04-08-11 Bronchitis

So it is not a cold.  It is asthmatic bronchitis.  And they cancelled my Bone Marrow Biopsy.  Sigh.  Apparently I should be well before they drill me.

JR came home, YAY!!!! it is so nice to be able to just sit back and be sick, and not have to worry about walking the dog.

More later.........I have to go hack up a lung now.

04-01-11 Anniversary and Baking Galore

I have caught a cold.  This sucks.  I was going to catch up on some work, had no clients/appointments/other things to do for a couple of days.  And now I am sick.  Rats.

Today is our third Anniversary.  I stopped for a moment earlier to ponder the idea that exactly three years ago at that precise moment, I was getting my toes done and scampering off to find the groom at the golf course to collect him for our wedding.  It feels like we have been married forever and for five minutes all at the same time.

To celebrate our anniversary, I sent JR a cake.  An amazing cake.  He is on a mission in El Paso at Fort Bliss.  I found the recipe in the latest Country Woman magazine that my mother in law sends me a subscription for.  This is the simplest cake recipe on the planet.  And so dense and rich and moist.  You must try it.  It all mixes up in a sauce pan on the stove top, then pop it in the oven and poof!  Chocolate cake.  With a surprise ingredient.  Guinness Beer.  I didn't make the icing, just put the entire spring form pan in a cake carrier and sent it off to him to share with his buddies.  Of course I doubled the recipe and made two of them, so I could try it before sending it off.  This is an amazing recipe.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup Guinness (dark beer)
• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 
  TOPPING:
• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

• Grease a 9-in. springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper; set aside.
• In a small saucepan, heat beer and butter until butter is melted. Remove from the heat; whisk in sugar and cocoa until blended. Combine the eggs, sour cream and vanilla; whisk into beer mixture. Combine flour and baking soda; whisk into beer mixture until smooth. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Remove sides of pan.
• In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and cream; beat until smooth (do not overbeat). Remove cake from the pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cake so that it resembles a frothy pint of beer. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12 servings.

I don't know about the 12 servings..........I guess if you gave out little tiny slices..........

Also, the nettles were as delicious as I remembered them being.  Like spinach but better.  I can't explain it.  You just have to get some and try it.  I made a chicken based soup stock, added the nettles, some chicken, some Israeli cous cous, and poof!  Yummy yummy soup.

And then today I have been baking bread. I really wanted some toast, but don't want to go to the store, so thinking that I really do own everything needed to make some bread, it would be silly not to.  So I did.  I used the recipe for no kneading bread that Aunt Fay sent me the book about.  Made two loaves.  House smells great.   I can't wait until it cools enough to have a slice.  

Kate is coming over tomorrow and I shall give her the other loaf.  She loves this bread.  

And I immediately put another batch together in the same bread bucket, so as soon as I am done with this loaf, I can make more.  I don't know why I stopped making this bread, it is ridiculously easy. 

No Knead Bread 

• 3 cups water, filtered and no more than 100 degrees
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
• 6 1/2 cups flour, AP
• flour, for dusting

Directions:

Prep Time: 10 mins

Total Time: 50 mins

1. 1 Measure water, salt and yeast into a large plastic container with a loose fitting lid.
2. 2 Stir in the flour. Sometimes it is stiffer than others but it should be a wet looking mess when you are done stirring. Do not knead.
3. 3 Put the lid on loosely and let rest for 4 - 6 hours on the counter. Refrigerate loosely covered overnight or up to 10 days. The longer it rests in the fridge the more flavor it develops.
4. 4 On baking day, heavily flour the dough and cut into halves  I bake two pound loaves because we devour this bread. Scoop the dough into a long or round loaf and put into greased bread loaf pans. (you can also bake this on a baking stone in the oven and get more of an artisan look).  I cut the dough in half with a bench knife while it is still in the dough bucket and get a nice oval shape that way.
5. 5 Let sit on the counter for 40 minutes.  Preheat your oven 450 degrees. Put a broiler pan under the loaf pans. Let the oven heat for 20-30 minutes. Heavily dust the top of the loaf with flour.
6. 6 Slash the loaf with a very sharp knife or lame. If your bread is round slash a tic tac toe pattern into it and for a long loaf slash it 3 or 4 times diagonally. This helps the bread pouf up during baking. Put the bread in the oven and  immediately pour 1 cup of hot water into a broiler pan and shut the oven door for 10 minutes. Toss a couple of ice cubes into the oven after the first ten minutes if you are baking a 2 pound loaf.
7. 7 Bake one pound loaves for 40 minutes and two pound loaves for 45 minutes.
8. 8 Cool on a wire rack and please try to resist cutting it until it is totally cool or it will not be crispy on the outside and chewy in the center.

That's enough baking for one day.

Happy Anniversary Darling Husband!!!!

Caroline

3-26-11 Verpa and Nettles

Today was our first field trip with the Puget Sound Mycological Society.  About 50 people were there, too many to actually find mushrooms.  And it was really too cold to find the Verpas (early morels).  BUT we (Kate and I) got some great information about morels, the season this year, and where to go.

We did walk around the park it was held at in Monroe, Washington, but it was too muddy, too cold and not quite right for finding mushrooms.  However, as I was walking and staring at the ground, I realized that there were plants that were just starting to sprout, and they looked remarkably like stinging nettles.  When Kate caught up, I mentioned that they looked like nettles, so what does she do?  She stuck her hand right in them!  Sure enough, she was in pain from the stings, but she continued to harvest the nettles bare handed!  Yikes,  I used a pair of scissors on my swiss army knife to cut the stems and then used the scissors like tongs to carefully pick up the nettles and put them in my basket.

I am off to the store for the rest of the ingredients to make Stinging Nettle Soup.  Will post the recipe I end up using and how it comes out.

I have had this before at a class I took on Wild Edibles in the PNW.  So I am pretty sure I am going to really love it.

Caroline

03-25-11 Trailer is almost ready

So the only thing that I have really enjoyed lately is fixing up the trailer.  Here are some before and after shots.

BEFORE:

What you can't see is the smell.  Very musty and old, rather like Grandma's back room where the well was.

Now, after scraping, fixing, filling holes, new windows, priming, painting, laying a new floor, lining the shelves, spending time with the dog inside, and finding the best bedding:

AFTER:

It also has new tires and smells GREAT!!!!  excellent tip: put dryer sheets in musty places.

I cannot wait to go camping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caroline

2011-03-17 Mushrooms and Upcoming Tests

It is spring time and you know what that means....................MORELS!!!!!!!!  I am busy slowly working on the trailer to get it ready for the first mushroom forays of the spring.  There are morel sightings in Texas and Georgia, but none here yet, we are the last of the areas to get them.  But there is a foray by the Puget Sound Mycological Society for Verpas (early morels) on the 26th of this month.  Very very exciting.  It is not too far from here, so it could be a day trip.............the trailer still needs tires before I can take it out.  This weekend is the RV show at the Tacoma Dome, so I will be perusing the purveyors to see if anyone has a show special on tires.  Already printed my discount coupon for the show.

The dog is very excited about camping.  Every time I go out to the trailer, he hops in and lays down on the newly recovered cushions (meaning that there are muddy dog prints on my beautifully covered fabric cushions.  Oh well).  He just watches me putter around in it, and you can see his little mind dreaming of chasing squirrels and sitting by the campfire............I am excited too!

So the next tests that are coming up are a bone marrow biopsy on April 8 (ick, not looking forward to that at all) and then some cognitive testing to see what the effects the drugs are having on my ability to think.  Although I can tell you right now, I am highly distractable and not likely to remember anything you said five minutes ago.....oh, shiny, sparkly object..............what was I saying???????

Anyway, I won't have the biopsy results until the week after the test, but will post them as soon as I know anything.  Dr. O expects the results to be excellent, and if so, that means no more biopsy for at least 2 years!!!  Wouldn't that be great???

Off to scrub the trailer floor so I can lay the new peel and stick tiles and be ready to move stuff in!!!!

2011-03-14 Great Weekend

Hi there,

No news is good news from me.  I have been busy, trying to get some little amount of work done, and then the Army invited me down to CA for some training as the FRG Leader (kind of like the den mother of the unit), and there was a ball to attend!  Very fun, but am now exhausted.

Will write more later.

Caroline

2-23-11 Just humming along

Well, after the drama of the past few months, this last month has been relatively free of drama.  Thank heavens!  I am fairly stabilized now on the drugs and I guess this is my new normal.  I have more energy than I did when this journey started, but am not where I was before.  I can only work every other day for a couple of hours.  After that I cannot concentrate.  Just can't be done.  Maybe that will get better.

The big excitement around here has been the Army stuff that JR is doing.  He was involved in an exercise here at Fort Lewis, and so we had all the guys over for dinner, some each night, not all at once.  And then a bunch also came over for Superbowl Sunday and I made a bunch of bar food for them.  I also sent all the dinner guests back to their hotels with leftovers for lunch the next day.  Which made those who had not been invited yet very jealous!  But everyone who wanted to came for at least one meal.  At the end of the week, JR came home with a plaque for me!  I was awarded a "Hero of the Battlefield" for outstanding culinary fitness and boosting the morale of the troops during a pivotal battle exercise!!!!  I got my first Army award!

Then JR was doing Army stuff in Camp Parks, California and I flew down to meet his friends the Andersons, who have the most amazing children on the planet!  Very very cool family.  And JR and I spent Valentine's Day in Monterey.  We stayed for three days and then drove home together.

As we were driving home, I got an email that invited me to go to Camp Parks myself!  The army is having an FRG training course (Family Readiness Group), and I am the FRG Leader for the north unit (like being a den mother for the spouses).  So JR is going for an exercise, I am going for my training, the army is paying to fly me down, and there is a Military BALL to attend.  How cool is that????  I have to go evening gown shopping this weekend.  Oh boy!

I have also been invited to Maryland to be in a CML focus group that the drug company is holding.  Again, I will be flown down at their expense and put up overnight in a hotel.  It is only for the one day, and then I would fly home again.  It is a LOT of traveling for just one day of work, but if it helps other people with this disease, then I feel obligated to do it.

I have been doing a little bit of work to the trailer as well.  I finally managed to prime the inside and get it ready for paint, and tonight I recovered one of the bench cushions with the new mod fabric that I got that will pull all the weird colors together!  One more bench to go, and I will be six inches short if I do it the same way as the first bench, so I may have to be a little more inventive with the second cushion.  I don't want to have to find more of the fabric.  Yikes!

I dream of camping and finding mushrooms.......sigh.

Happy dreaming to everyone.