In Which Our Heroine Is Sick and Whiny

After a day of running around Volunteer Park, working on a film for one of my classes, I came home with a sore throat and the abiding conviction that my friend Ben, who actually is a filmmaker, deserves more respect even for attempting such a thing. That was Wednesday. I went to bed early. I woke up with the sore throat, and the nagging feeling that I was in a very low key way running a temperature. I went to bed again early. Friday I woke up with a sore throat, a fever, a nasty cough, and a voice that had dropped an octave. I went to bed really early -- before ten o'clock -- and woke up this morning feeling even worse. I have lost my sense of smell, and thus most of my sense of taste. Everything is variously textured nothing. If I'm lucky it's salty or sweet nothing. It's all vaguely nauseating, and I'm really hungry because a fever burns calories like nobody's business. I hate being sick.

It's hard being interested in the world on a day like today. I want to go back to bed and stay there -- even though I crawled out of bed on the early side this morning because ten hours horizontal is about all I can take. However, I have things that need doing. Rather a lot of things actually. I have finals to work on. I have an apartment to clean, which needs it rather desperately. So I must get on with it, even though my everything hurts, and I could quite reasonably start singing baritone.

Obviously under the circumstances the best choice is to write an exceedingly whiny blog-post.

In an attempt to redeem myself and justify the self-indulgent whining, I offer my favorite recipe for when I'm sick,. It's pretty tasty when I'm healthy too.

Savory Rice Porridge

1 cup or so good quality chicken broth, homemade is best, but not always available. In any case it should be something that actually tastes like chicken and vegetables were implicated in the creation of it.
1/4 cup rice
a sliver of butter (approximately a tea spoon) or an equivalent amount of chicken schmaltz (which you might be lucky enough on hand if you don't skim the fat off your chicken broth before you freeze it)
1 clove of garlic chopped in half
a smallish chunk of ginger root, or 1/2 tsp of powdered ginger, or to taste
salt and black pepper to taste.


Combine everything except the salt and black pepper in a sauce pan, bring to a boil.
Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until the rice has broken down to a porridge consistency (an hour or more).
Discard the garlic.
Add the salt and pepper.
Eat while maintaining a pose of listless ennui. This may be difficult because it actually tastes good if you can deal with the texture.

In some cultures this is juk or congee, and a normal breakfast food, garnished with various exciting things.