Progress, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Can I let you in on a little secret?

A week ago I had a morbid thought. What if I died tomorrow? What if I was too late? What if my heart exploded from the stress and the poor diet choices and all that stuff and that there would be bits and pieces of me left everywhere and the only thing left to identify would be my hand, still clutching my iPad and my MacBook? post-mortem of course. Haha

Today I went back to my doctor for a follow up. He gave me good news: my blood pressure was going down. It still wasn’t low enough, but it was an improvement. “Don’t worry,” he said, “We’ll get you right in no time. Just keep doing what you’re doing. You’re on the right track.” He even was happy to report that I’d lost almost 3 lbs. since last week.

See? Progress. Sometimes it just takes a little reassurance to know you’re doing something good and to carry on.

He prescribed 2 more medications for me to help aid the other medication I was on, which now brought my total daily pills to about 6 including a multi-vitamin. Nevertheless, I was encouraged. I was feeling better. I was improving.

I had another great dinner tonight: poached salmon with a tomato and mozzarella salad and steamed brown rice. Poached salmon is quickly becoming my FAVORITE. Something magical happens when the onions mix with the white wine and the dill and the salmon. I let it sit in the poaching liquid on a gentle simmer for 5 minutes so that it’s still underdone when it comes out. The resulting fish is soft and buttery with that delectable fat still left intact, something that unfortunately melts away with oven baking.

Off the Charts Adorable, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

This evening we were getting ready to go to bed. For some reason, Jabari put Izzie’s dog bed on ours. Izzie, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, just looked at it, climbed right in, and sat down, looking right at me.

“Ok, that’s too cute,” I said.

As if sensing my weakness she then proceeded to stretch out in her bed with her head hanging right off the edge.

Jabari and I looked at eachother, finding ourselves a victim of her cuteness. “Oh my god,” I said. “Well now I can’t move her. We’re going to have to find somewhere else to sleep.”

“Wait. Let’s try this.”

[Read more...]

Currently Dominating the Market in Large Slabs of Roasted Meat, originally uploaded by krisalis903.

If anyone were to ask me what characteristics I inherited from my parents, I would say I got my mom’s ability to stay calm in all kinds of situations and my dad’s affinity for grilled and roasted meats.

Earlier this week, I was at Super Target returning some stuff when I decided to browse the grocery section. That’s when I came across a massive sale on brisket.

Brisket is my dad’s signature dish whether it be roasted in the oven or smoked in a barrel smoker. I’ve always wanted to try making it myself but seeing as how I’ve only had to feed 2 people, buying a 10 pound brisket never made sense. However, at $1.49 a pound, I couldn’t pass this one up.

Yesterday I got to leave work a few hours early which gave me some extra time to do some research and put in some prep time. I came across this recipe for Oven-Baked Brisket by Homesick Texan and after reading the ingredients, I decided to give it a try. I had most of the items on hand except for the jalapenos and the liquid smoke, and as far as the worcestershire sauce goes, I pretended like I didn’t see it in the ingredient list because I just don’t care for it.

Once I assembled and applied the rub, I put it in a roasting pan with some slivered onions and the liquid mixture. The oven was set to 260 degrees since low and slow is best practice for a tough piece of meat like brisket.

The cooking process took a total of 6 hours which also included 30 minutes of resting time out of the pan so the meat could cool down on its own. After I trimmed away the fat, what I had left was a deliciously well-seasoned piece of tender, flavorful brisket–something I think my dad will be proud of. And even though we were eating dinner at midnight, it was well worth the wait.

ChocoVine. Yep, You Heard Me., originally uploaded by krisalis903.

Ok so after lamenting about how sad and pathetic my life has now become, I decided to pour myself a little some of this as a bedtime treat.

It’s called ChocoVine. Yep, that’s right. A combination of Dutch chocolate and red wine. I will say when my brother asked me if Jabari would enjoy chocolate wine, I thought, “SWEET!” I assumed maybe it was a bottle of wine that had the essence of chocolate in it. I didn’t think chocolate was actually IN it. But when we unwrapped the bottle and looked at its milky brown contents we thought, “This could be bad.”

I opened the bottle Christmas morning (yeah, i started drinking that morning). Between the two of us I was the most curious and also the most adventurous when it comes to culinary feats so I had the first sip. It smelled… well, good. It LOOKED scary, but it definitely smelled sweet and chocolatey.

I poured a little of the ChocoVine into a small juice glass–pleasantly surprised at the flavor. It kinda tasted like a liqueur–almost like Bailey’s. The bottle says it’s a French Cabernet with Dutch chocolate in it, but in no way could I taste the Cabernet (Cab is a little overpowering for me so I usually can’t have a lot of it).

So to make a long story short, this stuff is better than it sounds. Much better. In fact, you could pour yourself about 8 ounces of milk into the glass, maybe an ounce or 2 of ChocoVine, mix it up, and drink it like a grown up version of chocolate milk. It’s delicious.