Imagine, if you will, your heroine (may I be so bold?) going on the 10th day of a sinus infection that surely originated in the nether regions of hell. Her husband and young son have decamped to the family seat in the east of the country to allow her to recover in peace. She wanders from room to room in search of a clean tissue, forgetting the ones stuffed into her pyjama pockets and sweater sleeves earlier, and burning her tongue repeatedly on hot herbal tea (for everyone from the doctor to her husband has impressed upon her the importance of the tea being HOT HOT HOT if it is going to do ANYTHING at ALL to relieve her symptoms). Bathing has become, in the parlance of the day, optional. Her mind is a foggy swamp. Her blog, a neglected lot overgrown with kudzu.

However! There are a few things of note.

1. The baking book is coming along swimmingly (more photographic evidence of such available on Instagram), although the author is very happy indeed that plum season in Germany is over because one more Pflaumenkuchen and she was going to throw the damn thing straight out the window.

Marcella Hazan's stuffed eggs

2. If you are in need of a delicious hors d'oeuvres that does not involve bread of some kind (toasted, dipped, spread, etc), Marcella Hazan's "Hard-Boiled Eggs with Green Sauce" (on page 52 of The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, if you own it) are very fine indeed. You boil, cool, shell and halve six eggs, then mash the yolks with an approximated salsa verde (2-3 tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tbsp capers, 1 tbsp minced parsley, 3 anchovies fillets, 1/4 tsp chopped garlic, 1/4 tsp mustard and some salt) and spoon this savory, salty, creamy mess back into the halved egg whites. One would not be remiss in renaming these Italian Deviled Eggs, but one should do as one pleases.

Popeye pie

3. Jim Lahey's (he of no-knead fame) pizza topped with an unorthodox mix of spinach, garlic, Gruyère, pecorino and mozzarella cheese, also called the Popeye Pie, is probably the best way to use up that bag of spinach currently rotting in your crisper. It shall be noted that the pizza, reheated, also makes an excellent breakfast in a pinch, even if you are not usually the type to eat pizza for breakfast and in fact find it slightly barbaric.

What else? A jumble of disparate thoughts and anxieties and to-do lists, stacks of cookbooks to work through, invoices to send, a little boy's toys to put away, a rumpled bed calling seductively, ten more gallons of herbal tea to burn a mouth on. For now, though, nothing more than that bed, some silence, a good book and rest.

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34 responses to “This, That and The Other Thing”

  1. Katrin B Avatar
    Katrin B

    I just had what you are going through….please take good care of yourself and feel better soon! After 2 weeks it starts to get better…….

    Like

  2. Katy Bee Avatar

    You are most undoubtedly my heroine, Luisa! 🙂
    Also I CAN’T wait to try that pizza!

    Like

  3. christiane gelormino Avatar
    christiane gelormino

    It took me a horrible sinus infection like this to ‘discover’ (at 3am and desperate) the neti pot! Now I use it at the faintest sign of the sniffles! Get better soon!

    Like

  4. Micaela Avatar
    Micaela

    I hope you feel better soon! Sinus infections are the pits.
    As it would happen, I found a discarded copy of The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking on the street in Brookline a few weeks back. I will be trying these eggs shortly! Thank you for the recommendation.

    Like

  5. Ksenia from At the Immigrant's Table Avatar

    I never find pizza for breakfast barbaric. Hope you’ll feel better soon!

    Like

  6. Sirena Avatar
    Sirena

    Heck yeah you get to be the heroine – it’s your blog! I sympathize with being sick and yet those toys still don’t manage to put themselves away. Ah, little boys. Too soon they will be big boys. Here’s to our heroine’s speedy recovery!

    Like

  7. Luisa Avatar

    Gah, thank you! Counting the days…

    Like

  8. Luisa Avatar

    Yeah, it seems a daily “nose shower”, as the Germans call it, is in my future. Sob!

    Like

  9. Luisa Avatar

    Score! That is one good find.

    Like

  10. Luisa Avatar

    Too soon, indeed. I’m holding onto each baby day with white knuckles!

    Like

  11. Traci Avatar

    Bed, silence, a good book, and rest is also what I need! And some of that delicious food!

    Like

  12. Gerlinde Avatar

    Oh boy, sinus infections can be soooo nasty. I hope you feel better soon, have you tried inhaling steam ? I put some wick in a pot of boiling water throw a towel over my head and inhale. If you want to get rid of your Zwetschenkuchen, throw it my way, I can’t find the prune plums here in Santa Cruz. Those eggs look fantastic, capers and anchovies, nothing wrong with that.
    Gute Besserung

    Like

  13. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    I have only ever had one, fairly mild, sinus infection. The neti pot was miraculous. I was very skeptical, equating it, with, say, the laying on of hands or homeopathy, but I am skeptical no more.

    Like

  14. Andrea Avatar
    Andrea

    Get better soon and trie not to think about anything else than the stories in the book you are reading! Gute Besserung!

    Like

  15. Bianca @ Confessions of a Chocoholic Avatar

    Feel better soon, Luisa! That green sauce on the deviled eggs sounds delicious and versatile – I want to whip it up soon!

    Like

  16. Lyn Avatar
    Lyn

    Feel better…got to try that pizza. Marcella was a genius — everything I make from her cookbooks is always memorable!

    Like

  17. tunie Avatar
    tunie

    It was sinus infections that alerted me to the fact that I’d become allergic to wheat, soy, dairy and particularly butter…eliminating those ingredients ended years of agonizing pain. Hoping this is not the case for you, but it might be worth experimenting with a break from those items and anything made with them like wheat beer and soy sauce. The difference will be dramatic if you are allergic.

    Like

  18. Luisa Avatar

    Thank you, Wendy. You made me laugh and strengthened my resolve. 🙂

    Like

  19. annton Avatar

    even heroines are allowed to be weak. going through this, here in the fishbowl too. now, it is even pneumomia. but, we will eventually get out of the mountains of tissues and the valleys of sobbing. the pizza looks like a super star. the rest of us will follow.

    Like

  20. Isabelle Avatar

    What is it with these awful sinus infections! I had a severe one six weeks ago, and am still not entirely rid of it. Rinsing your nose with saline solution in a netty-pot works best for me. Am sure it would be way worse if I didn’t do so.
    Good luck there, hope you’re better soon xxx

    Like

  21. Olly Avatar
    Olly

    Get well soon! What time and temp did you cook the popeye pizza for on the baking pan? The original recipe calls for a pizza stone.

    Like

  22. Honeybee Avatar
    Honeybee

    Gute Besserung!! And yes – you are my heroine!

    Like

  23. Ordinary Blogger (Rivki Locker) Avatar

    Oh dear, get better fast. I just recovered from a sinus infection last week and it was NOT fun. Thanks for the roundup.

    Like

  24. Jean Avatar
    Jean

    My dear, lovely Wed Chef,
    This situation requires extreme amounts of tender self care while you patiently wait for things to turn around. I agree with lots of fluids (don’t know about that “hot, hot, hot” part though …), lots of naps, and lots of whatever else might be good right now. Be good to yourself. We’ll still be here when you are feeling better.
    All the best=]

    Like

  25. Kaffiknopf Avatar

    Hmmmmm, diese Deviled Eggs! Ich glaub ich muss die einmal pro Woche machen. Tut mir Leid zu hören dass es dich so schlimm erwischt hat. Wenn du der vielen Ratschläge und Tipps noch nicht müde bist, ich hätte noch einen 😉 (Wenn doch, nicht weiterlesen) Ansteigendes Fussbad. So heiß wie möglich das Fussbad machen und dann immer noch heißeres Wasser nachgießen, so dass man es gerade aushält. Auf die Stirn einen kalten Waschlappen dabei. Und danach ins Bett.
    Klingt nicht so toll, ich weiß. Rotlichtlampe oder heiße Butter auf die Nasennebenhöhlen massiert hilft eigentlich auch ganz gut. Und Sinupret – diese grünen Tabletten. Au weia, ich kling wie meine Mama, sie ist Apothekerin, sorry, ich kann nicht anders. 😉
    Tausend liebe Grüße!

    Like

  26. dani @ theloveofvanilla Avatar

    Hope you feel better 🙂 the pizza looks great by the way!

    Like

  27. Suzy Avatar

    Hope you feel better soon and …
    …at the risk of annoying you…
    ….you are really funny when you are sick.
    xx

    Like

  28. Luisa Avatar

    I turned the oven as high as it’ll go and cooked the pizza for about 10 minutes. This is what I usually do with my oven and a sheet pan pizza.

    Like

  29. Kelleyn Avatar

    Hope you feel better soon! I feel a cold coming on, but praying it isn’t so as I have way too much to do! Get some good sleep! Have you tried flushing your nose out! Have you heard of nettie pots?

    Like

  30. theeliteseries@gmail.com Avatar
    theeliteseries@gmail.com

    It makes me sad that you barely blog anymore in general–whatever the reason! 😦

    Like

  31. Nicole@thejameskitchen Avatar

    Dear Luisa,
    wishing you “gute Besserung” and a relief of those disparate thoughts, anxieties and to-do-lists and other things – I know the feeling: as if Sysyphus had to do several of the Herculaen tasks and stem the world in his spare time. Urgh, best thing is one after the other and may I suggest Lisa Fain’s Chipotle chicken for the cold and to lift the spirits in general – always works a treat for me.
    Nicole xx

    Like

  32. jooj Avatar
    jooj

    I moved to Berlin from NYC the same time you did – moved to 3 countries in the years since, but now I’m back in Germany, and it’s so fun to read your blog from a German kitchen again! And I’m dying in anticipation for your baking book… mm… But where do you manage to find fresh spinach in German supermarkets? Alas I’m not in Berlin anymore, but a small town outside Nurnberg. The lack of leafy greens kills me.

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