It’s everywhere and it’s pollinating. We are not the worst city in the nation, but we’re competitive. And we’ve got a few days of this to go through. Despite an allergy pill, my eyes are watering and sounds and the rest of the world are at the bottom of a well.

Glug.

The dizziness has receded. I get a twinge now and again, but much better. First time it hit, I couldn’t even lock my vision on a point—everything was rotating, and if I hadn’t been sitting up in bed, I might have fallen over. The fact I fell back to stare at a ceiling fan just did not help at all.

On the other front, the reformation of our diet—I’ve found a real nice source for low-carb, high vitamin/mineral/veggie diet that also tastes good. It relies on making cabbage and cauliflower change their taste—which can be done. They can be conned into tasting like a whole range of things, with butter, garlic (which we can have!) and a few spices. So if you’re cooking for somebody that hates cabbage, just don’t tell them what they’re eating. Yes, it CAN taste like bacon or sausage.

I won’t give the recipes here, because, copyright! but I can tell you where to find the woman’s site and a batch of free recipes, besides adverts for her cookbooks. The name is Peace, Love, and Low Carb recipes and we have tried the peanut chicken (to die for); the no-wrapper pork spring roll dish, and are soon to try the cheeseburger in a dish and the smoked sausage casserole. I never follow recipes, but I am following these, because they’re different, and I’m trusting her sense of spices in transforming the tastes. I’ll say also, do not stray off out of the kitchen and leave these dishes cooking, particularly the peanut chicken: on that one, the difference between ‘swimming in fluid’ and ‘just-right gravy-thickness’ is about a couple of seconds, because the peanut butter (we use crunchy) serves as a thickening agent. And it goes fast. IE, these actually require some cooking skillz, like—standing there with a spoon ready to stir or having the plates ready when it needs to leave the hot skillet quickly, etc. I appreciate that degree of finesse. But it’s not rocket science, just having hot pads in reach, dishes ready, and proper utensils for getting it out of the pan. If you have to turn and search, possibly too late! Of such tiny details is a ‘skill’ composed.