In anticipation of the upcoming rain, I made Chickpea Vegetable Curry. It is hot and spicy and full of vegetables. It has chickpeas, potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes and kale. Yum!
Today was gloomy most of the day so I took a bath. Lucky is feeling better after another bout of stomach issues. We just took it easy today since Lucky had me up at 5am to go outside.
Until tomorrow...
I finally finished the Contemporary Italian Cuisine chapter of my Vegan Cooking Course. I am so excited. This chapter was just not much fun. I don't know why but maybe because I already did an Italian cooking chapter and an Italian pastry chapter. I am looking for something different. I have the cooking course for another year so I have more time to finish the remaining chapters and see what other chapters they come up with.
I made over the last few days: Roasted Vegetable Plate. This is not the roasted vegetable plate I get in restaurants. This is fancy. The bottom layer was potato mash but not American potato mash. This was potato with lemon juice and zest. Then it was supposed to have spring onions and chives. I left those out because I don't eat onions. The next layer was wine poached leek and a roasted shallot. I did not eat the shallot. Then roasted vegetables with hazelnut breadcrumbs on top. I made the hazelnut breadcrumbs. Then there are crunchy lentils to add some crunch. Then I made my own vegetable jus. There was supposed to be onion jus but between my dislike of onions and the salmonella going around, I thought it best to skip this. It tasted amazing. The roasted veggies were cauliflower, celery root and pumpkin. It had so many elements that really went so well together.
Basically that was the whole day. I just finished watching The Farewell. I really liked it a lot. I took Lucky for the first walk since my 3 mile trek that hurt my legs. We did fine. I think I will get back to walking. It rained all day but not hard. The backyard looks great.
Until tomorrow...
My backyard looks amazing! I couldn't get a photo because the gardener finished when it was dark. He worked for 11.5 hours and he isn't done. I wish I took a photo before he started. It was such a mess. The ivy was overgrown, there were leaves everywhere, there were weeds all over and it was complete disarray. The first day he cleaned up the leaves and started cutting down the ivy. Today he cut down the rest of the ivy, trimmed some trees, weeded the sand pit and herb garden, and swept up. He has some more weeding to do, cleaning up a little and he is going to power wash the slate. I am so excited to get the backyard in a place I want to spend time again. He even spoke to my neighbor about trimming his tree where it comes over the property line. I hate his pine tree because some of it is dead and it drops the dead parts on my side of the fence all year long.
The ivy is cut back to the fence and it isn't pretty but I am happy to get rid of the ivy anyway I can. I can't stand it. I can't understand why anyone would plant it.
The big "mother-in-law tongue" plant is gone. It was beautiful when it was put in but then it continued to grow and grow. It grew too big for the space. It was also dying a bit. He dug it out and got rid of it. The area looks so much bigger now. I can't wait to see what else we can do to make it a wonderfully relaxing space.
Until tomorrow...
Happy National Chocolate Day! I decided to make Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. I made more little cookies. What the heck! It is Chocolate Day!
I had two guys at my house today. First the handyman came to finish the job sealing leaks. He sealed my stairs with hopes that would stop any leaks. He was nice enough to carry down my old microwave down to the garage.
Then my new gardener came and worked for 4 hours on the backyard. He is coming back tomorrow to finish up. He dug out a large plant that was half dead that I wanted gone. It was too large for the space. It looks great now that it is gone. The backyard is going to look great. He already filled three big bags and my compost bin.
That was basically my whole day. Managing workers. That's why I made cookies.
Until tomorrow...
I started cooking again. I am feeling a bit better today. My flare is subsiding a bit so I decided to try finishing the final dish in my Contemporary Italian chapter. Once I finish this dish I am thinking of taking a short break before starting the next chapter. I have been going at this cooking course pretty hard and I would like to make some food I actually want to eat for a change.
Today I made some roasted vegetables for the dish I am preparing. Since I was making a small amount for the dish, I made more for myself for dinner. I made roasted cauliflower and celery root. It turned out really tasty.
Tomorrow I am going to finish the dish and be done with Italian food.
Until tomorrow...
The WiFi finally came back on at 3am. It went off at 1:30 pm. Ugh. At least I had it today.
Today was another crazy day. I got a notification that my new microwave was being delivered a day early. I was also scheduled to be at the dental specialist. I texted my neighbor to see if he could keep an eye out in case it got delivered while I was at the dentist. It came after I got home.
The dentist drilled through my calcification and got to the root canal and got the infection out. He said it was pretty bad. It is done and now I get another crown.Yippee! I started wondering when we stopped pulling out teeth and started putting on crowns. It would be a lot cheaper to pull the sucker out. This tooth costs more than my first car.
Then I got home and my handyman came over the did the repairs. He said it was the crazy storm that caused the leaking but he shored up the two places and is coming over tomorrow to seal my stairs. It is a yearly thing to do. Then he tackled my shower drain. He said he wasn't sure he could do it but then he pulled a clump of hair out of the drain and all the water went down. I swear I don't know how I am not bald. All that hair. It was different when I had 1" hair, it never clogged the drain.
Then the microwave arrived. The box was huge! I thought there was no way it would fit on my counter. I had to measure and make sure of the measurements of each microwave the store had. I finally found one that fit, had a good review and cost a decent amount. I took off the packaging and put it on the counter and it fit. It is bigger than my old microwave but it still fits. Just. I have it turned on but I need to try it.
I did a zoom course on meditation during crisis. It was okay. Not exactly what I thought it would be.
Until tomorrow.
I couldn't post earlier tonight because I had no WiFi for hours. I finally did this post from my phone. Then I looked at my phone and I used all my data and it is only a few days into my month. I had to shut down my phone.
It is amazing how much we depend on WiFi for everything. I had no TV, no movies, no access to my phone without using my data plan, no zoom, no email, no Instagram. I kept reaching for things and realized I could not do them. I had a zoom meeting that I had to call into. I had to figure out how to call into a zoom. I had a board meeting that I could not attend in "Person" but had to call into. It was so frustrating. I had a doctor's appointment that I had to do over the phone instead of Facetime. Then I wanted to watch something on my phone but I didn't know my password and couldn't use the WiFi to get it. Just one thing after another.
It really amazes me how dependent we are on our internet companies. I finally gave up when I realized I used up all my data and read a book. I did buy some more data for the rest of the month but I am being really careful with it because it isn't very much.
That was most of my day.
Until tomorrow...
I am feeling better today but still not 100%. In case you haven't heard, the West Coast of the USA is having "bomb cyclone, atmospheric river blasts". The rain was crazy today. Not only did the rain come down in buckets, the sound of the rain/weather was so loud. In all my years I have never heard any noise like this during a rain storm. It sounded like the beginning of a hurricane. It was a roar that went on for hours. I kept checking my ceiling to make sure there were no leaks. I found two leaks: one under my front stairs and another near my side entrance. I checked my trees to make sure they were still standing. Trees all over the place were falling. Electricity was out all over the place. There was flooding all over but not near my house. I did hear a chain saw so I assume a tree fell somewhere close. It was an amazing and cold day.
Lucky and I snuggled up and watched a few movies. We prepared just in case the electricity went out. That was our whole day. I was afraid to do laundry between the fear of loosing electricity and flooding.
I did go online and buy a new microwave. My microwave has reached it's life limit I think. It is acting funny and I am hesitant to use it. I think it may be older than when I moved into my house which means 17 years ago. I am due for a new one. I had to get a microwave that fits my space since it goes in a specific location.
Until tomorrow...
I know this is not an exciting post by my fingers hurt and my hands hurt and my feet hurt. But I guess my feet aren't really relevant to this discussion. Typing is not helping my hands and fingers so I am going to make this short and sweet. I slept to 10 am this morning. I am lucky to have a sleepy dog. I stayed on the couch all day except to take a shower finally. I wanted to stay in bed but I put this drain stuff down my drains in my downstairs bathroom and it smelled so my second choice was the couch. I watched Mercy and now I am about to watch Jumanji 2.
Until tomorrow...
Today was a bad day. My rheumatoid arthritis is flaring like never before. My dog Lucky wanted to pee at 5:38 am and I could barely get out of bed and walk. I stayed out in my PJs and robe all day. My hands hurt super bad. I don't want to complain too much. Lucky and I stayed in bed until 9:30 am. She was such a good girl.
I watched TV and worked all day. I just stayed still. I am sure I will feel better tomorrow.
Until tomorrow...
