Kosher

Colin finished exams last week and feels pretty good about them. Now he has a month off and I could see the panic in his eyes as he thought about what he was going to do with himself. I gave him LOTS of ideas. He needs to find us a new place to live, read a textbook on the back, and make me some dinner! I think he’ll find the time passing quickly.

I recently re-discovered two recipes that I’ve been wanting to make for a while: Hazelnut roasted pork with birch syrup, and Brussels sprouts with prosciutto and pine nuts. It took me a while to find all the ingredients needed here in Australia (pork is difficult to find when most of the butchers are muslim) but on Sunday I FINALLY rounded up everything we needed. We decided to wait until Monday night to cook our dinner and invite our friends Jenna and Willy over. I had to go to work Monday afternoon because a coworker became ill. I started feeling pretty terrible at work and the sniffles I had were escalading into a nasty head cold. I came home and starting making dinner quickly because it needed two hours in the oven. As soon as I got a whiff of the onions, garlic, thyme and rosemary frying, I was done for, I thought I was going to vomit. I went and lay down in bed while Colin finished it up, then he went swimming with our friends before dinner. I stayed in bed trying to sleep but just before 11 the entire contents of my stomach came back out, again and again. It's ironic that the meal I spent a week preparing for, I wasn't able to eat or even smell! I phoned my boss at 6am to tell him that I wasn’t able to come in today and being the perfect boss he is said, “Thanks so much for calling, hope you feel well soon.” I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this enough, but I love my job. Fortunately they were able to get a temp in.

You might also be wondering, “Have they received their coffee machine yet? It’s been 2 ½ weeks since they paid for their new one!” And the answer my friends, is no. We remain coffee less. Last week Colin phoned in to check on the status and a lady told him that she thinks they sold ours to someone else by accident. I think they’ve done that and are now ordering us a new one, which is why it’s taking sooo long. I feel sad when I look at the empty space on our kitchen counter and the coffee beans in our cupboard getting older each day.

E.