the recovery

Funny story: I have been basically sick (minus a few days I chronicle in this post) for three weeks. Things I have learned, in the transition from puking stomach bug to strep throat to opportunistic virus that stepped in once good bacteria had been wiped out by antibiotics:

- Fainting is like the sensation when you stand up too fast and everything looks black… except instead of lasting for a second, it lasts like ten seconds until you fall on the floor. It is bloody scary.

- Dehydration makes your heart rate really fast.

- Getting a shot in your bum is SO SO SO PAINFUL!

- Grocery shopping hungry at Trader Joe’s is a bad idea. Everyone knows that. But grocery shopping NAUSEOUS at Trader Joe’s is even worse. I bought everything in the store that contained ginger, and several kinds of white pasta, and granola and fizzy water and so on and so forth. Expensive.

- Though I in no way have dieted in years (thank God those wasted years of my life are over), being ill enough to not be able to stomach anything but watery gatorade and bread for four days or so does cause one to slim down a bit. But, rather than the areas that we would all LIKE to slim down (I’m looking at you, disproportionate upper arms), the only result was the complete DISAPPEARANCE of my bum. A part of me I generally like. Go figure.

- Amoxicillin leaves an absolutely disgusting taste at the back of your throat. It’s a taste that matches the smell of cat pee. Does the “amo” in amoxicillin mean “ammonia”?

- Strep throat doesn’t hurt as much as I remember it hurting in middle school when I last had it, until you start taking the antibiotics. Then the antibiotics make the strep ANGRY and it takes its revenge on your throat

- I believe all this business began when I was transferred to the baby room. The babies are cute (in particular the one who can’t sit up all the way yet but likes it when I stand him up on my stomach and call him GIANT BABY!) but they also drool (or worse) on me all day and I am starting to view their classroom more as BIOHAZARD CENTRAL than any educational sort of place.

This is a story about the first meal I made when I finally felt like my health was mostly back to normal. A meal to welcome friends back into my home, a meal to return to the joys of cooking, and a meal to try to get back some of that juicy double.

Dim lighting made my apartment way way way more attractive. It also set the mood because Alex and Myra had (crazily, in my opinion) opted to say yes to a dinner invitation from Steve and me despite celebrating their five year anniversary that day. I tried to create an air of romance.

I made some homemade ciabatta, in part because Myra had made homemade French bread for us one time when we had dinner at her place, and I am nothing if not competitive. Made in my usual fashion, with whole wheat flour and vital wheat gluten to make it tender. Making bread is a wonderfully relaxing activity.

  

I also made my favorite roasted carrots- just tossed with olive oil, salt, cumin, paprika, and garlic powder. Cooked for a long time.

Homemade risotto. I’d roasted a chicken earlier in the week and used its bones to make homemade chicken stock. Then I was all set to make risotto, and promptly realized I was out of rice. So I grabbed a bag of quinoa and made quinoa-sotto. It was actually really good! Much better than plain ol’ quinoa.

Rounded out the table with greens, which I cooked in a saute pan with some softened onions and then creamed up with some coconut milk. And tempeh and mushrooms, cooked in a vaguely fricassee way.

   

The wine I added to the tempeh dish is pictured at left. I’ve had it before- it’s a favorite! A not heavy Malbec. The wine on the right was brought by Alex and Myra and was also delicious, in a completely different way.

Now, as I spend what is hopefully my last sick day for a good long while at home, occasionally pausing to cough up horrible, horrible looking things, I’m reminiscing about healthier times.

As I requested in my last blog post, my mom sent pictures from the Sunday brunch we enjoyed together when we were visiting here.

Crook’s Corner, in Chapel Hill, is super cute. And their eggs benedict is sublime!

cookin up a storm

I am currently ensconced in my basement listening to the wind howl(ish) outside. Relieved to have the day off and not have to drive in this, relieved to have the excellent company of my cat and boyfriend, relieved to be wrapped in my sister’s Snuggie she foolishly did not bring to college. Still have power, for now. It’s going soon, inevitability.

Anyway, obviously it’s been awhile, so here’s a nice update on my life, in the form of haiku!

We begin with stress. Stress begets somewhat atypical and not particularly virtuous food choices. 

roasted tomatoes
boxed macaroni and cheese
surprisingly good

 

plus from the freezer
ravioli and dumplings
Can you tell I love carbs?

 

Woke up one morning
only a grilled cheese sandwich
would gladden my heart

 

I put a leftover okra-tomato mix inside with the cheese. The tomato was great. The okra was not, with cheese. Live and learn. Took it out.

 

I was pushing the calcium for the week before my bone marrow donation because they gave me blood thinners they warned me could lower my calcium. So. Yogurt!

  

Injections that stim-
ulate blood stem cell growing
make you feel like crap

I discussed this in my last post. Man, being nauseous all day suuuuuuuuuuuuuucks. I have a new sympathy for pregnant women, and a continued desire to never become one myself.

Oooh, plain oatmeal with sliced banana I gagged down for breakfast!

 

My mom made me soup for dinner, which was very kind of her since the only thing more disgusting to me at the time than eating food was cooking food.

Then I took phenergen, which really never did that much for my stomach (awesome.) but was also difficult in that for it to be most effectively absorbed I had to take it two hours after eating or one hour before. With the schedule of meds I was on, it meant I would have to take it and then have a midnight snack. I called Steve and was generally sort of weeping weakly at the thought of food, and he recommended buttered noodles. Thank God for buttered noodles.

 

But enough of the griping, eh?

I made the donation. While I wouldn’t call it fun (when you wear a tourniquet for a few hours, you start to feel as if someone is stabbing you over and over in the arm), it was an amazing thing to be told that my bone marrow had produced 335 million new stem cells (!!!) and that they were going on an airplane to Europe that night (!!!) to be given to the recipient the following day.

I will hopefully receive an update on her condition 30 or 60 days after the donation. I think about her often.

Anyway, I got well! Slowly, and a little weirdly (the day after my donation I was awake for maybe five hours total; and the day after that, my first day back at work, I had Wendy’s for both breakfast and lunch- a surprisingly delicious egg sandwich with a REAL egg! and a baked potato- and then went to a bar with Steve to watch the Nationals heartbreakingly lose and had tater tots for dinner) but eventually, I was okay.

Back in fightin’ form
Charm City birthday weekend
heavenly/pricy

Steve took me for a belated birthday weekend in Baltimore. We had an amazing time. No pictures!

Then my mom wanted to do something the week after to celebrate my birthday. I don’t think turning 24 is a big deal, but I agreed since she had a cake she’d won at a silent auction she had to claim. So we called it a “cake eating occasion'”, and it was actually really fun to hang with the fam.

And ohhhhhhhh the cake.

It was gorgeous (I had to freeze the rest due to lack of self-control, but kept a big ol’ slab in my fridge for a few more days). The remains of the beautiful writing and gold leaf dusting:

 

Awesomely dense cake
Then hazelnut mousse atop
Crunchy choco-shell

 

All that celebrating was fancy but expennnnnsive. So Steve and I took a vow not to eat out for a month. And lo and behold, I have had a BLAST actually COOKING again!

Afghani pumpkin
So rich! So sweet! You should try!
Recipe online 

God, SO delicious! Wonderfully sweet and tender pumpkin, perfectly seasoned; and the garlic-yogurt sauce on top perfectly balanced it out.

To accompany:

On a quest for naan
First recipe just okay
Set off smoke alarm

 

Kale chips ala Steve
Unphotogenic but great
Olive oil; soy sauce

Steve has also stepped it up- he made a wonderful improvised curried roasted sweet potato soup when I came over to his place.

Classy new backdrop
Steve’s new couch from Ikea!
Neutral; good lighting

Also from Ikea: the table I helped build. We used it for… POTLUCK!

It had been a lonnnnnng time since we did the potluck ritual. Frankly, it got to be a bit much for awhile. But after a break of, oh, 16 months, it seemed fun and exciting again. And great to get everyone together.

The following is a haiku in three separated lines.

Fab cheese and crackers…
 

 

…Two STRONG types of sangria…

  

…Identical lentils!

Patricia and I both made lentils. Hers involved coconut milk. Mine was inspired by a shockingly tasty spice packet I got at a fab new little Indian store I discovered.

Silly theme this time
Steve is reading Atlas Shrugged
Railroad shaped pizza

I told people that Steve wanted to make railroad-shaped food items inspired by his recent reading. I said that this could be interpreted as a theme of architectural food; book-inspired food; or right wing food.

Some people had fun with the right-winger theme.

We watched this ridiculous video.

And so, we reach the past few days, hunkered down anticipating the looming hurricane. Cooking up a storm.

We have winning naan!
Whole milk yogurt is the key
So fun to watch puff!

This recipe is great and foolproof! You keep the pan dry (I used a cast iron skillet, per the recipe’s recommendation) and put in the bread til it poofs.

Flip it and admire the brown/black speckles.

Cook just til the other side is done, then remove and smear with butter (Steve thoroughly enjoyed this assignment)

SO GOOD! Actually tasted like legit naan! Albeit whole wheat, health fiend that I am (though thanks, Mom, for accidentally buying the whole milk yogurt. That’s what MADE it!)

 

Yummy pockets!

Here we are Sandy
Fortified with comfort food
Edgy but well fed

A lunch for Steve and I, made in a cozy and still (for now) electrified kitchen.

Split pea soup and flatbreads with a variety of toppings.

 

All contain cheese. Clockwise from the top left: mango chutney, tiny garden tomato, za’atar, and artichoke tapenade.

 

And now I have a hurricane outside and six library books to read. Life could certainly be worse.

recuperation

Breakfast with a non-strep bacterial infection (per my doctor’s diagnosis):

 

Obligatory mega mug of tea, along with comforting and energizing whole grain English muffin with butter:

And Greek penicillin. Avgolemono soup. Hot chicken broth, whisked in egg and lemon juice, rice. And lotsa black pepper ooooooh yes.

Threw in a few of these, for a serving of Vitamin C and also mega mega amazingness. Local strawberries. Taste like sunnshiiiiiiiine. And you can tell they’re local and small farm and all the things I like because they are so goofy looking! They come in all shapes and sizes, much like humans. Because it is natural!

 

Easily assembled, very filling work lunch. Tired, I suspect, of hearing me hacking and sneezing and rasping and generally being kind of gross, my hilarious coworker Rodney recommended I go home Friday and retire to my bed with a hot toddy. Because obviously I am Scarlett O’Hara. Tangent.

Work lunch:

Threw together a clean-out the fridge concoction of a red pepper (roasted then peeled), a tomato going soft (also roasted), and the last of a container of fire roasted tomatoes. Blended, with salt. Not bad.

Another tangent (in better lighting): that same day I made another clean-out-the-fridge soup by blending leftover roasted beets, buttermilk, and allspice into a very tasty and quite beautiful cold soup.

Kay back to work lunch. It also involved, for protein’s sake and more grains for energy, leftover quinoa salad from the previous week’s cookout (post to come!)

Old faithful: yogurt ‘n apples ‘n cinnamon.

 

And for comfort, and because it is the best hot chocolate of all time. We have it at work; a multipack of all those heavenly flavors. So amazing. I ration out 1/3 to 1/2 a pack at a time. And still have way too much.

Also work comfort: Amy got me flowers! And offered everyone the sparkling water that the “vase” originally contained, which was also a godsend for my throat. Yay Amy for being the best.

 

The next day. Seemed to’ve turned a corner, health-wise. Phew. Finals week approaches (and also work… insanity).

We were out of peanut butter, what tragedy. (Though have subsequently bought three containers of it, plus almond butter, so I think we’re outta those woods for awhile).

So, I made wonderful stovetop banana oats, but had them with a soft boiled egg. That was pretty great. Soft boiled eggs are the ultimate in sick food.

 

Tea the biggest thing on the placemat.

Morning cocktail.

Lunch was GREAT. I recommend ALL of these things if you are sick.

Tea, cause duh. (Though I took a single sip of it and went “Bleccccccch!” because Starbucks had messed up the teabags and I knew IMMEDIATELY because I am not at all a picky eater but I cannot. stand. chamomile. So I exchanged that for my usual very good rooibos).

Also an orange, obviously, cause they are chock full o’ Vitamin C and also have an acidity that I find very throat soothing.

A salad that was great just cause it was so filling (and had so much Sriracha on top)

Greens, edamame, carrots, cottage cheese, HOT SAUCE. Actually the greens were HOT too: we got a blend at the farmer’s market that included mustard greens and good. Grief. They were apparently wasabi mustard greens. Cleared those sinuses right out.

And finally, what might be my new obsession: salt and pepper popcorn. Orville Redenbacher “natural” (which means that it is packed full of palm oil but still; it’s popcorn; it’s healthy).

The pepper is uh-mazing. Highly recommend.