Saturday, December 22, 2007
Alright, I lied...
I expected to be otherwise occupied today, and it turns out I was free to go out and the weather is not too attrocious, cold enough to fool one into thinking one was experienceing a typical Yakima Gulag Siberian Express type of day, but people are out and around. I am out and around, even if it is only the immediate neighborhood. I think it is important to get out and walk no matter what the circumstances. If you don't you will soon become a rolling tub of lard.
Which leads to the subject of food. I made some lovely soup, and a salad from raw garbanzo beans. I learned this salad during the course of my unfortunate first marriage. It in fact coincides with the day I fainted because I was expecting my son and did not yet know it.
So this dish has history for me. Both lentils and garbanzo beans are edible without needing to be cooked. All you have to do is clean them, wash them, and soak them in water over-night.
Then if what you have is garbanzo beans, you drain them, add a cut tomato, a diced onion, a diced clove of garlic, and salt and pepper, then you add oil, and vinegar. The taste of the beans themselves is slightly sweet. Interestingly, eatten this way seldom gives me a gas problem. With garbanzo beans cooked, I add a bit of cocoanut powder, which is easy to get here, fairly cheap and of extremely high quality.
I found that if I eat cooked lentils this is helpful too.
You can do the same type of salad with lentils, only if the beans are lentils, I add some rosemary. Crush it small in your hands first, before adding it to the lentil salad, and with lentils, it is best if the oil is good olive oil.
izvolite.
Documentaries I have watched, today includes one called 'Ostali' this is a series, and it is about minority groups in BiH. Today's was interesting, it was about Polish people who live in BiH. Right now they number around 200. Previous documentaries in this series that I have seen covered the Ukranian minority here, the Czech minority, and I look forward to seeing other films in this series. They interview people, which is good.
There is a series about what happened with internally displaced people since the war, Otisci. Also very good.
Tonight the film 'Most' is on. Since my S.O. isn't going to be over, I can watch it. He doesn't like films with the least bit of shooting, and I suspect there will be shooting, cussing and drinking. :).
Yesterday, while visiting friends who have a small shop in Bascarsija, I was given a bit of the most heavenly delicious baklava I have ever, ever, ever eaten. I have had Greek baklava, Turkish baklava, Arab baklava, and of course Bosnian baklava, and baklava is a favorite with me. This was absolutely first rate, the best ever.
I found that walking actually eases the pain in my left hip. I saw one of the local stores has an add for something called a 'medicinski jastuk' a 'medical pillow' for 15KM so I will check that out on the way home. Heat helps a lot. So if it is not something I have to plug in to use, I will go and get it.
One really useful program here is the news for deaf people. It is called 'govor tisina' and it is basically the whole weeks news translated into sign language. All the local T.V. stations do something similar, and it is a very helpful deal as the news casters in fact DO speak, and what is lovely, they speak slowly enough for me to understand. Newscasters here speak as fast as I can type. I now type at what my late mother would have called 'wire service speed'
Very fast indeed. So the fact these folks are slowed down a bit helps me keep informed. In the States, the deaf are often quite a lot less informed than people with other handicaps just because news translated for deaf people is not universally available in the States. I wish it were more available, closed captioning is helpful but often not enough.
Which leads to the subject of food. I made some lovely soup, and a salad from raw garbanzo beans. I learned this salad during the course of my unfortunate first marriage. It in fact coincides with the day I fainted because I was expecting my son and did not yet know it.
So this dish has history for me. Both lentils and garbanzo beans are edible without needing to be cooked. All you have to do is clean them, wash them, and soak them in water over-night.
Then if what you have is garbanzo beans, you drain them, add a cut tomato, a diced onion, a diced clove of garlic, and salt and pepper, then you add oil, and vinegar. The taste of the beans themselves is slightly sweet. Interestingly, eatten this way seldom gives me a gas problem. With garbanzo beans cooked, I add a bit of cocoanut powder, which is easy to get here, fairly cheap and of extremely high quality.
I found that if I eat cooked lentils this is helpful too.
You can do the same type of salad with lentils, only if the beans are lentils, I add some rosemary. Crush it small in your hands first, before adding it to the lentil salad, and with lentils, it is best if the oil is good olive oil.
izvolite.
Documentaries I have watched, today includes one called 'Ostali' this is a series, and it is about minority groups in BiH. Today's was interesting, it was about Polish people who live in BiH. Right now they number around 200. Previous documentaries in this series that I have seen covered the Ukranian minority here, the Czech minority, and I look forward to seeing other films in this series. They interview people, which is good.
There is a series about what happened with internally displaced people since the war, Otisci. Also very good.
Tonight the film 'Most' is on. Since my S.O. isn't going to be over, I can watch it. He doesn't like films with the least bit of shooting, and I suspect there will be shooting, cussing and drinking. :).
Yesterday, while visiting friends who have a small shop in Bascarsija, I was given a bit of the most heavenly delicious baklava I have ever, ever, ever eaten. I have had Greek baklava, Turkish baklava, Arab baklava, and of course Bosnian baklava, and baklava is a favorite with me. This was absolutely first rate, the best ever.
I found that walking actually eases the pain in my left hip. I saw one of the local stores has an add for something called a 'medicinski jastuk' a 'medical pillow' for 15KM so I will check that out on the way home. Heat helps a lot. So if it is not something I have to plug in to use, I will go and get it.
One really useful program here is the news for deaf people. It is called 'govor tisina' and it is basically the whole weeks news translated into sign language. All the local T.V. stations do something similar, and it is a very helpful deal as the news casters in fact DO speak, and what is lovely, they speak slowly enough for me to understand. Newscasters here speak as fast as I can type. I now type at what my late mother would have called 'wire service speed'
Very fast indeed. So the fact these folks are slowed down a bit helps me keep informed. In the States, the deaf are often quite a lot less informed than people with other handicaps just because news translated for deaf people is not universally available in the States. I wish it were more available, closed captioning is helpful but often not enough.
# posted by Katja R. @ 3:41 AM 
