Have you seen an under cooked Quiche?
I have.
Several years ago, I lived in the UK (Northern Ireland to be more specific). I call the UK the land of the quiches. I went from never even having seen or tasted a quiche to seeing them everywhere! From coffee shops to church socials, restaurants and supermarkets, these things were readily available. All sorts of varieties and all sorts of delectable flavors. They were so good!
Not that I haven't had any quiches since I have been back in the States, but I have yet to eat one here as yummy as the ones I had there. Also, I don't cook them. Despite their deliciousness. I'm not much of a pie crust baker and a good quiche has a yummy, flaky, buttery crust.
For those who don't know what a quiche is, its like an egg pie. Technically its a savory, open faced-pasty crust filled with a custard comprised of eggs, cheese, and meat or veggies (or both).
I lived in a community in Northern Ireland and we took turns cooking on the weekends to give the weekday cooking team a break. One weekend, my team was making a quiche. I had never made one before. But one of my BFF's, Stacy, was in charge and she knew how to make a great quiche. I was so eager to learn to cook them. We followed her lead and completed all the instructions. She made the pie crust and I assisted with the filling. We preheated the ovens and set the timer to check on the pies when they were due to be ready.
The allotted time had passed and we streamed into the kitchen about 20 minutes before dinner was going to be served. We put on oven mitts and pulled out the pie molds. And to our utter surprise the quiches were severely under cooked. They were semi congealed and runny. Cooked enough to tell they had been heated but not enough to take shape, much less be edible. Needless to say, we did not eat quiche that night. It turned out the ovens weren't working properly and required repairs.
I was thinking about my life these past couple of months and the first picture that popped in my head was that under cooked quiche we made all those years ago. There are all sorts of things going on currently and despite my attempts to make everything work together and settle, they have instead run into each other like a gelatinous blob.
I began working in early May. Which I love. But my husband and I have split life shifts. He watches the kids while I work, and we swap places when he works. While it seems simple enough on paper, it means we feel like two ships passing in the night. Each of us is either working or watching two rambunctious boys. Needless to say, we are both drained with barely half the summer behind us.
Through all that. I've been tackling some medical issues that needed attention. I had not been feeling myself for about 3 months and finally went to see a great doctor to help me figure out why I felt so crazy. There are several things that required addressing and the biggest of them all was my insulin resistance and reactive hypoglycemia issues. I am prediabetic and the insulin resistance was causing all sorts of imbalances with my hormones. I have been a mess for months. My husband deserves an award, because he has lived with the not nicest version of me for a few weeks and was super supportive and loving and helpful through it all.
Because of the insulin issues, I have now adopted a Low Carb/ High Fat Diet (also known as Keto Diet or Atkins Diet). This is a huge overhaul for this Puerto Rican girl. I went from a carb rich diet to pretty much a no carb diet. And I am feeling sooooooooo much better! I'm still in process of making these changes and not 100% my old self yet, but I am feeling much improved. Enough to finally be able to focus and write a blog. (I had been experiencing really bad brain fog and fatigue and blogging felt impossible these past several weeks.)
I also had to give up running. *Big Gasp* I know! I love running and this year I was going to train for a half marathon. This was the year. But running, and the cortisol levels it produces, was contributing to some of my issues. So a healthy me means a walking me. Not a running me. I've had to make those changes too.
Anyway, between the alternating work schedule and kid watching shifts, feeling awful and then finally getting to the root of my problems, discovering why I was feeling so terrible, and making some major lifestyle changes in my diet & exercise patterns, my life has felt like one huge under cooked quiche.
My schedule seems to be in constant runny motion. My kids seem to feel like ingredients that keep shifting around in the blob without keeping still. And while I have a solid crust beneath me: My Faith, My Family, My Marriage.... everything else is just ... blobby and s-l-o-w-l-y taking shape.
And that my friends is why you have barely heard anything from me in weeks.
Thankfully, in a month school will start and my kids will be back in school. My husband and I's schedule will be normalized and evenings will be returned to us. We'll be two ships sailing side by side instead of just passing by each other at port. And most importantly, I will be feeling better than I have in months.
Before long, I hope to be one of those lovely cooked quiches instead of an under cooked one!
Comments
Post a Comment