Fancy Day Doubleheader

I invited the Fancy Girl for a sleepover, which meant two Fancy Days in a row. A Fancy Daze.  

The momentum for Fancy Day only continues to swell over time.   It reminds me of a gigantic whale-like vision that sucks in expectation and never lets go until we’re done - as if you-just-have-to-hold-your-breath-when-we-have-so-many-cool-things-we-can-do-together. This, my friends, is the Daze part of Fancy Days.

Yesterday at precisely 2:30 the Fancy Daze began.

A sewing lesson on my mother’s 1931 GE Sew Handy machine started us off.  I melted with nostalgia as it hummed along, just as it did every summer morning at the lake when my mom sewed my school clothes for the following year.  The Fancy Girl practiced stitching on scraps, which led to finishing the edges of a new kitty blanket to take home:

She decorated designs on big-girl coloring pages, wove a small basket with soft yarn that looked as if it could be freshly spun (my favorite project), and painted sun-catchers and mini-portraits to display on easels before inaugurating the sandbox for the season:

After dinner, including two huge servings of bug-shaped macaroni, she watched Peter Pan with Grampa.  Then following her bath we stitched and stuffed a toy dog from a kit that came complete with a red satin heart we placed inside his chest:  

This morning, after sausage and pancakes, we curled the Fancy Girl's hair in ringlets: "Ohhhhh," she gasped, looking in a hand mirror at a larger reflection.  "It's sooooo beautiful!"  She pranced into the living room, knowing her next goal: decorating the stuffed dog's shorts and shirt with iron-on soccer motifs so she could give him to her soccer-playing little sister as a surprise.

 

With the dog finished, she slipped right into the next thing (there’s always a next thing, right – Gramma, what’s the Next Thing?) which involved coloring and assembling a 3-dimensional princess with a backdrop.  Finally, she dipped an array of fresh and dried fruits, marshmallows, and pretzels in dark, milk, and white chocolate:

“I wish I could stay another night,” she said when it was time to go home.

At this point I was almost suffocating.

“But (inhale) wouldn’t you miss your family (exale)?” I replied, breathing deeply in and out for the first time in hours.

Her response came quickly. “Well sure, I’d miss my family, but that doesn’t matter if I can be here with you.”

Eureka - melt my heart, Fancy Girl.

Good Guy Bacteria

Ewwwww….this looks just plain awful, like a jar of slimy garbage that’s been hiding in the back of the refrigerator for far too long.  Surely whatever-it-is has turned moldy and disgusting, and deserves to be thrown out.  Like yesterday, or maybe last year.

Let me assure you, nothing could be farther from the truth!  What you see here is fermenting fruit kvass aglow by evening sunlight, soon to be a fizzy, probiotic dream come true. The juice surrounding chopped organic fruits will put Sprite to shame, and then some.

Besides offering a fresh, uplifting flavor, kvass also supports gut microbiome which in turn should help keep all of me healthy - bless their friendly little bacterial hearts.   Sludge on little bacteria guys, and do your magic on this murky gunk.  I’m drinking you on Friday.

Great Food

Welcome to The New and Improved Mulie Diet, where every meal is a culinary adventure targeting heightened enjoyment and improved health.

Tonight’s menu included kale salad with sunflower seeds…

…baked steelhead trout breaded in rice Panko crumbs…

…roasted brussels sprouts…

…portabellas stuffed with onions, spinach, cherry tomatoes, and goat feta…

…and gluten-free, sugar-free blueberry pie.

It seems my kitchen has exploded into a vegetable paradise.  Tonight my plate was practically covered with veggies, while a lovely pink slab of naked trout snuggled in-between them (no crumb breading).  I also side-stepped the pie, even though only 1 tablespoon of honey and ¼ teaspoon of stevia were used to sweeten the filling. 

Why skip the fish breading and pie, you ask, when both were gluten-free?

Because I’m taking “the next step” and settling into an even more restricted diet than our usual anti-inflammatory fare in an attempt to positively affect my tinnitus.  Evidently there can be some overlap with chronic tinnitus/hyperacussis and epilepsy - both are characterized by neurological mis-firing - and some epileptics improve on a ketogenic diet. 

I feel funny using the word “restricted.” It doesn’t seem my food choices are cramped, or my tastebuds denied.  If anything, I'm enjoying the wonderful flavors and textures, and feel satisfied and clear-headed and energetic.  It’s great food!