3 unrelated things: Remix; potluck; & family visits (with digressions on timekeeping and allergies)

[edenfalling]

1. I cannot wait for the remixredux09 reveal tomorrow. (Okay, technically it's later today since I am posting after midnight, but I run my life on the principle that the clock lies and the day does not really change until I go to sleep and wake up again. This does sometimes mean it can be 7am on, say, Wednesday and I will insist it is still functionally Tuesday until maybe 3pm in the afternoon, but I do not care. I freely acknowledge that A) I am weird and B) my sleep schedule is fucked all to hell and back. *grin*)

Anyway, I very badly want to know who remixed me (so I can check her other work and also post useful link information on my own story page and my master fic list), and also to be able to respond to the people who have reviewed my own remix. Also, I just want to blather about writing process and stuff, and it is like torture to hold my metaphorical tongue. *figuratively sits on hands*

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2. Downstairs Neighbors L and M hold a weekly potluck dinner on Sunday nights. Unfortunately, I usually close the store Sunday nights so thus far I have only managed to show up for the tail end, and my only food contribution was a bag of cherries my mom accidentally left in my fridge when she visited a couple weeks ago.

But! I am not working this Sunday. So I have purchased vegetables and I am going to make a sort of stir-fry thing: red and green bell pepper, sweet onion, yellow squash, red potato (cooked separately and added to the frying pan at the last minute), and baby spinach leaves (likewise added at the last minute). Normally I would cook that in oil and soy sauce, but I believe one of M&L's friends is allergic to soy, so I am thinking of using Italian salad dressing and maybe a dash of cayenne pepper sauce for flavor. (I have done that before with chicken and it works fairly well.)

I do stir-fry wrong. My understanding is that you are supposed to leave the vegetables slightly chewy -- what I'd call al dente if it were pasta -- but A) I cannot stand undercooked onions and peppers (flavor and texture reasons, respectively), and B) I have a mild paranoia about uncooked vegetables. This is not irrational at all, trust me. I have a potentially life-threatening allergy to raw fruit, and I get mild, related symptoms when eating some raw vegetables (salad always gives me a tingle and tightening in my throat, for example), so I tend to cook vegetables within an inch of their lives out of pure self-defense.

Whatever. Stuff will be cooked. It will taste good. And if people do not like mushy vegetables, that is their loss. *nods firmly*

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3. Monday morning I am off to Iowa to visit Grandma Doris. This is a family obligation rather than a vacation -- we make sure somebody visits her every month and this month is my turn -- but I suppose a break in the routine is good for mental health regardless? Anyway, I arrive in Omaha Monday afternoon, rent and car and drive to Denison, see Grandma Doris in the evening, and check in to a motel.

Tuesday I eat breakfast and check out and then spend the day visiting with Grandma Doris, driving her around, and maybe organizing her stuff with breaks for lunch and dinner at Cronks (a local restaurant) and a sanity break for me in the midafternoon (which doubles as a chance to check email at the local library). Tuesday night I drive back to Omaha, turn in the car, and sack out at a motel for the night.

Wednesday morning I get up abominably early, catch a 7:20am flight back east (with a four hour layover in Newark, thank you very much Continental... *makes face*) and presumably am back in Ithaca by 5pm, early enough to catch a bus home from the airport rather than have to pay for a taxi. Hurrah!

...

I am going to be exhausted on Thursday, I just know it.

Comments

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

What part of raw fruit are you allergic to? The only things I can think of would hit raw vegetables harder or wouldn't have an effect on vegetables..

[edenfalling]

Basically, there are some proteins that are present in tree pollen and also generally present in fruits, which is why people with hayfever often have related food allergies. Most people have bad hayfever and mild food allergies. I am the other way around.

I am madly sensitive to those proteins in fruits -- my throat swells, my saliva thickens, I get a painful tightness in my chest, and I feel as if I might vomit. In bad cases, my throat closes altogether and I cannot breathe. In milder cases, I can cope by taking allergy meds, drinking a lot of water, and sitting still for at least half an hour.

Anyway, I think I am allergic to other proteins as well, ones that have nothing to do with tree pollen. This is because I am also allergic to exotic fruits such as kiwi and avocado, and B) I get mild symptoms from some raw vegetables (for example, I do not eat raw cucumbers anymore, because they were consistently triggering a tickle in my throat and a tightness in my chest).

At the moment, the only fruits I know I am not allergic to are bananas and citrus, which is rather limiting. But cooking unravels the proteins just enough to render them invisible to my immune system, so I can eat anything once it's been made into jam, pie, or pasteurized juice. :-)