Recuperation and Resolutions

My visit with my cousins was very delightful, highly caloric, and obscenely alcoholic. We ate raw oysters, coconut shrimp and jalapeno poppers at our favorite beachside restaurant and watched shrimp boats (I think, they were pretty far out there) do their thing. The sky was cloudless and the ocean like glass. It was just drop-dead gorgeous.

From there we drove down A1A to Best Buy in Daytona, and negotiated the complicated process of upgrading Cousin C's television. Her son was determined to accomplish this on his visit, and I went along for moral support. It was an ordeal, but a nice new 50 inch plasma TV will be delivered next week, replacing the ancient 300 lb. dinosaur with the failing speakers. It was an ordeal because we fell into the clutches of a satellite TV guy who launched a hard sell on Cousin C, despite the fact that he couldn't answer her most basic question, the very first one she asked: "What is the price on a phone, TV and internet bundle?" He said that they won't have the pricing until after the first of the year, and yet, he just kept talking. I finally had to get a bit rude to shut him down, because he thought he had a live one on the hook and was determined to land her, even though she kept asking about bundle pricing and he couldn't tell her. I started talking about the cable company and how nice they are and they do free service calls, even on Sunday mornings, and no contract....I don't think he liked me much. I don't think I care. She did buy a TV, it will be delivered next week. The entire experience was exhausting, and we got home in the late afternoon positively wrung out. Cousin S cooked dinner and we proceeded to eat and drink our way through the evening - there was some "lively discussion" at the tops of our lungs, and another bottle of wine, and so on. I went to bed around 10:30 ish, not too late.

And woke at 1:30 a.m. with the worst heartburn of my entire life. It was like someone had poured molten lava down my esophagus - I could feel it all the way down, the heartburn from hell. I didn't get much sleep after that. I tossed and turned and was up half the night, finally falling asleep around 4:30. Murphy woke me just after 6, and it will be quite a while before I can look at a glass of wine without shuddering. I am craving chamomile tea.

And after eating meat a few times in the last couple of weeks, I concluded that I really can live without it and I really don't miss it. So one of my 2012 resolutions is to spend more quality time in the kitchen, trying new plant-based recipes and experimenting with unfamiliar ingredients, and get serious about a healthy diet.

I was really getting into this during my last few months in Asheville, but the move and then the refrigerator drama knocked me out of my cooking groove. I want to get that groove back. The weather is finally cooler and very pleasant, and that makes me want to mess around in the kitchen. Tomorrow I'm going to track down a particular ground beef substitute for a tasty-sounding meatloaf recipe, just because it sounds cool-weather friendly and could have "meat"loaf sandwich leftovers potential.

Tonight's dinner is one of my cheap and easy standbys - sauteed kale with cannelini beans and garlic, served over brown rice. This is nearly as easy as my Ultimate No-Brainer Quick Tasty Meal from the pantry - I drain and rinse a can of low-sodium black beans, and open a can of Ro-tel tomatoes with cilantro and lime. I dump beans and the can of tomatoes in a pot and let them simmer together while cooking rice. Dump bean and tomato mixture over rice. It's easier, faster and cheaper than a frozen pizza, and much, much healthier.

So, resolutions are taking shape around a theme of putting myself first for a change. It's like something has clicked, and all that stuff about goal-setting and focusing on what I really want is starting to come together, and I can see specific things I can do to reach my goals. Who knew?