Noise Reduction Headphones for the Hospital

On the first of quite a few nights that I spent in the hospital recently I was unsurprisingly unable to sleep.  There is the usual hullabaloo around medication dispensing, the taking of blood pressure and temperature, and the need for assistance to do even the simplest tasks.  For me it was compounded by have a nasal-gastric tube which has two very distinct noises.  One was the sound of my own internal juices rushing out of my nose, and the other was a high pitched squealing of the valve.  The squeaking noise could be muffled by a pillow, but not enough to help, and ear plugs just seemed to amplify the rushing sound of fluid leaving my body.  So what to do?

My solution was noise reduction headphones.  I am usually a restless sleeper and so I wasn't sure that they would even stay on my head for the duration of the evening, but I was desperate.  It turns out that post-abdonimal surgery, one does very little moving about, in bed or otherwise.  So these worked like a charm.  I used the Spotify White Noise radio station in the background, and slept like a baby, meaning I slept for two hours, got woken up, poked and prodded, then went back to sleep.  Highly recommended.

Korchma Restaurant, Moscow, Russia

While in Russia we wanted to eat traditional food, and while we spent about half our meals in restaurants that had food from the Caucuses and the central Asia parts of the former Soviet Union, we definitely wanted to experience dumplings, buckwheat blini, and other things that might be thought of as peasant food, but which we very much enjoy. 

We ate here our third night in Moscow, and while it was a little bit over the top in terms of the touristic themes, the food was genuine eastern Ukrainian fare.  Ukraine is a country that has been divided a number of times, with parts of it going to Poland, parts to Russia, and at one point, all to the Soviet Union.  Luckily for the cuisine, those three traditions share some overlapping features.  The one really Russian thing missing here was fresh dill in almost everything. Here dill did not make an appearance.

Our guide told us that the restaurant made it's own horseradish vodka, and that we should be sure not to miss this delicacy.   What happened next is a classic miscommunication between one who is not reading the menu clearly and one who is.  I thought that we should order a small carafe of the vodka rather than getting it by the shot, and my spouse, in an effort to be amiable, asked me if I was absolutely sure, and went ahead.  Well, what we got was quite a lot of vodka that was not exactly to our taste  Live and learn.  It was accompanied by slices of lard served on twigs (if I had known that, I would have been more circumspect about the drink that came with it).  We did get a giant bowl of delicious pickles to help wash it down with as well. 

Gluten Free Mexican Wedding Cakes

I have a need to be more conscious of being gluten free.  For the most part, that is almost a non-issue.  I still need to get some gluten free bread crumbs, but I have the flour for when I need it to add to the occasional savory dish, and I very much enjoy many things without flour.  Desserts are another kettle of fish however.  There you either have to serve fruit and custard or you need to make an effort.  This is the first recipe that I have made that is explicitly gluten free.

1 1/2 c. chopped pecans
1/3 c. plus 1 tbs. white rice flour
1 1/4 c. plus 2 Tbs. oat flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c. granulated sugar
2 oz. cream cheese
12 Tbs. butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. confectionery sugar to finish

Combine nuts, flours, salt, baking soda, and sugar in a food processor.  Add cream cheese, butter, and vanilla.\ until dough forms a ball.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Shape into balls (I used a #60 scoop).  Bake for 15-20 minutes, then let cool 5 minutes.  Roll in confectionery sugar.

Sleeping on My Back

Yes, I have cancer, and yes, I had a huge surgery, and wouldn't you think that that would trump everything?  Well, of course, both of these things are foremost in my thoughts,  how I am thinking and then working hard to put on my very best attitude, but guess what?  Sleeping on my back is slowly driving me nuts.  It is such a little thing, but despite all of the health reasons to do so (and apparently there are many), I just simply cannot get comfortable on my back.  So as I go into my third straight week of having no other option, I am thinking of all sorts of things to do to ameliorate it.  Maybe I can prop a pillow so that I can tilt ever so slightly to the left or the right.  Maybe I should try some guided imagery to help me drop off to sleep without thinking about it.  But no matter what I try, I still left with that "turtle of my back" sensation of being trapped on my back each and every night.  I am amazed that in the midst of all the really serious things going on in my life that I can still be bothered by the very tiniest of things.  Just talented, I guess.

Protagoras by Plato

This is a dialogue between Socrates and Protagoras which is wide ranging in scope, but centers on the virtues of justice and wisdom.  Protagoras is a sophist who is pretty darn confident that he can make any one who studies with him into a good citizen.  Socrates is not a big fan of the sophists, and the thinking is that it is because they do not choose their students, their students choose them.  For the sophists, cash is king and aptitude comes a distant second, whereas Socrates is more of a fan of the bright and talented student rather than the wealthy student.

Socrates method of dialogue or philosophical inquiry is called the elenchus.  Essentially the person engaged in the dialogue with Socrates, in this case Protagoras, asserts a thesis, and in the case of Protagoras, he starts with the assertion that he can make anyone he teaches a good citizen.  Socrates asks a number of clarifying questions and then moves to securing the agreement to a second premise, one that is linked to the first.  Socrates then argues, and works to get the other person to agree, that what this further premise, or group of premises imply end up being in contradiction to the original thesis.  Socrates then claims that he has demonstrated that the persons original statement or thesis is false.  He is kind of annoying about it, but the progression of the dialogue is in and of itself quite fascinating.

Chocolate Nut Thumbprint Cookies

These cookies are fantastic, so much better than any thumbprint cookie of your childhood.  The nutty flavor of the cookie is well balanced with the chocolate filling.

Cookie:
2 c. finely chopped pecans, toasted
2 1/2 c. flour
16 Tbs. butter
1 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. cream
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla

Filling:
6 oz. chocolate, chopped
1/2 c. cream

Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In mixer, mix flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon, salt and pecans until mixed and crumbly.  Add 2 tbs. cream, vanilla, and egg yolks, mix until dough comes together.
Form into balls using a #60 scoop.  Use the back of a measuring spoon to make an indent.  Cook cookies 10 minutes, then take out and remake the indentation.  Bake another 8-10 minutes.  Cool.
Melt chocolate and 1/2 c. cream in microwave.  Let sit 1 hour.  Fill cookies.  Let set completely before storing.

Cherish Normalcy

This is very good advice in general.  And considering everything that is going on in my life right now, I am glad that I have made this a priority in the past.

What I am referring to in the immediate present, however, is the ability to eat.  I have never had any difficulty with eating.  I love food, I love to cook, I love to eat at restaurants, I love food to a fault.  Since I had abdominal surgery last week, though, I have had great difficulty with eating.  The gut does not like to be touched.  That is why it is housed in a muscular enclosure that protects it from much manipulation from the outside.  So having abdominal surgery, where hands are all over the gut, and in my case trying to figure out whether I had any tumors in the gut, so they were gone over with a fine tooth comb, every inch was manipulated and massaged, so guess what?  My gut was not happy.  Not at all.  Completely on strike for over a week, and even when it deigned to start working again, it did so ever so slowly.

When I can once again eye something delicious, put it in  my mouth, savor it, and then swallow it without a veritable riot occurring inside, I swear I will be thankful for that pleasure.  Every part of illness makes one all the more grateful for the health I have had.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

This is a fun novel, not too serious, but with enough substance to feel that you are reading something good and worthwhile.  The book is set in Minnesota and the background focus is the burgeoning food culture that has been gaining momentum in the Midwest.  The foreground is a story about a somewhat dysfunctional family.  Lars Thorvald had a working childhood that prevented him from developing in many ways.  He and his brother were in charge of drying fish for lutefisk at a very young age.  The stench alone kept people in general and women in particular away from him.  He was lucky to find a wife who loved him and they married and had a daughter.

Things did not go smoothly.  Lars loved being a father to Eva.  He had become a chef of modest renown by the time she was born, and he fed her his very best dishes, developing her palate at an early age.  Her mother, however, failed to bond properly with her and felt constrained by parenthood, and left  the family when Eva was still quite young.  Shortly thereafter, Lars had an accident and died, and Eva was raised by her aunt and uncle who truthfully just did not get her.  No matter.  Eva was a force unto herself, a woman with an instinct for cooking and food, and the rest of the book tells the tales of her meteoric rise to the top of chefdom.  Fun read, even if you have no Midwestern roots.

Lemon Cookies

Ok, the truth be told, it was very hard to get these cookies to come out looking like this in humid weather, so if the crinkling is important to you, make them in winter.  You will be happier.  But if the cookie doesn't have to look perfect, this is a great summer cookie because they are so lemony it is refreshing.
 1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. grated lemon zest
2 Tbs. lemon juice
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
4 Tbs. butter, melted
3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. confectionary sugar

1.  Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.  Process sugar and lemon zest in the food processor until zest is finely ground (it will smell divine).  Add egg and egg yolk, butter, oil, vanilla and lemon juice and process until pale and thickened.  Stir egg mixture into flour mixture until incorporated.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
2.  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put confectionery sugar in a bowl.  Working with 100 scoop, scoop and roll balls in confectionery sugar to coat.  Space balls about 2 inches aprt.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Let cool completely.

The Naso-Gastric Tube Experience

Whenever a patient has an abdominal surgery that involves manipulation of the gut in any way, the almost inevitable consequence of that post operatively is to have a tube placed in one nostril that goes down into the stomach.  The tube is then hooked up to suction and the gastric juices that are produced on a continuous basis are sucked out in order to allow the bowel to rest and recuperate. All of this is great, except the tube is truly awful.

First of all, it is a thick hard piece of plastic that one can feel quite painfully in both the nose and the back of the throat.  Then there is the gross factor.  Well meaning people visit you in the hospital and are confronted with unattractive green liquid rushing out your nose into a large container filled with similar looking material.  No one wants to hear that everyone's gastric juices look like this.  All they know is that yours do.  My youngest son thought that I had a ready made Hallowe'en costume without even trying.  Then there is the fact that the tube is heavy and there is no built in accommodation for this--if you let it swing free, your nose will be a wreck in no time, and hospital gowns do not have a pocket for the tube.  Such an oversight.  So the whole experience, while medically necessary, is an unpleasant one.  And don't get me started on having it replaced if it is pulled but then they decide that you actually still need it.  That is the stuff of nightmares.