August Vegetables--Baby Sized & Testing Sweet Corn

Cherry tomatoes are getting ripe.  I collect as many as I can and eat most of them before getting into the house.  Thankfully, my carrots are much lagger than these.  And I got a few pounds of the really big orange carrots from Whole Foods.  I had two of them grilled to charred perfection last night for dinner.  The dressing is Green Goddess.  I think I have everything but the "fishy" stuff to make this.  Well, except for an avocado.  Suddenly, avocados are $1.49 each.  Those tiny squash are very cute.

I have a "vacation/coverage" job for 8 days.  I am watering someone's Earth boxes.  They have two tomatoes in each box and the plants are at least two feet taller than me.  5'6".  Each morning I drive over and fill the water reservoir in each of the 10 boxes.  It's always empty when I arrive. Thirsty tomatoes.  I also water all the new plantings.  We are very short of water this summer and we are much warmer than ever.  We are not used to being "hot".

But hot is much better than being on fire.  Or being flooded.

Today we are repeating the sliced tomatoes with fresh mozzarella and basil for dinner.  And we are also having sweet corn.  I'll call it a test.  Summer is way too short to not being eating fresh from the Farm sweet corn.  This stuff is local.  The EVOO and Balsamic vinegar to dress the tomatoes and cheese isn't local but it's very good.

Nothing happened (well, I did lose a half pound) when I ate the tomatoes and cheese (dairy) on Saturday.  So, today it's just to see what happens with the corn.  If nothing happens--then I am going back to the store for more after I water the Earth boxes tomorrow.  Five for $2.

I am reading a book.  Watching PBS.  Finished tacking the quilt.  No more dust to breath.  I am craving chocolate candy.  The dark chocolate caramels in particular from Trader Joe's.  I have a box left over from Valentine's Day. But I am being very stern with myself and just saying NO!

I have my 10x10 fabric art to finish and my forms (in triplicate) to fill out before drop off Saturday morning. Which reminds me to ask G to print them off.  While I cut up and dress tomatoes.

Found the Food 52 Zucchini Fritter Recipe

And instead of the white potato, I can add a shredded sweet potato or shredded carrots to the very simple recipe.  No flour.  Does have egg but I will give it a try.  The Elimination Diet is off the rails anyway.  I was spending way too much time "over thinking" my meals and while I did that--food was spoiling in the fridge.  Recipe at end of post.

The day I lost 2 pounds was the day after eating a Caesar salad with dressing and cheese, a steak and a pile of French fries with lots of ketchup at Longhorn (and tons of salt).  The days I gain weight is all about brown rice, zucchini and a few raw cucumbers.  Starvation is not the answer.

 Last night we managed to eat all the ripe tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, EVOO, and Balsamic vinegar.  We shared a fresh French baguette.  Down half a pound this morning.

Today I am cooking a huge pot of sliced yellow squash with onion and butter.  Southern comfort food.  I had made this once before and gave the leftovers to our daughter.  She swooned.  And ate it all.  Now I am making more.  Lots more so we can share with her again.

I also have enough green and yellow zucchini to make another 6 jars of pickle.  I need to buy more onions.  We took inventory and G managed to eat his way thru all but 3 of the jars I made last year.  I think he has some pickle with his lunch everyday.

Now the recipe:
 2 grated green zucchini (medium sized or larger) to make 4 cups
1 cup grated white potato, sweet potato or carrots
1 or 2 eggs.  Start with one, beaten
1 T of chopped parsley (or mint or dill or all three)
1 t lemon zest
(optional: add crumbled Feta to the mixture along with mint and dill)

Grate all the veg and salt it and leave to exude water for 30 minutes or refrigerated, for longer.
Then drain off water and squeeze out any extra water.  I use a dish cloth, wrap, squeeze (hard).

Then add the egg, parsley (or others), lemon and some breadcrumbs if still too wet to hold together.  Here's a hint I use.  Potato pancake mix (the kind sold in the Jewish foods section)--a couple tablespoonful.

Heat up a cast iron frying pan, add EVOO or butter.  Scoop some of the vegetable mix into the pan and flatten slightly with spatula--repeat.  Let fry.  I mean find something to do--clean the countertops--and let the fritters fry till the edges are golden brown and crispy.  Don't fiddle with them. Turn.

Serve with lemon spiked Green yogurt.

Tomatoes In The August Garden

I wait for them all year.  The sunshine warmed tomatoes straight from the garden.  I've mentioned before that one of my fondest memories of "eating tomatoes" is in my early teens, on the porch swing, barefoot and eating tomatoes.  I wanted the moment to last forever.  It was so perfect.

But "perfect" rarely lasts long.  And, each time we recall a memory from our past, we rewrite it.  Did you know that?  So, each time I remember that porch swing moment--it gets re-written. How different it is now from the actual moment?

I got to see the actual condition of my home this morning.  Our Town is re-evaluating the tax rate for all homes (they want more money) and this entails an actual visit to the house.  A walk through all the rooms.  OMG.  What a packrat/terrible housekeeper I am.  The guy asked if the house was originally a one or two story house.  Such an odd question.  I asked him if he considered an attic a second story. Most homes have an attic.

Anyway, there is an attic.  Part of it was made into a bedroom with a bath.  We don't use it.  But must still pay taxes on it.  The remainder of the attic plus a "sewing room" that I use to store things--is just that--an unfinished attic.  As is the workshop over the garage.  I was quite upset at all this "unfinished" and cluttered space.  I rarely go up there.  I guess we just take things up, set them down, and walk away.  At least this is what it suddenly looked like this morning.

So, I am feeling quite messy today.

Drawing On The Walls

I know these animals weren't free style drawings but rather are wallpaper.  But the idea of drawing on a plain white wall is really interesting to me right now. Today.

I have two 10X10 inch pieces of artwork to get ready by the 20th.  For the Arts Are Elementary fundraiser.  The two I have on my work table are okay.  But I am not sure of the "sale-ability" of either.  Why donate art if it won't sell?  And art should be made without these thoughts.

It's going to be 90 today.  Hot and steamy.

I already began the day depressed.  Gained 2 pounds overnight.  I am back to the weight I was the first week of July.  I have gotten nowhere with these "diets".  I couldn't even find anything to eat for breakfast this morning (that seemed like a normal breakfast).   Yesterday breakfast was zucchini noodles with a cherry tomato and onion sauce.

My allergies are in high gear.  Itchy, watery eyes, nose running, hip aches, foggy thinking.

The high point of the day will be a vanilla DQ cone.   And a nap?

August Garden: Filling Jars

Today it was "sort" of raining.  Not sunny.  Not dry. Muggy.  Damp.  A good day to stay in the kitchen and "Preserve" things.  My grandmother called it "canning".

I literally spent the day in the classic triangle of my kitchen.  The sink, the island, the stove. No fridge needed.  I washed jars, filled the canning kettle, measured sugar out of the brand new 10 pound bag, vinegar from the gallon jug.  Sliced vegetables for the pickles with the mandolin type slicer. I didn't try using the Japanese slicer.  The blade looked wicked sharp.

I made bread and butter pickles first with the veg I had sliced and salted on Sunday.  Heated the canning kettle, boiled the jars and then filled them and processed them for 10 minutes.  I love hearing the lids "click" as they cool on the island top.  Then I sliced up another batch of zucchini (yellow and green), red and orange peppers, onions, garlic and salt and set it in the fridge for three hours.

Next up: blueberries.  I crushed 6 cups worth (and then added some more), added pectin, and brought the juicy mess up to the boil and then added 6 cups of sugar.  Hard for me to do.  I am frugal.  Six cups seems like way too much.  When it had "boiled hard" for one minute, I took the pan off the heat and scooped blueberries into hot jars (they went in after the pickles came out) and then processed the jam jars.

I stopped in-between the pickles and blueberry jam to wash everything and look for more jars.  Then wash the jars etc.

After the blueberry jam-- OMG was that stuff amazingly good!!!  I licked the plate I had sitting under the jars while I filled them---  I started on the strawberry rhubarb jam.  Strawberries (Maine local berries) were frozen but I own a Vitamix.  So, they went in in small batches and the resulting strawberry slushy went into the pan with a quart freezer bag of sliced rhubarb from my garden.  More sugar.  Five and a half cups.  I wondered why I hadn't used the Vitamix to crush the blueberries.  Head slap.

By now it was a bit after 5.  I started at 12:43.  So, onward to the second batch of zucchini pickles.

I, literally, never sat down.  I also took a few moments to vacuum the kitchen as I was barefoot and I wanted the floor to be a bit cleaner than it was.

Was it worth it?  Yes!  I only had to haul that huge kettle onto and off the stove once each way and I ended up with a dozen jars of pickle, 5 pints of blueberry jam, and five pints of strawberry rhubarb.
And there is so much more room in the porch freezer now.  There is half a bag of blueberries which will be made into some sort of muffins or cake tomorrow. Lots more zucchini that I should be slicing and frying up into one of the Plan recipes I actually enjoyed eating.  And the garden is really full of kale right now.  I need to start eating it.  Or drinking it.  Blueberry, kale smoothie?  I think the one in the Elimination Diet has pineapple, blueberry, kale in one of their green smoothies.  So, I need pineapple.  I do have frozen mango---- wonder if that would work?

Next up will be those blackberries.  When they are all ripe, picked and frozen.  The fig jam will be the last thing I can.  I make boozy cranberries in November but the cognac keeps them safe in the fridge all Winter long. Well, as long as they last.

I do not can tomatoes.  Ever.  I roast them and freeze the resulting "sauce" in quart bags.  Use as needed until next summer.

I am really "into" retirement suddenly.  Up really late (into the early hours of the am) and sleeping until 11:30.  Bad habits I have missed.  Yes, I woke up at 11:30 and started canning stuff at 12:43.

August Sun & Heat &Cucumber, Mint Water

My newest favorite thing to drink this summer is cucumber water with mint leaves.  Isn't it pretty?  Makes you feel 10 degrees cooler just looking at it.  And, now, the cucumbers for the water are coming out of my own garden--all warm from the sunshine.  And I have tons of spearmint in the herb bed.

Well, the zucchini is producing again. (and I am wishing I could be making fritters)  And the tomatoes are getting bigger (but still green) and the carrots and beets are bulking up.  I picked blueberries again but they are coming to an end.  The blackberries are just starting.  I've picked and eaten about a full pint so far.

I am so happy I chose to plant blueberry bushes when the garden was created.  And the blackberries. They went in over time but this is the first year they have actually made blackberries.  I cut the raspberry canes down to the ground in the Spring.  The variety I have is Heritage and it makes a small crop in July (if not cut back hard) and a larger crop in late September.  I'm going for the September crop. Fewer Japanese beetles. The prune plum didn't make any plums this year.  I am thinking I might want to buy an apple tree for the yard.  I'll place it near one of the crab apple trees for pollination. I think having fruit in the garden is almost better than having vegetables.

I went to a lecture on "Diet & Dementia" yesterday.  The room was packed.  The speaker is a local Adventist doctor and he is a very good speaker and just a real nice guy (and an avid gardener).  Turns out eating fruit and leafy greens (and green vegetables) is good for your brain. One half to a full cup of berries each day and leafy greens like kale or collards along with broccoli, zucchini etc..  I love kale cooked down with onions.  I used to love it in a frittata but I haven't re-tested eggs yet.  ( I had some granola yesterday and got acid reflux--a reaction--so no more oats--I'll have to find a new home for the new package of Bob's-- so many of my typical daily foods are turning out to be re-active- like the soy milk, cheese, yogurt and now the oats.)

My garlic and onions have been pulled and they are drying in the garage.  More than usual on the garlic and less than I wanted on the onions.  I planted green bean seeds.

I am going to pull the amaryllis bulbs out of the garden bed and let the leaves dry and die ( I wrote a reminder to myself on my calendar).  Then repot them in late October for Christmas flowers.  All of the bulbs were happy in the garden and got nice and fat.  Several that hadn't bloomed in the winter, bloomed in the garden.  One red and two whites.

Well, time to get ready to go to the movies.  We're seeing the new Bourne movie.

Porch Swings & Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

I have two more Lucie Whitehouse thrillers to read.  And the swing reminds me of my teenage years. I spent the summer days (when not in the basement ironing) on the porch "glider" reading Gone With The Wind.  It was a summer tradition from 14 to 17.  Cleveland sprayed the city each year to kill mosquitos.  Sometimes they even sprayed the citizens if we were outside when the giant truck went past.

But this larger swing could even be used for nice summertime naps.  With mosquito netting.  I would have to have it higher off the porch floor--Riley likes to nap UNDER beds and hammocks, so it follows he would also like to nap under a porch swing.

This hasn't been the usual mosquito bite summer here in Maine.  Lots of heat and humidity but we have enough "sea breeze" to keep the little blood suckers moving.  Or maybe my blood has been changed by the asthma meds into something less delicious.  I AM getting a rash from the leaves of the tomato and squash plants.  Mostly on my arms as I "hunt" for cucumbers, ripe tomatoes and squash.  Witch hazel splashed on helps. So, even minus mosquitos, I am itchy.

I sliced up the yellow zucchini for pickles yesterday.  The red (bell peppers), white (onion) and green (jalapeño) and golden yellow makes for a very colorful and pretty combination.  I quite like it.

My weight has held stable at the same number for three days now.  So, nothing reactive in the foods I am eating.  Also, this stable weight is the lowest I have reached in the entire diet adventure.  Meaning I have been here before but not for three days straight.  I must, finally, have started doing something right.  I am looking forward to seeing a new number on the scale.  A four or a three.  A two would be cause for a parade downtown.

We are supposed to have some rain today.  It would be nice.

I am nearly finished tacking the pieced center of this big dusty poofy quilt.  I will need to drag it back across the street for the owner to look at so we can discuss the borders.  Three wide borders.  In order to make them flat I will need to unsew the edges.  Flatten it all out.  Then decide how to tack.  My daughter looked at the work I have been doing and said "you're a better person than I am".  It's that thankless. I have had to appliqué stitch torn border seams in one area and in places in the center section as needed.  Hours are spent on this project each day.  Hours that will not be compensated as I passed the suggested renumeration long ago.  Right now I am working at one to two dollars an hour.  For hand work.

The quilt's pieced construction is poor.  Seams do not match up.  Blocks aren't square.  In another time and place, I would have taken the entire thing apart and remade it.  But that time is past and I have no interest in going back to it.  My days of piecing are over.  My days of shoving a a puffy quilt under the machine needle is over as well.

I do own an antique hand pieced quilt that was once tacked.  I took all the knots out and threw away the lumpy batting.  This might make a good Winter project in 2017.  New batting.  Fresh knots.  Grandmother's Flower Garden and all those small hexagons.  Perhaps I had to do this project in order to see my way to re-newing that one?

The August Garden: Too Hot & Too Much

I have beets ready to be pulled out of the ground.  But it's too hot to turn on the oven to roast those beets.  I have carrots.  The chipmunks are eating some of them from the under ground up to but not including the leafy green tops.  Which they leave for me to find.

Trader Joe's not only had lovely brown rice tortillas but they had a nice loaf of brown rice bread.  Still gritty.  But I can toast it and have a slice when eating a slice of bread seems like something I just HAVE to do.  We are eating our way thru the meatballs (with no reaction).  And today I am making some taco beef for those tortillas.  G will have something on the grill or some take out from the Chinese place.   I have heads of Romaine ready in the garden and about 8 small ripe tomatoes to go with my tortilla wraps.

I am steadily working on watering the garden (pulling weeds- tying up heavy tomato branches- tying peppers to the support sticks) but first, before watering, I search for ripe and ready produce.  The hunt for cucumbers is pretty tricky.  The hunt for any squash in the garden--well, not abundant.  The tomato plants have lots of dry spotted leaves from mildew--- the damp overnight and sunshine in the morning.  I have been cutting off leaves.  Everything below the first fruit.  So the plants have bare legs up above the knees.  While I let the hose run in the tomato bed, I counted 127 tomatoes.  Some are good sized. Mostly Early Girl.  The Sweet 100 cherries are very late.  Still mostly green.

I also picked blueberries and I now have a gigantic bag of them in the porch freezer.  Enough for two batches of blueberry jam.  One of these days (a rainy one) I am going to set up the jam making sweat shop and just keep at it until I have boxes full of blueberry and strawberry rhubarb jams.  Later, if there are concord grapes--we'll make grape jelly.  And (with back up figs now in the freezer thanks to Whole Foods) there might actually be some more fig preserves in those boxes as well.  No peach preserves this year as my friend's tree has not a single peach on the tree due to the Spring frost and snowfall at flowering time. I have to admit to not eating much of these jams and jellies.  Hardly any actually.  I think I ate one jar of strawberry rhubarb this past year--period.  When I could eat toast. This morning I had rhubarb sauce (just rhubarb and a small amount of sugar cooked for 10 or 15 minutes) on my rice flour toast.

I am thinking of making the zucchini pickles with the golden yellow zucchini that is producing fruit. Who says the pickles have to be green? If the garden only produces yellow zucchini then I have to make yellow pickles. My visit to the grocery will include the purchase of onions and another hot little pepper for the pickle recipe.

I made the gritty Elimination Plan banana muffins again.  This time with the full two cups of mashed ripe banana.  Took way more bananas that I used last time (and didn't measure).  Filled all 12 cups to the top.  The flour is rice flour, the oil is coconut, the sugar is coconut brown sugar, the leavening is apple cider vinegar and baking soda.  In a week or so, when I test walnuts and pecans, I can add some to the recipe. One muffin is a very good choice when I am feeling hungry but it's not time for a meal.

The Botanical Question: Why Produce Only Male Flowers?

I have no other answer than the one posed by the resident botanist.  Too much nitrogen.  Could be as I have been home this summer and have added fertilizer to the basic watering routine. I did find a recipe for squash blossom pizza.  If only I could eat wheat, yeast, cheese right now.

My work on tacking the puffy quilt belonging to my neighbor continues.  I have used up one ball of thread already and started in on a second ball.  I have broken one needle.  I can begin, finally, to see the end of this road.  The tacked portion looks quite nice.  But.........and there is always a but.  The wide borders are now showing a tendency to billow.  I don't want my perfectionistic ways to force me to undo the border seams.  I don't want that.  The borders are wide and will probably need at least another ball of perle cotton number 8.  I guess I will need to visit JoAnn's for re-supplying.

The beef test is not going well.  Hard to tell if the rash on my eyes is from the beef or from the dusty quilt or from pollen in the garden that got into my eyes.  It could also be from the oats in the Life Changing Bread which I have stopped eating--I had a grand total of 3 quarter inch thick (very seedy) slices.  Which leaves even the most disinterested observer aware of my less than scientific methods.
I wonder if the birds and chipmunks will eat LCB?  It really isn't very good. And I am sorry I wasted a second attempt on this "bread".  Even toasted (twice) it is still medicinal in flavoring.

I can't say much for my methods.  I become distracted easily. And I am cooking for another person as well as myself.  So things get mixed up during a day when I am tired, cranky and hungry.

But I do step away from things and then observe a "safe" zone of eating in response.  Oh, I should also mention taking Advil PM which is KNOWN for causing red, itching eyes in sensitive persons.  But I need to actually SLEEP.  Not spend the night fussing about stuff that happened 30 or 40 years ago.  I start the day exhausted and go from there.  It's not a good recipe for success.

Which is why this elimination process is going so slowly and producing such odd results.

I am being taken to Trader Joe's today. (Field Trip) To replenish the marinara and olive oil stocks.  Also I have heard TJ's has nice brown rice tortillas.  And orange muscat vinegar.  G is looking forward to filling the freezer with bags of potstickers.  And possibly coconut aminos to replace soy sauce (for me).

Recipe But No Zucchini

How strange is that???? My walking buddy asked me to bring along a zucchini for her this morning on our walk.  So, out to the garden I went and, what to my wondering eyes did appear?..... not even one tiny zucchini.

Lots of boy flowers on all the chest high plants.  But no females.  No fruit.  Puzzlement on my part. No fritters in my future either.  Last summer I ate cold fritters everyday for lunch at work.

Same on the pattypan plants (which are even taller than the zucchini plants) as I did an experiment
using a new to me compost product from work.  The pattypans got the super new compost and they have gone crazy.  Lots of flower buds but not one fruit as yet.

Plenty of bees.

The blueberries are doing well.  An over filled cookie sheet of them in the freezer right now.  I am waiting until tomorrow (or later today) to pick more as I am running out of room for fruit in the freezer. I could get rid of some by making a smoothie.

I made these strange pickles for my daughter:  They taste wonderful but the process is odd.  The jar isn't filled to the top with the vinegar salt sugar pickling liquid and the jar of vegetables needs to be shaken and turned upside down over the course of a week or more.  The daughter likes colorful peppers, cucumber, and carrots in hers.  Onions, garlic and pickling spices.  I think it's ready when the jar is nearly full of liquid but I could be mistaken.  I made the pickle with cauliflower last year and the cauliflower wasn't as fresh as it needed to be.  So, this time I used peppers.  Red and orange.

I need to bushwhack my way over to the blackberry thicket and see how things are going.  There are tons of "potential" berries on the plants.  I have always wanted to make a blackberry pie.

So the future here:  blueberry jam.  blackberry pie.  strawberry/rhubarb jam.  more bread and butter zucchini pickles (hopefully).  I don't know whether I really would make zucchini fritters this summer as they contain eggs and cheese.  But those fritters at the top of this post....they look delicious.

August And The Garden Wakes Up

I watered the garden yesterday and fed the plants with "blue stuff" as things were looking a bit tired. I have tomatoes ripening.  Leaves are turning yellow with brown spots.  I remove them. Any leaves below the first fruiting branch aren't needed.  The fresh leaves up top can supply all the necessary sugars.

I got a handful of cucumbers.  Making a jar of pickles for my daughter.  She wants me to add peppers.  I have plenty of peppers growing--but I like them red and not green so we must wait for them to "turn".

I have spiraled two more zucchini and the curls are drying on a cookie rack.

I have been watching PBS and working on my neighbor's quilt.  The dusty one.  I keep thinking I am getting somewhere (6 plus hours already in it) but it seems more is untacked than is tacked. I mentioned to G that machine quilting it (when he asked) --so puffy-- would have reduced me to swearing like a sailor.

It seems a bit overcast today and I can't go to the grocery until after 12 (prescription ordered) so I might as well do another hour or two of tacking.

Today I am going to be eating (testing) beef.  Which translates to meatballs. G loves meatballs. And I love them also. I can also make some taco meat.  I like that with rice, lettuce and tomatoes.  I will miss having cheese and sour cream.  But I can have taco sauce.  And I have those weird rice tortillas. Better than nothing.  I wonder if they make rice milk cheese?

Saturday, July 30th - Happy Birthday C!

I wish my living room looked like the above room.   But it isn't shaped this way.

I just finished making 7 pints of zucchini bread and butter pickles.  The house smells like vinegar.  Which is a good smell.  The A/C is working to cool the family room/kitchen.  Boiling water for an hour can heat things up.  I always enjoy looking at the filled jars at the end of "canning" and... after washing all the bits and pieces of equipment, I enjoy pouring the boiling water down the drain and running the disposal.  Everything clean and sanitized.

My lunch was a cooked down bag of frozen roasted cherry tomatoes from last summer.  I added onion and garlic to the tomatoes and cooked them slowly till the mixture was thick and "jammy". I ate the sauce with zucchini noodles I had spiralized and left to air dry.  First on the countertop  overnight and then for two days in a colander topped with clingfilm (as the Brits call it) in the fridge.  Chewy. Firm. Dry.  Perfectly decent faux pasta.  Did not taste like zucchini.

I also made the brown rice flour "tortillas" from the Elimination Diet.  Not anything like flour tortillas.  But if one (like me) hasn't had anything resembling bread or tortillas in over a month--well, I ate three. I am truly addicted to bread.  I had one tortilla with a half avocado and lime juice.  Delish.

I also had all the stuff to make "Life Changing Bread" which is just a combination of oats, seeds, nuts, physllium husk and chia seeds.  It came together so much better this time.  It actually got mushy and sticky like a "dough" (leaves me wondering what I did wrong the first time I made it).  It's in the fridge now.  Doing whatever it needs to do before being baked. Yes, I am concerned about the oats.  I know I can make another batch of the "dough" and make it into crackers.  Adding a few spices and herbs to make the crackers savory.  Poppyseed, garlic powder, rosemary etc.  Life Changing "Everything" Crackers.

The thing I did differently with the "Life Changing Bread" and the rice flour tortillas was measure everything on the scale.  In grams.  No cups or spoons.  "head smack"

The Garden Production/ Canning Jars

I filled my first quart jar yesterday with cucumbers, dill and garlic.  All from my very own garden. I made refrigerator pickles.  I also sliced (on a Japanese slicer) zucchini, red pepper (from grocery), onions (from grocery) and jalapeño (from grocery) into a two gallon restaurant container, salted it all, topped with ice cubes and left it to rest in the porch fridge.

Today the zucchini will become bread and butter pickles.

I have carrots and a very nice cauliflower and will use them to make a jar of salt cured pickle for my daughter.  How quickly we moved from wondering if the garden will "grow" to having to manage the produce as it comes into the house. I always find it shocking.

I was actually quite surprised to find so many large zucchini and yellow squash out there yesterday.  The time before there had been only two medium to small squash and no pickles.  the pickling cakes are going to be difficult to find due to the way I arranged the plants.  It's going to be "hide and seek" out there--and hopefully no hidden cukes growing to monster sizes.  That shuts down production.

I am moving onward to testing beef.  The nightshades were good.  No reaction.  In fact, no bloating and good elimination.  The eye rash is caused by dust, pollen, not food.  Goes away as soon as the Zyrtec starts working.  The ozone alerts have been worse.  My breathing issues get so much worse and there is stress on my heart.  Rescue inhaler is being used.

I have added coffee back into my diet.  It isn't supposed to re-enter until months from now.  But I felt I needed something to drink besides water and smoothies.

Yesterday I had a banana muffin, the kale strawberry pineapple smoothie and Jasmine rice with peas, and fried yellow squash.  I also had cold chicken wings.  I was supposed to have a large salad with the wings but didn't.  I was just too lazy I guess.  All that food was spread out over the day.

Today I have had the last of the smoothie, coffee so far.  I will be making a chopped salad (I have a list of possible ingredients from Food52's morning email) which I hope will be very good.  Dinner I think will be pasta.  My own cherry tomato sauce with rice noodles or zucchini noodles.  So far, the rice products have been pretty darn awful.  The flour is gritty, sandy.  The milk is --well, it's water. I am ambivalent about trying the rice pasta I bought.  At best, it would be "not as awful" as I thought. At worst--it would go down the disposal.

I have come to the conclusion that if one is allergic to gluten--one should just give up on substitutes. None of them are anything like the "real" thing.  I was going to try the "most favorite" recipe in the Elimination Diet Cookbook.  The rice flour tortillas.  I may have enough rice flour left in the bag. But wonder if I want to waste the time on making them.  I can't see how they would hold together as the muffins (even with so much banana) crumble into a pile of moist sand at the first bite.  The sand does taste good-- but it's not a muffin.

Any readers out there on a gluten free diet?  Do you bake?  I was tempted by the tiny loaves of  (expensive) rice bread in the freezer section by the bakery.  But they had ingredients (like eggs) that I can't add to my diet yet. Toast is a favorite of mine--topped with avocado.

Yellow Crookneck Summer Squash

I am hoping there are a few out in the garden today.  There are piles of them at the grocery from a local farmer.  But the cost is high.  $2 a pound.  And a standard pot of fried squash at my house uses at least 4 or 5 pounds.  And the grocery had okra.  Now, a truly Southern vegetable plate must have fried okra.  And big slabs of juicy tomatoes.  And some sort of cooked shell pea, like Purple hull peas.

I guess I will wait. Edit:  It was a good thing to wait as when I went into the garden to water I found a whole bunch of large yellow squash.  Ready to pick.  And they weighed in at over 5 pounds.  They are now cooking on the stove.  I also found enough large zucchini to make a full batch of zucchini bread and butter pickles.  Got a really hot jalapeño to go in the mix.  And, if that wasn't enough garden joy--I found enough cucumbers to make a quart jar of refrigerator pickles.  Life is good.

G and I did errands yesterday.  I needed an annual sticker for my car.  Town tax to own a vehicle. The bank needed paperwork.  Bills to the post office.  And then lunch on the open porch of a local restaurant with the river running beneath our feet and the summer breezes softly brushing by. I ordered the market salad with grilled chicken.

We watched the Democratic convention from 10 to midnight, as usual.  What a wonderful speaker our President is and always has been.  The audacity of hope.  And I agree.  He inherited a country that was in the deepest hole (money wise) than even the Great Depression.  And now the stock market is higher than it's ever been in history.  And the Republicans say we are "in deep trouble?" We were in deep trouble with Bush.  Not now.  The only other time people felt good about the economy was the Clinton years.  I feel good about putting a campaign sign in my front yard.  Wearing a campaign button and even volunteering to help.  Wow.  Never thought I would write that. Audacious.

My weight gain seems to have gone.  Took a few days of eating less and less but now I am back to where I was.  The nightshade family doesn't seem to be bothering me.  Another day or two and I will be testing beef.  Steaks, burgers and taco-less tacos.  I had already tested beef on the Plan and it was good.  And the next test is pork.  I know that is good also--but not with soy sauce.  After that I move on to tree nuts.  Walnuts and Pecans first.  I know,  It's a very strange path.  But they are having us test the least reactive foods first and then build to the worst offenders.  Eggs, Corn, Sugar, Gluten, Wheat, Yeast, Dairy and the very last one-- Soy..  Isn't this the list of foods certain popular diets exclude?

Zucchini Noodles for Dinner

Now that I am testing the Nightshade Family and can eat tomatoes--I decided to try a batch of zoodles to go with my own homemade sauce.  I am also trying out the "drying" method.  You cut the noodles in your spiral cutter and then let them air dry on a cookie sheet--giving them a toss every few hours.  So they dry evenly.

My vegetable soup yesterday was awesome.  I ate my way through two bowls of it.  And I have three quart jars of soup in the fridge.  Like money in the bank!

My eyes are itching.  But I think it's dust in the air and some plant pollen outside that I am allergic to.  Zyrtec to the rescue.  The scale isn't moving but clothing that hasn't fit in a very long time--fits. My walking buddy was the recipient of much of my "too small to wear" wardrobe years ago and each week she brings a item or two and gives the clothing back.  Yesterday it was another (OMG) pair of black linen pants--a medium-- whatever that means-- and they fit.  Now loose like I like, but okay.  Summer time clothing should be loose and airy.

It's very hot and humid.  I have to check the garden.  Water if necessary.  But I think G and I will go do a few errands first.  Unless he falls asleep first.

Very Hot & Humid Today

A day when sensible people don't go out for a walk.  But I did and it wasn't too bad.  But I was happy to get back into the house.  With the A/C running.

Our house is well insulated (now) and we have new windows which keep out ultraviolet rays.  So, even with one very small unit set on 74--the house is very, very comfortable.  The entire house.

I follow the summertime rules I learned from my mother.  All windows closed during the day and opened only after full dark at night.  All blinds and curtains pulled over the windows on the sunny sides of the house.  I don't have any curtains that can be pulled over windows.

Contrary to my mother's rules, I am making a full pot of Grandma Judy's Vegetable Soup from the Hollyhocks & Radishes cookbook.  Author is Mickelson.  I bought this cookbook at the old Senter's
Department Store (remember when these existed?) in downtown Brunswick just after the snow melted my first winter in Maine.  My mother served potato salad and sandwiches in the summer.  With a side of homemade refrigerator pickles.

The vegetable soup is usually started with 3 slices of bacon lightly fried in the large soup kettle.  But bacon isn't on the list.  So I subbed in some smoked paprika.  Since it's a nightshades test for the next three days we are supposed to pile on the nightshades.  Smoked paprika.  Diced red potatoes.  Two cans of diced tomatoes.  There is also green cabbage, carrots, onion, green beans and one yellow squash.  It's a very colorful and "pretty" soup.  Delicious with the bacon flavoring.

I made another batch of the pineapple, strawberry, mint and kale smoothie.  The pineapple was looking like it needed to be used up.  I have noticed the smoothie is a better breakfast choice than anything else.  Stays with me.

Yesterday I had some of G's white Jasmine rice with my grilled vegetables.  No bloating or gas.  Like I have when eating the healthier short grain brown rice.  It seems that eating "healthier" is sometimes not the best choice.  The Elimination Diet book recommends an overnight soak of the dry rice with some cider vinegar to make it more "digestible". How does that work???

I have some bananas on the counter and I have plans to make the Elimination Diet Banana Muffins later today.  No egg.  Brown rice flour.  Cider vinegar.  Coconut sugar.  Coconut oil.  If it is as awful as the cobbler topping-- that may be the last of the "baking" I do with their recipes.  I will be moving forward with my plans to make another rhubarb custard pie.  I did eat that a couple of times while on the Plan and it didn't bother me at all.  Wonder of wonders.  No rash and no weigh fluctuations. Wheat flour, white sugar and eggs.  Three of the Horsemen of Dietary Distress.

Okay--I am off to the remove the darts from yet another LL Bean shirt.

My Favorite Knife

G purchased this for me one Christmas and it was backordered for months and months.  I think I actually got it last July.  And it's been the one I use everyday. I love the Wusthof classic knives and have used them since the early 1980's.  I add a new knife whenever I see one that looks "useful".

I have been this the knife quite a bit for this Elimination process.  Chopping pineapples, zucchini, carrots, onions & leeks, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, whole watermelons, and kale and more kale, etc each and every day it seems.  Most of July.  All of July.

This week's smoothie was strawberries, pineapple and kale with mint leaves.  Sweeter but still a dirty green in color.  Pond scum.  G tasted it and said it tasted much better than it looks.  High praise, indeed.  One taste was all he wanted. I have a large bag of mixed frozen fruit to add to the next smoothie. Cherries, peaches, strawberries etc.  I found it in the freezer section of my grocery.  I have a few frozen bananas still in the freezer to thicken a watery smoothie and avocados.  And all the kale in the garden. And a quarter of the pineapple still in the fridge.  The Vitamix has never been this busy.

The citrus test ends today and tomorrow I begin to test the nightshade family.  Nightshades are tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes.  I plan to begin with a vegetable soup which will include tomato and perhaps some potato alongside the usual onion, carrot and kale.  But I could decide to use green beans instead of the potato for the first test meal.  I am really looking forward to soup with a tomato base.  But today I will be having a chopped salad for lunch (from the Plan) and sautéed kale with garlic and onion with a side of steamed broccoli with lemon oil for dinner (also from the Plan) and perhaps some grilled carrots.  

Right now I am going out to water the vegetable garden.  We are expecting rain later this evening, but it's hot and sunny right now (and it might not rain) and the garden is just starting to be productive so needs water.  I "harvested" five good sized zucchini yesterday and a basket full of blueberries (I think the birds are eating them also).  I have a great deal of kale ready also.  The beets are still too small.  The garlic may be ready to pull and dry.  I still have bean seeds to plant.  There are nice sized tomatoes (green) on the Early Girl plants.  I am optimistic.  A gardener has to be optimistic.  So many things can go wrong.

I have a recommended book to pick up at the library "It Starts With Food" and I am reading "Keep You Close" by Lucie Whitehouse.  Supposed to be as good a thriller as "Girl On The Train".  So far, it has me a bit nervous--a good sign.

The Addition of Citrus To The Diet

I just deleted everything I just wrote.  Sigh.  I am in this rut.  I am also on this diet plan.  I am wanting to not be in either place. I am adding citrus to my food for the next three days.  Forcing a reaction if there is going to be one.

Brown rice is a "safe" food on both of the Elimination Diets I have been working my way through this past month.  All of July it seems.  I eat the brown rice and my body turns into a gas factory. The good thing is the manufacturing of gas has eliminated (such a joke) the constipation problems.  Do I write that up as a "reactive" food and eliminate it from my diet for the rest of time as we know it?

Also the eyebrow rash seems to not be influenced by food.  It seems to be directly influenced by my presence in the living room, on the couch watching television, or here at the desk (in the room with the couch) typing on the computer or reading things on the internet. Dust.

I can wash the walls and windows in this room, vacuum the area carpets daily, take down the curtains and wash them until they are rags (like my mother did when my brother was allergic to everything), and cover everything I can't wash with washable covers.  I can do that.  Just to rid myself of this rash. Because I am sensitive to DUST.  And this room is most likely full of dust.

And, thanks to the Elimination diet so far, I know nothing I eat causes the rash.

BUT.  To muddy the waters even more, I had a bowl of shredded wheat biscuits for breakfast with rice milk.  Wheat is the only ingredient listed on the box.  So, pretty quickly, I should know if it is reactive.  I need to eat cereal (a bulky cereal) in the morning to not be constipated.  But right now--I need to get out of this dusty room.

The Zen Of The Garden

The garden is where I go to find comfort, quiet and a sort of Zen.  It is counter productive to try and find order there.  I try to plan straight lines.  I try for weed free.  I try for even numbers.  But the garden decides.  

My herb garden has been allowed to grow in the most haphazard ways.  Right now two very tall mallow plants are blooming.  I didn't plant them.  The garden did.  But I appreciate the lavender pink flowers against a background of fennel fronds, dill seed heads and the blue borage flowers. the parsley this year is lovely.  The spearmint is abundant.  The tarragon is enormous.  The sage (started in January in the milk jug experiment) is sturdy and very healthy.  I have transplanted (purchased) sage starter plants into this bed many many times.  They all died.  So, this is quite a pleasant surprise.

I am vacuuming the floors, washing dog towels and bed covers, mopping the floors today.  Riley has been getting into mud holes on the daily walk with G--looking for a drink of water.  G washes him off with the hose before bringing the dog inside--but he still manages to make quite a mess of the floors.

And dogs smell.  And they shed.  And it all makes Joanne a very sneezy, teary eyed girl.

So--another huge, day long clean up and spray everything I can't wash with Febreze.

The Elimination Diet continues to............well, in truth there is no elimination no matter how many Senokote I take before bedtime or how much water I drink (100 ounces).  I am eating fruits and vegetables.  Brown rice in very small amounts.  Everything going in and nothing coming out.  I don't know what to do.  Today is sort of a "time out" as I finish all the soups and smoothies in the fridge. Eat the chicken.  Have a salad.  Drink water.  Eat my watermelon chunks.

What is that saying?  Do everything the same and hope for a different outcome.  Insanity?

Elimination Diet- Day Six

Well, the adventure continues.  Daily smoothies (is this really MY life?).  Daily soup--but not completely pureed.  Vegetables.  Vegetables.  Vegetables.  I am rotating my way through the zucchini, sweet potatoes, broccoli, kale, beets, carrots, cabbage, lettuce.  I just discovered I can have PEAS.

It will be 2 weeks before I test nightshades--my favorite vegetable group (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers) and add things to soup that I actually love eating.  Like my tomato escarole soup. Corn is one of the last things to test--very reactive. It just doesn't seem like summer without it.

My meals have been interesting and tasty.  My rash came back last night but I can't pin point a food as the source (dates?).  It could have been dirt. Dust.  I was reading and tearing out interesting pages from a stack of very old magazines.  And I could (did ) rub my eyes.

My new recipe yesterday was a "truffle" made of well ground sunflower seeds, Medjool dates, some EVOO and a few teaspoons of maple syrup (pure) to bind everything into a sticky mass.  (or mess).  Roll into 24 equal sized balls and roll in fine shredded coconut.  I have them in the fridge.  This was something new I ate yesterday and then the rash.  So, no "truffles" today and we'll see if it stays or goes. When things get added, we get to eat them three days in a row to be sure.  So, I may have to eat those delicious things--in the name of science.

I ordered the new Martha Stewart book from the library and will be picking it up after our meeting at the bank.  Clean Slate with the lovely Shira Bocar as the author of the recipes.  I love her videos on the Martha Stewart site.  She also made a date and coconut "candy" in a video but she added walnuts to hers.  When the walnut/pecan test time arrives I will try her recipe.  Her recipe for the baked sweet potato was on a post (2 back).  That was delicious.  Her recipes dovetail with the Elimination Plan perfectly.

Watered the garden late yesterday afternoon (and will water again this afternoon).  The summer squash plants are getting very big.  That raised bed looks very rambunctious as do the cucumber plants.  The herb bed also looks wonderful and I plan on cutting some herbs to make a Green Goddess salad dressing.  My first homegrown zucchini is about 4 inches right now.  Can't wait for the cucumbers.  I have a grape vine now and can add grape leaves to my pickles like my grandmother and my mother did with theirs.  So excited.

Today, I watered the front porch plants  and got myself dirty repotting the small fig "bush" (it doesn't look like a tree) which is going crazy and needed a bigger pot.  I had to water it twice or three times  a day.  When you have to water a lot to keep the plant from wilting--it needs a larger pot and more soil.  The plants in containers are also getting a little "something" added to their water every three or four days.  Blue stuff.  Microbe stuff. Fish fertilizer.  They seem to enjoy the blue stuff as much as they enjoy the fish emulsion.

I can't find rhubarb on any of the approved food lists.  It would be nice to have some for snack.

Elimination Diet- Day Two

I forgot we needed black peppercorns for the pepper grinder.  But I did remember to buy a roasted chicken.  And, even before putting it in a suitable container for storage, I ate the two legs and two wings.  Standing at the counter like a cave woman. Oh, how I have changed.

I went to the grocery with my friend Patty..  She drove by while I was walking along the road, on the way home from my walk.   But before going to the grocery we went to lunch.

My lunch wasn't holding.  I had a huge plate of lettuce and grated carrots in my "chef's salad" but no dressing (none were legal), no tomato, no cheese, no peppers.  I did have some turkey on top.  My lunch partner gave me her homemade dill pickle which was in reality--- just a cucumber that had been sitting in vinegar for one day.

I also purchased a roasted turkey breast which G and I will share for dinner.  I will have turkey, baked sweet potato (no butter) and steamed or roasted green beans.  G will have gravy and Stove Top stuffing with his.  I will try not to be unhappy about the gravy.  Or the lack of cranberry sauce.

The chicken is for tomorrow and I also purchased a package of frozen wild salmon which is supposedly the only kind I can have.  I'll have that on top of a salad or wilted greens on Wednesday. My grocery fish counter had only farm raised salmon.  Which I am not supposed to eat.

I also purchased short grain brown rice because the gal, Shira Bocar, on the Martha Stewart videos "eat clean" used it in three recipes so I guess it's good stuff.

That's all I have to say.  My friend wasn't sure it was me walking on the side of the road today.  She said I looked different---- thinner.

Detox Diet Done

Now I move into the two weeks of eating the Elimination Diet.  The author says this part is the most restrictive.  It seems like a "holiday" to me as I get some food to CHEW.

Lunch will be as pictured above.  A roasted (baked) sweet potato, stuffed with greens sautéed with onion and topped with slices of avocado (from Martha Stewart- Clean Eating).  Breakfast was the Green Pineapple smoothie with the addition of a frozen banana to give it a bit of thickener.  I added too much water when I made it.  I was thinking "blender" instead of "Vitamix".  The Vitamix needs far less liquid to do the job.  I found out I appreciate a very thick smoothie.  I am planning to make the red cabbage one again with blackberries this time.

The "elimination" part of my problems has worked it's way "out" with the application of Senokot.  G had a bottle from his heart surgery so I thought it would be safe.  It's gentle and works overnight.

I purchased a giant bag of young, thin, fresh green beans to eat.  To CHEW.  For my snack later in the day or I might just enjoy a bowl of watermelon chunks.

Discovered a nice Thai recipe (on Martha Stewart) to make with coconut milk, chicken, ginger, garlic and some of the pineapple left over from the smoothie making. I can't add the hot chili pepper but the ginger can be quite spicy on it's own.  I get to eat this with some brown rice.

Day Three is turning out pretty swell.  It rained overnight.  The garden is nice and wet.  I am going out to pick beet greens when I finish here (risking mosquitos) and then I think I will settle on the couch and read. But before I do that, I think I will go and watch more Clean Eating videos.

Elimination Diet Detox

I am giving another diet a trial.  The one authored by Malterie.

The two day, initial detox, is entirely pureed.  Smoothie, juice or soup.

Now, I am not a fan of the smoothie, but I had the ingredients here in the house (from the other diet) so I held my nose (so to speak) and started tossing things into the Vitamix. ¼ head of red cabbage, small avocado, blueberries, frozen raspberries, a small handful of  plump dry cranberries ( I didn't have frozen or fresh but I think they would add a "sparkle" of sour to the smoothie) and water.  It was a very pretty rosy red color.

Pretty didn't sell it.  But--it did taste good.  I drank it all.  Amazing.

Lunch was a pureed soup of leeks, carrot, cauliflower, chicken stock, thyme, sea salt and pepper and after the Vitamix--some chopped fresh parsley from my very own herb garden.  Hated the chicken broth.  Should have used plain water. While the soup contained things I really like--the sum wasn't equal to the parts and the chicken broth was disgusting. Now, I am sure if I made the chicken broth in the book it would have been better, I used what I had.

Dinner was Creamy Green Detox Soup.  Broccoli, zucchini, leeks, water, sea salt, small bunch of kale (I don't like spinach), fresh parsley and fresh basil.  Pureed in Vitamix till very smooth.  It was okay hot but when I poured the soup into a half gallon Mason jar for the fridge, I had about ½ cup leftover and ate that at room temp--very excellent.

Tomorrow I am making the Detox Pineapple Green Smoothie.  Pineapple, avocado, small bunch of kale, handful of mint (in the herb garden).

I didn't write any of the juice recipes down.  Yet.  But if the quality of the juices is equal to the taste of the soups and smoothies-- well, I might like juice.

I am supposed to note how I feel following each "meal".  So far, I feel bloated.  Like those commercials with the people with IBS and the blocks bunched up in their gut.  This is how bad things have gotten in my interior parts.  A complete roadblock.

Things can't get worse.  So, I am hoping by Sunday I will be feeling rejuvenated.

This detox is so much more delicious using the exact same ingredients from the other diet MINUS the flax granola.  Which I think is what is blocking my intestines.

Day Twenty- The Last Day I Do This

I drank all the pints of water yesterday.  Followed the diet.  And was rewarded this morning by a TWO POUND WEIGHT GAIN.  Today is  day 20.  And I am done with this even though I think I know what caused the weight gain and the return of the eyebrow rash.  Fresh mozzarella cheese. I've eaten it before without any trouble.  But, yesterday, I got trouble.  Today--well, it'll be plain eating again.  All safe foods (well, the cheese was safe--but now it's not)

So, the premise of this elimination diet isn't really REAL.  You test reactive to something and then don't eat it.  Good enough.  But you test safe for something and then a few days later a reaction. Which leaves you wondering--is safe food really safe?  What exactly does a reaction mean? Can a food make you lose weight one day and then gain weight another day plus get your rash back???? What if I am suddenly reactive to the beets I had with the cheese and not the cheese?

Above is a picture of something I may make today for lunch.  Zucchini noodles with red cabbage, carrot, onion and kale.  There is an Asian dressing to pour over which does not contain soy.  Look in my sidebar for Simply Recipes.  It looks pretty and will be fun to "twirl" a fork into something for a change.  Unless I am "suddenly" now reactive to zucchini.

I have two books waiting for me at the library on elimination diets and the authors are actually doctors.  The Plan author is not.

Yesterday was not a good day for me.  Tired.  My skin around my eyes burning.  Trouble breathing. Short attention span.  Mosquitos.  Too hot outside.

I did notice, because I have one on right now --the Bean linen camp shirt has a pocket.  From now on I will just look for short sleeved linen Bean shirts with a pocket at Goodwill.  The pink shirt washed up nicely and the picked back dart lines vanished.  The shirt body itself looks good but the shoulders are cut narrow (you can see it clearly when the shirt is laid out flat) and the short sleeves are really skimpy.  You hardly see this shirt in the store or catalogs anymore (I would buy it).  I think, they redesigned it into oblivion.  You do see the elbow length sleeve--with bust darts and back darts.  I still buy those.  And remove the back darts.  And never button the sleeve buttons.  Cut too tight.  Pulls when you move your arms.

I do have one of the three quarter sleeve shirts in a 3X.  Super comfy.  I wear it all summer.  Loose, lightweight.  In the washer, in the dryer, no ironing and back in business as my go to summer shirt.
I've been wearing it nearly every day--two summers now--and it shows no signs of wear.  Would be a great beach cover up as well.  I don't wear a 3X usually but buying this shirt was a great deal for me.  All my other shirts are just plain XL.  And they fit loose.  BUT, the XL three quarter sleeve pulls from the shoulder to the elbow-- every single one of them.

Next post--whenever that is--will be business as usual.  No Plan.   Now, I am off to the library before the heat builds up.  Then the garden.  And then the shower and back to reading my book.  Thank you for your patience with this diet stuff.  Sigh.  It bored me to death as well.

Day Nineteen- Repeat Your Favorite Day

Now, the author of that phrase is referring to diet menu days.  But----- what if Fate asked you to repeat your favorite day in your life.  Wow.  Now that would take some thought.

On the diet--my favorite day was the day I had toast.  Remember I wrote that I very nearly swooned with delight over the toasted bread loaded with melted butter.

But that's not the day I chose to repeat.  I chose to repeat a day when I lost 1.5 pounds.

Weight has returned to it's lowest point in the 19 days and remained steady for two days now.  Even "restaurant day" which was an odd buffet of finger foods.  A plate of cold, beautifully arranged, broccoli florets, slant cut carrots (blanched I think), cucumber.  Like they knew I was coming.  There was a "slider" buffet with pulled pork, pulled chicken or portobello mushrooms.  There was a fruit plate with beautifully cut and fanned pineapple, melons etc with a few perfect strawberries.  Also a cheese platter.  I stuck with the vegetables and pulled pork--scooping up pork with my carrots.  One strawberry.  Three scallops wrapped in bacon.  I drank water even though it was an open bar.  After I had a small Whoopee Pie cone at the wonderful inTown ice cream shack.  Then Evita.

This morning no weight gain and no weight loss so I think--it's okay.

Today I had bran flakes, coffee and water.  I made a little chart for my water consumption.  I finally got the Plan Cookbook from library loan and--well, things have changed quite a bit since the original book.  The Kale with Vegetables is much more that it was.  The coco sauce makes a VAT of sauce--more than anyone would ever need.  There is pizza.  There is pasta sauce.  So many things.  And there are changes to the "cleanse".  No liver detox capsules.  It's a totally different diet.  And there was an easy to use "drinking your water chart" which would have saved me much anguish.

Simply a pint jar.  At 7, 9, 12, 2, 5, 7.  Just fill the jar with water, chug it down, walk away.  I like making a mark next to each hour's water.  And the jar stays put next to the chart.  No wondering where I set my water glass or when and how much water I drank.  When I weigh less--less water.

Big deal yesterday--I wore one of my rings.  It fit on my finger.  I also wore a very pretty pin tucked white linen blouse that I have not worn in a very long time.  Because it didn't fit.  Last night it fit. I had to wear pants that were too large but-they were all I have. And because it was a special "occasion" I put product into my hair.  I am all about wash and wear hair. So product is a big deal.  I didn't bother with make-up--my tan is so dark (greenhouse) it wouldn't make any difference.

This morning the skin around my eyes is itching.  Allergies, I think.  I took my Zyrtec and am hoping it kicks in soon.  I don't think it's food related--that reaction happens pretty dark fast.

I'm going to try and manage the vegetable crisper drawers better.  I had more produce that I am comfortable tossing due to "forgetting" it was there--- then buying more.  It spoiled and is now in the compost pile.  I have quite a lot of kale, broccoli and watermelon.  More than enough zucchini. Five roasted beets.  Two pieces of chicken.  I need to test a new vegetable this week.  I am considering red cabbage.  For my salads.   But I could test it cooked in a stir fry as well.  the Plan prefers vegetables to be cooked not raw.  Now that sounds good.  Onion, cabbage, carrots, red pepper and broccoli stir fry.

Day Twenty is tomorrow.  The last diet post.

Day Eighteen- My Favorite Number

I love it when things work out in a serendipitous way.  Like today in the Plan is "eat out at a restaurant" day.  And G and I were, a month ago, invited to a bank event and tickets to see Evita at the local, in Town, music theater.  I think they are serving us snacks at the Daniel Stone Inn.  And here it is theater day and eat out day. Like I was "planning" or something.

I also saw this zucchini noodle dish on Simply Recipes website.  I love making and eating zucchini noodles.  It's so playful.   On thePlan website the Plan author spends a great deal of time writing about her method with zucchini noodles.  She basically cuts them and then sets them somewhere to air dry.  Couple of hours or more.  Makes them dense, drier and more chewy.

The Simple Recipe (dot com) bowl up top, combines the noodles with 4 ounces of sautéed chicken and basil pesto.  The only addition that I probably can't have is the tomatoes.  I need to test tomatoes.  This might be a good time to do as the recipe only calls for a handful of cherry tomatoes for two servings.

Yesterday I watered my vegetable garden.  My broccoli had gone to seed.  Sadly.  But I cut the little broccoli heads with flowers an popped them in the FP with my greens for meatballs.  After watering and planting a few more things I mixed up and gave everyone a nice drink of fish emulsion fertilizer.  Then I need a good soapy shower to stop smelling like fish fertilizer myself.

I read some chapters in my new book (not sure I like it) ate my dinner of leftover brown rice and leftover vegetables.  Watched tv and then went to bed.  Allergies to pollen and mold are making me quite dim witted and sleepy.

The bran flakes and (now) daily cup of coffee are taking care of any constipation I may be suffering. I lost one pound overnight even though I had yogurt with blueberries and bran flakes.  Two items NOT on the Plan.  So, I am feeling a bit more successful today.

 I visited Goodwill and got myself another pair of summer (gardening) capri pants in my new, smaller size.  I also found an LLBean short sleeved PINK LINEN blouse.  PINK.  I picked out the two back darts they insist on adding to a classic shirt.  I hate the bust darts they also added (as well as shortening the sleeve length and making the shirt longer) but can't get rid of them without taking the entire shirt apart---which I have done.  I consider that experience as "making a pattern for future shirt making"  and not a mistake.

The original shirt was perfectly flat and square when I ironed it.  No darts no tucks.  Back section the same width and length as the front section (when buttoned).  I think it was called a "camp shirt".  Good length on the sleeves which were straight out from the side seams, not angled.  Classic.

You can still find some of the original camp shirts at Goodwill.  Not often.  But I have never before found anything PINK.  So this new shirt (even though not a camp shirt) is a treasure I will be wearing for the rest of my life.

Day Seventeen- We Are Experiencing Difficulties

The Southern pulled pork was extraordinary I removed the cover of the cast iron pot at 3 ½ hours (maybe 4) and left it at 325 for another 60 minutes or more until the meat was dark and crusty.  Gary was over the moon happy with it and I enjoyed my serving very, very much.  And I drank my water and had watermelon for snack.  Lunch was a repeat of the chopped salad with sunflower seeds. So enough bulk and enough moisture.

All in all, enough bulk to have produced some "elimination" since this is an elimination diet.  NOPE.
So, no weight loss this morning which makes two full days in a row (but no gain).  So, I went to the cupboard and got down the bran flakes.  Had a bowl with rice milk (water) for breakfast.

Now everything is as it should be, I think.  Bran Flakes.  A little breakfast miracle.

Today's menu: Flax granola with fruit.
Chickpea salad and butternut soup for lunch. Rye cracker with raw almond butter for snack. Approved protein on mixed greens with Vegetable Timbale (contains tomato which we have not tested).

 I had Bran Flakes. I won't be having the chickpea salad (hot chickpeas with cumin and wilted spinach) or the rye cracker.  I never bothered to make raw almond butter as the almonds seemed to bother me, not a lot, but some. The thought of making sunflower seed butter--makes me gag.

I will, instead, just have a salad with Romaine and carrots.  And for dinner I will have chicken with vegetables.  I may make the Fried (or baked) Little Green Balls from Food52.

The recipe is Plan friendly.  8ounces packed weight of any greens or stems of vegetable tops you have (beet greens, arugula that has bolted, carrot tops, parsley stems, kale stems) stuff you had planned to tuck into the compost bin.  Run it all thru the food processor until finely chopped (might want to start with stems and then add anything leafy).  It's good to have a mix of leafy and stems.

 Heat the fry pan with some olive oil and sauté a finely chopped yellow onion with some salt and garlic.  Add cumin seeds if you like it.  I don't. Cilantro if you like that.  I don't. Add the greens from the FP to the pan and continue to saute.  Meanwhile, add a slice of bread to the FP and make bread crumbs.  Then crumble up ¼cup of feta or any other cheese you have around by hand.  Dump everything in a bowl, let cool for 5 minutes and then start mixing and smooching with your hands.  Can add one egg to hold the mix into little balls (about 20) or two eggs if needed.  Can fry them or bake them.  The bake is 350 on parchment paper (will stick) for 15 min and then turn for another 10 to 15.  Serve like you would meatballs.  Can squeeze some lemon over the top.  Add pesto.  Whatever.  Instead of the garlic--try adding a few garlic scapes if you have them.

It's pretty much--use anything you would normally cut off and throw away.  IF you garden--then you can be making these little green balls from now until September.

Day Sixteen- Testing Protein for Lunch & Dinner

Since I have only chicken as an approved protein that I can eat more often than once a week, I will not be eating it twice in one day. Once a day is more than enough chicken.  Yesterday I had 2 flax crackers with goat cheese (as a test) for lunch and gained one pound overnight.  So, the goat cheese is now history. I'm only testing a food twice.

I didn't manage to drink all my water yesterday so that could be an additional weigh gainer. But I woke  up this morning feeling VERY energetic (reminding myself of the detox energy) and I scrubbed both of our bathrooms, washed woodwork, vacuumed the entire house plus the very dirty (we garden) sunporch which is our way in and out of the house for garden chores. I also washed the kitchen floor and have the area rugs in the washing machine.

Yesterday the only house work I managed was changing the linens on our bed.

I also have Southern Pulled Pork in the oven.  I am re-testing pork today to see if the reaction was more to do with the marinade (ketchup and soy) and less to do with the pork itself.  The pork has safe ingredients like brown sugar, cayenne pepper and garlic on it.  With apple cider vinegar as the liquid.

I've kept everything else today in the ultra safe category so the test will be a good one.  Breakfast being the awful flax granola (I once found it delicious), one cup of coffee and blueberries.  Lunch was a repeat of the chopped salad with sunflower seeds for protein.  Romaine, zucchini, carrot and avocado.  I could easily have added in 2 ounces of chicken.  But I didn't want to.

My husband asked how long I intended to do this "diet" and I answered quite truthfully.  If I eat safe foods and gain weight overnight--then I am done.  There is no point in continuing.  And, between you and I, it's been a few days since I lost any NEW weight.  I keep gaining and losing the same few pounds.  Up three, down two, down one, up one.  Which means the last time I lost any real weight was back on July 5th.

In the comments section of the only real source of information regarding this diet (Amazon.com book reviews), this seems to be the experience of most who purchased the book and tried the Plan.  Weight loss the first few days (detox) and then up/down while testing.  Never really going down and staying there. A few have lost inches but not weight.  I think I am in that group.  Pants that fit me June 30th are very very loose today.

The diet in the book loses momentum starting tomorrow.  All the days read the same.  Approved breakfast, approved lunch and approved dinner.  No testing of any new foods for days 17 to 20. Mostly we test protein twice a day, double sized portion of some safe food and eating at a restaurant. So what I have is it. And then I sort of have to find my own way. The author says--if you want to eat something--then test it.  But first I have to get to a place where I am not going up and down constantly.  A safe food spot.

I am planning to call my doctor and ask to have two blood tests done.  ALCAT and C-Reactive Protein.  She won't want to order them.  But I am going to force the issue if I have to.  She thinks allergy tests are nonsense.  Her words.  I have also ordered two other elimination diet books that are highly recommended, in the Amazon comments, from my library.

I have started moving my diet and food test info to my desk calendar so I can see, at a glance, where I was, am and where I am going.  I can also see what foods I tested.

The huge rainstorms predicted didn't happen, but weather was pretty chilly.  Now the sun is coming out.  Next four days are going to be brutally HOT---- I don't do well, in brutally hot.  Which is why I am not working at the greenhouse this summer.

Day Fifteen - Another Protein Tested

I gave up on "following the rules" and used common sense instead.  I needed to have another protein other than chicken.  So, while out at the grocery store looking for more large beets to roast, I purchased steak.  One for me and one for G.  He was out doing work for a landscaper and arrived home hungry and tired.  We had steak and baked potato with a side of grilled vegetable kabobs while watching the horrible evening news.

Anyway, I decided to eat a new protein even though I was in the process of testing my new breakfast item--yogurt.  Well, I had steak and a third of a baked potato with lots of butter and this morning I was another pound down (so back to what I weighed Thursday before eating Chinese).  I also had a chopped salad for lunch yesterday.  I followed the recipe exactly.  One chopped carrot, one chopped zucchini, one chopped small head of Romaine, half an avocado, handful of sunflower seeds and oil and vinegar dressing.  It was delicious.  I ate it with a spoon.  I did not have my snack of potato chips.  When I went to see if I was indeed having potato chips for snack--I was on the wrong page in the diet book.

Now I have two proteins to add to the safe/tested list, a new vegetable (potato), and a new salad to make for lunch or dinner.  A "real" chopped salad includes meat and cheese but I won't be doing that anytime soon.  Tomorrow I am retesting pork.  Without the ketchup and soy marinade.  Hopefully on Monday morning I can report having three tested proteins to use in the remaining menus.  Each says the same thing "any approved protein".  Now, steak is just once a week.  Pork doesn't include sausage, bacon or ham.  Those would be separate tests. I am making Southern Pulled Pork in the oven with cider vinegar, garlic and cayenne pepper (a Martha Stewart recipe).  I am adding the brown sugar also as brown sugar was added to one of the recipes in the Plan book.  So it must be okay.  (who knows as there are so many odd things popping up in the recipe section that aren't in the Plan food list)

As you can tell, the longer this goes on and the further from the first three day cleanse we are--the more fragmented the actual Plan gets.

There are people who managed to get 30 or more days into this but they aren't on the internet helping others navigate.  Most blogging regarding the diet stops at the 8 day mark (I have searched and searched).  And here I am at 15.  Frustrated.  Confused.  Trying to stay on it and wanting to just give up.  BUT.  It's a loss of almost 6 pounds in 2 weeks compared to "maybe" a loss of 1 pound a week on the 1200 to 1600 calorie diet I have been on for 120 days.  And there is the general feeling that my body composition has changed.  From lumpy to elongated?  I'm not any taller but I seem to think I feel taller.  If I just eat safe foods--will I lose weight each day?  Will I stall?

Five days to go before the diet plan is all "any approved" relating to breakfast, lunch and dinner. As Elaine used to say on Seinfeld--"yada yada, yada"

Nothing new today. For me.  It's raining, dark and dismal here in Maine.  Tomorrow--pulled pork.

Day Fourteen- How Did It Get To Be Friday Already?

My days, not working, are whooshing past far too quickly.  It almost seems like I am "wasting" them. I know, I know.  Stop thinking those thoughts.  Relax. Enjoy.  Just "be".

Zucchini is my very favorite vegetable right now.  I love it fried with olive oil and onion until deeply browned.  I love it grilled (like in the picture) while still tender and small.  I do not like waiting for it to grow in the garden.  The plants (which I successfully grew from seeds) are looking perky and healthy.  But they are young.  No fruit yet.  So, I am off to the grocery today.

Today is day 14.  Today I had yogurt for breakfast.  One of the Noosa yogurts I had in the fridge before this diet began.  I choose to "test" the lemon one as I have lemon in my water nearly everyday.

Two of the three pounds I gained overnight on Thursday are gone. It was too much to hope that all three would disappear. I am trying to drink as much water as it is possible for me to drink.  Without gagging.  I wonder if other people gag when they drink water?

Yesterday was overcast and cool so I didn't water the vegetable garden.  Instead, I grabbed a shovel and starting digging professional sized weeds out of the front left bed.  Then I planted three tickseed "Polaris" in the, now, empty bed.  Then G went into the woods and hauled a very small percentage of the wood chips we have from the first trees taken down last summer.  It's been a year (almost) and they are now safe to use as mulch.  I mulched heavily.  We don't water landscaping, only containers. It's too expensive.

All that mulch is like money in the bank for a gardener like me.  I LOVE a heavily mulched perennial bed.  Keeps the weeds down, conserves moisture and just looks so neat and tidy.  The only downside is the re-seeding of biennials such as foxglove, echinacea etc.  They need bare ground contact for the seeds to germinate.  Not that I have either of those in the garden. The only biennial I worry about is Rose Campion with it's tall fuzzy gray stems and lovely magenta flowers balanced on top like tiny saucers.

Today's food (it helps me to visualize) is the TEST yogurt for breakfast and a cup of coffee, a chopped salad for lunch, one ounce of salt free potato chips for snack, chicken (my only protein so far) with steamed vegetables plus any leftover vegetable from yesterday (like that ever happens--though I do have a roasted beet I could term "leftover").

I have checked the coming days and there isn't another "protein test" so I am wondering if I will be stuck with just chicken for the next 11 days????  I could try to test a "new" protein but this seems like a rather substantial error on the diet author's part.  Anyone else reading this blog who have tried this diet?  Please contact me!