I posted this on my book of faces, but i thought i’d put it here too.

Due to popular demand, and the approaching cold & flu season, here’s my recipe for my healing soup/stew.
It can be made vegan by omitting the chicken, but I do think the zinc-heavy dark meat and minerals from the bone marrow should be replaced with something. Cashews, maybe?
If you’re vegetarian, substitute chopped up hard-boiled eggs. It will make it slightly creamy.
Use whatever veggies you like, that you have on hand.
The hot sauce will clear you out. Plus, with all the onion and garlic, no one will want to be near you, thus helping prevent the spread of the virus.

Healing Chicken Tomato Stew.

2 chicken thighs(bone-in)
1 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced finely
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup V8 juice, low sodium
2 cups Water
1 celery stick
1 carrot
1 cup each broccoli and cauliflower
1 TBSP balsamic vinegar(or you can use your favorite soy sauce)
1 TBSP each: cumin, dill, oregano, basil,
1-2 TBSP Rosemary
Parsley, Fresh, chopped,
Chipotle Hot Sauce, salt, & pepper to taste.
Liberal amounts of Olive Oil

1. Fry chicken in oil til it starts to brown.
2. Add onion and garlic til the onion starts to go translucent.
3. Stir in tomatoes.
4. Add the cumin, rosemary, basil, oregano, balsamic vinegar, and chipotle hot sauce. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Stir in the V8 and water
6. Cover and boil. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Add all the veggies, except the celery.
8. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
9. Remove the chicken, chop up the meat, add it to the soup, and discard the bones.
10. Stir in celery and parsley. Turn off stove, and let cool for a few minutes.
11. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve over your favorite pasta or noodles. I prefer rotini with this chunky rustic soup/stew.

Serves 3-4

This helped many-a-colds and flu. I tend to add lots of parsley at the end, and ALWAYS lots of chipotle hot sauce for the smokiness(though substitute your favorite).

I know I’d get slow with updating this thing.

Anyways, I’ve been in suburbia for over a week now, and things are going okay.

Been learning the finer details to getting myself home via transit. It’s hard when most of my life is usually up to a 20 minute walk from where i used to live. Not anymore. Now I wait 20 minutes for bus transfers. An old bus i used to take to get back home from work/the pubs used to run until 1am. I found out last night that it stops after 11. Cost me $20 to cab it home. This means early bar nights AND trouble getting home if i have closing shifts at work.

I did get to take the new train home the other day tho. I fell asleep on the last connecting bus home. I woke up to the bus driver telling me he was at the end of the line… luckily the end of the line was right by my place.

Luckily I get the place to myself on the weekends. Got good use of the sauna, inviting people over here. It was an interesting weekend, that got a lot of stresses off my mind. Big screen tv… large backyard…I also get use of the spare car. I didn’t need to drive for years, now I’m tempted to get a car again.

Still need to check out that one place in the old hood. It’s hard getting a hold of the guy, as out schedules constantly clash, and he seems to work a lot. I’m hoping tomorrow… i better see it tomorrow, as I would be moving there within a week. Sigh. But i got offers of help to pay damage deposit, and to get a new bed, from random family members. That’ll help give me a leg up…

So this weekend… sushi date with a special lady friend, empty house… I work Saturday, might get some geocaching done with use of the car… and hopefully jamming on Sunday.

Tonight, after a long day at work, I’m going to go warm up the sauna, then after maybe unpack the tobacco pipe, and sit in the gazebo with the laptop, contemplating life.

So everything’s packed.. except the Wifi router giving me web access.  I found out I’m not getting the room i thought I was getting. My personal space might be more minimal.

I hope the quiet suburbs do my head some good(I’ve been living between 2 major arterial roads for the last year). While I don’t look forward to the long commutes, I will enjoy the diminished light pollution as our nights get longer.

My brother, from Vancouver, called me last night. He gives me the thumbs up on the long term plan I have. As complicated as it may be. I swear, if i had a couple extra thousand saved aside, this would be no problem. I’d either have moved long ago, or fled for the coast for a couple weeks.

Wish me luck!

So one of the things that makes living temporarily with family not frustrating, is how they go out of town almost every weekend. It was a stressful week of having to leave my old place, my old life, but I feel like I’m re-grounding myself. Listening to favorite albums I haven’t listened to in a while, taking saunas, and having peaceful smokes in the gazebo.

I also have use of one of the cars. It was interesting pulling the suburban life, going driving down to my old fashionable neighborhood. Took in a festival, hit up the farmers market, went to a couple favorite shops. Still, it’s not the life for me, when I used to be able to walk there. The drive is longer than the walk.

Got good use of the sauna last night. Long story short, I feel much better today than yesterday.

OH yesterday! I think i nearly had the second panic attack of my life(since many years ago x-mas shopping). I had to take my grandma in for eye surgery, being her translator. So many people hooked on machines, mixed with 6am thoughts in my head made me freak out a little. After she went in, I ran outside, laid on some grass, and took some deep breaths. It was weird. So considering today I’m happy, means i went a long way.

Time to weed out my pointless material possessions. I have too much stuff, and need to move back to my old neighbourhood. Cranking east indian dance tunes on the huge stereo here.

So after years of living 90% of my life in one neighbourhood, tomorrow i need to get up at 6am, get to a hospital on the otherside of the city to help a family member who doesn’t speak english, go through surgery. Need to be there 2 hours early. Then I will travel with them to a far off suburb. Then, after staying for a couple hours there, getting a ride back ‘home’ in the early afternoon. Then HOPEFULLY getting to use the car to get to work(10 minutes walk from where i used to live, 20 minute drive, 1.25 hours bussing/walking) to make it to work for an evening shift.
So after years of walking to everything I do, i will do loops of the city by car, taxi, etc, to a late night Friday shift.  Luckily, once it’s done, I will be free this weekend, alone in a mazzive suburban house, complete with sauna, gazebo, massive entertainment system, and cute kitten, to FINALLY get some alone time. sigh.

So every driveway has a pick-up truck, and it now takes me an hour longer to get to work.

On the plus side, I may randomly be able to borrow one of the cars if they’re free to use. So I can drive to work for the first time, tomorrow, and this weekend I can head out to the jam space with my gear.

It’s weird waking up in a different house, but I actually slept properly, with my old cat curled up with me.  The family dog won’t stop following me around…

And I picked up some rye whisky for the family last night, and we had a nice drink in the huge backyard. It was 30 degrees after midnight, and we chatted about a lot of stuff… still, I miss Old Strathcona, despite the reprieve of noise pollution.

I’m trying to get my twitter integrated with this, but I just keep failing.  Just go here… http://twitter.com/conradf

I’ll figure it out some day.

The next 48 hours will be stressful. I still have a few small things to pack… so many boxes to move. Going to Millwoods(a suburb) tomorrow. Don’t know for how long. I will be staying with family, but i worry we will get on each other’s nerves… but i should save up, so I may stay a while.

It’s hard saying goodbye. The cat has been stressed with me packing. I’ll probably never see her again. She wants me to pack her up too.

I’m stressed and anxious, but hopefully I’ll get used to this.

called in sick, so I think today will feature sipping ginger tea and packing the last of my stuff.

There has been stuff traveling around.. and i think all the stress I’ve been having weakened my immune system. I also worry it is just stress making my nauseous.

I should have made a list of where i was packing what… took me a while to find my phone charger, and now I can’t find my first aid kit.

You know, the important things… sigh…

I ended up being healthier than i thought at Friends and Neighbours… I’m really craving avocados lately.

That is all.

Hopefully going to Friends and Neighbours soon with my friend Andie, and hopefully Ester too.  I think Audrey, from the jam space, is waitressing also.  I figure it’s my favorite stand-by on the ave, and it might be hard to get to if i move to the suburbs.

Also, still debating how long to live in the suburbs for. As a friend said, I’m known to get stuck in ruts sometimes, and if I stay isolated with family for too long, I don’t think it’ll help my mental well-being… but it will help my wallet. Plus my brother’s in town next month for a week or so, and would be staying with the family in the suburbs. We see each other once or twice a year, so it might be nice.

I guess it all depends on if this one place that is close to everything and doesn’t cost an arm and/or a leg. I don’t know the guy I’d be roommates with, but according to facebook, we have lots of random mutual friends, and the ones I’ve talked to said he’s cool. I’ll just have to except being broke for a little while longer.

Please City of Edmonton, call me for a job interview. I need to quit being a shelf stuffer, without turning to some trade…

I made a fort for the cat out of an old cardboard box. A going away gift… Now after hiding in it for most of the week, she’s chewing it apart. There’s bits of cardboard in the kitchen, the apartment hallway, and even in the bathtub. My little killer…