Back on Track

I took a week off from the Atkins routine while I was in Orlando last week, starting with a mango smoothie from Smoothie King and ending with french fries from Burger King. I wonder if eating like royalty is an American desire and one that leads to obesity?

We needed to get back into our Atkins eating pattern so tonight I roasted an organically raised, free-range chicken and served that with mustard greens and my take on achichuk salad.
A quick word on free-range chicken. I prefer chicken and eggs that are free range because I think that chickens deserve to be humanely raised and that the meat and eggs from those chickens tastes better. I also feel better about eating meat and eggs from chickens who got to scratch the earth and chase bugs and breathe clean air under an open sky. 
What is achichuk salad, you ask?
It is something delightful we encountered at a little Uzbek restaurant in Panama City. Made of thinly sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and onion, achichuk salad is topped with fragrant herbs that I had to guess at since recipes on line were next door to non-existent.
When we are in phase one our carbs are very restricted and food can become very boring. I wanted our return to the diet to be as pleasant as possible, hence something more interesting than sliced cucumbers or a green salad.

Achichuk Salad

1 ripe tomato, sliced thinly
2 pickling cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp red wine vinegar

salt, pepper to taste
1/4 tsp each of dill and cumin

Layer the sliced vegetables with salt and pepper in a glass dish. Sprinkle with red wine vinegar, then dill and cumin. Adjust the seasonings to your liking; I like up to a half teaspoon of each dill and cumin.
Allow to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Serve and be ready for applause.

Bye, bye, Lolo. We love you

Over a year ago I brought home a sniffly-nosed, skinny kitten with diarrhea from my mom's farm. Her vet had prescribed a liquid antibiotic that wasn't clearing up his illness and was making him have the trots.
He was orange and white and so sweet natured that cleaning up the occasional poop spot from the bed spread wasn't a big deal. Bed spreads need to be washed on a regular basis anyway.
We named him Loki - Little Orange KItty.

This is a recent photo of Loki curled up with Randy, one of the senior members of of our fur baby family. Loki liked to hang around with the other cats. His best friend was Fang, our youngest black cat, who is just a little older than Loki.

Loki grew up to become a beautiful boy with a sweet temperament and loving disposition. It is so funny to me that as loving as he always was, he didn't take crap from anyone or anything.
When he first came home I was very worried about the big cats hurting him. He was still kind of scrawny with leaky, poopy butt and a bad upper respiratory infection; disadvantaged in a match against far larger and healthier felines.
The others came to sniff and investigate. Loki, as a farm cat, has lots of cousins and brothers and sisters and was unfazed by the inspection. I suppose he thought they were playing so he chased them, running alongside until he had the right angle to tackle. He'd jump up with his forepaws out to wrap around the big cat's neck and bring him down.
When we brought home our robo-vacuum the other cats gave it a wide berth. Loki was a curious kitty, a brave fellow who wanted to challenge the intruder and insure it knew that cats were supreme in this household. He confronted the monster and showed the others that it was no threat.

Loki threw up last night, the usual chunks of kibble, then vomited more - foam this time. That isn't an ordinary cat reaction in my experience. Monday is surgery day at my Vet's office but they took Loki in and Doc checked him between operations.
Doc said that Loki had kidney disease and was in renal failure. My poor baby needed to go to sleep since he was only going to be in pain. There was no magic to bring my purry Lolo home, no tears that would make him better, no money to get a cure. No choice.

I have cried, sobbed, for Loki today. My head still hurts from crying. I will miss this precious darling.
Mama and Daddy love you, Lolo. Your sleeping place will let you watch birds and your kitty friends as they chase them.

Driving and seeing and working...October 2012

We've had a big problem in the Apalachicola Bay (AB) lately and oysters are mighty scarce, as are other seafoods harvested from the normally bountiful AB.
This puts a lot of people who are self-employed out of work and me and my group into work over-drive to try to ameliorate the situation. We work with other groups to corral resources for survival (food, shelter, power) and to help the affected people make the step to "what's next." We set up training programs to help them make the bridge and to have some money in pockets in the meantime.
It is stressful as hell for all concerned.

I take a deep satisfaction in living where I do, I love the way it looks and smells and the way the ground feels under my feet. When I am as stressed as I am now, I look for the extra pieces of joy to be had from more close observation.
Butterflies are everywhere now, mostly Monarchs, and there are areas planted in Apalach designed to provide sustenance for them on their trip. If you look carefull above, you'll see an orange and black Monarch having a snack in a clump of lantana.

 

 I spend about 40 minutes of my drive to Franklin County running parallel to the Gulf Of Mexico. This is what it looks like on a pretty October day.

This is the front entrance to the Coombs House Inn B&B, the place I stay when I am in Apalach overnight. The picture is sideways because the computer hates me.

Stair case at Coombs House. Also fucking sideways. The wood is black cyprus and used throughout the house.
The groundfloor is dark and cool - large windows shaded by large trees. The upstairs has a wrap-around veranda and all of the rooms have doors leading out.

This is a very small town in a low-population county -- around 11,000 souls total in the county. After I process this experience a little more I'll write about it. I just wanted thes pictures up.
The butterfly photo is reminiscent of particular moments of heart-lifting. There is a very long bridge connecting Apalachicola and Eastpoint. I had to cross this bridge at least six times last week and every time there were clouds of butterflies clipping their way around the few cars crossing.
Even though Apalach sits right on the Gulf and the Apalachcicola River, I never smelled the things that say "healthy coast" to me - no salt, no fish, no crabby corpses.
There is something wrong.

It Is Working for Us!

We have been following the Atkins Diet since May 1 with a few cheat days along the way and have lost pounds.
My Darling Charlie has lost 30+ pounds ( he only weighs at the doctor's office) and I have lost 20 +/- 4 pounds that keep coming and going. We need to start some exercise the keep the loss going but in the meantime, what we have dropped has helped us.
Charlie's doctor is very happy with his weightloss as it affects his blood sugar levels in a positive way.
I am happy that I look better and that when he wraps his arms around me they go alllll the way around me and my arms can hug him close to me.
It's good to look in the mirror and see the face I expect instead of that face plus two chins:)

Rainy Spring Day and Atkins - Soup? How???

It has rained for the past two days. Sometimes hard, sometimes soft drops that just frizz your hair.
The cats have been confused. In? Out? Both, rapidly?

We are Soup People when it rains. For the past few years, our Rainy Day soup has been Spanish Bean soup (see archives) but with Dr. Atkins ruling our lives, beans are out.
My first thought was that as long as I have Limestone Country sausage and chicken broth I can do anything.
Rooting around in the refrigerator turned up half a head of cabbage and about 1/8 of a purple onion.
Onions are high carb items but this little chunk wouldn't yield more than 2 carbs and still be enough to give flavor to the soup. Cabbage, for one medium head, is about 51 net carbs.  Waaaay too many for our stage of Atkins.  But half a head is around 25 and when added to this recipe the average serving contains a lot less. A 32 ounce container of Organic chicken broth has 4 carbs and the sausage and spices have zero carbs. Here's how it worked:

Rainy Day Soup
1 lb link sausage, sliced. Preferably country smokehouse style; otherwise, add sage, crushed red pepper, celery salt, cumin and oregano to taste.
1/2 head of a medium cabbage, chopped
1 ounce minced red onion
1 32 ounce container organic chicken broth
salt, pepper, paprika to taste

Put the sausage and onion in a soup pot over medium heat and stir occasionally while you chop the cabbage. When the onion bits are translucent, add the cabbage. Stir and toss a few minutes until cabbage wilts a bit, add the chicken broth and bring to a boil for two minutes or so then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for fifteen minutes (or more, if you like). Taste and season, add a little olive oil if you think the mouth-feel is too watery. Add a cup or two of water if needed.
This is actually four servings but we ate it all ourselves!

Carbs per cup: approx. 8.5
As we ate it, 17 carbs for the meal, below our daily allowance of 20-25.

I made it extra dense as far as solid ingredients to reduce the longing for crackers or bread.

Through Thick and Thin

That should have been in our wedding vows, just like the "for richer, for poorer" thing. For almost 18 years now, my darling has told me that I am beautiful, that I am not fat - regardless of what mad thing I have done to my hair or whether I was a size six or a size, er, XL.
I have managed to creep too close to XXL for comfort and my handsome Charlie has also grown expansive across the middle. Since he has more potential complications based on health as far as diets go I told him to ask his doctor what she recommended. She promoted Atkins, so carbs have nearly disappeared from my life. His too, for that matter!

Luckily, we like meat. Especially BEEFS! Grilled steaks make me happy, and if he has over-cooked them I mix up my version of Tzatzki sauce or chimichurri sauce for a minor carb flavor boost. Today began our 8th day of Atkins Induction and we have been good except for Friday and Saturday night and our failings then were small. Charlie's 45th class reunion was this past weekend and we had decided we were going to drink, but cautiously.
I took a couple of flavors of Mio with me with which to flavor Vodka and water and Charlie was going to stick with Crown Royal and diet Coke.
But it was Cinco de Mayo. And he had to have a margarita! Or three...and since he was going off the reservation I followed, opting for grapefruit juice in my vodka after my first Mio and V.  Saturday night I poured a glass of my favorite jug wine and thought for a second that I had gotten a bad jug. It tasted like kerosene smells.
I hadn't had a glass of wine in a week and my tastebuds had developed a dislike for what I used to drink every day.
That is good. Even though low in carbs, wine has calories enough to slow weight loss and my body has to burn through the booze carbs before it heads for fat stores.
This is just to get my hands used to channeling thoughts onto a screen again and will face some heavy re-writing soon:)

A Lazy Day

I've been remiss in posting but I have been busy living and working but today...today was a beautifully lazy day.
Charlie got home from Vegas on Thursday night. He'd been at the National Association of Broadcaster's convention and had a large time but was tired. He went to work Friday and had to do a lot of catching up so he came home even more tired yesterday afternoon.I worked in Gulf County on Friday and came home knackered myself.
We slept in today, waking up to a rainy morning and lethargic cats.

So we found a good disaster movie and snuggled into our respective favorite "nests" (he in his lounger, I in my reclined couch) and watched. I can't remember the last time we were so completely committed to doing Nothing. We talked desultorily about food neither of us wanted to cook and decided that we would go to an oyster bar in Lynn Haven.                  

This place is only open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and not even then when the owner doesn't feel the need to crack oysters and steam crawfish.                                      The place is an old filling station (it pre-dates the term "gas station") with a bar, hard stools, repurposed fast food store booths and a soda station that faces the customer service area to facilitate the self-service expected for all but those consuming alcoholic beverages. Charlie had a diet coke, I decided to have one my my rare beers and we both ordered two dozen raw. I like mine on the tiny side, with nothing but a little lemon squeezed onto them. He dresses his with hot sauce, cocktail sauce and horseradish.

We sat and watched the rain fall again and the few other folks out on this drizzly afternoon who were willing to get damp for surly service and non-fancy seafood. A trio of travelers came in from a very large motorcoach in search of Apalachicola oysters; we assured them that they were in the right place. Two men and a woman, the younger of the two men (probably 60-ish)  asked if the place had "Ying-Ying" beer. The owner speaks all varieties of Southern and understood the man to want a Yuengling beer. The two men of the party amiably discussed the virtues and downfalls of oysters from Mobile Bay, Bayou La Battre, and the west coast and the overall supremacy of the Apalach Oyster for its saltiness, richness, firmness and general deliciousness. I have to agree.

The lady of the group wandered the room and read the newsclippings on the wall about gators caught in lakes, sharks in the bay, and other assorted outdoor accomplishments. 

Other people wandered in to buy take-out crawfish and raw shrimp. The owner said he'd bought 6 more bags of crawfish than he normally did and was still all sold out of live ones by Friday. He put one bag (about 40 pounds) aside for the dine-in clients  and steamed up 5 pounds for the ladies seeking live ones. The big man who wanted raw shrimp had to wait while our oysters were shucked by the father and daughter team running the bar.

They are the kind of people who smile rarely, but when you get one of their smiles, it warms you.                                                                                                             

The little oyster bar serves its shucked bivalves on old lunchroom trays with a sleeve of saltines, a roll of paper towels, and condiments on the counter. Side dishes come on foam disposable plates with plastic utensils to transport the food from plate to mouth.             

They serve the oysters with a tiny fork but as a true Gulf girl I pick my oysters up with my fingers, check for shell and pop them into my mouth. I only use the fork on the steamed ones so I can dip them into butter without greasing my fingers. Charlie uses his fork to place his 'dressed' oysters on top of a saltine.Our raw dozens didn't quite fill the holes for protein we had so he ordered steamed crawfish and I had another dozen oysters, steamed this time. We got on the outside of those pieces of deliciousness, smiled contentedly at each other, and decided we needed to go grocery shopping next.                                                                             

We attended to our mundane needs ( toilet paper, cat treats, bread, eggs and milk) and came home to cats ready for their afternoon feeding. We are doing things now; laundry, bill-paying, picking up and putting away and the Day of Lazy is over. 

We should do this more often.