Guess who got to cut another notch in his belt last night?

Moi. 

That's right.  That's two new notches I've had to cut in my belt in as many months (not a euphemism, perv).  The belt is starting to do that thing where it's getting a little unruly and is kinda flapping around there, but it's a nice reminder everytime I notice it so I'm going to keep wearing it.

Eats:

 Yesterday I made eggs over squash with some terrible salsa verde I made. 

I used this fine butter.

It's pasture, butter.  Good for you.

Then kitty napped.

she's in there.

Lunch was turkey-tomato sauce over butternut squash (not my FAVORITE, but.) and some torn basil.

With an apple and some almond butter.  I'm getting used to the flavor as opposed to peanut butter.  Apparently, peanut butter is highly allergenic and also notoriously moldy, and my favorite website recommends not eating it. 
Raw almond butter is nice.  It has a deeper, quieter flavor.  Not quite so flashy. 

My face after jogging.

Then I went for a 25 minute jog/walk.  I mostly jogged.  I probably jogged a full mile, which is nice.  I also did upwards of 100 pushups yesterday, as well as did some other weight work.

Then Kitty took a nap.

And I went out to dinner. 
I'd write about today but I must go. 

Night then.

It's clearing up outside.

See that in the distance?  That's the sky clearing up.  I forgot about that feeling - how great it is when skies clear after it rains all day.

What a great feeling. 

Have a great rest of your day.

A long walk, plus a fish.

Sew.   I'm very tired.  I went to the farmer's market yesterday and got this ^ lovely bounty.  Beets, radish turnip, Fuji apples, kale, pork chops (!), garlic, shoulder steak, ground turkey, pasture butter, eggs, rainbow trout, sunchokes, AND shishito peppers.  The dark, leafy green veggies were not in abundance, with the exception of some out-of-season hothouse lettuces, which I did not get.
I started to walk home, thinking I would just hop on the train eventually, but I was having such a lovely walk in the sun that I just walked home via the Manhattan Bridge.

I've never walked over the Manhattan Bridge before, only biked.  I got about a quarter of the way and realized my fear of heights was kicking in.  I just had to power through.  You cant just stop on the bridge.  I knew if I even paused and gave in to the fear, I might have a very very long walk off the bridge ahead of me.  It was nice to not give in to the feeling.

I got home around one thirty and had a couple of eggs and an apple (which did NOT mix well in my stomach - never again) and tried to take a nap.  Later that evening I had a lovely sandwich from the famous Hana Foods in Williamsburg.  I didn't really eat enough yesterday.

Today was a cooking day.  I wanted to cook enough food for the next few days, so I didn't eat out and spend money, and also so I would eat well.

I made what has become a standard dish of mine - a ground turkey tomato sauce and spaghetti squash.  This time, I threw some orange zest in, which actually turned out really well.  It added a nice brightness to the sauce.  To balance that out, I added some grated romano, which wasn't the exact flavor I was looking for, but was still good.

I take crappy pics.  Deal with it.

I also made a salsa verde for the small rainbow trout I picked up.  Boiled a couple of tomatillos and threw them into the blender with some hot pepper, cilantro, basil, parsley, a garlic clove, salt and some evoo (fuck off, we used to use that word in restaurants way before rachel ray).  Needs some work, but still a tasty sauce.

Sometimes I even take REALLY crappy pics.  You just have to deal with that, too.

I used the salsa to cover the trout, which I also stuffed with Mineola orange segments (I bought a billion to slice and put out at a party last weekend and totally forgot, so if you're wondering about all the orange in my cooking, now you know why) and baked it in the oven.  I ate it with some butternut squash I also cooked up this evening.  My romantic relationship with the rainbow trout vendor at the Greenmarket is over.  That is one bony little fish.  Decent clean flavor, but all those BONES...

I also roasted up some sunchokes.  I don't think I've cooked with them before, which is weird.  I look forward to experimenting with them.  They have a nice, buttery flavor (could be because I roasted them in lard), but I do kind of wish I had peeled them.

While I cooked, my brother cooked along side of me, starting preparations on a meal he's cooking for a friend later in the week. 

His attention to detail is impressive.

Cooking alongside my brother all night and listening to music?

He's wearing the hoodie I got him for Christmas a couple years back, and the Team Kyle tshirt from my birthday extravaganza underneath. 

 What could be better?
Have a good night.

PS: I really, really, feel like going for a run but am so, so tired.  I feel weirdly emotional, and I think the run would help, but I can barely keep my eyes open.  K.  Thoughts over.

We Go To Boston To Get Maria's Lipo Checked Out

 A trip to Boston this morning.  Mari had to get to the doctor.  We shared a turkey sandwich and two bananas on the ride up.

First things first, a flat tire an hour outside New York.  That slowed things down a bit.

 We made it to her appointment because Maria went no slower than 80 mph the entire rest of the way.  We were fifteen minutes early, actually.

 Then, we went to Sichuan buffet where I ate a combination of veggies and meat (the bok choy was surprisingly good).  It should be noted that I ate a delicious dessert (!) that involved ice cream, my third time having it in four and a half months.  I only eat it when it's STRONGLY suggested to me.  And it was totally worth it.

 We also got to go to a truck stop.  I picked up a car charger for my iphone because I had to charge my cell phone at Sichuan Palace and it had to lay on the floor while doing so and I had to keep my eye on it and whatnot and I felt like a weirdo.  So.  Charging in the car from now on.

 The truck stop sells everything.  CD's.

 Souveniers.

 Really beautiful faux-gold-and-daimond miniature semis.  Love poems.

We got gas.  And back to New York.  I'm having a beer, and then I'll do some pushups.  To bed.
Tomorrow - farmer's market and the gym.  Maybe doncing.  All I want to do is donce, really.

Night.

Today's

I need to post but this needs to be quick.  I'm having a party tomorrow and have committed to making an unmanageable amount of food.
Breakfast:

I have got to start bringing my own breakfast.  This Starbucks oatmeal is pretty bad.  But it does keep me full for a while.

Lunch was corporate deli salad.  chicken, tuna, egg, veggies.  No tuna next time.  NO TUNA NEXT TIME.  Somebody remind me.

 I also added a whole BUNCH of raw sunflower seeds.

Dinner was kale long-cooked with caramelized onions and homemade chicken stock.  Also two "turkey dinner sausages" from Brooklyn Cured.  And half an avocado. DELICIOUS.  SO TASTY. 
Time for some pre-party cooking AND a workout in between sheets of oven fries.

The lovely Isabel visited me today.

Night then.

No tuna next time.

Today's eats und activities

Hello.

Today, I began the day with a tiny bacon egg and cheese from Starbucks.  Because I didn't want a stupid oatmeal today.  That's all there was to it.

Lunch was a corporate deli salad.

  Not as filling as usual and I'm not sure why.  Actually, yes I am.  I suppose it's because I didn't add a scoop of tuna this time.

Dinner was a big ol' burger from Hope and Anchor in Red Hook with a friend.  It came with a salad, which I didn't eat because I disliked the dressing very much, and fries, of which I ate about a third.  I shared a piece of banana cream pie with a friend.  All I wanted was lemon meringue, but my friend told me it wasn't meringue season, which though untrue, is hilarious, so I accepted this statement.  Although I think I'm going to need to learn how to make lemon meringue pie MYSELF since it is so hard to FIND.

Snacks included a lobster roll (I found out I still don't like them), half a quesadilla, and a banana.

Two and a half mile walk tonight.  Gym Monday.

Night!

I made a kickin' chicken and jogged while it roasted.

I have about thirty one seconds to post this. 

Morning!   Yesterday's breakfast - perfect oatmeal from Starbucks.  The guy gave me twice as much as what usually comes in a serving (I'm assuming it's because he thought me handsome), so I could only eat half.

Lunch was corporate deli salad with a scoop of tuna.

 Snack included Thingz From Wisconsin (thanks Natalie!):

About five bites of this crazy beef jerky.

 

And I had my first Cheese Curd, also.  I ate a whole bunch, and haven;t really been eating very much cheese so they kind of made my stomach hurt.

I walked home from work (1.2 miles) and prepared to roast a chicken. 
I've had some mixed results with chicken - Costco's organic chicken being the worst (no real surprise) and D'Artagnan being the best, but harder to find. 
So I asked Scott Bridi from Brooklyn Cured to recommend a good quality chicken and he told me about Bell and Evans' Giannone chicken at Los Paisanos (butcher shop in Carroll Gardens).  
So picked one up and buttered the hell out of it.

A variety of potatoes from Trader Joe's, parsnips, and brussels sprouts.  Salt, pepper, pastured lard.  Kerrygold butter for the chicken, salt, pepper, and garlic powder, because I love garlic powder.  And I shoved some lemon and onion in its cavity.  I had no herbs around, unfortunately.

Into the oven it went at 500 degrees.

So, while it was roasting, I went and jogged about 3/4 of a mile around my neighborhood.  And learned something.

My shorts don't really fit.  I had to use the string and try to tie them really tight, but they still looked and felt kind of ridiculous.  Part of the time jogging I had to hold them up.  I mean really.
Then a came home and did a quick routine with weights, and some pushups.  I don't really have a plan yet for the weights, but will soon.  I just wanted to get moving a bit today.

Then the chicken was done.

Look at that lovely bird.  It was moist and delicious and garlicy and the veggies were nicely caramelized. 
What I've learned about roasting chickens:
Definitely use (pastured) lard on the root veg, and cook the chicken on a pretty high heat.  It won't burn; these Fancy Chickens are much smaller than regular grocery store chickens, and can take the heat. 
Also, your veg won't really caramelize if cooked in lard unless the heat is high (at least 450) because the smoke point of lard is so high.

This may be my last chicken for a while though.  I might be getting a little sick of them.  We'll see. 

It's a beautiful morning in Brooklyn.

Holy lord I haven't posted in a while.  

Probably because I was so excited about my surprising weight-loss that I've been basically celebrating all damn week.  A little too much.  A little too much processed food, a little too many drinks. 

That's alright.  I'm not gonna stress out about it.  It's not the end of the world.  And I enjoyed myself! 

This week I helped my bud Forrey Cool move.

Coolest U-Haul rental office ever.

Hung out with friends.

This is the A Team, plus that dude on the side.

 And joined the gym!  I went the first time on Wednesday with Forrey, and am sore as hell now.  The book The New Rules of Lifting, which I hope to receive on Monday.  I'm looking to develop a lifting routine that utilizes deadlifts, squats, and the like.

Ok good. 

I have to go.  night!