I have chocolate, nougat, hand-made little biscuits filled with home-made lemon curd, tiny, sweet strawberries and succulent peaches all bought this morning in a market in the Latin Quarter in Paris. I smuggled the fresh produce home on the Eurostar. I'm sure I'll have to buy some real food too at some point this weekend but maybe not.

Urgh, nothing so far. Some friends came over last night and we... miscalculated... the proper amount of champagne for three dames. And when I say "we miscalculated," I mean "they crashed on my couches last night."

I rarely have more than a glass or two, but last night I... well, I had more than a glass or two. Today, I've had coffee, water, and aspirin.

But! Coffee, water, and aspirin have had their effect, and it's the last night of the Greek Festival, so in a bit I'm going to head out for gyros and baklava. Time to show this body who's boss!

I've been having trouble getting myself to cook lately. So tonight I'm making a favorite pizza recipe: whole wheat crust (store bought), pesto for the the sauce (store bought), and sliced portobellos, sliced tomatoes (I will exert myself enough to do the slicing), and mozzarella cheese (plus some monterey jack that's been sitting in the fridge for a while). This will be dinner for 3-4 days.

I had chicken strips from 7/11. To class them up I stuffed them in a baguette with some ranch.

My heart hates me.

8:00 PM reservation tonight at the Mermaid Inn. It's my 16th anniversary!

I roasted chicken breasts to slice for sandwiches or salads, and I have strawberries, oranges and bananas for general grazing. Breakfasts are my usual sausage, omelet, oatmeal or grits, and black bread toast.

Congreats OR! I love that place.

My dinner will be spectacular, but I really want to talk about the tea I had.

You see, before I returned from Japan to New York, my fiancee and her mom loaded me up with packages of the local matcha, fine powdered green tea of the sort used for tea ceremony. Since they bought it at the local agricultural co-op it cost a fraction of what it would have at a tea shop or department store in Tokyo.

I'm a matcha novice, so I've taken the past few weeks to get the proportions right. I have all the accoutrements (though my bowl isn't much to look at) including my chasen, or tea whisk, which is made of bamboo and is now one of my favorite utensils to use. Scroll down a little on this page to see how they're made.

I'm not particularly ceremonious in my methods, though my chef training kicks in when I do anything kitchen-related. Add caffeine and it's hard to keep from trying again immediately. But yesterday I finally got it right -- the sifting, the spooning, the water just the right temperature and just the right amount, the whisking to a fine froth -- and today I was able to precede my tea with just the right sweet.

You see, yesterday morning I opened my door to a package from my fiancee and her mother, full of seaweed, noodles, soups, and snacks, including some special mildly sweet peanut sembe, or rice crackers, that her mom was quite particular about adding.

Her mom is just like my mom. I mean, I fell in love with my fiancee independently of her family, of course, but then when I met her mother I was staggered by how similar she and my mom are. I wish they could have met before my mom died, but her mom, who is deaf and frequently talks and sings to herself (which just opens up my heart with inexpressible joy), talks to my mom frequently as if they were in the room together, thanking her for this and that, which would out of most others seem creepy and inappropriate but from her is pure, sweet and gentle. Just like it would be from my own mom.

Anyway I guess the tea story is just about over, really. I plated up a couple peanut sembe, made my perfect matcha, sat down, enjoyed the sweet crumbly airiness of the crackers, and then picked up my tea bowl, breathed deeply, and drank it in three swallows.

And now I better start cooking.

Senyar I am so jealous that you can pop across the Channel in the morning and then dine on Parisian produce at home in the evening. I know the strawberries you're talking about and I have never found their equivalent here in the States where we're likelier to get mammoth berries that taste like cardboard.

We are "scrounging" for dinner tonight; for us that means snacking on whatever leftovers and tidbits are around, whenever we feel like it, instead of sitting down to a proper meal. So I'll probably fix a tomato sandwich on the last of the sourdough bread, and finish up the avocado left from last night's tacos.

Happy Anniversary, OR!

The usual healthy cereal and low fat milk and lotsa fresh berries for breakfast, plus some very whole grain toast with my Bear's homemade strawberry jam. Really don't want lunch, dinner will be at a local seafood/landfood restaurant which sources everything locally.

Tomorrow AM, either out with our guest to one of the good local brunch places or the usual 2 Sunday eggs with toast and fruit. Have a very delicious Turkish green lentil recipe I want to try making in the afternoon.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't mind being beamed to Hugh Janus's or Senyar's house for a snack, though.

Kangaroo, I spent a few days in Paris, but, yeah, it is do-able in a day, for sure.

I have no appetite these days. I can look at a whole menu of food and say, meh. I'm thinking it's gonna be boxed mac n' cheese tonight.

It is nearly 90 degrees F in our house right now and I did not want to use the stove and we didn't have anything grill-able, so I did cheddar melted onto Triscuits in the toaster oven. With that we had a fruit salad of cherries, plums, nectarine, peach, and grapes. We were at a barbecue earlier this afternoon where there was ribs, baked beans, corn bread, and a lovely veggie platter/french onion dip.

Tomorrow I have no idea. If it's hot again, we'll probably grill some chicken.

Last night I made roasted chicken & potatoes with rolls from a local company that used to be a grocery store.

Today my friend and I had lunch here and dinner here. Both were excellent choices.

Tomorrow she leaves and I plan to eat leftover pizza & leftover chicken.

Pineapple chicken from what is supposed to be one of the top places in Lansing. I was put in the room they were about to close (there were plenty of free tables in the main dining room) and had to get up and hunt for my waiter.

East or west village OR?

I'm under the weather this weekend so its chicken noodle soup with parmesan and chipotle tabasco and a sourdough roll

I'm getting a hamburger delivered from a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. I'm out of food and it was too hot to go to the supermarket!

How hot is it you say? I went down to the laundry room in a swimsuit... the minimum I could wear and still be decent. A male neighbor came in... wearing only shorts!

We ordered chinese food tonight. Quick and cheap and we have a decent place near us.

Before that today was all crap food for me. Justified it by the fact that I ran a 5 mile race this morning in way too hot temps. Although "ran" is stretching it. I thought I was going to pass out at about mile 3, so I walked over a mile in the middle. I am not stupid. There was zero shade.

Anyway, took daughter to a minor league game this evening so before dinner there was beer, cotton candy, corn dogs, fries...

Actually yesterday my sister called me up and asked if I wanted to hang out and go see a movie.

So I ended up eating popcorn, a bagel, and then we went to a bar and grill type of place. I ordered my standard chicken tenders, which I actually didn't enjoy all that much. They were oto salty.

But! We also got this "loaded nacho" appetizer. But! Instead of using tortilla chips, it was made with thick cut potato chips that were made on site. They were DELICIOUS!

I also had cherry vodka with spite, came home, and promptly crashed because I never drink.

Today.. I don't know what we're going to do. Maybe mac and cheese.

Just had smoked salmon and cream cheese in a sunflower seed roll for lunch, and I will be buying sausages to cook for dinner because today is one of those days when I REALLY want some sausages. With ketchup for me and mustard for him.

Though I now also REALLY want some Parisian market food. But that ain't going to happen very soon.

Tonight, I'm going to be making a shrimp etouffe (pretend there's an accent aigu over the "e"); I have never made an etouffe before an I hope it turns out well.

I've had the strangest combination of the cheapest, healthy food, fine cuisine and the best booze money can't buy. I can't even get into how very odd things have been.
People are fascinating. Life is a thing so unpredictable and completely bizarre the mind would boggle if it had the time, but who has the time.
I'm almost use to this combination of camping and seven star hotel living, but then it would lose its novelty.
Power is down everywhere and tomorrow is a holiday so then everything will be shut down.
Where to begin. Probably not in a food thread.
I've been eating tons of folic acid, though.