Saturday, January 15, 2011

Cookbook

Before I forget: I want to make a collection of my most frequently used recipes in my own art journal free to be scribbled in and cooked from. Sounds fun, yes? :)

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

Wow, what a baby I am when it comes to being sick! A little cheese with your whine? Haha, well sorry! I have a little joy to make up for it. Spaghetti Squash! My New Year's resolution (along with the rest of America) was to get into better shape and that (at least for me) involves eating a wider variety of foods.


Aren't they cute?


 In steps Spaghetti Squash, a carb replacement option so named after its unique spaghetti like strands that flake off when its cooked.  After some difficulty I cut mine in half, put it in a glass dish with 1/4 cup of water and popped it in the microwave for around 12 minutes.  Then in my awesome cast iron pan I heated some garlic in oil, added a can of diced tomatoes, some halved fresh cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper, sugar, Parmesan cheese, etc. and let it simmer.  When the squash was cool enough to handle I used a fork to flake it into spaghetti strands and added it to the sauce. I topped it with fresh basil and more Parmesan before promptly devouring a quarter of it. Yum!




Its a little crisp, or I over cooked mine. And its orange, so it has to be good for you. (Like that logic?) And its yummy and at least two full servings of vegetables! Go me! The new year is looking delicious!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

New Years Misery

You probably wouldn't be amazed at all the good intentions I have for this blog come 2011. Cooking, art (possible album art), kitty pictures, etc. I intended to shoot out of the gate and get a head start on the rest of life when a terrible thing happened... allergies.

Now, if you're anything like me you're probably rolling your eyes thinking: take something for them and stop whining. Also, if you're like me (hopefully you're not) your allergies spit in the face of Benadryl, Zirtec, tea, burning hot showers, and many other remedies otherwise thought of as tried and true. I took my prescription strength allergy remedy, continued to leak out of the nose, started to freak out, took some tea and Nyquil(stuffed a tissue up one nostril) and went to bed only to be woken up by my husband who insisted on propping up my pillows because I was breathing ridiculously hard. Now, some of that was probably due to having a soaked tissue stuffed half way into my brain and the other half was the fact that neither of those remedies..remedied anything.

So, slightly grumpy, dizzy, and tired, I sit here now with a burning nose, itching eyes, and a hope that it doesn't spread like last time. Last time my allergies got bad my entire face swelled up (including my eyes which swelled closed), the top layer of my skin turned slightly purple, cracked open and started to flake off, and a disgusting clear ooze coated everything below the eyes and around the nose causing the delicate (already open wound status) skin to become sticky and miserable... When I went into the doctor's the man looked at me like I was some ferak to be studied before asking if I'd fallen face first into some Poison Ivy.

He then suggested I try some pink lotion (the name of which my brain is holding hostage) which ended up burning the crap out of my skin and setting it to "Enraged" status. He also took me off work for a week.

So, in short, these aint no normal allergies! Fingers crossed that this second dose of medicine doesn't laugh in my face (on my face?) and I get to feeling better before I turn into some scaly, angry, mean creature.