Pics from the weekend, OTAT

This weekend has just *flown by*, like one of those birdies that I don't know the names of in the last post (sorry, I'm clueless with birdie identities.. ).

As usual, there was shopping and food prep. I even scoured the fridge and made it clean again (what . a . mission). The source of a pervasive 'something died' smell was located and turned out to be a festering pile of meat juice from Razzy's petfood.  Mmmm.. so good.

Today we flooded the wash house, walked to the market. It was a standard Sunday. :-/

Pics:  I love the look of this pink sauerkraut. The flavour is not as nice as the regular white cabbage kraut, but it is pretty in photo's.

Skype with Miss J. She has had a haircut. Very swish, yes? She is just mastering writing, but prefers to send emoticons and make up a story to go with them. We both think the 'exploding face' icon is hilarious.

She's growing up so fast! (*sob*). Can't even handle it.

Omelette with nut cheese.  Perfect breakfast.

Skyping in progress. We had dinner at Mamasana's last night, which involved munching, skyping, setting up her new TV and drinking maybe a little vino? (I would never..).

Blah, blah, blah...

blah, blah, blah ,blah....

Coffee today at Willows cafe. Here I am shown making a stand against photoshop and makeup. Bloggers, let's unite against sanitised pictures of ourselves. Let's show our real selves, in all our blotchy, regrowth showing, unflattering angle magnificence!

If you can manage a bra strap peeking, and work up a double chin that's especially good.

Sauerkraut.  A new batch, with kelp salt (hence, little black specks).

I hope your weekend has been as full of love and fun as mine was.

Here comes a new week and, following Shauna's lead, I am resolving to time manage by focusing on one thing at a time (OTAT).  It's a bit late to be a new years resolution, but considering I've never been on time for any major life event (graduated university at 39, etc. etc.), I think it's probably all right.

:D

Brain Malfunction, Almond Cashew Cheese & Red Stuff

For the last few days, I've been dealing with a brain that decided to explode. I got a cracker migraine on Wednesday. Lovely.

I still don't feel 100% sharp, but as I don't get migraines very often (I had two last year, and both times had eaten the same brand of raw, peppermint chocolate), at least I can find the process mildly interesting, from a 'why is my brain misfiring now?' perspective.

BTW, searching 'migraine' in Google images may be the best way to get an idea what they are like for those that have never had the pleasure. They are like this, all together:

I've had a few warning signs over the last week, which I should have paid attention to, but didn't. A few of these showed up on the blog! Remember over the weekend, where I just didn't feel like doing anything, everything seemed too overwhelming? That's a sign. I just couldn't organise my thoughts. And then a few days later, I was missing Miss J like crazy? That's another sign. My mood was crashing, and I should have buttoned off and cut back the red wine and caffeine a lot.

But no. What did I feel inspired to do?  Um.. I ate Chinese food for lunch, then followed it with a strong espresso. I'd also snacked on dark chocolate in the morning. MSG is a known trigger for migraines. I'm an idiot.

Strangely, after lunch I felt really confused and couldn't find my car. I couldn't even remember which level of the building it was on (*hellooo*). Eventually, by systematically investigating every part of the carpark, I found it. Then, driving back to work, I got a weird visual effect. You know when you look at a bright light, then look away and there is a kind of blank spot? That effect. 

Then the ziggy zaggy lines, sparkly lights and slight nausea. I made a quick exit and drove home with tunnel vision; quite scary, and probably very irresponsible. I then took panadol, shut myself in a dark room and proceeded to kick myself for being so careless: red wine nearly every night, creeping caffeine consumption, chinese food and chocolate?  That's not good management of 'Sara's Brain', which tends to be a bit touchy even under ideal conditions.

So, let's call that a little wake up call on all of the above and move on.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be  completely recovered and my motivation will return!  This blog post has taken a while. I keep staring into space and considering just leaving it, but... it's more done that not, so I'll finish up with some foodie pics.

Almond/cashew cheese success. This is the best cheese yet. I used this recipe but with 1/3 cashews (soaked them with the almonds).  Before dehydrating, some chives and salt were mixed in.

On the flip side, the buckwheat fermentation went off in a totally random direction.

It turned pink.  I have no idea why and my brain can't handle thinking too hard about that tonight. Any ideas? I'm not going to eat it, that's for sure...  

It's still in the fridge, probably evolving into something that intends to take over the world.  Fermentation is a bit unpredictable. All part of the fun. ;D 

Tomorrow, I intend another go at the zucchini cake, but let's just see how the head feels in the morning.  If you have any tips for getting the brain firing on all four cylinders again after a migraine, please don't hold back. I think it's probably just one of those inconvenient things that takes as long as it takes and I just have to be good and deal with it. 

Happy Friday, everyone!  Have a vino or two on my behalf.

The Week in Eats!

THE WEEK IN EATS (+ MY NEW HOBBY!)

Cultured Movies, Cultured Food and Fat Razzy

Today I'm not quite feeling my best after a Christmas function last night. That's not because of the alcohol (only two glasses of bubbly) but because I stuffed my face with the breads and dips. 

That bread-munching achieved the immediate goal of stopping the bubbly going to my head, but today I have that peculiar 'sleepy eyes' feeling that happens after I eat wheat. I'm certainly not allergic to wheat, or gluten, but it wipes out my energy in a strange way that no other foods do. What can I say? I'm a sensitive little flower. :D

Tonight I'm getting dose of culture with The Intouchables (subtitles = culture, right?), along with some gossip and girl time - girls' night out! woohoo! This morning was devoted to a different type of culture: the bacterial sort.

It's time for another batch of Kraut.

Given the terrible thing that happened last time, I personally inspected every leaf. It took a while, but my conscience is clear.

The technique I'm using is classic sauerkraut-making. There are only three ingredients: cabbage, salt and the natural bacteria resident on the cabbage leaves. The method is simply massaging the salt-sprinkled, finely chopped cabbage in a 'squeeze and drop' motion, until it becomes soft and there is a pool of brine in the bottom of the bowl.

Today the phone rang and I abandoned my cabbage mid-squeeze. When I got back to it, I was surprised to find that the salt had continued to pull the water out and there was a lot more brine than before I took the call.  It's like magic. 

The covered bowl is sprouting buckwheat.

I also whipped up a bowl of almond cheese.

When I say 'whipped up', I mean 'spent half and hour shelling 300g of sprouted, blanched almonds'. Can't complain though. The sun is out and I did the job outside, while simultaneously giving Razzy a pep talk about the diet.

He's losing the will to live.

I can't take one more day of diet food..

Like every naturally thin creature, Monty quickly tired of the fat-related conversation and started drawing attention to himself with crazy dance moves.

Somebody forgot to tell him that he's the human equivalent of 85 years old. I think that cat's going to be with us a long, long time. He's not had a sick day in his life, apart from a broken leg (probably from indulging in age-inappropriate activities or dangerous explorations to the weak end of a tree branch).

I hope your weekend is starting well and that there is some lazing in the sun involved. Any big plans?

How is the Christmas shopping going? (*starts to hyperventilate a little*)

Almond 'Cheese'

It is so good to have my energy back!  I've got that 'woohooo, I'm really getting better!' feeling that hits after a lingering cold, or longer illness.  It's like a little ray of sunshine in my soul.

I used that little burst of energy to try making something I've been thinking about for a while: nut cheese.