Garlic Cube

Steve wanted a repeat of last week's dinner. Meat sauce. We used the sauce from batch #2. I'd accidentally burned that batch a little bit so it has the flavor of, laugh, burnt tomatoes. It was good though. It added something. And it was a lot thicker than I remember. I'm so glad sauce making is over. Steve canned the last batch last night. He stayed up til 1:00am while I snoozed upstairs. When making the sauce, we used fresh garlic. And I can't tell how much I dislike working with fresh garlic. It's sticky and gets all over your fingers. Pain, pain, pain in the you know where.

Thank goodness for the garlic cube. The garlic cube is awesome. I got these at Trader Joe's but later saw them in my regular grocery store, Stop n' Shop. Anyway, they come frozen in these little trays. When you're ready to use one, you pop a cube out like an ice cube almost. Note: Because the garlic is minced, it imparts a strong flavor. (Or maybe I just made that up.)

We were at A&P yesterday. The rival store. It's next door to the Feed Barn (where we get Sid and Grey Cat's food.) Anyway, we asked the kid in frozen foods if they had any frozen garlic cubes. He walked us up and down the aisles and he couldn't find any. He said he gets a lot of requests for it. Like 30 times a day. So, we went home empty handed. If you can get your hands on some, you'll see what I mean about them. The convenience. And they soften up pretty quickly even though they're frozen. I highly recommend them. They last a while in the freezer too. I use them all the time. They also have frozen trays of herbs such as basil and cilantro. The basil was pretty good. I haven't tried the cilantro. Yet. Okay, time for me to take a stroll. Kick back and Eat Something Good!

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Canning Tomato Sauce

We bought more of those knishes made by Gabriella's. We each had two last night. I went the ketchup hog way and dipped mine in ketchup. Steve always has his with butter and mustard. A good combo by the way. We also had a little Breakstone's cottage cheese.

I made batch #3 of magic tomato sauce last night. This time I left the garlic in instead of fishing it out of the olive oil. I also used a good amount of bay leaf but next time I'm gonna use even more. We spaced on picking up more anchiovies at the store so this batch doesn't have any. It's still pretty good. It's thicker than the other batches and tastes pretty good. It's a little sweeter than the others as well, though not too sweet.

To can, Steve boils off the empty jars in boiling hot water. Then he adds about a tablespoon of Real lemon juice (the kind in the green bottle) and fills it with sauce til about 1/4" from the top. Then he sticks it in the canner which is just a giant black pot with a thing that you stick in the bottom to hold the jars in place. This boils for about 40 minutes and then you're done.

I've decided that I hate the process of making sauce. It was fun for the first batch then it just turned into work. The sauce making part is the most time consuming as it takes over three hours to reduce the tomato to about half. You gotta stir like every ten or fifteen minutes. I was up the whole time pacing around worried about burning the sauce. And of course, without fail, I burned myself. Twice. Once on my fingers and hand and once on the top of my foot. I suffered. We have one more case of plum tomatoes to go. I really dread it but I guess it has to get done. Anyway, take it easy today and Eat something good!

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Bologna

I just made myself (and Sid) an egg sandwich (2 eggs) with american cheese on Home Pride whole wheat bread. The bread is really fluffy and soft. Takes me back to my Wonder bread days. That's the bread my mom used to buy along with Home Pride and Sunbeam. They were all squishy white breads. Steve picked up this loaf randomly at our local little market. And last night, we had more sammies. Boar's Head bologna with american cheese on whole wheat bread. I had mine with mustard and mayo. Him just mayo. I don't eat bologna too often. The thought of it is usually unappealing. I used to especially dislike having it the way we did last night. I guess I'm a cold cut snob. But Steve likes bologna sandwiches so we had them. When I was younger, a neighbor friend of mine used to fry salami and make sandwiches with mayo on them. I thought it was weird but when I tasted it, it was pretty good. I got the idea to fry bologna one day and I don't remember but I think I liked it better than it straight up. I don't think I'll eat bologna for a while. I'm already having icky memories of last night. Thank goodness I used the rest for Steve's lunch today. Oh, for dessert (to continue on our naughty eating path), we had Nestle Toll house chocolate chip cookies. The premade roll kind. We had them when they were quite warm. I think I ate like five. They were good sized cause I spooned it onto the sheet pan. When Steve makes them, he makes them a little smaller. This morning Steve told me he saved me a cookie. He was all proud and sweet about it. He had a big smile on his face. When he asked me if I'd already eaten it (this morning) I said yes. He's gonna get quite a treat when he opens up his lunch today because, out of love, I stuck it in there. I'm so sweet :) Hehehe. Eat something good!

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Pan-fried Burgers

We were sooo bad last night. Yes, burgers pan-fried in a little butter flavored generic Pam type spray. It may sound weird to have done that, but many top steak houses serve their steaks with melted butter. With lotsa melted butter. I even once had steak au poivre with an herbed butter. One pretty shaped piece right on top of the steak. It melted slowly and coated the meat nicely. (I actually had it in France many years ago.) Anyway, I hit our burgers with provolone cheese and served it on fresh Kaiser rolls from a local little market.

The verdict. They were good, good, good. I had mine without ketchup. Yes, the ketchup glutton had it with just plum tomatoes, red onions and mayonnaise. They were half-pound burgers and I was swearing to Steve that I could've eaten another whole one. That's how I felt last night. I was a bottomless pit. And the burgers were really good. Nice and juicy. We had the burgers with Wavy Lays potato chips. That's when I had ketchup. I dipped the chips in. All in all, it was a satisfying meal. Don't forget to Eat Something Good!

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China Garden

We ordered chinese food last night. I had the shrimp lo mein with brown rice and an egg roll. Steve had the shrimp chow mein with pork fried rice and an eggroll. It was all decent. Steve didn't gripe about how much he dislikes chinese food after he'd eaten it. That's the usual course of events. He'll want it, eat it then complain about how much he dislikes it. We don't love chinese food. We prefer vietnamese, korean or thai and I'm sure there are others. I like to have it once in a while. I get cravings. Oh, we shared an order of steamed dumplings and we both liked them a lot. Even Sid. He was being so bad while we ate on the couch in the living room on our tv tables. Usually, he'll try for a few seconds and the give up right away and lay down. Last night, he was unstoppable. I don't know how many times we had to shoo him away. Then finally, after I'd finished eating, I gave Sid the rest of my lo mein with brown rice. I thought he was satisfied afterwards as he'd just eaten his regular dinner (dry food) less then a half-hour beforehand. But no, while we weren't paying attention, he went for the last dumpling. Bad boy. I took it away from him and yelled at him. Steve wanted me to throw it out but I couldn't. It seemed like such a waste. So, I made him wait several minutes then I gave it to him like it was the most special treat in the world. He took his time to eat it. He savored it. He really likes them. I spoil him sometimes. It actually feels good to do so even though I know it's not good practice to spoil your dog. Anyway, I'm going to attempt to not eat much today. My weight loss efforts have come to a halt and though, I haven't gained weight, I'm having trouble continuing on the path. Topic switch. Linux. So far, everything I usually use (which isn't much) - I use firefox for the internet and a new IM client called Pidgen (instead of AIM which I was using). It's compatible with Aim, Adium (for macs) and a few others. Using linux, and with Steve's input, I'm noticing that there are so many things including widgets availabe. For instance, I have a virtual flower on my desktop that I have to water everyday for it to grow. No growth so far - forgot to water it yesterday. The only thing we can't figure out is how to get my game word racer going. Steve has been working on it. So, I do notice that things load faster. I was having a lot of trouble going from page to page, link to link. Linux is much better for that. I like Linux. It's not too different for my regular usage - which again - is primarily the internet. I haven't messed around with other applications as much. But it's not too difficult (even for me) to figure out how stuff works. Aside from the fonts changing and giving it a new face, everything I'm used to seems similar enough for me to handle. Okay, that's the word on my puting stuff. Have a nice day and Eat something good!

China Garden
980 S Lake Blvd
Mahopac, NY 10541

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Bagel Place

I met Steve for lunch today because I happen to be in the area. We went to the bagel place and I got chicken salad on an everything bagel. Sigh. I was disappointed. The chicken salad was ok. It was plain with a little celery. Similar to the way Steve would make it. The bagel. It was very dense throughout and the crust didn't have that little crispiness it did last time. And I should not have gotten the sandwich on an everything bagel. One of the seeds or maybe the garlic didn't blend well with the chicken salad. It tasted like dirt. I mean, fresh soil - earth. Fortunately for me Steve wasn't that hungry and I ended up eating half of his panini. Grilled chicken, tomatoes, roasted red peppers and pesto dressing. It was pretty good. Steve gets it all the time. I thought it needed a little salt. We split some chips and I had a Tropicana orange pineapple juice to drink. That didn't go well with the sandwich either. I brought home a chocolate muffin. Ok, I did take a little nibble of it and I was satisfied. It's good enough for me.

Bagel Emporium of Tarrytown
350 S Broadway
Tarrytown, NY 10591

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Center Diner

The Center diner is one of those little, trailer ee, diners a few towns over. From the outside, it looks pretty dumpy and it doesn't get any prettier on the inside. Steve got a cheeseburger deluxe and I got chicken fingers deluxe. The chicken fingers were good. Even Steve thought so and he doesn't usually eat them. He wasn't loving his burger so we shared my fingers with a very good honey mustard dipping sauce. And though I didn't eat all my fries, they were good. We walked out of there with a $17 bill and that included drinks. Steve had a large chocolate milk shake. I tasted it, it was good. Very rich. Very chocolatey. We had a late dinner last night that involved me driving to McD's at around 11p to hit the dollar menu. I drove home as quickly as I could so the fries wouldn't get cold. We each had two double cheeseburgers, large fries, 4pc chicken mcnuggets with honey mustard and barbecue sauce and an apple pie. That was a good amount of food. And I inhaled it. Yes, it was a bad eating day for us. It also didn't help that Steve went crazy at Rite Aid and bought all these little packages of mini candy bars. Snickers, Baby Ruth, M&M's, Reese's peanut butter cups and a couple more. So yesterday was a no no day.

Today, so far I've been good. We stopped over a friend's house to see their daughter's new born. Oh my god. The thing had a full head of dark hair and it was sooo tiny. It was shocking. It felt so good to look at her laying there, stare at her every movements. Her little lips and fingers. Sigh. Anyway, I had one piece of cantaloupe while I was there and turned down an offer of burgers and hot dogs. I was good. Now I'm hungry and there's still candy in the house. I must be strong. I must fight the urge. Steve went up to Adams Fairacre Farms by himself this morning because I woke up with a killer headache. I told him that this batch was his deal, that I wasn't going to participate. He's fully aware of this and claims that this batch will be the best of all. I'm sure I'll end up helping him out. I like chopping tomatoes. It's somewhat satisfying. Incidentally, I was having like a million and one problems with my computer and Steve said it's because Window's suck. So he wiped it out and I am currently running on Linux. Ubuntu. So far, so good. And everything loads so much faster. Anyway, it's nice out. Steve's painting. I must go water him now. Eat something good!


Peekskill Diner
13 Bank St
Peekskill, NY 10566

Adam's Fairacre Farms
1240 Rt 300
Newburgh, NY‎

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Calzone

Steve surprised me last night with a late dinner. He went to our favorite pizzeria and got a couple slices, a meatball calzone and a spinach roll. The slices were my favorite. Even though they'd cooled down a bit during the ride home, the taste was still very nice. The calzone had like tons of cheese in it. I wondered if Steve ordered it with extra mozzarella. Sometimes he does that with calzones. Though I couldn't really taste the meatballs cause they were sliced so thin, it was pretty good. It also helped that I was starving. And the spinach roll. No surprises there, just good. Pretty good. And their dipping sauce, I love. It doesn't taste too different from the second batch of sauce we canned. There's talk of canning even more tomatoes but I don't know if I'm up to it. I'm still lacking soup recipes but I have a couple of meals lined up for next week if we ever make it to the grocery store. Well darlings, you know what to do today. Eat something good!

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Lean Cuisine Salisbury Steak

I labored for hours this morning making salisbury steak with portobello mushroom gravy, sour cream & chive whipped potatoes and honey glazed carrots. I had it for lunch and it was pretty okay. Hehehe. I'm just having fun with you. I didn't make any of that. Not after making sauce last night. It tuckered me out. Yes, it was a frozen thing and yes, it had the words Lean Cuisine on it. Really, it wasn't that bad. The carrots, though, didn't really taste honey glazed. I mean they were sweet but not super sweet. They just tasted like pretty decent carrots. And I have to admit, I liked the whipped potatoes. Maybe it was the sour cream & chive thing. I don't know. The salisbury steak itself was not that bad. I've had "meatier" kinds that you got a good chew out of. This stuff was on the soft side like they'd ground up the meat fine with plenty of ingredients to cut it. The portobello mushroom gravy wasn't that bad. It was doable. They were pretty sparing with the mushrooms tho. All in all, I'd buy it again. I'm trying to be good today so 270kcals is really good. Whisper. I had Life cereal with 1% milk. Still I'm hovering around 500kcals. I'm happy with those figures. Oh, by the way, the Lean Cuisine entree needs to be hit with a little salt. Otherwise it's a little bland especially the steak and gravy part. Okay, pray for me that I won't eat again til dinner though I have a feeling that tortilla chips and hummus will make an appearance later this afternoon. Ciao for now. Eat something good!

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Tomato Sauce

Ok, I have to start by saying that I goofed in my last blog regarding sauce making. I added two bulbs of garlic, not just two cloves. And I forgot to mention the most important ingredient. Anchovies. Yes, that's right. Steve introduced me to the idea. He obtained the idea from some old Italians who have clearly acknowledged that anchovies were the way to go. The little fillets melt away in the oil. And there's no fishy taste to the sauce, it just adds another layer of subtle depth. In a couple of hours, I'm starting on the second batch. I'll be chopping up 25lbs of plum tomatoes and then heating them up til they soften so that Steve can food mill it when he gets home. Tomorrow night, more canning. It's a labor of love. We've been up til 1a every night making sauce. It's worth it!

I was so psyched that we have our very own sauce that I made thin spaghetti and meat sauce. This time I got the meat from our local little store. They butcher their own meats there. And though, it's ground chuck, it's much leaner than you would find in the grocery store. So I sauteed some garlic and bay leaves and browned the meat. Next I add the completed sauce. Then I hit it with freshly ground nutmeg. That's key. S & P of course. To celebrate this monumental meal, I bought a nice loaf of seeded italian - also from our little store. We were loving dinner. I even put butter on my bread. I went all out. So guys, Eat something good!

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Plum Tomatoes

Yesterday, we traveled many miles to obtain a good price on plum tomatoes. Considering they were selling them for $1/lb, we got a pretty good deal. It was $18 for a 25lb case. We got two. What do you ask we're doing with all these tomatoes? *smile*. It's canning season and we're making sauce. We did one batch last night after a little discussion about the process. My memory was faulty. There were several steps. First we washed them all off. Then we cut them into large chunks. Next we boiled/simmered the raw tomatoes until they softened. Food Milling was next. It removed all the skins and seeds. Very convenient when making sauce. Anyhow, afterwards, I sliced up two cloves* of fresh garlic and sauteed with a good amount of extra virgin olive oil and bay leaves. To it we added the tomato puree and later I seasoned with salt & pepper after the sauce reduced by at least 2/3. We were too tired to can last night so we're doing it tonight. Steve said he tasted the sauce this morning and that it was delicious. We already have a couple people who've ordered a jar from us. For free, of course.

Oh, we went to get the tomatoes in Newburgh, NY at a local store called Adam's Fairacre Farms. It's a nice, medium sized store and they carry many local products and they offer a nice selection of "natural", "gourmet" products. They also have a really nice garden center. With a greenhouse and everything. We always go there to take in the beauty and stare and the fishes before shopping. Goldfish.

*should be two bulbs of garlic

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Greek Festival

For dinner, we went to a Greek Festival held by the church Steve used to attend many, many years ago. His mother is Greek which makes him half-Greek. So I was under the impression that little old ladies were gonna cook up a storm and make pastichio (a baked, pasta dish) and moussaka (a baked pasta and eggplant dish) - both delicious - But there was hardly any food there. They offered gyros, souvlaki and hot dogs and desserts. I was not pleased. I was in the food orgy mode. It also didn't help that it was like a thousand degrees out and super humid. I was a little miserable. We bumped into Steve's cousin and girlfriend. And we went around together. I think I sweated the whole time.

For dessert I had galacabourico. I think I botched that spelling. It's my favorite greek dessert. It's like a custard filled, pastry'ish thing. The last time I had it was at this new Greek restaurant. It was so good that I never forgot about it. When I had the opportunity to have some last night, I was sooo psyched. Unfortunately, it was only ok. OH, and the gyro I had was good except it could've used a stronger yogurt sauce (tzatziki) or with more dill and garlic and cukes. It was a little bland. The best part of eating were these things called loukoumades. There was a super long line and wait for them. But I have to say it was worth it. They're these egg-sized and shaped desserts. They are deep fried and served with a honey or maybe it was just sugar - syrup, powdered sugar and cinnamon. They are simple and delicious. Light and airy. They were sort of like the Greek version of zeppolies, the Italian fried desset. So that was the festival.

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Franks & Beans

Last night we had a fun meal. (In other words, it was completely unhealthy.) Pushing that information aside for now, I'll tell you what I made. One, two, three...Hot dogs!! Yey! We bought hebrew national (one of my faves including Nathan's and Sabretts) hot dogs and B&M baked beans. I used to eat B&M baked beans every now and then when I was a kid. I liked them. They were sweet. Maybe that's why I liked them. We had franks (hot dogs...duh) pan-fried without any oil or fat. I made sure that parts of it was almost burnt the way I like them. We topped them with Gulden's mustard and Sabrett brand "push cart" style cooked onions. The kind in the red sauce. I must read the ingredients some day. I warmed up the buns in the oven beforehand. Frank & Beans. What an all-american meal. I was very happy with last nights dinner. We each had three, not two, hot dogs. I even burned my mouth and lip on the first one. I never expect hot dogs to be that hot. I don't think we had anything for dessert. We don't have anything in the house except for frozen pineapple and a mango. I've been wanting to eat that mango for days now but Steve wants to use it to make a fruit shake. They're really good and really refreshing. Ok youse! Eat something good!

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Not McDonald's Filet-O-Fish

I tried to re-create the fish sandwich from McDonald's last night. The fish part was pretty good. It surprised me. It was quite meaty. And would you believe we bought store brand battered fish? Yes, stop n shop. I'd buy it again if the urge so strikes me. We don't eat fried fish that often. Actually, we don't have fish very often. I wish I could be disciplined enough to go to the store one extra time per week and have a fish night. So the fish sandwiches. I threw the battered fish filets on hamburger buns (no seeds) with american cheese and tarter sauce. I heated up the buns with the cheese in the oven before I put the batter fish filet and sauce on it. I wish I could say I really loved it. I mean I really wanted to - I put pressure on myself to like it. BUT! We made the fatal error of using McCormick's fat-free tartar sauce. It was too sweet and lacked depth. Just awful. I will never buy it again. It totally ruined the whole sandwich. I was a little bumbed.

So if you attempt to make something similar but are still trying to "diet" the way Steve & I do, stay away from McCormick's fat-free tarter sauce! Yeah, don't eat that stuff...Eat Something Good!

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Grilled Boneless Breasts

Last night we had one of our stand bys. Grilled chicken with salad. The chicken was marinated in a mixture of fresh lime juice and olive oil. The seasonings. Oregano, thyme, garlic powder, paprika, black pepper and salt. We grilled it perfectly. There were little charred edges on some pieces but the main part was soft, moist and tender. I threw it over italian mix with sliced red onion and halved grape tomatoes and tossed it in Ken's lite caesar dressing. It was good. Sid got a really nice dinner too. (Can't say it was the healthiest). To his dry food I added 1/4 can of campbells beef vegetable soup (leftover from my lunch), the chicken that i'd made into big pieces and all of the juices that formed on the bottom of the plate. I stirred it all together while he was playing it cool. That's what Steve said he was doing. He didn't budge but his neck was high and his head held up, however, with a strange, nonchalant look on his face. But I knew that he was faking it. He woofed it up in minutes! Eat something good!

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Chicken Cutlets Paprikesh

I made cutlets paprikesh last night. The first time I made it, I used the right amount of paprika that the recipe called for and I thought the flavor was too strong. I decided that this time I'd half the paprika and add a little more sour cream which is what I did. And I didn't have the necessary 1/4" thick turkey cutlets, I had tenderloins. Ugh tenderloins. I kept picturing little chicken tenderloins in my mind so when I opened up the package to find two giant turkey tenderloins, it freaked me out a little. I felt weird and a little scared to work with it. I sometimes have problems with raw meats - too much thinking about how much I love all animals except for insects that I kill without any problems. So, I decide to make them into smaller pieces and grossed myself out all the while I was preparing the meat. So into the flour it goes with spices and herbs. (flour, thyme, paprika, cayenne, salt and black pepper.) I omitted the cayenne hoping to give it a smoother taste without any heat interruptions. Well, I used the right amount of stock, tomato paste and a little more sour cream then usual. I served it over rice.

It turned out okay. Pretty good. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those dishes I can never recreate. It'll taste different every time. And it did. This batch lacked a little flavor. As Steve said, it was good but he kept waiting for a little zing. And I too, thought the flavor should've opened up a bit. I did use fresh parsley this time and added it to the dish and also tossed some into the uncle benz rice that I made using water, not stock. And oh dear. I forgot to add some olive oil to the grilled squash and peppers. They were a little drier than usual but still good. So, no the dish didn't turn out like I'd hope it would but I'll be working on it some more. Now I know to use even a little more paprika, not to omit the cayenne and lay low on the sour cream. I still want to add one more ingredient to perhaps, as Steve said, give it a little zing. I'm thinking I need some acid in there but I don't know if the sour cream will curdle if I do that. Hmmmm....ponder that later and in the meantime, Eat Something Good!

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Bacon & Cheddar Burgers

The burger urge hit us last night and we went to the grocery store. It was kinda late, after the crowds. A lot of their stuff had been wiped out. Believe it or not, but the entire ground beef section was empty except for these preformed patties. They had flavors like jalapeno and onions. We chose the bacon-cheddar burgers. All the stuff was mixed into the patty. Ok, where do I start? The one word I can use to describe these burgers is weird. They were weird. The taste. It was like eating a hot dog. It was such a strange experience. My guess was that they literally ground up the bacon with the beef. It would sorta explain the springy texture of the meat. Though I ate one of my burgers with ketchup and diced red onion, I was trying to figure out if it was good or not the entire time. Steve and I decided that, yes, it was too weird. I mean, hot dogs are yummy but not as a burger especially when you have a burger craving. Oh, I forgot. We hit it with pepper jack cheese as well. I wasn't loving it. I mean, I usually enjoy pepperjack but this brand, Sargento, was dryer and hotter than I'm used to. So the burgers weren't great. We made up for it again by eating an oreo cookies & cream flavored klondike bar. Ok, I won't lie. We had two. Another one right before bed. I'm going to blame that one on Steve cause it's convenient to do so. Hehehe. Anyways, I hope you have a positive food experience today. Eat something good!

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Gigi's Pizza & Wedges

Last night, in the middle of the pouring rain, we went to get Steve a haircut. He looks so cute now. His hair was getting quite unruly. Anyway, afterwards we went to our favorite pizzeria. And the name. It's not called just Gigi's Pizza. It's called Gigi's Pizza & Wedges. So that's what we did. We had a plain slice each. I think it'd just been made. The slice was really very good. The wedges, though we'd tried both eggplant and veal cutlet with mixed reviews, well I wanted more last night. When we had the wedges previously, the eggplant was always really very nice but the veal was too dry. They'd overcooked the thin slices of veal which isn't too hard to do as veal cooks up kinda quickly. Last night we split a meatball parm and an eggplant parm. I'm sad to report this but we were kinda disappointed and that's hard to say about our favorite pizzeria. The meatball, first time trying it, wasn't too bad. The meatballs were a little too bland for my liking though you could taste a little seasoning towards the end of each bite after chewing a bit. Overall, it just wasn't an outstanding wedge. And the eggplant. I was so disappointed with the eggplant that neither of us finished our wedge halves. The eggplant tasted freezer burnt to me. It was just yucky and that made me sad. Anyway, we made up for it afterwards by treating ourselves to Good Humor ice cream bars and sundaes. I had a chocolate eclair bar and Steve had a toasted almond. A few hours later we had our sundaes which wasn't as good as my eclair bar. So that's the food report for now. Eat something good!

Gigi's Pizza & Wedges
3651 Lee Rd
Jefferson Valley, NY‎
(Next to Decicco's)

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Steak Tips Dijon

It sounds all fancy doesn't it? I suppose they were trying to attract the gourmet crowd. What is it? It's Lean Cuisine steak tips dijon, red skin potatoes and green beans. It wasn't that bad but it wasn't good either. Yes, edible. Doable again? No. I won't be buying this kind anymore. The brown sauce was a little too sweet for my liking. Even though I hit it with a little kosher salt, it was still a little too sweet. I didn't really taste that dijon part. Maybe I did but it was just bad tasting and I didn't question it. It wasn't til after I'd eaten did I realize that it was dijon.

For breakfast, almost back to back with lunch, I had a Fiber One multigrain bagel with reduced fat cream cheese. I really wanted to add butter, but I want this to be one of my good days. On a half though, I added a little low sugar strawberry jam. Yum! So far my caloric intake is about 600 kcals. Not bad. If I can keep dinner under 1000 kcals then I'll know my day wasn't that bad. It's hard. Putting the breaks on eating. I'm sure you've all figured out that I have an eating machine inside me and that once it gets turned on, it's really difficult to turn off. So play nice today and Eat something good!

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Spaghetti & Meat Sauce

I wish we had some of our homemade and home canned fresh plum tomato sauce. I make a very simple sauce. The taste of the tomatoes is so good that you don't need much. I use bay leaves, garlic and s&p. We blanch the tomatoes and then put them through a food mill then I make my sauce. That's it. Anyway, we had ziti and meat sauce last night and I was a little disappointed. The sauce was fine. I cheated and used Ragu meat flavored sauce (It's 100% natural). I don't really like other sauces too much. Not even the expensive ones. I feel like, hey! I can do better. So the sauce, I sauteed some garlic and bay leaves then added the ground chuck. Then I added the jarred sauce. The most important part of this sauce is the freshly ground nutmeg. That adds a great deal of flavor and works with the sauce nicely. I was disappointed by the meat part. I bought a 90/10 mixture that I thought was ground sirloin. Turned out it was ground chuck. For some reason, the meat was stringy and chewy and I didn't like that at all. However, we ate and enjoyed it for the most part. I have some leftovers but I don't want any of it. I'll try to feed it to Steve though I think it'll sit there for a week and then get thrown out. Guys! Listen! Eat Something Good!

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Pastrami Sandwich

Today's lunch was pretty good. I went to the grocery store and picked some stuff up for dinner and Steve's lunches. When I got home, and after I put away the groceries, I set out to make myself a really good sandwich. Hot pastrami and swiss on a poppy seed kaiser roll with Gulden's brown mustard. At first, I couldn't find the pastrami. I thought maybe I'd left it in the trunk, but no luck. Then I saw it was in the refrigerator in the same bag as the ground sirloin. I was so worried then so psyched.

I nuked the meat and cheese before putting it on the bread. And that's how I like my pastrami sammies. I don't really like lettuce and tomatoes and stuff on it. I like it straight up. It'd been on my mind for several weeks now after having read someone else's blog about this awesome sounding pastrami sandwich.

The best pastrami I've ever had is from Katz Deli in NYC on Houston Street. It's pretty well known and their cafeteria like setting is relaxing. I feel comfortable there. I mean it's decorated with pictures of celebrities who've eaten there and there were quite a few. I think even Bjork (singer) had a pic up there. They make a pretty fat sandwich. And their pastrami just melts in your mouth. It's delicious. If ever in NYC, I highly recommend that you get a pastrami on rye from there. I'm overdue for one. I'll dream about for a little longer...Eat something good!

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Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal

I found a new cereal that we both love. It's the healthy'ish kind though still quite good. It's Kashi Heart to Heart cereal (Oatbran flakes and blueberry clusters). You can really taste the blueberry and the flakes, though very crispy and crunchy at first, softens the little'ist bit after a while. It's kinda nice that it does that because our previous cereal, Nature's Path Optimum Power (soy, flax & blueberry) - it lacked strong blueberry flavor and it was a little too crunchy for my liking. Oh, and Kashi uses wild blueberries. They're suppose to be better for you. And there's white tea in it. I thought that was cool. Tea is really nice. I had a snapple asian pear green tea today. It was really refreshing after a mile walk. On the way back from the walk, Sid was walking really slowly. It was too hot out for him today. But even in hot weather, you can Eat Something Good!

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Clairmont Diner

Diners around here are steadily increasing their prices. I no longer feel like I get a good value from them. (I think the portions are getting smaller too - it's been my suspicion. So the Clairmont Diner - in Yonkers, NY. It was crazy. They had a twin cheeseburger deluxe for $7.75. That's dirt cheap around here. And they were good sized burgers. They were thin and wide. As wide as the bun which wasn't too small. I must've used like a pint of ketchup tonight. Oh, Steve had the other twin. The burger. We both thought they were pretty good. I ate the fries on the deluxe platter. Steve had fries with his turkey club (fresh turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayo on white toast.) I had half of it. It needed a good amount of mayo on it but it was pretty good. OR we were just starving. No, it couldn't have been just that. You can tell. I usually can. I mean there are times I'm eating something yucky'ish but I keep eating cause I'm starving and I can't stop even though I want to. Red flag. Eating disorder? Who knew...I'm probably a compulsive overeater. I pretty sure that I exhibit that kind of behavior at times, not all the time but a lot.

Dinner was worth the long motoride down there. Now Steve's wanting a sweet treat. He had a brilliant idea while we were motoring the way home. Take marshmallows and toss in simple syrup and then roll them in sugar in the raw and cinnamon. Then deep fry. I don't know if that'd work. I think the marshmallow would just melt hitting the hot oil. And the thought overall for me is that it'd be way too sweet. I mean rolling a sweet in more sweet? I guess it can be done. It gets done with say, ice cream bars all the time. And I do love a good Hagaan Daaz chocolate dark chocolate ice cream bar. I'm gonna go watch a show about how to make tomato paste now. Wow, pretty tomatoes! See yas. Eat something good!

Clairmont Diner
929 Yonkers Ave

Yonkers, NY 10704

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