…I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible…

i’ve decided to write a cookbook. i want to combine my love of culture and cooking, and make a book with healthy, budget-friendly recipes inspired by dishes from around the world. i figure it will take me a couple of years, but so far it’s been really fun! i love learning and i look forward to picking countries that i know little or nothing about the cuisine. the first country i chose to research is Nigeria. i plan on writing 7 recipes inspired my each country/region/culture. some will be more difficult than others. i did china in an evening. Nigeria might take me a month. so far i’ve tried a recipe called jollof rice. it was pretty good. i didn’t realize i didn’t  have any thyme until it was half made, so i used marjoram in the recipe, but i think i’ll like it even better with thyme and can’t wait to try it again.

 

next i plan on working on korean recipes. i have a few good resources for that, so it should go pretty quickly.

if anyone has any favorite ethnic dishes, please suggest them, and/or share your favorite recipes!

 

on another note, my ferret seems to have moved into my bathtub. O.o he’s not able to get around like he used to anymore, so we moved him to a smaller cage. well, he didn’t like doing his business in there, so we would let him out in the kitchen and let him go on newspaper, and throw it away when he was done. then i realized the bathtub would be better, because it would be easier to clean up any… uh… overflow puddles. i also put a bowl of water on the other end of the tub, because he likes to drink out of bowls when he’s not in his cage. he got to the point he would pluck on the bars of his cage with his claws when he needed to go potty.
one day we let him out to play, and he curled up under one of my shirts in the closet and fell asleep. i decided to put him back in his cage to sleep, but i picked him up (shirt and all) and put him in the tub first so he could get a drink and go piddle if he need too. he got a drink. then crawled under the shirt and went back to sleeping. in the tub. o.O lol. he was just so content to sleep in the bathtub for the next hour and a half. i kept checking on him every so often, and when he woke up, got a drink, did his business, and went back to bed, i decided to put some food next to the water and just let him be. now we’ve got into the schedule of putting him in the tub in the morning when we get up, changing the paper ever time he goes, and putting him back in his cage at night or when we take a shower. with his mobility issues he can’t get out, and he seems very happy in there. and it’s easier to get him out for cuddles or play time. he likes to cuddle with me and my fiancé in the evenings when we watch tv. he seems to think he’s not in a cage anymore and has his own bedroom. lol. we moved squeebles into his old cage, which is HUGE for such a little rat, and she seemed confused for the first few days. i think she didn’t think she was in a cage either, and was trying to figure out how to get to us when we were on the couch. lol

i’m back

my medical issue has been long resolved, but i’ve been too busy to blog. i had a major migraine for over two weeks, that got worse before it got better. then it just went away. O.o it wasn’t my old problem returning. they never did figure out what caused it. i basically paid $100 for the ophthalmologist to tell me i had a bad migraine. >.<

we have high-speed internet again! with the deal we made with the phone company, the DSL actually ends up being cheaper than dialup! it’s insane. i’m glad to be part of the 21st century again. it definitely makes blogging easier.

i’ve been busy while i was gone. i lost some storage space and my house ended up packed with boxes and crap i had to sort through and find places for. probably ended up tossing half of it. i’m finally able to see an end to the chaos. there’s more clean in the house than just a pathway now. except the sewing room. it’s trashed. it’ll be a while before i’ll be able to get to it.

the bottom heating element of our (electric) oven burned out. we need to get the landlord to replace it, and hopefully make some other repairs, but we want to get the place a bit more presentable first. hopefully we’ll have a working oven to roast our thanksgiving turkey in! there will be no baking for now, except what can be done in the toaster oven.

over the next few days i’ll update about the projects and stuff i’ve been working on while i was away. it’s good to be blogging again. :D

ugh

due to medical problems, i’m going to be severely limited on how much i post. i’ve had a migraine for a week and don’t have an appointment with an ophthalmologist until friday to see if my idiopathic intracranial hypertension has come back or not. >.< so i don’t know when i’ll post next.

material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache

i’ve had a stupid headache for the past 4 days. ugh. i haven’t got much done. if i move more than to go to the bathroom, or get around too much light my head throbs and i feel like i’m going to throw up. oddly, the first hour or so after i wake up in the morning i’m fine, and it goes away occasionally, but it comes right back if im not careful.  ugh. well, i’m getting a lot of reading done, again. some day i’ll be productive.

i’ve been keeping track of what i eat, just haven’t been posting it to the menu, cuz computer light sucks. XD

::goes to curl up with the 6th sookie stackhouse book::

He that will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for others' good, is a poor, frozen churl

i spent most of yesterday cutting up fruits and vegetables. since i was sick, and now my fiancé has caught it, we haven’t been up to dealing with or eating the fresh produce we’ve gotten lately. then my dad gave me a bunch of extra stuff from his garden. so we had waaaay too much, and most of it needed to be frozen. i really really wish we had a chest or upright freezer! the one above the fridge to so small, and sucks, a lot.
i managed to:
dice 2 bell peppers
dice 2 onions
shuck a dozen ears of corn
slice 1 1/2 pounds of strawberries
sliced up 1 bunch green unions
cut 3 zucchinis into chunks
made a batch of black bean “hummus”
turned 2-3 pounds of multi colored carrots into carrot sticks.
i was exhausted by time i was done. and i didn’t even finish what i started out to do, i’m still cleaning out my fridge and salvaging what i can. i can’t wait until i’m over this nasty cold or whatever it is we’ve got. >.<

the “black bean “hummus”” just tasted like bean dip to me. i don’t like bean dip. so i reduced the amount of cumin, added 2 Tablespoon of tahini, and about a 1/4 cup or so of lemon juice,  and a teaspoon of chicken bouillon, to make it taste more like actual hummus. i think black beans could make a decent faux hummus, if made the same as hummus, with some added chicken broth or bouillon powder. i want to experiment with different kinds of beans, to see how cheep and healthy i can make it. i’ve come to *love* hummus, and with as low calorie as it can be made, i plan on keeping a ton of it around.

last night for dinner i made the hamburger casserole i had planned. i forgot the mushrooms, probably would have been better with it. i used canned potatoes, because i was too tired to use fresh ones. might have been better with fresh, too. i wasn’t all that impressed. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very memorable.

today i plan on catching up on dishes and spend some time pampering myself. there’s a ton of stuff to do around the house, but i have to keep reminding myself that i’m still sick, and the harder i push myself the longer i will be. ::sigh::

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

i did better yesterday on my diet than i did the day before. today my plan went completely out the window because i had to work when i didn’t expect to. but i stuck to my points pretty well, anyway. i’ve moved the dinner i’d planned for tonight to later in the month.
i got a bunch of home grown produce. my dad grew more than he could use, so he gave some to me. i got some small, long eggplant, a couple of zucchinis, and a bunch of different colored carrots. there’s white, yellow, orange, red, and purple carrots in the bunch. the darker the carrot, the sweeter they are. the purple ones are my favorite. they go *great* with the hummus my fiancé made from scratch . it’s really good. i was supposed to get some fresh basil from my dad too, but i forgot it at his house. XD

spent my free time at work working on the NIN cross-stitch some more. hasn’t been a very productive few days. i’m feeling a little bit better, but i’m still not feeling all that well. time to get some sleep. g’night.

“Man was made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired” –Mark Twain

i had to go into work for a few hours in the afternoon yesterday, even though i’m still not feeling well. at least i’m starting to get a little better, though. the swelling in my throat has gone down, and i don’t feel quite as week and achy, but i still get tired very easily. i tried making dinner last night. i’d been looking forward to trying the recipe, and i thought i was up to it. i probably shouldn’t have. half way through i just wanted to be done with it, and it didn’t turn out as well as it probably could have. i did really bad on my eating plan, but at least i recorded it. and i’ll do better today. i plan on comparing what i actually ate, to the plan, on the menu page. i have to work again today. hopefully i’m not pushing myself too hard and make myself sicker. i just need to make it through the next 2 days, and then i can rest for most of the rest of the week.