Dear Diary

A 3796-post collection

International cuisine

Like all wisdom, some of the best food comes from outside of what we know. Beloved is determined to get this family away from western-themed bland monotony and ignorance of spices.

I miss Sweet Mustard Pickles, so Beloved has suggested a Korean version of Sauerkraut as a substitute. This version doesn't use sugar as a part of the pickling process, so I'm down with that.

We have lots of other options from all over the world. Some of which have ingredients that are tricky to find - coconut vinegar, for example. I'm pretty sure the difference is minute between that and most other vinegars available.

And, strangely enough, lots of the healthier countries eat way less carbs and have interesting sources of fats than we do. International cuisine can widen horizons and promote understanding. As long as we don't attempt to westernize it and therefore blandify the original.

Beloved and I fell asleep after yesterday's running around, and slept until 2AM. Good thing I did my novel's words before retiring.

I gave up on sleep a little closer to the dawn and began my day.

Today, I think we'll be doing a lot of cooking. Or, at least, food preparation. I still have hopes for seeing Moanna before the end of the year, but I'm willing to wait until payday.

Beloved and I have also found a way to make fluids tasty. There's a sugar-free flavour concentrate that comes in a tiny bottle, it's called lqd+ and though it tastes heavily of artificial sweetener, it's way more amenable than the plastic taste of the filter. With good luck, we should have little trouble staying hydrated henceforth.

Good news - my stories are getting lots of notice on Steemit. My most recent Instant gained 137 votes, yesterday. I owe a Disqus chatroom for mention of it for that much fame. Here's hoping I maintain that notice.

I'm not doing too bad for a few days on a new system.

Post-Yule

The good news is that I didn't bounce back out of Ketosis, nor did I gain more than I've lost. I'm still in the 84-kilo zone. Just... a little higher up in there.

Our cheese-cup-cakes were an immense success. The strawberry ones were way more delicious than the original flavour. I think we're going to go Genuine Fruit Flavour each time we make these things in future.

So, of course, I have to share the recipe.

Cheesecake the Easy Way

Implements
  • Electric
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Season's Greetings

It's Christmas Day in my household, and so far, everyone else is asleep. The fridge is overloaded with Feast Fare, including homemade chocolates, cheese-cup-cakes, a lo-carb pizza, and one of Beloved's own creations that I'm calling Salmon Bread in lieu of something better.

It's a sort of low-carb bread kind of deal, but as you can guess, it has loads of salmon in it. And it's tasty as hell. I'm encouraging Beloved to formalize the recipe so I can share it with

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Christmas eve!

We've done all our shopping (I hope!) and got all our things for the glorious morrow.

And as an extra bonus, this Yule happens on a weekend, so I don't need to worry about my novel's word count. And I really don't need to worry about an Instant, either, since it's my day off.

And I especially don't need to worry about the gap between the Instant count and the days of the year... because of all the double prompts I've been

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Quietly dying

The good news is: LCHF isn't killing me. The bad news is that dehydration got in the way first.

Not helped by the Lurgi and the infection it brought along for the ride.

When you're doing Keto, or LCHF, one of the big problems is getting enough liquids into you. The old sugary stuff could go down quick, for sure, but as you may recall, sugars are off the menu.

I don't know why so much liquid is needed... Maybe it's because

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Very slightly annoyed

Following yesterday's rant about Modern Medicine and how it likes patients being sick, I got a little bit more information about how things went.

The only alternatives available in the early 70's were (a) powdered formula that was probably mostly sugars or the wrong kinds of fats, and (b) canned milk. Neither of these did me any good. And, as far as I'm aware, the knowledge about the benefits of goat's milk came by random happenstance.

One article in the Lancet can

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Murderous Modern Medical Science

Yesterday, I promised you, my dear reader, that I would tell the sordid story of how modern medicine nearly snuffed my talent out in the cradle. But before I get onto that tale of intrigue, business ventures, and just plain fucking up... I have to define a few things.

"Modern Medicine", when I use it in the context of this story, is actually shorthand for "modern medicine at the time" because modern medicine is constantly in flux and capable of change. Except

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Ch-ch-chaaangeeeesss...

I thought I was zen about change. I thought I was cool with everything that SPG collectively decided to alter.

But then they announced that Sam Luke was leaving for his own artistic stuff, and my beloved woobie child Hatchworth was gone from the robots I adore.

So my ASD hatred of change kicked up and resulted in a stab of fear through the heart, and now I have the sads. It's not as if he's died for cryin' out loud, but

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Learning stuff

My favourite saying is, "I'm a writer. I research stuff for fun." Well, I'm going to have myself a lot of fun, sometime real soon now.

Why?

Because we're going to start ourselves on some aquaponics.

Aquaponics solves the problems of hydroponics (delivering nutrients into the system) and aquaculture (fish farming) has the similar problem of getting excess nutrients out of the system. Marry the two together and you get a self-sustaining system that has very little in the way of tweaking.

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Definite improvements

Thanks to the antibiotic, I'm getting less green things coming out of me. And thanks to a little bit more approved carbs1, I'm getting rid of the nastiness at lightning rates.

I could do without the epic purge of mucous, about two hours after I've gone to bed... but that's just how my body wants to roll.

Hopefully, this will be the last time in my life that I'll be on antibiotics.

My breathing is easier. My mind is clear... and

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Owwie, owwie, owwie

Yesterday, the blockage in my sinuses decided to stab me through the left cheekbone. Thereby giving me the worst sinus pain I have had in my life. It hurt to move. It certainly hurt to change elevations. In fact, all I wanted to do with my day was lie in bed and sleep it off.

The Keto sites recommended that, since this bug had bit me during Keto Flu, I actually raise my carb intake a smidgen. The explanation? My body, being

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Slow recovery and horrible green things

I'm pretty sure my virus is done. Hooray. I'm still coughing up things ranging from chartreuse to pea-green, including a random few bronchial casts1. And first thing in the morning, some of my ejecta is so dark that it could double as scabs.

Hooray for night-time drying effects? I guess?

And for those of you who are watching my weight with concern, I actually wobbled upwards by 0.1 of a kilo and am holding steady in the 84 kilo range.

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I'm getting better...

It'd be funnier if I had a picture of myself on a body cart... nevermind.

The lurgi has shifted out of my brain, so at least I'm mentally clear.

My doctor also didn't want to prescribe antibiotics, so I'll be getting rid of green things for some significant time. Which means lots of lemon and ginger tea and lots and lots of salty broth.

With my brain operational, I can now focus on writing a lot better. Alas, I'm still a lot

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Arguing with doctors

As you know, I have Lurgi (I'm almost over it, now), and I went to see the local GP about that and the fact that I'm on the Ketogenic Diet so that my health is duly monitored.

I mentioned it a few times, but I had positive proof that she wasn't listening to me those three times. Because she actually started paying attention (sort of) when I asked her why she wasn't concerned.

And then I got the confusion.

First, the doctor

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It's Lurgi

It seems like everything hit me at once, and my semi-annual lung trouble decided that this was a fine time to team up with Keto Flu and whatever was going around and make beautiful mucous together.

Translated: I have a bacterial infection in my bronchii.

So I've made an appointment to see a doctor today about getting some antibiotics to make that fuck off. Meanwhile, Beloved and I are making plans to get all the calories we need because our current stomach

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