Category Archives: Food

Green Tea Magic

Posted in Bumpboobs, Food, Fun, Life by

Here’s a Tea Tip. My mother and I were walking around Westboro this past weekend (taking a break from the world) and I was on the lookout for decaffeinated green tea.

So we walk into this little tea shop that is full of bamboo, tea settings, small round tables and tins (presumably with tea inside) lining the walls. And I ask the young woman there for decaffeinated green tea.

“We don’t have any decaf teas here, because of the processing, but you can naturally decaffeinate your own tea, if you like.”

Yes, I like. And how do I do that?

Apparently caffeine dissolves fairly quickly once the tea leaves hit hot water. Therefore, take your tea of choice, submerge it in very hot water (Does it need to be boiling? She didn’t specify, but I would imagine not simply because green tea isn’t meant to be served at 100 degrees.) and let sit for about a minute. Then drain that water. About 75% of the caffeine will have drained away.

Now how is that for a useful tip?  After wowing us with her helpfulness, she then proceeded to show us several varieties of green teas and had us sniff each container as she explained the tone and taste of each tea. Clearly she knows her stuff.

Honestly, I had just put on some sample hand cream at the previous Westboro store we’d visited, so half the smells were lost on me (She suggested I might notice how one tea was more grassy than the other, but  the subtle  smells were overcome by rosehips and lemongrass – though it was very lovely hand cream.) However,  smelling and learning was nevertheless a lovely way to buy tea. Considering green tea is meant to be all kinds of good for you – it’s nice to see shop owners who take it very seriously, and want you to have the right choice. Actually, I think it somehow gave the tea additional magical powers, because we treated it with reverence, as though it was not just a drink but a total experience of the soul. In the end, Mom and I settled on a green tea which is high in amino acids but has a delicate flavour. It’s in my tea pot and steeping at this moment.

I’m counting down the minutes before I can indulge. Maybe one more. Then I’ll pour a cup.

And that was your Tea Tip, brought to you by that charming tea shop in Ottawa’s Westboro Village.

Panic attacked in the loo

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs, Food by

So there I was in the bathroom. Zsolt had suggested I take a hot bath to calm my cramping, and it had sounded like a good idea. Except suddenly they became really strong, and I thought, “oh shit, what if it’s ovarian cancer?” and next thing I know, I’m kneeling on the ground (hadn’t even managed to run my bath) of my parents lovely white tiled bathroom, trying not to pass out – not from the pain (though geeeeez it was painful), but from the fear.

 

Now, I’m not exactly familiar with the panic attack . . . but reckon that the whole “I’m going to pass out” thing is a symptom of the event.

Why did I panic?

Sigh . . .

Because as mentioned in other posts, I’m a wee bit haunted by last year. And now, when things go wrong (today’s situation revolved around strong cramps that wouldn’t let up . . . okay, so about forty minutes after they started everything had subsided . . . but that was one heck of a forty minutes.) my initial thought is: What if it’s cancer?

My second thought today was, “is this what labour feels like?”

Obviously I have issues to work out. I know that. My mom is going to help me. But there’s nothing like dipping back into fear and pain and memories to reiterate the fact that this journey isn’t over. I have a lot of healing to cover.  Which is why, and yes I guess I occasionally need reminding, we came back to Canada. Heal, baby, heal. Make it all feel better.

This is a work in process.

It may be my cramps were triggered (or rather, enhanced) by a few stressful events of late . . . which I guess is quite possible. Way back in grade seven I had my first round of exams – six in one week, or something stupid like that. I broke out in fever and rash. Stress rash. That’s just what happens. And today when my mother said to me, “Catherine, you’re panicking because you think this is worse than it is,” it clicked in my head that I really out to chill. Relax.

And not long after that the pain began to subside.

Anyhow, there you go. But I don’t want to leave you on a sour note. Instead I’d rather leave you on a sweet one.

Want to get hooked on an amazing snack food? Please, feel free to join me in the addiction called “Cha Cha Chipolte”. It’s nuts. NUTS that almonds can taste so fantastic. Okay, here is what you do: Go to your local Bulk Barn or wherever these things are sold, and BUY twenty packets (or just one).  Believe me, you won’t regret this. My family introduced this addictive, sweet, crumbly, soft, crunch, salty treat into my life, and now I’m Ha Ha Hooked.

So today I’ve written about panicking and sweet nuts. Not exactly consistent in theme, but whatever. It’s my blog, I’ll write what I like with it. 🙂

Sa sa see you later. Enjoy the nuts!!

Living in a fruit salad

Posted in Food, Fun, Life, Travel by

“Catherine, it’s so delicious. Oh, it’s so sweet! Finom, ez finom!”

This is Anna the fruit pusher (aka Zsolt’s mother) trying to convince me to eat a piece of the orange coloured melon she’s just sliced. The table is covered with fruit – melon, apple, pear, peach . . . this morning there were raspberries, now finished off, and a few weeks earlier there were cherries too.

Hungary in the summer has a never ending parade of fruit. Organic, locally grown (aka the backyard), sweet, juicy, fruit.

 But I’m no fan of melons, with the exception of watermelons.

“Oh de jo,” she says, meaning ‘how good’ and looking earnestly at my face. You know, there’s something about her lovely blue eyes and absolutely eager expression that almost temps me to try the melon piece. But that would open flood gates. First comes one piece, then suddenly a slice, and then, of course, a whole half of the melon she’s trying to have finished.

“Lots of vitamins,” Zsolt reminds me. That’s the ultimate argument around here: lot’s of vitamins.

So I say to Zsolt, “how come your Dad isn’t eating fruit?” Laszlo is finishing off an ice cream (I also don’t want an ice cream; it’s too sweet for this hot weather. And I do not want a melon. Instead, as all this transpires, I’m slicing into peach after peach – recently picked from Zsolt’s grandmother’s peach tree in Pecs.)

“We’re all thinking of you,” replies Zsolt. “You’re the one who got sick.”

And it’s so freaking true too. For years I was saying his family eats too much bread, too much sugar – actually, I think too much anything is probably too much. And then I go and get the cancer. So there’s egg on my face. But nevertheless, I’m not eating an ice cream when fruit will do just as well; mind you, I’m also not eating that melon.

“Jo borat, finom.” I comment – nice peach, tasty. And the conversation is deflected into peaches. Ground has been held, no melon has passed my lips.

Next up in the fruit parade will Hungarian-grown watermelons. I’m looking forward to this stage of the summer, because unlike those other melons – watermelons are wonderful.

Now Anna has turned toward her husband, Laszlo, and is trying to sell him the melon. He’s not budging either, though his ice cream is nearly finished. I feel like he and I are allies in our dislike toward melons (just ignore that I tried to throw him under the wheels in an effort to deflect attention from myself – we’re allies now. It’s all okay.)

This is a fruit salad summer. Lots of vitamins. Lots of juice. Lots of natural sugar. I’m not sure if so much fruit is or isn’t cancer fighting (I’d say all those raspberries were probably quite helpful), but they are certainly delicious.

Anyhow, no melon for me, thanks very much. But I’ll certainly have another peach.