Busy Week

This week has been very busy, with trying to expand our business after twenty-plus years as a small, family-operated firm. Secured our new artist today; waiting on a decision from our potential new salesperson. So I've been away from blogging until now.

Noticed how my stomach is shrinking. Anything near the portion size I used to eat is immediately uncomfortable. It's taking a conscious effort to remember my new portion sizes, but I'm slowing getting used to it.

I'm eating a lot of soups. They're quick and easy, and they're filling and nutritious. And I can easily extend it to a complete meal by adding fatless grilled chicken breast.

Which brings me to using small amounts of meat as more of an accent rather than the foundation of a meal. That's really helping to keep the calories and fat down, too.

This weekend I'm going to make a soup with cabbage, parsnips, onions, and small white beans. I'll base it on some of the San Marzano tomatoes I stocked up on, and thin it with chicken broth. I think I'll make the spice base Paprika and a bit of marjoram and ground caraway seeds to give it a Hungarian flavor.

SlimFast is working surprisingly well. I thought the mouth feel was going to be terrible, but they're working wonders with refined cellulose gum these days. I actually wish they had a version that wasn't as sweet.

I guess the biggest thing so far for me is getting used to hunger. I talked about this with my brother-in-law a couple months ago, and he had the perfect word for it: panic.

That really is it; I literally panic a little when I begin to feel hungry. I just have to remind myself that it's all part of the process, grab some celery, and "deal, bitch!"

This is going to a long, hard climb, but I'm up to it.

A perfect diet meal

Tonight my oldest son, David, and I enjoyed dinner at the Atlantic Seafood Company restaurant in Alpharetta. We went to a technology meeting at Microsoft that ended up being more beginner level than what we expected, so we left and tried Atlantic Seafood Company for the first time.

I had a perfect diet meal, and it was truly delicious: a Greek salad with quality feta and dressed with a sharp vinaigrette, followed by a thick filet of halibut steamed with delicate threads of ginger and scallion, served on a generous bed of expertly sauteed spinach, and a thin sauce of soy and sherry. The jasmine rice was served on the side, and was the most perfectly cooked rice I've ever had.

Jasmine can be tricky because it can give off a sweet starch that cools into wisps of shimmering film that end up gumming the rice, but this was almost as polished and separated as parboiled rice grains. Just the right amount of bite to the teeth, and garnished with a slight sprinkling of black sesame seeds.

That, and a bottle of Evian, and I was completely sated.

I think from now on David and I are going to plan on dining here after our evening meetings at Microsoft each month. I have to take The Lovely And Talented Lisa here soon.

If you're on a diet and want something delicious that won't wreck your plan, try Atlantic Seafood Company (link on the right).

Sixteen hours of German opera!

I'm as happy as a little girl! I now have 16 hours of workout content to keep me distracted from the production of lactic acid in my muscular system.

I have always been in love with Wagner's Der Ring Des Nibelugen, which is the combination of his operas Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung. This is arguably the single finest opera ever written, and it's performed by the incomparable Metropolitan Opera conducted by James Levine.

Back when I played the cello, I dreamed of playing in the orchestra for something like this. Alas, but my classical musical talents never extended that far. I'll leave that for the real pros, like my tutor who was Second Chair in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. When she played my jaw dropped and I didn't blink. Yes, there are people with that much talent in the world. What a privilege it was to have someone of that caliber teach little ol' me.

God, but I love Wagner. I'm told that I shouldn't because I'm a Jew and Wagner wasn't exactly a fan of us Red Sea Pedestrians (and he was Hitler's all-time favorite), but I just can't get over the blood-driving excitement and utter beauty of it all. My heart races and I literally smile at times. Besides, if I went around rejecting art because of flaws of the artist, I wouldn't have any at all.

So I'm going to watch this historical treasure over and over again while exercising, so by the time I hit my target weight, I'll have the complete storyline memorized.

Thrill!!!

I've lost eight pounds in the first week

Weigh-in this morning shows that I've lost eight pounds in the first week. I'm not going to get too excited about this because the first pounds are the easiest ones. And I'm only expecting one pound per week from this point onward, though I'll happily accept more :)

A couple of observations so far:

Never use American-consumer-oriented cheese in anything

With all due respect to the state of Wisconsin, American-made cheese destined for the typical American consumer is tasteless and lifeless, so you need quite a lot of it to impart flavor on a dish. In contrast, raw milk French and Spanish cheeses impart "les pieds de Dieu" (the feet of God) with only a small amount, so I can get a strong "real" cheese flavor without imparting much fat or calories at all.

I tried shaving some very nice raw milk pecorino onto a salad dressed with nonfat dressing and a few grindings of black pepper, and it was surprisingly delicious. I also made a mornay using my fatless roux technique, some dijon mustard, and some leftover raw milk raclette and another bit of a double-creme whose name escapes me, and it was lovely.

Just say "no" to dead, lifeless refrigerated sterile bland overly-salted American-made cheese.

Weetabix!

Weetabix is a great wheat biscuit cereal you can get in England and Canada, but it's hard to find in the states. I can get it easily because I'm right around the corner from Taste of Britain (see my links), and you can get it from them online, too.

Want a quick nonfat topping for gratins? Finely crumble a Weetabix biscuit over the top during the last five or ten minutes of baking. Smashing!

Refining the Tomato Red Pepper Black Bean Soup recipe

Stay tuned. The new one is even lower fat and tastier! Using San Marzano tomatoes and more and larger bits of black bean, but cooking longer to softer texture. Quite good. And if you want to make a full meal of it you can add grilled chicken or a bit of fresh sausage that's been hot smoked. I render a good bit of the fat during hot smoking, and then still only use a little bit of sausage because it's still fatty. Makes a good mixture with the bits of chicken breast, which can also be hot smoked. I use my outdoor grill with indirect heat and Mesquite wood chips for a Southwestern flavor.

Well that's all for now. KBO!

Must... Cook... Must... Cook...!

Okay, so I'm fasting today, and it's been a real pisser with the ARCserve database getting corrupted and pegging the NAS at 100%. Got all that sorted out, still have another client agreement to finish, and to top it all off, I'm fasting today.

A little trick on the fasting is to drink a full glass of water every time I get a hunger pang. Works pretty well.

But I am compelled to cook. I just love cooking for the family, especially when my daughter, Sarah, cooks along with me.

So we're going to make a handmade spinach pasta lasagne with sauce bolognese, eggplant, goat cheese, and fresh herbs.

And I'm not going to eat a bite of it.

I will tomorrow, though ;)

Fasting Today...

So I'm fasting today. Grumble grumble. I hate fasting.

Years ago I fasted every Monday and Thursday, and the weight really came off, so I'm probably going to start doing the same again and this time stay with it until I hit my target weight. For today I just want to check my fasting blood sugar count, but I'll probably start up the weekly thing again starting Thursday of next week.

The good news is that I've already lost three pounds this week. I'm not too congratulatory because the first pounds are the easiest, but at least I'm going in the right direction.

You all have fun with those chocolate eclairs and sausages now, y'hear? ;)

SlimFast

Going to replace one of my daily meals with SlimFast and see how that works for me.

I checked FitDay.com and my intake was too high today, but the good news is that, while it's a fraction of what I used to eat each day, it feels like it's too much, whereas before it wouldn't have. Only a couple of days in and I'm already adjusting. It feels like my stomach is slowly getting smaller inside, but maybe it's just psychological.

So tomorrow I'm going to slimfast and trim diet and try to go on about half a day's normal calories to make up for today, plus exercise. Serves me right.

Wood Grilled Trout Stuffed with Herbs

I'm doing this from memory of this dish at Woodfire Grill in Atlanta. If you haven't been to Woodfire Grill then drop whatever you're doing and make reservations right now. Try to get David as your waiter; he's a consummate professional. Ask him to suggest wine pairings with your meal and you won't be sorry. Take time to savor every bite at this fine restaurant (and tip David well).

Equipment:
Filet knife
Fish scaler

Protein:
Small trout

Stuffing:
Rosemary
Shallot
Bay leaf

Scale, gut, and rinse trout.

Lightly salt the cavity of each and also give each a few grindings of fine white pepper. Stuff each with one small sprig of rosemary, a few slices of shallot, and a couple of small bay leaves.

Brush with the lightest possibly film of olive oil and grill over gentle wood heat until the flesh feels right when the skin is touched. Turn only once.

Skin should be paper thin and crisp. The perfect skin that Woodfire Grill turns out is still beautifully silver, except for the stripes that touched the grill. So it looks like either indirect heat or the fire source is relatively far away from the grill surface. After all, it's a small fish.

Serve with steamed baby squash and Vidalia onion jam, and perhaps a few pieces of lightly seasoned roasted fingerlings or new potatoes.

Southwest Tomato Red Pepper Black Bean Soup

The Lovely And Talented Lisa bought a bunch of Campbell's Select soups she likes, so I tried one. Very bland and lifeless, but a pinch of salt and two or three dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce, and it was actually quite good.

I didn't like the stats on the label, and I knew I could achieve better texture and flavor, so I came up with a better recipe.

Equipment:

Food processor

Spice Mixture:

1t ground coriander

1t ground cumin

2t sweet paprika

1/2t finely ground black pepper

Ingredients:

2 Maggi Halal vegetable boullion cubes*

6 oz. can Contadina tomato paste

1 Red bell pepper

1 Medium onion

2 Ribs celery

1 Clove garlic

1/2 of a 14 oz. can of Goya brand black beans**

1/4 Chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, ribbed and seeded

2t Apple cider vinegar

Water

*You can omit the bouillon if you don't want an extra 6 grams of fat in the batch, but if you do then you'll need to add a good bit of salt to taste when finishing the dish.

**Use the top half of the can along with all the thick starchy liquid that drains out, as this adds a great mouth feel to the dish. Goya brand canned beans are by far the finest quality on the planet because they are always cooked perfectly, they don't "mud" in the can, and they contain the perfect small amount of starchy liquid, but they cost no more than other brands.

In the soup pot, boil three or four cups of water and add the bouillon cubes, if you're using them.

Chop the vegetables and add them to the soup pot. If necessary, add additional water to just cover.

Boil briskly for a few minutes until the vegetables are tender crisp.

Make the spice mixture and mix together well.

Very finely mince the ribbed and seeded chipotle pepper fragment. The finer, the better. Mush is best for distribution, because this is hotter than you think.

Pour the cooked vegetable mixture into the food processor, add the 1/2 can of black beans with their liquid, add the chipotle mince, and pulse until fine. Leave a little texture, but nothing larger than 1/8".

Scrape out the food processor back into the soup pot, add the tomato paste, and whisk until everything is evenly incorporated. You may need to add some more water to thin it out for sufficient mixing.

Whisk in the spice mixture.

Put full flame to the soup pot while whisking and adding water until the desired consistency is reached. The soup should coat the back of a spoon, but at this point it might break up and slide a bit because it isn't fully cooked. Best to err on the side of thicker because you can always add more water when finishing the dish.

Stir occasionally as the soup comes to a boil.

Turn the heat down to very low and simmer covered for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the texture of the largest bits of vegetable are just soft enough to be palatable.

Adjust for salt first, then whisk in the apple cider vinegar.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate immediately to stop the cooking and preserve the texture and flavor of the soup.

Enjoy! :)

Cooking Without Fat

Grilling

Not your typical grilling with all the associated setup, teardown, and cleanup, but quick and easy grilling on top of the stove using a grill pan:
It may not be easy to see, but the ridges are *really* thin -- only about 1/16" wide. The trick is to get the pan really hot first. I put mine on full flame about five minutes before anything touches the pan.

Because the ridges are so thin, when you get the pan truly hot they cauterize the meat, which prevents it from sticking. So much so that you don't have to brush fat on anything. Not the grill (which would smoke so much your smoke alarm would sound off) nor on the meat. Try this:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.


2. Put the grill pan on full flame for at least five minutes.


3. Trim the gristle, rib meat, and tenderloin from three large boneless chicken breasts.


4. Season the smooth side of the breasts with kosher salt and black pepper, and nothing else (herbs will burn to an acrid crisp).


5. Set your kitchen timer to 2 minutes.


6. Quickly place the breasts smooth side down in the grill pan. They arrange best with two breasts forming a "V" along the outside of the ridges with the thick rounded ends touching, and the third breast splitting that "V" with its thin pointed end cradled in the crux of the "V" and its thick end on the outside of the ridges. *Make sure nothing touches the sides of the pan!* Also, don't move a breast once it touches the ridges. I always use two hands holding the breast exactly where I intend to place it a couple inches above the ridges before lowering it down to touch the ridges. Every other method spells disaster for me.


7. It should take no longer than ten seconds to get all three breasts in the grill pan. Don't daudle or you'll overcook. As soon as the third breast is in the pan, start the timer.


8. When the 2-minute timer sounds, pick up a breast with your tongs and bring it about 45 degrees around the perifery of the grill pan, then place it down. It will be half on top of another breast, but don't worry. Quickly repeat in order for the other two breasts, then start the 2-minute timer again.


9. Season the rough side of the breasts just like you did the smooth side.


10. When the 2-minute timer sounds, flip each breast in place, then start the 2-minute timer a third time.


11. When the 2-minute timer sounds, place the chicken breasts in a glass backing disk that's just barely big enough to hold all three. I often use a glass pie plate when I'm cooking only three breasts.


12. Finish in the 350F oven for 12-15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the breasts.


13. When finished, remove the glass baking dish to a cooling rack, flip the breasts so the dry top sides are wetted by the pan juices, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for ten minutes.


14. After ten minutes, flip the breasts again to wet the now dry top sides, re-tent, and let rest another ten minutes.


15. When done resting a total of twenty minutes, remove the tent of aluminum foil and flip the breasts again to wet the now dry top sides. NOTE: This resting period makes all the difference in the finished product. Trust me, and be patient.


16. Using a very sharp Granton carver or scalloped-edge (not serrated) slicing knife, slice the breasts across the grain in 1/4" slices. I often either toss the slices back in the pan juices or, if I'm formally fanning the slices on the plate I'll splash a little bordeaux blanc to deglaze what little fond there is in the pan, heat it briefly and swirl it together with the remaining pan juices, reduce, and then drizzle the finished sauce over the fanned slices on the plate. No need for additional seasoning because there's plenty of salt and pepper that dislodged from the breasts, but you may want to toss in a sprig or two of fresh thyme before deglazing and strain the finished sauce. Adds a nice fragrance to the dish.

About as fat-free as you can get, and you won't believe the flavor you can achieve using absolutely no fat. Enjoy! :)

Roux

I love the smell of a toasty roux slowly cooking on the stove or in the oven. Doesn't matter if it's butter or peanut oil, a roux is a beautiful thing in and of itself -- not to mention what it does for the dish it's destined for.

Alas, poor roux, I knew you well...

I won't bore you with the details of how a roux works because you probably already know them, but suffice it to say that fat performs the critical job of separating the flour grains so they'll disburse evenly and without clumping when water-based liquid is introduced. Among other things, fat gives the suspended flour time to disperse before the starch structures begin locking up with each other.

But you can also achieve the same thing by thoroughly whisking cold water-based liquids diectly into the starch before pouring the slurry into the hot liquid it's destined for.

So what I've done to eliminate fat altogether is to prepare a slurry of the cold ingredients sans fat, then apply heat while whisking or stirring constantly to ensure the starch stays suspended and dispersed during the process of the starch structures grabbing each other and locking up under heat.

It works great, and the only thing missing is the mouth feel normally provided by the fat. But there are ways to handle that, too.

Sauteed Vegetables

Lots of recipes call for vegetables to be sweated in fat before adding the remaining ingredients. I have two ways around this:

1. Simmer briefly in stock, wine, or water instead of fat, or


2. Just add the raw vegetables to the other ingredients and let them soften during cooking.

Method 2 works great if you have at least 30 minutes cooking time. If not, use Method 1.

Steaming

You know what to do -- enough said. Steam for less time than you think, though. Leaves all the nutrition intact.

Etuvee

Very cool combination of Sauteed Vegetables Method 1 (above) and Steaming.

1. *Very thinly* julienne a large bed of celery, onion, carrot, red bell pepper (just a little) and fennel (don't forget the fennel!).


2. In small non-stick pan on highest flame, quickly braise them in a *small* bit of boiling fish or vegetable stock to accelerate the sweating process.


3. At the point where the bed of vegetables is just barely wilted (just a few seconds), lay on a thin filet of moist fresh fish lightly seasoned with salt and white pepper and cover the pan.


4. Lower the heat and let the vegetables and fish gently cook until the fish is done.


5. Slide the fish on its bed of vegetables onto the plate, and drizzle over any juices that remain.

The fish will pick up the aromas of the vegetables -- especially the fennel -- and be perfectly steamed through. And all without a drop of fat added during cooking.

Deep Frying

You got me on that one, Sparky. Click your freaking heels together three times, buddy, 'cause it ain't gonna happen any other way.

Hey -- maybe you could put a piece of bacon under your pillow tonight and wish real hard that the Lard Fairy comes to see you and...

Oh, piss it.

FitDay.com Rocks!

A very nice person named Mary Jo Sminkey turned me on to FitDay.com, a free tool for tracking everything you eat and how you exercise each day.  This is a wonderful tool!

 

There's something special about FitDay.com.  Seeing the numbers behind my actions (and inactions) helps me know where I'm going and how fast.  Until FitDay.com it was all just general principles and a compass.  Now I have a topographical map, night vision goggles, and a laser range finder.

 

FitDay.com is really going to help me achieve my goal.

Exercise Equipment

We're putting the sofa on the edge of the lawn so someone can have themselves a free sofa. No more lounging! Lounging does not burn calories! Death to lounging!

The new rule is that I can sit in a chair and exercise during commercials, or just exercise because exercise is good. Eez good to make dee pain. Monkeyboy like pain, no?

Exercise equipment is from Horizon Fitness Outlet Store, which gives me factory refurbished commercial quality equipment that's good as new at a fraction of the price.

We already have the PST6 treadmill, which is a sweet little honey:

And we just ordered the E1200 Elliptical:
Should be here in a week.

They're going in the living room, unfolded and ready to rock at all times. Lisa loves her ellipticals; I'm a treadmill guy -- at least for now.

A note about extended warranties:
Extended warranties are, as you probably know, a fool's game. That's too harsh; it's a game for people who never passed a course in statistics. Anyway, there are only two exceptions: CarMax used cars, and exercise equipment when covered by the manufacturer. These are the only two times I will ever purchase an extended warranty because those are the only times an actuarial scientist won't put a dunce cap on you and then parade you around the room for purchasing one. Horizon Fitness Outlet Store is *very* reasonable on its extended warranties. A hundred bucks or so gets you two years beyond the original 90 days.

I would highly suggest Horizon Fitness Outlet Store (see the link in "Relevant Distractions" on the right) for your exercise equipment needs.

Virtually Zero Fat Veggie-Lentil Stew

Equipment:
Rice cooker
Pressure cooker (I use a Fagor Splendid 12 qt.)

Rice:
Brown rice
Water

Stock:
2 Maggie Halal vegetable bouillion cubes
1/2 gallon water
1 cup leftover tomato sauce
2t Paprika

Melange:
1/2 head green cabbage, cored and roughly chopped
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 bunch celery, roughly chopped
2 large ripe tomatoes (or a bunch of small ripe ones), roughly chopped
3 carrots, cut into rounds
4c green beans, tipped and cut into 1" lengths
2 cups dry brown lentils (the smaller the better; Puy are best if you can get them)

Before you do anything else, start the brown rice in your rice cooker according to the cooker's instructions. Brown rice takes a long time to cook, so get that going first thing.

Combine the stock ingredients in the pressure cooker pot and bring to a boil on highest heat while you prepare the vegetables.

When the stock is boiling, add the melange ingredients and stir to mix thoroughly. Push everything down into the stock, which should almost come up to the level of the melange -- maybe about an inch of it will rise above the stock.

Keeping on highest heat, cover and lock the pressure cooker, and turn the release valve to the Cook setting. When the pressure indicator pops, you'll notice that the steam is almost shut off, but be patient because pressure cooking hasn't even started yet. You have to wait for a steady stream of visible, audible but not whistling steam coming from the release valve. Once you see and hear this, turn the heat down to about 1/3 flame height, set your timer to 9 minutes, and start the timer.

Maintain the steady steam until the timer sounds, then turn off the heat. Turn the release valve to the Release setting, which will produce a loud and very visible rush of steam that will last for about 4 minutes. When the steam stops and the pressure indicator pops down, you can unlock the safety handle and remove the lid *AWAY* from you. It's like you're opening up a huge clam from behind so the open faces away from you.

Stir to distribute, and taste for seasoning. You may want to stir in a little more tomato sauce to finish, and you may want a bit more salt, but try to add as little as your palette will allow. After all, you don't want high blood pressure.

Scoop some brown rice in a bowl, then ladle over the veggie-lentil stew and enjoy! :)

Variations:
Of course, it's all in the herbs and spices. Add fresh thyme and oregano (or fresh savory, which tastes like a combination of thyme and oregano) for a headier perfume, if you like. You can use a combination of curry powder and turmeric instead of the tomato sauce and paprika for a more Anglo-Indian flavor, or you can substitute smoked pimenton, cumin, and clove for a Spanish flavor. Whatever you do, make your Uncle Adam happy and grind your cumin and clove from whole spice, please? I'd hate to think you're sitting there with pre-ground cumin and clove (or nutmeg, for that matter). Remember: "friends don't let friends use pre-ground spices."

Results:
This is a very simple yet satisfying meal. Really kills the hunger. The pressure cooking converts the cabbage into a luxurious mouth feel like what you'd get by using fats.

Dieting In Hell Is On The Air!

Well, this is it!

 

No more excuses, and no more hiding the problem because the whole world is watching me now.

 

If I don’t succeed, I’ll die, simple as that.  I’m 320 pounds, my blood pressure is being controlled by medications, my blood sugar is too high, my cholesterol numbers sound like I’m playing Texas Hold ‘Em, and I don’t feel well.  I’ve let excess get the best of me, and it’s time to take my best back.

 

It wasn’t always like this.  I now weight almost twice as much as I did when I graduated from Marine Military Academy back in 1979.  Now I have to lose about one pound a week for two years to get down to my target weight of 200 pounds.

 

Why “Dieting In Hell?”  Because this *is* going to be Hell, I assure you. 

 

You see, I can cook.  I don’t mean I can rustle-up something edible.  I mean that over two days time I turn fifteen pounds of beef shank marrow bones, vegetables, and herbs into a 9” x ½” disk of rubbery chocolate brown glace de viande, and from this magical ingredient I turn out sauces that would most likely pass any chef’s muster.  Intensely flavored roasts that you can eat with nothing more than a fork, exotically-perfumed dishes from places you may not have heard of, fishes of all kinds beautifully poached in court bouillon or oven roasted, delicate handmade pasta… the list is about twenty-five years long.

 

And the ingredients I use are top of the line.  I get butter from Normandy, wines and raw milk cheeses from all over Europe, fruits and vegetables not long from the Earth that grew them, and fresh fish and meat of all kinds.  I get such a great joy out of all the planning and hard work that goes into creating a beautiful meal for my family (and me, too), and to seeing and hearing everyone savor my handiwork. 

 

I’ve had my share of bombs, too.  In fact, I’m on some kind of terrorist list at the Department of Homeland Security because I’ve bombed so many times.  But these bombings are during the pursuit of mastering a unique cuisine, like Uzbekistani or Azerbaijani, so I treat it more like an R&D misstep and, as Churchill put it, “KBO!” (Keep Buggering On)

 

Since I’d rather be forced to listen to Yoko Ono’s Greatest Hits while getting slowly castrated by a rusty farm implement than give up great food and wine, I’m going to try to lose weight by moderating what I eat and when, how much I eat, and how I cook it.  No more fat-heavy cooking techniques and rich meats by the pound, and no more extravagant desserts.  I’ve already developed a few fatless cooking techniques that turn out delicious food every time, and I’m working on a few more as I write this, so I’m going to put them into play and see how sustainable it is.

 

Oh, yeah – and I’m going to exercise.  We’ll see how that goes.  I hate exercise.  Absolutely freaking hate it.  I love how it makes me feel for the rest of the day after I do it, but I hate what it takes to get there.  I used to love it when I was a fresh young thing, but that was once upon a time.

 

I’ll keep you all posted on everything I do and feel, how my weight loss progresses, what my medical stats are, what I eat, and how I cook it.

 

So wish me luck, folks, because I’ll need it down here in Hell.