Category Archives: Food

Back in the saddle

The bike saddle, that is 🙂  My chondromalacia (AKA runner’s knee) mostly resolved itself, no medical attention necessary.

How did I know I had chondromalacia without visiting the doctor?  Well, I’m a bit of an expert in self-diagnosis.  Since I’ve been pregnant, I’ve also diagnosed myself with an ectopic pregnancy (based on no symptoms whatsoever), spinal meningitis, and appendicitis.  Being an expert doesn’t always mean you’re right 😉  If I had any interest in visiting the doctor or the ER, I would be a burden to the medical system, but instead I usually take my chances and let things run their course.

Anyway, chondromalacia is an overuse injury that is — SURPRISE! — made better by rest.  Rest is a four-letter word around here, but I was desperate, picturing weeks of pain, weeks without biking (and by the time I returned being too big and off-balance to bike safely), and not being able to get in many of the positions that help with a natural labor.  Basically, my knee would be injured forever and the world would stop turning.  The end.

Sometimes things spiral a bit out-of-control in my head.

Fortunately, a few weeks of taking it relatively easy — almost no biking, going down the stairs by placing both feet on each step, and reduced walking — did the trick.  I put my knee to the test last weekend, and this weekend I’ve been back to normal.

Yesterday I ran a number of errands by bike, including returning a few items of maternity clothes to JCPenney, which means I can say that, other than the belly bands (which I could have done without), I’ve only bought one NEW maternity clothing item.

This morning I biked to the season opener at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, where strawberries, asparagus, and rhubarb greeted me — welcome back, friends!  After a quick stop to drop my purchases off at home, I was out again, headed to prenatal yoga at the Y.  (I credit the yoga, as well as other general leg muscle stretching, with helping my knee as much as the resting.)

There’s nothing like sickness or injury to make me appreciate my relative good state of health, something that I often take for granted.

Last day in Rome

So I’ve written about the beginning of our trip, which started in London.  In between London and Rome, we visited Florence, Cinque Terre, and Siena.  Today I feel like writing about Rome, where we ended our trip.

We began our final day in Rome with a large dose of cuteness.  A quartet of perfectly fuzzy ducklings salvaged Rome’s otherwise not-so-memorable botanical garden.  (We recommend Kew in London, and Siena’s small, but nice (and free) Orto Botanico.)

After our garden time, we headed across town for lunch at Il Margutta.  This vegetarian restaurant has a buffet-style brunch.  Huge variety, and all top quality – the soup was the only flop, but by then we were so stuffed it didn’t matter.  For affordability, both here and at the Naturist Club (another vegetarian place where we enjoyed a meal the previous day), lunch was definitely the way to go.

Only catch?  Instead of the typical U.S.-style “all-you-can-eat” buffet, Il Margutta limits diners to one plate.  So, as you can see, we made the most of our one trip through the line.  We thought we were embarrassing ourselves, and being “those Americans,” but there were some real authentic Italian diners with plates that rivaled, and perhaps exceeded, ours.  We both cleaned our plates and were actually NOT uncomfortably full when we left — so no food wasted!

Fully sated, we made our way to the beautiful Borghese Gardens (wish we had more time to spend in the park) for our reserved slot at the Borghese Gallery, home of Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne sculpture, as well as a number of other beautiful Bernini pieces.  We paid for the audio guide, which was nice accompaniment.

For our final meal at Rome, we ate delicious pizza at ZaZa, followed by gelato at a shop Matthew frequented ten years earlier.  We also bought pizza to sustain us on Thursday’s plane ride.

We ended the day with a moonlight stroll through Rome, including a pass by the Trevi Fountain.  I tossed in a coin for good luck 🙂

Wild Fermentation

I finally got my hands on the library’s copy of Wild Fermentation.  In addition to recipes on how to make common ferments, like sourdough and sauerkraut, the book is packed with information about the health benefits* of fermented foods, as well as more exotic recipes, including one for the Ethiopian sponge-bread injera.  (A previous attempt to make injera yielded disappointing results, so we’re looking forward to trying this version, with uses a sourdough starter as the base.)

We were ready to start another batch of sauerkraut anyway, but we adapted our technique from last time based on the book’s instructions for making a somewhat lower-salt kraut.  When we were at Local Harvest Grocery last weekend, I spotted a pint of live-fermented organic purple cabbage sauerkraut (basically exactly what we made last batch), selling for $10 a PINT!  Our current batch of kraut (above, middle) should yield about 2 gallons, i.e., 16 pints, or $160 worth of sauerkraut — now that’s wild!

The quart jar on the right in the above picture contains my attempt at sourdough starter.  I made my starter with 100% whole wheat flour.  After a few days, I saw some good bubbling activity, but that died down, and I’m beginning to think that I’ll have to toss this and start over.

Some places suggest starting with whole wheat flour, but then switching to white flour for feeding.  A white sourdough starter wouldn’t be the end of the world, since sourdough bread recipes consist of some starter and a large amount of flour — we can just use whole wheat flour in the bread recipe for an almost 100% whole wheat bread.

After reading all the details on starting a sourdough starter here, I’m thinking getting an established starter from someone may be the way to go.

*Health Benefits of Fermented Foods¹:

  • Promote digestive health by supporting “good” bacteria in the GI tract
  • Makes many nutrients in foods more digestible
  • Neutralizes  toxic chemicals in foods (e.g., phytic acid in whole grains) that may otherwise impede absorption of nutrients
  • Rids body of heavy metals and radioactive materials — this benefit is specific to live-cultured  miso (a soybean ferment — think miso soup)

1. Wild Fermentation.  Sandor Ellix Katz.  2003, Chelsea Green Pub.

Edible souvenirs

In our quest to not accumulate too much “stuff,” we usually forgo souvenirs when we travel.  If we do buy something, it is often edible.  Here’s our booty from Italy:

  • Truffle-infused pici — a thick noodleto be prepared in a traditional way, simply topped with olive oil, grated cheese, and black pepper)
  • Very high quality dried porcinis — super flavorful and much fresher than any dried porcinis you can buy in the States
  • Sciacchetra — a special dessert wine, product of the Cinque Terre region.  We plan to use a bottle to toast baby’s arrival this summer 🙂
  • Our two non-edible souvenirs are still food -related: a big ladle and a baby spoon, both made locally in Siena from olive wood.

Sure, edible souvenirs don’t last forever, but that’s kind-of the point.  For lasting memories, we have plenty of pictures!

I also have a few trip “souvenirs” that I would like to disappear.  First, there’s the cold that started halfway through the return flight from Rome.  A week later, with lots of hot honeyed tea, water, and regular neti pot usage, I think it’s on it’s way out.

Unfortunately, the knee pain that started in Siena or Rome shows few signs of subsiding.  Regular walking is not too problematic, but going downstairs (or down steep hills), is a different story.  Today I discovered that I can walk downstairs at a slightly faster rate if I go down backwards.

To make matters worse, biking is also painful.  I biked to my dentist appointment last Friday and haven’t been back on since 😦  I’m really itching to get back on the bike, but I also want my knee to heal, so I’m trying to be good.  Will I get desperate enough to go see a doctor?  TBD.

In case the environmental impact of the flight itself weren’t enough

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is great, because I really don’t want to waste brain power writing much about the airplane “meals.”  In short, the tray contained as much plastic as food, and that’s being generous and not putting any of the food in the plastic category.  The flight attendant was quite annoyed when I insisted on returning the plastic wrapped plastic utensils and the bottled water.

Fortunately, the food did get better after this, though it was not always amazing, and I was not pleased with the scarcity of whole grains and vegetables throughout the trip.  Suffice it to say that I am very glad to be back in the kitchen!

Between the ridiculous amount of plastic waste involved and the uninspiring food, we passed on the meals altogether on the return flight, opting instead for the pizza we purchased the night before.