Utils in Bat Country

A tale of two cheeses

On Saturday, Tass took me out for a welcome to Baltimore dinner. We had a delightful time but one of the highlights was the cheese plate.

So good. And the berry/molasses sauce? I must figure out how to recreate (not that my new schedule allows for any more energy at night aside from microwaving).

And then, the universe just had to bang it home just how much my life does not consist of dinners that begin with cheese plates so this was my lunch on my first day:

I didn't know if there was a microwave, if I was going to go out, if there was a fridge, etc so I grabbed things that didn't need to be refrigerated. And, thanks to various form craziness, this ended up being enough for my lunch for today too.

Moral of the story - everything is better with cheese.

Lesson learned, universe. Lesson learned.

My people get me

As a thank you for watching their cat, T&B brought me back the most perfect gift from FL

If only there was a way to transport hot waffle fries.  Am starting to get chicken nugget withdrawls...

One Week

Until I'm at the shore

(thought not wearing a fabulous frock)

staying at the same house we come back to year after year

(though it does not have a patio like this)

and eating enough delicious food that by the end of the week, I'll likely resemble this

(yep, pretty much)

And I cannot wait.

*all images via Pinterest

Mission: wtf teeth?

(And I can't keep track of the letters anymore so using the real numbers. Drama! Cookies! If I know you irl never mention this at Starbucks/Coldstone in the Randall's shopping center where everyone I went to high school with inevitably goes when people are in town!)

Has been a little quiet round these parts lately, mission wise.  Stupid leg took me out of commission for awhile but things didn't regress too terribly.

Prior to stupid leg, had been tracking nicely down through the high 140s.  By the time leg mostly resolved itself and I was moving again had revisited the low 150s. Not terrible seeing as how the holidays were thrown in there too but not ideal.  Started walking the dog, doing yoga and/or cardio dvds, general dance marathons whilst brushing teeth, focusing on eating and....nothing, nada, zero change. Fine, I tell myself.  Am replacing the fat stores with muscle, could potentially be smaller but numbers will not change.

Weeks tick by and I oh so baby stepped back down into the high 40s.  148, 147, one glorious day at 145.5 but then right back up to 148.  Bah.  But fine, I tell myself. It takes time, is a slow process and hey, your wisdom teeth are next week, you'll be on a liquid diet for a couple days that should yield some movement in the proper direction.

Thursday Food Intake: soup in the morning, water, slimfast shake. Total calories - several hundred?

Friday Food Intake: small smoothie (yogurt, fruit), diluted apple juice, maybe 1/3 of a can of soup. Total calories - again, several hundred.

Saturday morning scale - 144.  Wee! At least this godforsaken throbbing has a silver lining!

Saturday Food Intake - applesauce, Panera soup and mac and cheese.  Not great for you but calorie total still clocked in at under 1,000

Sunday morning scale - 145.  Fine, probably all the sodium from yesterday.  Went on a 2 mile walk, ate more Panera soup and mac and cheese (only thing soft enough that I could taste!), water, rinse and repeat. Still under 1,000 calories.

Now, 1,000 calories is not life sustaining.  And yet, Monday morning, 146.  WHATTHEFUCK.

Every day this week, every when I've felt like crap, have walked the dog at least a mile.  Am eating soup (no crackers) for lunch, maybe sucking on a couple of Hershey's kisses here and there, eggs or something for dinner, basically everything I was doing before the teeth, just less.  Less exercise yes, but not by much, but definitely less food and especially less bad for you but delicious white flour carby goodness.

This morning? 147.5. Am clearly some sort of scientific marvel who doesn't adhere to the laws of physics. Calories in < calories out = weight loss except not for me, oh no.

I give up. Am going to eat a chocolate chip cookie even if it takes me 2 hours to nibble my way through that sucker.

ETA - And! I forgot the other crazy thing. I'd recently gone through my clothes and pulled out the ones that were too big for me.  Told Mom to try them on and take what she wanted.  She found a good half dozen tops, skirts, pants etc that fit her well.  Now, if these were the things I was wearing 50 pounds ago that am now giving away because they are basically falling off of me, you'd think that Mom and I would be relatively apart of the weight scale.  Except no, she was talking about how her bloodwork was great but she wanted to lose 25 pounds or so to get into the 120s and it hit me - while I am a couple inches taller than her, am only about 3-5 pounds lighter.  IDONOTUNDERSTANDSCIENCE.

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

Back over Christmas, I discovered the most delicious cookies in my parent's freezer.  Near perfect duplicates of Thin Mints, my elation was dashed when I realized they could only be gotten from HEB, a chain that Michigan does not have.

When I knew Mom was coming up for my teeth, I asked Dad to load her up with some cookies for me. And, oh, my cookies dreams have come true.  Or nightmares I suppose as I can't eat them for another couple of weeks.

Eight packages. Come to Mama.

Food Verdicts

Overall - YUM

I made the cake Saturday afternoon and debated about assembling the potatoes.  I was nervous about them getting mushy overnight but in the end time constraints won out and I figured the 3 cups of cream and pound of Gruyere would cover all manner of food sin.

Dealt with my parking lot phobia by going to 7am Mass, came home and took a three hour nap, walked TS and tried to figure out the game plan.  I had roughly sketched out when things needed to be in the oven but not so much the prep.  So I did some prep things, got the asparagus ready, took the puff pastry out of the freezer, peeled and de-veined the shrimp (still can't decide if it was worth it over frozen already cleaned ones) and dropped them in the marinade.

Miraculously, nothing disastrous (with one glaring exception) happened and I didn't forget to make anything and come 4pm I had my appetizers ready to go.

Bruschetta - delicious as always, am a big fan of having prosciutto on hand to pair with it.  Only flaw with toasting bread rounds is what to do with the extra.  I haven't thrown them away yet but they're pretty rock hard. Not sure if throwing them in w/ the tomato a la panzanella will help.

Brie - Good, not fabulous.  Was easy enough to put together and was tasty.  I may skip the onions next time.  They definitely a nice flavor to the dish but all that moisture ended up for a soggy pastry bottom.  And the brie and the pastry are so decadent to begin with, the onions didn't need to be there.

Timing wise, am shocked, but everything went smoothly.  While I was finishing up dinner for 5pm, dog park neighbors were able to eat the appetizers and have some wine and giggle over the mini Easter baskets I got for everyone.

Baked shrimp scampi - yummy.  I forgot the wine and think I'll use less panko next time but aside from the prepping of the shrimp was pretty easy to make and I think with a few modifications will not be quite so stick and a half butter indulgence and could easily be done on a weeknight.

Grandma's mushrooms - sigh. Not bad but like everything, better when she makes them.  I got the pre chopped mushrooms but think I should have chopped them further.  They were nearly steak cut so by the time they started to get brown and crispy on the outside, I was mumbling hurry up hurry UP at the pot.

Roasted asparagus - always good, a welcome vegetable.  Overshadowed by the other taste explosions.

And my potatoes.  My precious, precious potatoes.

I pulled them out of the fridge at 2:30 to go in the oven and peeled off the foil to discover a top layer of gray.  Even with being in the cream and covered, there was still much oxidation.  I picked off the worst offenders, noting the mushyness, threw some more cream and cheese on and popped it in the oven, fingers crossed.  I moved my oven racks so the potatoes wouldn't be on the bottom level but there was still a brown crust all on the bottom.  Didn't taste bad and I only noticed it because I've made them so many times.  The taste itself was still spot on amazing and there was a bit of discoloration in the overall dish but when in doubt, cream and cheese won't steer you wrong.

Olive oil pumpkin cake (with the ridiculous $10 for a wee little pack of pine nuts) - good.  Really good.  Super moist, not too sweet.  I wanted something lighter for the end of such a rich meal and this hit the spot.  I sifted some powdered sugar on before I served and I'd definitely always do that in the future.  No problem at all with being made ahead and something that will be perfect for brunches and weekend breakfasts.  I may swap out the pine nuts for walnuts next time because I suspect the flavor notes will all still be there.  While is very much a fall dish (pine nuts, pumpkin, rosemary) I thought it translated really well to a Springtime meal and definitely plan for it to be a year round cake.

While I am pretty proud of myself for my foray into Martha land, there's always the aftermath to bring you right back down to the real world.

Pescatarian is a Stupid Word

Furthering my adventures in not eating meat has been interesting. I stopped eating most meat near the end of February. It was going to be a 30 day experiment, which has morphed into something more.

I have eaten fish, and I won't lie about that. A couple tuna sandwiches a couple of weeks ago, in the throes of a horrific hangover, some sushi here and there at work. But that's about it. Otherwise, it's been soy products and tofu.

Perhaps unsurpringly, my weight has stayed about the same. In part this is due to the cheese. Like may aspiring veggies, I oft times replace meat with cheese in a meal. This is a bad thing to do, and yet I keep doing it. I also think I've hit a point where, unless I become anorexic (which is NOT on my agenda), I will not lose weight until I get back to exercising. The problem is that on my days off, the last thing I want to do is move. I bust my ass at work, this morning my knees were killing me, so the idea of jumping around while someone exorts me to TRY HARDER makes me want to punch them in the throat.

That all said, The Guy introduced me to some really good soy protein sausages. They don't taste like meat, per say. They taste like the spices that make sausage tasty, while maintaining a good consistancy that doesn't make me retch, like some veggie hot dogs do. And I've got to start trying to cook with tofu, because we need the protein and I need to practice with the whole cooking thing.

There is a veggie/vegan restaurant near where I work, so that's helpful. Their reuben, which uses some kind of tofu for the meat, is excellent and I bet I eat there once a week. Another local bar also has a couple of staples for me now, with a veggie burger and a grilled portabello sandwich that's killer. But I'm also not concerned with occasionally allowing myself some raw fish at work.

So, that's how the whole vegetarian thing is going. We shall see, once summer sets in and hot dogs are all around, if I can maintain or not...

Of Mice and Yellowtail

1) The veggie thing got derailed last night, due to some yellowtail tuna. It was late at work, and I thought I ordered the vegetarian version of a roll I love. The sushi chef made the fish version, and since I was whipped (I love working doubles, but they kick my ass) the protein in the fish sounded GREAT. So I ate it. I'm back on the wagon today, though. But I could easily see myself going pescatarian instead of vegetarian.

2) Mickey's little brother decided to make an appearance over the weekend. Not to be deterred from him pacifist ways, The Guy set the live-trap for Little Mickey Friday night. And actually caught the little bastard right away. We took him to live near his touring relative Saturday afternoon. Now I watch the dogs to see if there are any more of Mickey's relatives hanging about. But I sure hope not.

3) Just to toot my own horn a little, the restaurant got a complimentary email about me last night/this morning, that one of the managers was thoughtful enough to forward to me. And I must say, it's really kind of awesome to get something like that. It's so rare that people take the time to say the nice things about places they visit, that to be told you're good at what you're doing...well, it makes busting your ass for 13 hours on a Sunday seem a little more worthwhile. Yeah, I get paid, but it's nice to know I'm doing it 'right'.

Mary Had a Little Lamb...

It's a good thing Steph has a lot to write about lately, since I've been woefully absent from the blog. It's because 1. I've been working a lot (good), 2. school is back in (sucks), 3. my social life, revolving mostly around The Guy (see #1 for reason that I have very little social life outside of time for him) has been busy as well (good).

[That last sentence was so convoluted that it can't see straight, but it's the best I can come up with right now...you get the gist.]

My story for today comes from dinner Friday night, which I suddenly had off work. This is a blessing, when you're dating someone who is not in the Food Service Industry, as weekend evenings are precious to come by. And because I finally am picking up enough shifts that I'm not dying if I don't host on a Friday night.

Anywhoo. Because I work every Monday night, we celebrated our Valentine's Day Friday (spare me your Hallmark-holiday whinging, it's been a rough few years for me and I'll take a little pink heart bullshit holiday while I can). I got roses, I got an adorable card (Snoopy!), I got candy from a local chocolatier (rather than a Whitman's sampler), and I got dinner at a local Indian place.

When we walked in, The Guy was a little underwhelmed. This used to be a favorite of his, but he remembered it as being a little more upscale than it really was. Perhaps new owners, perhaps a faulty memory, but he was a little dismayed. No matter, we sat, ordered, and were happily eating our aloo gobi and Indian bread.

The food runner stopped at the table part way through our meal to apologize for dropping the wrong bread at the table. It was one thing, we had ordered another, keep the first on the house, second was correct.

Fine, dandy, whatever.

I grabbed a piece from the now-free basket, took a bite, and told The Guy that he shouldn't have any since it was stuffed with meat.

"But, I already had a whole slice," he replied.

Silence.

The Guy has been a vegetarian for twenty years. During that time, he has made a few mistakes like this, only on a much smaller scale. But this? This was a piece of naan with lamb stuffed in it.

How he failed to realize there was meat in the bread is beyond me. You could certainly taste it...even if you don't remember what lamb tastes like, it should have been apparent that there was SOMETHING very very different about the bread. And yet, there he sat, happily chatting away and munching on a baby sheep.

We called the server over, she sent over someone who had to be a manager of some sort. He was VERY apologetic, and really wanted to give us something for free. He was insistent that something spicy would settle The Guy's stomach (say what?), and even offered tequila as an answer to the problem.

He brought us two free pickled things, one potato and one tomato. He also gave us dessert for free, as well as one of The Guy's dishes (he went with two mains so we could share one). I wasn't pleased, and I wouldn't go back, but at least he did something for us. I mean, The Guy should have realized he was eating meat, but there are mistakes your restaurant makes and those you don't...

Amazingly, he did not get sick from the lamb. This led me to accuse him of being a secret meat-eater who plays at vegetarian just for kicks, but perhaps the manager was right about the spice killing the meat rebellion.

Superbowls of yum

I don't have a Superbowl party per se but I usually end up having friend's over to watch the game (and this year Glee).  Having pizza tonight so we're not going to repeat on Sunday but given the recipes I'm starring will likely end up with a very non game day odd assortment of food.

Am fascinated with these Crab Tator Tots but am intimidated by the idea of deep frying.  I could bake them, yes?  400 for some until they're brown amount of time?

I also stumbled across this delicousness and while I don't think I'll make the whole cupcake, the filling seems like a delightfully yummy dessert option.  Perhaps I'll dip them in melted chocolate and make truffles (or just leave it in a bowl and give everyone spoons)

Everything else catching my interest lately is of the casserole/stew variety.  Could be good for throughout the day grazing... or maybe not.

But, I have the major game day foods covered - potato, just not in chip form and pretzels, just encased in peanut buttery swaths of sweet.

If I find a stew recipe that calls for beer, I'm totally set.