UnRecipe: The Lost Weekend

This is what should have happened -- an action-packed weekend of attending this year's Emerald City ComicCon and then an evening of liver-pummelling at the annual Cask Festival. But, no. Thwarted. Defeated. Left a smouldering husk of a superhero that once was... burning through one tissue box a day and a really chapped nose from the Evil Sinus Infection from the Phantom Zone. It was a rare day when the Powers of Evil and Mucus reigned supreme. Bummer.

So... yeah. The last few weeks have been a rip-roaring good time of battling a chest-rattling cough and other sickly sundries -- and I know I'm  not the only one. It seems like everyone is suffering from the same bug. I feel your pain. Literally. Let's share sick stories -- add your horrific tales of pestilence below in the comments section, it'll be theraputic. Maybe it's the change of seasons, perhaps the sudden spike in pollen causing massive irritants leading to a mass outbreak of sinus-related problems. Whatever. It sucked. What sucks even more is how dull and bland food becomes. Granted, you're so zapped for energy, you don't want to do much, but on the early end of being sick, I immediately craved one thing: spice, and lots of it. So I cooked what I considered to be My Last Supper, knowing things would get worse before it was going to get better.

The spice must flow... into my belly - Photos by Wasabi Prime

We had some fresh green beans in our CSA delivery and all I could think of was dousing them in spicy chili sauce and giving them a quick pan-fry. I marinated sliced pork in chili paste, some sugar and soy sauce, and cooked that into a kind of curry-type dish with carrots, chickpeas and onions. I don't even know what it was. I just threw in every strong-flavored spice I had, like cumin, coriander, the works. Not quite as sweet as Japanese-style curry, not quite as heavily-spiced as Indian curry -- at least, not that my fading tastebuds could tell. But it was delicious and this combination literally blew my socks off, they were so spicy and satisfying. I finished off the last of some pickled cucumbers, to add some chilled spice to the mix. Oh, my poor insides, trying to digest this onslaught of heat, but I don't care, when you're feeling sick, you're like a tragic comic book hero, deadened by the prospect of a doomed future -- you do anything just to feel aliiiiiiiiiive.

Food packed with flavor... keep it coming, I'm only getting sicker - Photos by Wasabi Prime

One bright note, I was glad to sprinkle in some fresh garlic greens. I saw we had a fresh batch of green shoots from some garlic cloves that thankfully overwintered and returned this spring. Yet another nice way to use oddball kitchen scraps. I used to plant green onions, but shoving the too-small garlic cloves from the center of a bulb right into the dirt has been an even better, lazier way to get something similar to green onions. They taste similar to scallions, with a mild garlic flavor. Bugs tend to avoid them, so yet another bonus for lazy gardeners like myself.

More flavor, less effort, the I'm So Freakin' Sick Diet continues... - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Like some Outbreak-style Patient Zero study, my progression into Congestion City only worsened, so I cooked up a beef broth. Getting caught up on the latest episodes of The Walking Dead felt like a promise of things to come. Zombie-fication -- engaged. I had some beef bones in the freezer and pulled some goodies from the frozen scrap bag like leek trimmings, ginger, plenty of onion tops and bottoms. I added whole dry spices like star anise and peppercorns, as well as a little packet of dried kombu, or seaweed. It's typically in sheet forms, and you add it when you're making a traditional Japanese dashi or broth, for that uniquely savory umami. Which of course is a fancy way of saying, "MSG High." I had little dried seasoning packets from Uwajimaya, so I threw some of that in towards the end of the simmer. I strained all the solid chunks, added a spoonful of chili sauce to sweat my sinuses open, and drank it up with somen noodles. Very simple dinners for the next several days of feeling too tired to do anything.

Soup is good food - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Highlight: I had some awesome fever dreams of solid food. A very clear vision of soft bread filled with creamy, gooey Brie cheese. And possibly honey or pear slices. I followed my Food Vision Quest, and while waiting for my prescription of Action-Packed Antibiotics, I found some soft bread rolls and a big ol' wheel of Brie. Let's make this dream a reality, people. I hadn't used the grill pan in a while, and it was good practice getting the heat just-right. Medium-low is just enough to melt the cheese, but not enough to char the bread into a lump of coal, as cast iron can have that effect on things.

Do you dream in cheese? Apparently, I do - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Somewhere between all this, I toasted some almonds with more spicy seasonings because I needed something to snack on that wasn't an orange. At this point, things were looking up. I appreciate all the very kind well-wishes over email, Twitter, Facebook, and even a nice e-card, to boot. You are all awesome people and deserve SuperLotto-like fortunes, but all I can offer is Super-Lotto-sized Thanks. Indy was a good nursemaid, staying on the bed, not judging the fact that I was an absolute wreck. I was popping pills like Valley of the Dolls, eating ibuprofen like candy to stay propped up for work (probably didn't help things, but there's no such thing as sick days when you're self-employed), and taking fever-dream-fantastic decongestants that left me in Bat Country most nights.


All remedies aside... drugs are best - Photos by Wasabi Prime

At least the Mister was able to enjoy Cask Festival this year. He sent me a nice photo of a friend face-down from drunken fury and everyone returned in one piece, so that's a successful beer festival if I've ever heard one. While I'm still disappointed at missing all the fun at Emerald City ComicCon, thank heavens for Local Independent Superhero Web Series! Is that a thing? I think that's a thing. Friend and Brock's fellow workmate at Runictown, Wonder Russell, is blessed with superhuman abilities and Top Pot doughnuts in this funny web series that kicked off at ECCC - meet The Collectibles!  Think Superfriends Meets The Office, which I think we can all dig, because even with special powers, you're still fighting The Man. It got a great live kickoff at the Con, and since it's a web series, you can be anywhere on the planet with the interwebs and watch it (except maybe China and likely North Korea). It's been a nice diversion, along with big breakfasts and Star Wars marathons as I continue to get better and pop more pills. So please check out The Collectibles!

All the things that will truly cure what ails you - bottom pics by Wasabi, top from The Collectibles

UnRecipe: Chicken Soup for a Hot Mess of a Soul

It happens. You're doing a million and one things, going at a million and two miles and hour, not enough sleep and the only fluid intake is coffee. Getting one's health on? EPIC FAIL. So inevitably, you start feeling run-down and the flu comes in to "sweep the leg," amping the productivity of snot rockets to Eleven. What else can you do, but go into Sick Food Mode.

Dr. Indy says: I  prescribe lots of rest and snuggling the dog in between naps - Photo by Wasabi Prime

This was actually a while back when I got sick, it's just taken me this-freakin'-long to post about it. I had been traveling, sharing many germs with many strangers on a long flight, so it was no surprise when I developed a cough and head to toe body aches that endured for over a week and a half. Despite the nasty punishment of a cold, I sometimes wonder if it's also karma's way of intentionally putting up barriers to keep you from running yourself completely into the ground. I managed to catch up on movies and totally throw Mr. Wasabi's Netflix recommendation list into an estrogen-fueled calamity with selections that included Bright Star, Young Victoria and The Duchess. Mwah-hah-haaaaaaaah!

It's interesting to see what you end up craving when you're not feeling well. Aside from massive amounts of hot lemon ginger tea, the main thing I was craving was food that didn't require a lot of effort to prepare. I had the odd hankering for something sweet, so I took to eating an entire freaking bag of Kamuela Gourmet granola, which was full of big chunks of oats, nuts and seeds, sprinkled heavily with cinnamon, mixed in with plain yogurt. I wish I had a website to order more of this granola, as it was addictively good -- it was one of the things I brought back from Hawaii. Strangely, the bag had no website! I also had a bag of passionfruit or lilikoi shortbread from my absolute favorite cookie company, Kelly Boy's. Another small, local company who makes great product and frustratingly has no website, but if you're in Hawaii and are in a Longs Drugs store, they usually sell it there. My favorite is the Peanut Braddah cookies, which are peanut butter cookies so massive, it's literally a handprint on it to give it that crosshatch design. Kelly Boy's cookies are super crumbly and rarely survive the trip home intact, so you always wind up with almost a cup's worth of crumbs, which are just as tasty sprinkled on plain yogurt or ice cream. I never let one bit of those cookies go to waste when I have them!

Best food to enjoy while sick -- no preparation, plenty of flavor! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Generally when people feel under the weather, the go-to food is chicken soup. When I started feeling well enough to putter around the kitchen, I had the basics to make a simple soup -- chicken broth, chicken breasts, carrots, onion, peas and sweet potatoes -- but I wanted something heartier. I had it in my NyQuil-addled brain to make sort of a shepherd's pie version of a chicken stew, topping it with thin slices of the sweet potato, versus the traditional mashed potatoes. At the time, the dish had sensible potential, and despite my adherence to the cold medication's warning not to operate heavy machinery, they should probably include a suggestion not to come up with wacky meal ideas. Not that the resulting dish was bad, by any means. I made a basic chicken and vegetable stew, cooking everything in a pot, but I think I added too much chicken broth towards the end, assuming the oven would just magically "make up the difference" somehow, reducing it to a thick gravy. I poured the runny stew into a casserole dish, covered it with seasoned slices of sweet potato, and into the oven it went to bake off. When the potato slice topping was cooked and crisped, I tried using a spatula to cut out a portion of the casserole, but I had to switch to a ladle, as it was essentially a baked stew. I poured it into a bowl and ate it with a spoon, and to be perfectly honest, it hit the spot. Heartier than a soup, but something you could savor with a spoon. Make all the comments you want, comparing it to the annoyingly-named "stoup" that Rachael Ray calls her soup/stew concoctions, but I have to say, this chicken soup for my hot mess of a soul was delicious, and by the time all the leftovers were gone, I was feeling better enough to get back to my workaholic ways. Winner!

Chicken soupy-stew for the sickened soul  - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Wasabi Calls in Sick and Stops to Smell the Roses

It had been a while since the Prime felt under the weather. It’s always the same old thing – you start feeling the hint of a cold creeping up, so you get into defensive ninja mode with vitamin C, tea, and most likely extra rest. Inevitably, this SWAT team action tends to nip the icky feeling in the bud, however as un-luck would have it, I was ignoring the signs, especially after some work was ramping up and really putting things into crunch mode, plus it happened to be the week Mr. Wasabi was gone on a business trip. From Friday through Sunday, I lost a weekend and had to be a lame-o bail-out on several parties and gatherings with friends as a result of my feeling under the weather. In retrospect, the house arrest was probably what I needed to keep from being a total maniac with my to-do list clutched in a white-knuckled fist.

Feeling sick? Homemade pizza cures everything - Photo by Wasabi Prime

One would think having the house to oneself would be peaceful -- and it was -- but the Workaholic Wasabi rests for no one, and realized that one of the best things about Brock is that he forces me to slow down and disengage from the day. Without him, I'm a dervish whirling at Tazmanian Devil speed, wondering when I'll spontaneously combust, but more than likely it just makes me sick. In the feeling of not-so-greatness, I was blessed with a couple of things -- some extra time to just indulge in comfort food and a visit with a friend who brought incredible roses from her mother's garden.

Stop and smell the roses, dammit - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I used to think giving flowers was somewhat bittersweet -- they're lovely when you have them, but then you're faced with that inevitable task of disposing the wilted, dead blooms after their moment in the spotlight is over. I stopped sending my mom flowers for Mother's Day and would just send practical things like a new set of knives or a couple of Silpats. But flowers?? What's the point? Everything dies, youth fades -- oh, the humanity of it all! Oh, enough, already. I've gotten over that fatalist bummer point of view because, for heaven's sake, flowers are pretty, they smell nice and they really do brighten up a room. Especially when you've got a bouquet so huge you can split them into two smaller ones and it decorates twice the space! When a friend like Miss Shutterbug, aka, the Fabulous Sabrina (check out her portrait work!) comes over with a giant bouquet of flowers and shares a bit of caprese-inspired pizza while watching Pride and Prejudice with an under-the-weather friend, that's the best medicine that money can never buy.