Maintenance

[pameladean]

I am extremely abashed and pleased at the kind responses to my last whiny post, both in comments and in email.

And the discussion of L.M. Montgomery and of comfort books is marvellous.

A bit before I posted that entry, I bethought me that even though the national and international situations are enough to make any person of sense at least briefly contemplate jumping off a cliff; and that even though my career is tottering and my personal life about to suffer a dislocation and my finances not worth speaking of for a moment, my reaction to all this still seemed a bit off. So, I thought, exercise? Well, no, not for a few days. Fresh vegetables? Well, only very intermittently. Vitamins? Well, no, not for a few weeks.

So I snagged somebody's B-complex (we're out of multivitamins) and made some curried okra and some potatoes with spinach (working on the principal of using up vegetables that weren't getting any fresher) and grimly started my daily walks up, despite the icky weather.

That helped a bunch. In consequence of all this and a late-night conversation with Eric, I wrote 700 words on the Liavek novel. So, I stick my tongue out in the universe's general direction.

Pamela

Comments

gods this sounds fangirlish but ...

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Somehow I totally missed that last post - I swear LJ has been hiding stuff from me lately.

Please add me to the Tam Lin as comfort reading list ...

... and thanks for mentioning the words "Liavek" and "novel" together too. That definitely goes in the "yay" column for today, which is still weighted towards the "ugh" side, but just got a little better.

Re: gods this sounds fangirlish but ...

[pameladean]

Oh dear, sorry about the Ugh factor.

I'll add that the book is pretty well past the point where I might abandon it, and is a real book with everything handsome about it, including an irritating tendency to ignore the plot outline and hare off in weird directions. It's alive now. I don't know how long it will take, though.

Pamela

[kightp.livejournal.com]

(deleted and reentered to fix link. I wish there was an "edit" function for comments!)

How easy it is to forget trivial things like eating right, getting enough sleep, etc. when things are stressful. I'm suffering a bit of that myself these days, although for more pleasing reasons.

I'm so glad you remembered, and that you're feeling better as a result.

Curried okra? (she asks, curiosity piqued). Hm ... the okra my sister planted on a whim is just starting to produce fruit...

Curried Okra

[pameladean]

It's pretty easy, as Indian recipes go.

You want to trim the okra pods and slit them lengthways; or else you can cut them in rounds, which makes the dish seem more plenteous. If you have young tender okra right off the plant I think the first step is a fine idea.

Fry the trimmed and slit okra pods in a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil until lightly browned, usually about ten minutes.

Take them out and put them in a bowl. Add more oil if you think you need it. The recipe calls for mustard oil for this step, but vegetable oil works fine and there's no point in wasting what you have left or getting another pan dirty.

Heat up your leftover and/or additional oil and add:

1 chopped large white or yellow onion
2 chopped cloves of garlic
2 or three chopped fresh green or red chiles, or to taste
3/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

Once the onion and garlic are soft, put the fried okra back in along with a couple of tablespoons of water and steam it very gently until the okra is tender.

In the meantime, mix up 1 1/2 teaspoons of dry mustard powder, 2 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and 2 1/2 tablespoons of sour cream (I use Tofutti, and I should think yoghurt would also work fine).

When the okra is tender, add this mixture, stir until everything is nicely coated, and serve. I put it over rice, since it is so very glutinous.

Incidentally, okra has recently been shown to have the same basic cholesterol-lowering power as oatmeal. It's the gooiness.

Pamela

Re: Curried Okra

[pameladean]

Argh!

This recipe is for a pound of okra. Sorry!

Pamela

Re: Curried Okra

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Bless you!

Straight into my Memories collection it goes, with fervent hopes that the okra will be as fruitful as it looks to be. If it doesn't, we can always eke it out with some other veg from the garden - eggplant, perhaps. (Some of it is bright red, BTW - Toni planted lots of interestingly colored veg this year.)

Nice news about the cholesterol, although I wouldn't much care; we are the daughters of a Good Southern Cook, and we *love* okra. Bring on the slime!

Re: Curried Okra

[pameladean]

I think eggplant would be very tasty in that fashion.

I had never cooked with okra before (Eric loves it, and I looked out this recipe just for him).

It makes little sticky threads when you so much as cut it, and the antics it gets up to while being fried really freaked me out the first time. I am becoming acclimated, though.

Pamela

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Huzzah, word count!

I come from an exceptionally bloody-minded and pig-headed family, so I appreciate what's involved in defiantly standing up when the universe seems to want you to lie down and let it stomp you flat. Go you!

And, yeah, eating right, exercising, getting enough rest ... it's very annoying of the brain to be hooked up to a body that needs those things. I've been grumbling for weeks that I could be so much more productive if I didn't have to do this stupid sleep thing.

[pameladean]

For some reason I really like sleep and don't resent it. Exercise, however, and actually considering what one eats rather than eating what one sees or wishes for -- feh.

Thanks for the kind words.

Pamela

[sdn.livejournal.com]

this may not make you feel better, but i feel just the way you do. hence the doctor prescribing exercise and a vacation.

[pameladean]

And how is the first part of that little program going, she asks, attempting to sound stern.

Pamela

[sdn.livejournal.com]

well, as part of our date tonight andy and i walked at least a mile. and on thursday i walked a bazillion blocks to the ferry terminal!

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

hurray wordcount ! *hug*

[papersky.livejournal.com]

When I was kicked offline this morning, and yuck for being back on British phone systems, I was thinking I really wanted to express sympathy and understanding about the situation, and what did I do, I posted about books instead, three times about books and not once to express the sympathy, even though I really did feel it. This is not because of a lack of vitamins or because I'm horrible, but because Dean lying about the value of the book is a sin against the Holy Ghost.

However, I did also want to say that there's a Stan Rogers song about one's friends going to California and this sucking flint through a straw, in case it might help at all.

[pameladean]

Oh, believe me, I completely understand. And I agree about the sin, too.

A good book discussion is almost as good as sympathy, anyway.

But I do thank you for the sympathy. Which Stan Rogers song? I am tolerably familiar with his work, but I can't call it to mind.

Pamela

Stan Rogers song

[apric.livejournal.com]

It's on the "Northwest Passage" album. It's just called "California". This page has a Windows Media Sound File, which doesn't play on my machine, but you might have better luck.

Now it's getting so I'm mad when someone calls your name,
'Cause I've had to say goodbye to friends who couldn't stay away.
And sometimes it felt so wrong to never want to lean on you;
You may stand tall, but I've got two feet too.

California! My friends all call you home,
And if you take away another, I'll be that much more alone.
Is it my fault that my kind are always drawn towards the sun,
like a child to home, whenever darkness comes.

Re: Stan Rogers song

[pameladean]

Thank you! (And hi!)

We have that album, but I never did sit down and learn all the lyrics the way I did with some others. I'll go dig it out.

Pamela

[(Anonymous)]

As someone who used to lie awake worrying about his insomnia, I can say that it's possible to operate on very little sleep. However, it's better not to.
And I'm glad to hear that you're doing better in general.

Nutrition -- it's possible to get the British minimum of vitamin C from potatoes. However, the UK and Us standards are different enough that they might be for different species.

Walking -- it's possible to do it indoors, in malls and skyways. After Diversicon -- which I got to and from via the bus station at the Mall of America -- I highly recommend getting lost in the Mall as walking exercise.

Dan Goodman
journal: http://dsgood.blogspot.com

Liavek Novel

[(Anonymous)]

I just wanted to insert that every time I read those two words "Liavek novel" in your journal, I feel a little surge of joy and anticipation that makes me grab for my wallet. I desperately hope I'm not alone and fervently wish that some sensible publisher will give you buckets of cash for the priveledge of giving the world that book!

jeffy (http://tomecat.com/madtimes/)

Re: Liavek Novel

[pameladean]

As far as I can tell, the phrase "Liavek novel" is to publishers as a millstone around a book's neck. Ace had no idea what to do with those collections, and after the first few really didn't want them anyway, their inspirational editor having been fired. They didn't sell well at all. So they are not a good history to have. Well, it's too bad, but that's the book in my head.

Nobody will need to have read the originals to understand this book, but I hope having done so will provide some pleasant frissons.

Pamela