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November 04, 2007
As I Sit Here with a Kleenex Stuffed up My Nose
I am thinking about food. And laughter. And how much I would like to not have a cold right now. Though given my schedule for the past two and a half months, really, I suppose it's astonishing that I both avoided it until now and that it seems to be such a light bout.
But yeah, there are not words for how much I would like to not have this fucking cold.
On the other hand, it has kicked my ass enough to make me make changes to my schedule. Especially this weekend. Changes that require less doing of stuff and far more sitting around on the couch reading things I want to read, like Barbara Pym and a bunch of Charles de Lint short stories. Changes that demand more being quiet and still and less running around like a freak.
As part of my reading load this weekend, I did some reading of new blogs and sort of rediscovered an old friend. She doesn't know I've rediscovered her yet. I'll be sending her an email to say, hi and I swear I'm not just contacting you now because you're famous. Because she sort of is now. Which is how I rediscovered her.
Shauna and I went to college together, along with Amy of Recipes of the Damned and Scott Bateman and Terry Bain and this guy. Also, the woman who just bought our truck and her partner. Damn, it's a small world. Or maybe just a fairly small college and we're pretty decent at keeping in touch. Amy, by the way, is one of the reasons I am now married to Dave. (A long and glorious story, and someday perhaps I'll tell it. I'll warn you now, it's soppily romatic.)
ANYway, I found out about Shauna's new book via this post and I took the afternoon off to visit her website. She appears to be glowing and happy and wonderfully Shauna 20+ years since we first met.
I have thought about Shauna often over the years, hoping she was well. And every single time, I think about Shauna, I remember playing raquetball together. I honestly don't remember whether it was our sophomore or junior year of college, but she and I decided to play raquetball as a way to get in shape. You know, based on the actual experience, I'd better clarify: Shauna and I "played" raquetball. Which means that mostly one of us would serve and the other would miss in some spectacular and goofy way and then we'd practically fall over from laughing so hard. Seriously. If we got any kind of cardio workout at all it was from the laughter. I still laugh about it when I think about it, twenty-some years later.
Shauna, if you ever get around to reading this post, I would play raquetball again with you in a heartbeat.
But about the food. Because Shauna has celiac disease, she has chosen to live a gluten-free life. (I checked, I'm pretty sure that's not one of my issues. Thank GOD, because it was bad enough more or less giving up dairy.) That's what her blog is about. She's a BRILLIANT writer, by the way, I laughed and cried at her posts. I highly recommend both reading her blog and buying her book.
I read a bunch of Shauna's entries. (Gorgeous food photography as well, expect to be really hungry if you read for long.) And I started thinking about what has changed in my eating habits over the years. Not lots, lately, though since the kitchen remodel, Dave and I are both eating better. I must say, however, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG for the day when I can live in a city where the produce is FRESH. Oh how I miss fresh produce. Because I never seem to remember the Saturday Farmers' Market until about 12:30 on Saturday. And it ends at noon.
Several of the changes in my diet have seemed to work like magic. Cutting out dairy is the biggie, when I can manage it. Oh how I also miss the days when I could have a glass of milk and call it dinner. And yogurt and cheese (though I still cheat there sometimes). But I have also knocked quite a few other things out of my diet, some of them without trying to, it just happened, with the new kitchen, I just stopped needing to eat out as often. And then there are the shakes (which actually is the ENTIRE POINT of this post). I have these amazing shakes for breakfast. A-MA-ZING. And because I tell everyone at the co-op about them every time I stock up on fruit, I figure it's only fair I share them with you.
I use 3-4 cups of fruit. My favorites include mixtures of any of the following:
raspberries
strawberries
blackberries
mango
kiwi
banana
peaches
blueberries
pomegranate
I like to use fresh fruit whenever possible, but look at where I live (a day's drive from anywhere useful means stuff is always two days older at least by the time it gets on the shelves than it was when I lived in Portland). Plus, we have a stupid side-by-side fridge/freezer. There isn't even room for me to buy fresh and then freeze my own. GAAAAA. I am just about done with this place. (Hopefully, that's true.) I do, however, always use organic fruit. Which doesn't mean what it used to unless you're very, very picky about what you buy. Stupid Congress, protecting Walmart. It's not like they need it.
But back to my story. (Does anybody reading have any doubts about why I don't write a food blog at this point? No? Good.)
So. In a blender mix:
3-4 c fruit.
30 grams organic soy powder
1c chocolate Silk
1-2 c. fresh, hot coffee (that's the part that always makes David go "eeeeeeeeew)
I swear it's like heaven. And soooo full of all kinds of good stuff, plus caffeine. And it's 400-500 calories, if you care about that sort of thing. Best. Breakfast. Ever. And one of the reasons I don't get sick more than once or twice a year now instead of all the fucking time. Well, that and sleep.
Speaking of which, I'm off to Bedfordshire.
Posted by sally at November 4, 2007 08:15 PM
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