laniloa

I had a wonderful crab roll at the LSF here in Cambridge last night. It had far more lump crab then I would have expected for the price. The outdoor bar has re-opened for the season and it was a lovely night.

Chicken with a lemon, basil, wine sauce

rattatouille

whole wheat orzo done risotto style

chocolate bread pudding

Outstanding companionship of three classmates I'll miss dearly!

That sounds wonderful, Zora. I'm going to give it a try when I have friends over for dinner on Wednesday.

For an early Cinco de Mayo dinner tonight I have made cocoa-cinnamon-chile brownies. The apartment smells fantastic.

My students have a long simulation tomorrow, likely to go past midnight, and I have to work on emptying my pantry as school comes to an end. Put the two together and you get -- a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal-cherry cookies, regular and mint brownies. Glad I'm baking today and not tomorrow when it is supposed to hit 90 degrees.

The traditional stuffing for chiles rellenos is cheese, although they are sometimes filled with meat. Once in a Mexican restaurant in NY, I was served a chile relleno that was wrapped in a phyllo-type dough and baked and served without sauce. The most typical are first floured and then dipped in a fluffy batter with beaten egg whites, fried and then served in a thin ranchero sauce with tomato, onion and peppers. On occasion, when I have been in somewhat of a hurry, I roll the stuffed chile in masa and dip it in eggwash and then fry it. It's not traditional, but I like it because unlike the beaten eggwhite batter, it absorbs less oil. Sometimes for dinner parties, I make chiles stuffed with crabmeat and serve them with tomatillo sauce or mole verde.

Stuffed with cheese but don't know what kind. Definitely a fluffy batter and a thin, spicy ranchero sauce. The platter with all the peppers lined up was gorgeous.

What did they stuff the chiles with? Did they use poblanos? Were they fried in egg batter? Served with a sauce? I always assumed that chimichangas were Ameri-Mex, since they are fried burritos and burritos were invented north of the border. What part of Mexico are they from?

No idea what they stuffed the chiles with and they were fried in some sort of batter with a sauce. The wife's family is from Guadalajara and I'm not sure where my classmate is from but they've all been in the US for a while (family in LA and San Antonio) so that is probably where the chimichangas entered the picture.

Was lucky enough to be invited over to a Mexican classmate's house for dinner. His wife and visiting mother-in-law made chimichangas, mole chicken, and chile rillenos. I drank at least a gallon of jamaica. Best part -- they sent me home with leftovers.

I also read what laniloa has to say for herself and had to laugh about her post about homemade pizza and ice cream.

I don't care what they say about the danger of seeking comfort in food: last night I picked up a pint of my favorite Haagen-Daz since I am battling household pests. It was great! Pizza is on the menu for tomorrow since I have all this mozzarella in the house.

Still need to make some effort on the lunch front - being at a conference all week last week didn't help at all (but I did get broccoli instead of fries at one lunch outing - baby steps )

I bet it will come right off once you get back to the 'good' habits/choices. Some things just can't be denied - like beer and bar food in March!

Good way to start the turnaround - I bet the Charles was beautiful this morning!

Well, two weeks of mid-term hell and post-mid-term celebrations have taken their toll. There is also that little mattter of a basketball tournament with hours spent on my ass, in a bar with friends. When I weighed myself this morning I was up 3.5 pounds. This is a good reminder that my exercising and eating patterns were right on the edge for weight loss. Despite the snow flurries yesterday, spring is definitely in the air and I'm ready to be outside more. Homemade pizza, as delicious as it is, just isn't my friend. I have one batch of dough still in the freezer and, if I use it at all, it'll be mini-pizzas. Or maybe I should invite friends over and feed it to them! I started my turnaround this morning with a long walk along the river.

Awful news - the original Totonno's location in Coney Island has burned down.Clickity

Yea! I'm very happy to have some company here. I backslid a little this week thanks to mid-terms, getting shafted on my paycheck , and some personal junk that had me craving too much comfort food. On the bright side, I had to dress up to introduce a guest speaker yesterday and NONE of my dress pants fit and my go-to blazer was swimming on me...made it seem like an 80s cut with massive shoulder pads. Dug deep into the reserves for a blazer that hadn't fit in 2 years was but was too cute to give away.

I'm going to have to check out those WF soups. I could stash a couple at school for the days I wind up staying late without planning. Would save me from stopping for crap on the way home or eating too late.

I haven't been able to get into a more regular exercise routine. How are you not only sticking to it but adding to it?

I love Ting. Great straight or as a mixer. I used to find it at Rodman's or at the big Giant in Bethesda behind the shopping strip with Barnes & Noble.

I am on the KA email list, and they sent out an announcement a couple of weeks ago that TJs would no longer carry their flour, and the reason given was TJs wish to carry more of their own brands. I don't know if that means we will be seeing TJ flour or not. The email linked to a page where you could find a store that does carry KA, just in case. Harris Teeter usually has it, and it is frequently on sale.

Does the Lions' Club sell mass citrus boxes out by you? I've found when I could have oranges that was a great way to keep fruit in the house. Keep it up!!

I don't know -- will have to check it out. Citrus travels better in my backpack then a lot of other fruit. I went to Trader Joes earlier to pick up more olive oil and steel cut oats and they had bags of blood oranges and tangerines -- 6 for $2. Also bags of pink lady apples -- 8 for $3. It'll be a fruity week. I've already stashed a bunch in my locker at school so I have no excuse. The veggies weren't looking so great there so I'm going to try to head out to a great green-grocer tomorrow if I can get through all my homework. Otherwise my walk tomorrow will be to Whole Foods.

I was already dreading getting on the scale on Monday because I've had a carb happy week -- much homemade pizza was involved. I've also started to use up pantry items as the end of school approaches. I am amazed at the food I have accumulated in such a short time. Buying things when on sale does have a drawback.

I decided that it was better to just get the weigh-in out of the way so that I could get back on track over the weekend while I had more time. Much to my surprise, I was down a little over a pound. My total loss is now 19.8 pounds. I am running out of pants and pretty much living in jeans! Once I drop 20, I will reward myself with some new pants that fit.

My next change is to increase my fruit and vegetable consumption. Over the January term I'd gotten very good about bringing two fruit and veggie snacks with me to school each day. I've let that slide over the last month. It is too easy to grab a cookie when there are no good tangerines around.

I've had Maine shrimp before but it's been a while and I just don't recall this texture. Is this normal?

Socks

I am walking/jogging 3+ miles 2 times a week, but really need to increase the frequency and be much more disciplined about making lunches and planning/making healthy dinners ahead of time. Do you have any favorite dishes you're making to avoid the temptation to eat junk?

Keep up the good work!

Getting disciplined about lunch was easier then I thought -- I got bored of the limited options available at school and know that if I go off campus it'll cost me dearly for only slightly better stuff. For dinner I've found that even just a little something to punch it up keeps it from getting boring. I have in my freezer brown rice, rattatouille, turkey bolognese, pesto (w/o cheese - don't care for it), frozen wild caught shrimp, roasted tomatos, confit onions, a few kinds of chicken and buffalo sausage and lots of stock. All has been packaged in individual servings. Take the humble chicken breast -- I can suate with a pan sauce of whatever condiment strikes my fancy (ginger, mustard, lime juice, chile, cumin, tarragon, etc.) Brown rice and a veg and I'm set. Can't be bothered to make a veg? Salad will do. A little of that sausage thrown into a whole wheat orzo done rissotto style with some asparagus. Lightly wilt some spinach, add some shrimp (poached, sauteed, whatever), some grape tomatos, and blood orange sections with a blood orange-shallot vinagrette. I try to package and store 1-2 meals for each one I make so that I don't eat the same thing two nights in a row. When all else fails -- frittata or soup with whatever leftover veg is in the fridge or some rattatouille. If my stomach is growling already when I walk home, I try to keep an apple in my backpack to stop me from the siren call of quick and easy crap along the way. Or I make it in the door and throw together a quick salad.

Down another 2.6 pounds. I've been asked to help teach a class way on the other side of campus and that has added another mile or so to my daily walking 4 days a week. The weather is slowly starting to warm up and the ice is off the sidewalks which just makes me want to walk even more. I've added two more pairs of pants to the can't wear anymore pile. I've also pulled out two more from the haven't been able to wear these in years pile. I've been eating very simply lately. My schedule has shifted to later in the day and I just don't feel like cooking much by the time I get home. By doing a little prep on the weekend I've kept from getting bored with the simple stuff and turning to crap instead. I've also been very dilligent about bringing sandwiches or salads and fruit to school for lunch. Throw in the extra daylight and I'm a happy camper.

looks like I will be discovering my own "food porn"

Not difficult considering what uni is!

in case anyone is interested click

The title really should be updated to read "to whom or to what are you drinking right now"

N-Prime

Wound up at Rendezvous in Central Square last night. Had previously only had drinks and dessert there which were good but not great so I hadn't returned. Glad I gave it another chance. Split a Maine lobster and shrimp salad with blood orange, pomegranate, and frisee. This was outstanding. I'm considering going back for this tonight. The sweet shrimp, tangy orange, and peppery frisee made for a great blend. This was followed by duck three ways -- breast, confit, and garlic sausage. The sausage and confit were great, the breast was kind of bland. This dish fell flat because of the mushy, heavy beans with 2 small bits of carrot it was served on top of. I know it is winter and this screams hearty, but I thought it really needed something green to round it out. Serve half the beans and add some braised greens - still hearty but better balance. Dining companion got some sort of cod dish and cleaned his plate in a blink of an eye. He was also very pleased with his Storm King Stout.