After spending time with a certain quality family on the East Coast, I returned home to too much work, very little sleep, and an energy-sapping cold courtesy of my neighbor that I had dinner with the other night. While it's not the flu, combined with my overworked and tired body, I decided to take the day off today and just veg. I caught up on some episodes on hulu, got a nice nap in, and made some soup.
Oh soup. How I love you, how comforting you are when I feel like crap. And the fact that you have only 4 ingredients and you whip up in about 20-30 minutes makes you doubly wonderful.
When I worked at my former workplace, my old boss used to take me out to lunch at her favorite Greek restaurant up the street, The Continental. The first time, we both had the avgolemono soup and a baklava to go, and I fell in love with lemony chickeny ricey soup/porridge. Last year I bought a soup recipe book from a fundraiser, and lo and behold, recipe for The Continental's Avgolemono Soup was in it. (Side note: the restaurant is owned and staffed by the Nicest People Ever. Please visit them.)
This soup reminds me of the Filipino arrozcaldo my mom always made me when I was sick and remains my go to soup when I feel like crap. Unfortunately it involves cooking chicken which I don't always have the energy to do, and requires nice big chunks of ginger which I don't always have fresh on hand when a cold strikes me. This Greek soup however is simple enough that it may become my new go to.
Their recipe calls for bouillon and water but I usually just have those boxed chicken broths in my pantry. Theirs also calls for a tablespoon of butter, but I forgot to put it in, and frankly didn't miss it all. I halved the recipe as I only had 2 eggs and 1 box of broth, but it's resulted in several bowls, probably enough for 2 people.
Avgolemono Soup (Half Recipe)
adapted from The Continental
1 quart chicken broth (1 box)
1/2 cup of rice
2 eggs, separated
1 lemon, juiced (or 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice)
Salt and pepper to taste
Bring broth to a boil and add rice; cover and simmer until rice is cooked, about 20 minutes. Meantime, separate the eggs and beat the whites until solid and frothy. Beat in yolks and lemon juice. Ladle in the hot broth (leave the rice in the pot) one spoonful at a time with the egg mixture, while beating. Do it slowly so the eggs don't curdle. When it's all in, give it a final whip and stir everything back into the pot and dish up. Season to taste and feel better soon!
Just checking in to say that Seattle broke all kinds of records this week with our heat wave. Can I just say, long freaking week. Triple digits and buildings closing and buses stop running because of the excess heat. We're not equipped for all this extreme weather we've been having. Week long snow in the winter, triple digits in the summer. It's like we're suddenly east coast.
I think I got a total of maybe 10 hours the entire week. What with sweating all over, frozen peas on my toes to keep me from going feverish, my windows wide open to all the neighborhood noise, including screeching cats and raccoons, it's been highly uncomfortable. This evening finally got down to a reasonable temp with a slight breeze going through the apartment, which was enough to finally turn on the oven.
What? Yeah I know, I baked, literally. But I had all these blueberries that just didn't want to go in the freezer, or do plain old smoothies, they wanted to be exotic, they wanted to do something fun, like be French and go into a clafoutis. So that's where they went, and they are deeeeeeeeeeelish! Way to end a scorching week.
See, I don't even sound like myself anymore, it's the heat talking. Looking forward to cooler weather in the 80s (yeeeesh, I know, it sucks, what happened to our mild summers?) this weekend and into next week. I hate to say it, but can it be fall yet already? I'm done with summer. (side note: saw the movie (500) Days of Summer the other day to escape the heat...cute movie!)
So I'm not sure what the chances are of getting sick twice in 1 week, but just when I thought I was getting better, I found myself in a slump again this afternoon as every bone in my body began to throb. Oh yes, oh yes, that bone-deep ache that usually accompanies the flu. Although, as I sit here swathed in blankets with a mug of tea and bottles of zinc, vitamin c, and ibuprofen, I feel a tad better than I did a few hours ago. I'm hoping a good night's sleep makes it pass in the night and awake fresh and ready to get all that stuff done I was going to get done this week at work.
I was going to blog more, but it's been busy around here, what with being out of town, and being sick, and being out of town, and being sick again. Maybe the two are related?
Dear Orange Chair Reader,
I apologize for my lack of presence of late. I've been busy doing nothing in particular:
1) Watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the wee hours of the morning
2) Watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the wee hours of the morning
3) Playing Scrabble on Facebook
4) Watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the wee hours of the morning
I've returned to tell you that I finally watched all 7 seasons of Buffy (season 6 sucks, but overall wow, great show!), and have promptly now started watching Angel. It's like crack I tell you, and Joss Whedon is my supplier.
I've also become addicted to Facebook. With my BFF (iPhone), I can check it from everywhere. And it lets me play Scrabble with practically everyone I know. But I've become a little obsessive about updating and checking statuses that I've failed to live real life. It's like my life has become reduced to a short text message.
That and I have no real goals in my life right now. For the first time in years, quite literally years, I don't have any goals or anything concrete to look forward to. I have no master's degree to work toward, I have no trips planned, I have no constructive classes or projects or anything. Besides getting through all of the Joss Whedon canon and kicking some Scrabble butt. Oh and reading all the awesome books I got the past few months.
But I need something more constructive going in my life, maybe some classes or new projects. Or some goals I can stick to. So far I'm thinking guitar lessons, pottery (again), silversmithing, swim classes, kickboxing (inspired by Buffy, of course), or photography. I haven't looked into any of these yet...too busy watching Buffy. But will look into these this week: that's a goal.
Today I started goal #8 on my list of "things that will make me a happier and better person":
8. Learn a new programming language. Because I'm feeling pretty useless at work right now with my .NET/Microsoft background. My last email I received today was a debate about whether to move our website to an Apache server now or to wait to move it to Plone in the next year or so, both of which mean
Whoops, I should've specified - specifically, a photography class. ~Special K, take 2
That's right - weren't you, Neighbor C, and I going to find a class to take? ~Special K
Yeah! See this is what I am talking about. I actually like knowing that you are obsessed with watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Because I have never actually watched Buffy and now I think that I might be missing out.
My new goal: learning how to can. For some reason last week, I was overcome with a desire to can beans (like dried beans). But I need a pressure canner. And then I started thinking about stock piling my pantry with things like applesauce and jams. Because I am all Anne of GG like that. In the meantime, I am just cooking my dried beans and freezing them in an attempt to be all frugal.
And now I have just written a post right here. So ya, yeah to new goals!