Been Sick Again

I've been sick again, horribly constipated. I've got to figure out a way to get chlorine out of the tap water so I can drink enough water. For now, I am going to start buying bottled water. City of Albany water tastes horrible. The folks I just trapped for don't drink it either, despite their poverty, describing the taste of Albany water as that of gasoline.

I don't know if the city knows how many people cannot tolerate the taste of its extremely expensive water. I don't know if it is worse in some areas than in others. I run into such people everywhere, when out trapping. It is a common complaint, given the cost of water in Albany, which is higher I believe than anywhere in the state.

It is pathetic when the water tastes so lousy and you can even smell it sometimes when you open the tap. What is going on, I wonder.

I did e-mail the city about it, hoping for answers, but I wonder if I will get any. The smell of Albany water has been notorious for a long time.

I remember years ago, when trapping on Elm street, for the lovable alcoholics, in the second round with them and cats. It was summer and it was hot and I was thirsty and I asked if I could have a drink of water.

They eyed each other, like I was "out of the know" and said "sure, if you can stomach it". I said "what do you mean?" Steve just turned on the faucet and said "Wait for it." Sure enough, the horrible aroma of chlorine gas soon filled the kitchen. I said, "No thank you," and thirsted on.

I have much more of a chlorine sensitivity I think than most people. How do I know? Because I can't swim in public swimming pools more than a couple times, without my eyes turning blood red, my hair turning brittle and my skin breaking out in a rash. That's how I know. I could be a chlorine canary. The sad part about it is, I love to swim and I can't swim in pools due to the chlorine issue I have.

I do like to cook. I rarely eat out. Unfortunately, when I do eat out, it's a drive through fast food joint. But that food doesn't even taste good to me. I suppose I do it about once every two weeks.

I like making my own food and most of it is simple stuff. At Winco, during this holiday season, if you buy $50 worth of anything, and that's where I buy my cat food, human food and even cat litter, you get a turkey for $.22 per pound. So I've gotten two of them in the last month--18 pound turkeys and they each ended up costing about $4 each. I make cat food out of most of them. But I don't waste anything. I then put the bones in water in the crock pot to simmer for a day. Then I grind up the bones to mix into cat food, and I make soup of the broth.

The first batch of soup was absolutely wonderful. I've been eating it for almost a week now, every night for supper. I added rice I always have cooked up, broccoli, onions, garlics and carrots. My goodness, that was good.

I don't go by any recipe. Maybe I should. This batch I'm making, with the turkey stock base, will also have rice, I think, or maybe I'll add pasta noodles this time, but onions and sweet potatoes and broccoli.

I am a big broccoli lover. I think, if I could eat just broccoli, kale and almonds, I'd be very happy. Those are my three favorite foods.

But I also am a squash lover. I love acorn squash especially and also spaghetti squash.

My most common dinner is rice with cooked vegees in a store bought tortilla with a piece of fresh kale in the middle, but I soon will be making my own tortillas, I hope, also.

I do not have much of a taste for store bought already pre-made and packaged food. It doesn't have any taste to me. Plus, it is far cheaper to buy a bag of rice, then some tortillas and vegees. Two onions, a couple heads of broccoli, three sweet potatoes, a handful of peppers, a head of kale and a couple of squash will last me over a week.

I like to try new things, also. That's why I am going to get myself a recipe book!

Last summer, I tried bell pepper burgers, grilled strips of red or green bell pepper in a sandwich, trimmed with an onion, kale and, if I had any, mushrooms. Delicious!

I also made myself zucchini burgers. You can make them just by frying or grilling circular slices from honking huge overgrown zucchini, or, you can shred zucchini, mix in an egg, seasonings and some crackers or bread crumbs, and grill a burger of the mix.

I prefer them made the latter way, just because zucchini can be flat tasting unless dressed up with some seasonings. But if you cut off large rounds to use for burgers, instead of the shred method, there's nothing to say you can't marinate those rounds in seasonings and even bread them before grilling or frying.

Got favorite recipes that aren't expensive to create?

Send them my way!