More Lifestyle Changes…

I’ve been trying to get this thing written and published for 3 days now. It’s getting absurd – I keep getting sidetracked or just fall asleep. So, one last attempt…

 

I’ve never been one for a gentle amble when I could stride out, or to ask for help even when, deep down, I knew I should, but a few nights ago it was brought home to me, in no uncertain terms, that this has to change.

In dreadful pain – my leg ulcer feels as if it’s struck the lower end of my sciatic nerve trunk, in the outer reaches of the posterior tibial nerve network, and the pain is monstrous, beyond anything I’ve experienced before, even last year – and getting ready for bed, always a fraught time, the pain effectively shut down anything in the way of coherent thought, and I found myself rushing to the bedroom, and back to the living room and I can’t even recall why.** Result, my lungs slammed shut with all the finality of a sepulchre door. Since my recent admission to hospital, this has become very much more of a problem, and somewhat less severe bouts of pulmonary oedema a frequent occurrence.

**A round trip of, ooh, all of 12 yards!

Advertisement

Vegetarian Recipe Tip…

Those of you who follow my vegetarian recipes will have noticed that I get through a lot of beans, generally Napolina brand canned beans. In terms of cost these work out around the same as soaking and cooking my own beans on the hob, and vastly cheaper than cooking them in the oven.

And yes, I know I’ve said that before, but I have a bit more info now.

A Spoonie in the kitchen…

For those of us of the disabled persuasion, cooking can be – and all too often is – a major challenge, and frequently, like yesterday, a challenge too far. No matter how good we might be, it’s the lack of physical resources that’s the problem.

My first batch of meds, including morphine, Hydro,** and antibiotics, among much else, was taken at 06.00, second batch at

Lots of buggeration, and some good stuff…

Getting into my clockwork bed last night there was a cascade of beige grit from under the dressing on my right leg. Essentially, it was me – dead skin rubbed to dust under the tubular bandage, and dribbling out with the slightest movement. And I thought, “That’s going to bite me in the arse by morning.” And it did.

I was jolted awake at some godawful early hour, not long after getting to sleep, coughing so uncontrollably I could barely breathe in. I’m used to respiratory crises, they’ve been happening since the age of 2 but frankly, boys and girls, this was terrifying. It went on for hours, with occasional slumps back into a fitful sleep for what felt like seconds at a time, before waking for another choking fit. An allergic reaction to the skin dust.

At 05.00 I

Cooking is good for the soul – trust me…

I need to cook. Not want to (though I do), I really do mean need – it refreshes the soul!

It has to be a simple dish, so that I can do the prep in stages, as I can stand for only a few minutes at a time, and what follows lends itself nicely to that.

I suspect I’m having a problem with dairy products at the moment, so I thought – what better time to make a vegan dish? I was a veggie for around

Mad or not, Howard Hughes had a point…

As regular readers might know, I’ve been plagued by stomach bugs the past few months. Initially, I suspected that my fridge-freezer was playing up, causing food to go off, but I’ve invested in a couple of catering-grade monitors for both (the sensor goes inside on the end of a fine wire that passes out through the door seal, the monitor itself attaches to the side by magnets).

The result confirms that the fridge is a minimum of

One in ten people know just one recipe…

How many recipes do you know?

Apparently, a squib in the Telegraph claimed that  around 10% of people know fewer than two recipes (so, that’s just one recipe, then), and only 30% know how to make risotto.

That strikes me as a tad unfeasible – 3 times as many people know how to make risotto than know more than one recipe? I’m not buying it, because risotto isn’t really relevant. OK, I can make risotto without having to think about it over-much, though I very rarely do (too much standing involved), and so what? I don’t see that not knowing how to make risotto off the top of one’s head is any sort of a handicap. Something like a beef stew would have been more relevant, and needs more skills than risotto in terms of both preparation and cooking, so would have been a better test of overall ability.

While the idea that the majority of people can’t make risotto

A lifestyle change for the New Year…

I need to make some changes in my day to day life in order to maximise my dwindling physical resources. Cooking, for example, is becoming more of a challenge and, as I have very little appetite these days, barely worth the effort.

It will still happen from time to time – I can’t imagine a world in which I never cook – and I’ve still to make faggots in gravy, for example (the ingredients are in the freezer), but on a day to day basis, food is going to be, more likely than not, something I can shove in the microwave.

If I ate more I might well be

More bottom of the fridge soup, and random ramblings about food…

It is, I think, time for another venture into the realms of bottom of the fridge soup.

In the vegetable drawer in my fridge, I have carrots (an unopened pack of Sweet Spear from Sainsbury’s, which live up to their name, in addition to being very tasty and keeping very well is sealed in a plastic bag**); 3 leeks; a long, pointed, sweet red pepper; a couple of Echalion shallots; some onion; 3 or 4 King Edward spuds, slightly soft but still useable; and a bag of Rooster potatoes, unopened. There’s also

Induction Hob Update – Important…

As I said yesterday, I made a chilli. 14 hours later, it was finally cooked. That’s absurd.

The thing is, I put root veg in chilli, to bulk it up and reduce my meat intake, in this instance carrot and swede, both of which cook only