Wednesday

Lunch:

Pulled Pork Sandwich on sourdough

Dinner:

Red sauce on Linguine

Edamame (shelled and steamed)

Sourdough

Its remarkable just how little time there is. Writing, for instance, seems like a tremendous waste of time, except for the fact that it performs the dubious function of wasting someone else's time as well. But then again, if the things we type stick around longer than we do, then in a sense we are a tremendous waste of our writing's time. You should have read this hours ago. I should have written it days ago.

Will this semester never end?

Tuesday

Lunch:

sourdough bread butt and a little leftover red sauce

whole wheat crackers and cheddar

2 clementines

Dinner:

Country-style ribs (crockpot, then roasted with my BBQ sauce)

Fresh sourdough

Today FINALLY enough time to go get basil for the herb garden and to pick up some new thyme and other herbs that didn't make it through the collapsed garden during the ice storm. I'll be doing several of the usual basil varieties, but also a ton of lemon thyme, which I discovered and come to love last year. I may forego the oregano, since mine is running rampant in a few areas of my yard already. I was hoping the cilantro would come back from seed last year, which ended up EVERYWHERE. But apparently not. And strawberries, elusive strawberries. Maybe I will get some this year. Who am I kidding?

Monday

Lunch:

Fried Egg Sandwich with Cheddar

Dinner:

Red Sauce on Linguine

Thinly sliced and seared pork rib meat medallions with paprika

English peas

sourdough

Today I ran out of salt. This is something that has never happened to me. Salt is so fundamentally important. It defines nearly everything I create to eat. I don't care how good a painting is. Don't use a frame and you're looking at wrinkled blankets. Salt holds every other flavor together like grommet holes for support cables. And thus you can imagine the absolute shock and astonishment, then almost Poe-level despair and terror I faced. Not to mention the significant risk of goiter.

So I went and got more.

Sunday

Lunch:

Oatmeal with Raspberry Peach Jam

1 clementine

Dinner:

Red Sauce on Linguine

Edamame, steamed in the shell

Sourdough bread

Two days. That's all it takes. Your life completely changes, refocuses, hones in on something unexpected but welcome. Its as if you are looking through a telescope at the moon and you turn it slightly and refocus on Venus. An inch away in respect to you, and millions of miles away in respect to each other. Why two days? Well, one day would be cataclysmic. And I'm not talking about a life change that is brutal. No, I'm talking about a two day life change, in which the possibilities flash before your eyes, albeit in slow motion. You throw up your hands and give up. You let the rudder go. And are surprised when at the end of 48 hours, the pier manifests out of the mist right next to the boat and you disembark to find a hearty breakfast awaiting just ashore.

Saturday

Lunch:

Oatmeal with Raspberry Peach Jam

slice of fresh sourdough

Dinner:

My Pizza Pie (shallots, onions, green pepper, olives, porto bella)

chocolate pots du creme (courtesy of Gibbet Hill)

Damn fine company

Somedays you think you're going to be doing heavy academic thought work, and others you just know you're in for manual labor. Somedays, you think you're in for one when you're really in for the other. Which makes the work easier and the company you keep while doing it more pleasant. With the exception of mosquitoes. I'm not sure how they were already out, but apparently watching someone else work makes them hungry. Hey, everybody's gotta eat. There's an old chinese story that humans were only allowed to live by all the other animals because mosquitoes talked them into it. There is a hidden value in being delicious. Just ask any dairy cow or ear of corn.

Friday

Lunch:

French-style Omelet with cheddar and parmesan

fresh sourdough bread

Dinner:

Duck Duck Goose (EVOO in Somerville):

Duck confit, a little smidgeon of foie gras (upstate duck) and goose breast sliced thin

a surprising appetizer of beef tongue on a few pickle slices and a crispy potato croquet

Some beat up looking bread

Sometimes you have to restore your soul. At times like that, I crave a rare flavor. By rare I don't mean in the sense of, you can't find it on store shelves. I mean rare in the sense that you don't have it that frequently. I've said elsewhere that I've thought about why I want certain foods at certain times, truffles for instance, or foie gras. I know that I need the right situation to crave a particular food. Sure, I could prepare foie gras at home, but I find it is best savored at a nice clean restaurant, brought to one on a platter accompanied by either the head of Ronald McDonald or, failing that, the dish being served to a dining companion.

Thursday

Lunch:

Egg and cheddar sandwich on sourdough

Dinner:

pan fried Chuck steak

wine and cream sauce on a baked potato

at least a half pound of steamed edamame

big chunk of the bread butt of a sourdough

Some days, its all about prep cook. And though its something you love to do, sometimes you are occupied and so you do it robotically, not stopping to taste and smell the way you do when you are giving it your undivided attention. And given full pretenses, we assume that not paying full attention to detail will render the results mediocre or at the least uninspired. But we are pleased to find that the onions are just as sweet yet pungent. The bread dough is just as fresh yet tart and acidic. The egg flips just as perfectly in the skillet as if I had been focusing on it like a laser.

Wednesday

Lunch:

Last of the Spare Ribs

Cole Slaw

Sourdough bread

Dinner:

nuthin

two pints of Newcastle on tap

I hate a day when I finish, not having eaten anything of interest, or even just not having eaten anything. I have no problem fasting, but I like to plan that out. We shall see if I don't just make up for that lack of dinner on the weekend. I smell foie gras in my future. On another note, I just located a outlet for local grass-fed beef. This warrants much investigation. And I intend to give it the attention it deserves.

Tuesday

Lunch:

Barbeque Spare Ribs with sweet hot sauce reduction

More cole slaw

Sourdough bread

Dinner:

Barbeque Spare Ribs with sweet hot sauce reduction

More and more cole slaw

Sourdough bread

Running and gunning, meeting and bleating, fishing and wishing, cutting and gutting, driving and jiving and wiping the barbeque sauce off my chin. Time is moving slowly and whizzing by uncontrollably. It will be 80 this weekend, and the end is in sight. Put the pedal to the metal and leave the unsolicited debt behind. Word up...

Monday

Lunch:

Ham and Cheddar on fresh Sourdough

1 clementine

Dinner:

Crock Pot BBQ'ed Pork Ribs (spare and country-style)

My KFC-hack Cole Slaw

purple hull peas

1 buttermilk biscuit

Today's sandwich was the last of the ham, excepting what went into the freezer. I've been editing all day, but the back of my brain has been thinking all day about why I eat what I eat when I eat it. Why I choose to go to a nice restaurant, why I crave fish sometimes, whether my body is leading me by the taste buds or vice versa. Well, if you think I arrived at a solution to that question, let's just say that I made peace with it and left it at that.

Sunday

Lunch:

Split Pea and Ham soup

Ham and Cheddar on Sourdough

Dinner:

Fresh Buttermilk Biscuits

Purple Hull Peas

Ham Steak

Its kind of shocking that after seven days of eating it at almost every meal, I have still not gotten tired of that Easter ham. It was just too good. Tomorrow's lunch will the be last of it for a while; the rest has gone into the deep freeze to be resurrected sometime in the summer. After days and days of ham, I am getting the taste for some fish. Perhaps there will be a bit of whitefish in the days to come. Perhaps even a catfish, clothed in cornmeal and nestled with hush puppies...

Saturday

Lunch:

Ham and Cheddar on Sourdough

Split Pea Soup

Dinner:

Several $8 beers

1 large bag of peanuts

A very lean day, in which over the whole week, including the balance of the over-indulgence last weekend, I probably broke even. I was briefly tempted by a ballpark frank, and probably would have enjoyed it along with the beer and the crisp, clear air and the very good game, but I'm glad I didn't go down that path. It wouldn't have matched my expectations from the cheap but huge ballpark dogs from years past, and it would have been a sad letdown from what I could see. I've got to figure a way to schlept in a hibachi and my own fixins. Hey, if you're going to get arrested at Fenway, it should be for eating well and not for doing the quarter mile across perfectly manicured grass while being chased by overweight security guards...

Friday

Lunch:

Pea Liquor and Rice

Ciabatta

1 clementine

Dinner:

Fresh Cornbread Dressing

Hamsteak

Ciabatta

1 cold brew

When the weather is as nice as it was today, you wonder why life isn't more portable. If I could have taken my tower, output card and monitor outside, I would have been a much happier camper. But I did make a nice jaunt out to the beloved Blood Farm for Pork Ribs, Goat and Lamb. Joked with some old gentlemen about the offal they were trying to weasel out of the nice lady (some parts aren't legal to process, even if its your own beast you're having someone else process). A nice drive, with some perfect music and the gentle kiss of sunshine cutting through a slightly chilly wind. Perfect. At least I had that...

Thursday

Lunch:

Split Pea and Ham soup

arborio rice

ciabatta

Dinner:

Pea Liquor and Rice (with bits of bacon and peas)

ciabatta

cheddar and crackers

Rushed around like a madman yesterday trying to get things done before the weekend and also in time to get to Boston to get to an opening by the talented friends to turn around to get home to take care of a client and a friend on the west coast (who gets no sympathy while my bird bath is still a block of ice every morning). Finished the day, passed out in the bed with a giant coon on my stomach, snoring like a big old baby.

Wednesday

Lunch:

Leftover Hamsteak

cornbread dressing

purple hull peas

ciabatta

Dinner:

Fresh split pea and ham soup

white rice

ciabatta

The 6 lbs of left over ham as been cut and portioned for the freezer, half the remaining carcass bits went into the split pea and ham soup along with a generous amount of cubed ham bits, with the big-ass hambone going into the freezer for a mid-summer soup. Almost all the leftovers are gone and for the first time in almost a week, my refrigerator is not filled with stuff to feed a crowd. It looks a little forlorn really, and you begin to understand the white despair of Bergman. Or you think you do. Or you think that you think you do. Which is ultimately pointless.

Tuesday

Lunch:

Hamsteak and cheddar on the last of the sour rolls

1 Fuji apple

1 clementine

Dinner:

Leftovers (still!)

Hamsteak slices

last of the potatoes and gravy

cornbread dressing

purple hull peas

fresh ciabatta

There's still a ton of ham, which will be cut up and frozen for devouring over the summer and in soups. There's also an ungodly amount of cornbread dressing, though I don't mind because I could eat that everyday and not complain; the peas are also in that category. There are also a small serving of banana pudding and a couple of brownies left that I am treating myself to for good behavior in getting some unpleasant work done. I do love the holiday meal leftovers...

Monday

Lunch:

Sour dinner rolls heated and wrapped around thick chunks of ham and cheddar

1 Fuji Apple

1 clementine

Dinner:

Thick Hamsteaks

Mashed Potatoes

Cornbread Dressing with chicken gravy

Fresh Ciabatta

Banana Pudding (the last of it)

My gut, heart and mind are still living the great afternoon yesterday. Its rare that such a day works out so well. And there is about 10 lbs of ham left to go. Big chunks of ham roasts will get wrapped and quick frozen in the deep freeze to be called into action all summer. And then, of course, there's the bone! That hog will not be wasted in any way. Oh glorious cochon, wouldst that thou had 16 legs, and each so wrapped in richness and smoke...

Sunday

Lunch:

Nibbling little bits from the stuff for Easter dinner

Dinner:

Blood Farm Ham with a cranberry glaze

Cornbread Dressing with Chicken Gravy

Purple Hull Peas

Mashed Taters with Buttermilk

Bacoroni and Cheese

Jeff's Sour Dinner Rolls

Christie's Awesome Brownies

Banana pudding custard

I have eaten too much sitting around a table with people I have great affinity with. There is nothing better in this whole world. To finish the day sipping a good strong bold wine and slowly digesting a whole days cooking and ruminating the many things said across a table. If there be a God, it be one who devised all human endeavor towards such an end result.

Bless us all, and bless that hog that gave his leg for us!

Saturday

Lunch:

French-style omelet with bacon and cheese

1 clementine

Dinner:

Grilled three cheese sandwich on sourdough

Ramen with vegetables cooked in fresh homemade chicken broth

little bites of dressing and custard

I was shocked that the grocery stores were empty this afternoon. Given that it was a Saturday and the day before a holiday, I would have expected a crowd. But the aisles were clear, the shelves well-stocked and the personnel cheerful and diligent in their labor. And at the end of aisle 8, I could have sworn I heard an angel sing!

Friday

Lunch:

Hoppin John and Sourdough

1 clementine

Dinner:

2 Giant Pork Rib Roast Chops (at least 1 1/2" thick, Tuscan Grill)

Crispy fried polenta

tortured broccolini

Picked up the ham today, and loaded up on slab bacon. My car smells like a smoke house. I will avoid opening or closing the windows and doors as much as possible for a week. Oh heck, I'll just run the ham rind into the cushions...

Thursday

Lunch:

2 Clementines (too crazy busy to stop)

Dinner:

(somewhat overcooked) Baked Halibut in a citrus reduction

Baked Potatoes

some Wellfleet Oysters

I simply do not get why so many restaurants over-cook their fish. Its either sloppiness (most likely) or fear that the fish isn't fresh enough to stand up to not having its juice crushed out by heat. Every time I have overcooked fish it reminds me how lucky I am to have SS Lobstah around the corner...

Wednesday

Lunch:

Last slice of Chicken Pot Pie

Dinner:

Half of the previous night's Roast Cornish Hen

Purple hull peas and rice with chicken gravy

Sourdough Bread

Went skillet spelunking with my pal Christie in a bunch of second-hand stores this afternoon. Paid too much for a really nice (correctly seasoned!) 10" skillet and almost nothing for a little ashtray skillet that needs some serious love. Also found a TRaSh-80 and a trombone, but resisted the temptation; may have to return for those if life doesn't improve drastically in the next few days.

Tuesday

Lunch:

Leftover Chicken Pot Pie and Fresh Sourdough Bread

2 Clementines

Dinner:

Roast Cornish Hen with onion and cherry tomatoes

Edamame and Fresh Sourdough Bread

ETA of the Blood Farm Easter Ham is Friday 3:30 PM. Countdown underway...

Monday

Lunch:

Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup and Sourdough Bread

2 Clementines

Dinner:

Chicken Pot Pie and Fresh Sourdough Bread

This was an outstanding pot pie, the sort that is rich and creamy and in which the chicken flavor is so strong that its like being smacked up side the head with a 5 lb. broiler.

Sunday

Lunch:

Ramen noodles cooked with fresh vegetables and two slices of sourdough bread

Dinner:

Four-cheese Sourdough Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Fresh Chicken Noodle Soup

Lately all I can think about is oysters on the half. I will need to do something about that, and soon, Jack.

Saturday

Lunch:

Home Pizza with goat cheese, mushrooms, squash, shallots, bell pepper and onion

Mesclun Salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumber and fresh balsamic vinaigrette

Dinner:

Linguine with a fiery red sauce and fresh sourdough

Mesclun Salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and fresh balsamic vinaigrette

return of the clean refrigerator

For the two people in the world who followed my navel-gazing blog featuring every meal I ingested, I have now created a new one, for reasons I won't go into. But its back, and the rules are the same. If I ate it at as a meal, you're going to hear about it here. I'd encourage every reader to do the same. You'll either become disgusted and change your foraging ways, or you'll be pleased and refine them further. And again, just because I love saying it, DOWN WITH PROCESSED FOOD!