Calamity Shazaam in the Kitchen

My after school snacks used to involve tater tots or ramen noodles. But now I am a grown-up and I get to have Nutella & peanut butter sandwiches. Two things: one is that I am fairly confident that a Nutella & peanut butter sandwich is marginally better than a Nutella & Nutella sandwich. Plus it's on wheat bread which makes it already better. Right? And two, this sandwich would have been AWESOME toasted. Ugh. The day I finish this tub o' chocolatey deliciousness is going to suck for sure.

Went to lunch yesterday at Via Matta and stuffed myself stupid. Basically it was a joyfully excessive carbohydrate overdose that left me in a drowsy food coma for the rest of the afternoon. I went straight home after work and I am pretty sure I was in bed at 7pm. The pizza on the right is lamb sausage and sweet potato and it is really good. As is the spaghetti aglio e olio con pomodoro up there in the top of the photo. The crispy duck pizza on the left was good, but it turns out that I am not really in love with duck, and anyway anything with sweet potato will win me over every time - unfair advantage to tubers, story of my life. (I should mention that I work for this restaurant organization in accounting and so get a discount, hooray!) So today I am repenting with yogurt, fruit, and soup. And a haircut later to get some of this weight offa me. Thankfully January is over today and I can forget all about my New Year's resolution to adhere to a more austere diet. No wo...

You wanna know why it's called Old Man Winter? It's because by January you are shuffling like an old fart in tatty slippers with a runny nose and the ambition of a limpet. It's cold out, it snows, it sleets, it accidentally hits 60 degrees for one hot minute then minus 7 degrees the next, snot flows freely from every nose, and it is totally fine to go to bed when the sun goes down at 4:57pm. I am tired and sun-deprived and all I want to do is eat toast with strawberries and Nutella until summer rolls around... Nutellaaahhhh The child in me is like "ooh eat it, eeeeeeeeat it all!!!"  However my adult pancreas is like "B*TCH, PLEASE!" So I compromised. Kind of. I hacked a cauliflower into bits and sauteed it together with a can of chickpeas, some garlic, salt, pepper, and a bit of parsley. I didn't even bother to pre-cook the cauliflower. Nope. Just rinsed the chickpeas. And added a little water while cooking just to prevent any scorch...

Unless of course it is a macaroon made with coconut. That's not right. I love macaroons ( macaron  si vous êtes en France) but I love the almond ones that are just the cookie, not the fan-saaaay kind with the smooth tops, crinkly bases, and creamy fillings. No, I just love the plain old almond macaroon in all its chewy deliciousness. When my great-aunt passed, they ordered trays of almond macaroons from "The Club" for the reception afterwards. My grandpa and I filled our pockets up and made a slow getaway then ate them in the car and said nice things about Aunt Ruth. Man, that is how you want to be remembered, right? Anyway, I stopped by Baccos Wine & Cheese Shop on New Year's Eve for some thing savory and guess what they sell? Saint Emilion Macaroons . Handmade in Eastie. In a tub. O crap. Yeah, I bought a tub. Yep, you can totally feel free to judge me. Me and my pancreas will just be lying over here in a coma. A delicious, delicious coma. ...

Gawd I love to eat. The best thing about Christmas is that everyone is feeling jolly and hungry and thirsty and sociable. AND it's cold out so you can cover up the jiggly bits with a thick sweater and make like you are just, y'know, big-boned . My Auntie Bets sent us cookies. Holy crap. SO delicious. How do I know? Well, because I promptly ate them all up. That's how. Cute, huh! Extra tasty heads.... Chomp. Gone Seriously, I cannot be trusted around food at the holidays. I know that in the spirit of the season, I will be forgiven for my devouring ways. And anyway, January was invented by Weight Watchers, so it's cool.