Handstands Gave Me a Big Head

Against my better judgment -- allergy flareup -- I performed a handstand last Sunday.

It was an Iyengar-style class, and the wonderful Indian-born teacher told us to just do it, "just like Nike." After backbending and forward bending at the wall to his commands, I felt aligned but a little congested.

Nonetheless, I just did it.

An hour later, I looked like this, tiny eye balls inside swollen lids. My face got all itchy. The same thing happened a month ago. Suggestions?

Jamie the Sexy Hyper-active Food Cowboy

Taking Human Sexuality got me jazzed up to eat well. I got an "A" in the class but a "B+" for cooking. This latter grade is self-imposed because I didn't quite reach my goal of six recipes in three weeks.

In an effort to save money, I promised to cook six dishes from Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home. The book itself was a Christmas gift, a work of rural photographic pleasure. Jamie became my guide through sex and herbs.

After awhile, Jamie irritated me, and I cooked five instead of six recipes.

Yes, he is a masculine free-spirit, a sort of British food cowboy who was the perfect guide for my three weeks of sex. At first, I loved his sexy disregard for measurements, freedom in throwing spice and flavor. After five recipes, I got tired of Jamie's "good splash of olive oil" and wanted him to calm down, stop flying around his farm, and tell me how much olive oil, how much thyme.

That being said, I got high on Jamie's hyperactive confidence, actually buying and cooking fish from a Chinese fish shop. I also roasted shoulder butt, and it was good.

Here are the things I've made:
1. Beautiful zucchinei carbonara, p. 134: Excellent but must cut vegetables before boiling pasta. I overcooked the pasta in the time it took for me to cut them up. I used real Parmesan for this. It made a sensual lunch when paired with wine (shown in photo) and the poetry of e.e. cummings.
2. Spicy pork and chilli-pepper goulash, p. 257-Very, very good. It took more than three hours to make, but the meat fell off the bone. This was my first shoulder butt, also known as pork shoulder.
3. Superb squash soup with the best Parmesan croutons, p. 361-Delicious. Freezes well.
4. Old-fashioned sweet shortcrust pastry, p. 352-Interesting. Hardly any butter. I made a pumpkin pie with it, which is more of an American thing, but the crust was good, toasty with a lemon zest zip.
5. Roasted white fish and leeks, p. 334-I wasn't wild about this, but the cod turned out okay, and the bacon added a buttery taste. I could have added more pepper though. A little bland.

These meals sustained me through Human Sexuality. I ate while reading the textbook, everything from  Anal Warts to Zoophiles. Not all sex is sexy.

New Year's Odds and Ends Goulash

With one exception this week--I'm meeting people at a restaurant--I'm preparing all meals at home. My goal is to cook new things while cleaning out my cupboards. I'm super poor this month but wish to celebrate my current possessions. Tomorrow's lunch will be a baked potato, some boxed pilaf in the back of the cupboard, and some canned baked beans I bought on sale in 2009. For dinner, I will be making Jamie Oliver's "Quick sausage and meatballs with a tomato and basil sauce, spaghetti and sweet raw peas" (page 158).

Tomorrow is my first day of Lehman College's Winter Intensive graduate course on Human Sexuality. I got the book yesterday and am thrilled at the steamy topic in this blast of cold weather. To ensure that the class will happen, my professor combined undergrads with grads. In other words, I will be taking sex ed in the Bronx with a mixed bag of old bags (like myself) and eighteen-year-olds. I'm sure I'll learn something.

Just want to say that 2009 was a good year, despite everything. Here's a peak at the year past.