So I had to take my mother to the doctor's yesterday for a routine visit. I don't actually take her - I meet her there because she is brought to the office building by a big van that can hold a wheelchair. As I start wheeling her into the building she says something about wanting to go home and see her husband. She wants to see her family. I reassure her that that is just what we will do as soon as she has her doctor appointment. (My father has been dead for over two years and she's been living in an assisted living facility for almost three years.)
I get her into the doctor's office and thankfully we don't have to wait at all. We go into the examination room and the nurse comes in to do the usual blood pressure, etc. She looks at the nurse and says, "I love you" probably five times. Then she looks at me.
Her eyes narrow. And she gets the meanest look on her face.
I give her a big smile.
"What's wrong? You look upset."
"That's because I'm looking at a JERK!"
"I'm not a jerk. I'm here to help you."
"You are not here to help. You are a piece of SHIT!"
And so it goes. I look away for a minute and when I look back at her she's still staring at me through little slits. She again calls me a jerk.
When the doctor comes in, she tells her she loves her. Over and over.
After her appointment, she was much calmer. She actually got a flu shot and didn't get upset at all. I would have thought she might have called the nurse a piece of shit for sticking her with a needle, but no, that honor was reserved for me.
When the big van came to get her, she told me over and over again that she loved me.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The Joys of Roasted Vegetables
I think this is becoming a cooking blog. Oh well. I love to cook and love to share ideas.
The other day my friend Patti asked me what I thought she should serve with a special dinner she was preparing. She wanted an easy to make and serve vegetable side dish since the rest of the dinner she was making was more complicated.
That was an easy answer for me. My favorite go-to vegetable preparation is the roasted version. Why? First off, less cleanup. I seriously look for reasons to not have to do cleanup after dinner. Secondly, a lot of vegetables taste a whole lot better after they've been roasted. Third, I feel like a real chef when I'm doing this, as I use no measuring spoons or cups.
Ready? Here goes.
Vegetables that you can use (alone or in combinations):
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Onions
Garlic (don't peel - just separate the cloves)
Asparagus
Small, waxy potatoes
Sweet potatoes
What you need:
A rimmed baking sheet
Foil
Cooking spray
Good olive oil
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Heat the oven to about 425. You want a hot oven to really roast your vegetables.
Line the baking sheet with foil. Don't be skimpy with the foil unless you want to wash that baking sheet later. Spray the foil with cooking spray.
Prepare your vegetables. Wash and cut them to a manageable size. For example, cut the cauliflower into flowerets. If a floweret is still too big, slice it in half. Cut the brussels sprouts in half, through the stem, so that the leaves stay together. You can leave asparagus whole, but trim off the tough ends. If using sweet potatoes, peel them and dice into pieces that are bite-sized, but not tiny (you don't want them to burn). You don't need to peel your waxy potatoes, but make sure they are all about the same size. If there are some larger ones in the group, cut in half. Your goal is to try to make sure everything cooks at the same time.
Toss the vegetables onto the baking sheet, and drizzle well with olive oil. If you have it, try an oil that is infused with another flavor - a citrus olive oil is great with asparagus or sweet potatoes, for example.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Don't be shy about that part.
Pop the pan into the oven. Keep an eye on things - the time it takes depends on the vegetables. It is a hot oven, so smaller stuff will cook pretty fast.
The vegetables I tend to do alone are the sprouts, cauliflower and asparagus. The potatoes can be done in combination - sweet and regular, along with some quartered onions and a few cloves of garlic. That's a great side dish and very easy.
The other day my friend Patti asked me what I thought she should serve with a special dinner she was preparing. She wanted an easy to make and serve vegetable side dish since the rest of the dinner she was making was more complicated.
That was an easy answer for me. My favorite go-to vegetable preparation is the roasted version. Why? First off, less cleanup. I seriously look for reasons to not have to do cleanup after dinner. Secondly, a lot of vegetables taste a whole lot better after they've been roasted. Third, I feel like a real chef when I'm doing this, as I use no measuring spoons or cups.
Ready? Here goes.
Vegetables that you can use (alone or in combinations):
Brussels sprouts
Cauliflower
Onions
Garlic (don't peel - just separate the cloves)
Asparagus
Small, waxy potatoes
Sweet potatoes
What you need:
A rimmed baking sheet
Foil
Cooking spray
Good olive oil
Kosher or sea salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Heat the oven to about 425. You want a hot oven to really roast your vegetables.
Line the baking sheet with foil. Don't be skimpy with the foil unless you want to wash that baking sheet later. Spray the foil with cooking spray.
Prepare your vegetables. Wash and cut them to a manageable size. For example, cut the cauliflower into flowerets. If a floweret is still too big, slice it in half. Cut the brussels sprouts in half, through the stem, so that the leaves stay together. You can leave asparagus whole, but trim off the tough ends. If using sweet potatoes, peel them and dice into pieces that are bite-sized, but not tiny (you don't want them to burn). You don't need to peel your waxy potatoes, but make sure they are all about the same size. If there are some larger ones in the group, cut in half. Your goal is to try to make sure everything cooks at the same time.
Toss the vegetables onto the baking sheet, and drizzle well with olive oil. If you have it, try an oil that is infused with another flavor - a citrus olive oil is great with asparagus or sweet potatoes, for example.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Don't be shy about that part.
Pop the pan into the oven. Keep an eye on things - the time it takes depends on the vegetables. It is a hot oven, so smaller stuff will cook pretty fast.
The vegetables I tend to do alone are the sprouts, cauliflower and asparagus. The potatoes can be done in combination - sweet and regular, along with some quartered onions and a few cloves of garlic. That's a great side dish and very easy.
Monday, October 15, 2012
The Barking Dead
Scout: "No, you idiot! That won't work! We need to bring on the full death stare. Ready? Let's give her the freaky glow eyes."
Houston: "Here goes!"
Scout: "That's right, lady. Pick up the food bowls and fill them up. RIGHT NOW."
A Nice Way to Start the Day
My older son loves the breakfast sandwiches from Starbucks. You know the ones - an egg, cheese, some kind of meat, all bundled up in an English muffin.
He drives himself to high school now, and prefers to leave a bit early so he has a decent parking space. So, I've been making him a breakfast sandwich in the morning, and wrapping it up so he can eat it once he's at school.
Here's how I do it and what you'll need:
Purchase Norpro non-stick egg rings (sold as a set of two) from Amazon. Make sure you buy the smaller size, which are intended for eggs, not the larger size which are for pancakes.
You also need cooking spray, butter, a good small sized non-stick pan, an egg (duh), an English muffin, and some kind of breakfast meat and cheese.
The meat part is easy - cook a sausage patty (flatten it as much as possible to keep it from shrinking too much), or heat up Canadian bacon or a small ham slice.
Use an English muffin which is sturdy - some brands are thicker than others. You don't want it to fall apart once you've put it together and wrapped it up. Time the toasting of the English muffin or bagel so that it is done about the time the egg is done. This will probably take a few tries to get it timed correctly.
The hardest part is cooking the egg right. Although you are cooking it in an egg ring, there is a trick to getting it cooked without making a mess of it.
At this point, you will look at that egg and say, "What is the Bubble Lady talking about? That's not enough egg for Junior's breakfast sandwich."
Have patience.
After a few minutes, lift up the pan lid and take a peek. See? The egg has puffed up to the top of the egg ring, hasn't it?
You should be able to see whether or not the egg has cooked completely through. If it is still wet looking on top, just put the lid back on and wait another 30 seconds or so.
The beauty of my technique is you don't need to flip the egg over. You really don't want to do that because if you do it too soon, the egg just pours out and well, you've just made a really ugly omelet. This way, the egg is cooked through, and it still looks great!
Lift the ring off (use a fork) and use a spatula to put the egg on the muffin, add the cheese, the meat and wrap it up. It's ready to be eaten! The residual heat of the sandwich should melt the cheese.
Some suggestions:
Meat: sausage patties, Canadian bacon, ham slices, regular bacon sliced in half
Cheese: slices of cheddar, Havarti, smoked gouda
Bread: English muffin, bagel, regular bread
You could even add a slice of tomato if you are eating it right away. Make sure to put it in the middle, as if it rests against the bread it might make it too soggy.
Enjoy!
He drives himself to high school now, and prefers to leave a bit early so he has a decent parking space. So, I've been making him a breakfast sandwich in the morning, and wrapping it up so he can eat it once he's at school.
Here's how I do it and what you'll need:
Purchase Norpro non-stick egg rings (sold as a set of two) from Amazon. Make sure you buy the smaller size, which are intended for eggs, not the larger size which are for pancakes.
You also need cooking spray, butter, a good small sized non-stick pan, an egg (duh), an English muffin, and some kind of breakfast meat and cheese.
The meat part is easy - cook a sausage patty (flatten it as much as possible to keep it from shrinking too much), or heat up Canadian bacon or a small ham slice.
Use an English muffin which is sturdy - some brands are thicker than others. You don't want it to fall apart once you've put it together and wrapped it up. Time the toasting of the English muffin or bagel so that it is done about the time the egg is done. This will probably take a few tries to get it timed correctly.
The hardest part is cooking the egg right. Although you are cooking it in an egg ring, there is a trick to getting it cooked without making a mess of it.
- First, melt butter in your non-stick pan on low heat. You want a decent film of butter at the bottom because it will assist in creating a nice seal at the bottom of your egg ring.
- Second, spray the egg ring in the inside with some cooking spray. Even though the rings are non-stick, this will make it super easy to lift the ring off the egg.
- Third, crack one egg in a bowl and quickly scramble it with a fork. You only need one egg. Trust me on this.
- Place the egg ring in the melted butter and push it into butter to seal it up on the bottom edge of the ring. Then, pour the beaten egg into the ring.
- Take a pan lid and cover the frying pan. Make sure your heat is low. Now would be a good time to toast the English muffin.
At this point, you will look at that egg and say, "What is the Bubble Lady talking about? That's not enough egg for Junior's breakfast sandwich."
Have patience.
After a few minutes, lift up the pan lid and take a peek. See? The egg has puffed up to the top of the egg ring, hasn't it?
You should be able to see whether or not the egg has cooked completely through. If it is still wet looking on top, just put the lid back on and wait another 30 seconds or so.
The beauty of my technique is you don't need to flip the egg over. You really don't want to do that because if you do it too soon, the egg just pours out and well, you've just made a really ugly omelet. This way, the egg is cooked through, and it still looks great!
Lift the ring off (use a fork) and use a spatula to put the egg on the muffin, add the cheese, the meat and wrap it up. It's ready to be eaten! The residual heat of the sandwich should melt the cheese.
Some suggestions:
Meat: sausage patties, Canadian bacon, ham slices, regular bacon sliced in half
Cheese: slices of cheddar, Havarti, smoked gouda
Bread: English muffin, bagel, regular bread
You could even add a slice of tomato if you are eating it right away. Make sure to put it in the middle, as if it rests against the bread it might make it too soggy.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
What Dementia Is
My mom has dementia. She's had it for many years now. She lives in an assisted-living facility that has a memory-care unit. It is a nice place, and the people that work there are really wonderful.
I had a conversation the other day with the unit director. I had gone by to visit and drop off a medical form that needed to be dealt with.
The director told me that the staff had been trying to get my mother to take a shower and she was being very uncooperative. She was in the bathroom calling people names and just generally being very disagreeable (very common with dementia by the way). The staff asked the director to help, as she has always had a very good relationship with my mother.
So, the director was able to get her into the shower and cleaned up. Afterwards, she had turned around to grab some towels when my mother started saying, "You bastard. You son of a bitch. Look at you! Who are you? You are disgusting."
At first the director thought my mom was talking to her. She looked over and watched as my mother stared at herself in the mirror, calling herself every nasty name in the book.
There she was, looking right in the mirror, and not able to recognize herself. And that, in a nutshell, is dementia.
Imagine how frightening the world must be to a person who looks in a mirror and sees a stranger.
I had a conversation the other day with the unit director. I had gone by to visit and drop off a medical form that needed to be dealt with.
The director told me that the staff had been trying to get my mother to take a shower and she was being very uncooperative. She was in the bathroom calling people names and just generally being very disagreeable (very common with dementia by the way). The staff asked the director to help, as she has always had a very good relationship with my mother.
So, the director was able to get her into the shower and cleaned up. Afterwards, she had turned around to grab some towels when my mother started saying, "You bastard. You son of a bitch. Look at you! Who are you? You are disgusting."
At first the director thought my mom was talking to her. She looked over and watched as my mother stared at herself in the mirror, calling herself every nasty name in the book.
There she was, looking right in the mirror, and not able to recognize herself. And that, in a nutshell, is dementia.
Imagine how frightening the world must be to a person who looks in a mirror and sees a stranger.
Monday, October 8, 2012
News You Can Use #2
I have a great recipe to try if you and your family love granola. This is adapted from a Cook's Illustrated recipe. It is much cheaper to make your own, and there are endless variations you can try. I pack it almost every day for the kids' lunches - they either snack on it alone or mix it into yogurt. The beauty of this version is its chunkiness. Unlike the store bought kind, this granola has large and small chunks. The secret is pressing it into the baking sheet before it goes into the oven.
Here you go:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, mix up 1/3 cup real maple syrup (spray the measuring cup with cooking spray to make the syrup come out easily), 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 or 3 teaspoons of vanilla (depending on how strong flavored it is), and 2 teaspoons of apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, or just plain cinnamon. Experiment and see what you prefer. Mix it with a spoon until well-blended.
To that mixture add 5 cups of old-fashioned oats (not the quick kind and not steel cut) and 2 cups of some kind of nut. I prefer chopped almonds or chopped pecans. But feel free to experiment with whatever nut you prefer.
Mix it all up, and spread it out on a baking sheet. I use a half-sheet pan and line it with parchment paper to make cleanup easier. After you've spread it out evenly, press it down onto the pan using the back of a spatula or some other flat instrument. This will ensure the chunks form.
Pop the pan into the oven for about 40 - 45 minutes, or until you can smell the nuts toasting nicely. While it is cooking, your house will smell terrific!
But you aren't done yet! When the time is up, remove the pan from the oven. Now is the time to spread over the top the dried fruit of your choice. I prefer golden raisins or dried cranberries. I've also experimented with dried cherries and dried blueberries. I was a bit disappointed with the dried blueberries - they were hugely expensive and didn't add enough fruity goodness to the finished granola. Dried cherries were fine, but next time I'll use a sweeter version. The ones I used were too sour.
The reason you put them in/on the granola after cooking is they will dry out or even burn in the oven. But sprinkling them over the still warm granola once it is out of the oven softens up the dried fruit without drying it out.
Once the granola has cooled, you can break it up into chunks. The nice thing is you get to decide how big or small you want the chunks! After I've done that, I put it into airtight containers and into my pantry. It keeps for more than a week, although I wouldn't know, since it only lasts about a week around here.
It's that good.
Here you go:
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, mix up 1/3 cup real maple syrup (spray the measuring cup with cooking spray to make the syrup come out easily), 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2 or 3 teaspoons of vanilla (depending on how strong flavored it is), and 2 teaspoons of apple pie spice, pumpkin pie spice, or just plain cinnamon. Experiment and see what you prefer. Mix it with a spoon until well-blended.
To that mixture add 5 cups of old-fashioned oats (not the quick kind and not steel cut) and 2 cups of some kind of nut. I prefer chopped almonds or chopped pecans. But feel free to experiment with whatever nut you prefer.
Mix it all up, and spread it out on a baking sheet. I use a half-sheet pan and line it with parchment paper to make cleanup easier. After you've spread it out evenly, press it down onto the pan using the back of a spatula or some other flat instrument. This will ensure the chunks form.
Pop the pan into the oven for about 40 - 45 minutes, or until you can smell the nuts toasting nicely. While it is cooking, your house will smell terrific!
But you aren't done yet! When the time is up, remove the pan from the oven. Now is the time to spread over the top the dried fruit of your choice. I prefer golden raisins or dried cranberries. I've also experimented with dried cherries and dried blueberries. I was a bit disappointed with the dried blueberries - they were hugely expensive and didn't add enough fruity goodness to the finished granola. Dried cherries were fine, but next time I'll use a sweeter version. The ones I used were too sour.
The reason you put them in/on the granola after cooking is they will dry out or even burn in the oven. But sprinkling them over the still warm granola once it is out of the oven softens up the dried fruit without drying it out.
Once the granola has cooled, you can break it up into chunks. The nice thing is you get to decide how big or small you want the chunks! After I've done that, I put it into airtight containers and into my pantry. It keeps for more than a week, although I wouldn't know, since it only lasts about a week around here.
It's that good.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Finally!
It finally feels like fall around here.
I love living in California (well, most of the time) but I miss the change of seasons you get on the East coast. Here, we have rainy season and dry season, otherwise known as rainy season and fire season.
The pumpkins are in the markets, the leaves are turning on the trees, and it is no longer 95 degrees outside. I'm starting to think of stews, roast chickens, and pumpkin pies. Oh, we'll still grill when we feel like it - we grill 12 months out of the year around here. But rather than grilling because we can't stand to heat up the kitchen, we'll grill because we want to.
My younger son said he can't wait to sit and do his homework with a hot cup of tea - ah, the simple pleasures of childhood. But really, I want to sit and pay the bills, or read a book, with a hot cup of tea, too.
October is my favorite month.
I love living in California (well, most of the time) but I miss the change of seasons you get on the East coast. Here, we have rainy season and dry season, otherwise known as rainy season and fire season.
The pumpkins are in the markets, the leaves are turning on the trees, and it is no longer 95 degrees outside. I'm starting to think of stews, roast chickens, and pumpkin pies. Oh, we'll still grill when we feel like it - we grill 12 months out of the year around here. But rather than grilling because we can't stand to heat up the kitchen, we'll grill because we want to.
My younger son said he can't wait to sit and do his homework with a hot cup of tea - ah, the simple pleasures of childhood. But really, I want to sit and pay the bills, or read a book, with a hot cup of tea, too.
October is my favorite month.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)