Kitchen / Garden / Sanctuary - Urban Homesteading to Nourish Body + Spirit

Tag: around the house (Page 25 of 27)

Post-Surgery Update

I’m back! My surgery went fine, and recovery is going well! The first week was rough because of the way my body reacted to the strong narcotics I was taking for pain. My poor body really gets the runaround with any kind of medicine; it’s very sensitive and doesn’t tolerate much more than Tylenol or ibuprofen! The reaction scared me enough to swear off any and all meds, so the pain was pretty yucky for a day or two, but then calmed down. It sure has helped that I’ve gone through this same surgery once already, since I was able to immediately put into action all the tricks I learned last time — a couple of which go against my post-op instructions. (As a side note, I’ve learned that doing what works for my own body will always trump the post-op instructions!)  So I’ve had my foot on ice packs, out of the black air cast, and elevated above my heart for almost every single minute of the last 11 days. It has made for a smoother recovery than last time, by far!

I’m definitely getting cabin fever though…oh my gosh. Last week, winter broke and today is the first day since October that we’ve had all our windows open. Last week on a 60-degree-day my mom took me over to their house so that I could lie outside in the sun in the backyard and get a nice dose of Vitamin D. How glorious it was! I wish I could just go outside for a nice long walk, but that will come soon enough; I just have to be patient. I still have another month on crutches, and then 6 weeks after that with a walking cast. I can’t wait till I’m all healed!

So this weekend I need to plan the vegetable garden and start my tomato seeds inside. Admittedly, I don’t really enjoy planning the garden. I don’t enjoy planting seeds, either. I live for the harvest! 😉 Anyway, here’s a picture of my stitched, swollen, and bruised “Franken-Foot,” 10 days post-op. Doesn’t look too horrible, does it!

Back From Vacation

Kerrygold (grassfed) Irish Butter

Raw goat’s milk (frozen)

We arrived home this evening from a lovely little weekend in New Mexico! Other than relaxing, taking photos, looking at shops and galleries, and walking through quaint neighborhoods, we took the opportunity to go to Trader Joe’s (we don’t have TJ’s where we live, so we TOTALLY stocked up!). As you can see by the photo above, we took full advantage of their Kerrygold butter at a mere $2.69. (Where we live, you can’t get it for less than $4.99.) We love Kerrygold butter because it’s grassfed and very delicious!

I also bought 3 quarts of raw goat’s milk at the farmer’s market! Since it’s illegal to sell raw milk in Colorado, I was very excited to go to New Mexico (where it can be sold legally). However, I didn’t have much luck, and the only raw milk I was able to get was raw, frozen goat’s milk directly from the farmer at the market for $5/quart. But I was thrilled that I was even able to get that (especially considering it’s the off-season for goat milk)…and happily, the milk made it all the way home without thawing out. I can’t wait to try it!! (By the way, visit the realmilk.com website for good information about raw milk, and this Mother Earth News snippet about the raw milk debate. I wish wish wish WISH that I had access to raw milk here!) UPDATE: The milk was delicious!! I like — but don’t love — the animal-y taste of goat products, but the milk was really yummy. Since it has been frozen for a while, the fat had separated a bit, but that had no effect on the taste! Yum.

Anyway, I already miss being on our trip; it’s always bittersweet to be home again. And it’s back to work for both of us tomorrow (yuk!), and I’ll be extra busy this week getting ready for my second bunion surgery (bunionectomy with osteotomy, with a plate and 4 screws inserted) which is on the 23rd. There’s a lot I want to accomplish between now and then — yikes!!!

Did you have a relaxing weekend?

Random News Update

Geez…sorry for the lack of posts lately! Life has been insane. Work has been unusually stressful and soul-sucking for the past month, and I often just come home and collapse onto the floor in front of the space heater and veg out! Sometimes the last thing I feel like doing is staring at a computer screen for another couple hours, after an entire day of it! Thus, the lack of posts. When my life gets stressful, I’ve learned how important it is for me to pace myself, practice good self-care, and make sure I have plenty of relaxation & down time.  🙂

Anyway, in other news, a few areas of my site have been acting stupid lately and I finally tracked it down to some strange code issues with my “How To Make Your Own Cat Food” post. I deleted that post completely, and will re-post it for you soon! (UPDATE: I re-did the Cat Food post. Click here to view it.)

My hubby, F., and I have a lovely little road trip to New Mexico coming up pretty soon, which will be absolutely wonderful! I can’t wait. It will be a VERY much needed vacation! And then on February 23rd, I’m having more surgery — this time on the other foot. Bunionectomy with osteotomy. It will be another big, tiring ordeal, just like last time. I’m not looking forward to it, but at least I’m getting it over with so that I can stop dreading it. And I won’t be at work for at least a few weeks, which I’ll appreciate (oh that’s an understatement). Also, tangential to that, I realized that I never finished my Healing From Surgery Series! Good gracious. Since it will help me prepare myself for the next surgery, I would like to hopefully continue with that series soon. (Hopefully.)

Well, I think that’s about it for now!

How has life been for you lately??

The Sheer JOY of an Empty Countertop

Ridiculous amount of junk on my counter...

Note the ridiculous amount of junk on our counter.

If your countertop is anything like mine, it doubles as a storage surface for things like cutting boards, ripening fruit, fermenting kombucha, kefir, herbal tinctures, an overflow of yesterday’s dirty dishes, oatmeal being soaked for tomorrow’s breakfast, notes to myself, and other miscellaneous junk that I put there to remind me to deal with it. Our counter space is already severely limited due to the size of our kitchen, but thanks to both the dish drainer and my many ongoing kitchen “science projects” (see photo above), we often find ourselves squeezing all of our cooking and baking preparations into only about 1 or 2 feet of usable counter space. Ridiculous!

So yesterday Hubby cleaned off the counter completely. The cutting boards found a new home in a cabinet next to the stove…the fermenting kefir jar, kombucha bottles, tinctures, and soaking oatmeal now live on top of the refrigerator. I will need to find some other system for posting notes to myself…perhaps taping them to a cabinet until I can throw them away. Ripening fruit will just have to go elsewhere.

The new rule is…Nothing on the counter! No more “counter-as-pantry-annex.” And I’m totally loving it. It feels open and luxurious. It’s clean and uncluttered…restful to look at, and so much more conducive to efficient cooking. Heck, now that the counter is so clean, the entire house feels like it’s more under control. Sweet!

Wonderfully stark! (And yes, that is all the counter space we have!)

Wonderfully stark. (Yes, that's all the counter space we have -- can't waste it!)

Kitchen Tip: Best Tool for Removing Baked-On Food

Best Tool for Removing Baked-On Food, (c) The Herbangardener

Oh my goodness, I have discovered something! I made some Challah bread over the holidays and did an egg wash over the top of each braided loaf, and then baked them on cookie sheets. Do you have any idea how hard it is to scrub burnt egg off a cookie sheet?? I scrubbed and scrubbed with my scouring pads, which I swear took a layer of metal right off the cookie sheet, but didn’t touch the egg.  I rummaged around, trying to find something else to use. There was my little nylon pan scraper that had come free with the Pampered Chef Stoneware loaf pan I’d bought. It’s so small and simple that I figured it wouldn’t work. WELL. That pan scraper plowed through the burnt egg like it was butter. So you know when you bake cookies and can’t get the baked-on crud to come off? PAN SCRAPER. You will not believe how well it works; in fact it seems like magic. Pampered Chef isn’t paying me to say this, so I guess it’s free advertising for them! (Though I have to say, I’ve been more impressed with the little pan scraper than the actual stoneware pan!)

And we discovered tonight that the Pan Scraper makes very quick work of any charred food baked onto the floor of the oven. No harsh oven-cleaning chemicals needed. And no scouring, either!

Anyway, you can buy them by clicking here: Pampered Chef Nylon Pan Scrapers. Definitely my new favorite cleaning tool!

Best Tool for Removing Baked-On Food, (c) The Herbangardener

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