Dept. of Discomfort

[kaffy_r]

Is It Friday Yet?

I'm heading to bed, because I think I'm getting a head cold.  I'll try to catch up with everyone tomorrow. 

The car's working again, after almost $300 worth of work. (It wasn't the radiator.)

I made a mashed cauliflower casserole for supper. Yes, I know it sounds horrible; it wasn't. It was reasonably good. Unfortunately, cooking the cauliflower in water in order to make it soft enough to mash brought out all the odors that roasting cauliflower doesn't. Urgh. Maybe I should be glad my nose is starting to plug up.

Ah, me. 

Comments

[st_aurafina]

Cauliflower: so tasty but so farty. The struggle is real.

[kaffy_r]

I loathed cauliflower for most of my life. A few years ago, I started enjoying it as a crunchy crudite, and then sometime last year, I tried it roasted, and really, really liked it. The mashed cauliflower stuff was better the second night, with more Parmesan grated over it. I might not make it again, or at least not soon, but it's not a failure.

[owlboy]

I refuse to believe cauliflower is a vegetable. It's just recycled old socks compressed into a vegetable shape.

[kaffy_r]

I couldn't stand the stuff for years. Then I started liking it raw, and then decided I liked it roasted. The mashed stuff was decent, but not nearly as good as when it was roasted.

recycled old socks compressed into a vegetable shape.

*snrt*

No, it's tiny, tiny brains growing on tree limbs.

[promethia_tenk]

Cauliflower is such an insipid vegetable (unless roasted). I do not get the fad for making literally everything out of it. I don't care if it's low carb, nothing is worth that!

Disclaimer: I am in general a huge vegetable fan, including all other members of the brassica family.

[shanghaied]

Broccoli is love. Just saying.

[promethia_tenk]

Broccoli is everything.

[kaffy_r]

Broccoli gets in your teeth, and when you have gaps between your teeth, that becomes a thing you wish to avoid. I used to love broccoli, but I like its flavor less than I used to.

[maruad]

My mother used to cook cauliflower in milk. This is one of the very few things she learned from her mother (who was a good cook except for this) Disgusting is too gentle a term.

[kaffy_r]

Oh, dear lord; what is it about grandmothers and cooking things in milk? My grandmother used to poach smoked fish in milk, which was the single biggest reason I was in my mid-twenties before I would voluntarily eat fish again.

[maruad]

I think cooking in milk was supposed help keep it whiter... seriously, that is what my mother told me. Still I shouldn't be too judgemental. Apparently I am part of a very small number of people who put butter in their cream of tomato soup. Yes, I learned this from my grandmother.

[kaffy_r]

Hey, I put Worcestershire sauce and pepper in tomato soup; who am I to cavil at your choices?

[(Anonymous)]

Cauliflower: if you can't roast it, steam it. :)

[kaffy_r]

Hmm. Possibly. But roasting will always be my go-to method of cooking it.

[thisbluespirit]

Aww, I hope the threatening cold blows over fast. <3

[kaffy_r]

It did - I have no idea why it decided to drop in for fewer than 10 hours, but I'm happy it had other places to go.

[liadt]

I hope it's not a head cold:( And the cauli smell has left your place!

[kaffy_r]

The cauliflower smell did indeed leave quickly. And even when we had the leftovers, and reheated them, the smell didn't return. Small mercies - and yes, the cold also left (or perhaps it's better to say it never really arrived.)

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

My own cold refuses to clear out for good, so I feel your pain on that one.

Any car repair under $500 is a bargain, as far as I'm concerned. Last summer's $1100 air conditioning fix set the bar high. Ugh!

Feel better soon!

[kaffy_r]

It turns out that I didn't have a cold; I had one of those ridiculously annoying "fake colds" that feel like one coming on, and then waltz out of your system. I mean, it's great that it wasn't a cold, but it made me miserable for about 12 hours. You're definitely worse off than I am. I wonder if your cold might not be something else, like some sort of low-key infection of some sort?

You're right about anything under $500 being a bargain. I actually was relieved that it wasn't worse; it was just that the guys at Runge's, the incredibly good and honest mechanics we go to had thought it might be the radiator, which would have made the repair a very lovely $0, because the radiator was under warranty.

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Oh, God, I know what you mean about "fake colds." It's not unusual for me to go a couple of weeks feeling like utter rubbish until either I fight off the bug completely, or I break down with actual symptoms, in which case there's another week or two of misery to slog through. In some cases, there's even a "part three" to contend with: a viral or bacterial sinus infection. I suspect this is what I'm dealing with now, since my only symptoms are ongoing sinus congestion and post-nasal drip. I will assume it's viral until I actually start blowing out big gobs of green/ yellow gunk and/or start getting that charming "anvil is coming through my face" sensation. Past experience has taught me it's no use seeing a doctor until I'm 100% sure the infection is bacterial, because they will only tell me...

--use your neti pot
--use your FloNase
--take Mucinex
--drink water
--get as much rest as possible

And seriously, I'm already doing all those things. I don't need to take half a day of my life and spend $20 on a copay to hear the same old song. They will not put you on an antibiotic until you are practically spewing yellow and green slime from every orifice.

Ah, $0 is always better than anything else, but after last summer, I'll never complain again about a car repair that's under $500. Actually, the initial estimate came in at over $1200, so I was pleasantly surprised when it was just over $1100. And the AC repair fixed two other issues that the mechanics had not been able to identify, much less remedy: fluid dripping from under the glove compartment and a horrible squealing noise whenever I was idling in traffic. So I considered it money well-spent. The car just hit 156,000 miles this weekend, which is almost the combined lifetime mileage of my previous two cars put together (both Fords). Rock on, Honda Civic! : D

[kaffy_r]

Indeed - why do doctors who already know you say things they know you already know?

My car's only at 47,000; it's a little Hyundai Accent, and I'm hoping to drive it into my retirement; fingers crossed.

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. I just know they won't put you on an antibiotic (and for good reasons, let's face it) until you are exploding with pus and goop. My own case of misery isn't clearing up on its own, so I'm seeing someone Friday. I've certainly given it enough time; if it were really viral, it would be gone by now, but I'm still having symptoms, and they're not getting better.

I don't think you were on my flist when I posted back in... I want to say 2010, about a visit with my providers when I hadn't been feeling well. She said she would prescribe me "a spray." I was living in NH at the time and so had to take an entire day for this appointment. I drove from my doctor's up to my pharmacy in NH (in rush hour traffic), only to find my scrip was not ready. I waited an additional 20 minutes... only to realize it was FloNase, which I already had 3 bottles of at home. I was SO livid! That visit is why I won't see my doctors unless I'm a gigantic exploding green mucus bomb, because they always tell me the same old-same old. I sometimes swear to God I'm going to have "but she used her neti pot!" engraved on my tombstone.

I will try to find the link and send it to you. It was from back when I was living in NH and working for Former Dean Lady, so my stress levels were off the charts. : )

PS. Here's the link: http://eaweek.livejournal.com/3547.html (The first part is a rant about FDL. The rest is a rant about my doctors' office).

PS2. This is what happens when you get treated like you do, above, and don't bother getting checked out when you know you're sick: you end up at the ER on a holiday weekend: http://eaweek.livejournal.com/166464.html

Because clearly I'm all about self-pity today. ; )

[kaffy_r]

Long overdue response:

"but she used her neti pot!" engraved on my tombstone.

*snorfle*