Sunday, March 01, 2015

Pumpkin seed victory...


I was ever so weary last night that I almost talked myself out of going to the symphony.  That would have been a mistake.  However, I did listen to the second half with just part of my mind, because the rest of it was trying to stay awake!



The performance was at the other venue, and, thankfully, the valet parking was available.  I admit that I am the worst tipper in the world.  I think that folk should be paid a fair wage and tips be a matter of discretion, something you do because you want to.  I did not know that free valet parking is not actually free because you still should tip.  During intermission, wondering about tipping for the hundredth time, I looked it up.  What I found was that I should be tipping $5.  SIGH.  I had my emergency $20 in my purse and two $1 bills.  I wonder if the $2 tip was offensive.  For me, I'd have rather just tipped $1.

The venue was the most full I have ever seen it, and I wondered if some promotion was going on or something.  The lady in front of me fell asleep.  And snored.  I am glad that her snoring kept me awake.

I really have been exhausted.

After my nausea finally subsided after nearly 15 hours of violent waves crashing over me, I wanted to sleep.  It was early Saturday morning.  However, Amos started throwing up.  He had not eaten anything since the evening before, so it was all that foamy yellow bile stuff.  My poor puppy threw up nine times, even after just drinking water.  So, I took away his water.  Finally, he stopped all that swallowing and squirming and fell asleep.  I fed him around 12:30 on Saturday and he kept it all down.  I did not, however, "enhance" his food with milk, as I usually do, and I did not let him pre-clean any dishes yesterday.

He just pre-cleaned a bowl that had Vietnamese Chicken Curry with Sweet Potatoes, so I think he is finally back to his normal goat-like self.

Anyway, whilst I was listening to music last night, it started snowing.  It has not yet stopped.

Once I got home—thankfully without any wrecks—I took a shower and went straight to bed.  I slept from 10:30 until 7:30 and then decided to just get out of bed.  Being up all morning is so weird.

I cleared the airing porch of snow, watered the plants in the solarium, started some laundry, and vacuumed the first floor.  That is entirely too much productivity for a morning.

I have been wanting to try to make more snacks for myself, so I started with my pumpkin seeds that I have been studiously ignoring since I ordered them last fall.  Frankly, I honestly and earnestly believe that you should drop what you are doing and race out to the store to fetch the ingredients for Maple Chili Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.  They are bloody FANTASTIC!




There still are other pumpkin seed recipes that I flagged to try, but after tasting these, I don't see a reason to do so.  I really was astounded at how tasty I found them to be.  They are also my very first attempt at cooking with parchment paper.  What a culinary victory!

The second snack recipe that I attempted was to make homemade granola.  I really, really, really want to be a Granolamaker.  However, I despair of that ever becoming a possibility.




Here is my first attempt.  I am not sure if I should post the recipe or not.  Essentially, it is a soft granola.  Tasty, but not crunchy.  SIGH.

I think one of the problems is that I really want my granola to be apple granola, even though I believe that trying to make granola with a fresh fruit is not easy.  The other problem I think that I have is I cannot really find a "standard" oven temperature.  I believe this was cooked too low.  Also, I believe the fact that I do not want nuts in my granola might be dooming me to failure because I need the nuts in there to make the ingredient proportions right.  And the fact that I did not want to use oil and so used butter might have been a factor in my granola not-quite-failure.  Finally, I cooked it on parchment paper, too, but I think, perhaps, granola should be cooked on a bare metal pan.  Maybe I am wrong about the last one.

[I am wondering, though, is being a granolamaker like being a breadmaker ... you either are one or not??]

With my next Subscribe and Save order, I chose to add wheat germ.  Pioneer Woman has a granola bar recipe that uses it.  I think I will try adding wheat germ on my next granola attempt.  The two types that I would like to make are apple cinnamon and maple brown sugar.  Is that too ambitious of me??

My "cousin" Daniel just suggested I try working with steel cut oats.  I actually have some of those that my mother bought for her breakfast and I've never known what to do with the rest of the can.  My first thought was that the steel cut oats could serve as my "nuts."  Maybe ... just maybe ... I can figure out the making of granola.

Anyway, at the moment, I am less worried about my granola outcome than I am my blue feet.  I think that standing too long makes the Raynaud's worse when I am cold. I think this might be so, because standing without fainting is hard and so my heart is working harder to compensate for my falling blood pressure and I doubt much bodily autonomic care is being allocated to my feet.  Right now, mine are blue, numb blocks of icy appendages.  SIGH.

The NASCAR race is rain delayed.  I sure hope it starts soon.  I feel a nap coming on.  Amos is already snoring.

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