I hate Nickelback. Their songs stick in my head. Obviously, this one has been stuck in my head since, like, 1998 or whenever it came out.
So. Yeah. Short version - we all got sick, I went insane trying to balance it all, took way too many days off from work caring for everyone else (and it was reinforced how awesome and understanding my boss is) but I still stayed on Paleo and managed to dodge the stomach virus bullet that H and C succumbed to. I firmly believe it's cause I did not stray from eating what I should for my gut. It also helped that I quarantined myself to use a completely separate bedroom and bathroom from H.
Part of my issue and anxiety over getting the infamous stomach virus was that the best way to avoid it is hand washing. That's great, but the mere sight of water and my eczema flips the eff out. The best I could do was to just not touch a lot of things, or wear gloves.
Yep, I wore gloves. It was like Michael Jackson,without the whole gross factor, cause I am totally NOT levels of MJ criminal and gross and why is it that when you think of MJ your mind immediately goes to the whole mid to late 90's debacles?
I digress.
So I stayed healthy. A relief.
I am just getting back into the swing of things, between the stomach virus and the approximately 14,452 snow days we have had the past three weeks. Yes, I know that's impossible. No, I don't care enough to change it. It's funny in an ironic way how having a snow day is not at all relaxing when you have H whining, "I'm booooooored" in between episodes of Rachel Maddow and some other political talking head that I block out, and then having C climb on you like a spider monkey in a Nat Geo documentary. I actually welcomed the opportunity to come back to work.
This entry is all over the place right now. I have so much I wanted to tell you guys, but at the same time, I can't focus my thoughts.
We bought 1/4 pig yesterday! I'm so excited, way more excited than I probably should be. So, I went to a farmers market with a friend Saturday, and bought some grass fed, pasture raised (GFPR) meat to try out. I've been mulling over the GFPR theory for awhile. It makes perfect sense, and in a perfect world, I would buy all of my animal meat that way. Unfortunately, bills gots tah be paid, and it's expensive. Not to mention, H wasn't exactly on board just yet with the idea.
Wait. Rewind. Or actually, let me interject that H recently bought the new Chris Kresser book, Your Personal Paleo Code, in hopes of jump starting his paleo journey (short story - H has IBS, and has been trying out a low FODMAP diet for awhile. It's harder than hard, because onions and garlic are high FODMAPs, and should be eliminated and, hello, GARLIC. Plus, it's not necessarily curing anything). Anyways, we're both trying a 30 day reset (like a Whole 30) after C and I return from Florida next week, and one of the suggestions in Kresser's book is that now (or then) would be the time to work your best on GFPR food. So perhaps CK had a hand in convincing H.
Anyways, back to the winter farmer's market. I bought yak sausage (yakety yak - yeah, you definitely thought of THAT song while reading that, right....RIGHT?!), chicken eggs, and pork sausage,all GFPR. Definitely could taste the difference - the eggs were more vibrant in color and tasted almost buttery; the yak (ety yak) was tasty and mellow, and the pork sausage was just....so NOT full of those little white flecks and overpowering spice that conventional sausage usually has. We've talked about the GFPR meat thing a few times, so cautiously, I approached H and asked what he thought about going in on bulk pork or cow. H likes cows (who doesn't?), but when I looked into pricing on that, well, I wasn't about to sell my bugaboo C for a side of beef. But pork was pretty reasonable - around 5.75/lb. And then, it all happened so fast - I emailed a farm in south Jers that had enviable farming practices, she emailed back the next morning with the subject line ;"Your pork is ready TODAY," and I danced a bit because, hooray! Going to a farm and buying pigs!
I made sure to tell everyone I encountered yesterday that I was buying a pig. Most of them were confused ("Can't you just go to Costco to get a lot of pork?" Oh, where to even beGIN), some were excited for me, and, I get to see goats so, YEAAAHHH buddy. H had a football party, so I snagged a friend of mine to take the journey to the depths of South J with myself and C, just in case farmer lady turned out to be like Jason or Freddy.
She wasn't, we saw goats, C was terrified, a pig made out with my leg, and we all fell in love with little lambs.
Oh, heeeyyyyy there...
And I left with 51.75 lbs of GFPR pork, and 6 dozen eggs. Yay!
So far I have only tried the scrapple (made up of organ meats and buckwheat, everything organic and natural, and, no I did not like it but I think I effed up in cooking it) and the eggs (homerun). I'm saving the bacon for my birthday. Nothing says birthday like bacon. We also got tenderloin, shoulder, ham, canadian bacon, chops, sausage...it's a beautiful thing, all this meat.
So, that's my story. I also found a missing piece in the puzzle of my eczema, but that'll be an entry for another day (or later today). Off to the dollar store (holla for a dolla) to get supplies for work. Until then, dream of my bacon.
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