Roast Forth

I don’t blog. It’s not because I don’t love you, it’s because I’ve been functioning at low levels due to a low potassium level, and or dehydration. Leave it to pregnancy to find new and special ways to punish me!

It’s a really good thing Henry is swirling around being so hilarious and charming, reminding me that this is worth it, reminding me that I would not have traded this opportunity to know Henry for anything on earth. However, the Henry trauma is now a story, a memory of heartburn and hardship, but a polished and patina’d one with all of the good good qualities of a novel and none of the bad bad qualities of actual sleeplessness and reflux. So at the same time that I am hopeful about this child whom we call Rainbow, I’m flattened. I wish I had, I don’t know, help. A nap. The renewed ability to regulate my blood pressure. A four-day, three-night vacation from my own saliva.

Write about what you know. Well, one thing I have learned about this weeks is trying to get enough potassium into my diet.

Don’t worry: if you’re not struggling to keep fluids in and down, chances are great that you have potassium covered. So don’t go out of your way to potassium load, because one thing I’ve discovered is that people who purposely potassium load turn quickly into magnets for huge, scary insects. Yesterday I was stung by a bee and then an hour later, smacked in the head by my husband who, while not an arthropod himself, was wheeling around trying to protect me from a wasp who was about to sting me.

And we will not discuss the roach incident.

I will now deftly switch from the topic of roaches to the topic of cooking. How deft!

Do you know what has a lot of potassium? Potatoes. They are also delicious. Along with some salmon and some asparagus—also great sources of potassium—my husband roasted some potatoes for me the other day. He chose new ones chopped and olive oiled with onions and garlic and sea salt. My GOODNESS. It’s roasting season, people.  Get thee to the oven and roast.

In fact, whether you need more minerals are not, take any vegetable you want who isn’t a leaf—beets, brussel sprouts, onions, garlic, peppers, asparagus—and slice and rub with olive oil and salt and pepper if you wish (try white pepper!) and put it into a hot, dry oven. Leave uncovered and roast until done. Enjoy the sweetness, the saltiness, the brown crinkled bits at the edges.

Go forth and roast things for yourselves. Or take a cue from my husband, who made me feel so much better in so many ways when he made me my potassium-rich dinner, and roast things for me.