citizen of the planet

So, like I said last night, I am deeming my dinner party to be a success.  I chose to go the tougher route and cook/acquire most of the food on my own instead of relying on my guests.  I am so happy that I took that route.  Sure, some items could have used some improvement, but I don’t think I embarrassed myself at all.

For snacks prior to dinner, I set out three things.  The first was just chips and salsa.  I put out two types of chips with salsa to give a bit of interest.  I liked the square angle dishes I used for it with the contrasting colours.  The second was toasted pita chip triangles with hummus.  I toasted them myself with olive oil and salt and pepper.  To be honest, I don’t think this one was all that great.  The pitas I used were sort of thick and didn’t lend themselves well to this application.  I was hoping to serve this one freshly toasted, but I prepared it a bit too early.  I ended up putting it in the warming drawer while waiting.  I think that made them a bit tougher instead of crispy.  Next time I can improve that one for sure.  The third thing is the fruit platter.  I figured that I needed something fresher to go with the starchy things.

In terms of main courses, there were two items.  The first was a vegetable lasagna.  I don’t think it was that bad, but it could have been a lot greater if I timed it better such that it came out of the oven closer to meal time.  Plus, I think I could have put more cheese on top.  The second item was prime rib pot roast.  Now, this turned out better than I thought.  I braised the meat in broth, onion soup mix, red wine, and some frozen Mediterranean veggie mix.  I let it stew for about 3 hours.  The resulting roast was really soft.  I was totally pleased with the result.  I really need to do this again on Saturday.  It’s too bad that the only picture I got of it was blurry.

For dessert, I used a caramel crème brûlée recipe.  Really, this is the type of thing that should be prepared the night before.  Unfortunately, I only got it started at noon.  It didn’t provide enough time for the custard to really cool down significantly.  Also, without a blowtorch I had to use my oven’s broiler to get the caramelized top.  That probably contributed to the custard being warmer than I wanted.  Next time, I need to get this dessert started early, and I need to acquire a torch.  In terms of taste, I thought it was great.  Just needs some tweaks to kick this thing up to the next level.

All in all, I did a passable job.  Combining all of this with salad, garlic bread, cookies, and 1.5 bottles of red wine (for me) and I ended up really stuffed.  And that’s why I didn’t run this morning.  Yes, I’m comfortable with that decision.  Anyway, next time I’ll work even harder.  Got to hone the skills!

Yeah, so the dinner party seems to have been a success!  Everyone enjoyed themselves.  I succumbed to gluttony though.  Condition is currently such that I won’t be able to run tomorrow morning; there’s simply too much food in my system to run efficiently at all.  I’ll tell y’all about the food tomorrow.

• Elk tacos
• Chicken balls
• Fried shrimp skewers
• Mango juice
• Pulled pork sandwich
• Corn on the cob
• Chicken souvlaki on a stick
• Pork souvlaki on a stick

Aaaand…that was in one hour.  I made it a point to actually enjoy the Taste of the Danforth.  I say, mission accomplished.  Next time I need to do this with another person.  Need to share food so that there’s more chance to taste different things.

Over the past week or so I’ve been complaining about having a week of really piss poor eating.  I think at some point, in my Internet food tracking tool I indicated that I was planning on burning a hell of a lot of calories this week.  It’s a fair assessment given how far my running distances are becoming, and how much extra stuff I’m starting to incorporate.  With that info, the site tweaked my target ranges to be higher.  This is supposed to ensure that I have energy to keep my activity levels going at a good level or performance.  With the newfound room, I’ve been eating more–no problem there.  The danger is that, in eating more it seems like I’ve been sailing over the target all to easily.  I might plan to do A and B, but somehow I’d throw in C and D on top of all that.  Doing that once in a while  isn’t bad.  However, doing it multiple times in a week is throwing up red flags in my head.  I’ve been bloated several days this week.

The extra food isn’t entirely deadly, if only because I’ve truly been exercising more.  Still, it’s an odd feeling considering that I’m on the right track. I have to be careful when people I know tell me “oh, don’t worry, you’re training for a marathon!”  That may be, but that doesn’t give me free licence to eat freely.  I need to be a bit more judicious with my choices.  Yes, today’s stop be the Korean Grill House was awesome, but did I really need to eat all of that meat?

Anyway, I’ve readjusted the tracker once more, and that brought the calories back to a lower range.  Starting on Sunday I’m going to go back to watching and tracking properly.  It’s the only way I’m going to feel good.  This week is done and over, and I had fun, but it’s time to focus again.

At some point a long time ago I put out a cup of utter on the counter in a Ziploc bag just so that it could warn up to room temperature softness.  I had plans to bake with it.  I didn’t get around to it right away, unfortunately.  A month went by where every day I’d look at the butter wondering whether I’d find some reason to use it.  Yesterday I finally decided to get off my butt to do something about that.  I decided to make a batch of cookies using my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe.  No, I didn’t want to make shortbread because that required rolling.  I wanted this to be a less fuss-worthy affair.  I needed two ingredients, so I scanned my cupboard for options.  In the end I decided to go with dried cranberries and semisweet chocolate chips.  I took the standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and tossed in one cup of dried cranberries.  Those cranberries had been sitting around since the new year.  See, I originally wanted to use them in the new year to make holiday cookies.  Unfortunately, I just never got around to it.  Good thing is those dried cranberries held together really well.  Well, holy shit, the combination of chocolate chips and cranberries just rocks.  There’s a sweet, tart, melty, chewy quality to the resulting cookies that’s just ridiculously awesome.

So yeah, now I’m stuck with a ridiculously huge pile of cookies.  I’ll find one way or another to get rid of them, besides consuming it all.  I do want to make another batch soon.  I’ve already decided that white chocolate cashew is next.  However, I really need to work on finding a way to make it all fit into my healthy eating thing.  I will make it fit, no doubt.  Still.

Tonight, post run, I ended up hanging out with a friend I hadn’t seen in a long while at our favourite all you can eat sushi place down the road.  Just like I’ve mentioned in the past, it’s almost as if the ability to gorge ourselves got left behind in university.  I had totally forgotten about it, but my friend mentioned a time when we felt like getting stuffed post exam and went to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet.  I somehow managed to down 13 small slices of pizza that afternoon.  And afterwards we walked over to the Dairy Queen next door to cap things off.  Holy crap.  I simply can’t even imagine doing that now.  So, the lack of will and ability  to really stuff ourselves only means that we take our time choosing stuff that gives us the most bang for our buck.  I mean, it’s easy enough to pick rolls that would normally cost $8 anywhere else.  Those pile up.

Anyway, mid-dinner, we were talking about our meal when I came to the realization that there’s a definite pattern in the way I tackle all you can eat sushi places.  I actually rarely ever go for anything raw.  That totally didn’t occur to me until tonight.  I did order sashimi and it wasn’t really a favourite of mine.  Instead I gravitated to the rolls and other cooked items.  I do eat maki rolls, but I will go for the ones that have tempura shrimp or grilled eel as the protein part.  It’s not that I hate the raw fish, but it’s simply not that great.  I do remember eating sashimi in Japan, and man, that was some amazing stuff.  Here though in Toronto, the fish is inevitably pre-frozen, and you can taste it.  That’s not to say that the fish isn’t tasty, but the mouth-feel leaves something to be desired.  I don’t want to eat something that’s simply “all right” when there’s plenty of other stuff on the menu that makes me happy, know what I mean?

Wow, I feel a little odd even admitting any of this.  I mean, I do like sushi and sashimi.  Just…I need to pick and choose when I partake in that kind of food, and oddly enough all you can eat Japanese is not ideal.  Go figure.

It’s a very good lesson to learn.  As you go through work and life in general you’ll end up building a multitude of valuable relationships.  Even if you end up moving on, to some extent you should try to keep some ties alive.  You never know when those links will become handy.  Now, I’m not saying those links should be exploited plainly for fun and profit, but there are certainly times when your information network can come in handy.

Quick story.  As I’ve mentioned, I’ve changed departments.  As a result I’ve had to relocate to a different floor, away from the main kitchen area where my old desk was located.  The other day I was out for some ice cream with our company’s receptionist.  She informed me that desserts were being served today, Friday, at around 11 a.m.  So, today, prior to 11 I pinged my old colleague and asked him to message me when everything was served.  He did just that, and I was able to scramble downstairs with my eco-friendly plate and get to the food before anyone else had a chance.  Minutes after I got back to my desk, the email went out and everyone ran.

See.  Information networks rock.  Priorities, you know.

Aaaaaaaargh!  I miss cooking!

After visiting my parents and helping them to get their computer and televisions set up I went shopping for random stuff.  I stopped by Quiznos and got a sandwich and chili.  As I was eating the chili I kept on thinking about how my chili was pretty good as well.  Really, a lot of stuff I make is good.  Question is, when was the last time I really put in a lot of effort and made a proper meal?  If I look back, it seems like the last big thing that I made was shepherd’s pie, and that was almost a month ago.  No, boiling pasta and adding sauce doesn’t count.  Steaming peas in the microwave doesn’t count.  Man, cooking a big meal once a month is just unacceptable.  Back when I moved here I was cooking daily.  Where did that fire go?  It seems like the fire has been relegated to the back-burner.

I guess if I think about it there are several factors at play here.  First of all, my schedule has just been busy.  With improv and running, I arrive home past 9 p.m. four days of the week.  I suppose that only means that I have to make a conscious effort to do something on those other days.  Secondly, monitoring my caloric intake has played a big role in changing my habits.  I tend to blow all of my calories during the daylight hours leaving very little wiggle room in the evening.  On a particularly off-balance day it wouldn’t be surprising for me to just eat a piece of fruit to round out my day.  There’s no way chili or meatloaf would fit in, normally.  To address this thing I have to do two things.  I need to be more conscious about eating less during the day hours.  Little snacks here and there pile up.  As well, if I need to reduce the number of times I eat out for lunch.  This could be addressed if I actually cooked more, I guess.  Lastly, I need to work on simply burning more calories.  Surely, marathon training will play its part.

For something that I really enjoy doing, it’s surprising that I’ve let my skills fade like this.  Life doesn’t simply wait.  If I want to bring it back into my routine, I have to make the effort.  Right here I’m acknowledging there’s an issue.  I’m going to address it.