I’ve been sick for the past week. Yes, the mighty Sinus Infection struck me down. After the events of the past 2 years, I was just happy to say that I didn’t have Covid, despite the fact that I still felt unspeakably shitty. And I don’t get sick very often so my immune system was working overtime. I mean, I was exhausted!
But while I was sick I lost my sense of taste and smell. I’m regaining it slowly now as my congestion is passing, but that loss of taste and smell was by far the worst part of this whole thing.
I bit into a slice of pizza and it might has well have been a chunk of soggy cardboard. A fluffy round of garlic bread was nothing more than a beautiful decoration on my plate. Nothing breaks your heart more than garlic bread sitting tasteless and unappetizing on a plate. Or perhaps only foodies can lament this way about garlic bread…
Thankfully, food blogs were my saving grace. Everytime I saw someone cutting into blueberry cheesecake or opening a Nutella filled cronut or tearing into their foccacia bread or basting their honey chicken tenders (I watch hours worth of instagram reels of this stuff lol), I felt that I could taste it! Even with my senses being completely out of wack, I could taste every single spice, every drop of fresh squeezed juice, felt that texture of perfectly cooked chicken breaking apart in my mouth.
Shoutout to my favorite food blog, Moribyan.com, for constantly making me crave things I’ve never actually tasted but taste in my dreams over and over again. I swear I can smell her kitchen if I sniff hard enough!
As summer is on its tailend, I’m starting to get excited for autumn! With Autumn comes the hearty spirit of making baked goods and I plan to make as many as possible this year. Hopefully I can master a new baked treat every Friday starting in September. I attempted to do this last year but the Ghost of Autumn got my soul and I lost all steam midway through October (the Ghost of Autumn is simply another name for seasonal depression, as “Ghost of Autumn” sounds a lot more like a mysterious, endearing, storybook character rather than an intangible general feeling of the cold and dark weather making me cry on a random Tuesday).
Colder seasons approach, as does the mug of hot cider to my lips! I plan on consuming as much pumpkin things and cinnamon things and apple things and walnut things as possible. And yes, I’m a pumpkin spice girl. Life is too short not to be.
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Sick and Hungry
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Lemon Curd and Such
Much of my thinking time is spent on food. I think about eating food, smelling food, baking food. I think about food dripping off my fork onto the plate. I think about food filling the hole in my stomach and satisfying me completely.
And then I talk about food. God, I could talk about food for ages. All bakers know that there are these little intricate sciences to baking things that are so detailed and nerdy and annoying to remember but essential to the recipe, and it’s so entertaining to talk about.
Like, in order to make lemon curd, one must use cold butter pats. Not room temperature, otherwise the curd won’t be thick enough. Not the entire stick at once, otherwise the butter won’t melt in time and the consistency won’t be perfect. About 10 nice and cold butter pats to mix straight into your thick lemon sugar mixture.
And then of course you put it in a jar and you leave it on the counter for a few hours. Don’t put it in the fridge right away, otherwise it can mold. After a night in the fridge your lemon curd is thick, rich, and perfect on cake or toast.
Lemons, sugar, butter. All the ingredients needed for a perfect recipe. Learning the recipe ruined me. I can eat it all the time, now. Smother it on everything. I wish I could make vats of it to keep in my house just in case of a lemon curd emergency.The tangy flavor that hits the back of my tongue followed by the sweetness that plays on the tip is unmatched.
I use Alton Brown’s lemon curd recipe. That man is a genius and if I keep listening to him, my food addiction can only grow.
Chena Is Home 