19 posts tagged “food”
This is kind of a big deal. I haven't been on a vacation by myself ever. But earlier this year I decided that the fact that I'm not in a relationship and have no one to go on vacation with would not mean that I miss out on vacations. F#ck that. There is a great big world out there to experience, and I'm not going to wait until *someday* to do it with another person. I am seriously sunshine deprived in Seattle, and this week is my birthday. I'm 29 again in case you were wondering. And my life has been really stressful for the last few months. So I decided to get away and spend my birthday somewhere warm that I could sit in a chaise by the pool or ocean and read a book. I thought (and still think) that getting away is going to be good for me, help me refocus and get my head straight, and get back in touch with who I am at my core and what is important to me. I'd love to go to Italy, but even if that were in budget, I thought it was a bad idea to go international on my first solo vacation (this is the same rationale that excluded Mexico from consideration). So this week I am in Las Vegas, for the first time outside of attending the Black Hat conference every summer. I considered going to Hawaii, but could stay here longer for the same budget. :)
Vacationing alone is kind of weird. There are lots of things that would be way more fun to do with someone, and I find myself turning to Facebook status updates to feel like I'm sharing my vacation with people (I haven't decided how I feel about this Facebook reliance yet). Getting a table for 1 at restaurants appears to be impossible, I keep getting seated at the bar. Asking a stranger to put sunscreen on my back is WAY outside my comfort zone. And getting pictures to remember the vacation requires the help of strangers (I'm trying to get at least one photo of myself each day). But on the up side, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I spent 2.5 hours this morning at the spa getting a massage and facial, bought a new swimsuit (my suits from last year are all too big), lunched on snack bar food in my room, then went to the pool for a couple hours. After the pool I did some shopping with no one to get impatient at how long it took me to try on dresses or pick shoes. Speaking of which, aren't they fabulous?
They are my second most expensive shoes ever, after my Asics.
Then I came back to my hotel, showered, and based on the premise that feeling good and looking good go hand in hand, I got dressed up and went to dinner. The Cathouse, I will have you know, has nothing to do with felines. And yes, I was surprised by this for about 30 seconds before I figured it out. These are the bartenders who kept the diet coke flowing and served up a great beet/goat cheese/almond salad and calamari. I have never eaten so much calamari and still looked like I had a full untouched plate of calamari still.
I know, iPhone photos in low light aren't great, and the candelabras behind them aren't helping. But it's what I've got to work with here.
The hostess, who took the picture above, has the same birthday as me. Everyone asks if you are in town for business/what you are in town for. I have gotten better at the 'it's my birthday this week and I missed the sun' line without feeling like I have to explain why I'm on vacation alone. To be clear, no one expected an explanation, this is all my own issues making a trivial polite question more difficult than it needs to be. So I'm glad I got past that nonsense. Reality is that polite questions don't actually require honest answers, just polite ones.
Tomorrow I plan on spending more time at the pool, working on my sunburn and reading. Then I am going to karaoke here in my hotel bar at 9pm. That is my entire master plan for the day. I feel kind of like a retiree, scheduling my social activities for the week. Wednesday is another pool day, probably some more shopping (Caesar's Palace Forum Shops are SO much nicer than the shops here at the Luxor, I went to CP today for the pool and shopping, and plan on going back Wednesday), and I'm going to try to go to a show, I'm thinking O at the Bellagio. Thursday is my final pool day (assuming my skin hasn't full on revolted against the solar abuse I have given it) and then I think I am going to take myself out for a nice dinner. No, I'm not going clubbing while I'm here, no matter how much I love to dance, doing that alone sounds terrifying. No, I don't gamble. And I'm not drinking at all. But I think I might just have a good time on vacation anyway.
I have a bunch of friends who have gotten rather worried about me lately. It is nice to know people care about you, but I feel bad that they are worrying. So a little more TMI to hopefully put their minds at ease.
I am very aware that I need to eat more. Yes, I should have realized this before I ended up in the ER a couple weeks ago, but I was taking my body for granted and sacrificing it at the Temple of Stress pretty much since the start of the year. I knew in mid-January that I had lost close to 10 pounds in 8 weeks, and while I gained a little of that back I am losing weight again now, and I can't afford to do that. It is not something I am trying to do, honestly I would like to gain a few pounds back. I am genuinely trying to eat three meals a day plus snacks, and eat high nutritional density things. And I am cutting caffiene out of my world as much as I can, since it is an appetite suppressant. Which everyone knows is hard, I <3 SBUX and the caffiene free diet coke in the coolers at work tastes like ass.
The road to recovery is challenging for me not just because of the functional act of ingesting food. First, I have been stressed out of my mind the last few months, but I have some hope that is going to be better from this point forward. I could be wrong, in fact I often am, but right now today I'm optimistic, so go with me on this for now. Second, because my body has gotten so messed up with stress and dehydration and not eating much due to lack of appetite, my digestive system is all horked up (yes, that's a technical term, 'horked up'). I'm never hungry. Nothing sounds good to eat, I only eat because I know I have to. When I do eat, it is really small portions because I get full really quickly. If I go too long without eating, I get to a point where eating will make me sick - as in gag and spit it out sick because I think I'm going to barf. At that point I turn to smoothies with all the vitamin boosters so I get some sort of nutrition into me, then re-introduce solid food slowly and in small amounts. So obviously now that I know this about the gagging, I am trying to graze throughout the day and eat little bits so I don't get to that place again. Eating is hard though, sometimes I eat just fine and feel great, but at least half the time I eat I get nauseated or super gassy, and generally feel awful. I haven't figured out why that happens yet. What I HAVE figured out is that rotisserie chicken breast appears to be a good, safe foundational food for me. It was the first solid thing I ate when I came off my recent smoothie epiphany, and I have relied on it as a staple since then.
OK, so you are thinking, 'holy christ KymPossible, I thought you were trying to make your friends worry LESS?' Well yeah, I am. I am being brutally honest here about my situation, not trying to sugar coat or hide anything. They don't have to worry that I'm putting on a Suzy Sunshine false front and things are actually worse than I'm claiming, because let's face it, this is pretty awful. When I re-read what I just wrote, I sound like I have a fucking eating disorder. And being honest with them is forcing me to be honest with myself.
I have had something like this happen before, in January 2005. Something major shifted in my metabolism, and suddenly I wasn't hungry. Nothing sounded good to eat. I remember my IM message saying "I wish I could photosynthesize". And I lost 30 pounds in 6 months, *whoosh*. But I weighed 165 at the start of that, and losing 30 pounds wasn't a bad thing. I had a 1 year old baby and had retained a bunch of pregnancy weight. My metabolism changing wasn't unreasonable. But when in January 2009 I started having no appetite, I thought it was just the 2005 lack-of-appetite thing again and didn't really think of the ramifications of skipping meals to get other stuff done.
I have a bad habit of not wanting to admit to anyone, including myself, things that make me feel weak and flawed. So I got really busy gettin' shit done, and didn't take care of myself, and it is a hell of a lot harder to repair than it is to prevent. Admitting that I was that stupid and self delusional is incredibly hard for me to do. But before anyone out there says 'damn right she was stupid!' I would point out that almost everyone takes their health and bodies for granted up to the point that they get a rude awakening that they really can't get away with that sort of thing. I'm no different.
I am working hard to get out of this downward spiral and get back to healthy. And I appreciate the friends who are reminding/encouraging/urging me to eat or snack, inviting me to dinner, offering to bring me food. I am lucky to have such amazing friends, and want them to know I have woken up to the neglect I was showing my health, that I am eating, I am taking care of myself. I ate three square meals today, all with lots of protein. I will again tomorrow. I know I won't be able to deal with anything, stressful or otherwise, if I don't take care of myself. And when the day comes that I am excited to eat again, I'll triumphantly blog about it.
It has been missing for a couple months now. I'm never hungry. I force myself to eat because the way I understand it from all those high school science and health classes, it is a biological requirement if I want to continue to live. But nothing sounds good, and I only eat tiny portions. The one exception in the last few weeks was Tuesday, I went out with a friend for Thai food which a) sounded fabulous and b) I ate all of. Unfortunately Wednesday night I got sick - so sick I spent 1-3am in the ER getting IV fluids and a lovely schedule II narcotic pain reliever called dilaudid. No, I don't have a kidney infection, though my kidneys were hurting. I was dehydrated, that's all the concluded. Of course that is based on a urinalysis and some blood work, the doctor didn't even touch me once to poke my belly. So my *theory* is that my kidneys hurt from the dehydration, and have continued to be uncomforable as I'm forcing them back to work while rehydrating. So the fact that I generally feel worn out and yucky can't be helping my appetite. Anyway, after the ER tanked me up on pain meds they wouldn't let me drive myself home. Which I fully support since I was high as a kite. But it was 3am. So I left my truck there and took a taxi home. Then a friend took me back for my truck Thursday, but I missed a day of work. Which honestly, though I have a ton of work to do, was the right thing. I still felt awful. Part of feeling crappy is that I am even slower to start in the mornings, so Friday I got to the office around 2pm and worked till about 7. But that means I have a ton of backed up work (that honestly was backing up before I got sick). So I worked today for 7 hours. And on the way home tonight was seriously considering going back to the ER - I felt like I was going to vomit. Nice TMI, hmmm? Anyway, I came home and am feeling much better so I'm forcing myself to eat reduced sodium chicken noodle soup and trying to rest while planning my day tomorrow. I got more accomplished today at the office than I expected, so I'm thinking I might not go in tomorrow and focus on me and things I want to do here at Mission Headquarters. I want to clean my garage, I have a bunch of shelves to hang, I need to set up my daughter's fishbowl better... I threw a heater in it tonight but didn't actually suction cup it to the wall or anything. Poor betta has been huddled on the gravel in a state of semi-hibernation for the last couple months - I thought it was dead for a couple weeks. I'm not typically inhumane to animals, I just couldn't afford the $32 for a heater for a $5 fish till now. Who knows, maybe I'll start knitting the sweater I want to make myself.
sure, at one point there actually was cake. but not anymore.
Taut skin
Soft flesh
Juicy
Bruised by carelessness
Still delicious
I'm pleased to say my mushroom allergy has never been so serious as to cause a plane to divert...
The soup leaked onto the man from a jar in an overhead locker on a flight from Budapest to Dublin on Monday, the airline said.
His neck reportedly swelled up and he struggled to breathe, forcing the plane to divert for emergency medical help.
Ok, so I blogged about chocolate bacon. What are some of the other off-label uses for bacon? I've got a few queued up to blog about, but let's start with this one.
source: http://www.lastappetite.com/french-fry-coated-bacon-on-a-stick/
When Brillat-Savarin said that “the discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity than the discovery of a new star” he perhaps hadn’t spent much of his time near the deep fryer. This dish confers on humanity nothing but moral decline.
I present to you french fry coated bacon on a stick. Originally I was planning on making a French fry coated, bacon-wrapped hot dog, but thought that the inclusion of the hotdog was largely pointless. Why not just head straight for the bacon?
Front.
Back: French fries attached to the bacon with thick corndog batter. No food styling tricks, apart from using a fondue fork instead of an actual stick. I didn’t have a suitable wooden skewer on hand.
Tasted. I feel ill and so very, very dirty.
If you’re keen to replicate, do so at your own risk. Follow the french fry coated hot dog recipe, omit the hot dog and substitute with a thick slice of homemade bacon
CasaStone sent me the recipe after I lusted after this. I think we might need to schedule a Test Kitchen to try this.
Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) bag semisweet chocolate morsels
1 lb of uncooked bacon
Directions
Heat large skillet on high; add bacon strips.
Turn bacon strips over as needed with tongs.
Cook back until it’s reduced to about ¼ of its original size and appears to be crispy. (Personally I believe that the bacon should be crispy; however if you prefer your chocolate covered bacon chewy opposed to crunchy then reduce cooking time by removing your bacon earlier).
Drain bacon on papertowels to remove grease.
While the bacon is cooling fill the double boiler or medium sauce pan with water and bring to a medium heat.
Place double boiler top pan in double boiler bottom pan or put the small sauce pan in the medium sauce pan.
Slowly add chocolate morsels into top pan and stir while morsels melt. Do this until all morels have been added. (Be sure to keep stirring to prevent the chocolate from burning.).
Using your fingers or tongs carefully dip the bacon strips into the chocolate, if necessary use a spoon to spoon the melted chocolate over the bacon evenly coating it.
Once coated lay strips on cooling rack (with something underneath to catch the drips) or waxed paper lined cookie sheet.
Cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes to set chocolate.
I love coconut. I love shrimp. I love coconut shrimp. The only problem with coconut shrimp - or most any shrimp you get in a restaurant - is that they invariably have their tails on, presumably for presentation effect (or maybe the cook is just lazy). I always end up getting messy and looking like i'm playing with my food because I start the meal with both hands, pulling tails off to leave only edible shrimpy goodness that I can then eat like civilized people, with a fork. I could use a knife and fork, and cut the tails off, but then I lose a few grams of shrimpy goodness! Unacceptable losses!
Then today, what should show up in my email but a recipe for coconut shrimp! I could make my own, without tails! Though oddly, the recipe instructs you to leave the tails on after peeling and deveining the shrimp - perpetuating the presentation agenda? Does it really make a difference to the finished product if it is cooked with the tail or without?
I'll never know. They are just too much effort, and I'm not going to buy and find a place to store a deep fryer just for this one culinary addiction. Which is good news for the restaurants I go to for coconut shrimp.
if you have just one stalk, is it called an asparagi?
eh, who cares. They're soooooo tasty sauted with a little butter, ground pepper and sea salt. I only get asparagus when the market has nice thin stalks - if its as thick as your pinky finger, its no good! This morning while wandering through the produce section to see what looked good, the asparagus selection was so outstanding we built a meal around it. I'm impressed that even my four year old daughter likes asparagus. Maybe that isn't all that big of a deal, but I never had asparagus growing up (my first time was probably in the last 3-5 years) so it still seems exotic to me.
