MeowMeow

I know you read this blog not because of your interest in me and my life, but rather that you're here merely to learn more about Jackson. It's okay. I get it. He's furry and black. We all love furry, black things, don't we? Unless they squeak and dart out from between garbage cans on the street. Ah, the wonders of New York City.  

When the time came to move Jackson again, I was really worried. He and Bilo had formed such a sweet bond that I feared he would never forgive me from separating him from his BFF (best friends forever, Mom). Maybe there was a little bit of projection onto Jackson going on. Maybe.

It was the saddest thing when they said goodbye, nose to nose with nothing but the mesh of Jackson's carrier between them. I tear up whenever I think about it. 

He's so emo.

For the first few days, Jackson didn't eat anything, which is HUGE for such a fat kid kitty. He barely came out from underneath the bed, jumped at every little noise. I was really feeling badly. Except that he also purred every time he saw me, curled up around me at night, and just seemed to be more attached. 

Over a period of few days, he started to come out more and more. More purring and playfulness each day. He started to do things that I hadn't seen him do since before our move, including chase the laser pointer, his favorite toy, and leave dry food in his bowl for later. He actually started to seem....happy. 

Then, a few weeks ago, a strange thing started to happen. He climbed onto my lap! And sleep there! While purring! What?!?!

He never did such things. In fact, he purrs constantly now! He will nuzzle his face against mine and will purr so much he drools. It seems like maybe, possibly, he likes me? Stranger things have happened, folks. Things like this have been happening more and more lately and is really quite adorable. 

Granted, he's still waking me up at 6 AM EVERY FREAKING MORNING, which makes me want to hurl him across the room with all my might. But as long as he balances it out with his cuteness, we should be just fine. 

He's not bleeding. It's just schmutz.

Meat and Potatas!

I am not much of a meat-eater. I usually keep meat consumption to once or twice a month. And the more often I eat meat, the more convinced I am that I would be okay never eating meat. It is not something I ever buy or prepare at home unless its for a special occasion. It's just not my thing!

Jerry usually indulges my faux-vegetarianism and will even dabble in it himself every now and again. Since Whatever They are Calling It Now Sandy hit last week, Jerry has been working 12 hour shifts every day, coming home to a cold and dark apartment until Saturday afternoon when our power came back on.

When he said he wanted pot roast for dinner, how could I refuse? Even though meat isn't my thing, he definitely deserved a home cook meal of his choosing.

Since I don't usually cook meat, this meal was a bit of an adventure...in that I almost messed it up in 12 different ways! I didn't have some of the ingredients I wanted to use! I forgot ingredients altogether! Miraculously, it came out pretty good. Jerry (and our fat, naughty kitties who tried to break into the garbage to eat the scraps) seemed to enjoy it.

Pot Roast with Root Veggies

by Bonnie Graham

Cook Time: 2 1/2 to 3 hours

Keywords: bake entree carrots parsnips potato meat

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3-pound chuck roast, trimmed
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large coarsely chopped onion
• 1 cup dry red wine (optional - add 1 c beef broth instead)
• 4 thyme sprigs
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/3 c less-sodium beef broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 c baby large carrots
• 2 large parsnips, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
• 2 large red-skinned potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.Salt and pepper roast and add to the heated pan.

3. Cook 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan.

4. Add onion to pan; sauté until tender.

5. Return browned roast to pan. Add the red wine, thyme sprigs, chopped garlic, beef broth, and bay leaf to pan; bring to a simmer.

6. Cover pan and bake at 350° for 1 1/2 hours or until the roast is almost tender.

7. Add carrots, parsnips, and potatoes to pan. Cover and bake an additional 1 hour or until vegetables are tender.

8. Remove thyme sprigs and bay leaf from pan; discard. Remove veggies and roast from the pan leaving the juices.

9. Skim excess fat off of the juices if desired. Return the pan to the stovetop over medium-high heat.

10. Whisk in 2 tsp of corn starch to pan with juice. Continue to whisk until juices thicken slightly to make a gravy. Pour over meat and veggies.

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Dirty Veggies, Part 9

You may have noticed a slight decline in my visits to the farmer's market. I have been off the last few Wednesdays. As much as I love my farmer's market, I'm not driving up to Westchester from Jersey! It's had to go on without me. Sniffle, sniffle

However, I more then made up for it this week with my ridiculously awesome (over budget) buys! I was so excited about everything I got this week, I actually texted Jerry to tell him about all of my wonderful buys. Funny, somehow he wasn't as enthusiastic about poblano peppers and broccoli as I was!

Crap picture of veggies. Adorable picture of Jackson. 

This week's roundup:
1 head garlic - free....I realized afterwards that the guy didn't ring it up. Oopsy.
1 bunch celery - $2.50
5 onions - $1.75
2 heads of broccoli - $1.00! Farm fresh broccoli! I'm not sure I have ever had such a thing!
1 pint cherry tomatoes - $2.00 The last I'll be seeing for a while
3 lemons - $1.00 Not local, but I needed them
4 yams - $3.50
3 poblano peppers - $2.00
3 pears - $2.50
2 large parsnips - $2.50
1 bunch fresh thyme - $1.50
Total: $20.25

Let's see that face upclose!

Never Say Never

A few nights ago, I did something, that as a diabetic, I swore I would never do.

After a lovely girls night out with my friends (who I refer to as ABC), I stumbled into the apartment, exhausted and blurry eyed, at 1AM. We hadn't even been drinking! I walked into the bathroom and step on something wet and squishy. I immediately panicked. With two cats in the house, you just never know.

Someone had thought it was a good idea to dunk this toy in the toilet and leave it on the floor for an unsuspecting human. But we're not naming names. 

I digress.

Realizing that an alarm had gone off on my pump, alerting me to a low reservoir of insulin, I knew I couldn't wait until the next morning to refill. Feeling my way like Helen Keller through my bedroom, trying not to disturb a sleeping Jerry, I grabbed all of the tools for changing my infusion site and insulin reservior. One these tools being an obvious one of insulin. Duh, right?

When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, I read many diabetes blogs, talking about the trials and tribulations of being diabetic, taking insulin, living life, etc. One thing many of these bloggers discussed was the annoyance of dropping and shattering an insulin vial. How annoying. How expensive. How smelly. Insulin has very distinct smell. 

In my arrogant little mind, I thought, "How irresponsible! I would never shatter any of my insulin vials."

Guess what I was cleaning up off the kitchen floor, trying to stop the cats from rolling in, at 1:15 AM?

Call me irresponsible. 

Love is in the Air

Ah, love is in the air here in Jersey.

Besides all the kitty love we got going on....

Yes, that is our cats, arm and arm.

...there's another kind of love in this apartment. A sweet love that only grows stronger with each passing day. A love that, I am certain, will last a lifetime.

That would be the love of my new kitchen! It. Is. Awesome.

I always knew that Jerry had a superior kitchen to my large but limited kitchen back in Astoria. For starters, his has a dishwasher! A dishwasher! I've never actually owned a dishwasher before! Plus, there is a lot of nice counter space and a set-up for an easy work flow. I can wash something in the sink, chop it on my cutting board, and drop it in the frying pan all without moving more then two steps to the left or right.

Since moving in, it feels like I have been non-stop in the kitchen. Having a dishwasher is certainly encouragement to cook more! A combined pantry of two fat kids doesn't hurt either!

Inspired by the love of my new kitchen, I thought I'd share a few more things with you that I'm currently obsessing over. Don't worry, there's a recipe at the end of this post. 

From L to R: Parchment paper, PB2 Peanut Flour, Smoked Paprika,
Golden Roasted Flax Seeds, Pressure Cooker

1. Smoked paprika - Have you ever used this before? Because if you haven't, you need to go out and buy some this instant! Really. Go now. I can wait.
2. PB2 Peanut Flour - For someone like me, who eats spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar, this product is awesome! It has 85% less fat then regular peanut butter but still adds great PB flavor to many dishes. I'm diggin' it.
3. Trader Joe's Golden Roasted Flax Seed -  So good. Just opening the package, you can immediately smell what makes them so good. I've been using these bad boys in everything from granola to salads. 
4. Parchment paper - I've been using parchment paper like crazy, mostly for all my baking.
5. Pressure Cooker - It's taken me a while to start using my pressure cooker, but now, I'm addicted. In household where we literally have 25 pounds of grain dominating our cabinet space, it's definitely coming in handy. 

My last obsession is of the food blog variety. Oh She Glows is a healthy vegan blog with really awesome recipes. Even though I'm not vegan, I like to pretend I am. Despite my affinity for diary and the occasional plate of BBQ, I eat a mostly plant- and grain-based diet in my day-to-day life. Angela's blog actually makes me consider turning full vegan. She makes it look that good and easy. 

So easy, in fact, I made an adapted version of her "Perfect Veggie Burger," non-vegan style.

Nutty Veggie Burger

Makes 7 to 8 burgers

Ingredients

½ c onion, diced

1 large garlic clove, minced

2 eggs

1 c oats, processed into flour

1 ½ bread crumbs (I processed 3 pieces of TJ’s sprouted grain bread until fine crumb)

1 c grated carrots

1 c cooked garbanzo beans, rinsed and roughly pureed

½ c sunflower seeds

½ c golden flax seeds

1 tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 ½ tbsp soy sauce

1 ½ tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp. oregano

salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.  

2. Process each ingredient separately in a food processor, adding each ingredient into a large mixing bowl as you go, stopping at the sunflower seeds. Those don’t go through the food processor.

3. Mix all of the ingredients until thoroughly combined.

4. With slightly wet hands, shape dough into patties. Pack dough tightly as this will help it stick together. 5. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and bake for 25-30 mins (15-17 minutes on each side) until golden and crisp.

For alternate cooking methods, you can pan-fry or place on the grill. For grilling, pre-bake the burgers for about 15 minutes in oven before placing on a pre-heated grill until golden and crisp on each side. These would be great to feed a vegetarian for a Memorial Day BBQ.

Blended Family

Ah, moving in together.

Some bumps in the road should be expected. Some time needed to adjust to one another's routines. Time to get use to each other's annoying habits, like horking a lung into the bathroom sink every morning and the endless need to fart every time you bend over. Have you ever met anyone who literally gags on their toothbrush every morning? Because I have. With any significant change in life, some anxiety is to be expected.

Maybe I'm being overly optimisitic, but my biggest "moving-in" concern has very little to do with Jerry and I. Really what I'm worried about, feel the incessant need to talk about, discuss with my therapist...is how our cats will get along.

Look how fuzzy he is!

I know, I know. It's my own fault. I haven't given Jackson's the greatest rep with all my posts about his assholey behavior, but he really is a sweet kitty. Sometimes. When no one else is looking. 

Whereas Bilo, on the other hand, is the sweetest, most loving cat that has ever walked the planet. He doesn't stop purring.

He was purring as I took this photo.

In their few visits together, things have not gone well. Our last visit ended with Bilo shitting on the couch, just to really punctuate the fact that we were not welcomed! Message received, my friend. The only problem now is that this time I can't pack Jackson up at 3AM and take him home! We'll already be home!

I'm hoping our furkids can pull their shit together (both figuratively and literally) to make one happy family!

Wish us luck.

Fatkiditis: A Clinical Diagnosis

For the last few weeks, I've been hit with a case of Fatkiditis. I'm actually pretty disgusted with myself. My pants are fitting a little tighter and I have an uncontrollable urge to devour everything in sight. It's becoming a real problem!

I thought I'd share more information on this devastating disease.

Symptoms of Fatkidits may include but are not limited to:

• A constant need to consume, even when you are beyond full and feel another bite would push you over the edge
• Obsessive thoughts on when and what you will be eating at your next meal; this is an especially strong indicator when you have not yet completed the meal you are currently consuming
• Decisions on social engagements are based on menu options
• Vacations are planned around eating establishments and meals
• Frequent questioning of others who have returned from a vacation or other social engagement (i.e. weddings, etc.) about what they ate and how the food was 
• Attraction to other people who would also qualify for this diagnosis
• Dislike of those who would not qualify -- Who likes a picky eater?!
• Strong Indicator-- you have a food blog!

Fatkiditis is possibly contagious and may also affect animals. Jackson purrs every time I open the refrigerator door. Coincidence? I think not. 

Unfortunately, at this time, there is no cure. I am offering free evaluations for any concerned parties but, obviously, you will have to buy me dinner.

I want a DAD!

And I'm not talking about fathers! Love you Dad! I'm talking about Diabetes Alert Dogs! YAY!!!

Recently, we had a volunteer therapy dog visit one of our groups at work. While the owner was insanely quirky (which is putting it insanely nicely), she told the children about the different uses for therapy/service dogs, which includes Diabetes Alert Dogs, or DADs. DADs are used to help detect hypoglycemia by picking up the scent of a person whose blood sugar is dropping. That might be the answer to my zombie/scent question, huh? They are also trained to get necessary items to treat hypoglycemia, such as candy, juice, etc. and to help a person stand if they have fallen.

While this isn't the first time I heard of DADs, it suddenly dawned on me, "Hey wait! I can have a DAD!!!" Sorry, Dad. Though I do (sometimes) love Jackson, I desperately want a dog. One that can come with me to work, cuddle up on the couch, and fetch me a beer whenever I need one!

In fact, I think it is a very clever way to buck the system. I'm diabetic! Of course I need my dog at work! It doesn't matter what it says on the lease, he's a service dog! What do you mean I can get my own beer? 

I realize that this kind of dog is not completely necessary for me right now. They're usually used for diabetics who develop Hypoglycemia Unawareness, which is exactly how it sounds. Eventually, over time, some diabetics lose their ability to sense low blood sugar as their bodies have adjusted to its symptoms. Very dangerous. I'm definitely not at the point yet. Thankfully, I'm pretty far from it since I still feel the symptoms of hypoglycemia not only as they happen but for 15 - 20 minutes after it's been treated!

But, whatever. I'm still putting a DAD on my Christmas list this year! And, to be clear, a short 61-year old man who talks too much, is usually late, and makes sloppy sandwiches is not what I'm looking for underneath the Christmas tree. Got that, Mom?

Jackson, My Hero

When I first became diabetic, I scoured the Internet for information. I came across all kinds of crap.

One story that stuck with me was from a diabetes blog, where a woman posted a story about her diabetic son. Her son had an active day, helping a friend move. After moving boxes all day, he returned home exhausted and decided to lie down for a nap. This silly diabetic didn't check his blood sugar before doing so. During his nap, the normally docile family cat kept jumping on and scratching at his legs. He eventually woke up and realized that he felt a little woozy. He checked his blood sugar and was at a low 29. Tsk, tsk, diabetic!

The moral of this story (according to this obviously crazy cat lady) is that had it not been for the family cat, her son would have died in his sleep from low blood sugar.

I try to remember this story when Jackson is driving me crazy, especially in the middle of the night. Like when he attacks my legs when I'm on my way to the bathroom. Or when he scratches at the rug/bed/box spring. Or when he knocks things off of my dresser just for ha-ha's. He's actually doing all these things to save my life!

Except for when he tries to eat the tubing of my insulin pump. Then he's just being a dick.

Aww, that Jackson. My hero.

Black Power.

 Meet Bilo (I had nothing to do with the name). 

Bilo is Jerry's cat. Unlike my pimp of a cat, he is a super-sweetheart. In fact, I couldn't get a picture of him because he was too interested in rubbing against my hand as I tried to take them. He purrs constantly, will rub up against anything, and would love nothing more but to sit in your lap all day. Basically, the complete opposite of my cat (notice the contrast in color even!). Even though Jackson can have a few cuddly moments too.

Sadly, Jackson and Bilo do not get along. The reasons why are actually a point of contention between Jerry and I since we both think "It can't possibly be my kid!!!" I'll admit that Jackson probably has more to do with the problem then the solution (though I'm not giving up on the theory that Bilo is just a bigot, holdin' a brotha down). When we get them together, there's a lot of hissing, growling, and anal gland leaking going on. And that's just Jerry! It's not pretty.

Because we border on being crazy cat people, we worry about both of them a lot. If we're together, it means one of them is alone. Unfortunately, Bilo has been treated like the red-headed stepchild in this situation and usually ends up being alone more frequently. I'm hoping in the next few months to even up time spent with both kitties. And maybe even trying to befriend them once more (Jerry is glaring at his computer screen as he reads this).

What does this have to do with diabetes or food? Absolutely nothing! But it's my blog, so deal.

A Bigger A-hole then Diabetes!

Who is a bigger asshole then diabetes?

That would be my cat, Jackson.

He is a jerk. He is the bratty toddler at the supermarket who makes you wonder if kids are really worth it. He is the self-absorbed adolescent who wants your attention but not your affection. He is the doucey guy at the bar who won't leave you alone but hasn't bought you one drink! In short, he is an asshole, but you love him anyway.

(Yes, that is Jackson in my pantry closet, trying to get to his cat treats! He's a fat kid too!)

It is important that you know Jackson. He takes up a lot of my time and causes a lot of frustration. But nothing makes me happier then the 60 seconds of purring and loving I get before feeding him twice a day. Or waking up and finding him curled up next me on the bed. Or realizing that there is something in my life that can cause more frustration then diabetes!

Now, excuse me while I go spray the shit out of him for scratching on something he is not suppose to.