And on the 21st Day
I finally, yay! had the surgery on my leg. This was an experience that I hope never to repeat. There was good and there was bad. I liked the surgeon as a person. He was very nice and chatted throughout the entire procedure. He did not believe that the "lump" was what was causing me difficulty in walking. He also never looked at the ultrasound. The ultrasound that told the physician's assistant that it was too deep for her to take care of. The "lump" turned out to have 3 "legs" (I've referred to it as a multi-legged beast), one of which went down deep. All total, the mess was about the size of a medium potato. It's gone. I haven't limped since, nor has my leg crumpled. Then again, with the exception of a brief outing on Wednesday, I've been rather sedate. Tomorrow will provide the answer as I will be going back to work.
I ended up taking the whole of last week off. I should have gone in to work on Friday but overslept and, well, there you have it. The incision site has actually be the real problem. I've had to wear really, really loose clothing because of that pain. It's still tender but I'll live. Tomorrow I will be wearing a skirt--obviously. I'm also riding the bus. Yay bus!
I've done a tiny bit of cooking. Tiny because, for the most part, I haven't really been hungry. I had actually lost about 6 pounds, although now that I'm eating again, I've gained back 2. I have wanted to be able to make seitan for some time. Purchasing it has never made me happy as it always seem tough and the sausages are expensive. I held a package of Tofurkey sausages in my hands a couple of weeks ago and almost passed out due to the fat content. So, this week I have made 3 separate batches. Okay, the first of those was made last weekend. I was a bit distracted during that event and couldn't decide which of 2 recipes I was following. Ended up leaving out the spices and the salt so the faux sausages were pretty dry and bland. My second batch of faux sausages turned out perfectly. They are rather mild but I suspect that they will be perfect as a breakfast sausage with some roasted root veggies.
For the batch of faux sausages that I made yesterday, I primarily relied on Susan's Faux Irish Sausages. I added a bit (about 1/2 teaspoon) of Marmite and 1/2 cube of no-beef bullion to the wet ingredients. The sausages turned out nice and tender with a lovely mild flavor. Oh, I also substituted 1/4 cup of garbanzo flour for 1/4 cup of gluten flour. That idea came courtesy of Bryanna Grogan's Italian cookbook.
I made another batch of seitan today using the scaloppine from Susan's Seitan Scaloppine with Lemon-Olive Sauce. My only changes were leaving out the basil and adding about 3/4 teaspoon of Marmite and 1/2 cube of the no-beef bullion. I love it. I plan to put a "pot of stew" on before I go to work in the morning using the seitan. Thanks to my veggie box, I have potatoes and carrots coming out of my ears and a stew seems like the perfect way to create a comfort food out of them. I'll cut up the veggies and set out the can of tomatoes before I go to bed tonight. That way, I can put it in the slow cooker while brewing my cuppa espresso.
My other bit of experimenting this week was trying the diet soda and cake mix recipe. It turned out pretty good, albeit so tender that a fork does not work to carry the slice from the cake pan to the plate. No, I will not eat it directly from the cake pan. Ew. My version was diet Crush and a low sugar yellow cake mix. No eggs; no oil; no water. 9 X 13 inch pan for 35 minutes. How easy is that? I topped it with a mix of 1 cup of the diet Orange Crush, 2 teaspoons of corn starch. Once that was thickened, I added a drained can of crushed pineapple. Oh, and I added a splash of sugar-free vanilla Italian syrup. It was silly fun but not something that I would serve company. At least without some more fussing. I was more impressed with the cake mix and can of pumpkin puree that I baked a few months ago. That has more potential. Just think: spices, shredded carrots, walnuts, pineapple. . . sound like easy carrot cake to you?
Enough with the food. I have a new toy. Okay, I have 2 new toys --one of which I shouldn't have purchased. I have a new PC which I love. I had the previous one for less than 4 years but it was getting slower and slower. I was convinced that my DSL was slower than molasses and was seriously considering doing something drastic about it. I opened up the PC and found that it was filthy inside. I generally get inside and, using a can of air, give it a good clean out every couple of months just on general principle. Somehow, I had either gotten off schedule or it was just a nasty gooey junk magnet. Not wanting to spend a bundle to fix the dang thing, I did the next best thing: I bought a new one. I found one on Tiger Direct that provided me with the choice between Windows XP and Vista. Had to have XP. Sorry Microsoft but Vista has the worst rep that I've ever heard about an operating system. Anyway, I was a bit slow in making my migration to the new PC. I'm having some difficulty with a second hard drive that I've had for years and am praying that it won't cost me a fortune to rescue it because I do have to rescue it. No choice. The second hard drive was my only form of back up. That is a mistake that I won't make again and I strongly recommend that whatever your system, you take steps to back up all of your important data.
I also purchased a laptop so that I could be a bit more portable. My writing just wasn't happening here in my office space so I am hoping that a different environment will help. I'm still working out the kinks there. The only modem that I have for it is dial up and getting the system update by dial up is almost laughable. A little bit at a time. I also am having difficulty with the battery but will be dealing with that this week. I'm not sure if I go through Tiger or to the manufacturer for that but will find out. I will report later on how their customer service is.
Not else to report. I've been reading and cleaning. That's it. Pretty dull but I am pleased that I have actually gotten more serious about my writing. My next post will include a bit of fiction for your reading pleasure. I promise that it won't be weeks from now. Really.
Yes, I know that I didn't provide any links but if you really want them, let me know and I'll hunt them down for you.

