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You Are Rock |
 Powerful and overbearing, you intimidate people with your presence. People know they can’t push you around, and they respect that. Deep down, you are calm, confident, and unmovable. You take everything pretty seriously, and you think deeply about all aspects of your life. You tend to feel smothered by paper people. You don’t mind crushing the spirit of a scissors person. When you fight, you: Use all of your strength If someone makes you mad: You’re likely to throw something at them |
Monthly Archives: September 2007
Hungry for fall
I’m ready for summer to be over. I’m looking forward to cool days, bare trees and brisk breezes. Most of all, though, I’m looking forward to the food of fall. The meals that I’m drawn to these days are going to have to wait for the temperature to drop at least 25 degrees. As tasty as it sounds, I couldn’t realistically eat pot roast when it’s so hot outside.
I’m finding it more and more difficult to come up with menus these days. That may be because it’s 95-plus degrees every day, and that makes it hard to think about anything that requires more heat. We used to do a lot of dinners on the grill during the summer, but we’re currently without a grill. Thus, no grilled dinners. Oh well.
In anticipation of fall, here are a few recipes that have caught my eye recently. I’d expect at least one or two of them to hit our dinner plates in another month or so.
As requested, here’s the non-slow-cooker recipe for chicken and dumplings. I think it’s from “The Joy of Cooking.”
Chicken and Dumplings
6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups hot water
1 3/4 cups chicken broth
5 medium carrots, peeled and diced
2 large celery stalks, diced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup fat-free half-and-half
For the dumplings
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup milkRinse and pat chicken dry. Cut into smallish pieces and sprinkle with salt and black pepper.
Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy 8- to 10-inch skillet over medium heat until fragrant and golden.
Place as many chicken pieces as will fit comfortably and cook, turning once, 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken to a plate and repeat with remaining chicken. Set chicken aside.
Add onions to the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender but not browned, about 5 minutes.
Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and add broth and hot water. Whisking constantly, bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Add carrots, celery, thyme, salt and pepper.
Return chicken to the pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat so the liquid barely bubbles.
Cover tightly and cook 20 to 25 minutes.
Prepare dumplings:
Bring butter and milk to a simmer.
Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add wet ingredients to dry and stir with a fork until blended. Divide and roll the dough into dumplings.
Whisk half-and-half into chicken mixture and place dumplings gently on top. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Serve immediately.
Pain management
I wasn’t expecting anything out of the ordinary on Tuesday after I did the 1-hour glucose test. I downed the bottle of (basically) super-powered Hawaiian Punch about 45 minutes before my appointment. I had a brief moment of panic when I arrived at the doctors office to find that they’d lost my appointment. I drew on the power of the Hawaiian Punch for a little gumption, though, and told them I wasn’t going to drink that stuff again, so they’d need to find someone to draw the blood, at least.
And they did, and I’m so glad.
Everything was fine until shortly before I went to bed Tuesday night, when I started to feel a little … off. It wasn’t any sort of pain or nausea. I just didn’t feel quite right. I chalked it up to being tired and pregnant and hopped up on sugar (because I am very, very smart, I had a chocolate-covered, cream-filled donut before bed). Thirty minutes later, I was in the bathroom, shaking and crying.
It wasn’t the very worst pain I’ve ever felt (that would be labor, and I didn’t even get all the way through that), but it was pretty darn close. And it was without the promise of any pain medication.
I couldn’t take a deep breathe without the pain intensifying to a ridiculous height, so I was panting and starting to panic. And, you know, that’s not a good thing. I called for Rockford (and scared him silly in the process, I think), and he rubbed my back and my head for a few minutes.
And then it was gone. Like there’d never been a problem at all. I went back to bed and slept soundly. In the morning, I vowed that I would never eat a donut again.
Now, you’ll notice that my Wednesday morning vow didn’t include anything along the lines of, “I also won’t be an idiot.” As such, I had a great big banana split last night after dinner. And that pain from Tuesday night? It came back around 2am. Only this time, it didn’t go away. I managed not to panic this time, because I knew it would go away. I probably would have, though, had I known that it would be noon today before it stopped.
I spent last night trying to keep myself propped up on pillows, in the recliner, pacing the floor, desperately clutching a heating pad and repeating over and over again, “Enough.” I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve been poisoning myself with sugar.
I want to stop. I want to cut out the desserts and sweets entirely, because I don’t want to make myself sick like that again. I know it will be easy today, because the pain is fresh on my mind. A few weeks from now, though, it will be a distant memory. I wish there were some sort of button I could push when I get a sugar craving that would give me a quick, painful blast of that feeling. That would stop me cold, I think.
Not having that option, though, I’m just going to have to keep reminding myself that I need to not be an idiot. I need to be better to myself.