#278
Sicko
I’ve had a cold for the last, oh, hundred and twelve or so days, which of course has displeased me a great deal. After my bout of Fauxvid in 2016 I was not sick until last Christmas when we got all the illnesses. I was hoping for another seven-to-eight year run without need of Robitussin or Dayquil, but no, it’s 2025 and nobody can have anything nice!
By far the worst part of this cold was the sore throat. Reader, I have never had a sore throat like that, not ever. Ibuprofen could not touch it, nor could Chloraseptic (I think it is time to admit Chloraseptic is trash, anyway, plus apparently this whole time I didn’t know you’re not supposed to swallow it? Whoops), nor could the many cute little round ice cubes I nearly choked on. I finally stopped the cough syrup and cough drops because I could not stand the sickly (ha) taste of them one minute longer. Instead, I opted for what must have been gallons of tea with honey, a taste I am also now tired of.
One nice thing I made to eat during the first week of the cold was house favorite samosa pie, and you know how sometimes you make a thing you make often and it’s just especially good? This was that.
I also made a big batch of our usual enchiladas, which you can make fun of me for (their authenticity is…debatable) but I don’t care because they are very very comforting. I don’t put the cheese inside them, only on top, and I just use a half cup of cream. I’ve had good luck stuffing rando vegetables and black beans inside them, too.
One morning I woke up bleary eyed, still hacking away, and decided we needed chicken noodle soup. The one I make is based on Rachael Ray’s, but I dry poach the chicken with salt, pepper, olive oil, and several lemon slices. I didn’t have any broth on hand but – and I know I’m very late to the party here – I recently got some Better Than Bouillon at Costco and it worked very nicely.
Finally I also made this tomato-oregano chicken, which I’m surprised I haven’t seen crop up among the Instagram girlies. You literally just flop a bunch of stuff in a baking dish and wait about 35 minutes, and it’s so good. Both times I’ve made this, I’ve served it with the Smitten Kitchen oven risotto that I expect to make about a dozen or more times this winter, it’s very easy and you’ll have a lot for leftovers.
Speaking of recipes, I indulged one of my favorite little tricks recently, which is waiting until hot new cookbooks have cooled down enough to hit the secondhand market, and finally picked up Smitten Kitchen Keepers by Deb Perelman and Pizza Night by Alexandra Stafford, which arrived in such brand-new condition that I don’t know it was ever even opened. I’m not sure I need a lot more cookbooks in my life, but there is something nice about not cooking from a phone screen.
Unfortunately for me, this dumb cold was really coming to its crescendo (this is an in-joke which you will get in a moment) on the same day we had tickets to see Yo Yo Ma. I bought these tickets in July, in the midst of a year of hedonistic concert-ticket buying because the world is how it is and why not! Blow a little of your hard-earned money on a time-limited experience that you can only relive in the theater of your mind!
I felt truly miserable the morning of the concert when my husband gently told me we could just skip it, and in the manner of President Josiah Bartlet bellowing THIS PLANE. IS GOING TO CHINA I informed him we would indeed be going. I took a very long shower, timed my cough syrup and ibuprofen doses accordingly, and we ended up having a really nice evening, though I paid for the exertion the following day. Yo Yo Ma was delightful and yes he did play the Bach, if you can stand two West Wing references in one paragraph.
What else? I finally dragged myself across the finish line of Bakeoff, which, and maybe this is my post-cold crankiness speaking, was unfortunately BORING AS FUCK, with a totally predictable winner who capably did the bare minimum all season long. I am not usually too big of a hater about the people on this show because I’m not a monster but this season started off strong and became a disappointment.
A more pleasant surprise was Death by Lightning on Netflix, about President James Garfield of all things (Ohio!). I’ve visited his memorial, which is a short-ish stroll down the road, but didn’t know much about him otherwise. The cast in this show is bonkers and well worth four or five hours of your time.
I’m not doing a Two Things this week, I’m tired. I have a post brewing about scarves but can’t decide how interesting it might be. Perhaps I will go through mine and see if there is anything I’d like to put back into regular rotation? I used to be an avid scarf-buyer but have donated many of mine back into the wheel of clothing karma over the years.
Anyway, until next week!