Monday

Not tremendously great weekend.  I did about 2-3 hours of garden cleanup on Saturday, and I'm still feeling the effects, which are painful.  Possibly even a twinge of sciatica - some shooting pains down both hips.  Sleep Saturday was fine, thank heavens, but last night was wretched.  I put some pain-relief cream on my hamstrings, and the capsaicin in it caused them to burn most of the night.  And I wasn't smart enough or awake enough to get up and do anything about it at that time.  It was just rough.  Eating over the weekend was okay - not great, but not horrid.  147.8 this morning, up from 147.4 yesterday, and my fingers are very swollen, so I think it's mostly water/inflammation.  Here's what I can recall of yesterday:

• tea with cream
• menopause supplements only (not working much right now, either)
• an almond shortbread cookie
• two brats with sauerkraut
• a few potato chips
• cheese
• roast beef
• mashed potatoes with gravy (rice-flour roux)
• salad with blue cheese dressing
• peach ice cream
• a couple more almond shortbread cookies
• a glass of Gewurztraminer

I think that was everything.  I mean to get back into ketosis this week and calm things down, so probably a chef's salad or the like tonight for dinner, maybe after a gym trip with Elizabeth.  And no snacks during the day, either - I have beef jerky in the car, but if I get monstrously hungry, I'll go have another cup of tea or bouillon.

The roast was perfect yesterday - I did the dry-brine, slow-oven approach from Cook's Illustrated and got a rosy-pink, tender, delicious result.  So nice to have found a way to do it that works reliably.  The gravy was less wonderful - not sure if the rice flour dampened the flavor or if the lack of drippings was an issue - the liquid was mostly commercial beef stock.  And trial 2 of peach ice cream was a disappointment.  First, it needs the egg yolk (I omitted that this time), and second, peach is just not a very assertive flavor.  The result isn't bad, just a bit bland.  Next up, raspberries or strawberries, I think.  Either in a French vanilla base as fruit, or in a French vanilla base as the main flavor.

And, I think I have enough dried carrots to make flour now.  Crossing my fingers that it works roughly like coconut flour and can be used as a cake base; I will give cupcakes a trial some time over the next week or so.  One egg's worth of batter, however much that might make.