GRATITUDES:
1. A couple decent nights’ sleep
2. The ramen eggs happily marinating in my fridge
3. A good cast-iron skillet
4. The light show yesterday morning

And what a light show it was. A storm front came in from the southwest overnight and by the time I took Basil to work at 6:30am, our area was surrounded by storm cells seemingly trying to outdo one another with brilliant flashes of lightning and long, loud rolls of thunder that merged one into the other. Quite a way to start the morning! Despite the theatrics, we didn’t get a whole lot of rain in our area, but San Antonio reported multiple road closures due to flooding. Hopefully our aquifer will benefit from the runoff. We desperately need the rain.

I’m still struggling to shake the incessant coughing but the antibiotic course seems to have helped a lot. The congestion is finally loosening up and I no longer wake myself up in the middle of the night with weird rattling chest noises. Rory’s still coughing as well but again, it’s not nearly as bad as it was. We were lucky – the critters managed to dodge the worst of it even though Basil developed the sniffles and a bit of a bark. Lauren has so far stayed healthy. Let’s hope that trend continues!

I’m once again parked in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, this time at a spinal clinic. I’m waiting to be told whether or not I can begin the yearly IV infusions that will theoretically help to arrest my osteoporosis. I’ve been taking a whopping 50,000 IUs of vitamin D weekly to shore up my deficiency and I’ll find out today if it’s been effective. The jell caps aren’t hard to take but I’m not keen on adding to the weird pharmacopeia that I’ve been consuming since getting out of the hospital. I’m slowly adding a supplement here and there to help with joint discomfort and hair/skin/nail issues and I swear, I sometimes feel like I rattle from all the damn pills.

I’m about to launch into another food adventure, this time with home made ramen. I’ve already prepared the eggs, which are soaking in a yummy soy-based marinade, and I’ll probably build the chashu this afternoon once I get home. Chashu is pork belly that has been seared in a cast-iron skillet, braised and then allowed to marinate overnight. It’s a prime component of a good bowl of ramen, relatively easy to make and so, soooo good. I’ve made both the chashu and the eggs before but this will be my first attempt at a home made dashi, or Japanese soup base. I’ll report the results!

…Aaaand, I’m happy to say that the ramen came together wonderfully. The broth still needs some work but I think I know what to do next time. The chashu and eggs were staggeringly good and overall, it was a worthy experiment that I’ll be repeating, with some minor changes. Rory and Basil LOVED it and Rory commented repeatedly how tasty he thought it was. Guess I done good!😄