Hoo Hah! and other such exclamations of glee!
February 24th, 2007I believe that I mentioned here a while back that my diet pill was causing complete disinterest in food. I was no longer obsessively surfing food blogs and watching food network to find new recipes. I’ve spent most of the last 2 months just eating whatever was easiest and fit within my calorie range.
I’ve been feeling rather like I was stuck on a plateau. I’m keeping a spreadsheet of daily calorie intake and weight. Up a pound, down a pound, up, down, up, up, down, down, down. I wasn’t gaining back the 15 pounds I’d lost the first month, but also didn’t seem to be going anywhere.
Mum and I went to lunch this week and I realized that the salad I had that day was the first one I’d had in a week or more. I thought a bit more about it and realized that I was basically going through my days cramming 1600 calories worth of junk food down my gullet. Not complete junk, but a high carb, low protein, low veggie, low fiber diet. Starting about thursday, I started making a conscientious effort to add more vegetation to my diet.
Also in the last week, I’ve found myself becoming interested in cooking again. I blame/credit Ree for this. Just before valentine’s day, she posted her cooking lessons on lasagna and chocolate cake. I found myself thinking more and more about these recipes until I knew that I would have to make them this weekend. I invited the boyfriend over to share in this gluttony.
My mom used to make lasagna when I was a kid. When she and dad split up, the relatives expected me to start providing them with this dish. I refused, probably one of the first times I ever stood up for myself with the relatives, but definitely not the last. I’d make manicotti (which is fairly close, but different enough to make me happy) and eventually I started experimenting with lasagnas that were vastly different than mom’s. Ree’s lasagna is almost identical to my mom’s. I hadn’t realized how much I missed that flavor until it hit my tongue tonight. I also sauted/broiled some zucchini and garlic in just a bit of olive oil (must have a veggie!), warmed up a loaf of whole clove garlic bread, and whipped up a quick ranch dressing for a bagged salad. I told pop not to completely hog out, as I’d be making cake in a bit, but it just couldn’t be stopped. I think he’d missed that flavor too.
After letting dinner settle a bit, I headed back to the kitchen to get started on the chocolate cake. Pop hollered at me that it seemed like an awful lot of work for cake, you can fling together a boxed mix in 10 minutes. After I let him taste the batter, he shut right up about any old box mix. While the cake was baking, I made the frosting. I think I might have done something wrong, as my frosting was very very runny, but it tasted damned good, so I didn’t care. Plus, with it being so thin, when I poured it over the warm cake it ran off the edges of the pan. I just scooped a bit of it off and put it into a bowl, it’ll make damned good ice cream topping.
If this cake were human, I’d marry it. Super moist and the most delicious cake I’ve ever had. Caused a foodgasm, it was so tasty. Altogether, an amazing dinner, start to finish. Everyone go visit Ree and try these for yourself, then go back and tell her that she’s a goddess.