The month-long holidays for March are: National Frozen Food Month, National Noodle Month, Irish-American Heritage Month. Some are for important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun.
Purim starts Monday night. Depending on how people follow it, it ends either Tuesday night or Wednesday night. We retell the story of Esther, usually in a fun way. Sometimes with skits. Each name has a certain thing the audience can shout out. Like, Haman, the villain, gets boo'd at and we use groggers (noisemakers) every time he's mentioned. Some cheer when Mordechai and/or Esther's names are read. Some make fun of how clueless the king is. It can get pretty rowdy. Especially, when you throw in that the adults are supposed to drink until they can't tell the difference between the villain and the hero. Plus, there's candy and hamantaschen (triangle-shaped jam-filled cookies), and usually a carnival. Dressing up in costumes is a big thing, too. Some have likened that part and the candy to a Jewish Halloween. There's another tradition where people hand out goodie bags/baskets (mishloach manot) to family, friends, and neighbors. Usually filled with food and/or drinks. People also give to charity. It's a fun holiday. Haven't attended a service or carnival for it in a very long time. I think they actually have hamantaschen now at our local market. I might try those, but they're vegan and use soy-based things...I'd rather it be the normal ones.
With Purim coming up, that means there's roughly a month until Passover. Not much time. It's an even bigger holiday, especially because of the dietary restrictions. It has to be planned. I think this year I might try to get things online again. As long as I do it early enough, that should be fine. I ordered a little too close to the holiday last year. It looks like I'll be alone for both of the first nights. (It lasts for 8 days.) So, I'll have both seders (ritual dinners) all to myself at home. That's not too bad. Less food to think about, and don't have to bring something to another person's seder. Plus, I can eat what I like at both.
Since Sunday, I've been having severe back, shoulder, neck, and hip pain. Stiffness, too. Really awful along my spine. It's actually gotten so bad, I'm having trouble moving around. Really having a hard time getting up from lying and sitting positions. It's like my body just doesn't want to do it, not only because of the pain. I've come close to not being able to get out of bed the last couple of mornings. Looking at my back yesterday, I noticed 2 huge lumps. One over my spine, and one over my left shoulder. I don't know if I simply imagined them, though. If I didn't...that doesn't sound good. Sometimes it hurts just to breathe. I thought it might be related to being constipated, but after 'fixing' that, it seems to have gotten worse. I'm really nervous about it now. However, I can't do anything until I've gotten approval to be put back on my health insurance. As soon as I do, I'm going to Urgent Care for this. I'm not sure how long I can wait after that, if it doesn't go away on its own. I do plan to get a new primary care doc, too. If this gets much worse while I'm waiting for that approval, I may need to go to the hospital, even though I really don't want to unless I'm covered.
There might be hints that I'll be approved soon, because of getting 3 (I think) checks of a sizable amount recently. They did say they'd back pay it, however I haven't really done much since I've been off it. I only saw my primary, which they billed as a phone visit. That's not much even when you're not insured. Certainly not as much as what's on one or two of those checks. I'm not sure why they paid me so much. Oh, and my current med is the same price it would be if I were covered, so it doesn't seem related to that. It's nice, but weird.
Despite the pain, I managed to make a dinner and dessert on Monday. It had been a while since I felt like I actually cooked. Made Philly Cheesesteak stuffed pasta shells for the dinner. Found the recipe on Pinterest. I had been wanting to make it for a while. Sounded so good. I cooked the 'filling' the way I normally would for something like a ground beef, onion, and green bell pepper mixture. They wanted me to do it in a weird way that would create even more dishes. I did add a little margarine (I used that instead of the butter that was listed) into the mixture. That filling is seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, salt, and pepper. It was my first time dealing with jumbo pasta shells and stuffing them. That was interesting, and kind of a fun part. After they're stuffed, cheddar is sprinkled over them. The cheese sauce was made in the same pan that the beef mixture was in, so it picked up those flavors. On top of that the sauce has more cheddar, beef broth, milk, and some corn starch to thicken it. They have you pour half of that between the shells before putting it in the oven. Then, you add the rest to individual portions. It was more of a to-do than I thought it would be, but it was really worth it. It turned out amazing! Made a lot, too. Since I'm the only one eating it, I've been having it for meals throughout the week.
I also made a cherry cheesecake. Recipe came from my cookbook, My Mother's Treasure Trove of Recipes. I haven't done many things from it, so I thought I'd explore a bit. Plus, it let's me, and others, see what things look like. There are no pics in the book. This was one of the first dessert recipes in it. Seemed really simple. I think it was from the 80's. They have you mix cream cheese and powdered sugar together, then fold in Cool Whip, pour that into a graham cracker (or shortbread) pie crust, top with a whole can of cherry pie filling, and chill it in the refrigerator. It ended up making a little too much filling/cheesecake for the crust to handle, so I had to throw out the excess. I got more of the cherries on there than I thought I could, but still had 1/4 of a can left. Oh well. The finished product was awesome! Tastes even better than Safeway's cheesecakes. It ended up really thick with the filling, too. Feels like I get a substantial amount with each slice.
I plan to go back to doing a Pinterest recipe every week, along with one from my cookbook. I'll switch the types around, as well. For instance, next time I'll make a dessert from Pinterest, and a dinner from the cookbook. I do have drink and snack recipes for both, too. I suppose I could just do a different combo each time. Doesn't have to be a dinner and dessert. So, I'll see how that goes.
Since I'm in so much pain, I feel like not eating much today. Last night, things filled me up more than they should have, and I had a weird feeling of my stomach creating bubbles. Had hiccups when I tried to sleep after that. So, all I plan to have today is a little of the pasta thing, and maybe cheesecake for 'dinner'. Enough to take my med and have it regulated. Plus, at least I won't waste what I made. This isn't a good thing to do when you have colitis, though. I try to have 5 small meals a day (I splurge a bit during the weekend and some Wednesdays), so things are balanced. Keeps me from being too nauseated, oddly enough. Also, I already have issues with absorbing certain things like protein. Eating the way I am today for a longer period of time, will cause a lot of issues. Could even spark a flare. I suppose it's ok every once in a while to eat like this.
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