Breathing Easier.

No word from schools. Yet.

Thankfully I've had a hacking cough to occupy me for the past couple of weeks. On day two the wheezing was getting worse and I felt like it was on the cusp of really settling in deep and turning nasty. The wet weather hadn't helped, so I took advantage of a subsequent minor heat wave and went for a run. In sweats. Uphill.

I make good choices.

I coughed a lot, breathed deep, and threw up a little bit. property values dropped.

I have no doubt the deep draws of dry air helped for sure, but this thing was far from beat.

My next line of defense, besides good sleep, was food. No sugar, and tons of chili and alliums. A few times I made a sauté of onions, garlic, chili, ginger, and lots of herbs. Eating this stuff can increase coughing but I was happy to get that fluid out of me and fast. Eating it out of a bowl is all good but it is dynamite in broth too.

If you can taste, that is...

I was pretty sure this most recent bout if sinus torture was the straw that broke the camel's back and I'd never be able to smell or taste again. I was a mess.

I did reach for severe sinus congestion mess a few times, but the post nasal drip cough was the worst and was harshing my mellow like crazy. Halls, you're worthless. From now and forever more I will treat any and every cough with Olba's pastilles. These things are legit. There's twice the menthol, and they've got other recognizable ingredients like wintergreen oil, juniper and chlorophyll.

They taste like something Heidi's grandpa would have given her while they were in their footstool-for-table phase, but that cough is outta here. Like all night.

Unlike Halls, which will try to choke you if you accidentally fall asleep with one in your mouth, these pastilles attach themselves to the roof of your mouth with super grip suction and literally stay put all night. If you don't chew it they'll last forever.

The whole Olbas line is phenomenal. I also picked up some of their essential oil blend that can be used for deep tissue relief and can also be used for inhalation. I was ready to hunker down with some Vicks but read the ingredients, got to turpentine and just couldn't do it. Fueled by thrift I attempted to make a poultice of crushed fresh mints and tea tree oil. I couldn't smell a thing but Minh took one whiff and bellowed,"WITCHCRAFT!" And hid his face under the covers.

I shelled out for the Olbas and couldn't have been happier. It smells much better and actually works.

Speaking of noses. We were at dinner with my folks last week because I wanted to infect the entire county and after going over my maladies in gory detail my mother describes my baby brother as, "the only one without respiratory problems."

What.

Ok so I hadn't really breathed out of the right side of my nose on the regular for the past ten years, but really, does that make me respiratorially deficient? I'm not up to owning that.

Thankfully, after finding Alkalol, I don't think I'll have to. No, I'm not drunk and no that's not a misspelling.

Alkalol is a hundred year old magical nasal rinse made with some salts and oils of cinnamon, pine and other lovely things. When you put it in your nose it feels like you're getting water boarded in Tahoe. It's amazing. I've done it a few times now and haven't felt this clear since... long time.

So I have no idea if my folk remedies shortened the duration of whatever this beastly thing was, but the Olbas definitely helped and the cooking and running and shopping kept me thoroughly occupied.

I've never met a pair if spinning wheels I didn't like.

Kitchen Friend

 

 

 

If I had to name one plant I hoped to own but never kill, it would be the gardenia. Fingers crossed . . .

Screen Door Do-Over

Abbey Hendrickson of Aesthetic Outburst decided to let her front door do all the greeting, and embroidered "Hello" into the screen in lovely uniform red letters.






Coolness.

This is probably being generous, but I've maybe cross-stitched for about 2 minutes in my entire life (but that doesn't keep me from having an entire box full of 50+ categorized and cataloged bobbins of embroidery floss now does it? No...)




(. . .I wasn't kidding. Don't doubt me.)

So anyway I was like YAY something to make my rented screen door look cooler and maybe hide some of the holes I'm sold. But I don't have time for orderliness right now so we freehanded.

Stars of course!

I did two simple stars and doubled the strands so it wouldn't look super anemic, and then made the smaller ones and filled them in kinda sorta. The tiny scribbled one is my favorite. Halfway through I thought maybe a little planning WOULD have gone a long way and then I could have done something clever like weave in an actual constellation but then I was like who DOESN'T know that it ISN'T? Right?! So anyway this is a good start but I'm going to veer slightly toward overkill and put in a few more tomorrow. If I actually try to photo this right maybe someone else will be as impressed as I am.

Doing something like this totally reminded me: having a house of your own is cool.

Update: I added a few more :) And now I feel like I need a few more. I'm going to follow my new rule which is to push things into overkill and then pull back. Who doesn't like knowing how far is too far!

Couldn't help it

Broke the white streak.

Dude, you are the coolest.

Making Rice

So last week I mentioned cauliflower rice. Ever since I started making it we don't go a week without a batch, and just like I hoped the grater came in super handy.

Cutting out grains has had some huge high points (fat loss, more energy, better sense of taste, etc.) but the downside is I MISS THEM LIKE CRAZY. I get cravings for stuff like baguettes, anything with corn in it, and O Mother do I miss fried rice. I should say I used to because when I eat this it totally hits the spot.

Minh's mom was nice enough to make us a big batch of pork and prawns this week (so. good.) so cauliflower rice was a given.

I'm not into measurements or detailed instructions when it comes to cooking but you can look it up somewhere if you really need a step by step. I'll just hit the highlights.

So here's what I use:




!/2 head of cauliflower (so. cheap.)
1/4 onion
1 shallot
4 cloves of garlic
a little canola oil
some ground ginger
salt
pepper
sesame seeds
2 or 3 green onions
2 eggs
1/2 bag of Trader Joe's Kimchi (I know! I can't believe it either!)
red chili flakes
maybe some pineapple tidbits? yes.
and a couple snippets of bacon. This really makes it. Don't leave it out.

Chop the onion, shallot and garlic and grate the cauliflower.




Add the chopped stuff, some oil and the bacon to the biggest pan you own. Let it cook but don't burn it. you will be sad. When the onion is kinda transleucent turn up the heat and add the pineapple, salt, pepper and chili flakes. Before anything burns add the cauliflower. There's a lot of moisture to cook off, so stir it frequently. Looking good? Less moist? Add kimchee! Mmmmm...

Try a bite. Kinda wet? Keep stirring!

Getting better? Crack open 2 eggs and stir into the rice. Sesame seed time! Give it a few final tosses and then add your chopped green onion.




Here it is!

Minh likes this one a lot. We had it with grilled lamb last week.

Still. So. Good.

Ho!

Mine frosty kalanchoe hath bloomed!

Corned Brrf!

This looked so sick when it started boiling I totally lost any desire to eat Irish last night.



But 4 hours later thar be happy goodness! Cue the bodhran and tin whistles!




I still think boiled cabbage is sick nasty and smells like hospice so we ate it with slaw. We eat tons of slaw.

Hi Chamomile!

I like you. I like you very much.

Silverwood + Wildwood

I don't like missing Eagle Rock sales. They're always worth the drive especially if you're early which I wasn't. In fact I was really late to this one...


But the view was nice!


The guy who used to live here was a toy prototype maker. He had LOTS of specialized tools and precision instruments, clothes, glass and kitchenware (full cupboards which sometimes makes me sad because that means it was sudden), the usual world traveler tchotchkes (incense burners, pottery that fits in suitcases, carved this and that), and more books on sexual dysfunction than I knew what to do with. Poor dude.

Walking through, I stopped in my tracks when I saw a doe-eyed girl holding a steel base, rough wood-topped table. I did an immediate about-face, scanned the back yard again and scored the second one for the house.



I like.

One of the things I liked best about the living room was a tangled piece of driftwood hanging from a chain near the fireplace. I had a tumbleweed I found on the train tracks hanging in my studio for a year, but couldn't bring it because it'd take up a fifth of the living room.

He had a soft spot for natural carved and a GRIP of geodes, but alas... As respectful and cheery as I intend be I had a split-second urge to hip-check this tiny woman who snagged the last one. Estate sales can make people very...human.

One tip that came in handy today was a looking for items without price tags. Usually on tagged items usually they've done their homework and you end up paying about as much as you would on ebay. NOT the goal! And for my searching I was rewarded with a free-ish can opener (after finagling open tomatoes with vintage bottle openers left over from the wedding this was something to celebrate) and some other things I'll post to the shop this week :)

The biggest self discovery I've made since getting married

I really really like having cut flowers in the house.

Every Thursday after work I buy a big bunch of a single stem.

The first time it was wax flowers (UNDERRATED!), followed by French tulips. Minh's favorite. Who's more romantic: Minh for liking them or me for getting them? Then came the ranunculus...ranunculuses... ranunculi (plural?). The petals just. Won't. Quit!




This week: a few mums. Keeping' it casual.

Craigslist be my valentine...

Super in love with our new desk lamp. Why yes that IS a milk glass shade attached to a 3-point swivel brass base. Thanks for noticing :)

The guy I bought it from lives in his sister's pool house and has turned it into a mini-version of the playboy mansion. It was probably 300 hundred square feet and had wainscoting, hardwood floors, and the wasp-iest hunter green wallpaper with tiny mallards in flight. He had one excellent leather wing-back chair and the tiniest galley table for eating I'd ever seen. I would have been really into it but he answered the door in a silk half robe and I'm gonna guess there wasn't much on underneath. But his sister had my back and in a fight I could take him and I REALLY wanted that lamp...

Broke a cardinal facebook rule: Don't meet dudes at private residences for purchases after dark, but with the sister present and the height discrepancy in my favor, I'll let myself slide.