I'm back.

Good lord.  I haven’t posted since January 10th.  SHAME.  SHAME ON ME.

Well.  I’ve been very busy.  Let’s see.  What has happened since January 10th.

We opened the restaurant.  That’s the #1 reason I stopped blogging.  I was too damn busy.  I worked all the time.  I drank a lot (too much).  I worked strange hours, and I never saw my friends.  Well, the ones outside the restaurant.
But I liked the work, and I liked who I was working with.
I also didn’t know HOW to blog about what I was eating which was alternately horrible/not enough.  Some days I would eat perhaps 49 tortilla chips (one each time I passed the chip bucket) and that is all.  Other days I would taste the aioli 7480 times, eat a Sundae, eat a burger, sample the nacho sauce, who knows.  No way I could take a picture of all that.

See how tired Chef Blessing was?  So tired.  From opening the restaurant.

THEN, I went and had surgery! omg SO FUN.  This is my bro on the beach in Florida, while I feebly took his picture from the safety of not near the water (not allowed anywhere near the water after surgery).

This is my father telling a false story he swore was true. Laughter and hilarity ensues.

So I’ve been recovering from that for a month.  I spent a lot of time upstate with my parents, which was very relaxing and wonderful and they cooked me great food.  They also have every cable channel ever and comfy, overstuffed couches, all of which are key for surgery recovery.

So this is where I’m at right now:

It’s a month after surgery, and I expected to be more healed than I am, and some complications from surgery made me very stressed, so I’m in a somewhat cranky place right now with that.  I can’t lift anything, I can’t exercise, I can’t cook for myself much, I can’t really DO much of anything yet and it’s driving me f*cking crazy.  This is emotionally difficult.

I’ve been eating a lot of takeout, and a fair amount of ice cream. Also those oreos you see up there, as well.

It’s time to make myself accountable again.

If I’m going to sit on the couch and eat ice cream, and be cranky about my current limitations, fine, but I have to document and write about it.

SO.  This morning’s breakfast was homemade energy bars, and some trail mix.  I never actually got to that thar apple.

Lunch was this confusing-looking plate of Grounded Peas and String Beans and Carrots (Ethiopian) and some porchetta (yes, I am back at work, my regular job, albeit in a limited capacity).  I LOVE Ethiopian food!  It is so delicious.

More trail mix snax…

and of COURSE, some seaweed snacks.

And dinner was…pretty great.  This is the first time I’ve cooked for myself in a month.  I had to buy pre-cut vegetables, but I just HAD to cook for myself.

I sauteed heritage ground pork with garlic and crushed red pepper, then sauteed some pre-cut cauliflower in the leftover pork fat, and THEN wilted some baby spinach in the same pan.  I threw some diced tomato and avocado on top of everything, and sprinkled some red wine vinegar and Red Boat Fish Sauce (this stuff is all the rage right now).

That was nice.

I just had one of Blessing’s Nueman-O’s, and now I’m going to bed.  I might eat a date first.

Alright.  Be nice to yourself.