Fried cheese curds were my experiment last night. Real cheese curds were purchased from Beecher's Cheese Shop in Pike Place Market. Lovely walking around there after work. One recipe said use beer batter, another said pancake batter. I went with the latter. I had Wisconsin boy Toby in the house, and he said to use beer batter next time. Overall, they came out yum.

Today at lunch I went to Metropolitan Market to get a salad. This is the fancy grocery store on the top of Queen Anne Hill that I like to call Metrosexual Market. Since I live nearby, I got a coupon in the mail for a free bunch of tulips. Now I have gorgeous orange tulips on my desk. Aah.

Well, it's that time of the month again: the pre-period pig out. And you thought there was only ONE time of the month!

Breakfast: packet of organic maple oatmeal, one slice of whole-grain bread with a sliver of butter and strawberry jam.

Lunch: Annie's non-dairy bean and rice burrito on a bed of spinach and carrots, half a Naked juice.

Snack: package of tropical fruit Starburst, two Tagalongs, shot of espresso (not all together!!!)

Dinner: tuna and cucumber sandwhich, bag of black pepper potato chips, fresh-squeezed organge juice, shot of espresso - all from Pret a Manger.

After-class snack: handful of Kashi "TLC" 7-grain crackers and 2 wedges of Laughing Cow, glass of red wine.

And I'm still hungry!!!!

Stay tuned for the Hot Lunch Paris 2005 Special Edition...

Here's a good web site of food blogs.

I decided to start eating again. My appetite kicked in after I ran 12 miles this weekend. Go figure. Yesterday I ran in the Mercer Island 8K Run for Colon Cancer. I'm not in the results page, but I guess it's because I was registered on the day. Too bad. I finished in 45:10. No record, but it was fun. Mercer Island is nice but has lots of hills.

I made eggplant parmasean last night which is so good and so easy. Too much eggplant though so I fried some up and then froze it in tupperware. Hopefully this can be thawed and baked in the future and turn out okay? Also made pumpkin bread from the Joy of Cooking recipe. But I added oatmeal, ground flax seeds, walnuts, dried cranberries, and used soy milk of course. All superfoods. YUM. Now I have meals for several days.

It was Saint Patty's Day. Went to the Dexter Hayes with coworkers and had three vodka tonics with a splash of cranberry. This is my drink. I don't care if it's not green. The Dexter Hayes is across the street from my new apartment, so it is my pub. It's cute and has a back yard with a barbeque. They have a poor selection of food, however, so the bartender, who calls everyone sweetie, let us order a pizza from Zeeks. We got spinach, feta, and mushroom. Good stuff. In general, I haven't really been eating lately. So I found it interesting that someone in the NY Times Magazine has been doing the same. "Will you too swear off the cruel oppression of eating?" If someone could explain this article to me, that would be great.

Oh, I almost forgot: yesterday we went to the Chip Shop on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn. I had a fish sandwich and chips, which was two hunks of fried cod on thick pieces of white bread slathered in tartar sauce. Yum! I only managed to eat one hunk of cod with one piece of bread, and some of the chips, which were doused in vinegar. I mean, this food was HEAVY. Plus I hadn't eaten fish and chips since I was a teenager (on the coast of England, served in a rolled-up newspaper to go), so I wasn't sure how it was going to sit in my stomach. I washed it all down with a black and tan - they were out of Bass so they substitued Brooklyn Lager, which worked just fine. Fried dessert was out of the question - I was so full and greasy-feeling - but in a good way!Plus they were playing The Fall. I'll definitely be back!

Yesterday I had Mrs. T's Potato and Onion Pierogies with broccoli, olive oil, salt, and pepper. This is one of my staple meals. A good alternative to Annies, when you want something quick and want to cut back on the cheese.

Today we had birthday brunch for our friend Andy at Marquet Patisserie. This is our new favorite place, a nice change from the usual student-filled haunts on University Place. I had a basil, onion, and gruyuere omelette with french fries (only about six on the plate), brioche toast, an americano, and two glasses of Pinot Noir. We were sitting in the window seat, facing 12th St., and I had a feeling it was going to be a celebrity-sighting day. It had been a few months since our last one (Eric Stoltz and Ethan Hawke, in November when Kerry was visiting), and I felt we were due. We had a nice, long meal, about two hours, and just as we are putting our coats on, in flounces Isaac Mizrahi in a giant, white puffy floor-length coat and a hot-pink bandana on his head, just like this lavender one. Ug. What a fright he was!

Today I treated myself to a jasmine, cinnamon, and vanilla chocolate bar from Origins (yes, Origins!), part of their Cocoa Therapy line they are doing with Jacques Torres. Jacques Torres is so cute! His show on Food Network is amazing. He makes all these crazy chocolate landscapes. The coolest thing I saw him do was make chocolate hay for a chocolate chicken coop. He had a giant block of ice and drizzled thin lines of yellow chocolate over it. Before it hardened too much, he carefully scooped it off the ice and it was malleable enough to look like real hay!

Last night G and I had dinner at Terra 47. I had shrimp pad thai and G had root vegetable gratin. Recommended. Although, do not be duped by the "half bottle" of wine. It was exactly two glasses of wine and cost fricken $26. Uggg. Well, I'm going back with that coupon in hand, that's for sure! And as much as I love Kid A, it's not really dining music.