Falling for soup.

It was super crazy windy last night, and raining off and on. For some reason, I enjoyed the sound of the wind and rain so much. We had a low-key day yesterday and mostly stayed in. I was still sick, and letting the antibiotics work their magic. So, being curled up on the couch in a blanket with the wind roaring outside felt cozy and good. We had waffles for breakfast (and made a bunch to freeze for breakfasts) and then I spent the rest of the day getting a good deal of work done.

Today we went grocery shopping after Church and made the foray out to Superstore. I loaded up on some fall Joe attire (well not really "loaded up," - got a few items), and we also got a new soup pot (in addition to groceries). I have to say I'm in love with this soup pot. I don't think I've had a real, big, soup pot since we've been married, so this was very exciting. This particular one has a kind of cartoony shape -it's wider at the bottom and narrows in at the top just a bit. It's HUGE, which is great. I think it has "character" though maybe I'm just overexcited by the pot.

So, I decided, since my SPUD order included a big bag of carrots, and I had most of the fixings at home already to make Chili. I made a low-fat black been and beef chili. I made a few modifications to the recipe: I doubled it, added three cloves of garlic, salt, and used fresh corn instead of frozen, because I happened to get 4 ears of corn from SPUD this week, and really am not in the mood for eating it on the cob. I also cut the cumin back by about 1/2 as I'm not a fan of a really strong cumin taste. The chili turned out really well, and due to my wonderful giant pot, there was lots to spare. So we'll have several lunches and at least two dinners worth frozen for later! On a side note, the pot was ridiculously easy to clean! I don't know what it's made out of, but it's excellent (just no-name superstore cheap-o pot, but apparently good like Joe).

The chili, the rain, the wind, and the new warm-weather clothes all make me thankful it is fall. I love sweaters and soup, and curling up inside on a cold day. I'm not a fan of the rain, but I think this year it won't be as bad as I'm not travelling by transit as much.

I am feeling quite a bit better today - still very stuffy and all that grossness, but the crazy sinus part is gone, and I have a bit more energy, which is really good.

Now to finally finally score that video for my research, and write an article review for school for tomorrow. Then maybe try to finish catching up on work? Or maybe go to bed. We'll see how the first two tasks go.

Healthy soon, please!

Well, after a mighty full work week of being sick, and total exhaustion and sick-of-being-sickness kicked in today, I went to the doctor after work. Thank goodness for walk in clinics! As seems to be the norm for me now, my cold turned into a sinus infection. The good part is that that means I'll get better now, because I have antibiotics :-).

I asked the doctor, "Okay, so I always get sinus infections whenever I get sick. Is there anything I can do to prevent colds from turning into them?? He looks at me and says "Well, there is a concoction that works for some people who have recurring sinusitis, let me get you the recipe." Hmmm..."concoction" and "recipe." Those two words are a bit concerning.

So, he comes back with a paper with the following written on it:

"NASAL SOLUTION FOR CHRONIC SINUSITIS
3 tsp salt (canning salt - non-iodized)
1 tsp Baking soda
in 250 cc of water.

Bulb syringe 3 times per day."

So I looked at this, and looked at him and said "Bulb syringe?" He smiled. I frowned and said "So that's like a ...." and he said "Turkey Baster." "Oh" He then informed me that I should "shoot as much of it up there as you can, and breath in through your nose." Great. Nice. Lovely. I commented on the exciting Friday night I had ahead of me, and he commented on how he felt it was better than the movies any day!

So, I filled my prescription and went to the "kitchen gadgets" isle of the grocery store. I looked and thought at first they didn't carry turkey basters (PHEW!). Then I spotted one. Okay - so, turkey basters are much larger than I remember. So, the baster and the recipe are sitting on the kitchen table. I don't know if I can do it. OOK.

Maybe a bit TMI for you all, but the recipe, concoction and turkey baster were too amusing to me to keep to myself.

So, here's to hoping the antibiotics kick in before I can bring myself to baste.

I think I'm turning into a perpetual whiner

Well...as everyone seems to be right now I'm totally sick! Lame! I started to get a sore throat Saturday during the day, and by Sat night was totally stuffed up with the cold/flu everyone has had lately. It's this darn September time period. Everyone is run down, getting back to school, back into work after holidays, trying to catch up with everything. So, the last couple of days I've a)Watched way too much TV, b) Bombed at least one, probably 2 tests, c) Gotten more behind of school and work and research than I was before, d) eaten a lot of soup e) possibly my favorite -eaten a lot of fudgsicles and creamsicles f)been a little loopy due to all the cold medicine, which I think is partly responsible for (b) above.

Stupid Cold.

A night off.

I had an unplanned night off today. After my 12 hour day out of the house, I simply couldn't face more work and video-scoring and studying, no matter how far behind I was. So, I stopped on my way home and got a bottle of wine and take-home pizza. We had pizza and wine and D. and I sat and talked for a good 2 hours.

I packed it in for the night, and decided to forget everything and just spend the evening with my husband. It was a good decision :-). I feel better already.

Unfortunately, I realized, after business hours were over today (Friday), that I had accidentally booked myself for both a meeting and work at the same time as I am supposed to be writing two exams on Monday. Crap. The problem is, I had requested the exam times, but becuase they hadn't been confirmed, I had only noted them on the "notes" page in my dayplanner, and not entered them into my actual daily schedule. Now that they have been confirmed, I realize I have booked in other things at the same time. And have only done about half the reading and none of the studying for them. UG. The moral is, always at least "pencil in" essential items if you are as ridiculously dependent on your dayplanner as I am. Nothing I can do about it till Monday morning though, aside from figure out what exactly I'll beg the testing centre for when I call Monday morning, or who I'll have to try to reschedule with on no notice. Ah!

But, again, very little I can do until the testing centre opens on Monday morning, so, I'll put it aside for now, and finish taking the night off, and go to my Church event tomorrow, and then deal with the stress and anxiety later. I figure I'm stressed and anxious most of the time anyways, so if not attending to this particular anxiety-producing event right now means I'll be anxious later, it really doesn't make any difference...good thinking??? No??? Sigh (as D. would say).

I've also decided not to check my school email until Sunday night when I'm planning to have scored the video for my research. If I don't check my email, then the emails from my prof asking where my data is won't stress me out....right? Ummm...maybe? Even as I type that though, I am seriously driven to open another tab and just quickly check my email. Ah!

Can I have another 10 hours in the day?

This has been and will continue to be a crazy busy week...I'm out of the house for work from 8:30 am to 7pm today, and then have to try to make it to curves before they close, then re-score a video-tape of my research when I get home, write about 15 programs, and read ummm.....5 chapters and 4 articles for school??? AH! LAME. Thank goodness for Rockstar Cola. Have a Church event all day tomorrow, so the only weekend time available to get caught up is Sunday afternoon or tonight or tomorrow night. I can anticipate next week will be madd as well, so I need to try to get at least caught up this weekend.

I need some SOCIAL time!!! At least I will, at the very least be going to the Church event and get to spend time with our community there tomorrow.

Freezing nut

I have turned into a freezing nut. Everytime I make something (like soup, sauce, chicken etc), I make extra and freeze a bunch of it for later. My freezer has gone from 1/4 full a couple of weeks ago to almost full now! I'm sure it will benefit us later on though :-). So far there is frozen tomato soup, beet soup, cooked chicken breast, peaches, peach crisp and hot peppers.

Tonight will be a left overs night. I think I"ll make a salad, and we'll have some tuna a friend cooked, and maybe have a bit of soup left over from last night.

I have to get through the day first though. Lots of work ahead of me, and studying when I get home, before I can make dinner.

Produce fun

One of the great things about the trip to Osoyoos is that we returned with loads of produce. I'm loving it.

I made a peach/apple crisp the other night, and yummy yummy roasted tomatoes to go with a pesto pasta. The tomatoes were fresh romas from the produce stand, cut in half drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and herbs and roasted under the broiler. SOooo yummy.

I just finished skinning and cutting up peaches to freeze (peach bonanza this winter!), and started putting together three peach crisps to bake and freeze for later. I'm now roasting red peppers and more tomatoes to make a ridiculous quantity of roasted red pepper and tomato soup. I think I'll be freezing lots of that too. I think it could double as tomato sauce later on too.

I love preparing large quantities of food with the knowlege that three months from now when peaches are 3.00 each I'll be able to have yummy peach smoothies and crisp.

Looking through all my soup recipes makes me excited for (dare I say it) fall and winter...so I can make yummy hearty soups and comfort foods. Mmm..but I'll keep enjoying the fresh produce while it lasts, don't get me wrong!

What about my school and work I had planned to get ahead on this weekend....ahem...ask me tomorrow at 11pm.

Anyone up for a trip to Lithuania?

I would like to go here.

Busy times ...

Well, this is a greatly delayed post...the last two weeks have been busy, but filled with friends and food and wine.

Last weekend we were treated to a wonderful few days in Osoyoos. M. and family had us up to their condo there. We had some beach time (it wasn't TOO sunny), a wonderful day visiting 7 different wineries, and had many fabulous meals together. The best thing about this weekend was that we had time to visit and relax and enjoy each other's company (including playing a few games of Catan!), and that the weekend was very inexpensive for us. We had one meal out, and ate in the rest of the time. Most of what we spent was on gas, produce to bring home, and wine. There is no way we'd be able to have a holiday that felt that luxurious any other way, so we are VERY thankful to M. and J. for inviting us there!!

When we got back, another friend, who had been out visiting from Ottowa came to visit us for a few days. I got to cook and entertain, which I love to do, and we had lots of quality visiting time. I was very sad to see him go!

All this wonderful visiting and what not though, has meant that I am gravely behind now in school, and on preparation of a number of time-sensitive projects!! I'm not entirely sure how I'll get caught up, but I'm sure I'll find a way :-).