Friday

[susandennis]

This time last year began The Winter Of The Itch. In Seattle, even the winter rainy season is actually very dry. I've always been aware of a little itchy dry skin in Winter but last year it was very nearly fatal. Ok not quite but close. I spent most of October and the rest of the winter until May in excruciating itch. I spent a fortune on creams and lotions and anti-itch stuff and days and weeks in real discomfort. Finally in May when I went for my annual doctor visit he said that my skin was really dry and I should lather on CeraVe. The pharmacist suggested that I use a spatula/turner to cover my back with it and relief was instant. So fast that I was really pissed I had not asked sooner.

I've been using spray lotion on my back for a month but yesterday, it started itching in the afternoon and I immediately dragged out my CeraVe and spatula and put them in my swim bag. There will be no itching this year. None. I will not go through that again.

As expected, yesterday the house smelled amazing from the crockpot dinner ... at 3:30. Interestingly earlier in the day I had read an LJ entry (locked so no details) from a retiree listing the joys of retired life and one was 'eat whenever we want to'. So yesterday I had dinner at 4 pm. The world did not end. The dinner was, also as expected, pretty much a fail but it was warm and filling and not fatal.

This morning, while swimming, I mentally rearranged my kitchen. I'm getting a new icemaker that needs to be near the sink as does the coffee pot and that area's a little crowded so when I finish this, I'll be movin' stuff around to accommodate the newest member of the gadget family.

My new Pixel phone is delighting me way more than I expected. The smaller size is so perfect and it's just as zippy as it could possibly be. It's so responsive and I love it.

Today will be the usual sewing and maybe some baseball and other TV... just a usual, regular day - my kind of day!

The latest bear (and these colors - at least on my screen - are exactly like the actual colors... this new phone's camera is pretty amazing):

Comments

[ladythmpr.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting that you consider your slow cooker dinners failures. I've been slow cooking on a near-daily basis since 2009. (I had mono for 6 months and had limited energy to do "normal" dinners, and since then, I've really come to loathe the "5 o'clock panic" of dinner preparation for a family of 5.) In that time, I've had maybe a half-dozen meals I would consider failures. What fails in *your* slow-cooked meals?

I love the colors on this bear!

[susandennis]

Oh yeah! maybe you can help. The first problem is that I'm picky and I love crunchy and I'm lazy. Ok so that's the first 3 problems :) Oh and I don't like vegetables.

Yesterday, I had cut up potatoes, cut up onion, 2 chicken thighs, cream of mushroom soup and various spices. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't even mildly interesting. Just really bland. And glopy (too much soup?)But, baking the chicken and potatoes would have been a lot better and crunchier.

So toss me some thots. I've combed through the internets for ideas and have, honestly, not come up with much of anything tempting.

I like almost all meats. Mushrooms. Onions. Potatoes (not sweet). Cheese. I'm not wild about pre browning anything. I want to chop, dump and plug in.

It seems like everythign involves cream of something soup and after yesterday, I think I'm done with that. What's something that doesn't require cream of something soup?

Oh and I'd like to steer clear of 'healthy' or 'good for you' - that translates to yuck for me :)

I'd really love some pointers!

[ladythmpr.livejournal.com]

Well, "crunchy" and "slow cooker" really don't go together. Crunchy is dry cooking and slow cooker is wet cooking. I think that's mostly why slow cooker dinners fail for you.

Slow cookers cook best if they are at least 3/4 full. If you have a 4 quart cooker, and you're only putting in an onion, a potato, and a couple of chicken pieces, your meal will cook a lot faster and might be over done by the time it has cooked the amount of time in the recipe.

Most cream-of soups contain gluten, and I have celiac, so I avoid them like the plague. I think I have two dishes in my repertoire that need a cream-of soup ingredient, and I make my own.

Slow cooking requires about twice the amount of dried herbs and spices (except for chili and pepper) as dry cooking. If you're using fresh herbs, add them in the last hour or so.

My big introduction to slow cooking was from a site that was originally called crockpot365.com and now is called http://www.ayearofslowcooking.com/ It all started as one woman's challenge to use her slow cooker every day for a year. (She now has 4 cookbooks. I use them regularly. As in nearly every day.) She has plenty of recipes that are meat or meat in sauces without vegetables. You might want to check them out. (Some of them are marked "healthy", but don't let that scare you! Add more butter if you want!)

[susandennis]

thanks!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

After I read your post last year, I went out and purchased CeraVe lotion. I've very happy with it!

[susandennis]

It's some magic shit, that's for sure!

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you have a solution for the itch, things like that can really drive you up the wall. Before I knew I was allergic to milk I was so ill and miserable that it was a relief to finally find out the cause and how just avoiding it would make me better

[rsc.livejournal.com]

listing the joys of retired life and one was 'eat whenever we want to'.

Curiously -- maybe because it's good to have some structure -- we tend to eat our meals at "regular" times (when we're home): lunch around 1:00, cocktails and hors d'oevres at 6:00, dinner around 7:00 (or a bit later, if real cooking is involved). On the other hand, breakfast whenever we happen to get up.

[susandennis]

I think if I had another person in the mix I would do meal stuff differently. I am sure I would add cocktail hour to the mix.

It sounds like you guys get up at different times. No alarm? Just random?