Stir Crazy

Well, I have now been in the house for almost four days solid. That makes a person a wee bit stir crazy. While my availability to Kawi has increased his appreciation for me considerably, I am getting a little sick of being sick. Today I had the opportunity to present some of the Marketing Messages that I have been researching to three directors in the department, but even after trying to sleep off my horrible night last night, I could scarcely walk around the house.

My doc called in a new Rx for me and I sat in bed trying to figure out how I was going to pick it up. I don't know if it's one of those things where you can just ring up a neighbor and say, "Yo, could you go pick up my Rx for me?" No, I don't think so.

I finally mustered up the "stomach" to get out of bed at 1:00 PM, still having had nothing to eat, and trying to think of anything that sounded appetizing with no success. As I pulled up to the drive-thru at the pharmacy, Kawi belted out a lovely serenade for the pharmacy assistant; charming little guy. I then pulled over in the parking lot and tried to decide what sounded good to eat. Hmmm... Olive Garden Calamari! That crashed and burned when I saw the calories rang in at over 1000. That's like a day's worth of food, and yes, I could eat the whole thing without a second thought!

Next, I considered Winger's Wings. At 328 cals for four wings, that was reasonable, especially considering my calorie count was currently zero. Yum! and then Yuck. That didn't sound so good anymore. Drats. (I did find a recipe for the sauce, but I am going to try to tweak it and then I will let you know a healthier version.)

Suddenly I thought about making a roast and buying the Sherlock Holmes movie. I did leave the store with a lean roast, but my wallet wouldn't let go of the seventeen dollars for the movie. It growled and said, "C won't like it!"

Resigned, I put the movie back.

Kawi pooped on my seat the moment he saw me coming out of the store. It's a thing he does to, I don't know, drop ballast so that he can jump to your shoulder the moment you are in range? Fortunately cockatiel poops leave no mark 99% of the time, so it's an easy fix. "Excited to see me?" I asked while I picked up his little love package.

"Slurp, slurp, take a drink?" He asked.

"Okay, let's get you home to get a drink." On the way, I stopped for a container of mashed potatoes at a smokehouse. It was the only thing that sounded even remotely edible. I ate about 1/2 cup of mashers and felt full. Isn't that a sad thing? Suddenly I heard a muffled cry coming from the fridge. It was the strawberries - or the Ghiradelli bittersweet 60% cocoa chips, I wasn't really sure, so I let them both out.

For some time, I have had a theory, and it goes like this: If you can make something with a milk product that is fatty, you can probably make that same thing without the fat! I have this little weakness for Ganache. I am not supposed to eat chocolate, and I don't eat it very often. It's one of those highly limited foods along with sugar, generally. The problem with Ganache is that it is made by pouring boiling hot cream over chocolate pieces, thus the problem of both plenty of sugar AND plenty of fat AND plenty of flavor.

For those of you who may not know, Ganache is that lovely creamy stuff that truffles are made of. You let it cool into a semi-solid form, roll it in balls, and then coat it in some other item, like cocoa powder or a waxy chocolate that won't melt at room temperature. You then put them in the freezer to harden the chocolate. The fridge will cause a waxy finish sometimes if they are cooled slowly, so put them in the freezer to cool the chocolate for a several minutes first. This is also the lovely stuff used to cover fine pastries with a creamy, smooth chocolate coating that literally melts in your hands.

Here is my GREAT DISCOVERY FOR THE DAY!!!! You can make Ganache by using fat free half-and-half! How exciting is that? So of course I made chocolate covered strawberries, and a few macadamians and cashews. Normally it looks more smooth than that, but I wasn't in a Julia Child mood. Don't you feel so bad for me staying home sick?

Well, C, sorry I didn't use milk chocolate, but bittersweet is just SO!!!! Now if only I felt like eating them, too!

At least my bed still has an appetite. My bed eats pillows. I kept wondering where they were going, and why I couldn't stay propped up, considering we have eight full-sized pillows on our bed. And then I found him! The evil bed crack has been gobbling them up!

Alas, I found a solution! This enormous down neck roll pillow has been moping around the house since arriving from the Ikea discount corner for almost a year. This week it has finally filled the measure of its creation!