Thanksgiving was wonderful. Pumpkin pie plans, with a little sense, and a lot less money, easily became pumpkin pie cookie plans. That was a supergood idea which created supergood cookies.
I seriously had almost all of this stuff at home already. I swear. The batter was a little difficult at first; creaming the organic shortening with no electric mixer proved quite the task. I dont know why we dont have one, but we deal with this nearly everytime we bake, with no lessons learned. What we usually do is just take turns until it gets done.
I love vegweb and most everything I make originates from the site. Although I do change recipies from time to time, one of my greatest pet peeves when it comes to that site are the whiny substituters. Not a single cookie or pie is safe on that site from at least a few of them. Like this, the last comment you’ll see on the recipie page: I tried making these last night and they turned out to be a disaster. I subbed applesauce and more pumpkin for the shortening. The consistency of these cookies was really gross. They were wet and chewy, but not in a good way. My husband and I each ate one and I’m pretty sure he only ate it to be nice. I ended up cramming them down the garbage disposal.
From people who shouldn’t be in the dessert section to begin with to people who obviously don’t know a thing about baking, these subsituters create all sorts of unholy matrimonies in their kitchens, and then make the rest of us listen to them whine about it. Its fine if you want to substitute maple leaves for maple sugar, but you probably shouldn’t blame the recipie when your cookies taste like grass. I think that these people are pretty much one step under the “Why don’t we all just eat an apple?” trolls that come into websites like vegweb, trying to make us all feel bad for wanting to make chocolate cakes and seitan burritos, as if we are all somehow on some higher eschelon of humanity because we don’t eat meat and dairy.
Up in Harlem we had yummy mock duck, and there was turkey for the omnivores. Mashed potatoes, root vegetables, southern style greens, mac n’ cheese for the dairy-eaters, and more great food than I have ever remembered. Its remarkable to me that my gastrointestinal distress allowed me to enjoy the day. Of course I was pretty bloated after the meal, but nothing terrible in the way of pain or anything else.
Which brings me to my doctor visit on Monday. I think for the entire first 2 minutes of our consultation he thought I had already had my gallbladder removed. Kind of like a morbid whos-on-first routine about my organs.
Doctor: Okay, so you saw another doctor, why did you see her?
Me: Because you don’t return my calls and I needed some help before the 6 weeks that I had to wait for my appointment was up.
Doctor: Okay, but why did you need to see her? What is your main complaint?
Me: The bloating! And the pain! You know?
Doctor: Because of your gall bladder? Why do you still have it?
Me: Because I need a referral from you!
Seems he thought that the esteemed gentleman doctor who cut into my bile ducts back in September was going to refer me to a surgeon. I had thought the same, myself, but it didn’t go that way. He thought I should wait it out. So my doctor referred me to a surgeon and I have a consultation on Tuesday. I’m terrified and elated at the same time. I find myself giving some thought to the ridiculous gallbladder flushes and liver cleanses after all. I mean, if it’s going to come out anyway, I may as well try, right? Well, not exactly. The simple fact that there is a woman named Ingrid with a site called “Kitchen doctor” who claims that (paraphrasing) no matter what anyone thinks they know about stones, one cannot get stuck in the bile duct, is enough to turn me off nearly completely.
Got sick today; couldn’t keep my food down until around 6pm. Missed more work and more school. Oh and knitting hasn’t been getting done any quicker than my schoolwork, what with all this sleeping. I guess I got some sort of lucious NYC subway bug this week. Its totally rad when you cant tell if youre puking because of your gallbladder or because of the woman that coughed in your face on the L last week.
