Friday, December 27, 2024

Christmas

Christmas and Boxing Day has come and gone… we started Christmas Day dusting, vacuuming, making focaccia, and meal prepping for dinner - Olaf & Stephanie were coming sometime in the afternoon so we wanted things to be ship shape, and mostly in hand before they got here.



They arrived mid-afternoon, not too long before the focaccia came out of the oven. On FB the other day I'd seen a ‘reel’ of a recipe for fig & caramelised onion dip - it looked delicious so I added the ingredients to the shopping list. First step was slicing the dried figs and simmering them in marsala with a bit of water. Then I started caramelising the onions, which never seems to take less than 45 minutes. The figs were strained and added to the onions along with a bit of rosemary (I think thyme would be nice too). I crumbled a log of goat cheese into an oven proof dish and spread the onion/fig mixture on top. This popped into the oven for 20 minutes to get things bubbling. It was worth the effort and raised the focaccia to a new level!

And then there was supper: a giant striploin roast with all the normal beef dinner accompaniments… all good right… easy peasy… well, there was some sort of malfunction on my meat thermometer and the meat way way overcooked. I was so disappointed but to this day don't know what happened. Then the yorkshire puddings overbrowned! This has never happened to me before - my yorkshires always turn out almost perfectly. Bah humbug!

Food disasters aside, we had a lovely evening :-)

Boxing day morning arrived way too early but we had a busy day planned - we'd be 14 people for lunch here! Olaf & Steph pitched in and we were ready exactly on time. Soon the house was filled with happy voices as almost the whole family gathered for another Christmas. There was lots of food and everyone seemed to have a good time. 


In the morning, Olaf harvested a bunch of hot peppers, then got to work making some hot sauce - a bit of this and some of that and wow, very nice sauce with exactly the right amount of heat. It was amazing with a bit of lingonberry jam on the turkey sliders! I think we have a new tradition!


Today we are both chilling… although Carm tried to fix the display led on the stove, but the replacement was a dud so he had to put the original back. It's got a few bars burnt out so the display is wonky.

It's crazy, but I haven't written here since December 17th… that's 10 days… what did I do during all those days? Well, not a heck of a lot. I had an echocardiogram. We had Tina & Bruce here for an overnight visit last week - that was fun and I really needed the social break. 

But aside from that I've been a log on the sofa. I spent a few days in my pjs in bed for no reason other than I couldn't be bothered to get up. I forced myself to do some cooking and baking in prep for Christmas & Boxing Day. I haven't been on the treadmill for 2 weeks - I'm trying to psych myself up about getting back into the groove Jan 2nd. My diet has totally gone backwards and I'm gaining weight by the day… but I can't even really care, although I do care very much! It's not a don't really care cause I can't be bothered, rather than a self love.

I'm trying to keep notes about how I'm feeling for my appointment with the medical oncologist in February as there are times that I'm not even sure if the side-effects from tamoxifen are worth it. I wouldn't say I'm depressed, but I don't have energy or motivation for anything and it's just getting worse. This is a well-documented side-effect of tamoxifen so not totally unexpected, but I have to decide if it's worth it or if the cancer fighting benefit of continuing the drug isn't enough to spend the next 4.5 years dragging myself around. I'm hoping that some of it is just my normal mood variances - hopefully I'll have that figured out by my appointment.



Awesome!

“family together”

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

hair raising

The low grey clouds matched my mood exactly… I started off my day Monday wondering if lithium could have caused my heart issue so I did a bit of googling… and yes, especially if there were periods of raised levels which there were. I had a period of about 6 months several years ago where my energy got lower and lower - I was literally dragging myself through life - my psyc doctor tested my lithium levels and they were elevated… it could have been around that time that I started having heart palpitations on a fairly regular basis…

It seems likely that the lithium was the cause - I stopped it 2 years ago and my heart palpitations have coincidently become less frequent and less severe. It was pure dumb luck that I had palps while waiting to see the doctor last week so it was in my head - I might not have thought to mention it otherwise. My pcp set up an appointment for an ultrasound and 2 weeks with a holter monitor… which was supposed to be sent out Monday so I'd be stuck wearing the stupid thing over Christmas and New Year which SUCKS! After a bit of a freak out, Carm suggested calling the company to see if I could reschedule for the New Year and luckily they hadn't sent it out yet so I was able to put it off till January… 

I'll admit to having a bit of a breakdown over all of this! One more sucky thing to deal with, but actually now that I've had a bit of time to think about it, it's all good and I'm glad to have a simple explanation for the condition, and now that I'm off the lithium, have lost weight, and am exercising, I've reduced the triggers and shouldn't have any trouble going forward.

Sunday I made a few dozen cardamom buns for our family Christmas celebration later this month. They freeze nicely so it felt like a good idea to get it done ahead of time. Who knows what might happen in the next week and as you know, bread making is pretty much a whole day sort of task!



Awesome!

“getting home from the city”

Sunday, December 15, 2024

bread in the oven

It's a bright sunny day again today! But winter is upon us and it is freezing! I’ve been lucky enough to only see it through the window so far today but I'll make a point of taking the dogs out for a romp later… after I've cooled down and un-sweated from the treadmill!



Friday we met with Ken and Francine for lunch in the village. It was lovely to catch up with them again and feel happy that I'm getting to know Francine better 😀 After that we did errands and then raced home so I could start caramelising onions for the supper I was making for Trudie & Leo. 


It's a fairly long process but the results make it worth it. After the onions and garlic were caramelised (in the instant pot), I deglazed with ¼ cup marsala, added some fresh thyme and then instead of rice, I used barley which was an excellent substitution. I added the barley to the instant pot and cooked it for 15 minutes, released the pressure, added the lentils, and cooked for another 10 minutes at high pressure, then a natural release. I used it to stuff a home-grown butternut squash that I had roasted in the oven. Topped with grated gruyere cheese and re-heated in the oven: 5/5!


To keep to the cooking theme I seem to be stuck on today, I did the brussels sprouts a little differently. Instead of just roasting straight from the cutting board, I soaked them in salted water for 30+ minutes, drained, rinsed, and dried, and then roasted in the airfryer. I think they turned out a bit more tender - Carm thought they were better than usual. I certainly had no trouble eating them and stuffed my face!


Well ha ha! That was all yesterday… I never did make it out of the house and somehow the day got away from me and I spent too much time dozing on the sofa. Not today though! I got up at a reasonable time, walked on the treadmill while chatting with Kirsten, made cardamom buns in prep for Christmas, and tamed the spare bedroom for overnight guests later this week. I think it was sunny this morning but it certainly isn't now (3:30pm)... 




Awesome!


“seeing new muscles in my legs”

“dogs asleep in the afternoon”

“my new earbuds!”

“giant pot of bean & vegetable soup”