Take My Blood Pressure! I Am Frightened!

Written Sunday evening

This Sunday evening, I watched The Great Los Angeles Earthquake, part 1 and 2, a whole four or more hours worth. About three hours into it I was so distressed I am quite sure my blood pressure was sky high.  The movie really cinched my resolve to never go to California.

For a long time I have said I had no desire to go to CA because of my trepidation when it comes to earthquakes.

I barely lived through it, but hours later, I have a pounding in my temples. This pounding is not normal for me. I really never have headaches unless it is sinus problems and that headache is in forehead, nose and cheek bones. This pounding in my temples is my blood pressure, which is usually very low. Not now!

While I was being terrified, I cooked/baked. I baked the whole turkey breast roast. I took off the mesh bag and the plastic bag. Inside, the turkey breast was in a little string bag. I baked it in a Turkey bag in the oven. I left in in the oven for the right time, but the bag was burned black on one end and pretty much embedded in the turkey skin. Thankfully, it did not taste scorched at all.

Because I was busy watching TV, I let it sit too long to cool, The meat had to be ripped out of the bag. It's not so pretty anymore. But, it is extra delicious because it was herb flavor or something. It is very moist. There was a bag of gravy that I think I will make tomorrow. You just dump the gravy in a pan with water, and it is gravy.

A bag of butternut squash was bought for another dish that never happened, but tomorrow, Monday, I will fix that. Plus, I have carrots. Okay, two orange foods. Oh, well! I also have potatoes I can cook for exbf to take home or not. I need to make cole slaw for dinner, too.

Mama said I was terrified when they took us to the drive-in movies. She said I started picking my nails off and biting them when I watched cowboy movies. I was so concerned that something bad would happen to the hero. She assured me it would be okay, and that no one would be hurt. I was not believing her at all. And, so began a fifty-year nail-biting habit.

Wasted food: tonight, I managed to start an avalanche in the freezer and a pint of blueberries fell out all over the floor. Of course, I had to walk on a few first. Finally, I started the arduous task of getting them from where they rolled and like pool balls, before I realized I, bouncing, flying around corners,  off things and managed to get behind things like a box, the trash can, and chair leg. There are still blueberries there, thawing and running blue on my yellow and white floor.

Now, my floor has really clean spots where I used a wet cloth to wipe them up...sigh.

Your turn
I watch no Stephen King or movies that will scare me. I live alone. I made my husband leave the lights on in the house after we saw Psycho. Are you that afraid of scary movies? What movies frighten you? Are you more wary of earthquakes or tornadoes? Remember, tornadoes are not so scary because most of the time we are warned. Plus, if you live in the South, you know when conditions are right, not so with earthquakes.

Wasted Food

When I realized I had the flu, I was already not eating much. When the stomach problems started, I ate even less. When exbf did not come after my request for him to stay home, even less food was eaten. He also told me he did not want to eat anything I had cooked or handled or opened. He offered this without my having offered anything to him. I think he was afraid of being around me.

Since I could not bend down to see what was on lower shelves, things hid. At one point, I quit eating the fresh lettuce because I thought I might have e coli from eating it. Plus, my body did not need fiber. After three weeks of flu and recovery, I was not eating much, certainly not things I handled while ill. Then, the uti took away my desire and ability to do anything thrifty, like eating up leftovers I knew were okay. These leftovers were cooked after I recovered from the flu. I shoved back the leftovers and put more in front of them!

All this has been going on for about six weeks. The lettuce was tossed after it was so wilted and brown. I had two heads of cabbage that went south. A piece of ham was too old to eat. You get the idea. So, I had a whole 10 gal. garbage bag of food that was suspect or obviously not good anymore. The four pints of broth won't be consumed.

No, I did not compost any of it. I threw it in the trash, something I rarely do with food. I feel like I am starting over with food in the refrigerator. Actually, I am still digging around to find stuff to get rid of when I get milk or anything to eat from the refrigerator.

There is no one here to eat anything but me. Exbf would have eaten the food being tossed if I had not been ill. I don't blame him. I was not about to freeze food I had breathed on when I had the flu! I am not sure that the flu when frozen will be active upon thawing. Do you know?

So, in addition to tossing food, I did not get nutrition I needed. On the upside, I was not buying many groceries. However, I paid for and consumed fast food. There is just no upside to any of this. There is only the waste of more food than ever.

Do you find you waste food when you are too ill to eat what is ready to be eaten?  What event would cause you to actually waste food? Would people in your household be wary of eating anything you prepared when you were ill?

Wasted Food and the Weather

Yes, I was ill. The last two days I felt like slicing and dicing to dehydrate. But, before that when I was so ill, I wondered if preparing food to heat for that long and might have germs on it was such a good idea. Storing germs is not my idea of a prudent practice. My focus the last two days has been on laundry and dishes and getting my strength back, not food conservation.

Bananas and celery and blueberries would have to wait. I wasted 10 lbs of bananas, bought at $0.39/lb. Three pretty heads of celery mostly wilted because of the wait for me. Then, there were four quarts of fresh blueberries that Charlie gave me, all moldy. Really, I would have dumped the blueberries in a pot and cooked them down, but I had nothing clean in which to cook them. sigh....sigh. Two quarts remain for me.

Bananas would have lasted for a week even if they were bruised and going South fast. However, the temperatures at night have been in the 60s. Yes, January in the South was warm this year. The kitchen is the warmest room in the house. This all makes for very warm bananas this last week. Some developed mold, making them unsuitable for the hens. Plus, they are too far gone for me to handle without gagging, even for freezing them.

Just a few smoothies have been made from salvaged bananas and blueberries. I still crave gravy! No, I am not indulging, just feel like gravy would be good for me. What? You mean gravy is not infused with miracle drugs, minerals, and vitamins?

Just the weather for a minute
I love warm weather. I hate cold weather. However, a warm day in the winter fills Southerners with a nagging little dread--will we have a tornado? Yessiree Bob! Last night, we did. It was 68 degrees at 3 am this morning. We had a night of violent weather, tornado warnings, and tornadoes. It all hit south of me, and only one six-foot, one-inch limb fell from my huge trees! I did get the tremendous winds and rain. The hens and I made it!

So, being ill proved to be wasteful to me. It cannot be helped. Cooked food is out in the garbage can. Produce goes to the compost. Hens are eating lots of protein-filled chicken. I am trying to regain control over the kitchen and food.

Aaaack! I forgot about the dozen apples that did not like sitting around in a warm kitchen...mumble...mumble.  It was one whole week, just lost.

Your turn
Does illness along with poor planning ever force you to throw out food?

What's wrong with this picture? Waste, waste, waste

More to the point--what's wrong with this free corn? My very thrifty side says "nothing." My taste buds say "nothing." This was a gift to the hens, given because it was not salable. Okay, but it is edible. I see corn on the menu for this week. I have never put fresh-off-the-cob corn in soup. But, it will happen this week. Sorry, Fancy. Sorry, Thelma. Sorry, Louise. This belongs to Chickie Mama.

I did get two eggs yesterday, and had this one in my pocket when I was feeding my hens. See the husk end over to the left? Some of the outer husks looks a little dark and slightly shriveled. But, the inner husks are perfectly fine. Maybe this is okay but no one will buy it.

The hens are in the background eating the first ear. I have to break it in thirds so they won't squabble. A hen can pick up the whole ear of corn and run with it, and each one will! It's a great game of take-away.

All this corn, two dozen ears, is trash. Yes, a few ears have been opened, but they will be hen food. And, this is another indoor picture that just did not turn out well.

As I go about my free-food gathering, some for me and some for hens, I am appalled at the waste. If I did not see this with my own eyes, the impact would not be as great. When I eat it and find it is still fresh and tasty, I am horrified at the nutrition that goes to the landfill. I got this box came from the produce counter inside the store. It was not dragged from a dumpster. It had not even been taken  to the back room!

At one point after my divorce, I had no food AT ALL in my house and $0.13 to my name. There were no bits of macaroni, no rice, nothing in the freezer or the fruit and vegetable crispers in the refrigerator, no butter, no condiments, no milk, and not one can on the shelves. No one knew, not even my best friends. I feel so sad now that all this was available and I had no idea.

All the statistics about food waste and hungry people are sort of meaningless except in an abstract way unless you are or have been hungry and have seen food wasted.

Your turn
Would you eat this corn? Have you ever been desperate and broke and not known that there was food going to waste?