Easter indulgence

I ended up not leaving Sean's place immediately. Because I was doing several loads of his laundry, I ended up hanging well into the afternoon. Sean had texted that he expected to be back from New York (where he had attended a friend's wedding) around 6PM. I was still at his place at 5:30PM, so I called him and wondered aloud as to whether he'd like to do dinner. He said yes, arrived a little before six (much to the delight of his dog Maqz), and we eventually both decided "fuck it" regarding our respective diets, and ordered a massive mound of Chinese food. In my case, this meant wontons, pan-fried dumplings, and pan-fried noodles with beef, chicken, and seafood. Sean got dumplings, crab Rangoon, and General Tso's chicken.

Both of us were nearly unable to move after we had finished this horrifying carb-fest, and we both considered this weekend a lost cause, dietetically speaking. Sean, to his credit, looks amazingly thinner thanks to his focus on near-daily running and Paleo dieting, although he says he hasn't yet taken up the "minimizing fat wrapped around the internal organs" banner. At a guess, I'd venture that that may be a bit too gung-ho for him. I know it is for me: it's way too early in the weight-loss game for me to focus on my fat-wrapped innards.

Somehow, close to 9PM, I managed to lever myself off Sean's plush living room couch and totter/lumber toward the door. We said our goodbyes; Maqz gave me a final lick, and I was off to the mountains, not at all looking forward to my Monday weigh-in.

But it's not over for me: Monday is an off-day as well, so I'm celebrating my return to the low-carb regime by making charoset, my favorite Passover food. My recipe hasn't varied much over the several years that I've made this dish: raisins, dates, dried apples, figs, peanuts, cashews, honey, ginger, wine (if available), and chili pepper. Charoset represents, for Jews, the mortar slapped between the bricks of the edifices that the ancient Hebrew slaves were forced to build for their Egyptian masters. Its consistency is a reminder of a bitter epoch; its sweetness is a sign of hope for a better future. So: charoset today. I'll have to share the rest of it starting tomorrow, alas, as I won't be able to eat more than an ounce of it at a time.


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