Part of the Plan (Also, My New Project!)

So, I missed my first Couch to 5K run this morning.

It was raining and thundering this morning.

Yeah.

I'd already planned to not run in the rain. Not necessarily because I think rain would be uncomfortable (it probably would be a bit, but it also might be sort of fun) but because the sidewalks flood around here. I think I mentioned something about the water table being pretty close to ground-surface in this area, and any time it rains, the whole city gets a sinus infection. In any case, I don't want to run on wet sidewalks (particularly given the amount of goose poo on the sidewalk!) because I'm worried about slipping and falling down.

My bones are pretty fragile after many years of steroid use; I tend to break something whenever I fall down. (elbow, wrist, leg, several toes, and the top of my foot) This is part of my Being Careful.

Nearly everyone - when I've mentioned that I've started running - has said to me "Ooooh, be careful." Yes, ok! I'm Being Careful, thankyouverymuch. I've been so damn careful that I've missed out on a lot of my life. And I'm not going to let it stop me any longer! But just because I'm trying to change things doesn't mean I've gone completely bonkers out of my head and will accidentally cripple myself. I'm making sure the path I'm running is safe, and dry. I've got good shoes. I'm not pushing myself any harder than I feel I reasonably can. And believe me, if my ankle starts hurting, I'll stop running.

So, I woke up this morning at 6:35 and looked out the window. It was pouring. Not that Get the Ark sort of pouring, but the nice, steady sheeting rain. The kind that gardeners are always really happy about because it means the rain will actually soak into the soil and help their flowers and tomatoes, rather than just puddling all over the place and pouring straight into the massive drainage system.

I confess to being slightly disappointed. But I'm Being Careful, so I didn't go.

So, I've started a new project recently.

One of my friends from the Weight Watchers newsgroup asked a few questions about eggs - which is to say she stated that she didn't like eating scrambled egg whites and was wondering what she could do about this. (Stop eating egg whites!). I mentioned that I never make an egg dish with completely whites, as the yolk is NOT bad for you, and it helps with the presentation. I usually make omelets with 1 egg, and 2 whites. Then I commented that in order to jazz up my omelet, I tried to pick a complementary spice to go with whatever I was stuffing in the omelet. Common omelets around here are: tarragon with fat free cream cheese and smoked salmon; smoked paprika and cilantro with salsa and fat free pepper jack; parsley with ham and fat free swiss. Like that.

What she wrote back floored me.

Um, I don't have any spices. I've never used them. Just some rosemary, that's all. And I never used it after I got it. Since I don't know what I'm doing, I didn't want to ruin my dinner. I've been married for 10 years, but only started trying to cook about four months ago. I have no idea what I'm doing in the kitchen, and it scares me.

No. Spices?

So, we started writing emails back and forth. I wrote a very long mail to her about basic spices, prepping to cook, and common kitchen sanitation. She was very enthused, so I continued to write out these emails. Soon one person became three, and now suddenly I have about 10 subscribers to a mailing list. Today, I wrote out a simple recipe for fish fillets, vegetables, and spices, including how to pick fresh fish, what to look for in buying onions, peppers, and potatoes, and how to plan your meal to get salads, sides, and main course on the table at the same time.

In any case, if you're interested in this mailing list, I'm happy to include more people. Just let me know in the comments to add you to the list, and include your email address (write it out something like Beginningcook at somewhere dot com so that email spiders don't nab your address and send you craploads of spam!) I promise that I will not sell your email address to anyone, and that I won't fill up your inbox. I'm not intending to write anything more than one email per week - altho I will catch you up on previous emails when you first sign up!