171: El Swervo Redux and Neighbors Night

Some people have written to me asking about "El Swervo," so I must explain. When you repeatedly try to contact someone, and they successfully avoid you—they've given you the swerve, or in Spanish, "El Swervo." I got the mark of El Swervo from my friend Gary because I did not attend his pig roast. This is somewhat unfair since I have been asking him to my card game for nearly 10 years and he's been a refusenik for about 50% of that time.

That aside, we hosted our around-the-corner neighbors tonight. Though we were ourselves refuseniks for all the bread they offered us, we served up a ton o'carbs for their arrival. We also made a brisket that required two adults and much phone conferencing from Emily's sisters. For a while it looked it we were going to have make a prepared foods run to save the day, but in the end we decided it passed the test of what was edible.

It was a tough day. Aside from the usual, my laptop, unusually, died for the second time in about three months and I was forced to the Apple store to give it up for a week. Fortunately, I am going on vacation, so the loss is not so keenly felt. But tonight, carbs aside, I did feel a pull to the dark side.

Breakfast
3 slices (all small) When Pigs Fly Anadama Multi-Grain Bread
1 tblspn peanut butter
tea

Snack
1/4 cup mixed almonds/cashews
1 cheese stick
40 pistachios

Lunch
Greek Salad with Chicken

Dinner
Some Cheese (Brie, Cheddar, Swiss)
Brisket
A few cooked carrots
2 oz cole slaw
Red Wine

Dessert
1 bite of rugelach
2 slices Apple Babka (if you don't know what Babka is go to http://www.ebabka.com/)

Though there were many carbs (rice pilaf, past pesto, garlic crackers) what got me—and only after we were doing the dishes—was the apple babka. I thought we were going to just toss it, then I had a bite (Emily had sliced it into very tiny slices), then I had another. I knew I had to immediately throw it away, as I had two glasses of wine and wasn't responsible for my Babka-behavior. Luckily, I got away, ready to start fresh, and carb-free tomorrow.