Friday 11 May - Come on, antibiotics

Well, not sure if what I have is viral or bacterial, but still hoping that the drugs will clear up my chest infection which is now very unpleasant.

Breakfasted on raspberries & coffee and spent most of AM back in bed as feeling very rough.

Dragged myself up at midday as I awoke feeling hungry. Had a rummage around and found some freezer & store cupboard ingredients. Hurrah for the hoard!

I had a couple of kumara sweet potatoes in the veggie bins under the sink and a red onion, so I decided to try making some kumara cakes. I also pulled a pack of frozen raw prawns from the freezer, along with a pat of Herb Butter and get started.

Sauteed Prawns with Kumara Cakes
170g prawns
1 pat herb butter
juice 1/2 lime

Kumara Cakes
170g kumara
1/2 red onion (75g)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon crushed red chilli
1 teaspoon olive oil
Peel the kumara and cut into chunks. Steam or boil until tender and mash.

Meanwhile, spray a non-stick skillet with a little oil and saute the red onion and garlic until soft. Add the mashed kumara and the chilli flakes and allow to cool. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Form into two thick cakes and fry on either side until golden brown.

Cook the prawns in the herb butter. Sprinkle over the lime juice and serve with the kumara cakes and fine beans.

Nutrition Data per serving for Kumara Cakes
Calories (kcal) 232.0
Carbohydrate (g) 44.5
Protein (g) 3.5
Fat (g) 10.2
Fibre (g) 4.1

Nutrition Data for meal
Calories (kcal) 453.2
Carbohydrate (g) 48.2
Protein (g) 31.5
Fat (g) 20.3
Fibre (g) 8.5

The kumara is a sort of antipodean sweet potato. I have written about it before here.

Dinner was more of less a reprise of Wednesday night's dinner, only with baby corn instead of broccoli.

1 portion stir steam sauce
125g baby corn
50g RealEat Veggie Steak
35g ho fan noodles
1 red pepper, sliced (125g)
4 spring onions sliced (40g)
handful coriander
Add the veggie steak to the sauce and simmer it while the baby corn and red peppers steam above the sauce.

Meanwhile, cook the ho fan and reserve.

When the veggies are tender, thicken the sauce and add the cooked ho fan, coriander and veggies. Combine well, garnish with slivered spring onions and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 422.4
Carbohydrate (g) 56.6
Protein (g) 27.4
Fat (g) 9.7
Fibre (g) 7.8

Thursday 10 May - Beginning to feel like I will never get well

Well, I have been sick for over a week now and it shows no signs of abating. In fact, it has done what colds always seem to do with me; it has migrated into my chest and settled in as a chest infection. So, I broke down and called the GP's surgery.

I made an appointment, but asked if the doctor could just review and give me a prescription, as this sort of thing happens all to often to me.

Had a big bag of cherries and some coffee for breakfast, then settled into work.

For lunch, I just threw together an asparagus soup fashioned from the leftover portion of yesterday's Cheesey Veloute Sauce, some asparagus stock and a few asparagus spears. It was quick & easy and did the job along with a couple of slice of Molasses Rye.

Spoke to GP who agreed that he would just give me a 'scrip for amoxicillin (which has always cleared my chest in the past, so I popped out to get that filed. Fingers crossed that it knocks this thing on the head.

In the evening, I pulled a swordfish steak from the freezer and had it grilled with some sweet potatoes wedges and salsa

150g sweet potato
1 swordfish steak (130g)

Salsa
1/2 red onion (75g), chopped finely
200g Santini tomatoes, chopped
juice 1/2 lime
3 cloves garlic, crushed
15g spicy catsup
handful coriander leaves

Combine it all and serve with the grilled swordfish & potato wedges.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 336.6
Carbohydrate (g) 44.3
Protein (g) 28.3
Fat (g) 6.5
Fibre (g) 6.6

Sometimes it is nice to have a food hoard - I have been able to eat reasonably well from what I have in the house for the past few days (not that I have been especially hungry).

Wednesday 9 May - Lowest yet

Woke up reasonably early today, but feel like a wolf ate me and shat me off a cliff. This is the most ill I have been so far - sore throat, aching, tired and generally awful.

Dragged my sorry self out of bed and had some molasses rye, coffee & strawberries.

I managed a couple of of errands (buying cat food from vet, went to Marks & Spencers) and felt totally wiped, so decided to make some lunch.

Just another Stir Steam Variation
1 portion Stir Steam Sauce
150g broccoli
1 sweet red pepper, sliced (about 85g)
50g RealEat Veggie Steak
30g ho fan noodles
1 spring onions, sliced
Add the veggie steak to the sauce and simmer it while the broccoli and red peppers steam above the sauce.

Meanwhile, cook the ho fan and reserve.

When the veggies are tender, thicken the sauce and add the cooked ho fan and veggies. Combine well, garnish with slivered spring onions and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 403.8
Carbohydrate (g) 51.7
Protein (g) 30.9
Fat (g) 8.3
Fibre (g) 8.4

The RealEat VegeSteak is more from the freezer hoard - bought it in Holland and Barrett a while back and did nothing with it. It is your basic texturized vegetable protein (TVP).

I even feel too cruddy to work, so spent afternoon watching sitcoms on Paramount Comedy with Pris and Kaspar snuggled up. They are enjoying me being unwell; more cuddle time.

For dinner, I had a Veg-0-Rama plate with some cheesy veloute sauce and it was an effort to be bothered.

Veg-0-Rama
200g Anya potatoes, boiled
1255 broccoli, steamed
125g asparagus, steamed
100g runner beans, steamed
1 portion Cheesy Veloute

Nutrition Summary
Calories (kcal) 500.5
Protein (g) 30.7
Carbohydrate (g) 57.9
Fat (g) 17.0
Fibre (g) 9.6

Tuesday 8 May - More sickness, not a lot of food

Slept like the dead and woke up about 09:30 feeling sick.

Breakfasted on strawberries and coffee, them plugged myself into the PC again. Have not been to gym since I got home from California. Read some stuff on-line about exercising while ill and scared the crap out of myself with stories about forcing viruses into the heart muscle etc. Anyway, will wait until feeling better.

Had a quick, simple lunch of prawns and asparagus with fusilli.

Prawns & Asparagus with Fusilli
175g asparagus
75 wholewheat fusilli
110g cooked prawns
1 pat herb butter
2-3 spring onions, sliced
15g grated Parmesan cheese

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Meanwhile, steam the asparagus.

Melt a pat of Herb Butter in a non-stick skillet an briefly fry the prawns & spring onions to warm them through. Add the cooked pasta & asparagus, toss together and season to taste with salt & freshly ground black pepper. Top with grated Parmesan and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 440.5
Carbohydrate (g) 49.7
Protein (g) 34.1
Fat (g) 11.8
Fibre (g) 11.1

Dinner was again pretty low key. I had a big herb salad, a cup of Kikkoman Instant Miso Soup (California haul again, although you can also buy it in the UK) and a couple of slices of some Molasses Rye bread I made.

Molasses Rye
200ml water
10g yeast
100g blackstrap molasses
1 egg
10g salt
200g organic rye flour
200g very strong white bread flour
1 tablespoon caraway seeds

Combine the water with the molasses & yeast and leave to bloom.

When yeast as bloomed, add the egg, salt and rye flour and beat into a batter/sponge. Leave the sponge to rise for about 1 hour.

Beat down the sponge and add the white flour & seeds. Knead well and leave to rise again until doubled in bulk.

Beat down, knead and rise once more. Then form into a loaf and place in a 2lb bread tin. Leave to rise one final time before baking in a hot oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the bottom sound hollow when tapped.

Makes one 700g loaf.

This is a pretty dense & chewy loaf - I liked it, but it might be a bit heavy for some people.

Monday 7 May - So much for getting over jet lag...

Could not get to sleep AGAIN. Then could not wake up AGAIN. And still feeling lousy, so maybe I need the sleep.

Did not get awake until midday and felt God awful when I did. Just had some coffee and did some work for a few hours until hungry.

Given that my taste buds are shagged by whatever creeping crud is infesting my body, I thought this might be an opportune moment to crack into some of the frozen food hoard, so I got out some Young's Fish en Croute which had been lurking since the last time "I had a coupon" mania lured me to buy them.

In a word - ugh! (Is "ugh" a word?) The pastry was OK, but the contents left a LOT to be desired. The portion of fish inside was minuscule and had a terrible, grainy texture. I would not buy these again on a bet.

Carried on working until about 21:00 and then just had a herb salad, a Teriyaki seitan jerky strip and a few handfuls of sesame sticks from the California health food store haul.

Getting tired of feeling rubbish.

Sunday 6 May - Stil feeling rubbish

So till just doing as much work as possible. May as well get something useful out of being sick. On the positive side, I managed to get to sleep reasonably early and consequently, get up at a fairly normal time, so jet lag is easing.

So, still feeling rubbish, but at least not jet lagged on top of it.

Breakfast was All Bran and coffee. Will I EVER finish this damn box of All Bran? Remind me never to buy 750g boxes of cereal again. They just plain last too long if there is only one person eating it.

Did loads of work and then prepared a pasta salad for lunch with some nice yellow Santa tomatoes from Chapel Market. These are the same buggers that Marks & Spencer sell as Santini tomatoes, only the chappie in the market has them for £1 a pound (and no plastic boxes either). So, while they are about, I shall be buying them from my Chapel Market guy.



Fusilli Salad with Cherry Tomatoes
400g yellow Santa tomatoes
20g spring onions, sliced
60g spinach
big handful basil
50g wholewheat fusilli
15g Manuka honey
juice 1/2 lime
10ml olive oil

Cook the fusilli. While it's boiling, make a dressing of the honey, lime juice and olive oil. Season well.

Toss in the hot pasta and leave to cool.

When cool, add the tomatoes, spring onions, spinach and basil. Toss well to combine and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 390.8
Carbohydrate (g) 59.6
Protein (g) 13.2
Fat (g) 12.3
Fibre (g) 10.6

Anyway, back to work for a few more hours, then decided on some Sweet and Sour Prawns for dinner. It was a bit more work than I actually felt like doing, but I am determined not to eat crap because I am sick. Better to stick to decent, home made meals.

This is essentially the same recipe have prepared before. See, for example, Dinner Friday 13 April, so I won't bother quoting the recipe again.

This one came out a little saucier than usual (not enough peppers!) and I had it with brown rice.

Saturday 5 May - Jet lagged AND ill. Oh, joy!

Well, feeling like CRAP today. And my sleep is all over the place. Last two nights, I have been wide awake until 04:30 - 05:00 AM and then sleeping badly. Did not get to sleep today until 05:00 and then not up until 12:00 noon. And feeling awful, too.

Anyway, "breakfast" at midday consisted of a bowl of Kellogg's All Bran flakes (nearly gone!) and coffee.

Decided to take advantage of being ill by working. Feeling too shite to go to gym, but I am perfectly capable of propping myself up in front of the PC and working (as I work from home), so that is what I am doing.

Lunch time rolled around, (well, late afternoon, actually) and I again decided to opt for something quick, easy & comforting. Scrambled eggs on toast sounded about like what I felt like cooking.


Scrambled Eggs with Herbs
2 eggs
1 tablespoon cream
handful fresh tarragon
handful fresh chives

Combine eggs and cream & beat well. Pour into a non-stick skillet and scramble to your preferred consistency (just please don't turn them into rubber). Add the chopped herbs and season with salt & pepper.

Line a plate with a handful of rocket leaves. Pile the eggs on 2 slices (48g) toasted High Malt bread and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 347.7
Carbohydrate (g) 24.5
Protein (g) 22.5
Fat (g) 17.9
Fibre (g) 1.9

Back to work for a few hours until I got hungry again. Decided to use up the rest of the can of chick peas from the other day, so cobbled together this extravaganza!

Chick Pea Salad
juice 1/2 lime
10ml olive oil
15g manuka honey
150g chick peas
2 stalks celery, sliced (about 80g)
1 carrot, sliced (about 80g)
5 spring onions, sliced (about 50g)
handful coriander leaves
50g wild rocket

Make a dressing of the lime juice, oil & honey. Season to taste with salt & pepper.

Combine the chick peas, carrot, celery, spring onions. Mix into the dressing and add a handful coriander leaves. Mix well.

Line a plate with the rocket and serve the chick pea salad on top.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 349.1
Carbohydrate (g) 44.1
Protein (g) 13.4
Fat (g) 14.0
Fibre (g) 10.1

Friday 4 May - Still ill

Still feeling decidedly lurgy-ish. Stuffed up head, achey & tired.

Why do I always seem to get sick when I travel long haul air? All that recirculated, germ laden air, I guess.

Anyway, will keep this to one post today, as feeling bleuurgh.

Breakfast was just some leftover high malt bread with Marmite & Coffee

For lunch, I decided to try some of the giant cous cous I got at Aphrodisia in New York. Here is what I did:

Giant Cous Cous Salad
70g cous cous
100g chick peas
1/2 sweet red pepper, sliced (about 40g)
2 spring onions, sliced fine (about 25g)
handful coriander
handful mint
2 garlic
juice 1/2 lime
15g manuka honey
1 tsp olive oil


Cook cous cous according to instructions (I steamed mine for 15 minutes, but do whatever yours says to do to it as it varies).

Mix together the garlic, lime juice and honey & oil. Add the hot cooked cous cous and mix gently but thoroughly. Allow the cous cous to cool and soak up the flavours.

Add the chick peas, red pepper, spring onions and herbs. Toss well and serve.

Nutrition Data
Calories (kcal) 444.5
Carbohydrate (g) 83.1
Protein (g) 18.8
Fat (g) 4.1
Fibre (g) 7.3

Not very hungry in the evening, so had a simple dinner of cheese on toast.


60g mature cheddar cheese
55g High Malt Bread
2 spring onions, sliced fine (about 25g)
1 tomato, sliced
2 dill pickles

Nutrition Summary
Calories (kcal) 441.1
Protein (g) 23.5
Carbohydrate (g) 37.0
Fat (g) 22.7
Fibre (g) 6.0

Thursday 3 May - Home again, home again

Breakfast on the plane consisted of sauteed potatoes with onion, peppers and semi-dried tomatoes, a cinnamon doughnut, a minuscule fruit cup (4 grapes, 2 dice sized pieces of watermelon and 2 dice of cantaloupe) and some very drab coffee.

We landed at 09:00, two hours late. No sign of the driver I had booked. I had him paged twice and wandered around with my stuff for about 30 minutes.

I pretended like I was actually going to get on the Tube with my two suitcases and laptop rucksack for about 5 minutes before giving up and getting a black cab. £60 later, I was home.

Let myself in to be greeted by Miss Pris, curled up in my computer chair. She looked at me and let out a long, high pitched meow, furiously shaking her head from side to side like cats do sometimes when they are looking at a bird or some other prey. We had a good long cuddle and and I gave her some food, then popped over to vet to collect Kaspar. He was a bit shaken and cowed from his week at the vet's and his fur was pretty sticky and stinky - full of urine and a bit of blood as he never washes himself! Gave him a good sponge down at home and then went out to Sainsbury's and Chapel Market to get some provisions in.

Back home, feeling decidedly rough. Had a cup of Kikkoman instant miso soup (picked up in an Asian shop next to La Montana restaurant) and then had a lie down for a bit.

In evening, spoke to Pam (cat sitter) and made horrible discovery - I gave her the wrong return date, so Pris had no visits yesterday! Poor little mite had no food at all on Wednesday. No wonder she gave me such a greeting.

Feeling decidedly lurgy-ish. Typical me - I always get ill when I have been travelling. Had a very simple dinner - a herb salad and two slices of toast with a can of good old Heinz beans. Comfort food for the sickie.

Wednesday 2 May - Back on road, again

Well, time to wind up the California odyssey and head home to my kitty cats. Hope Kaspar is OK - I felt like a proper "bad mom" leaving him when he was sick with his FLUTD, but at least he is at the vets where I know he will be well cared for. Poor Miss Pris all by her lonesome at home... (with twice daily cat sitter!)

Anyway, day is a bit of a blur. Dragged unfeasibly heavy case, crammed full of food out to the car. Mike drove me to the airport and we dropped Lyn off at work en route.

Then I had a coupe hours to kill, so I checked my bags and headed to the business class lounge where I proceeded to cram my face with lounge freebies - coffee, bagel with Philadelphia (awful after the lovely Noah's bagels I had gotten used to), a couple of Nature Valley Granola bars and a banana.

Then the food service area started to shift towards lunchtime "snacky" things, so I bought a Bloody Mary (no free bar at SF lounge!) and ate some Pepperidge Farm crackers, some Goldfish crackers, a bag of Ruffles potato chips - junk, in other words.

Finally got on the plane and more or less immediately crashed out. I know there was a meal en route, but I can't remember what it was, it was that bland and unimpressive. I did manage to sleep quite a bit on the plane, which is unusual for me. I credit the two glasses of white wine I had on board.

As usual, I hate travelling, but love being someplace new. So long, California.

Tuesday 1 May - A Day of COMMERCE!

Port Costa

OK, I know I am not meant to be buying stuff, but I did spend most of today shopping; but only for things that I genuinely needed and/or food items.

Breakfasted on cantaloupe & blueberries, coffee and Asiago bagel, wholewheat bagel (well, half of one) and the usual cream cheese schmears.

Michael had to go to work on Treasure ISand, ao Lyn & I had a drive around the little town of Port Costa, which is a stones throw from Crockett, on the Carquinez Straits. It is a charming little place and home to some quirky little businesses - The Burlington Hotel (also a cafe & restaurant) and The Bull Valley Inn and local artist and all around odd ball Clayton Bailey.


Then we went for a nice walk through the Carquinez Straits Regional Shoreline Park with Sherry.

Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline


Then a spot of SHOPPING! Stopped into BevMo where I bought a fancy bottle of tequila for Mikey - I can't even remember what I bought, but it is one of his favourite and has some special attributes that escape me. Then I bought a laptop bag in Best Buy - very nice one too. It converts from rucksack style to shoulder bag and has lots of padding & pockets and, best of all, it actually fits the 15.4" laptop I bought last year, unlike my current bag. And finally, we swung into Albertson's and picked up some food for dinner and a few treats.

Had a late lunch of salad (basically a reprise of the same sort of salad we had made at Butch & Ricky's.

Michael cooked dinner for us again - we had scallops cooked with soy, ginger & mint (yummy), brown rice, asparagus and artichokes. While Mike was cooking, we knocked back a couple Sapporo Reserve beers I had picked up in Albertson's and some edamame in the shell - not a good as the seasoned ones from Trader Joe's, but still OK.



After dinner, had a bit of a pig out on ICE CREAM. One thing I do miss in the UK is ice cream sandwiches. We just don't get them. So, I had remedied that by picking up some Klondike ice cream sandwiches in Albertson's. Lyn recommended the Heath Bar ones, too, so they were also bought (and eaten!)

Monday 30 April - A visit to Petaluma

Started the day off with yet another Noah's bagel (sun-dried tomato again) with cream cheese schmear and a banana.

I had picked up some tempeh in the Albertson's. I love it and L&M had never tired it, so I set it marinating. Like tofu, tempeh does not have a lot of taste on it's own, but it has an interesting texture, being made with whole soya beans and a bit more taste as it is fermented. I mixed some white wine, soy, ginger and brown sugar and add the tempeh, cut into strips. Normally, I would add garlic & chillies as well, but not this time due to Lyn's IBS.

Then we set off to drive down to Petaluma to visit L&M's friend Butch & Ricky. They have a nice house on a bit of land, set off in a bit of an out of the way location. It was a nice drive down, along the San Pablo Bay for a lot of the way.

Poodles Sherry & Tommy had a good romp around the yard and managed to get themselves TOTALLY covered in burrs & hitchhikers in the process. Lots of combing out followed and they were both pouffy as could be after.

Butch & Ricky share their beautiful home with an assortment of cats, so I had plenty of opportunities to pat, stroke, cuddle and cajole felines before lunch. Lyn & I had carted down a big cooler full of salad fixings, so we prepared a huge salad - lettuces, herbs, carrots, tomatoes, avocado, apple, bit of grated cheese, seeds, and some broken up tortilla chips as croutons - all sorts! It was pretty damn good. Butch had made a gorgeous focaccia with rosemary & sun-dried tomatoes of top, too - it was all I could do to restrain myself from eating half of it. He also produced some homemade brownies for afters - all very yummy and in excellent company yet again.

Back at home, had the tempeh for dinner. I stir fried it in the marinade until the marinade was reduced down to a glaze and served it on a bed of lettuce, mint, corinader, finely sliced shallots and spring onions. Michael whipped up a mixed squash & sweet potato bake to go with and we chowed down. Pleased to say L&M liked their first encounter with tempeh!

Sunday 29 April - Dalai Lama!

Up early today and excited - going to hear the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speak to the San Francisco Civic centre!

Had a breakfast of cantaloupe, scrambled eggs and Noah's bagel (sun-dried tomato today with veggie schmear and onion and chive schmear) .

Just getting ready to head into town when we heard on the news that there had been a
collapse of a section highway at the 80/580/980 interchange. We had been planning to drive to the BART station and take the train into San Francisco, but now we were all in a frenzy to get moving EARLY as the highway collapse was bound to cause disruption.

So we all hustled into the car and set off, but the road was actually surprisingly empty and in the end, we drove all the way into San Francisco and park opposite the Westfield Centre.

Had a browse around the shops before opting for an early lunch at "Out the Door", an offshoot of the acclaimed Vietnamese restaurant, "The Slanted Door" in the Ferry Building , touted as the best Asian Restaurant in San Francisco. "Out the Door" is designed to be more casual and offers meals to take away as well as a cook shop .

The food was fabulous! We started off with vegetarian Imperial Rolls which were crispy spring rolls, stuffed with taro root, cabbage, glass noodles and peanuts & served with mint & lettuce wrap. For mains we had their Lemongrass Tofu with shiitake mushrooms, onions and chili sauce (Lyn's favourite) and Daikon (white radish) Cake with with shiitake mushrooms and shallots . I have not had white radish cake in ages - not since I was in Thailand or Indonesia and I had forgotten how much I like it. Must try to make some when I get home! Chef Charles Phan is terrific and I am an "Out the Door" convert.

The Slanted Door

From lunch we wandered down to the Civic Centre and got settled in to hear the Dalai Lama speak. There was a bit of a contretemps when he first appeared - a man emerged from the audience brandishing an apple (?!?) which he wanted the Dalai Lama to eat. I was impressed that the Dalai Lama was completely fearless of the man and approached him to accept the apple, before security staff intervened and hustled the man off. Not sure WHAT that was all about, but from there the talk proceeded smoothly. The Dalai Lama delivered a somewhat meandering address with the aid of an interpreter who assisted him with his English from time to time, but I was very impressed with his humour and warmth.

I found this article later on about the apple incident:

Apple Tossed at Dalai Lama

After the talk we mooched around a bit, wandering through the Yerba Buena Gardens before popping into the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for a quick look around.

Yerba Buena Gardens and SFMOMA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

It was nice to see San Francisco again after so many years, even if she did look a little tired and worn around the edges in some places, like a lot of urban centres in the US.

Back home, we opted for a quick and easy supper at the end of a long day and I made a salad which we ate along with some flatbread pizza from The American Flatbread Pizza Company. Very nice they were, too.

Saturday 28 April - A walk in Point Pinole

Started the day with some delicious, home-made-from-scratch pancakes, courtesy of Mike. Had them with some butter, maple syrup & more delicious California strawberries.


Lounged about for a bit, snacking on some Trader Joe's air popped popcorn and then had a small salad of broccoli slaw with tomato, soy sauce & rice vinegar before heading off for a nice long walk in Point Pinole.


Mount Tamalpais from Point Pinole




Point Pinole Regional Shoreline is a regional park in Richmond, CA. It is the site of many defunct dynamite & explosives factories, the remains of which are still dotted about in the forest. It was great strolling along the shore line with the dogs and L&M. Saw some nice sea birds and plenty of wildflowers - there is also a nice view of Mount Tamalpais, the name of which always puts me in mind of the song "Tamalpais High (At About 3)" by David Crosby. Clocked up about 4 miles, according to the pedometer, so a reasonable walk.

Had a little look around Parchester Village on the way back, a planned community that never really took off when locals found out if was planned to be racially mixed. It ended up as a more or less all black gated community, although from what I have read recently, it now also has a fair sized Latino community.

Anyway, had to get home and neighbours Henny & Priscilla were coming over for dinner. We had a delicious spread. Made some guacamole for a starter (one without garlic for Lyn, who suffers from IBS) and Henny & Priscilla brought some delicious marinated olives and cheeses. We noshed through these with some yummy soy & linseed tortilla chips (also from Trader Joe's) before settling into the main course, cooked my Mike with me acting as sous chef and salad maker. Lyn & I picked up some sea bass and prawns in the market and Mike quick sauteed them with mushroom, white wine, butter and herbs. The fish was accompanied by some brown rice and a massive salad, along with a selection of breads. Then for afters we had angel food cake with a sauce provided by Henny & Priscilla (strawberry & orange with honey) and some Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream. All washed down with lashings and lashings of wine - far too much! But a lovely evening in great company, anyway.

Friday 27 April - Blow out Mexican lunch

Mike made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs (part whole eggs and part egg whites) which I ate along with a toasted Asiago cheese bagel from Noah's bagels. We stopped into Noah's yesterday and loaded up on 2 dozen varied bagels, garden veggie cream cheese, onion & chive cream cheese, low fat cream cheese etc. I had some garden veggie with my bagel.

After breakfast I wandered around a little strip mall and checked out the shops while L&M went to the chiropractor. I had a scoop of Tin Roof Sundae ice cream from Baskin Robbins and wandered around the mall.

Had a look at the Trader Joe's shop in the mall - really nice stuff! We popped back in after L&M were done and got some more food.

Also popped into Pets Mart and - they had SPARKLE BALLS! Ages ago, I bought a bag of assorted cat toys off eBay. One of the toys was a sparkle ball or glitter ball, which Kaspar loved.

He played with it tirelessly until finally, he wore all the glitter off it. His favourite game with it is fetch - he brings me the ball, I throw it for him, he brings me the ball - lather, rinse, repeat.

Anyway, after lots of rough and tumble and many retrievals from under the fridge, sparkle ball finally died a death. Kaspar was most disappointed.

I picked up a laser pointer, too. After playing with Monkey & Cassie with their laser, I knew my guys would love one, too. It says on the card "more fun than chasing your own tail".

OK, so I bought a few things, but they are for the kitties, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Who's a happy kitty, then?

We had a late lunch at a local Mexican restaurant called La Montana. It was an innocuous looking place in a little strip mall, but the food was very good. I had an ENORMOUS margarita which Mike ordered for me (go own, twist my arm). Noshed on tortilla chips and salsa, then cheese stuffed jalapenos. For main course I had a combination platter which comprised a chile rellenos, a veggie soft taco and a prawn soft taco. I picked at the rice & beans, but there was so much food it really barely touched them. There were also nice crunchy pickled carrots and lots of pickled jalapenos.

I was so stuffed, I felt like I was going to explode. Could not wait to get home and get into some loose trousers!

Anyway, after that blow out, dinner was not required. L&M were wiped pretty early, but I sat up and watched some telly. I did snack on some seasoned edamame soy beans in the pod which we picked up in Trader Joe's, along with a couple of glasses of wine.

Here are a couple of links:

Noah's Bagels

Trader Joe's

Thursday 26 April - Trying not to shop in the land of shopping!

Woke up at about 4AM and laid in bed for a while before finally giving in and getting up.

Went downstairs and ate a punnet of strawberries that we had picked up the night before in Albertson's. Two large (454g) boxes for $3.00. Bargain! Then spent a good hour or so trying to figure out how to make coffee before I finally found a drip pot which led me to look for filters which I eventually found. Trying to be quiet so as not to disturb L&M who are having a lie in. Also rustled up a bagel I found in the fridge. Did some work on the website DB while they slept.

Later, had a ½ a melon with L&M when they awoke.

Lunch was ½ bag of broccoli slaw and a tomato dressed with some rice vinegar & soy sauce. Also ate a couple of string cheese packs which L&M use as dog training treats (!) and an couple nice wholemeal crackers and three fat dill pickles.

I had resolved to eat my favourite US snack food as well, so we had purchased a big bag of Cheetos's and I ate about ½ the pack with some hot pickled chili's I had also picked up in the supermarket.

Spent most of the day catching up and tooling around the various shops in the malls surrounding where L&M live. I am trying REALLY hard not to buy things. I will NOT buy anything that I have no need for, no matter what a bargain it appears. I have way to much stuff already.

Having said that, I am still on the lookout for things I "need" that I did not get in New York:

a laptop case
a swimsuit
some trainers (maybe)
a memory stick for Fiona (she was impressed w the price I paid for mine in NYC)

Looked at lots of stuff, but all I bought was the memory stick - 2GB for $25.00. It was, of course, made in China, too.

After a hard day of commerce , Mike cooked and we had sauteed sea scallops, brown rice & steamed asparagus on the patio by the pool, all washed down with way too much wine and loads of talk.

Here is the animal crew:

Monk


Cassie


Tommy


Sherry

Wednesday 25 April - California, here I come...

Started off with a couple slice of High Malt bread and some Korean chili paste (Doenjang) with my coffee.

Then, off to the airport en route to San Francisco.


Heathrow Terminal Three Lounge

At Heathrow, check in and make a bee-line for Business Class lounge where I stuff my face with usual junk. As I sat and fiddled with the laptop I managed to eat:
1 25g pack sour cream & chive pretzel nuggets
2 25g packs of salted pretzels
2 25g pack of cheese biscuits
1 bag Walker's BBQ crisps
1 25g pack stem ginger biscuits
1 Bloody Mary
2 Vodka & Slimline (why do I bother with diet tonic when I am stuffing my gob with garbage?)

I almost never eat stuff like this, when when I go to the airport, it seem to be de rigeur.

Anyway, on the plane I had United's vegetarian meal which was some sort of vegetable bake, a small portion of salad and 2 Ryvita with a little tub of strawberry ice cream and a Frusli cereal bar for afters.

I also ate another pack of pretzels, another pack of 2 Stem Ginger biscuits, a pack of 2 Chocolate Chip biscuits & a pack of 2 Oatflake & Honey biscuits which I had in my bag from the airport lounge. Why all the sugar all of a sudden?

During the flicks, United offered a mini Toblerone and a Walker's shortbread finger, which I duly scoffed.

Not the greatest of all flights. Unpleasant to say, but the woman who sat next to me had THE worst halitosis EVER. It was truly vile. We were in bulk head seats and she was pfaffing about because she could not find the tray table, TV screen etc. I helped her out, but after we were talking for a few minutes I could not stand the smell. Finally, I asked her if she was on Atkins and - surprise! she was. Unfortunately, she asked me how I knew and I had to tell her it was because her breath was so rank. Me and my big mouth. But honestly, it was so bad you could smell it even when her mouth was closed. The smell of ketosis just leaked from every pore of her body.

I pretended to sleep on plane and touched down suitably haggard.

First trip to California in 12 years!

L&M met me at the airport and we headed back to the ranch, with a pitstop at the Albertson's Supermarket on the way. Nothing like wandering the aisles of a massive, suburban American supermarket while you are in jet lag mode. Miles and miles of aisles.....

At Casa L&M, I met Tommy & Sherry (standrad poodles!) and Monk & Cassie (moggettes).

Dinner Tuesday 24 April - The venerable bede (aka Stir Steam)

Well, I have blogged the Stir Steam so many times it has whiskers now, but here is today's selection:

50g mange tout
100g sugar snap peas
50g baby corn
1 carrot
110g prawns
4 spring onions

California, here we come, right back where we started from...

Thanks to Phantom Planet for a great song.

Lunch Tuesday 24 April - Left over Matar Paneer & Herb Salad

I am getting into "going away" mode, so no new foods in house and just working my way through what's in the fridge.

Lately, I have become addicted to herbs salads and have one just about every day. So, thought I would show you one and share the "recipe"

Herb Salad
150g Romaine lettuce
50g wild rocket
50g spinach
large handful fresh dill
large handful fresh basil
large handful fresh parsley
large handful fresh chives
spray olive oil
spray balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Toss all the leaves together, mist with olive oil & vinegar, season lightly and dig in.

I bought my oil mister from Lakeland ages ago and it is one of my best kitchen investments. It is a pump action mister and refillable, so now chucking it in the landfill, either.

Nutrition Data per serving
Calories (kcal) 69.7
Carbohydrate (g) 7.3
Protein (g) 6.1
Fat (g) 1.7
Fibre (g) 4.0

So, had a Herb Salad and the left over Matar Paneer

Breakfast Tuesday 24 April - Egg Mayo on High Malt bread

Had exactly the same start to the day as yesterday - two slices of the High Malt loaf with one egg, some mayonnaise and cress.

Don't seem to have taken a picture of the High Malt loaf, which is sort of too bad as it was really pretty as well as tasty.