Wednesday

Discovery of the day: Emergence

I'm trying to emerge from my cocoon but it's slow going. I have to shake it off! It's March now; I can no longer blame February for my lack of... everything.

So here I am, trying to get back into it.

I do have a few interesting things to share. First, a Lemon (Egg) Soup w/Garbanzos from Epicurious. My SO made this (with a few changes) and it was quite nice. He added some cooked rice (1/2 cup?) and swapped the proportions of turmeric and cumin, since it was so out of whack it must've been a typo. Then he made this lovely Split Pea Soup w/Bacon & Rosemary. The only note here is to be SURE to chop/crumble the rosemary. Seriously.

Also I finally got around to making chicken stock! It was a serious hassle, but the end product was amazingly wonderful. I modified a recipe from my sister, who modified it from Cook's Illustrated 'Best Recipe' cookbook. I ended up with maybe 3.5 quarts of stock, just shy of a gallon, some of which I used to make chicken dumpling soup that night. It was fabulous! I froze the rest in two-cup portions in zip-top bags.

I really dislike handling raw meat, the fact that I am considering doing this again should emphasize how great the stock came out.

To cut down on the hassle factor, I'm thinking that next time I'll steal a page from Mark Bittman's book (so to speak) and roast the chicken pieces in the oven instead of browning them in batches on the stove.

I'll post my recipe after I have it tweaked just the way I want it.

In other news, I'm still not eating enough veggies, but I think the weight gain has tapered off. Part of my problem -- and I haven't wanted to admit this -- is that I think I have been courting another ulcer. I noticed I was eating more frequently throughout the day because my stomach hurt. Last time this happened, my doc said that's called 'feeding an ulcer.'

I started my acid-reducing meds a couple of weeks ago and am starting to feel better. Maybe now I can cut back on my snacking at work.

Now I just have to get back into the salad thing. I haven't yet figured out why I've been so resistant to it lately.

Small steps; painful, bloody steps.