15 February 2024
I have no idea what’s going on but I feel really, really good today. It’s no secret that bipolar disorder runs in our family history and it’s almost like I’m in a manic phase – both mentally and physically. Whatever it is, I’ll take it. I haven’t felt this well in a long time.
I managed a 0.4 mile walk this morning by walking around two blocks in the neighborhood. I didn’t think I was going to make it for the first part because my feet felt like the bones were trying to protrude through the soles of my feet but that went away and I was able to complete the walk.
On top of that, it’s a beautiful day in the hood.
The temperature is perfect and the humidity is low and it’s a real pleasure to be outside.
Even though I feel great at the moment, I’ve decided not do any projects around the house today. I’ve burned myself out too many times before. I may be slow but I eventually learn my lesson. I also have physical therapy this afternoon and I know that will work me.
I think the biggest thing mentally is the hope that I may either eliminate or mitigate the neuropathy. That hope was given yesterday with my EMG results with the neurologist. Even if it takes two years, I at least have some reasonable hope it might go away or at least abate enough for me to get back on hiking trails.
Last night was movie night with Chris and Tucker. We watched Last Holiday with Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, and Gérard Depardieu. I kept telling Chris it was Ice T, not LL Cool J. It’s a great feel good movie even though it starts with Queen Latifah thinking she had three weeks to live. The scenery is gorgeous and the actors are great. It’s worth a viewing if you’ve not seen it. On the plus side, it also has some great scenes filmed in New Orleans.
I got hungry for caramel popcorn again yesterday. It’s a real mess in making. I’ve never found an easy way to make sure the popped kernels get coated with caramel. The recipe calls for one cup of un-popped corn and 1/4 cup of coconut oil. That filled my largest pot with popped corn. I used to pour the caramel into that pot and stir but everything keeps coming out of the pot and all over the counter.
One recipe suggested putting the popped corn on baking sheets and then pouring the caramel over the top of those. I tried that yesterday but discovered that there were too many pieces of popcorn on each baking sheet. More popcorn on the counter and floor.
In any case, I finally got it all done.
It turned out to be pretty good. Here’s the recipe I used.
Set oven to 250°F
Put 1/4 cup of coconut oil (or any oil, really) into your largest pot and put on medium heat.
When the oil is hot, add 1 cup of un-popped popcorn kernels. As the corn begins to pop, shake the pot so un-popped kernels fall to the bottom and continue to pop. After the popping slows down, remove from the heat.
I spread the popped corn between two cookie sheets (I recommend you do three) and placed them in the oven while I made the caramel sauce.
Caramel sauce
3/4 cup butter
2/3 cup Karo syrup (light or dark works)
3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the brown sugar, Karo syrup, and salt and mix well. Stir constantly until the mixture begins to boil. Then stop. Don’t stir anymore for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, add the vanilla extract and the baking soda and quickly stir. Be quick because the baking soda will cause it to foam up.
Quickly pour the caramel sauce over the cookie sheets with the corn. Then try to stir the popped corn into the sauce.
Place the cookie sheets in the oven and stir every 15 minutes for 45 minutes. Pull out of the oven and let cool before you bag up the caramel corn.
Some suggest to spray the cookie sheets before hand with nonstick spray. I didn’t and it was a little effort to get the hardened caramel sauce off the cookie sheet but hot water does the job.
You’ll probably get popcorn everywhere in the kitchen. However, it’s worth it for the fresh caramel corn.
Stay tuned!