Sick day

Just when I had adjusted to this time zone and normalized by sleep schedule, I got sick. I've been feeling it coming on for a few days, and last night I was finally felled by a wicked Erkältung that kept me in bed all day today, sleeping, reading, and miserable. The day didn't look all that different from last week—I didn't accomplish significantly less than usual or sleep significantly more. Somehow, though, a luxurious lazy day and a sick day feel miles apart, and I'm longing for an end to the latter and a return to the former.

In a brilliant stroke of terrible timing, I committed to starting a detox diet/cleanse today, just for the week, to see how it goes. I'm cutting out sugar, alcohol, and white flour, in the hopes that it will give me more energy, fewer cravings for pastries and gummy bears, and a svelter physique. Of course, today was the day I would have gotten organized and gone grocery shopping, both of which responsibilities my trusty CameraMan took over after his evening rehearsal was miraculously canceled. So I was able to start the diet today despite being sick, and was undoubtedly helped through the first day by having almost entirely lost my appetite.

Vienna is a good place to be if you love carbs, take it from one who knows. Cookies and tortes and marzipan, dumplings and spätzle and so much amazing bread…it's all here, and it's all delicious. I haven't baked much lately,  since I started developing my interest in cooking, but Friday night I was walking home from a late lunch with CM and friends when I was hit with an overpowering urge to make Strudel. For the first time. So I nipped into the Billa on my way home and picked up Strudelteig (strudel dough: this is a normal thing that exists here in the refrigerated aisle), Topfen (a cream cheese), and Vanille Zucker (vanilla sugar: everywhere here, though actual vanilla extract is nowhere to be found). I brought it all home, chopped up some apples we already had, and managed to whip up something resembling Strudel, all without a recipe.

14/365

It was fine. Not great, not amazing, just fine. I of course ripped the dough right off the bat (strudel dough's main characteristic is being very thin, supposedly so thin you should be able to read the newspaper through it, although I'm sure if I had tried that I would have ripped it even more). Also, I think I added too much egg to the Topfen, so the baked filling resembled nothing so much as apples with scrambled eggs. Still, we ate it (obvs), and I think it was not a bad first attempt. Next time I'll find a recipe.


Not this week, though.

(Insert sad trombone sound effect here).