Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Well, this is the last day. A 30-day month would have ended yesterday, but I went for one more day, and wait until you see how it ends!!

It started badly enough. I grabbed two car-mugs of decaf and three pieces of leftover grilled zucchini and headed for Weight Watchers. I have to go at least once a month, I think, to keep my lifetime active.

Anyway, I was up 2.4 pounds!! I was depressed for the rest of the day. The meeting leader says she never ate salty foods for a couple of days before a weigh-in. I would love to blame this 2.4 on the sesame sticks and take no responsibility for the bourbon! But looking back on a month, I think I deserve those pounds. Now I have to take 'em off, take 'em all off.

I was too depressed to eat lunch.

We met Tom and Nikki at the Cambridge Brew Pub in Granby for an early dinner. I had one of their beers, a dark ale. It was wonderful. Better than Guinness because there was no bitterness. Close to the Guinness at the Guinness factory in Ireland.

I had a bowl of their steamed mussels with my ale.

Really good!

Then I had a steak salad, which was also really good, but it didn't come sliced on the salad. There were large cubes of steak, and it was a tad rare. But once I cut it up, it tasted really good.

I had a glass of Pinot Noir and a roll, too.


OK, now for the big ending to a month of food!

Morrow wanted to go to Carvel's. I didn't think I wanted anything, but after one ale and one glass of wine, I guess the memory of those 2.4 pounds was a little foggy.

I had a cup of ice cream that had some Swiss Miss Cocoa ice cream, some coffee ice cream and some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Then the girl rolled the top in chocolate sprinkles and dumped a bunch of oreo cookie crumbles all over the whole thing.

AND I ATE THE WHOLE THING!!

Taking off the 2.4 pounds starts tomorrow!!

This has been interesting, but not really game-changing, not that I entered into it thinking I'd change my game. I don't know what I thought I'd learn, if anything. But it was something interesting to do. I could be talked into doing it again......

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Breakfast: running late so I grabbed two cheese sticks and a cup of coffee with milk and sped off to yoga-pilates. I was able to do most of it with the ankle.

Carol came over after Senior Center exercise class and we played Scrabble. I made a salad with lettuce, tomato, ham and blue cheese with the last of the asiago dressing, which wasn't much.



I found some leftover cold coffee, added a few ice cubes and a little milk.

Mid afternoon tea was a cranberry-ginseng herbal.



















While making dinner, I had a small glass of red wine and a combination of dried cranberries and sesame sticks. Turns out, it is a very addictive combination, and I dipped into the bags two more times more for refills, only once for cranberries. I have to get rid of these sesame sticks!!!

Dinner was breaded chicken tenders and grilled zucchini. I made a salsa from some of the mango-onion salsa I bought plus plain yogurt, cardamom, and chopped fresh mint, probably the last from the garden for the year. It was OK, not truly awesome.

After SONE rehearsal, I had a drink which I think IS truly awesome, and I think I'll name it The Big Apple since it's a variation on a Manhattan.

The Big Apple

2 oz 12-year-old Apple Brandy
1 oz. red vermouth

Simple, on ice, and awesome.

I ended the day with a cup of decaf.

Monday, September 20, 2010

This is so weird! I don't even remember breakfast this morning. Seeing a photo seems like this was something a week ago!

Must've been a long day, and most of my pix were taken with my phone because I left the camera upstairs, and I'm too lazy to go get it.

Undoubtedly, I'll have to eventually!!

Anyway, breakfast. I took the leftover half piece of Indian porotta bread, added two slices of good old Nature's Promise Black Forest ham, and a sprinkling of the Salsa Fresca that is the mango-onion-cranberry-tomato salsa. The bread was pretty hard, and half of the salsa ended up on the counter or floor when I took a bite.

Coffee on the run.

I came home from two doc appointments and took what are probably my last cherry tomatoes off the vine and ate them. I think there are maybe three small tomatoes still green. I picked my two eggplants, although I don't think they're really ripe. They are very small and light colored and hard. I don't expect much from them.

What a disappointing garden this year. I'm afraid I just don't put any time into it, so I can't be too upset when it doesn't give much back, can I?

Lunch started with the rest of the brown rice California roll. I love those Japanese-decorated plastic trays it comes in. I use them as pin dishes in the studio.

Then I cut a small (local) tomato in half just to use the rest of the wasabi. Not only cleaned out my sinuses, it made my eyeballs burn. I can't eat wasabi without thinking of the Budweiser commercial which followed the WASSUP ads with the Japanese guys all saying WASABI. They were all funny!

Then, still hungry, I ate a "lite" mozzarella stick. They are so tasteless, I can't wait until I finish them. Two left. At the rate I think of eating one, it'll be Thanksgiving before they're gone.

Finally got to the studio and worked on a skirt. I don't know what's wrong lately, but nothing I make turns out very well. Martha's quilt, and now this skirt, which is too tight, too short, and too circular. I'm going to have to do surgery on it tomorrow. Material is too nice to throw out. What does this have to do with food? Not much, except that I want to eat more when I'm upset about something.

More on that later, when I act on the sewing frustration.

Meanwhile, today I put on tea water and remembered to make the tea! Today's was Trader Joe's Ruby Red Chai (I HIGHLY recommend this -- not too Chai-spicy, and not as blatantly "berry" as Red Zinger) and Lipton's Lemon-Ginger herbal.

This is where the emotional eating comes in. First I see Morrow eating bagel crisps with port-cheddar cheese log. I have one and a half. Then I make my exotic cocktail, and have another bagel crisp and cheese log.

What I DIDN'T photograph were the three half-rounds of bagel crisps I ate out of the bag while making dinner. I just couldn't keep taking pictures of single crackers on a paper napkin. But I ate them anyway. And they really were the broken halves.

The cocktail of the day was, however, interesting. I kept taking a sip and saying "strange," then "good." I figured since yesterday's was The Millionaire, I should try the Billionaire tonight.

The Billionaire

2 oz. bourbon (recipe called for the high proof stuff, but I don't have any)
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup
3/4 oz. absinthe
1/2 oz. home-made real grenadine

Bourbon and absinthe makes a very strange combination, but it kept resolving into really interesting. It sounds sweet, but it wasn't really. With high proof bourbon, this would be a real kick. Seriously.

After that, dinner was a let-down. A plain burger with A-1, and an ear of local corn, plain too.

And a salad, which I ate before taking it's picture (leafy lettuce mix, a tomato, blue cheese, and Annie's asiago dressing.

But there were two bits left, which I finished later. When you see that photo, picture a bit more here.

Always running out the door.

When to the quilting/sewing/knitting group at Border's again. Took four quilts in to be in a quilt show in East Haddam.

Had a decaf skim milk latte and a little free sample of pumpkin spice cake. It was good. I bought a piece for Morrow.

Complaining to Carol how I really wanted something chocolate, she bought me a 70% cocoa dark chocolate bar. I had half of it!!

When I got home, I finished the wilted salad in the salad bowl.

Isn't that picture just the worst? Looks like garbage. But it's red lettuce in a wooden bowl.

I also had a cup of decaf which I did not take a picture of.


It seems like an awfully long day, and looking back at the food part of it, it seems like I spent the entire day eating something!!

Only a few more days, and I still can't come to any conclusions about what I eat or how I eat.  I think it would be fun to do it again but make the photography the main point -- really set things up and take Gourmet-magazine-quality pictures. Get a job with Martha Stewart.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Breakfast: 6 pieces of brown rice California roll I bought to take to New Hampshire for lunch and then didn't take it.

And my jo.

Church shopping again this week. I walked in the wrong door and walked right into the choir stalls! Oops.

Came home with a mission to get all that bad quilting pulled from M&M's quilt. I have a re-match with the machine next Wednesday, but I want it done.

Got busy with various projects and forgot to eat lunch. I even put tea water on twice and never made the tea.

Getting ready for dinner, I just had to have a few of those peanuts I claim not to like.

And I had a Millionaire cocktail, one from Dr. Cocktail's book of Vintage and Forgotten Cocktails. This one is really good, and pretty to boot.



The Millionaire

1 1/2 oz. Myers rum
1 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. Apricot brandy liqueur
3/4 oz. Sloe gin

The sloe gin is what makes it red. A really ice drink!

Carol was over and we started a game of Scrabble. She had to leave before it was done, but she was cleaning my clock!

Tried something new for dinner. One of those frozen dinners in a bag that are made in a skillet. This claimed to be shrimp curry for two with Indian bread called Porotta. Similar to naan. Well, there were about five shrimp total in the whole bag. I added some from the freezer. And it was spicy, even though the package said mild. But not too spicy to eat. I actually liked it.

Glass of white wine too.

I also made rice. Without the rice and the extra shrimp, there really would not have been enough. It wasn't bad, but I'm not rushing out to buy it again.

Had another half piece of the porotta with another half glass of white wine.










(The wine picture is bigger than the bread picture, not because wine is better than bread -- which it is -- but because I thought the picture looked like the ceiling in an operating room, or a raw egg with a see-through yolk, or something exotic. Too bad the dirty plate and fork were in the picture!)

Ankle killing me! Desperate for chocolate. Had a square of my dark chocolate bar I keep for days I really need it, and had a handful of dried cranberries with it.

That was so good together than I made a little bowl of yogurt and added some dried cranberries, a few mini bittersweet chocolate chips which have to be at least 2 years old (buried in the pantry in a jar), and one piece of candied ginger cut up. Stirred it all up, and it was great!

Still wish it had been chocolate ice cream, or mocha chip. Now that would be perfect.

But this wasn't a bad invention.



I'm pretty sure I had a cup of decaf too, let it get cold and never took a picture of it.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Off to an early day with SONE -- our fall regional weekend, and we are the headliners in the show as we sing for the region before heading to Seattle.

Breakfast was two leftover spinach pancakes (cold, I'm afraid), and a small bunch of grapes. I should have packed some cheese sticks or protein SOMETHING because I knew I wasn't going to get lunch. Dumb!

Stopped at a truck stop near Tolland to pick up Gael O. and got an iced decaf latte with a mocha swirl. Mmmm.

There are always vendors at Regional, and one of SONE's fundraisers is a food dealer called Tastefully Simple. They make dips, snacks, bread mixes, chutneys and sauces. That kind of thing. It's not the way I cook or eat, really, but I'd like to find something to buy, perhaps as a gift, to support the chorus.

They had a table with samples of the bread and dips. I don't even remember what these two dips were, but I had one cube of bread and a little dip for each sample.

We had to be in rehearsal at one, so I tried to get a sandwich, but they only took cash (and I had left mine at home), so I went to the bar, but they couldn't make anything fast enough.

So lunch turned out to be a single handful of their bar snack mix.

We rehearsed, and then we were the demo chorus for a class on finding your chorus image. We don't have one. That idea works better for a quartet, but I guess choruses can present a personality too.

The audience said we were Energetic and Captivating. We added that we are a very loving group, and we hope that shows when we sing.

We needed to eat dinner early so there would be time for costumes and full makeup.

I was so hungry, I could have eaten the napkins and silverware! I had a glass of pinot noir, which I did not photograph. I had a second glass with dinner, and it is in the picture.

I had a very good steak salad with chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, and a large wedge of blue cheese.

I also took some of Anne N.'s fries, probably about four. Not what's in this picture.



Then makeup, costume, and the stage.

As soon as it was over, we changed back into our street clothes and started home.

I would've loved a cup of coffee for the road, but we were all eager to get home.

I did make a cup of decaf when I got home, even though it was 10 before 1 a.m.

AND, I found about 2/3 of the half of a glazed donut I had bought Friday after the quilt disaster.

Good to be home.

Friday, September 17, 2010

One thing I've learned even before the 30 days is up. There is hardly an hour goes by that I'm not putting something in my mouth. Tea, coffee, sesame sticks, whatever!

Wasn't inspired by anything for breakfast, but I wanted protein for the long seige with the quilting machine.

A toasted corn tortilla with a couple slices of ham.

It was so boring that half way through, I added a blob of peach salsa, which didn't improve it a whole lot.








And a cup o' jo!

And a second cup for the drive over in the car. This was actually cold coffee left over from making too much for the last couple of days. But I was thirsty and like cold coffee. I think half the time I drink my coffee, it's cold.











The session on the quilt machine was going well until the middle of the 5th row (out of 7). I had to call the pro to the rescue. She was eating lunch, so I ate mine. I got charged for that time, too! But it wasn't long.

Lunch was a piece of leftover Asian salmon cake and about 1/3 cup leftover rice.

The quilt machine turning into a nightmare machine. Either I put the bobbin in wrong, or a piece of something got in the bobbin, but the result was that the bobbin thread didn't come out the right hole and had no tension. Well, it didn't show to me, but Sandy says I have to pull out the last row and probably all or part of the 6th row. I'm guessing I'll have to rip out part of 5 as well. It is hot, heavy, and very time-consuming work!!  So I was sent home with my unfinished quilt. I'm discouraged and I was upset when I left.

A stop at the Simsbury Stop 'n' Shop.

A piece of barbecue chicken tender.

And maybe if I make this photo smaller, nobody will notice that I also bought a glazed donut. But I only ate half of it.

When I got home and started the quilt ripping job, I had a cup of cranberry herbal tea and two little pieces of candied ginger. I've forgotten how HOT that stuff is!!

After over an hour of ripping, it was time for a drink. I think this one should be named.

But I can't think of anything!!

1 1/2 oz. cranberry vodka
3/4 oz. fresh orange juice
3/4 oz. cranberry juice.

Doesn't taste like there's any alcohol in it. Sweet. I expected the cranberry juice to cut the sweetness of orange juice but it added to it.

This is an embarrassingly bad picture of a decent quick meal.

Pan-fried cube steak and three spinach pancakes, which came frozen. I think some kind of yogurt based sauce would have been nice on the spinach. But they're not bad for something frozen. The picture makes them look disgusting!!

The cube steak was excellent. That's A-1 on top. Also looks disgusting!

Tonight was the first meeting of the women's EVE-ning group at Trinity. I had a glass of German white wine (German because our topic tonight was Martin Luther.)

I had already drunk some of the wine before I took the picture, and I eventually took about 10 more grapes. Ruth M. baked a black forest cake, but I resisted!!

The meeting was interesting, and I didn't get too nervous. I have no idea how or if people liked it.

When I got home, I had a few more grapes (red ones this time) and a cup o' jo, which I allowed to get beyond lukewarm before i drank it.

Time for bed. Big day tomorrow for SONE! Singing in New Hampshire (no, not for hire; for the Region 1 regional weekend).

A demain!