Hello friends!! A few people have been asking about Hubby's progress this week so here is a quick update.
He was due to have his 3rd round of chemo on Tuesday but when we arrived our oncologist said that Hubby's blood count was a bit low and, although he could go ahead with the treatment if he wanted, the doctor would feel more comfortable postponing it for a week.
It was a bit disappointing to be sent home, but we are not overly concerned as the oncologist seemed to think that it was caused by the last treatment being too strong and an extra week of rest should be enough to fix Hubby's levels. He will also reduce the dose of the next treatment which is scheduled for Wednesday.
As always, I have tried to find a silver lining here and have found a couple - first, it gives us an extra week to feed the boy before he loses his appetite again - hurrah!! And second, if we stick to the new schedule we should be able to go on the trip our friends have been planning for Thanksgiving - which we were almost sure to have missed on the previous schedule - and that will give us something to look forward to! Hurrah again!!
Despite feeling a bit run down, Hubby had a good weekend and made it out for dinner on Saturday night, then on Sunday we made it to a Star Wars themed concert in the park. Saturday was the first night in months where he managed to stay out for the whole evening and everyone was delighted - for a few hours it felt like everything was normal again and that was brilliant!!
In other news, today I booked some driving lessons - EEEEEEEEEK!!!! As you all know, I am very anti-driving (well, anti-me-driving, anyway!) and have managed to find an excuse to put it off for many years. Now with Hubby being ill and frequently unable to drive, particularly to his chemo appointments, it seems I can put it off no longer :-( I don't have a date for my first lesson yet but I will keep you posted (and warn you when to stay off the roads .....!!)
And finally ..... I got chatted up today by a nice young man while I was waiting to cross the road! :-) He drove past me turning on to the main street, reversed back (nearly knocking a poor woman off her bike!), introduced himself then asked if I would like to go out sometime. I politely decline, obviously, but I had a definite spring in my step all the way home!! Particularly as he looked about 10 years younger than me! :-) Yep, I still got it!!
Well, on that note I shall get back to my crocheting. Yes, you read that right! I have decided to crochet a blanket for the chemo centre as their current range of blankets are a bit crap, but as this is only the second thing I have tried to crochet (the first being a decidedly wonky scarf) they may still seem like a better option!! Yet another thing I shall keep you updated on!!
Laters .... xxx
Thursday, 8 August 2013
Sunday, 28 July 2013
When life hands you lemons .....
..... throw them back in the bastard's face and hope at least one bursts in his eyes!!!
As you may or may not have heard, life has recently handed us a big ole sack of lemons. My wonderful hubby has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer which started in his stomach and has spread to numerous other parts, including his liver, lungs and some bones, and as you can imagine, we are pretty fucking devastated about it!!
He had been having back problems all year which were diagnosed as arthritis in April and had been losing a shitload of weight which we had attributed to an ulcer caused by taking too much ibuprofen for the back pain. Sadly this was proven false after he was sent for an endoscopy while on holiday in the UK for his sister's wedding.
Anyhoo, here we are back in sunny California and dealing with a new future. He has started his chemo and is currently on round 2. He will be on a two weekly routine of one day at the chemo centre for a 4 hour infusion, followed by 48 hours of take home chemo, then 11 days to recover before the party starts all over again! This will go on for 6 months and then we will re-evaluate.
He seems to be recovering a lot quicker from this round of chemo which we are very relieved about, but the good painkillers are causing him a lot of digestive problems and it is hard to find the right balance. It is still early days though, and I am confident that we will figure it out soon!
All in all, we are staying pretty positive and doing our best to get on with it. I am so proud of how Hubby is dealing with it - I'm fairly sure I would have gone to pieces by now if it was me!! Luckily we have the best friends anyone could possibly hope to have, and they've been keeping an eye on both of us and have been absolute God-sends giving us lifts to all his appointments and making sure we have everything we need. There really aren't enough words to express how grateful we are to everyone and how lucky we are to have you all in our lives - if love and support cured cancer then Hubby would be cured already with bags to spare!!
Our oncologist has said that he should start feeling an improvement in 3 to 4 cycles so hopefully in another month or so he will start feeling a bit better and be able to get out and about a bit more - I bloody hope so as he will be off work for the next 5 or 6 months and it will be rather intense if the two of us are stuck in the house together the whole time!! On that note, if anyone has any suggestions for Hubbyish books, movies, games, hobbies or other pass times we would LOVE to hear them - he is not used to being house bound and I suspect it wont be long til the boredom kicks in!!
On a happier note, today is our 12th wedding anniversary - hurrah! We wont be celebrating with our usual fancy meal out, but that hasn't stopped me dressing up (who says I cant sit around the house in a leopard print dress and wedges with spikes?!?! ;-) ) and we will be making a nice romantic dinner to have at home. You can expect to hear about that tomorrow ...
A wee silver lining (sometimes you have to really dig deep to find one, but when you do you should grab it!!!) is that Hubby needs some serious feeding up and that will let me indulge in my hobby - cooking and baking!! Although we do have the unfortunate situation where Hubby is trying to gain weight while I am trying (as always!) to lose some, yet I seem to be the one eating most of the goodies! Bah!!
Well, that's probably enough for you to digest for now! I will be posting updates about Hubby's treatments and general health and adventures here, and please feel free to ask any questions or post any messages for him - I will be sure to pass them on!!
Laters .... xxx
As you may or may not have heard, life has recently handed us a big ole sack of lemons. My wonderful hubby has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer which started in his stomach and has spread to numerous other parts, including his liver, lungs and some bones, and as you can imagine, we are pretty fucking devastated about it!!
He had been having back problems all year which were diagnosed as arthritis in April and had been losing a shitload of weight which we had attributed to an ulcer caused by taking too much ibuprofen for the back pain. Sadly this was proven false after he was sent for an endoscopy while on holiday in the UK for his sister's wedding.
Anyhoo, here we are back in sunny California and dealing with a new future. He has started his chemo and is currently on round 2. He will be on a two weekly routine of one day at the chemo centre for a 4 hour infusion, followed by 48 hours of take home chemo, then 11 days to recover before the party starts all over again! This will go on for 6 months and then we will re-evaluate.
He seems to be recovering a lot quicker from this round of chemo which we are very relieved about, but the good painkillers are causing him a lot of digestive problems and it is hard to find the right balance. It is still early days though, and I am confident that we will figure it out soon!
All in all, we are staying pretty positive and doing our best to get on with it. I am so proud of how Hubby is dealing with it - I'm fairly sure I would have gone to pieces by now if it was me!! Luckily we have the best friends anyone could possibly hope to have, and they've been keeping an eye on both of us and have been absolute God-sends giving us lifts to all his appointments and making sure we have everything we need. There really aren't enough words to express how grateful we are to everyone and how lucky we are to have you all in our lives - if love and support cured cancer then Hubby would be cured already with bags to spare!!
Our oncologist has said that he should start feeling an improvement in 3 to 4 cycles so hopefully in another month or so he will start feeling a bit better and be able to get out and about a bit more - I bloody hope so as he will be off work for the next 5 or 6 months and it will be rather intense if the two of us are stuck in the house together the whole time!! On that note, if anyone has any suggestions for Hubbyish books, movies, games, hobbies or other pass times we would LOVE to hear them - he is not used to being house bound and I suspect it wont be long til the boredom kicks in!!
On a happier note, today is our 12th wedding anniversary - hurrah! We wont be celebrating with our usual fancy meal out, but that hasn't stopped me dressing up (who says I cant sit around the house in a leopard print dress and wedges with spikes?!?! ;-) ) and we will be making a nice romantic dinner to have at home. You can expect to hear about that tomorrow ...
A wee silver lining (sometimes you have to really dig deep to find one, but when you do you should grab it!!!) is that Hubby needs some serious feeding up and that will let me indulge in my hobby - cooking and baking!! Although we do have the unfortunate situation where Hubby is trying to gain weight while I am trying (as always!) to lose some, yet I seem to be the one eating most of the goodies! Bah!!
Well, that's probably enough for you to digest for now! I will be posting updates about Hubby's treatments and general health and adventures here, and please feel free to ask any questions or post any messages for him - I will be sure to pass them on!!
Laters .... xxx
Wednesday, 10 April 2013
Guess who's back?!?!
Grrrrrrrrr-eatings!!! Sorry for the radio silence - I've been off having far too much fun to find the time to sit and tell you all about it! But now that I have a quiet moment, let me share some of the photos from the last couple of months .....
As always, wine has played a rather large part in our social life and adventures! First up was a trip to one of our favourite wineries - Guglielmo in Morgan Hill - with Jared and Erin. It was Bottle Your Own day again and we couldn't resist stocking up on a couple of cases of their wonderful $6-a-bottle bargains!
Hubby had a lot of fun filling up the bottles!!
And my beloved little friend Paco was very brave riding on the conveyor belt!!
And then the boys had fun seeing how many boxes of wine they could fit in Jared's beautiful Ford Fairlane .....
Next, Jared & Erin took us to a new winery, Sycamore Creek, where the wine was simply amazing. Normally at wine tastings there are one or two that I don't like as much, but here everything was delicious so we promptly signed up to be members! Hurrah!!!
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, so after the tasting we sat outside and shared a bottle of wine while we admired the view
On the Saturday of Easter weekend, 19 of us hired a bus and went on a tour of 3 wineries in the Santa Cruz mountains. The first stop was at Savannah Chanelle, which is a lovely little place with some very lovely wine!
We were led on a tour of the vines by a rather entertaining guide, and got to sample the wines while we were out there rather than back in the tasting room, which I thought was a nice touch!
As always, wine has played a rather large part in our social life and adventures! First up was a trip to one of our favourite wineries - Guglielmo in Morgan Hill - with Jared and Erin. It was Bottle Your Own day again and we couldn't resist stocking up on a couple of cases of their wonderful $6-a-bottle bargains!
Hubby had a lot of fun filling up the bottles!!
And my beloved little friend Paco was very brave riding on the conveyor belt!!
And then the boys had fun seeing how many boxes of wine they could fit in Jared's beautiful Ford Fairlane .....
Next, Jared & Erin took us to a new winery, Sycamore Creek, where the wine was simply amazing. Normally at wine tastings there are one or two that I don't like as much, but here everything was delicious so we promptly signed up to be members! Hurrah!!!
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, so after the tasting we sat outside and shared a bottle of wine while we admired the view
We were led on a tour of the vines by a rather entertaining guide, and got to sample the wines while we were out there rather than back in the tasting room, which I thought was a nice touch!
Sadly I don't have any decent photos of the other two places, but I can tell you that the second establishment, Cooper Garrod, utterly sucked balls!! I wouldn't have washed my toilet with the crap they were serving! The final stop was Mountain Winery which is a wonderful place, and just for you dear readers, I will make sure I go back and get some nice shots for you soon!
The highlight of that last couple of months has been my friend Cara's visit from Scotland! Sadly she could only come for a week, which isn't nearly enough time, but we managed to fit in a bit of shopping, a fair few cocktails, a wee day out in San Francisco, and even a trip to the ice hockey which I think was Cara's favourite part of her trip!
GO SHARKS!!!
And the week would not have been complete without a wee party to introduce her to all our wonderful friends over here! We decided to make it a cocktail party and the mojitos and lemon drops were flowing freely and absolutely delicious!
And that pretty much brings us up to date! There have been other adventures, but none that I have enough photos of to warrant a mention. As usual, I will promise to try harder, take more photos, and keep you up to date, but I know you wont hold your breath! Thank you for tuning in again!! :-)
Tuesday, 15 January 2013
The Princess & The Pea
Hello again! Have you all recovered form your weekends and the Monday blues? Did you get up to anything fun? We had a brilliant weekend!
First up, we had our fairytale new mattress of joy delivered on Friday. Our old mattress from the UK had collapsed on Hubby's side so he had taken to sleeping in the spare bed, but I found the spare mattress too hard so I was still sleeping in the old bed :-( I wont lie, part of me did enjoy the few nights I had with a whole bed to myself, but we were very happy when the new mattress arrived! And oh! What a mattress?!
We got a Sealy Posturepedic pillow top mattress and it is the comfiest bed I have ever slept in in my entire life! On the downside though, it is twice as deep as our old mattress which makes it look quite ridiculous on our wee bed, and none of the sheets fit properly, but I don't care!! I loves it!!! :-)
On Friday night we had a long overdue catch up with Vera & Leo and their beautiful baby daughter. This was the first of my planned dinner parties of the year and I spent ages trying to decide what to make. I settled on a couple of things that I had tried before - asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and phyllo pastry for an appetiser, followed by grilled chicken with a mushroom and wild rice pilaf and roast veggies. This was the second time I had tried the pilaf and it was much improved! I totally forgot to get pics of these for you, but I will definitely be making them again so you'll just have to wait for next time!
The highlight of the meal was the dessert. Ive never really made desserts before - back in the UK they always came from Marks & Spencer - and was a bit intimidated by most of the recipes I was finding, until I came across Jamie Oliver's cheat pavlova. It looked fairly simple and rather impressive so I gave it a go and was very glad that I did!!
Other culinary highlights of the weekend included my new favourite brunch - a fry up of potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red bell peppers and topped off with a poached egg - yum! We even threw in some crisped up leftover prosciutto - double yum!!
Saturday dinner ended up being a surprisingly delicious Asian edamame and shrimps noodles. I say "surprisingly" as our food processor failed to puree the ginger down properly so it was all lumpy, and I forgot to reserve some of the noodle water so the dish was a little drier than it should have been, but I really enjoyed it and it will be making future appearances on our menu!
Saturday night found us back at the Grapevine wine bar in Willow Glen, but unfortunately there was a band playing and they were the worst band I have ever heard!! They proceeded to murder many classic rock songs at obscenely loud volumes to the point where it was more comfortable to sit outside wrapped up in coats and gloves than to suffer the noise inside! The wine, snacks, and service was as wonderful as ever, though, and we still had a fantastic, if chilly, night!
Well, that sums up our weekend. Hubby is off work this week so hopefully I'll have some adventures to share with you, culinary or otherwise. The main thing on the agenda for today, though, is to get some new bloody sheets ....!!!! Laters x
First up, we had our fairytale new mattress of joy delivered on Friday. Our old mattress from the UK had collapsed on Hubby's side so he had taken to sleeping in the spare bed, but I found the spare mattress too hard so I was still sleeping in the old bed :-( I wont lie, part of me did enjoy the few nights I had with a whole bed to myself, but we were very happy when the new mattress arrived! And oh! What a mattress?!
We got a Sealy Posturepedic pillow top mattress and it is the comfiest bed I have ever slept in in my entire life! On the downside though, it is twice as deep as our old mattress which makes it look quite ridiculous on our wee bed, and none of the sheets fit properly, but I don't care!! I loves it!!! :-)
On Friday night we had a long overdue catch up with Vera & Leo and their beautiful baby daughter. This was the first of my planned dinner parties of the year and I spent ages trying to decide what to make. I settled on a couple of things that I had tried before - asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and phyllo pastry for an appetiser, followed by grilled chicken with a mushroom and wild rice pilaf and roast veggies. This was the second time I had tried the pilaf and it was much improved! I totally forgot to get pics of these for you, but I will definitely be making them again so you'll just have to wait for next time!
The highlight of the meal was the dessert. Ive never really made desserts before - back in the UK they always came from Marks & Spencer - and was a bit intimidated by most of the recipes I was finding, until I came across Jamie Oliver's cheat pavlova. It looked fairly simple and rather impressive so I gave it a go and was very glad that I did!!
Other culinary highlights of the weekend included my new favourite brunch - a fry up of potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red bell peppers and topped off with a poached egg - yum! We even threw in some crisped up leftover prosciutto - double yum!!
Saturday night found us back at the Grapevine wine bar in Willow Glen, but unfortunately there was a band playing and they were the worst band I have ever heard!! They proceeded to murder many classic rock songs at obscenely loud volumes to the point where it was more comfortable to sit outside wrapped up in coats and gloves than to suffer the noise inside! The wine, snacks, and service was as wonderful as ever, though, and we still had a fantastic, if chilly, night!
Well, that sums up our weekend. Hubby is off work this week so hopefully I'll have some adventures to share with you, culinary or otherwise. The main thing on the agenda for today, though, is to get some new bloody sheets ....!!!! Laters x
Friday, 11 January 2013
World's worst vegetarian .....
OK, so I haven't claimed to be a vegetarian since I was 16 (all my friends were doing it - what was I supposed to do?!?!) but aside from a few delicious exceptions over Christmas I have been successfully and happily avoiding meat for a couple of months now.
The little bit of beef in my Korean meal on Wednesday night was a tasty wee treat. Last night was pure meat porn! :-)
I had been planning another veggie curry when we got invited to Henry's Hi Life, our local barbecue restaurant, with friends - one of whom I hadn't seen since before Christmas and I really wanted to catch up. Barbecue is the one kind of restaurant that will never offer a vegetarian option!! They did have salmon on the menu, but if you've been following my posts this week you'll know that that just is not going to happen!
*sigh* Half rack of baby back ribs it is, then .....
Oh, but they were juicy and delicious and wonderful .... and not remotely healthy or cholesterol friendly at all, particularly when served with the mountain of garlic bread we went through too.
There was no way I could finish the plate, but I still managed to eat far too much and was in a bit of pain for the rest of the night! It was sooooo worth it, though! :-)
I am now officially off meat for the rest of the month, although just looking at that photo has me wishing I'd brought my leftovers home for lunch! We have friends coming round for dinner tonight so I am off to rummage through my books for something healthy to make that I can tweak so I can have it meat free! Or maybe something with shrimp. Hmmmmmm ..........
The little bit of beef in my Korean meal on Wednesday night was a tasty wee treat. Last night was pure meat porn! :-)
I had been planning another veggie curry when we got invited to Henry's Hi Life, our local barbecue restaurant, with friends - one of whom I hadn't seen since before Christmas and I really wanted to catch up. Barbecue is the one kind of restaurant that will never offer a vegetarian option!! They did have salmon on the menu, but if you've been following my posts this week you'll know that that just is not going to happen!
*sigh* Half rack of baby back ribs it is, then .....
Oh, but they were juicy and delicious and wonderful .... and not remotely healthy or cholesterol friendly at all, particularly when served with the mountain of garlic bread we went through too.
There was no way I could finish the plate, but I still managed to eat far too much and was in a bit of pain for the rest of the night! It was sooooo worth it, though! :-)
I am now officially off meat for the rest of the month, although just looking at that photo has me wishing I'd brought my leftovers home for lunch! We have friends coming round for dinner tonight so I am off to rummage through my books for something healthy to make that I can tweak so I can have it meat free! Or maybe something with shrimp. Hmmmmmm ..........
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Not convinced ...
Every Wednesday night Hubby and I go out for dinner. We started doing it for practical reasons when Hubby was the main chef (ie only chef) and didnt want to cook when he got in late on a Wednesday. Much has changed since that first time he said "sod it, lets go to the pub for dinner", but our Wednesday date night has endured and been a favourite part of our week for nearly 10 years!
We have a limited choice of restaurants in our immediate area, and would usually prefer not to take the car, so more often than not we end up at an Italian place round the corner. This week we decided to branch out a little so I met Hubby at his office and we went to explore some of the places around there.
Hubby likes Korean food, and aside from a trip to a Korean barbecue place (which was delicious) I haven't really tried it. He took me to a place called Jang Su Jang which he had heard was good.
My first look at the menu told I was in trouble! Though I am a lot better than I used to be, I am still quite a fussy eater. You're talking to the girl whose biggest eating out decision when I was growing up was which fish and chip shop in our village to go to!!
I was definitely out of my comfort zone and nothing really appealed to me. Hubby suggested I might like the Bibimbap - a dish of rice, beef and vegetables with an egg on top. It sounded like the most Andrea-friendly thing on the menu, and even though I am trying to avoid meat, I went for it.
I didn't like it .....
The dish was quite bland, and the accompanying broth wasn't much better. I ended up having to put loads of the chili sauce on, but I didn't really like the flavour of the sauce so I was just generally disappointed. The beef, though, was delicious and the only part of the meal I actually enjoyed.
Hubby was very happy with his noodley soup :-)
So, I guess we wont be going back there again! I would like to try another Korean restaurant with Hubby sometime as I wouldn't want to write off a whole cuisine based on one experience - and would welcome any suggestions of good places to try from people in our area.
Well, on that note I am off to finish scaling the Ironing Pile of Doom. Wish me luck .......
We have a limited choice of restaurants in our immediate area, and would usually prefer not to take the car, so more often than not we end up at an Italian place round the corner. This week we decided to branch out a little so I met Hubby at his office and we went to explore some of the places around there.
Hubby likes Korean food, and aside from a trip to a Korean barbecue place (which was delicious) I haven't really tried it. He took me to a place called Jang Su Jang which he had heard was good.
My first look at the menu told I was in trouble! Though I am a lot better than I used to be, I am still quite a fussy eater. You're talking to the girl whose biggest eating out decision when I was growing up was which fish and chip shop in our village to go to!!
I didn't like it .....
The dish was quite bland, and the accompanying broth wasn't much better. I ended up having to put loads of the chili sauce on, but I didn't really like the flavour of the sauce so I was just generally disappointed. The beef, though, was delicious and the only part of the meal I actually enjoyed.
Hubby was very happy with his noodley soup :-)
So, I guess we wont be going back there again! I would like to try another Korean restaurant with Hubby sometime as I wouldn't want to write off a whole cuisine based on one experience - and would welcome any suggestions of good places to try from people in our area.
Well, on that note I am off to finish scaling the Ironing Pile of Doom. Wish me luck .......
Wednesday, 9 January 2013
Good news or bad news?
Good morning!! What news do you have today? Ive been making good progress on my organisation goals and managed to get all the upstairs crap cleared up, and conquered a good chunk of the Ironing Pile of Doom so I did not have to iron Hubby's work shirt first thing this morning - hurrah!! (Friends usually mock me for doing his ironing, but it really seems like the least I can do ...!)
Ive also been breaking my general healthy eating goal down into more specific targets and one of those is to eat more fish. *groan* I'm not a huge seafood fan. When I was a kid we used to have fish every Tuesday, and without fail every Tuesday morning my dad would ask me if I wanted the good news or the bad news? "The good news is I love you, the bad news is it's fish for dinner" Oh, how I laughed .....!
I'm not as bad as I used to be, but I do believe there is a special circle of hell reserved for salmon. It's just so ....... meh!! But apparently it is very good for cholesterol, and the fact that Hubby has started eating a lot of it is probably one of the reasons his cholesterol is so much better than mine now. So, one of my diet goals is to eat fish twice a week, and make one of those meals with salmon *groan*
I started by making salmon with toasted Israeli couscous last night and it truly lived up to my expectations - it was crap!
Lets ignore the fact that it was overcooked (I'm sharing joint blame with Hubby for that - sorry babe!) The recipe sounded really tasty - I mean, how could anything with pistachios not be delicious?!?! Well, apparently this is how!
I did really like the Israeli couscous, although this was actually the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend with baby garbanzo beans, orzo and red quinoa through it, and I am looking forward to having that again. I suppose I like the theory of the salmon with the couscous, I just need to give it some ... y'know ... flavour!!!
On Hubby's request, I am stopping using my food magazines for inspiration as there have been more crap-fests than successes of late.
Instead I shall be using my Christmas pressie books and delving into the pristine collection of cookery books that I have been collecting over the years and barely touched!! I got many of these books when I couldn't even boil an egg and they were quite intimidating, so hopefully I'll have more luck now!
In other random news, I have made myself a Happy Jar :-) "A what?!" you say? A Happy Jar!
I read about it last month, and normally this kind of thing would have me rolling my eyes and reaching for a sick bucket, but I actually really like this idea. Basically, whenever something fun/good/memorable happens you write it down and put it in the jar, then at the end of the year you open it up and relive all the happy memories. Nice, huh?
I guess I need a little help decorating the jar, though - perhaps one of my arty friends could help with that? Katy ...? Cameron ...?
So far I only have the first cork popped on new year's eve in it, but I'm confident I can fill it by the end of the year, and not just with corks!! Mind you, that would be fun too ..... :-)
Ive also been breaking my general healthy eating goal down into more specific targets and one of those is to eat more fish. *groan* I'm not a huge seafood fan. When I was a kid we used to have fish every Tuesday, and without fail every Tuesday morning my dad would ask me if I wanted the good news or the bad news? "The good news is I love you, the bad news is it's fish for dinner" Oh, how I laughed .....!
I'm not as bad as I used to be, but I do believe there is a special circle of hell reserved for salmon. It's just so ....... meh!! But apparently it is very good for cholesterol, and the fact that Hubby has started eating a lot of it is probably one of the reasons his cholesterol is so much better than mine now. So, one of my diet goals is to eat fish twice a week, and make one of those meals with salmon *groan*
I started by making salmon with toasted Israeli couscous last night and it truly lived up to my expectations - it was crap!
Lets ignore the fact that it was overcooked (I'm sharing joint blame with Hubby for that - sorry babe!) The recipe sounded really tasty - I mean, how could anything with pistachios not be delicious?!?! Well, apparently this is how!
I did really like the Israeli couscous, although this was actually the Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend with baby garbanzo beans, orzo and red quinoa through it, and I am looking forward to having that again. I suppose I like the theory of the salmon with the couscous, I just need to give it some ... y'know ... flavour!!!
On Hubby's request, I am stopping using my food magazines for inspiration as there have been more crap-fests than successes of late.
Instead I shall be using my Christmas pressie books and delving into the pristine collection of cookery books that I have been collecting over the years and barely touched!! I got many of these books when I couldn't even boil an egg and they were quite intimidating, so hopefully I'll have more luck now!
In other random news, I have made myself a Happy Jar :-) "A what?!" you say? A Happy Jar!
I read about it last month, and normally this kind of thing would have me rolling my eyes and reaching for a sick bucket, but I actually really like this idea. Basically, whenever something fun/good/memorable happens you write it down and put it in the jar, then at the end of the year you open it up and relive all the happy memories. Nice, huh?
I guess I need a little help decorating the jar, though - perhaps one of my arty friends could help with that? Katy ...? Cameron ...?
So far I only have the first cork popped on new year's eve in it, but I'm confident I can fill it by the end of the year, and not just with corks!! Mind you, that would be fun too ..... :-)
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