Coping with Cooking Odors

One very unfortunate drawback of my fragrance sensitivity is that I have also become very sensitive to strong natural odors as well. Even, sadly, cooking odors.

Over the years, I had perfected my spaghetti sauce recipe. Technically, it’s a Marinara Sauce, but we call it spaghetti sauce since we mostly use it for spaghetti. I would make a HUGE, as in 24 cups or 6 quarts, batch. I start it early in the morning so it can simmer all day long. Next I divide it into 2 cup packages and freeze it in zippered plastic bags. Then, as we wanted it, we could take a bag out of the freezer, place it in water for maybe 30 minutes, and then we would have spaghetti sauce.

As you might guess, the entire house smells like my sauce by the end of the day. In December of 2003, I had already been working at home for about 6 months because of my health issues. One Monday morning, I got a batch of spaghetti sauce started before work. At that time, I was working upstairs, as far from the kitchen as you can be. But, by the end of the day, I had a really bad migraine. Curiously, it had NO impact on my ability to eat the spaghetti sauce.

For a while after that batch was gone, I was buying bottled spaghetti sauces. My husband was aghast because it is so not like me. I’ve always been a make-it-from-scratch girl. Alas, these sauces weren’t as good as mine; plus they had more sodium than my low sodium diet allows. Finally, we came up with a plan for making my sauce.

I start off in the usual fashion - sauteing the onions, garlic, etc. Then I add the rest of the ingredients except the bay leaves and bring the whole thing to a boil. Next I take my 2 crock pots, place Bay Leaves in the 2 pots and then divide the sauce between the 2 pots - stirring during the process so eveything is well mixed. At that point, we carry the crock pots out to the garage and let it cook all day. As an added precaution, I move my car out of the garage - don’t want the car smelling like spaghetti sauce.

We’ve done this several times now, and it seems to be a good plan.

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Do you know what it is?

This was the coolest plant, notice the bricks to give you an idea of the size of the bloom. If you know what it is, please leave a comment!

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Friday Fun - Bluebonnets

and Redbonnets? and Whitebonnets?

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To Market, To Market - On Monday Morning

My husband and I usually do our grocery shopping together, on the weekend. But this past Sunday, we made the mistake of heading out two hours before the Spurs playoff game. We couldn’t believe the traffic. Seems like everyone was scurrying about trying to run errands before the game. I said, “No problem. I’ll just go early in the morning.”

You have to understand that I no longer want to go to the grocery store. They have a lot of “air freshener” pumping through their system. I timed it once, I was in there only 12 minutes and came out reeking of their “air freshener”. It’s odd that a couple of years ago, I noticed they had a soap in their restrooms that was fragrance free. The label said it was good since it prevented the fragrance from transferring to the produce. Well, I guess they had to get rid of that soap when they brought in the “air freshener” machine!

My neurologist has remarked that she never notices the fragrances in the same places that I do notice them. And I’m sure there are many non-fragrance-challenged out there that will read this post, roll their eyes, and think I’m crazy. I know you’re out there. But, I’m not crazy. If you use mainstream products for your personal hygiene and laundry, then you’re already surrounded by fragrance everywhere you go. AND if you also wear fragrances, then you’re exposed to that much more. Your nose won’t register all the different odors after a while. Plus, you won’t notice that you picked up a NEW fragrance while shopping. But if you start out fragrance free, you’ll notice the difference.

So I have a Survival plan for my grocery trips:

1. I’m now known to go to the grocery in the morning BEFORE my morning shower. I know, it’s actually appalling to me as well. But I often find I have to change my clothes and wash my hair when I return, so why bother showering before?
2. I have a list and I pretty much stick too it. Gone are the days when I browse the store and notice the new products.
3. I’ve taken to wearing my Wein MiniMate as well. It really does help, and if things get real bad, you can hold it close to your face and breathe it directly.

So I figured Monday morning would be good. It’s not a time when a lot of people are grocery shopping. But, what I didn’t count on was that the stores know this. And they do things like stocking and cleaning. Stocking is really no big deal, but cleaning was this morning. Did you know that there are gasoline (or maybe diesel?) powered floor buffers. Emitting all those same exhaust smells as if you’re driving down the highway. Which, for me, are now as bad for me as the fragrances. I was unfortunate enough to have it go up and back down a couple of aisles that I was on. I finally had to re-route my shopping so I could avoid.

I mostly survived that trip. At least I was in and out quickly. But maybe Monday morning isn’t the best time after all.

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Bird Of Paradise

A bonus - 2 puzzles!

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Friday Fun - Barrels of Wine

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Travel Tips Update

This week, I thought I would post an update to my previous traveling post. We’re back from our trip and it was fairly successful.

My care package arrived ahead of me so that I had all my own personal products on hand. No searching for all those items while on vacation. I had plenty of zippered plastic bags with me to put things in for the trip back - since you can’t carry them on an airplane. The zippered bags were definitely needed as they contained the inevitable leaks caused by the non-pressurized space for luggage.

Our hotel worked out OK, though it could have been better. The potpourri was very pervasive throughout the hotel. Although not so much in our room. There was a perfumey odor on the linens in our bed. We borrowed pillows & cases from my step-daughter and that made it tolerable. A week before our trip, I had sent a letter to the hotel listing my requests. I received an e-mail reply stating that they would instruct the Housekeeping Dept. to stay out of our room. Well, that turned out to not be such a good idea - the trash piled up, the towels were damp, we ran out of coffee. We finally reached an agreement where they would come in and do a minimal amount of cleaning.

We didn’t really use the Zeolite for odor absorption. The car was okay without anything - meaning it hadn’t been smoked in recently, if at all, and it had no perfume smell. At home, I’ve banished all my husband’s dry cleaned clothing to one closet. I’m putting the Zeolite in there to see if it helps.

We also didn’t need to test out the Wein AutoMate. It plugs into the car and helps to clear the air. I can tell you that it does work. We have one in both cars and use it often. It takes care of the car exhaust and cigarette smoke that get into your car. It also helps when a friend or family member that uses perfumed products gets into your car.

The Wein MiniMate was worth all of the pennies (quite a few) that it cost me. On our plane rides to California, I used it the entire time. I had zero migraine. A first on a plane in some time! I also used it whenever we were in the hotel common areas or elevator. It definitely helped. On the return trip, I had forgotten to put a battery in my carry on bag and the battery died. The trip wasn’t quite as good migraine-wise. But still better than in the past. Some of that can be attributed to the medication from my neurologist.

That’s my report. If you have any tips or ideas to add, leave a comment.

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Friday Fun - Blooming Artichoke

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A couple of websites

Here are a couple of sites that may be of interest to you if you have problems with fragrances or other chemicals in our air. You might also point the nay-sayers in your life to them. (You know the ones, they tend to not want to hear what you have to say. Lest they learn too much about what’s bad in the cosmetics and fragrances they use.)

First is a PBS report titled “Trade Secrets.” It addresses toxic chemicals found throughout our environment. The report tells about the ways in which our right to know has been compromised. It brings up the issue of trade secrets which prevent us from knowing what is in fragrances and cosmetics. Be sure to check out “The Options.” The section under Options titled “Protecting Yourself” provides information, room by room, about the chemicals present in your home.

Follow this link to get to PBS: Trade Secrets.

Another good site is part of the FDA. It’s a site totally related to Cosmetics. It provides information on what the FDA regulates, and what it cannot. There’s lot of good information here. For an eye-opener, try the True/False Quiz. You’ll get feedback after each question and could learn something new.

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Friday Fun - Mosaic Cat

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