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Another week…

  • Posted on August 7, 2011 at 9:21 pm

Another week gone by in a whirlwind of activity. I think this month is just going to continue to be that way, and I best try to get into my zen about it NOW and just accept that’s the way it’s going to be and figure out how to deal with it. I’ll be back in NYC again on Thursday of this week. Have I mentioned how much I loath driving in NYC? It’s like bumper cars in a slalom with a little frogger thrown in for good measure. Ugh. At least that -should- be the last time for a little while. I can hope.

The chef from Elements and his sous and one of the waiters are down in NOLA for a seafood competition. And thanks to the joys of technology and twitter, we’re able to see at least some of what they’re up to. Of all the meals they’ll have down there, it’s the jambalaya at Coop’s Place and coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde that I’m oh so freaking jealous of.  That’s the New Orleans meal I crave. One of these years we’ll get down there, just not in the heat of summer.

Now planning a trip to Ohio for October. See about staying in some cool places on the way back.

Cold brewed ice coffee ROCKS. I’m seriously loving making my own ice coffee. I just plan it into the weekend fussing and it’s not a big deal to make, and then the carafe lasted me the whole week- including Saturday! The coffee’s so good that I just add some vanilla soy milk, no sweetener, and ice and I’m on my way in the morning. This is so going to cut down on my Starbucks fix.

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Sunday Supper

  • Posted on July 24, 2011 at 9:48 pm

Dinner tonight was as simple as it can get. I picked up some peeled and cooked shrimp from the Amish market on Saturday. Took the tails off, stuck them in the mini chopper in two batches with some mayo and garlic salt. Added some horseradish afterwards. A little toasted pita and a sliced red pepper for me, some multigrain wheat thins for the Husband, a few olives for us both. Will have to keep this one in mind for the rest of the summer!

Dinner tomorrow will be home made tacos. I picked up some ground beef this weekend as well, and some different tortillas. That will cover Monday, considering I’ll also have to roast a chicken for our lunches. Tuesday I’ll bring home some take out Turkish from near my office and then we’ll figure out the rest of the week. Friday night elements is doing a special dinner with Kevin Sbraga who won Top Chef a year ago, so we’ll be going to that. The menu will certainly be interesting!

But how is it only Sunday and I’m already tired? Sigh. That does not bode well for this week.

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Well well

  • Posted on July 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

This house. I love this house. But this is one damn quirky little house. With water issues. Lots of water issues. This time around it was a leak from the well. As it turns out, we haven’t had any service done on the well in the 17 years the Husband has lived in the house, and the access to it was one of the things that was actually done right. So, remarkably, it was a bit less of a hassle than we’d thought it was going to be when the Husband first saw water sheeting onto the driveway.

Note to self: don’t talk about anything mechanical related when in bed and not quite clear on it. There’s a little bit of a difference between turning on and off the pump for the well and the water for the house. Especially when one is in the shower thinking you’ve turned ON the former, when you’ve actually turned OFF the latter. Yes…that was my Thursday morning. Gah. Not fun.

I’m grateful it’s all back to normal now, with less cost and damage to the azaleas than we’d originally thought it was going to be.

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Summer Supper

  • Posted on July 17, 2011 at 10:13 pm

So maybe it’s not your typical mid-summer supper, but it worked for us for tonight. Tacos with all natural ground beef I picked up from the Amish along with some shredded cheese, and some whole wheat tortillas from the supermarket. Next time maybe I’ll chop up some of the farmers market tomatoes instead of using the jarred salsa. Or maybe I’ll just remember to buy some better jarred salsa. This one was supposed to be on someone’s best of list, I think, which is why I bought it instead of what I usually buy. But I found it way too watery and it just made everything messy. Maybe if I drained the whole jar it might be useable but that’s just a hassle. Meh. But otherwise dinner was really yummy, and I think we’d do it again. Not too bad to make even in the heat of the summer.

Once that was done I roasted a quick chicken in the convection oven. I forgot the carrots today, I was in too much of a rush, but it will make chicken salad for lunch for the Husband for one day and lunch for me for one or two days during the week. Even though my work schedule is going to be messed up this week and odds are I didn’t need to make the chicken. Oh well. Maybe just take one day for me and make more chicken salad for him. We’ll see.

I just ordered a cold french press to make ice coffee concentrate. I don’t usually like hot coffee, except, weirdly, for a soy cappuccino at elements from time to time, and I think that’s mostly because they don’t do iced coffee beverages. Otherwise, year-round, my preference is for iced coffee or espresso drinks. But you can’t just throw hot coffee over ice for the most part, it just gets watery that way. You generally make a stronger coffee concentrate which you put over ice and with some soy milk and maybe a bit of flavoring. It’s part of the reason I don’t make it at home. But if I can put elements’ coffee blend into a concentrate over ice and have that most days of the week, in my nice reusable cup, yeah, I can take the effort once a week to do that. Besides, if I don’t have to go get a coffee, it’ll help keep me away from the pastries in the morning, even if I did choose carefully it was still no good even twice a week!

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Summer in NJ

  • Posted on July 16, 2011 at 3:42 pm

It’s full on summer in New Jersey, there’s no doubt about that! NOAA said it was only supposed to get into the low 80’s today, but it was at least 92 when I was out.

Today’s haul from the farmers market. First of the cherry tomatoes, sugar plums, peaches, blueberries, and eggs. At the Amish I got some cheese and cherries and a peach shake. Not to mention some steaks and all natural ground beef. Oh, and some shrimp! At Griggstown I got some plums, a chicken, a biscotti and one cookie for each of us. Lol.

After all that did a run to the supermarket for some staples, and then the dry cleaners so I can be presentable when I go out in the world. Tomorrow is laundry and maybe the other supermarket. We’ll see what it feels like after brunch.

I know I’m not supposed to have too many of the tomatoes; they’re one of those vegetables that many fibro folks don’t do well with and unfortunately that does hold true for me sometimes. But for the first ones of the season, I really will just suck it up and try not to eat the whole container in the weekend. I’ve been making a concerted effort to up my fruit intake especially over the summer when I’m able to get so much stuff fresh and local. I’ve been trying for three servings a day. I know that doesn’t seem like a lot and is definitely less than is recommended but considering I could go days without any, that’s a big step. And it’s keeping me away from the vending machines if I have something at my desk that I can nosh on at that moment.

I’m not quite sure how it’s gotten to be the middle of July.

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emotional roller coaster

  • Posted on July 12, 2011 at 10:30 pm

It’s almost harder to be on an emotional roller coaster when it’s not your own life that’s going through it!

Yesterday, I saw an old friend and her family off as they made Aliyah (moved to Israel). First it was the departure in the morning, then tracking the flight all day, then the arrival ceremony at midnight (for which I set an alarm). I managed to see the whole family get off the plane (including Maggie the wonder pup!) and then went back to sleep. Only this morning did I find out that the kids were actually interviewed, so I went and replayed the video to find that part to rewatch, and recry, through. I’m completely in awe of her and her family for doing this. It takes a special kind of person to make this move, and they’re it. Yes, you’re finally the right kind of crazy.

Today, I have a friend whose son was in a motorcycle accident. He was found next to his bike in a ditch this morning, airlifted to the hospital ICU with multiple breaks in his neck. She’s still recovering from her own rather major surgery a couple of months ago, and this is really the last thing she needed. And there’s nothing I can do for either of them but pray. I’m too far away to help in person. I’ve known her online for more than 10 years, and it’s only perhaps later this year that we’ll finally meet face to face for the first time. And yet she’s part of that extended circle to which it pains me when I can’t go to them when they’re in need, that I can’t help.

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Minor aggravation

  • Posted on June 27, 2011 at 5:27 pm

There’s nothing more frustrating than getting the call from the doctor’s office that they have your lab results…and getting the message just after they close the phones so you can’t call back till the following day. ARGH!

At least they called in my Rx refill today, for which there is finally a generic available!

Better living through pharmacology…..

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Ah, nature….

  • Posted on June 26, 2011 at 9:49 pm

Tonight was the first round of the annual battle with the raccoon. It comes up to eat the outside cats’ food. I yell and chase it away.  It pokes it’s head up from under the deck. I yell at it that I’m not feeding it, and it should go away, gay aveck! So this means we need to change how we feed the outside cats just to keep away the freaking raccoon. It could be worse. At least I don’t have to worry about skunk or bear.

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Weekend Roundup

  • Posted on June 26, 2011 at 8:38 pm

First, thanks to elements for squeezing us in for a last minute, leisurely, lovely dinner in the cube Saturday night. It was TRULY appreciated and very much needed. Mattias, thank you for the swizzling! Thank you, Justin, for helping me to understand why my greatly appreciated french toast for brunch was tasting like bacon. You have no idea how thoroughly disconcerting it was. The Husband’s cardinal rule is no greens in the eggs, mine is nothing that tastes like bacon. As much as he loves it, I can’t stand it.

Next, the farmers market continues to disappoint. Maybe it’s still too early in the season (I didn’t think so), or maybe it’s that one of the vendors I’ve come to depend on doesn’t seem to be there yet this season, even though all the materials and emails say they should be. I’ll continue to go, of course, but it was a disappointment to walk away this week with just two boxes of blueberries. We’re not big veggie eaters much of the time, especially if I’m not cooking a lot which I haven’t been.  I’ve still managed to pick up some good fruits between the Amish and Griggstown, but it’s just not what I’d been hoping for. I do also have the farmers market near the office on Tuesday, which is always good for strawberries at the very least and hopefully some more shelling peas this week.

We’re starting to plan a real vacation for August. A long weekend at someplace with both a spa and fine dining. It’s hard to find some place to meet all our parameters. Maybe we’re just too picky? No, I think I just need to refine my search a bit to find what we want- and are willing to pay. We looked at the Inn at Little Washington, but to stay on site was just a bit more than we were willing to splurge for.

After that, we’ll be planning a trip to Vermont. The 3 year plan involves a move, and VT is one of the first places to consider. Aside from the ski areas. Need to find places away from all that. Otherwise maybe New Hampshire. Need land, water and solitude. Pretty much the rest is negotiable.

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dusts off soap box…

  • Posted on June 20, 2011 at 6:26 pm

<dusts off soap box….>

Inspired by a dear friend who has started her own blog to chronicle her family’s incredible journey, I’ve decided that it’s more than high time to dust off my sounding board here and get back to blogging. Even if no one but my Husband reads it! <waves to my Beloved>

Originally I thought this was going to be mostly a food blog, but I don’t cook much these days and when we go out to eat about 95% of the time it’s to Elements in Princeton- not that I’m complaining about that, mind you, but there’s only so many times I can go on about how wonderful they are, both staff and food. (And they do continue to be absolutely wonderful in every way.) I don’t want this to just be about my health. I HATE going on about my health issues, I hate thinking about them, I hate dealing with them, and I sure as heck don’t want to force anyone else to listen to them, so for the most part they will still remain behind the links.

But I think I’m going to just ramble a bit more here then I have been.  So we’ll see what spews forth.

Thought for today….how is tomorrow Summer Solstice? Where did my Spring go?!?!!?

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