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What I ate last week. Ranked #182 in food podcasts in Mexico according to an email I just got.
NEWS / UPDATES
Nightly emails from Reddit with updates from the McDonald’s employees subreddit from when I was trying to figure out which McDonald’s has sheet cakes. Never look up something on Reddit
Green tomato update: roast, blend with stock and cream; unsightly looking
Scandinavian fruit soup: too sweet to be soup, not yogurty enough to be yogurt
My cat doesn’t like grass fed milk
SCENTS
Anatole Lebreton Bois Lumiere update: French toast crunch, cherry scented markers from elementary school, a fire. Day ruiner.
SCENT: Le Labo Cedrat 37
Official description: https://www.lelabofragrances.com/fr/about-cedrat-37.html
Cedrat is citron
My blind review: Prada d’Iris, dollar store candy, Tums, violet candy, deodorant for teens, a hygiene product sample in Seventeen magazine circa 2004, Nivia moisturizing lotion, taking the train, getting dressed up in high school, Suave shampoo
I actually liked how this initially smelled and what it faded into. I didn’t like the first 2-10 minutes when it smelled like bad candy
INTERNET
TikTok
How many pastry chefs on an island in maine are there? They are the new private chef in the hamptons.
Medulla’s pizza drama reminds me of the time a couple was giving out samples of their frozen pizza in a Chicago grocery store and it made Brian cry (the sweet older couple with a dream, not the pizza) https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83EoSAh/
First woman making pizza on my algorithm
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83qRwyw/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83qV8ac/
Every other woman making pizza is just a one woman who makes a bunch of different things and it’s a random video of her making homemade pizza
Sauce on top for coal fire ovens https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83qV7To/
The steak wasn’t good https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TdJ6xp/
Overnight focaccia winner https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TNTJhs/
Video on how to make 10x and the search suggestion is “how to cut out sugar” https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83bS7fd/
I keep meaning to do this with potatoes https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83GPXKn/
Food of real housewives; people explaining food and taking orders in between people screaming at each other https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP833m1yV/
Fun food crunch https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83wUby8/
Cheese dreams https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP83wnr81/
Brown & blue cars https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TFqq6J/
September 14, 2026 (Monday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
10am: Leftover panang curry over rice.
3pm: A black and white cookie.
5pm: Sausage and cheese pizza, made at home.
Dave’s pizza oven easy dough recipe; scaled to yield 2 x 12” pizza
234g bread flour
100 g all-purpose flour
216 g cold water
9 g salt
1g instant dry yeast (.03%)
6.6 g sugar
6.6 g olive oil
SUPER EASY process compared to the 24 hour dough instructions: Autolyse, mix by hand for 5-7 mins, three stretch and folds every 30 until windowpane, divide into two balls into oiled containers, then fridge for 1-2 days.
Next day I pulled out of the fridge around noon to make pizza around 4pm. Made one cheese, one sausage. So much easier to make into a pizza; felt like a stronger dough. Better bubbles on the crust since I used the correct amount of yeast. Next time I would try a 2 day ferment.
Same dressing method is every pizza guy on TikTok. They should all share one account. Raw tomato sauce, pecorino, cheese; then more pecorino and olive oil on the crust. First woman to make pizza.
12 inch New York style pizzas look strange because they’re usually 14 to 16 inches so the ratio of crust to middle is off
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/22/771037027/in-male-dominated-pizza-circles-women-are-grabbing-a-bigger-slice-of-the-pie
September 15, 2026 (Tuesday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: Leftover cheese pizza with Texas Pete hot sauce.
10:30am: A bowl of cornflakes with milk.
3pm: Milton’s salt and pepper crackers.
6:30pm: Greek moussaka, made at home.
8pm: An Arcor orange filled hard candy.
Moussaka
Tomato sauce
Olive oil, Neese’s hot sausage, an onion, 6 cloves of garlic, Lebanese beef shawarma spice mix, harissa spice mix, chili flakes
2 cups chicken stock, 17.3oz carton of Cirio spicy passata
Bechamel: 4tb butter, 4tb flour, 2-3c milk, 3 eggs, 1c mozzarella, 1/4c cream, garlic powder, white pepper
Construction: leftover basmati rice, 3 medium thinly sliced parboiled potatoes, sauce, potatoes, bechamel in an 11x7 Pyrex dish which I realized is the same capacity as an 8x8 or 2qt pyrex although it feels like more surface area for the bechamel
Maybe my best one yet. Sauce was such a deep red after cooking for 2 hours. Went on the wiki for moussaka and there are so many variations but not use rice. Needed to use up the rice and it soaked up the extra liquid but didn’t crisp up as much as I thought it would. A welcome addition as sometimes potatoes don’t feel like a proper carb to me on their own. Maybe this is like a timbale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maqluba
I also made Alison Roman’s classic tiramisu so I basically just made layered things in glass Pyrex dishes all day
September 16, 2026 (Wednesday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9am: A cup of coffee with half & half at the office.
11am: Leftover moussaka.
5pm: A chicken shawarma wrap, babaganoush, fava bean salad, and toum at Sassool’s in Raleigh, North Carolina.
7:30pm: A slice of tiramisu, made at home.
Cake room: NYT Cooking Page-a-Day calendar recipes for Tostadas, Original Plum Torte, Skillet Chicken With Mushroom and Caramelized Onions, White Chicken Chili, Kosua ne Meko (Eggs With Pepper Relish), and Chicken Noodle Soup; a copy of The Blue Ridge Digest, a copy of the Center For The Study of the American South Fall 2026 Events, and a copy of Duke Arts Presents 2026-2027 Season.
Pumpkin spice flavored Coffee mate creamer cups in the office now
TOUM
Tiramisu was good but needed more salt (why doesn’t this recipe have more salt?) and more coffee flavor / more soak overall. I used strong coffee, splash of Hamilton rum, and a splash of Dave’s coffee syrup. I might be able to get espresso 15-30 minutes away. Or just keep a can of cold brew concentrate in my fridge. Also, I dip the lady fingers for way more than I think I should and they are still dry in the middle.
People say the mascarpone and cream breaks and to put the mascarpone with the egg, as they do in Italy, because traditional recipes don’t use cream in the first place. People are very mad about the use of cream in the recipe comments. I love and applaud it. I didn’t have that problem but I think you need the mascarpone to be cold and people were bringing it to room temp
September 17, 2026 (Thursday)
7am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Leftover moussaka.
11am: A bottle of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
12pm: A slice of tiramisu.
2pm: Milton’s salt and pepper crackers.
7pm: Girasoli soup with cabbage and Christmas lima beans, and pan de cristal focaccia, made at home.
I love a day where I don’t have meetings and I can just be busy being in my house. Need to garden for 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. Go inside and fold my bread. Stir some beans. Start a soup. Eat tiramisu in the afternoon, when you’re supposed to eat it. It was great on the third day.
Made more King Arthur pan de cristal half batch (250g) with a 1.25 hour autolyse. Really puffed up. Inspired me to retry the roman ball bread by Cucina di Linda and get those ridges. Bread for soup is how I would describe this bread. Table bread. Or wide ciabatta.
Soup: olive oil, garlic chili flakes, chicken stock, chicken bouillon, christmas lima beans, cabbage, Bertagni Asiago PDO cheese, porcini and chanterelle mushroom girasoli.
Rancho gordo christmas lima beans
https://www.ranchogordo.com/products/christmas-lima-beans
Recommended for casseroles: name one casserole that has beans in it besides green bean casserole
https://www.ranchogordo.com/blogs/recipes/summer-heirloom-bean-casserole
These smelled and sounded like buttered popcorn as i was cooking them
September 18, 2026 (Friday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
9:30am: Leftover soup.
11am: A bottle of Brew Dr mountain ginger kombucha.
1pm: Leftover soup with bread.
6pm: Chicken cutlet sandwiches with mayonnaise and a cabbage and onion slaw on toasted pan de cristal focaccia, made at home, and a bottle of Miller High Life.
8pm: An Arcor cherry filled hard candy.
Egg white as velveting agent: puffed up and browned but chicken so so tender; maybe also because pounded
September 19, 2026 (Saturday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Coffee with creamer, two over easy eggs, rye toast with butter, fried okra, and sausage links at Watkins Grill in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1pm: An Italian pilsner at Burial in Raleigh, North Carolina.
4pm: A pour of Monday Night Brewing Taco Tuesday lager, half of a burger, french fries with ketchup, mussels, and grilled caesar salad at Neuse River Brewing in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Watkins smelled like going to a breakfast place on vacation. Syrup and a warm breeze and clinking sounds and conversations. Fans whirling. This is the spot. Wood paneling and black mold in the bathroom. Texas Pete pepper sauce. Really bad art. Dining hall at summer camp. Pale orange plastic Pizza Hut water glasses. They could easily double their prices. The kind of place you get winked at at. Brian said I need to go to a physical therapist because I can’t wink or raise my eyebrows.
Country sausage was shaped like a foot and tasted like it had hot sauce in it. I got the small sausage links which were perfect. There was a third option.
No butter packets. Incredibly slow service.
I overheard someone saying sick in the head at a flower nursery
Every time I drive around Raleigh I sing JT songs. Raleigh is very JT CD that your mom gave you and you threw it away. Dirty pop. What’s the deal with this pop life and when’s it gonna fade out.
Neuse is a no. Burger was fine. Good garlic sauce. Fries and mussels were whatever. Caesar was whatever. Beer was whatever. Burger could have been thinner and less wet.
This was a recommendation from a guy who power washed Brian!!!!!!’s parents house. He said his life White likes Prosecco
September 20, 2026 (Sunday)
8am: Counter Culture coffee with half & half, made at home.
11am: Scrambled eggs with fried chili potatoes, made at home.
1pm: A small pour of Miller High Life.
3pm: Milton’s salt and pepper crackers.
4pm: Eggplant parmesan, made at home.
5pm: A slice of tiramisu.
7pm: An Arcor lemon filled hard candy.
Brian declared that he wanted to rewatch Sopranos once a week and have an italian meal so I was inspired to make something Italian American.
Referenced the BA’s best eggplant parm by Claire Saffitz via epicurious for ratios / how much sauce to make and how many eggplants to use for a 9x13 pan.
Claire roasts her sauce until the tomatoes are brown which I definitely didn’t do. I had two 17.3 oz boxes of Cirio spicy passata that I got on clearance so I used those with an onion, a whole head of garlic, olive oil, oregano, basil, and cooked for about three hours.
Had 3 eggplants from the NC State student farm, one of which was pretty large. This was the perfect amount.
Didn’t have fresh mozz so I just used low moisture. Added a ton of pecorino romano on all three layers. I had a burrata but it wasn’t enough. I’m puzzled as to how I’m going to use this burrata. Slice and salt eggplant, bread and fry, have a sauce going, assemble and bake for 1.25 hours plus rest time. Sliced well. Is it worth it to bread and fry the eggplant? Beautiful and caramelized. Took all day to make.
Tiramisu tasted like I remember it tasting in restaurants growing up which maybe means it was sitting in a fridge for like 5-6 days. Loved it.
Honorable Mentions
Burgers: Standard, Kingfisher, Players Revenge, Bar Virgile
Roman Ball or dry pizza, or just pizza crust, or dry, free-form focaccia
Quarter recipe: 250g bread flour, 200g water, 1g yeast, 5g oil, 6g salt
Knead all the flour with 150g of water and the yeast until the glutinous mesh is created (6-7 minutes)
Start adding the rest of the water (50g) flush and a little at a time.
With the last dose of water, the salt and eventually the oil.
Place the dough in an oiled container and after 20 minutes make a fold inside the container.
Leave at room temperature for about 3 hours and then transfer to refrigerator for about 24 hours.
Divide the dough to the desired size, form the rolls closing them well and let rise again until doubled (5-6 hours at a temperature of 18 degrees).
Roll out, sprinkle with plenty of oil and cook at 500 degrees for about 7-8 min.
Green goddess https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WY8TXF/
Eclair cake https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8WpJYC7/
NYT crumb cake
Wacky cake with mayonnaise
Iambaker / cupcake project vanilla cake
https://www.cupcakeproject.com/ultimate-vanilla-cake-recipe/#recipe
Chocolate chip cookies
https://www.afamilyfeast.com/copycat-entenmanns-chocolate-chip-cookies/