Thank goodness I'm finished doing my 4 test injections - one in each hip over the course of 2 days. I even bruised myself again! They were like the usual except at full doses of 1cc each - when usually the 4 different elements combined equal to 1cc of antigen. But the point is to isolate which antigen is causing me such bad reactions again and I have a feeling it's the molds and end point pollens. [Yes, you all needed to know that.] I felt like I was beat up like those folks in those HK triad movies. Definitely not fun to do.

Anyway, in the midst of my pain, I went on some demonic cooking rage. I swear, I can't figure myself out at times. Hell, actually all the time. I really should have been resting but I had an urge to exorcise the evil inside me by slaving over a stove. In the middle of the cooking process, I realized we couldn't eat this all by ourselves, so I called up a couple friends at the last minute and invited them over for a homecooked meal.

i really need a new lamp at the kitchen table - all my food photos SUCK! or maybe, i dunno how to use the camera yet. :P i don't think so.

So I ended up cooking [from top clockwise]:

• chinese gai lan with oyster sauce
• niku jaga [japanese meat and potatoes dish]
• miso saba with naganegi [miso mackerel with green onions]
• simmered dried daikon strips with aburaage
• hiyya yakko [cold tofu]
• hijiki [seaweed simmered in sweetened shoyu]
• sashimi [obviously didn't make this one]

I don't know why I don't really cook Chinese food. It's not that I don't like Chinese food but it's such a bitch to cook with oil splattering everywhere and paper towels to drain all the fried stuff. Not to mention, Chinese food is sometimes really hard to cook very well. It's not that I don't know how either, it's just that I feel like Chinese food makes me weigh an extra 10 pounds after I've eaten it. And the kitchen looks like a tornado went thru it as well -- cornstarch slurry, baking soda, oyster sauce, peanut oil, salt, sugar, chicken bouillon, fish scales, shrimp veins, and whatever is left over on that big old wooden chopping board. And what about slinging that big ole wok around? I'm no Iron Chef Chin Kenichi. Another bad thing about cooking Chinese food in an American built home is the no gas range. I got that weak ass electric incense coil looking thing and it doesn't even begin to compare at all. How do American homebuilders think that you can actually get some real cooking done with that thing? A damn travesty I say.

I'm out.