Every Friday, a group of my friends gather together at someone’s house to watch movies—and eat. Pretty much it’s a potluck dinner anytime we socialize with each other. Sometimes we seem to non-verbally coordinate very well and have a healthful spread fit for a king. Other times it’s not so good as it is desserts as far as the eye can see. Tonight was a mostly healthy night.

My indulgence really didn’t take on the typical quality of craving something sweet or salty—items that are usually associated with junk food. Strangely enough, I had the desire for eating more than my 140 grams of veggies for dinner.

Ever since I went vegetarian, my friends have been pretty good about bring some sort of veggie dish for me. Over the past few months, the number of vegetarian items have increased as many of them have been on a health kick—going to the YMCA or the gym. I don’t know if my success from PCP had anything to do with their motivation, but I like to think it did.

The way the spread was set-up, we didn’t have to walk very far to grab something to eat while the movie was playing. In fact, we didn’t need to walk at all. We literally covered this rather large coffee table with food which we then proceeded to sit around. Although some items did need to be eaten off plates, most were pretty much of the finger-food variety.

The evil about this kind of grazing is that a person can have absolutely no idea how much food they have put into their system. The movie is playing, people are talking and having a good time, and you’ve only eaten one carrot stick—or at least you think that’s all you’ve eaten.

I’ve shrunk a number of sizes since last summer and I’m a bit more conscious about what I’m eating. I allowed my self a little extra helping of pasta salad; noshed on roasted parsnips topped with cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chives; took a bit more of the artichoke dip; and hit the point where I could say that I was 100 percent full.

Meanwhile, I’m watching everyone else eat. And eat. And eat. And eat some more. I’m not sure if their cognizant of how much food is going into their bodies, but I am. Granted, there were a lot of distractions going on with veritable smorgasbord before them that required no energy whatsoever to retrieve. It was the total opposite of “mindful consumption” which could be best described as “mindless grazing”.

Unfortunately, my partner and I couldn’t stay there much later than 10pm. We had a bit of a walk ahead of us (yes, we hoofed it to our friend’s house) and I wanted to be home early enough so I could get some sleep before needing to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at work the next morning. (Yay Saturday work schedules.) Plus I wanted to hit the farmer’s market for my weekly supply of veggies before I needed to clock in.

And now it’s time for me to punch out. Goodnight all!

At the time it sounded like a good idea. Well, actually it didn’t. It was more of an okay idea which I decided to go along with. Little did I realize that by the end of the night it would prove to be a really horrible idea.

After the meeting last night, a couple of our friends decided that they wanted to go out and grab some dinner. I hadn’t planned on dining out and I really didn’t want to stay up late, but my partner wanted to socialize with them and they promised it would be an early evening, so I acquiesced and a decision was made about where we were going to eat.

Now Friendly’s really doesn’t have the best menu in the world, but that was where they wanted to eat. I hadn’t been in that restaurant in quite some time, but I figured I could probably find something vegetarian and relatively healthy to munch on. So off we went to the nearby location.

Much to my surprise (not really), they offer little options for a vegetarian. Every salad is covered in meat, they don’t offer any veggie burger alternates, and about the only thing that came close to being somewhat vegetarian just so happened to be deep-fried. There wasn’t even any fruit offered! How sad is that?

Well, needless to say, I sat there while every ate their meals, sipping my tall glass of water. One friend apologetically offered some of their onion rings and I knew I would feel guilty if I refused them, so I took a couple and ate them.

After the dinner was finished, they all decided to get ice cream sundaes. Well, by that time I was feeling a little peckish, so I placed my order for some too. I knew it wasn’t going to be the greatest stuff, but it was at least something. The desserts arrived and were devoured in short order.

About 15 minutes later my stomach felt like someone had just kicked it. The most unpleasant cramps started settling in too. I was a little surprised to experience it, because I hadn’t felt that way for the longest time! But I knew what it was and what was going to happen.

I quickly urged my partner to pay the bill and we dashed out the door and flew home, all-the-while my stomach making the most horrific sounds and convulsing. We pulled into the driveway, I leaped from the car, into the house, and rushed into the bathroom—which is where I remained for the next half-hour or so.

One would think that would be the end of the story. Ha-ha! My body had other ideas.

Although things were mostly quiet throughout the night, when I got up this morning my stomach once again proceeded with more cramping and I had to spend a bit more time in the bathroom. This has actually gone on throughout a good part of the day. I have eaten very little in the way of any kind of food—diet or otherwise. The stomach wouldn’t handle it.

It finally started to quiet down this evening. The weird noises have stopped, and I haven’t had to spend a lot of time on the toilet. I’ve actually started feeling hungry now, so I’ll get something to eat. Everything should return to normal in a little bit.

I will say this—that is the last time I’m going to Friendly’s for quite a while. This whole experience made me remember why I hadn’t eaten there in a long time—it’s because their food has made my stomach do this before. Much of this occurred before I started living a healthy lifestyle and had been written off as quirks with my body. Now I know it’s just bad food. I am sure this experience will be firmly burned into my memory, and that will definitely remind me I’m never walking into that place again.

I will say that I’m lovin’ the KFB exercise schedule, mainly because it mimics my old PCP schedule—Friday is the “end of the week” and therefore the easy workout day. This is perfect for me because Friday is the day that me and my friends gather for a potluck dinner and a movie of some sort (usually a bad one). These “easy workout days” gives me enough time to leave work, get home, exercise, make something fresh and simple, and meet everyone by 7pm.

This is a great time of year to begin a program like KFB. All the little farmer’s markets are starting to pop-up like daisies in a field. It’s the one thing I miss in the wintertime.

Now, I’m not totally opposed to the big supermarket chains as they have their own niche to fill, but there’s just something disconcerting about overpriced food! I don’t like how they seem to take advantage of everyone. The farmers suffer because the supermarkets don’t pay them enough to grow the food, the town suffers because the supermarkets usually don’t support local farmers, the environment suffers because the food has to be transported large distances, and the consumer suffers because they jack up the price to outrageous levels.

But then comes summer and the playing field starts becoming level again.

On Saturday, the huge Regional Market is open for business. That’s the first day of the week I buy my vegetables. (Amazing how my food buying has synced up to our diets and exercise “week”.) The Regional Market is doing quite well this year as they have had to expand to allow more farmers to sell their produce.

Next will be Tuesdays, as that is when the Downtown Market opens. (Only a week to go before it begins!) It’s quite a bit smaller than the Regional Market, but you can still get a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. As an extra bonus, it is close to where I work. A quick ten-minute walk gets me to the market, another ten minutes to do two circuits around it (one to view the produce, the second to buy) and then a final ten minute walk back to work with my purchases. Exercise and food! Woo-hoo!

Then there is the CSA that we belong to. “CSA” stands for Community Supported Agriculture. The basic idea behind it is that we pay a local farmer a certain amount of money in March with which he buys everything he needs for that season’s crops. Around June we go to a nearby pick-up point weekly to get our share of the produce that he has grown. It’s a little hard to plan meals around this type of program, but I will say that it’s fun to get a box of food that you have no idea what’s in there until you open it up. I guess you might call it “Vegetarian Christmas”.

That’s the beauty of summer—fresh food for three to four months. If I work it just right, I will not have to take a step into a big chain supermarket for much of this time. What a way to “stick it to da man”!

Thankfully the day seven routine is pretty light. I spent most of the day shopping and touring the city of Pittsburgh, which included about four hours in the Heinz History Museum. It’s six floors of all sorts of interesting things, which translates into lots and lots of walking!

I had planned pretty well on food for the portion of the trip when I was on the road yesterday: lots of veggies, hard-boiled eggs, a little cheese, much water, and some carbs. The planning didn’t necessarily carry over to today.

My partner and I were staying with a friend in his moderate apartment. It’s plenty large for one person, but a little cramped for three. Once he got up, we were out the door for some breakfast and traveling about the town.

The trickiest meal of the day was supper. It’s hard enough for a vegetarian to find a meals at most restaurants; it’s even trickier when said vegetarian is cutting out all carbs from the evening meal. This is where Amel’s Restaurant saved the day.

One of the specials for the night was a dish of grilled zucchini, artichokes, and beets in a balsamic vinegar. It was absolutely fabulous! I’ve always found beets to be a very tricky vegetable. It’s hard to make it tasty without that dirty beet flavor coming through. But what Amel’s did was divine! I now need to try and replicate it for my cookbook.

It was about 9pm by the time we got back to the apartment, and I still had to do my exercises for the day. Immediately I took over a little space in our friend’s abode and did my 5 sets of 150 jumps. That was full of fail. I discovered that one cannot do the ropes on plush carpeting in a tiny space. The carpeting puts too much drag on the rope and I had to jump a little bit higher than normal in order to gain any clearance as it passed beneath me without it touching the rug.

On the other hand, I showed our friend how it’s possible to jumprope inside. He’s been on a healthy lifestyle kick and had bought himself rope but didn’t think there was a space in his apartment to do it. Now that I proved it could be done, he’s willing to give it a try.

Who would have thought that the guy with the bionic knees from a year ago would be showing someone else the ropes? Cool beans!

I went out to dinner with a bunch of friends tonight after a business meeting. There were a total of ten of us in the party and, as we are wont to do, we asked for five separate checks. We do this all the time and the restaurant has no problem with it. The catch to the whole thing is that it takes a little bit longer than normal to bring us our food. Most of us routinely go out together and it doesn’t phase us. It’s also a pretty typical occurrence at any restaurant when you have a party containing more than six people and you ask for separate checks.

There’s this one friend who just boasts he’s a Buddhist. Well, not the kind of boasting where he goes around verbally telling everyone he’s a Buddhist. He’s more like the “show and tell” type. If you go to his place, he’s got Buddha statues all over the place. If you go to buy him a gift, it’s always some kind of Buddhist book. He’ll quote Buddhist scripture at the strangest moments. He’ll wear clothing with Buddhist symbols. He just oozes Buddhism.

So, we’re sittin’ and chillin’ after placing our orders. Within ten minutes we have our drinks. About fifteen minutes after that the appetizers arrive for those that ordered them. We eat them and the staff takes away the dishes. As we wait for the meals to arrive, most of us are having some lively discussions.

I look over that this friend and notice he’s getting grumpy. He glares at the waiter bringing the meal for the table of four sitting behind us, who just so happened to arrive after we did. He proceeds to grumble a bit loudly about that fact and says that we had damn well better get our food soon. As if on command, two of the restaurant staff approach our table with large trays loaded with our meals. Total time from arrival to meals—about 45 minutes. Not too shabby for this place. It usually takes them over an hour on a busy night to handle a group our size with drinks, appetizers, and meals on more than one check.

The waiter placed the platter of loaded fries in front of this friend. He took one look at it and immediately exploded. He yelled that it took 45 minutes for the food to arrive. He snarled that the table behind us got served before we did even though we were there first. He lied that there were other large groups in the restaurant who’s orders didn’t take as long. (There weren’t any other large groups.) And to top it all off, he screamed that there wasn’t enough bacon on his loaded fries and immediately threw the dish back at the waiter. He followed that up with a demand that the restaurant remove it off his bill and he wanted his check immediately.

All conversation at our table stopped. I’m not sure if everyone was intimidated by him or embarrassed because of him. I know for myself it was a little bit of both emotions. However, I also felt a little sad for him. He proclaims he’s a Buddhist and yet he’s wound up tighter than a clock to the point where a few measly bits of missing bacon send him on a rampage worthy of Godzilla.

Two waiters and a manager tried to placate this guy, but he was having none of it. He eventually got his check and hurried them to cash him out so he could leave. Once he was gone, the rest of us were able to eat our meals in peace—but all of joy about being together and having a good time had pretty much been destroyed.

There are so many things in life to be experienced and the time we have is precious few. How sad he couldn’t live in the now and enjoy the moment. It’s amazing how he gave all the power to a little bit of missing bacon and allowed it to kill the time spent socializing with friends.

What has priority in your now?

The Double Down is a new “sandwich” being offered by KFC. Simply put, it’s bacon and cheese between two pieces of boneless fried chicken. Of course, for the “health conscious” you can get the same item only with grilled chicken.

This definitely falls under the “what the hell were they thinking” category.

According to the KFC website the Original Recipe Double Down has 540 calories, 32 grams of fat, and 1380 milligrams of sodium. The Grilled Double Down clocks in with 460 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 1430 milligrams of sodium. (It makes me wonder what they’ve done to make the “healthier” grilled sandwich have more sodium in it.)

So, how much sodium should you have in your diet? Well a number of organizations (including the Mayo Clinic, the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, and the USDA) recommend not exceeding 2,400 milligrams a day for a healthy adult. If you’re on of the 74.5 million American age 20 and over with high blood pressure, then it’s recommended that you have no more than 1500 milligrams of sodium a day.

In actuality, the body only really needs 500 to 1,000 milligrams a day to survive. More than that really can cause havoc with a person’s health. Unfortunately, most Americans consume closer to 4,000 milligrams of sodium!

With most of the recommendations, just one Double Down would have used up most (if not all) of your daily allotment of salt! Good luck trying to eat anything else that has no sodium it. You just blew you’re wad on one stupid sandwich—and that’s without any sides!

And we wonder why we’re an unhealthy and obese country.

We had our Peeps diorama competition today at work. When they first announced the challenge to us, my mind immediately went to one theme: to recreate the cover of the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

I don’t know why, but the thought of “Sgt. Peepers” just sounded too funny to pass up. Amazingly enough, my team was all for the idea. We were also of the idea that we wanted to make the diorama as edible as possible. That way, when the judging was done around noon we could eat it and thereby not have to take anything home.

It was a challenge, let me tell you! However, the result was quite tasty!

The base was a white cake with a vanilla frosting. We gave the shredded coconut a green shade and put that around the front edges and a little on the top. The “dirt” is crushed chocolate sandwich cookies. The “Peeples” lettering is vanilla frosting tinged with red. (That was a bear to do! Every time I used the frosting bag and used the “star” tip on the “dirt”, the whole thing would come up when I raised the bag!)

The drum is made out of marzipan (an almond paste that you can mold—or as I call it, edible Play-Doh!). I redesigned the logo so it said “Sgt. Peeper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, printed it out on paper and stuck it to the front of the drum with frosting. The same went with the faces on all the bunnies. That way you could take the paper off and eat them!

The front bunnies got a total frosting treatment. First we had to find bunnies in the correct colors of the Beatles uniforms, which was no easy task! The hardest one to find were the orange ones! Once I had the bunnies, I piped frosting on them to simulate the stripes on the band uniforms. I also frosted the other bunnies in the front to simulate the Beatles in their black dress suits.

The final challenge was the palm tree that sits in the back corner. The trunk made by taking a pipe cleaner and running it through a bunch of Rolo’s candies. The leaves were gummy spearmint leaves that we cut in half and stuck on pipe cleaners too. It took us about a total of two hours to assemble it. I almost felt like I was working on Ace of Cakes!

There were many good dioramas that were presented by the other teams. Unfortunately, though, everyone in the company wanted to get in on the voting, so the winner isn’t going to be announced until Monday. That meant we couldn’t dig into our entry and eat it. This subsequently meant that someone had to take it home (which defeated the whole idea of making it completely edible). Luckily for everyone, I had a gather to go to in the evening and I knew many of my friends would be there, so I volunteered to take it home. And a good time was had by all.

Today I wanted to try something different, something more challenging, something I had never done before. I saw this recipe and immediately knew that this was exactly what I was looking for! Soufflé au Chocolate from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

To be honest, I have never made a soufflé in my life. I have seen many skits about the process in sitcoms on network television, but in almost every case it goes badly. Soufflés are probably the most delicate dishes I have ever seen, if those TV shows are to be believed. Once it goes into the oven, everyone in the house needs to whisper and tip-toe around because the slightest disturbance will make it deflate and thereby end all chances of accomplishing something amazing. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I attempted this dish.

Step 1: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

That was pretty easy, so I was on my way.

Step 2:

• 1/2 Tbsp softened butter
• A 6-cup soufflé mold
• 2 to 3 Tbsp cake flour

Butter the soufflé mold and roll cake flour in it rather than sugar; knock out excess. Measure out your ingredients.

Yes, I went out and hunted everywhere for cake flour because I thought it was vital to the recipe. (It’s not an inexpensive item.) When I realized that all I was using it for was to “butter and flour” the mold, I wasn’t exactly a happy camper. I’m sure regular all-purpose flour will be able to do the same job.

Step 3:

• 3 1/2 ounces or squares of semisweet baking chocolate
• 2 Tbsp strong coffee
• A small saucepan set over almost simmering water

Stir the chocolate and coffee over the almost simmering water until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from stove and keep over hot water until ready to use.

Whenever I need chocolate, my preference is for something from the Ghiradelli line. It’s a superb product! On the other hand, I have not a clue when it comes to coffee. I don’t drink the stuff. Even more confusing, Julia’s recipe doesn’t indicate if it’s liquid, drinkable coffee or ground coffee. I had to make an intuitive guess. From my experience, when you add water to melted chocolate, it makes the it go all funky and it becomes pretty unusable. So I decided to use instant coffee grounds instead. That would have a better chance of blending in with the rest of the ingredients. (Note: the instant coffee grounds worked, but 2 Tbsps was a bit much. If I use this method again, I’ll reduce the measurement.)

The “small saucepan set over almost simmering water” is, in essence, a double-boiler. Another method that works quite well is melting the chocolate in a microwave at 30 second bursts. (Make sure it’s in a microwavable bowl.) The nice thing about the double-boiler method is that once it is removed from the heat source, the hot water will keep the chocolate melted for a while.

Step 4:

• A wire whip
• 2 Tbsp potato starch/flour, OR 2 1/2 Tbsp rice starch/flour, OR 3 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup milk
• A 4-cup saucepan
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Beat the starch and 3 tablespoons of the milk in the saucepan until blended and smooth. Beat in the rest of the milk, and the sugar. Stir over moderate heat until the boil is reached. Boil and stir 3 seconds; this will be very gluey, especially if you use potato starch. Off heat, beat in the hot melted chocolate until well blended.

I didn’t have a wire whisk, so I used a silicon plastic one instead. (It handles the high temperatures quite well.) As for the choice of starch, I selected cornstarch as it was what I had in the house. It took the milk and cornstarch a while to reach boiling, but when it did, it went to “gluey” almost immediately!

Step 5:

• A rubber spatula
• 2 Tbsp softened butter

Clean off the sides of the saucepan and divide the butter over the sauce. Allow it to cool until it is tepid.

The instructions are a little vague here. “Divide the butter over the sauce”—and then what? The butter just sits on top of the chocolate? Not having a clue what was being said, I cut the butter into two 1 Tbsp squares and stirred it into the chocolate.

Step 6:

• 5 egg whites
• Pinch of salt
• 1 Tbsp granulated sugar

Beat the egg whites and salt together in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed; sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

I decided to do this by hand. I eventually managed to get both the soft peaks and stiff peaks to form. Next time, I’m going to use an egg beater. (Julia includes a helpful guide about making the peaks, but they’re on a totally different page. If you don’t know how to make soft or stiff peaks from egg whites, read it ahead of time, preferably before starting this recipe. It’s next to impossible to read it while you’re beating the eggs!)

Step 7:

• A 3-quart mixing bowl
• A rubber scraper
• 3 egg yolks

Scrape the chocolate sauce into the mixing bowl. Beat in the three egg yolks, which may be added all at once. Stir in one fourth of the egg whites; delicately fold in the rest. Turn the soufflé into the prepared mold, leaving at least 1 1/4 inches between the top of the soufflé and the rim of the mold.

Pretty simple stuff here. I even know what is meant by “folding”. What I didn’t know was how to “turn the soufflé”. Turn it? Turn it how? So what I ended up doing was pretty much pouring the soufflé mixture into the mold.

Step 8:

• Powdered sugar in a shaker

Bake in the middle level of preheated oven. In about 35 minutes, or when soufflé has risen about an inch over the top of the mold, rapidly sprinkle top with powdered sugar. Bake another 10 minutes, making about 45 minutes in all. Soufflé is done when a straw or knife, plunged into the side of the puff, comes out clean.

At 35 minutes I opened the oven and sprinkled the powdered sugar on the soufflé. It had risen a little over the top of the mold, but nowhere near an inch. I gently slid it back into the oven and let it cook for 10 minutes more. At about 45 mintues, it was done. The knife came out clean.

The result

Although I didn’t totally understand all of the instructions given, I was able to make a tasty soufflé. Julia managed to teach me a new dish—one that I plan on making again in the relatively near future.

I tried a new recipe today from Julia Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I kind of got on this kick to attempt some of her recipes after watching the movie Julie & Julia. The first recipe I attempted was Boeuf à la Bourguignonne for dinner on Christmas Day, mainly because that’s the one that is mentioned quite a bit in the movie. I am told that it came out quite well. (I didn’t have any of it because I’m vegetarian, so the whole dish was placed on the faith that Julia Child’s recipe was accurate. I shan’t doubt her again!)

Today’s recipe was Potage Parmentier (Leek or Onion and Potato Soup). According to Julia, this simple dish is a versatile base for other kinds of soup, and she gives a list of other ingredients that can be added to it for different flavors. I just went for the basic soup.

Step 1:

• A 3- to 4-quart saucepan or pressure cooker
• 3 to 4 cups or 1 lb. peeled potatoes, sliced or diced
• 3 cups or 1 lb. thinly sliced leeks, including the tender green; or yellow onions
• 2 quarts water
• 1 Tbsp salt

Either simmer the vegetables, water, and salt together, partially covered, for 40 to 50 minutes until the vegetables are tender; or cook under 15 pounds pressure for 5 minutes, release pressure, and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

In my mind, simmer means to cook it on low heat. That’s what I normally do when the recipe indicates a “simmer”. So I tried it. 50 minutes later, the vegetables were not tender. Heck, the water was barely tepid. I think there is a step that is missing here. It probably should say to “bring it to a boil and reduce the temperature to simmer.” The trick to this method is that you’ll need to keep your eye on the vegetables as they will cook in less than than the 40 to 50 minutes Julia indicates.

Step 2:

Mash the vegetables in the soup with a fork or pass the soup through a food mill. Correct seasoning.

(*) Set aside uncovered until just before serving, then reheat to the simmer.

I don’t own a food mill and I wasn’t about to mash it by hand, so I pureed the whole thing in my food processor. It probably came out a bit finer than Julia was intending.

Step 3:

• 4 to 6 Tbsp whipping cream or 2 to 3 Tbsp softened butter
• 2 to 3 Tbsp minced parsley or chives

  Off heat and just before serving, stir in the cream or butter by spoonfuls. Pour into a tureen and soup cups and decorate with the herbs.

The instructions are once again a little vague here. Do you just put spoonfuls of cream or butter and just let it sit on top, or do you mix it in the soup? I mixed it in because dollops of butter on top just didn’t look as good. (In this version, I used butter and chives.)

The result:

Probably if I had used cream, the end product would have had more of a milky color to it. However, the recipe is pretty easy to follow and relatively quick to make, as long as you bring it to a boil then turn it down to simmer. It will be interesting to try this as a base for other soups—something other than just plain old broth. All-in-all, I think it was a success. That’s two for Julia!