This is the tomato from Willow Creek that I used in dinner tonight. It was almost literally as big as my head! I never want these heirloom tomatoes to end, but unfortunately the end is definitely coming. We'll have them for a few more weeks at least.

Tuesday morning for breakfast I had a Comice pear with yogurt and honey. Lunch was 2 ears of corn and a few boiled potatoes. After work I brought home some blemished Pimento and Italian Sweet peppers that I got for free.

Dinner was leftover pizza. I used the time I would have been cooking grinding the rest of the wheat. I got a little more than I got from the first batch - about 10 cups I think. It's still a little chaffy, but better than the first batch. I probably could have done a better job cleaning it, but my time was limited and I just wanted to get it ground and over with. I can sift out the little bit of chaff.

I added some of the freshly ground wheat and water to the chef and mixed it around vigorously. That's supposed to feed and get oxygen to the yeast. I'm happy to say that it's working! The dough is filled with bubbles and it has a vinegary smell and sour taste. Here's what it looked like tonight:
I really didn't expect it to work so well! I guess I shouldn't celebrate too much until I have bread made. I'll have to put the actual baking off till Sunday I think. One more day until the chef is ready, and then I can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Breakfast today was the same: yogurt, pear, and honey. Lunch was boiled potatoes with sour cream. I'm really starting to get tired of boiled potatoes! I wish I could come up with another easy lunch solution.

After work I bought two heirloom tomatoes, a Prescott melon from Blue Lake, 4 Passion fruit from Arcata, a few Asian pears from Willow Creek, and a few more Comice pears from Orleans.

For dinner tonight I sauteed a yellow onion, a shallot, a head of garlic, 1 Poblano pepper, and 1 pimento pepper. To this I added the two diced heirloom tomatoes. Here's the back of the one at the beginning of the post. It was truly the most incredible heirloom I've seen this year.

I cooked that mixture for a while and then added the rest of the black beans from Sunday's dinner. As the chili was simmering, I cooked up some ground beef in the cast iron skillet and then added it to the mix. I added some wine and salt and it was ready to go. It was super good with a little sour cream and cheese.

Believe it or not, I've actually lost weight on this super buttery beefy diet! I weighed myself last night at the gym and I was 8 pounds lighter than I was a week and a half ago! I've been noticing my clothes feeling looser, but it was hard to imagine that I could be eating all this rich food and still losing weight. I guess it's kind of like the Atkins diet, except I've still been eating tons of potatoes. Probably the lack of sugar helps too.

I'm feeling kind of weird about ending this diet. This Friday I have to do several presentations at Rotary Club meetings, and I have some friends coming into town to present with me and stay the night. It'll really be a hassle to have to explain myself to a bunch of Rotarians, and I'd like to go out to a nice dinner with my friends, so I think I'm going to to go off the diet for a day. I'll do a day extra to make up for it, but I still don't really want to cheat, especially now that I've made it this far! I've enjoyed this diet a lot, and it'll be sad in a way to end it. I guess I'll have to really conscious keep aspects of it going......