This guy is Dexter, Colin's new dog. He and Fuser have found they have similar sensibilities -- if you can call a lot of licking each other's penis a sensitivity.
Actually Rob's eye is healing quite nicely. It helps that he's in overall good health--aside from the elevated cholesterol (My new goal in life; trying to convince Rob that green leafy vegetables aren't poisoned). Of course, he's going completely crazy sitting around the house, being unable to drive or do any strenuous activity. The doctor -- who thinks Lindsay is cute;-) -- said Rob is recovering well and his eye looks good -- well actually it looks pretty gross, but healing-wise it looks good.
I, on the other hand, have found out that the surgery I just went through was a complete and total waste of time. The doctor FINALLY decided to do an x-ray after the physical therapist said I wasn't getting any better and moved the post-op appointment up from the middle of March. The x-ray revealed that my knee is completely beyond repair, that I still have a big, old bone spur in the joint and that there was no hope that the surgery was going to do a thing. The doctor says the joint has "completely collapsed." And that MRIs sometimes make thing look better than they are. Seriously? We couldn't have x-rayed the damned thing BEFORE the last surgery?
Yes. I'm pissed. I have to get a knee replacement, which is severe. They actually are making me take a class before I get the surgery. Great. I have to sit around with a bunch of seniors -- I mean a lot more senior than me -- for two hours as we're told how to get our homes in order for post-op. Of course, I've just made it through tendon repair surgery, which had me on crutches for six weeks, so I think I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to get ready. Actually this is easier because I'll be on two feet -- albeit hobbling, not just hopping around on a gimpy knee -- remember my bad foot is on the opposite leg as my bad knee-- the way I was after the tendon repair.
They gave me a big folder with pictures of Golden Girls all learning how to walk again. Great. They have a list of questions to bring to the class. I have some questions. What's the hospital's rate for staph infections? How about MRSA? The LAST place I want to spend any time is in the hospital, and this is an in-hospital operation. Plus, everyone, the doctors in the HMO system and people around town, say our local hospital sucks. Seriously. But if I push for going to L.A., my choice of a new knee is restricted by the HMO and I get a crap one, rather than the gender-specific one. So long-term, I'm (hopefully) better off here. At least the hospital has great views of the ocean and the mountains.
In the meantime, I'm hobbling around, very slowly and in a LOT of pain. As I was leaving to go to the doctor's, I said, "I'm going to run." My husband, the one-eyed wonder, said, "Run Forest Run!" Oh, and I STILL have the damned lump on my hip -- smaller, but still there.
So what's this good news I've heard tell about, you're wondering -- if you haven't gotten tired of my bitching -- well I FINALLY got some freelance work. Glory! Alleluia!
Kim, who is a dear, dear friend, has been pushing to get me some freelance work at the Star, so I've been picking up assignments for them. It's so great to be doing some writing. Besides this blog, I haven't been doing much, so it's so good to be back doing interviews and telling people's stories. I absolutely love these community-kind of stories because I love getting people to tell their tales and I have so much fun drawing those stories out and organizing them into compelling (hopefully) narratives.
On top of that I got an assignment from Sunset magazine. Back in October 2006, I'd emailed a former colleague who had gone on to become the web editor at Sunset Magazine -- one of my very favorite magazines ever. She referred me to another person there who did the custom publishing and he said he'd keep my name on file. Then I heard nothing, but I'm used to that since I've sent off about a zillion queries and job applications and rarely hear back. Well a few weeks ago, I got an email from a woman in Berkeley wanting to know if I wanted to do some fact-checking. Did I!!!!
So I spent a few weeks working on going through these tour guides fact-checking them. When I fact check, I make sure EVERYTHING is correct. If you say you went to a little place about 7 miles south of town, I Google map it and find out exactly where it is. If you tell me you had the rabbit al dente, I find out if it's still on the menu. If you say you can sit on a wrap-around patio, I find out if the patio does, in fact, wrap around. If you say you can eat lunch at a wooded park , I look at the satellite image to make sure there are trees at said park. It was tedious, hard work and it was a blast. So, hopefully, this will develop into something more.
Before I started my spate of work, I made up a couple more recipes. One is a Moroccan-inspired dish, made with dried apricots, chickpeas and chicken. It's designed to bring more healthy foods into our loves. The other is a pasta dish with roasted red pepper sauce.
Chicken with chickpeas and apricots
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot finely diced
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 can chickpeas (Garbanzo beans)
4 ounces dried apricots, chopped coarsely
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup heavy cream
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add shallot and cook on medium heat until starting to become translucent. Add chicken and cook until starting to brown. Add spices and stir, heating through about 1 minute to let the flavors bloom. Add chickpeas and apricots. Add chicken stock and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes. Add cream and bring to boil. Serve. I used Trader Joes Harvest Grains blend, which was quite tasty.
Roasted red pepper pasta
1 pound penne pasta prepared al dente
3 large red bell peppers
olive oil spray
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 12-ounce package Trader Joe's Quattro Fromaggio cheese
1 cup cooked chicken, diced into 1/2 inch pieces
bread crumbs
Cut peppers in half and take out the seeds and white membranes. Flatten both halves by pressing down. Get them as flat as possible. Broil directly under the heated coil or flame until the pepper skin becomes black and bubbly and all of the skin on the pepper appears to have been cooked. Put peppers in a brown paper bag and let sit for about 10 to 15 minutes. Melt butter in large saucepan. Add flour and whisk, cooking over medium heat until the roux loses its raw taste. Add milk and whisk until the sauce begins to thicken. Peel the red peppers and process them in the food processor until they're finely chopped. Add the pepper mixture to the sauce. Salt and pepper the sauce to taste (It really doesn't need much because the cheese is pretty salty and the red pepper provides a lot of flavor.) Mix the sauce with the prepared pasta and pour the mixture in a 13 x 11 baking dish. Top with bread crumbs. Broil for just a few minutes until the top is brown and bubbly. Serve.
No comments:
Post a Comment