Year 3, Day 95: Continuing my Search for Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

It may seem odd or even self-destructive that I yearn to perfect the art of making chocolate chip cookies. Not sure why I feel so compelled. Of course, I used to collect records and Beatles memorabilia so I suppose I have always had the element a detective or searcher in me. For about five years in the late 80s and 90s I was obsessed with making the perfect Caesar salad. Both these things have something in common—they have relatively few ingredients; there is little room to make them badly; it's like you're riding a razor-line to success with moats of failure on both sides. Last week I fell soundly into the moats with my cookies. I followed the Neiman-Marcus recipe and failed miserably. But I think I know why: I used "Frookie" brown sugar from Whole Foods; and perhaps unwisely, I used unbleached, whole wheat flour. This week I used the Silver Palate recipe with Domino light brown sugar and pastry flour. The results: 100% improved. I did however fail to chill the cookie dough or grease the cookie sheet, resulting in a tray full of non-delineated cookies that adhered cruelly, and somehow unpredictably crisp-ily to the cookie sheet.

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
Cookies

Lunch (at Carmen's)
My Salad
2 Hamburgers
1 Chocolate Chip Cookie

Post Workout Snack
6 oz. Stonyfield Plain Yogurt
3 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

Dinner
Turkey Crumble (Robert & Emily combined)
Lettuce Leaves

Dessert
More Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the continued grip of the Chocolate Cookie disease.

Did a great workout today; 7 miles in 65 minutes; followed by 100 ab crunches and 20 squat thrusts. Saw bluestars, but did not seek professional help. Then I chased Ruby all over the soccer field. Later, I ate a lot of cookies. Overall, probably did not justify my caloric intake visa-vis cookies with my exercise. C'est la vie.

Year 3, Day 15: Someone Stop Me

Into my third week and still feeling like I'm out of control. As I have written, I think this has a lot to do with having just way, way too much work to handle at work, and just way way too much personal stuff (projects) to handle at home. Don't even talk about the physical or emotional, it's tough going out there. I continue to live in a breakfast rut, and Emily and I continue to amaze each other in how long we can eat the same exact breakfast every single day, day after day. Do other people have this? Do other people long for variety? Or is it comfort in routine? I am interested in hearing people's opinions!

Breakfast
Kashi Go Lean!
Heritage Flakes
Blueberries
Banana
Unsweetened Soy Milk
Coffee

Snack
2 oz 50% Jalapeno
4 sticks Beef Jerky
1 Braeburn APple

Lunch: Shin Chang Yuan
Boneless SPareribs
Chung King Pork
Shrimp & Snowpeas
Moo Shi Pork

Dinner: Sabra
1 bite of Falafel
1 bite of chicken schnitzel
greek salad
chicken kebab

dessert
1 chocolate chip cookie
15 chocolate chips

Date night disaster, at least from a gourmet perspective. Thinking of yummy Mediterranean dishes of our past, we decide to try Sabra in Newton Center. It's funny, but neither of us can ever remember ever going there to eat, but somehow we know it's not good because we've been coming to Newton Center for food ever since Jillz told us about Sweet Tomatoes in 2000. So that's seven years and we love falafel and we thought, "well, it's lasted this long." A possible bad omen is when Emily asked me "so who said this place was good" after we were seated. I had to remind her that we were there on a recon mission. The final outcome was that it was by no means bad, but it had all the charm of a Israeli TV dinner, and that's including the total lack of ambiance created by the wait staff who didn't wait on us and brought us room temperature water in chipped glasses. Sigh. We got home and Ruby had made chocolate chip cookies—you can read the rest.