Tuesday

Had a bit of experimental food for dinner last night - made beef gravy for mashed potatoes (Dave Evans - I think that's the name - refrigerated ones; reasonably recognizable ingredients, no wheat or sugar, and butter listed before the Franken-oils in the list) with beef stock, potato starch, and various flavorings (onion, garlic, S&P).  I had that with a grilled sirloin-tip grassfed steak (which I have to admit I overcooked - 8 minutes per side was a lot too much).  Some observations:

• Potato starch is significantly better at thickening than the equivalent quantity of flour
• The resulting gravy (once I thinned it back out some more and turned the heat way down!) was translucent, rather like Chinese-food sauces (cornstarch-thickened). 
• It tasted really good, however.

Since I would prefer to have the gravy at Thanksgiving look more like gravy than oyster sauce, I'm thinking I want to add some heavy cream to the mix (and finish it with butter before serving, but I might have done that no matter what the ingredients were).  I may still make some trial poultry gravy with chicken stock or broth (depending on what's open in the fridge that day) and a sweet white rice flour/butter roux, for comparison.  Or maybe some poultry potato-starch and cream gravy.  I'm very glad I thought to do the research this week, so that I have time to try things out before serving the result to my family.

146.8 this morning, and cramps threatening but not materializing overnight - over the past months, I have learned that stretching in certain ways while asleep brings that condition to a way-too-abrupt end.

FWIW, I am still rather fascinated by how slender and petite I appear in mirrors these days.  I assume that I'll get used to it eventually; I hope so, anyway, because I'd hate for anyone to catch me admiring the results of nearly 45 pounds' weight loss. 

Another useful note: my sleep is so much better these days.  It's just more useful or effective or something.  I know that I dream way more than I used to, and I can say (without remembering specifics) that my dreams are more coherent and narrative-oriented than they used to be.  And I tend to wake up after about 8 hours' sleep, rested and able to get up and do things (not that I always want to get up at that point).  Even last week, when I was fighting the onset of Standard Time, I did sleep well.  Why that should have anything whatsoever to do with my food choices is beyond me, but there it is.