Just a bit

 I'm trying to get over a little nose congestion and have it not go to my chest.  I've had that problem all my life - Fargo was the worst with the wind and cold - but I still get it here in Tennessee once in a while, too.  Basically, I've been told, my sinuses aren't quite right but it would take a lot to make them 'right' and they probably wouldn't stay that way, so learn how to deal with it.  I eat a lot of soup and drink a lot of tea.

I made pea soup this morning with garlic and onions and clove spice, and drank it all straight down.

I've been studying Greek, trying to increase that score from 15 to 16 - and also doing Spanish-->French and French-->Spanish on my phone, and caught up on a few lessons of Russian today after watching a big cat handler's Youtube again with Esme and pointing out that I could understand some of what she was saying.  My Duolingo scores on the French-->Spanish and Spanish-->French are both sitting at 10 and 11, respectively.  My English-->French score is just hovering under 70, and I know that could be improved but the grammar is getting into 'you have to study now' territory.  I'm still using the free version, as well.  And I was surprised to see my Russian score materialize today also at 11.  They didn't have those scores back when I did the free A-level Busuu course and then caught up some practice on Duolingo. 

Found a little red photo album from my early childhood and posted a few pictures for my sister to see, and to try to figure out who the people were in them.  I was really originally looking for what the linoleum looked like in our house when I was a child - because I could remember it almost exactly.  I picked out an image on Google that I was sure was it - and when I found the picture in the album, yes, *pat on back* it was exactly the same pattern.  Those sort of things stick with you when you have a photographic memory.  I remember my mother being upset that I would trace such patterns with my fingers, and especially the mirroring in it was something I was fascinated with.  Come to discover later that patterns and dyslexia mirroring things were a big part of how my brain works - little surprise!

 

 

I was also doing my Lithuanian / Latvian vocabulary - on baba dum only Lithuanian is available and on Baltoslav both are.  I was finding it useful to look away from the screen on ba ba dum and hear the word, 'spell' it in my vision, and then look and see if the word was what I thought it was before trying to match it to the picture I also thought it should be.  BaltoSlav doesn't have pronunciation, but Google translate has gotten much better at pronouncing Latvian, and I've been watching some more Tuta's Lietas as well for that.

 Still no actual USE for these languages other than my brain works much better and less stress fully with this 'in all the boxes' than with remembering 50,000+ items in inventory per department in the hardware store I worked at.   

The New Year's Cake and Parsnip Soup

 Esme and I made the butter almond cake together today.  

 

My haul from the grocery store.  I didn't take any pictures of the cake itself.  We made hopping john of a sort, and I served carrots and the almond cake for Esme, and carrots, the almond cake, greens and some of the acorn squash for grandma and myself.

 I had looked through all of my recipes and found the recipe for galette des rois (king's cake) and decided it was too complicated.  But yesterday, I had decided that I needed to make the cake again, maybe something that I can still eat after this dental work.

 

This is what we made - it was good, a bit like sweetened cornbread.  I can't have corn products, have been avoiding them for years now on my cousin's recommendation with my other connective tissue disorder.   

 

Butter Almond Cake :

 

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter softened

1 cup white granulated sugar

2 large eggs (at room temperature)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

little less than 3 tsp. baking powder

1.5 cups of general purpose flour

1/2 cup of ground almonds

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until fork comes out clean

cream softened butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat until smooth, mix dry ingredients in another bowl and add half and half with the milk beating until all combined, pour into ceramic dish, bake

 

Hopping John  

 

fry chopped bacon on low until the edges begin to crisp, keep the oil in the pan

pour drained can of black eyed peas into the grease and mix thoroughly while still heating

stir often until it begins to bubble again

put frozen chopped green onions into mixture, heat again until it sizzles and stir until the gravy thickens

 

Parsnip Soup  (a variation on the turnip soup from a while back)

 

peel and chop up into small slivers one large parsnip

put in pot with at least 2 cups (I think it was closer to 4) of water

pour in a bit of olive oil 

add frozen zucchini and onions

garlic parmesan grilling seasoning

black pepper 

 

boil until everything is soft, use a stick blender to make smooth 

add a good pat of good butter on top of each bowl