Eat it, Just Eat It

I saw this article on Yahoo today and it ruffled my feathers -- aka my
womanly thighs.

if you don't feel like clicking on the link here's the lead-in: "A new study debunks the widely held belief that diet plus exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Researchers report that dieting alone is just as effective as dieting plus exercise."

the article goes on to admit that "regular exercise can improve aerobic fitness and lower the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer."

ok -- a: make up your f-ing mind. soon some dude in a white coat is going to be telling me that he did a study on mice and crocodiles and found that eating a diet of pellets and human will help you shed those pesky extra pounds.

b: "regular exercise can improve aerobic fitness?" the use of the word can is what bothers me -- to me, using the word can makes it sound like that claim hasn't been proven true -- let me tell you something -- if you exercise not only can you improve but you will improve. like now i can walk up a flight of stairs without sitting down half-way through and crying. soon -- 2 flights and before you know it, mt. mother fuckingeverest.

c: i feel like hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to research something that we probably already know and that isn't necessarily helpful.

d: i probably won't climb mt. everest because a lot of people die trying to do that and even though i'm sure i could do it i'm what some would call a sissy -- i call it self-protection.

in other news, sex can result in pregnancy.

WGC? #27, #28, #29, & #30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you guysssssssssssssssssssssssssss. . .rogray did it!!!! cue the horns, release the doves, find him a key to the city!! rogray made it to number 30!

rogray decided that he was going to wrap it up on valentine's day which meant he had to make breakfast, lunch, dinner & dessert in the same day.

i agreed to it -- the reason i had to agree to anything was because i had to wake up early to eat the breakfast and if any of you have seen me in the morning you know that it is not only very hard for me to do but also not a pretty sight. it involves some whining, a few tears and the smashing of my alarm clock against the wall. i'm an adult.

rogray had to wake up really early and cook.

here's the morning coffee:


and the morning o.j.:


the scene is set...here comes rogray:



what's this?



oh, french toast croissants with apples soaked in a maple, caramelized sugar sauce? just a little something you threw together at 6am? as rogray's niece and nephew would say "oh, wow."

this was wow -- the croissants made regular french toast look like the j.v. squad and the apples were beyond description -- also the whole thing gave me a sugar high like you wouldn't believe and i only ate one of the croissant things...

next up lunch:



tomato, basil and mozzarella salad with a tuna, lime, scallion wrap.

rogray had to make this the night before so the tomato, basil, mozzarella salad didn't hold up very well but the tuna was good especially after i drizzled it with olive oil to off-set some of thetanginess og the lime juice. we agreed it wasn't our favorite thing but it was a nice lunch -- especially since it was made for me by my valentine...ok, that was cheesy and gross...moving on.

dinner...oh, dinner. rogray told me he would make me whatever i wanted since it was valentine's day so i told him lamb, polenta, and roasted vegetables (brussel sprouts, butternut squash and parsnips).

the table was set. the wine had been poured:


we got this when we went wine tasting in santa barbara with jk one of our last weekends in l.a. it was our favorite thing of the day and was as good as we remembered.

and while the wine breathed i waited...rogray made me wait until very late -- 10:30 pm to be exact at which point i was not being a very good valentine because my hunger was forcing me to writhe around on the floor and whimper "i'm hungry" over and over again...he's so lucky.

and then he brought me dinner:



oh. wow.



so so good -- moist, tender lamb shanks with olives and stuff (thank you mark bittman. you nailed it this time.) the polenta was the perfect side dish with the lamb -- although we both agreed it wasn't as soft as we would have wanted and the veggies werewintery and wonderful. rogray said that it was on par with wgc? #4 because there was a lot to do all at the same time but unlike #4, he didn't sit on the floor and start crying -- he didn't even seem stressed.

after a short digestive period rogray popped back into the kitchen for #30. and here it is:



baked apricots with toasted pine nuts and homemade chocolate sauce.

i mean, are you kidding me? this was so good -- the apricots had a nice tartness, the pine nuts crunchy and the chocolate sauce was perfect...in fact at one point we decided that we could just eat the chocolate sauce at which point we did. right out of the bowl. classy.

once dessert was consumed and all the dirty dishes were left piled into the sink to be dealt with at a later date i climbed into bed and passed out in a food coma. it was great.

so now i'm really going to go overboard. the re-cap (please imagine that *suddenly i see* song that is playing on all the reality competition shows are using for their contestant re-caps while you scroll) and i highlighted in bold my favorites:

1. arroz con pollo



2. pasta in spinach, goat cheese sauce with spinach



3. chiken marsala and garlic sauteed brocolli



4. roasted acorn squash with sage, goat cheese mashed potatoes in a red-wine reduction with wild rice and wilted spinach



5. penne with tuna in an olive oil-parsley sauce



6. marinated pork with balsamic braised veggies



7. spaghetti with toasted hazelnuts and shaved asparagus



8. salmon in a Dijon-dill sauce with sauteed kale



9. spinach-artichoke dip & apple-cranberry pie



10. turkey tettrazini



11. rotini with truffled sausage & olives
--no picture--

12. steak with a real caesar



13. Mediterranean chicken with lemon & olives, cumin scented rice & curried cauliflower --no picture--

14. pine-nut cookies, ginger cookies and herbed potato chips



15. israeli chicken with tomato-onion and zucchini-mint salads



16. winter vegetable stew with potato gruyere pancakes



17. mongolian beef



18. linguini with crab meat & radicchio in a white wine sauce



19. stuffed peppers with feta cheese sauce



20. pork with sweet garlic & fennel



21. spaghetti with beef and mushrooms in a cream sauce



22. asian chicken with mushrooms and green beans



23. eggs benedict



24. tilapia with cumin and tomatoes



25. fusilli with pesto, feta and tomato



26. pork in plum sauce with a simple salad in dijon-shallot vinaigrette



27. french toast croissants with apples soaked in a maple, caramelized sugar sauce




28. tomato, basil and mozzarella salad with a tuna, lime, scallion wrap



29. lamb shanks, polenta, and roasted vegetables



30. baked apricots with toasted pine nuts and homemade chocolate sauce




people keep asking if this means that rogray is going to stop cooking now that he made it to his goal. well, no. but he did say that he needed a break. he then added that he would like to make brunch onsunday and there is a salmon recipe he would like to try to make monday...if you could see me you would know that there are hearts coming out of my eyes...i love my rogray.

raindrops keep fallin' on my head

not really raindrops -- more like sleet pummeling my face.

this is one of those days that makes me think "i have got to get another skill set and get out of this lucrative temping!" and "maybe i will start to get paid oodles of dough for directing plays" and "why does nobody want to be my patron?"

i think i am a crappy temp -- and a crappy assistant at that -- i just don't really care enough to go above and beyond the call of duty -- and rarely do i understand why people freak out about the things they freak out about.

at what point as someone rises to the top of their company do they forget how to dial the phone or how to type or how to read or how to talk to others with respect? does that happen on the VP level? the executive VP level? the CEO level?

ugh.

i'll post about the amazing valentine's day i had tomorrow (rogray successfully wrapping up the whatcha got cookin? challenge!!) -- until then i am going to try to not start crying and instead start looking for a sugar daddy on the internets.

Pregunta

say rogray was supposed to make dinner tonight so that tomorrow he could wrap up the whole 30 meals thing.

and say that we got free tickets to a play we would never be able to afford that we want to see so we took them and can't have dinner tonight.

and say that tomorrow he is making breakfast, lunch, dinner AND dessert.

can we count the dessert as #30?

or does it have to be a a full meal to count meaning that he would have one more meal to make after tomorrow?

your opinions in comments -- i mean you 3 people who read this blog. . .

here come the judge. . .

remember the story about the crazy person we sublet from?

remember how we haven't gotten our security deposit and stuff back?

stay tuned. . .that's all i'm going to say. . .stay. tuned.

WGC? #26

this was last night's dinner which we ate while watching the west wing because i can't stop myself. . .i'm beginning to wonder what i'm going to do when season 4 is over. np more sorkin episodes. i can't bring myself to watch it get crappy and i can't bring myself to watch studio 60 -- my life is a mess.

anyway...

this was pork tenderloin in a plum, red wine sauce and a salad with dijon, shallot balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

at one point rogray asked me to come into the kitchen which was weird because usually he likes me to stay as far away from him and his kitchen while he's in it lest i distract him with my feminine wiles and unrelenting wit...i thought maybe he needed a quick smooch at the half-way mark but no -- he wanted me to taste the sauce -- which had somehow ended up on 3 walls, our ceiling and in the cat's fur...and what affirming, confidence boosting thing did i say to him in his hour of need?

"it kind of tastes like cough syrup."

i am horrible.

but! in the end! it did not taste like cough syrup! nay! it tasted like warm, velvety plummy goodness on top of the moist tenderloin (which rogray thought he had over cooked but had, in fact, cooked perfectly) and the vinaigrette was a nice little nip to complement the smoothness of the plum sauce.

wednesday i'll post #27 -- and thursday? you'll just have to wait and see. . .

WGC? #25

saturday night we went over to rogray's sister's and hung out with her and the twins and their friend. they ate some buttered noodles, turkey meatballs and corn while we ate:



fusilli with fresh pesto, tomatoes & feta.

sort of like a warm pasta salad -- it was really tasty and the pesto had that perfect balance of garlic-y bite and crisp basil flavor.

the part of the meal that was most exciting to me though is what happened when rogray was reminded that his brother-in-law was allergic to nuts so the pesto was a no-go.

1st rule of thumb about cooking for others: know their allergies! second rule of thumb: be able to improvise!

and so rogray improvised.

and he made an olive oil, garlic and caper sauce for the allergic!

amazing flexibility -- truly calm and collected chef-ing...rogray thinks on his feet and achieves smashing results!

the night ended with much eating of ice cream and full, happy bellies. . .

oh, what a relief it is. . .

to continue in the too much information category:

for some reason i am usually the first on my floor at work to go to the bathroom
in the morning. this is not a big whoop (who says that?) except. . .

that means that i get to enjoy the simple pleasure of being the first to use the newly cleaned toilet.

now, for men, this might not hold the same kind of excitement as it does for women since you spend most of the time standing to pee. . .unless you are one of those rare breed men who sit to pee which i'll never really understand but whatever because maybe i would get bored standing all the time too - i just wish i had the option to switch it up like that. . .

anyway -- there's something very pleasing about getting to be the first to use the newly cleaned toilet -- or newly cleaned shower for that matter. i put it up there with the feeling you get when you are wearing a new pair of underwear for the first time.

WGC? #22, #23, AND #24

oh my god!!! three for the price of one?? are you trying to kill us? make us extra hungry? or annoy the crap out of us with all these "rogray cooked this" posts?

i'm just trying to document the transformation people -- so here we go.

#22: asian chicken with mushrooms and green beans.



rogray had been struggling with cooking brown rice but he nailed it for this dish -- which was flavorful and wonderfully soy-saucey. he used shitake mushrooms which i now realize are the mushrooms i don't really like. am i alone on this? they're so slippery and squishy. . .me no likey.

but we're not here to discuss my issues with shitake mushrooms -- we're here to discuss rogray's cooking -- so let's move on.

#23: HOLY BALLS!!! is that eggs sort-of benedict?



why, yes. . .yes it is. i say sort-of because he used avocado instead of ham because that's the way i like it. . .even my plate is smiling in delighted shock at how yummy this looks:



and what is that i see in the hollandaise sauce? is that dill? you made a dill hollandaise to coat those perfectly poached oeufs??

oui oui -- he did! he was debating between 2 recipes for the sauce and decided to take the elements he liked from one and toss it into the other! my man's a genius.

rogray admitted this wasn't hard to do (the poaching and so on) but to know that i don't need to spend $12 for a plate of this makes me so giddy.

i was proud of rogray and he was proud of himself -- he was so excited by the success of this and now he has decided that brunch may be his favorite meal. i am looking forward to a long life of pancakes, french toast, and a plethora of egg dishes.

back off bitches -- he's mine.

and last (not least) #24: tilapia with cumin, tomatoes and bread crumbs with some yummy rice business and perfectly cooked asparagus.



this was from the moosewood and it was quite tasty -- and rogray aced the asparagus -- cooked to that perfect tender-crisp place.

we're getting close to the end and i am getting really excited for what's next.

rogray is doing brunch on sunday and he said he wants to make more mario batali recipes -- i've created a monster. . .the perfect monster.