Just yer 19th Nervous Breakdown

Most of the day was pretty good. I’m feeling a little sore throaty, and I’m not sure if that’s the clean sinuses plus the smoking, or the purge, or some combination of the two.

In my body I’m having weird things – neti pot related, I can actually FEEL the sinuses in my forehead and under my pituitary when I’m done cleaning them – purge related, I am losing an old sensation I get from time to time of having like, thick sludge in my bloodstream, and kind of feel tingly blood flow under my skin in some places. (My arms and face. Get your minds out of the gutter.)

So I typed up the days one through five entry, and then in the middle of it Scott got home and I was all of a sudden very very GROUCHY! Man, if he had set out to go to the store and buy every single thing I am not eating right now he could not have done one millionth of a percent better than he did not even trying.

THEN, oh, THEN, he decided that THAT? That moment right there? That was the moment that he decided it would be PERFECT to go over all the things you could recycle and how much you can get for recycled BRASS! COPPER! And Amy Amy Amy – Did you KNOW? Did you EVEN KNOW? That it is less expensive to recycle aluminum than it is to mine bauxite to produce it? And somehow he had misinterpreted Scott, I DON’T CARE, to mean Scott, if you keep telling me this then I WILL CARE, and the more I tried to explain him that no, I really didn’t? Well, the more recycling facts he pulled right out of thin air. And then my head exploded.

GAH. I was in this whole long rant of like – you didn’t even READ the labels and why are you feeding the kids all of the things I am reflecting on the utility of and OMG ICE CREAM IS NOT A FRICKIN NECESSITY. I swear on all that is holy he shops like he’s stoned.

Then I went off on a rant about how he NEVER supports me with the kids and, as if to prove my hypothesis, he got in the middle of something I was asking the kids not to do and explained why he thought it was an okay thing to do, (which, was, by the way, going into our room when we’re not home to make sure we’re turning all the electricity in the house off and OH MY GOD I JUST WANT SOME PRIVATE SPACE IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?????)

Then I realized that I was very much reacting to the whole evening much like Charlie does when he gets angry or upset. Charlie’s a pretty laid back guy, but when he gets upset? He goes ballistic. Last year when we were driving to Montana he spilled a little peanut butter oil on the rental car seat and “Dammit, I spilled something” accelerated into “and what idiot INVENTED putting oil in PEANUT BUTTER ANYWAY” and “WHY WOULD ANYONE EVEN SELL THIS PEANUT BUTTER????” in a matter of seconds.

I think I might be experiencing withdrawal from something or other. Either that or it’s PMS. From hell. Riding on a tornado.

(Mostly) Vegetarian fun.

When I first met Scott he was not a reader.  Oh, he’d read every morning, "magazines," which, quite frankly, were actually catalogues.  When he and I were married, my mom got him a copy of Undaunted Courage for Christmas, and my husband, who actively hated both reading and history, was hooked.

This has opened up all sorts of present giving options for me, and he recently read The Omnivore’s Dilemma which I gave him last year for Christmas.

This turns one story into another, which is the story of how, when I first met Scott, I was trying to raise my family vegetarian.  This did not go well.  The first time Scott cooked for us, he made spaghetti, which, he pointed out, was "almost vegetarian." You know.  Except for the MEAT.

Anyway, The Omnivore’s Dilemma got Scott’s attention, insofar as the weird politics that go into food production, and when we talked about giving things up for lent, he was willing to try to go meatless.

This sent me, as all food inventions do, to Philadelphia’s most excellent Asian Food Stores.  There’s one I particularly love, on Washington Street, that is in an old abandoned supermarket, of some sort.  It reminds me a lot of living in Thailand, and sticking out like a big, ethnic sore thumb.  There are tanks and tanks of fish, lobster, and frogs, all the most wonderful cuts of head on meat you can imagine, produce that you can’t find anywhere else, and every spice or ingredient that you need to make any delicious recipe of your choice. 

Missing the cuisine of Thailand, as I do, I’ve been having a field day.  I’ve made dishes upon dishes of Thai food, and, at the end of the day, all I have to do is throw rice in the rice cooker, and we’ve got a meal.  OH! One of the best things at the market is fresh bamboo.  And fresh tofu.  Like maybe even made on the premises fresh.  In a big bucket.  With tongs.

Anyway – we’ve been having fun.  And in my quest to expose my family to the wonders of Thai Cuisine, I found this terrific foodie blog, with easy to follow instructions (not to mention conversions) and today I made this awesome Thai snack, which I have not had in 25 years.  Thai food is known for a perfect balance of (sometimes unusual to the Western Palate) flavors, and when I gave Scott one of these, he said, "Wow, I didn’t expect the scallions, but that was perfect."  I didn’t have the mini-pancake pan recommended, so I put a couple of tablespoons of the batter into the bottom of muffin tins, and baked them at 350 for about 10 minutes.  So mine weren’t as golden brown on the bottom as the ones here, and I’ll probably have to either look for one of the mini-pancake pans she describes, or something, but the taste is phenomenal, anyway.  Yay Appon! and thank you.  (The other thing is that the batter is way too thin to just cook like pancakes, if you know what I mean, but my version worked okay.

Best thing?  Charlie, who hates EVERYTHING, asked for seconds on the mini flan.  I know that scallions in a sweet sounds weird, but Charlie ate it.  I’m just saying.

Next, I mean to try to make these, and would have already, if I had thought to buy sticky rice flour and tapioca flour.  I’ll probably substitute a very firm tofu for the meat in this one.  I’ve been tasting these since I found this recipe, and I’m pretty sure that this particular delight is responsible for at LEAST half of the weight I put on in Thailand.