My Last Nerve

Oh sciatic nerve, why do you torment me so? Why can’t  I do regular activities without pain anymore? Is it because I took my health for granted before? Because I’ll never do that again, I’ll appreciate every pain free moment from now on, I promise.

It’s only been about two weeks since the sciatic pain took over but I can’t really remember what it was like before it started.

I have still been able to do everything just fine from Insanity to my motherly duties, mostly, but sometimes I struggle to walk. Anyone have any tips on getting rid of it? My mom did some moves on my back that should improve it somewhat and I have been doing yoga poses that supposedly help, we’ll see how long term they are.

Anyway, I have still managed to garden and cook too. Yesterday we had some friends over and I made some pizza….I call it a Margherita but the tomatoes are chopped and mozzarella is shredded hehe….but I did use basil from my garden.

I have been experimenting with crusts for a while and I FINALLY think I found one that I love. It is the simplest recipe ever.

Pizza Crust

• 3 cups water
• 4 packages yeast
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• flour

Just add the warm water, yeast, oil and a little flour in your mixer and let it sit for a little while to activate the yeast and then start your mixer on a slow setting and add salted flour in until the dough grips the dough hook but still sticks to the bottom of the mixer. Dough should be very sticky but together enough to be pliable. Put flour onto your counter top and pull it into the size you want. This makes two very large pizzas as thin crust and two smaller with thick crust.

Mmmmm, Shane said it was the best pizza I’ve ever made and I can’t help but agree. I still need to work on the sauce a little but otherwise it was divine.

I also made lemon ‘squares’ for the first time ever. I used to hate them but recently decided I love them and have been held back from living my entire life because they were missing from it. I made them into tarts because I didn’t have the same size of pan that the recipe I was using called for. They were so cute. I made them two days in a row since we had company both Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t like my second batch as much (too eggy) but the first batch was heavenly.

We went through them sooo fast.

One other food related news is that I had my first beginnings of a green bean harvest! Well, purple green beans if we’re going to be technical. They are actually green on the inside.

One other green aspect is that they turn green when cooked! I felt sort of science-y flipping them around in my little skillet, watching them change colors.

I sauteed them really quickly in bacon grease to ensure that Shane would love them and we munched on them as a pre dinner snack. So delicious.

Now I’m off to enjoy a glass of wine and evening relaxing with the husband.

Question: Have you ever had sciatic nerve irritation? I didn’t  while pregnant but it hit when I tote around my nearly 20 pound baby.