

my company is well known for its employee benefits. way beyond excellent health care, vision and dental.

a little known service of our company cafeteria is after hours food. you can go online and order a sandwich to pick up in the late afternoon. and you can sign up to receive leftovers from the hot food menu. the food is company subsidized, and payroll deducted, so financially, it's like having takeout from a restaurant without any of the financial pain.

it's been years since i've even thought about signing up for leftovers, much less actually did it, but tonight i decided to give it a go. i'm overdue for a trip to the grocery store, so coming home with a good dinner seemed like a great plan.

wow. what an awesome benefit! i brought home what they consider to be one portion of veggie lasagne. cost me maybe $4, if that. i heated it up in the oven with some marinara sauce and it's really two portions, and oh so very tasty and delicious. plus, vegetables, yay.

plus, the walk over to the cafeteria is a nice way to break up the afternoon and get a little exercise. sweet.

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:46 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

November 06, 2007

My life in beverages - breakfast smoothie

1/2 cup lowfat plain yogurt
1/2 cup lowfat milk
1 scoop spirutein chocolate drink mix
2 shots espresso (1 pot from my stovetop espresso maker)

blend. taste. too bland; i added 3 packets of splenda. nice balance of chocolate, bitter, coffee, dairy and sweet. the hot espresso makes it nice and warm.

tomorrow i'll try adding two scoops of ovaltine, instead of the splenda.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

Category: food

November 05, 2007

Pink Elephants

3 oz pink lemonade
2 oz chilled vodka
1 oz grenadine (or less)

shake with ice, pour in the glass of your choice (i like a martini glass)

top with ginger ale, about 2oz

I think I've decided that, with commercial bottled grenadine, this is too syrupy, even when I reduce the grenadine down to just a splash.

In comparison to the Pink Pussycat I had at City Beverage Saturday night, it doesn't hold a candle.

However, it would be interesting to make a Pink Elephant with homemade lemonade and grenadine.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:15 PM | Comments (1)

Category: food

October 01, 2007

different kinds of toast

we ate at a restaurant this weekend that is right next to langely air force base. the streets around it are named after people in the space program.

it took a moment for me to realize what i was seeing on the menu. it offered "freedom toast".

the food was good though. we'll probably go back. i'll see if i can order freedom toast with a straight face. it's not my favorite, but i'm willing to take a hit for the team. you know?

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:09 PM | Comments (1)

Category: food

September 09, 2007

caliente

i'm going with open windows and doors today. the trees around my house keep things cool enough until early evening.

and i'm cooking today. lots of food that i can put up in the freezer. the kitchen stayed cool enough to work in for the duration. now i can escape while the meats roast.

i made a lasagne first-- most complicated dish first, and that worked out well. used half sauce from a jar, half sauce of a sort made from J's canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and herbs from the garden. the cat, true to form, appeared while the beef was browning.

second came mac and cheese, which would pair well with a pork loin i found i had forgotten in the freezer. at last minute inspiration lead me to season the cheese sauce with chili powder, cayenne, and a bit of paprika. wish i'd thought to add hot sauce. ah well.

the pork loin is roasting in similar (i hope) flavors: bone suckin' sauce mixed with "smoky campfire" marinade (both leftover in the fridge), with a little of the chili powder and cayenne. i'm also trying out my new meat thermometer-- the digital kind where the probe is on a metal lead, and the gauge sticks to the outside of the oven.

finally, i'm trying to make chicken stock, very bland chicken stock that i could feed to the cat (e.g., no onion or salt). if he likes it, it could be a good way to get some calories and protein in him if he loses his appetite; or he might just enjoy it. if he doesn't like it, i can season it up and use it in my own cooking.

lots of using things i already had in the fridge and freezer-- all of the meat was already there, and that's the expensive part.

Posted by spacegrrl at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

August 05, 2007

pastrami quest: failure!

we had one weekend to find a pastrami on rye (kosher not required). while we got good advice from many, ultimately, no pastrami sandwich was consumed.

So we went over to Tyler's Taproom, where I've been meaning to take J for a long time anyway, because they have hard cider on tap. Which he enjoyed so it was all good anyway.

Thanks everyone for the pastrami advice!

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:46 PM | Comments (4)

Category: food

August 02, 2007

pastrami on rye

is there a place around here where one could get a good pastrami on rye sandwich?

(looks in the general direction of the mondo mundo lounge )

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:41 AM | Comments (6)

Category: food

June 20, 2007

fish n' chips

we went to "the triangle's only authentic english chippie" today.

fish n' chips

i can still taste the chips.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

Category: food

May 07, 2007

breakfast

i cannot over-emphasize my love of breakfast. as i've stated before, this is a complete turnaround as compared to my past. there's no need to dwell on my breakfast habits of the past, however. suffice to say they were horrifying.

the point of all of this is that i had a near-perfect breakfast this morning and i wish to blog about it. do you care? of course you do. not because you care about what i had for breakfast, but because you love breakfast too, and you want to vicariously experience...

crisp center-cut bacon

toasted whole-wheat farm bread

strong coffee with cream and chocolate syrup

fresh strawberries, lightly sweetened

that is all.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:30 PM | Comments (3)

Category: food

March 10, 2007

the Very Crowded Bistro

i kind of have the use of my finger again. it's not healed but i started using one of those really teeny little bandaids instead of a big one, and somehow this translates into being able to type normally again.

:|:

last weekend was the weekend of walkable bistros. friday night j and i walked to a place near his house, a small place but comfortable (except for the bar). the food was a little disappointing but the atmosphere was nice.

saturday night we had a late-ish reservation at a place that just opened in an old diner across the street from J's house. we walked in and the place was both incredibly tiny and incredibly jammed. every table, every seat at the bar was taken. a waiter took our names and we sat on a little bench to wait.

then in came the ass people. the large group of people who all tried to stand in the tiny available space in front of our little bench. it was like the reverse of a clown car. first two women came in. then two more people. no, three. no, here comes four. five. jesus. and they were all these well-dressed, shallow yuppie types.

the women with their asses closest to my face were talking about an exercise class. i remember one of them saying, i hear the downward dog is really good. heh.

so about thirty minutes after our reservation time, we finally get a chance to grab seats at the bar and they give us a beer on the house. as we're contemplating a second beer, they tell us our table is ready and proceed to show us to the worst table in the house.

yes, even in the world's tiniest fancy restaurant, there's a bad table, and it's a doozy. it's dead in the middle of the single row of tables, it's about five inches away from the table next to it, and that five inch space is occupied by a metal pole.

at the table on the other side of the pole was an oddly mis-matched couple. J later diagnosed them as being on an internet date, and i was inclined to agree. the man looked exactly like steven spielberg and was dressed quite badly. the woman was very fit, and tan, and was wearing a clingy tiger-print dress that revealed an amount of her impressive cleavage that some might consider excessive. for instance, the person sitting next to her might feel endlessley confronted by the excess of her bosoms.

i spotted a much nicer table being cleared and asked if we could sit there. as we sat happily at the better table J said good work, girlfriend.

then we saw them seat a big, big guy at the pole table. a guy J said he recognized. we looked him up later; he's on the local city council. i realized we'd displaced this man whom all the staff had recognized. i felt a little bad, but then he and his preppy companion struck up a conversation with the young women sitting between them and us (not the breast lady, who was quite enthralled with her conversation with steven spielberg), and they seemed to be quite content.

so the food was actually amazing. probably the best restaurant meal we've had together. we started with their version of shrimp and grits-- the grits were made with chorizo, and the shrimp were just really good. J had beef tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus (i think), which doesn't sound as special as it was. i had flank steak with risotto which also doesn't sound as special as it was. and then we shared a piece of macadamia cheesecake.

we stayed for a long time, and made snarky comments about everyone there, and left very happy.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

February 21, 2007

beer.

i would have to say that today was a big improvement. i spread the points out more evenly throughout the day. i was hungry through parts of the day, but never painfully hungry. i saved enough points for dinner that i was able to have a really satisfying meal. i also wore a pedometer today, did a little extra walking at the mall this evening, and viola! 3 and a half extra points, and i wasn't hungry.

i had a beer.

a diet where i can have a beer if i play my cards right. this is not a bad thing.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

February 16, 2007

decadence vs. asceticism

i'm sitting here watching voyager, and i'm going to try and write something thoughtful, which is usually a recipe for disaster. but here we go.

for reasons that may be apparent to those who see me daily i have been contemplating a weight loss plan. it came down to this: atkins vs. weight watchers.

i'm not really interested in discussing the validity of atkins, or the possible dangers, or whether it's healthy in the short or the long term. but wow, does it inspire passion in people. my own experiences showed me the fanatical followers of the diet; reading i've been doing lately has exposed me-- even further-- to its many detractors.

just for the record, though, while i was on atkins a few years ago, i did not have breath that smelled like rotten pineapple. yesterday, on a list i found on a nutritionist's web site, i read that as the number twelve reason why atkins is The Wrong Diet, so i just wanted to make that clear.

ok, so, weight watchers. of course it's difficult to get all of the information about w.w. because they really want you to join the club first before they give it up. although really, in my mind i've started likening both of these diet plans to cults, not clubs. and pyramid schemes, although i'd apply that more to w.w. than atkins, frankly.

so as i was debating which plan to choose, i started thinking about the essential differences between the two. atkins is very appealing, very luxurious; i already know how to follow it, and i get to eat so many things that i love, like cheese. i really love dairy fat. and cheese especially. i mean, cheese isn't just food, it's an art form. in fact, i'm going to go ahead and say that people who discard cheese as being "just flavoring" (really, i read that on one person's web site) have crossed from the realm of healthy eating into the dark pit of cheese-less despair, and should examine themselves for signs of having become a brainwashed zombie. do you crave decadent, fatty braaaaiiinnnssss???

in stark contrast, low calorie, low fat weight loss diets (and i'll admit, i say this as someone who has never followed one) seem to be all about asceticism. oh, there is the wonderful, bountiful world of fresh fruits, vegetables, and lean protien sources, and i certainly have a love of all of those foods. but there's like a sort of moral superiority to these kinds of diets. followers are refraining from the luxurious sin of fat, they're being good.

i've gotta wonder if some of the anti-atkins stuff out there is just sour grapes.

but you know, i've decided to find out for myself. i've done atkins, and i lost weight, and i kept it off for a couple of years until i broke my arm and fucked up my leg and became afraid to walk around my own neighborhood because of the broken sidewalks, and then sprained my ankle a few more times for good measure, and it all went downhill from there.

i'm here again, feeling a panicky need to get my weight under control, and this time i'm going throw in with the spartans. i hear you get "negative points" for exercise. job one is to discover how many laps i have to swim to get an ounce of cotswold. or a few marcona almonds... or half and half in my coffee... or... uh..

i should stop.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

January 07, 2007

conflicted

like 99 squintillion other people, i think that january is a good time to improve my eating habits (among other things). i don't usually make resolutions, so i haven't resolved anything in particular. but this is a logical time to reduce after the excesses of december.

eating lots of fresh produce is key, of course.

i also want to reduce my footprint in another way: i want to eat more locally grown foods.

this is tricky.

i went to the grocery store today with local in mind. fortunately, we've got a store that labels the origins of all the fresh foods (or most of them). i wanted snow peas for a stir-fry and for salad, but they were from peru so i didn't get them. i found local hydroponic lettuce and compromised on a carrot and a cucumber from california. did you know that a lot of mushrooms come from pennsylvania? and from oregon.

sigh. i'm a spoiled, modern westerner. not only do i have enough to eat, my biggest problem is choosing things that are good for me and for the environment.

yeah, i'll go cry into my soba noodle stir-fry.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:07 PM | Comments (3)

Category: food

November 16, 2006

durham restaurant scuttlebut

Word on my neighborhood listserv yesterday is that Jo and Joe's is closing this week so Jo can move to Belize and take care of her father.

The owner of Fowlers swears up and down in a Herald-Sun article that they will re-open December 1st. I think no one believes him, however.

And at the bottom of that article, it says that Piedmont starts seating people TODAY. For reals!

Oh, and xta mentioned a new place to me named "Nosh". This place i have not ever heard of, but she said it was great.

What restaurant scuttlebut do YOU know?

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:48 AM | Comments (5)

Category: food

November 02, 2006

withdrawl

i've removed all the sweets and chips from the house. i've finished the gingerbread.

a little while ago i went through the kitchen looking for one last piece of candy or gingerbread or a pretzel. i even checked the plastic purple pumpkin fully expecting to find a piece of candy there, forgetting i'd cleaned it out this morning and brought the last of it into work.

i'm such an addict.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

October 26, 2006

recipes

Gingerbread

1/3 C shortening
1/3 C water
1/3 C molasses
1/3 C sugar
1 egg
1 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Heat water and butter until butter is melted. Add molasses, sugar and egg; beat until sugar is dissolved. Sift dry ingredients and beat into wet.

Grease loaf pan, bake at 350 for 30-40min

note: IIRC Bunch of Pants found this recipe a little dry. Be conservative about the baking time, especially if you are using a pan that is wider than a loaf pan (which I usually do).

:|:

I made these tonight, for the party...

Crunchy Fudge Sandwiches

1 C (6oz) butterscotch chips
1/2 C peanut butter
4 C rice krispies
1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C sifted confectioners sugar
2 T butter
1 T water

Melt butterscotch chips and peanut butter over low heat in a large, heavy saucepan, stirring until blended. Add rice krispies. Press 1/2 of mixture in buttered 8×8" square pan. Chill. Set remainder of mixture aside.

Melt remaining ingredients in a double boiler. Spread over chilled mixture. Allow to cool and top with remaining rice krispy mixture (re-heat slightly if necessary). Chill. Cut into small squares.

:|:

I am considering making a small pitcher of these, provided I can find creme de noyaux. I figure floating 151-proof rum on the top can be optional for those not wishing to become complete wasted, instantly.

Zombie

1 oz light rum
3/4 oz creme de noyaux
1/2 oz triple sec
1 1/2 oz sour mix
1 1/2 - 2 oz orange juice
1 Tbsp. 151-proof rum
crushed ice

Blend until smooth; float 151-proof rum on top.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:22 AM | Comments (3)

Category: food

September 12, 2006

if you love your pudding, label it

i had this brilliant idea a couple of weeks ago: bring enough food for a whole week to work on Monday. this works incredibly well in my effort to improve my lunchtime habits, because at lunch i always follow the path of least resistance. walking down the hall to the breakroom is much easier than walking to the cafe or to my car. so if i have the food there, i eat it. excellent!

ok, so there's this sign on the refrigerator door that says it will be cleaned out every Monday. I assume this means at 0'dark-thirty Monday morning, when the housekeeping staff is around, and I pay it little mind, because I clean all my stuff out on Friday, then bring new stuff Monday.

Happily, I brought very little stuff yesterday because I was out of town all weekend and had to do my grocery shopping last night. But I did bring some lasagne (which I ate), some grapes (left over from last week, but still good), and some small tubs of butterscotch pudding. And some DDP.

"Funny," I thought this morning as I unloaded a week's worth of sandwich supplies, yougurt, and more DDP into the fridge. "Didn't I have some food in here last night?"

The grapes I remembered, and didn't feel too sad about losing them. After a week of grapes, I was a little tired of them.

The DDP is a little baffling. Soda doesn't go bad, why throw it away?

Then this afternoon I remembered the pudding. Oh, woe. They threw away my pudding! Dammit.

Still, there is no point in being angry at the faceless powers that render the fridge clean each Monday evening. They cannot know that that pudding was perfectly fresh, and loved by somebody. I have learned my lesson.

I will label my pudding.

Posted by spacegrrl at 02:47 PM | Comments (4)

Category: BPAL

July 26, 2006

cake is better than metal

"Captain, we are being probed."

i've been watching a lot of star trek: the next generation re-runs lately. it's somehow comforting and satisfying at the same time.

this morning, my hands smelled like metal. it occured to me that despite having showered twice and washed my hands numerous times and washed dishes since i was last covered in the powdered exterior of my van, there might be some lingering metallic particles in my skin.

the scent faded through the day but even so tonight i was inspired to mix up a batch of lotion scented with Midway, a perfume oil that smells like funnel cake.

CAAAAKE!

i took a break from westy sanding tonight, mainly because my evening schedule was pushed back very late due to stuff out of my control, plus the fact that i decided to cook a large, proper dinner, and that took a long time.

for those interested, i grilled a steak and made a spinach casserole; for starters i picked bitter greens from my garden and dressed them with dressing i made with buttermilk, sour cream, garlic powder, sea salt, pepper, and basil.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:00 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

May 26, 2006

hot now!

OH YEAH. it's been years since i had a hot krispy kreme at the store. there's just no other thing like it. astounding.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:44 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

May 01, 2006

the upside-down day

You know that thing where you set your alarm, but when you set it you're really tired because you didn't sleep enough the night before and then you've stayed up until 2am again, so you set it for 8 PM instead of 8 AM?

I haven't done that in a really long time, so the time, so to speak, was ripe. This morning I woke up very peacefully to the sound of the cat pacing in the hall outside my bedroom door. His appetite has been huge lately (crazy metabolism problems!) and this is typical behavior, especially around say 8:30am, which would not be an unreasonable time for me to get up.

I looked at the clock, and it said 9:24. Given that the 10:15 meeting today was most decidedly non-optional, especially with the atmosphere at work lately, I was a little panicked.

Panic and rushing through the morning without eating breakfast was business as usual from the time I was 15 until about three years ago when I Saw The Light. Breakfast. Best Meal Ever.

Oh, how I love my breakfast. But this morning, there was just no time.

So tonight, I let dinner wait way too long. I came home from work, spent until about 8 removing a yard waste bin's worth of grape vines and other assorted unwanted vegetation from the front yard, and contemplated dinner.

Avoided the question until nearly ten. Did not want anything in the kitchen. Went out and decided I'd decide while I was out. Got gas. Went to the bank. Drove on down the road.

Then I finally realized that I needed the meal I had missed: breakfast. I love breakfast, but even better is breakfast for dinner.

I came home and cooked sausage, turkey bacon, and little waffles with butter and honey. It was so very just right.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

Category: food

April 29, 2006

something like hoisin

i made salad rolls tonight, which i have done many times before. usually i use hoisin sauce from a jar, but although it tastes good, i've always thought it probably had a ton of corn syrup in it, and didn't feel very good about using it. so tonight, i decided to make something similar with better quality ingredients. although i'm sure there are recipes for homemade hoisin on the 'net, i didn't bother to look them up, since i was more interested in concocting something to my liking than being true to the flavor of hoisin.

so here's what i used:

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

February 08, 2006

spanikopita burger

put the feta in a large bowl and, if necessary, crumble further until the crumbs are very fine.

add the onions and the spinach and mix well.

add the ground beef and mix together well without over-mixing.

gently form into patties and cook for about five minutes on each side.

yum.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:08 PM | Comments (6)

Category: food

January 31, 2006

Paletas de YumYum

Loco-pops re-opens tomorrow.

I'll be there. Will you?

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:03 PM | Comments (4)

Category: food

January 16, 2006

kitchen roundup

i woke up this morning feeling awful. started to go to work. had a flat. came home, called AAA. called in sick. slept all day.

so, the kitchen. although i'm not finished with it, i probably won't make any major changes for the rest of the month. the next major things coming up are chairs, which will be a lot of money, and some pots and pans that probably won't be cheap, either.

i thought i'd post a list of the things that have, so far, made the biggest improvements in the kitchen.

the new tools that i use most often are my nonstick skillets (not surprisingly) and my microplanes. incredibly, there is a grating task in basically every recipe i make– how i got along without one before is beyond me. i guess i just avoided all recipes with zest in them!

watching cooking shows regularly has also made a big difference for me. if i see someone make a recipe i think i'd like, i go to the web site and print it off immediately. that way, it's easy to remember that i wanted to make it. i prefer the shows where people make food that normal humans would actually eat, not the rock star stuff like Iron Chef (although Iron Chef is quite entertaining– i just never get any good ideas from it). Top on my list are 30 Minute Meals (yes, she's annoying, but the food is quite tasty); Everyday Italian, and, on christa's suggestion, Good Deal with Dave Lieberman.

I have developed lust in my heart for a truly frivolous appliance: a panini grill. i think it was watching Giada DeLaurentiis make a pound cake/nutella/strawberry panini that did it. gawd.

Posted by spacegrrl at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

January 11, 2006

best low carb boxed lunch evar

this may even out-do the picnic lunch i packed for me and sarah a couple of summers ago when we were on a road trip.

chicken cacciatore burgers: i made the burger part of this recipe, using chicken instead of turkey. after they cooled, i put them in little gladware boxes, one per box, and put a couple of slices of smoked mozzerella on each one before i closed the box.

parmesan bread: low-carb bread kind of sucks, as you might imagine. i eat it, but i almost always cook it in a skillet with butter, like when i make a grilled cheese sandwich. recently i started putting fine shavings of parmesan all over the bread while it's in the skillet-- it forms a tasty crust, something that low-carb bread sadly won't do on its own. that gave me the idea to do this on a larger scale, with many slices of bread on a baking sheet in the oven. i crusted both sides of the bread with the cheese, cooled them on a rack, and wrapped them in pairs in waxed paper. both my silpat and my microplane came in handy for this!

arugula: i put a handful of baby arugula salad into a ziploc.

now i can put the burger part into the microwave if i want it hot, and assemble it all at my desk.

:|:

lunch remains the most frustrating meal of the day. i'm sure i won't cook for myself like this all the time, but i love the idea of burger variations, especially using turkey and chicken instead of beef. i ate half of one of the burgers when it was fresh out of the pan and it was quite tasty!

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:30 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

January 02, 2006

grate scott!

i know. groan.

today i added a second microplane to my kitchen; this is a small one, appropriate for zesting and fine grating– lemons, nutmeg, that sort of thing. i needed to zest a lemon for a recipe.

astonishing, using the thing. i remembered the first time i tried to zest a lemon for a recipe. i was a teenager, and i think it went so badly that i actually called my mother at work to find out what i was doing wrong. nothing, as it turned out. she probably told me to just put some elbow grease into it and eventually, you'll have some zest. mostly, the zest was stuck in the grater, one of those box graters that are great for large shavings but suck at anything really small.

one swipe on the microplane and i had a small pile of translucent zest. in about a minute i'd zested and entire, large lemon. the thing that struck me about the results was how oily they were. something about the way the microplane works brings a lot of the lemon oil out of the peel, which is exactly what you want when zesting a lemon.

today i also bought a silpat, something i've known about and wanted for years, but they're expensive so i've always put off buying one. supposedly nothing will stick to a silpat (you use it to line a baking sheet). we'll see.

i have this funny guilt about buying nice kitchen things, even relatively inexpensive things that are under $10, which is why i've never done much outfitting of my kitchen. there's always a cheaper tool or a way to improvise; why spend the money if you don't really have to? i've ground nuts with a hammer and waxed paper, before i even had a blender. i've baked cookies in a copper-bottom skillet missing its handle, more times than i can remember. i've steamed vegetables in a colander, and baked deep-dish pizza in an iron skillet.

and yet, i do recognize the value in good kitchen tools. over the years i've acquired some nice small appliances; nothing as frivolous as a bread machine or rice steamer, but good solid stuff, like a stand mixer that weighs more than a small child, and a food processor with a fancy french name.

anyway, i'm getting over this mental hurdle that i have about utensils and small tools. i am definitely fed up with my pots and pans, but it'll take some planning to replace those. i'm toying with the idea that i might one day like to have a very nice dutch oven.

i'm also thinking about replacing one of the biggest tools in my kitchen, but i'll write about that later, when i know more.

oh, and knives. i have to work on the knives.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:34 PM | Comments (10)

Category: food

October 18, 2005

blue ribbon!

This year for the fair, my mom entered macadamia cookies, and won a blue ribbon! She says they are displayed in the "basement" of the display case.

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:12 AM | Comments (1)

Category: food

October 16, 2005

"maybe i like kale" soup

shopping for soup vegetables today, i considered kale. many people like kale. why do i claim to not like it? i couldn't remember why. i like other greens. ok, i thought, i'll try kale.

olive oil
sage, parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, celery seed, sea salt, pepper
an onion
garlic
a red potato
one leek
one carrot
green beans
a few ribs of kale

chop fine and stew together with a bit of water. add a splash of white wine. (this last part may have been a mistake, but then, the wine was more like vinegar...)

season three chicken breasts with olive oil and the same herbs, seal in tin foil and roast in the oven til cooked. cut up and add to the soup.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:27 PM | Comments (5)

Category: food

October 04, 2005

the week of many foods

i don't normally eat out often.

sunday: panang with b.

monday: grilled, bacon wrapped hotdogs to celebrate the passing of the pool, with mary, xta, and ray.

tuesday: lunch at dalat with work people; dinner at federale with the xdu geek contingent.

wednesday: dinner at the new indian place near q shack with sarah, prior to shoe shopping.

mmm yummy.

Posted by spacegrrl at 04:43 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

September 26, 2005

highly efficient chicken soup

for when you need something cheap, fast, good, and not detrimental to your health.

take some of that frozen boneless skinless chicken you've got in the freezer, and that box of nice vegetable stock from the natural foods store, and poach the chicken in a little broth over very low heat while you go to the kroger and hit up the produce section for veggies that seem likely, such as string beans, an onion, and some mushrooms.

when you get home drain off the broth, which is now icky, put the chicken aside and wash out the pot.

heat some olive oil in the pot. chop the onion and sweat it in the oil with the lid on.

decide to add a tablespoon of minced garlic.

prepare the green beans. be happy the mushrooms are already cleaned and sliced. dump it all in and let it sweat with the onions while you...

pull the chicken apart with two forks. it's good that way, in soup.

put the chicken and the rest of the broth in the pot. consider that a little more salt would be nice, but decide that none of the herbs in the garden are quite right for this soup.

simmer. eat. feel good.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

August 13, 2005

strength of ten men soup

i improvised this recipe yesterday. it's yummy and super healthy. it will give you the strength of ten men.

this could easily be made vegetarian, but it will only give you the strength of five men that way.

cook 1-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a soy-citrus marinade. (i used a marinade i got at Wegman's in Virginia, and opted to put frozen chicken breasts in my slow cooker for several hours, to make sure they didn't dry out. if you bake instead, be sure to cover the pan very tightly so you get lots of juices.)

sieve the juices into a soup pot, then add 2-3 cups water. dissolve a tablespoon or so of miso into the broth. after this point, never boil the broth, or the miso's beneficial properties will be destroyed.

thinly sliver:

2 button mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper
a small handful of snow peas
a scallion

the peppers and mushrooms survive nicely in the broth, so add them at any time. the snow peas and scallions should be added just before serving.

chop/shred some of the chicken and add it, too.

yum.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 27, 2005

aspartame

Aspartame side-effects.

Dunno if this is a crock but aspartame was one of the things I got rid of for the most part over the last month, and I certainly feel a lot better now, sleep a lot better now.

It's hard to pinpoint any one thing, though, especially since aspartame and caffiene usually go hand-in-hand, and caffiene can certainly be responsible for trouble sleeping and other stuff.

Update: This is probably a crock. Snopes.com, Truth or Fiction.com.

Posted by spacegrrl at 11:56 AM | Comments (4)

Category: food

July 25, 2005

little blueberry thingies

in response to something i put behind the password, i had one person ask how to make a nut crust, so i'll just post the whole recipe here since some folks might be interested. note that it's not perfected. i improvised this last night.

fill a muffin tin with little paper muffin cups.

nut crust:
in a food processor, process a couple handfuls of nuts (any kind). i like to add a sweetener, like splenda or a sugar free flavored syrup like hazelnut or caramel. process until it starts to clump up.

press a little nut stuff into each muffin paper. (at this point, i would recommend trying to bake the crusts. i didn't, and they absorbed a lot of the moisture from the filling.)

filling:
on top of the crusts, pile a bunch of whole fresh blueberries. i think frozen could also be used.

mix together some whole milk plain yogurt (mmmm) with hazelnut or vanilla sugar free syrup, or the sweetener of your choice, until it tastes good to you.

ladle some of the yogurt mixture over each pile of berries.

bake at 350 for 20-30 min.

mmm, yummy.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 19, 2005

a boring entry about what i ate for dinner

i am happy to report that i've been diligent about always making dinner for myself for at least a week and a half if not two weeks now. only exceptions have been dinner out with friends on two occasions.

so for some reason, i alway feel really tired and logy after these dinners i make for myself. tonight, however, marked two weeks since i last worked on the westy and it makes me very uncomfortable to let that project sit idle for weeks at a time. so i forced myself off the sofa after dinner and headed on over there.

physical activity was definitely the ticket, i felt great and energized after a brief sanding sesh. so much so that i did some grocery shopping after.

i've kept my caffiene consumption low for the last two days, and no alcohol since friday. i've been steering clear of aspartame too since it can cause blood sugar crashes.

i'm really hoping for a good night's sleep tonight not interrupted by yelling neighbors, whining dogs, or cats horking up hairballs.

i'm loving the weather right now though. spatters of rain, some grumbling but nothing huge and crashing. perfect.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:57 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 15, 2005

ungh.

well, french night did me wrong. i woke up far too early, feeling rather unwell. i feel somewhat better now, just sleepy and a bit off.

don't mind me as i sit in my office trying to understand the use of <xsl:param> while yawning and completely indulging in feeling sorry for myself.

and smelling oh-so-faintly of tulips, grass, and water.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)

Category: food

July 14, 2005

French Night!

uunnnnggghhhhh, i am so full. i don't normally have a problem with portion control, but apparently French Night brought out the worst in me.

so it was...

mushrooms cooked in white wine, butter, and rosemary from the garden poured over a chicken breast and steamed broccoli.

mmm, yummy. i might have had a glass of the wine... or two.. too..

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 13, 2005

mexican night!

i was tempted to get takout, but i talked myself out of it. helps that i had a plan already and knew it would take less time to fix food at home than to run out for it-- and besides, i didn't really feel like driving around either.

and dinner turned out very yummy and satisfying! the nice thing about cooking for oneself is that you can make it all just the way you like it.

i cooked a frozen chicken breast in some oil with chili powder, onion powder, cumin, and salt. i cooked some brown rice with similar seasonings, then added some ro-tel tomatoes and chilies to the rice. when it was all finished, i put it all in a big bowl and covered it with a handful of grated pepper jack. the cheese melted into the rice and it was so wonderful.

tomorrow is supposed to be eastern european night, but i feel a little lost at the prospect of improvising eastern european flavors, so i may have to skip to the next one.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 12, 2005

italian night

dinner was...

wow!! and now i have sauce to put up in the freezer for later, and a snack for later (leftover pasta and meatballs).

oh, and WINE. i mean, i had to open a bottle to put some in the sauce...

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 11, 2005

health before beauty

i commented to sarah yesterday that i think i have been successful in one dietary change i've made-- i'm definitely good at being moderate in my sugar consumption. that means that i can eat sugar without having to have it be an all-or-nothing proposition. just something that i enjoy every once in a while.

now, let's just see if i can do the same thing with french fries! my other great downfall.

i decided to try something new this week. i've got some good basic ingredients for dinners, but if left unchecked i'll just make the same dang thing for dinner every night.

in the enchanted broccoli forest there's a couple of pages devoted to just the essential flavors of different cuisines. The herbs, spices, oils, cheeses and wines most commonly used for chinese, mediterranean, italian, french and other kinds of cooking.

so i typed all of those up on little slips of paper which i've tacked to my refrigerator, and each day i'll improvise dishes using my good basic ingredients, seasoned according to the day's chosen style.

finding ideas online is quite easy; today i entered "mediterranean broccoli" into google and found a nice simple recipe for broccoli aglio olio (which is just a fancy way of saying broccoli with olive oil and garlic and herbs).

anyhoo. it's been working for a few days now. and aside from a trip to char grill friday, i haven't had french fries in... i dunno. a week? maybe? that's not bad.

being forced to think in terms of what will make me feel energetic and healthy, rather than what will cause me to lose weight, is, i think, an excellent change in perspective. i feel motivated to eat my vegetables and cook for myself. maybe some weight loss will come of this, but that's not my concern right now.

Posted by spacegrrl at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Category: food

July 06, 2005

the meat of the day was HAM.

lunch: grilled ham and swiss on rye. SO GOOD.

dinner: federal ham and gruyere on toasty baguette. SO GOOD.

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Category: food

June 17, 2005

in the yummy goodness department

sarah's writing about BPAL scents has piqued my curiosity... i'm in the process of digging through their site and the forums to see if there might be something i would like.

i think i definitely have weird ideas about scent. unfortunately, i like masculine scents, but it's really that i like masculine scents on men. well, occasionally. certain scents. i do like some feminine scents, but, like sarah, often find them overpowering or too perfume-ey. and there's one particular scent that men often wear that i absolutely hate. i can't quite pin down what it is, but it's cheap and awful.

for myself, i can only guess at what i might like. the one i'm most intrigued with right now is called "Dublin", and it is described thusly:

"The scent of misty forests, damp alder leaf, and the gentlest touch of white rose."

anyway. we shall see. it sounds as if buying imps (small sample bottles) from people on the forums is the fastest and cheapest way to try out something new, and i've already found someone with dublin for sale.

:|:

one luxury that i continue to allow myself (in these days of financial responsibility) is fancy tea from southern season. a while back i bought some peach and ginger tea that has been too delicate for me to enjoy in the mornings, when i want something strong. today i decided to try making iced tea out of it, with a hint of sweetness added. i have to say, it's some of the best iced tea i've ever had. it has many subtle flavors which are much more apparent when it's cold than when it's hot.

iced tea, as it is practiced in the south, often seems to hit one over the head with flavor. both the tea flavor, and of course, the infamous diabetes-inducing sweetness. i think iced tea is more refreshing and pleasant to drink if it's not too bitter and strong and sweetned only lightly. this tea definitely fits that bill. now that i write this, i think iced green tea might be interesting to try, since green tea never gets very strong.

i can definitely forsee more interesting iced tea adventures this summer. also, now that i have mint growing in my garden (thanks to georg and sarah!), i will have to recall the mint julep lessons taught to me by the master oh so long ago. you know-- the master of mint growing and mint flavored alcoholic beverages and ice creams. you know who i mean. i once sat in his little terraced garden in chapel hill, where he grew many exotic varieties of mint, and he taught me how to make a mint julep. i think i still have a bottle of bitters somewhere that i bought after that lesson.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:59 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

May 16, 2005

berry picking

strawberries are in season, y'all!

- does anyone know of a good organic pick-your-own berry patch around here?
- provided a place can be found, does anyone want to go berry picking this weekend?

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:30 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

April 17, 2005

turkey bacon

verdict: i think this might be the answer to my desire to eat meat products for breakfast.

although the atkins diet does give one license to eat all the fatty pork products one wants, that still doesn't mean it's such a hot idea. the sodium and the saturated fats were getting me down, plus the fact that i'm not actually on atkins at the moment.

turkey bacon does bear a disturbing resemblance to soy bacon while in the pan, but the taste and texture is very different. it's also very different from pork bacon, but that's ok. i still like it, and it doesn't have the guilt factor. plus, you can microwave it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 01:19 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

March 08, 2005

tell me about your favorite cake!

my mom's birthday is saturday and she has given me complete creative control over her birthday cake!

i'm looking for ideas. she likes fruit flavors, coconut, nuts, but she cannot tolerate chocolate very well, especially dark chocolate. cheesecake is also a good option and in fact i have a really nice springform pan that i've only used once, so i'd enjoy doing a cheesecake.

given the many sweet teeth reading this blog, i am sure you guys can hook me up with a good idea or two!

Posted by spacegrrl at 09:53 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 25, 2005

grilled cheese of the day: i don't have a name for this one.

thick sourdough bread from a good bakery, aged extra-sharp cheddar, minced green onion. eat with tomato soup that has had garlic, onion, parsley and basil added to it.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 24, 2005

grilled cheese of the day: the diner classic

wonder bread, american cheese. eat with french fries and lots of ketchup, and the cola or root beer beverage of your choice.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

clove is just love with a c.

i'm just sayin'.
and that's especially true when the clove in question is a garlic clove, and it has a hundred brothers and sisters, and they are all soft and roasted, and they are in your calzone.

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Category: food

February 23, 2005

grilled cheese of the day: the patty-less melt

rye bread, swiss cheese. eat with garlicky green beans.

Posted by spacegrrl at 12:39 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 21, 2005

meal planning

last week i decided to start planning dinner a week in advance. here is what i discovered:

last week, i made something that i thought was going to be a side-dish, but which wound up being a main course. it's a variation on something they make at the company cafe, called "snappy spinach". it's basically a spinach casserole made with pepper jack cheese. my variation is to add a package of cooked, crumbled country sausage.

it was insanely delicious and satisfying. however, i could just feel my arteries clogging as i ate it, so the next time i make it, i'll definitely opt for a much leaner meat, and add seasonings to it to make it more flavorful.

tonight, i'm making chicken parmesan. i made my own italian breadcrumbs by putting two slices of low-carb bread in the food processor with some dried parsley, basil, and some garlic powder. i dried them on a baking sheet in the oven while the oven pre-heated. it really wasn't that difficult to make. it should carry me through all the dinners i'll have at home this week.

:|:

i've been thinking a lot about how to make this diet liveable over a long term. not just a few months, but as long as it takes to get down to my goal weight. the weekly meal planning is obviously going to help, both because it makes dinner more manageable after work, and because it's forcing me to expand my repertoire of recpies.

i'm trying to modify my attitude toward "cheating". i think it helps a lot to realize that straying from the diet just means it will take a little longer to reach my goal-- not that i have completely lost control and might as well give up. sticking with my rule of returning to a strict interpretation of the diet immediately after straying (i've decided that the word cheating implies a good/bad dichotomy that is not helpful) has helped a lot... it's not that difficult of a rule to follow, and it makes me feel like i'm staying in charge of things.

Posted by spacegrrl at 07:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 20, 2005

if i had a cooking show...

it would be all about grilled cheese sandwiches. every week, i'd show a different kind of grilled cheese to make, and the best sorts of things to have with that kind of grilled cheese.

Posted by spacegrrl at 10:29 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 10, 2005

pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and start all over again.

pinky asked about successful context switching... falling off a diet then getting back on it. so i'll write this.

this week i broke my diet twice, both times in response to a compendium of circumstances that seemed overwhelming. in both cases, one of the circumstances was being really fucking starving ravenously hungry, so i think that probably means i need to snack more.

in both cases i made a big point of being sure that my next meal was on the diet plan. it's hard. once you've cheated it's very easy to feel like it's too difficult to continue. or that a little cheating doesn't matter. but if you only slip for one meal and no more, you remain charge of what you're eating... not your emotions or whatever it is that drives you to eat badly.

i've been wondering a lot lately how much locus of control has to do with this stuff. apparently a sign of strong external locus of control is learned helplessness-- "playing the victim" in pop psychology terms. i think the core of my struggle with eating is being in charge of what i eat vs. allowing myself to be guided by mysterious, unknowable factors ("i don't know why, i just really want some french fries right now.") i mean yes, you have to listen to your body, but if you think your body is telling you that you need to eat french fries for your health, you're almost certainly quite mistaken. if you're having a strong, physical french fry craving (not an emotional one), chances are that you need to read up on carbohydrate addiction, stat.

anyway, i think i might try coming up with a week-long menu plan for next week. i think more planning will help me both stay on and enjoy the diet more, and i won't have that "crap-- there's nothing for dinner" problem. i'll let you know how it goes.

Posted by spacegrrl at 08:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

February 03, 2005

context switching

I've been giving this issue of moderation a lot of thought the last few days, and just now i had a sudden realization.

The other day at work, d. said, "I've been context switching like crazy and it's just... AUUUGH!"

By context switching, he meant going back and forth between two very different, conceptually different, tasks.

I have to do this in my job, too, and i just hate it, because each time I switch, I have to "ramp up". When I switch to coding XSL templates, I have to remember how my XSL coding environment works (it's kind of complex), and I have to remember XSL code itself (I haven't used it much, so it doesn't come back instantly the way other coding languages do). There's a lot of overhead involved in switching contexts, especially when you have to do a little re-learning each time.

So, how does this apply to dieting? Remember when I said that "all the way on and all the way off are easy, moderation is difficult"? (or something like that.) Well, moderation is basically an act of constant context switching. I switch from my high carb way of eating to my low carb way of eating from meal to meal, or try to. The more I try to do it, the more muddled things get; the more difficult they seem. It's easier to just land on one and stay there, because there's pain involved in each switch.

I think this also helps explain why social situations cause me such problems sometimes when I am trying to stick with a low carb diet. The social situation exerts pressure to switch contexts to the prevailing one that I am in. ie, everyone else is drinking wine and eating potato chips... it takes a lot of extra energy for me to remain in my own little context and not join the one that everyone around me seems to be enjoying so much.

I was thinking yesterday that it might be worthwhile to identify a set of skills that would help me maintain over the long run (or remain in a weight loss mode over a long period of time). For instance, the ability to have one high-carb meal, then immediately switch back to low carb at the next meal. If I think ahead to what that next meal will be and already have it planned... "ok, i'm going to char-grill for lunch and i'm going to go for it! fries, a pie, everything! so for dinner, i'll get that chicken out of the freezer and i'd better stop at whole foods on the way home for some fresh broccoli. it'll be a pain but i HAVE to." maybe that would reduce the overhead involved in context switching. and if i practice this over and over, and the habit wears a little groove that i can fall back into with ease, i might be better able to achieve moderation.

this is not to say that i'm going to go to char-grill every day, however :)

Posted by spacegrrl at 03:32 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Category: food

January 31, 2005

what is decadent?

as i said in my previous post, it's funny how quickly one's idea of decadent can change. a few days ago it was potato chips and french fries. now, it's a specific kind of rich cheese.

coffee. it was a daily thing, before. every morning. finally the execution of the habit was more appealing than the coffee itself. same with fries, and hamburgers, and everything else i ate over and over. why do i do that? it's a kind of laziness that settles in. i stop cooking, even though i know that i could do some cooking and it wouldn't be that big of a burden. and i know that i'd enjoy the variety, if i put a little effort in.

why is moderation so tricky? all the way on, all the way off-- those are easy. i did manage to be moderate and maintain my weight for a while, and then, eventually, things always start to devolve and i have to start over again from the beginning.

maybe each time i get better at moderation and maintenance. i wonder, if i shared my household with another person or people, how would this be different? everyone says that cooking for one is hard, but i've only ever cooked for one, so i don't know. most of my friends and boyfriends have encouraged me to eat badly, in both overt and in more subtle ways. i seem to do better when i make choices alone. (although i have to give mad props to d. in this department; he's almost always willing to go to the company cafe instead of out for lunch, and i make some of my best choices in the cafe.)

as i cook the majority of my own meals, i can see how my kitchen frustrates, with no dishwasher and minimal counter space; access to cabinets is often poor, and even accessing the trash is a pain. i wonder how a good kitchen would change my eating habits. i find good tools and good work spaces a pleasure to use, perhaps more than the average person. i am currently in love with my new garlic press and fresh garlic goes into almost everything i make now, as a result. what if i were in love with my whole kitchen?

:|:

today was ok, i felt a little horrid before lunch, and quite irritable for a while in the afternoon. tired when i got home. it was good that i had a roast in the crock pot that i could tear into the moment i walked in the door. my fast-growing black tea addiction is replacing my coffee habit, but at least it has fewer carbs, costs far less, and has less caffiene.

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Category: food

January 30, 2005

cheese is good

yesterday, i went back on atkins. like full-on, what they call 'induction', the really restrictive first phase that everyone is supposed to start with. having gained back about half of the weight i lost in... was it 2002? 2003? i can't remember... i decided i needed to be very serious about weight loss again for a while. i hope this time i can get down further than i did the first time.

yesterday i felt fine, but today i had a lot of fatigue and hunger and even a little queasyness. on atkins, you can eat all you want and you can eat lots of meat and fats and veggies, but i find i still have to eat almost constantly sometimes. i'm trying to cut back on caffiene pretty severely, too, so it's hard to know what's causing the fatigue, but it doesn't really matter.

the funny thing is how easily i've gotten back into the groove. once you learn how, it isn't that difficult, which is not to say that i'm immune from temptation. i'll be avoiding it as much as possible for a while. the guys at work are like, "well, can't you still go to char-grill and just not eat the bun or the fries?" well, yeah, and i've done that before but please don't put me in that position any time soon. really.

the other funny thing is how the oddest things become decadent. right now i'm snacking on some double gloucester cotswold (a very rich cheddar with flecks of chive) and it seems so very extravagant and comforting.

:|:

today nearly became another tiredly boring day (ok, so i was dealing with fatigue and getting my kitchen in order and that sort of thing), but mary happily rescued me from all of that with a trip to SRI. i finally found a pair of black low top chucks in my size-- i've been wanting some for a while. i also got a pair of extremely comfortable yet ladylike kitten heels in a shiny orange-brown.

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Category: food

January 18, 2005

have a calorie!

when you impulse buy one of those little fried pies, that's an impulse pie.

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Category: food

January 17, 2005

my favorite waiter

d. and i have been eating at the same thai restaurant for years. we have our on times and our off times but we always go back.

for a while there was this waiter. he was different from anyone else they had working there. he was sure of himself. he was intelligent. he was one of the best waiters i've ever seen working. i can't imagine anything causing him to become visibly distressed or flustered in front of a patron.

i liked him, though, because he was very, very cute, and would always bring me two vegetarian spring rolls, with sauce, instead of soup and one meat spring roll. he would hook me up. i love spring rolls. i loved that he did this. no one else there would do that.

and then he was gone. the food got worse. the lady who runs the place looked sick, although she was still always there, every day. the few times we ate there then, the place was dead. no one there. those were the dark days of the thai restaurant.

it's better now. the lady looks good again and she smiles her little mona lisa smile. they have a buffet that kicks ass. i can have all the spring rolls i want. the room almost gets full at lunch. and one day, years after he left, he was back, our favorite waiter.

was there a glimmer of recognition? hard to tell. he's still the best waiter ever, even with a buffet. d. said, "you should chat him up." but he seemed down today. and the lady wasn't there. after we walked out i said, i think he's their son maybe. d. agreed. and i said, i wonder if their family was affected by the tsunami. and d. said that it probably was.

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Category: food

December 20, 2004

foodie - not

i'd never, ever claim to be a foodie. it comes as no suprise that georg has tried far more things on this list than i have. however, i would like to note that most of the things i have not tried are exotic meats, most of which i will probably not want to try because i have not been socialized since birth to believe that it is ok to eat these particular dead animals. in other words, although i have accepted that meat eating is a necessity for me, i am still enough of a vegetarian at heart that there are very, very few animals that i am willing to eat, and they are the ones that i was trained to eat from birth-- chickens, pigs, cows, fish.

so here are the foods i've not tried:

i'll freely admit to having been at least in part an emotional vegetarian and it appears that i still am.

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Category: food