Its been a long time since I wrote anything on here. Not much has happened, but what has happened is big enough it should probably be up.
My mission papers are finally done! There were problems with getting a doctor's appointment but after over a month of trying/waiting (we only have two doctors- we need probably 4) I finally got in and had my physical. Immediately afterword I had my interviews. Pres. Chappel is an amazing man to sit and talk with. Of course there was the standard worthiness interview but then we just sat and talked for a while. What a truly inspired and inspirational man! Still waiting for the call.
The next bit of news is regarding my esophagus. We got a copy of the notes from my endoscopy in Las Vegas and the doctor included a diagnosis of GERD- as was expected- and directions for treatment of it as such. I had an EGD (don't ask, I can neither say nor spell what that stands for) on Monday. Sunday night my dad and brother gave me a blessing in the which he promised me that everything would be clear. The next morning the doctor went into my throat with a balloon to expand my esophagus and couldn't, it was already as big as it should be. There were no signs whatsoever of GERD, heart-burn or any other of my symptoms. The medical history is there, but the signs are not. He biopsied a section of my esophagus to check and gave a tentative diagnosis (which I can also neither say nor spell). The results came back and I have whatever it was. Medical research still doesn't know what it is. They're not sure what causes it, but they think its some sort of an allergy. This sounds bad because if they don't know what it is, they can't treat it, right? Wrong! I checked the list of disqualifying medical conditions for the military and this is not one of them. I have the same symptoms and take the same drugs, but its called something different so- for now- it looks like I can serve.
The posts have been slower lately because for work we have been going back and forth between here at home and Needles Ca. We don't have internet in Needles so I haven't been posting. Headed back Monday for the final trip of the spring. Since this trip will be about a month long there will probably not be any posts until mid-June at the earliest.
That's pretty much all the news! I was hoping to have a new recipe to put up here today but between the dying lawn mower and the extra wet spring it took me several hours to mow the lawn this morning. So much for that...
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
On a sadder note
I've decided to go ahead and make some information more public. Everyone who has read much on this blog knows that I went to West Point for two years and then left to serve and LDS Mission. If you read a few blog entries back you will see that I have recently had a somewhat severe problem caused by acid reflux. My acid reflux is most likely (though I have no official diagnosis) a symptom of GERD. The bad news is that GERD is a disqualifying condition for service in America's Armed Forces. Moreover, the fact that I have had food stuck in my esophagus hints that it may be somewhat advanced. I emailed one of the doctors on the Medical Examination Review Board (MERB) that medically approves cadet candidates and his response was "This doesn't bode well."
So, although there is still a chance of receiving a waiver and being allowed to resume my planned future at the Academy, it looks like I will most likely be a civilian for the rest of my life. Civilian life is not bad, don't get me wrong, but I had really hoped for a different outcome.
In the end I know it doesn't matter. If I do what I am supposed to do, I know that Heavenly Father will ensure that everything in my life works out. His plans are not always the same as our plans, which is frustrating, but His plans are always perfect and I have come to know more than ever that He truly does have a plan for me- even if I cannot see it. As Isaiah said: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9)
If He wants me to be at West Point, I will certainly return. And if I return, He certainly wants me to be at West Point- as it appears I would be the first person to be allowed admission under such circumstances.
If anybody knows someone from the Academies- any of them- who was granted a medical qualification after such an event, kindly leave me a comment below to let me know it is possible. All I have found is that many have been turned away for far more minor symptoms of the same disease.
So, although there is still a chance of receiving a waiver and being allowed to resume my planned future at the Academy, it looks like I will most likely be a civilian for the rest of my life. Civilian life is not bad, don't get me wrong, but I had really hoped for a different outcome.
In the end I know it doesn't matter. If I do what I am supposed to do, I know that Heavenly Father will ensure that everything in my life works out. His plans are not always the same as our plans, which is frustrating, but His plans are always perfect and I have come to know more than ever that He truly does have a plan for me- even if I cannot see it. As Isaiah said: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9)
If He wants me to be at West Point, I will certainly return. And if I return, He certainly wants me to be at West Point- as it appears I would be the first person to be allowed admission under such circumstances.
If anybody knows someone from the Academies- any of them- who was granted a medical qualification after such an event, kindly leave me a comment below to let me know it is possible. All I have found is that many have been turned away for far more minor symptoms of the same disease.
Best Bites Pesto Pasta
My mother and I shared a birthday the other day. One of the gifts was a joint gift to both of us- a cookbook. Not just any cookbook though, it was the cookbook from one of the most popular cooking blogs on the internet. Ok, so I have no numbers to back that up, but its pretty popular and they have great food and fun ideas.
Since today is Saturday, I spent my morning looking for recipes. Most of the time was spent looking at a Romano's Macaroni Grill online cookbook and the recipe section of Olive Garden's website (yes, both places publish their recipes!), but there wasn't anything there that sounded appetizing. Cookbooks haven't really been a big part of my experience so far, so I didn't even think to pull one out until my mom handed me the one we got for our birthday. Of the many recipes that I've decided to try, one stood out in particular. It was bow-tie pasta with pesto sauce and roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and pine-nuts on top. Though neither of my parents are big pesto fans, the meal was loved by all. Since I'm pretty sure its copyrighted I won't put the recipe up, but strongly suggest trying it.
Pine-nuts are used in two parts of the recipe. You can buy pre-shelled and pre-toasted pine-nuts but they are expensive and basically don't exist in Delta. Minus the time spent shelling pine-nuts the recipe would take about 20 minutes. Shelling all those nuts by hand? Several hours.
Also, pesto requires lots of fresh basil. There are two stores in town- Quality and Jubilee. I shop at Quality and bought out what was left of their supply of fresh basil-which amounted to about half as much as was needed. Grudgingly, I headed to Jubilee to buy enough basil to make up the difference. The basil down there was horrible! The leaves were all wilted and turning a brown/grey color. And the packages cost twice as much! There is more in each package, I guess that's the reasoning for the extra cost. But then you have to throw 3/4 of it away because its no good. Guess I'll keep doing business where I have been.
Since today is Saturday, I spent my morning looking for recipes. Most of the time was spent looking at a Romano's Macaroni Grill online cookbook and the recipe section of Olive Garden's website (yes, both places publish their recipes!), but there wasn't anything there that sounded appetizing. Cookbooks haven't really been a big part of my experience so far, so I didn't even think to pull one out until my mom handed me the one we got for our birthday. Of the many recipes that I've decided to try, one stood out in particular. It was bow-tie pasta with pesto sauce and roasted tomatoes, mushrooms and pine-nuts on top. Though neither of my parents are big pesto fans, the meal was loved by all. Since I'm pretty sure its copyrighted I won't put the recipe up, but strongly suggest trying it.
Pine-nuts are used in two parts of the recipe. You can buy pre-shelled and pre-toasted pine-nuts but they are expensive and basically don't exist in Delta. Minus the time spent shelling pine-nuts the recipe would take about 20 minutes. Shelling all those nuts by hand? Several hours.
Also, pesto requires lots of fresh basil. There are two stores in town- Quality and Jubilee. I shop at Quality and bought out what was left of their supply of fresh basil-which amounted to about half as much as was needed. Grudgingly, I headed to Jubilee to buy enough basil to make up the difference. The basil down there was horrible! The leaves were all wilted and turning a brown/grey color. And the packages cost twice as much! There is more in each package, I guess that's the reasoning for the extra cost. But then you have to throw 3/4 of it away because its no good. Guess I'll keep doing business where I have been.
Friday, April 8, 2011
spring?
It has been in the 80's lately and we've all been thinking spring- but then you wake up one morning and BAM! this is what ya got:
You can't tell in the picture but it is still snowing quite heavily...
Why can't it just be spring?!
Why can't it just be spring?!
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Goings on
I have not posted for a while. I have not cooked for a while. I do have some stories to share though.
The last time I posted was three weekends ago. The following weekend I went to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square. It was wonderful to wander around the temple grounds, in and out of the visitors centers. I spent some time sitting in front of the statue of Christ in the North Visitor's Center. It was a wonderful experience.
Then I met up with a friend and we went to lunch. I figured since I was on the road, I would taste some food made by the professionals rather than my own cooking for a weekend. Ironically, I this gave me food poisoning (we think) and Monday night was a very miserable night spent on the couch. How surprising! All these weeks of eating my own, amateur cooking and never a problem. Eat something made by a pro and that luck changes. It boosted my confidence.
The next weekend my mom and dad got the four-wheelers running. The plan was for them to go for a ride, but my dad had a headache so mom and I headed out for a relaxing trail ride. We didn't know that there were going to be motocross races that day. We got stuck in the middle of the races and were stuck trying to find a way around them for a long time. Eventually, we gave up and cut through the course. In all, we were gone for about 2 hours and I did not feel at all like cooking when I got home. So I didn't. Instead, I set about getting ready to go to Needles for work.
This weekend, well this weekend I'm actually home. Not in Needles. I inherited many things from my father. Unfortunately, I also inherited his esophagus. I have acid reflux disease. Over time the acid causes narrowing in my esophagus and makes the muscles spasm and misfire from time to time. These two combined make food sometimes get stuck. Until this past week I was always able to get the food unstuck on my own, but Wednesday night was different. Michael and I sat down to dinner at about 8:30 and the first bite didn't go down. I took a drink, which usually pushes the food down, but then the water stopped, hurt and then came back up. All over the place. After a while of fighting with the piece of chicken I gave up and told Michael we were going to need to get to a hospital.
We made some phone calls and discovered that the closest place that could do the necessary procedure was in Las Vegas- 2 hours away. We had a truck to unload that night and there was no way for Michael to drop me off at the hospital and then make it back in time to meet the truck. So, when the truck showed up at 1 AM we unloaded it and met my parents in Searchlight. We made it to the first hospital at about 6. They couldn't do the procedure. 6:30 we hit St. Rose Dominican Hospital Siena Campus in Henderson. At this point, the food has been stuck for 10 hours.
After some x-rays, IV drugs with a very small success rate and several hours of waiting I was taken to same-day surgery to have an endoscopy- scoping of the esophagus. 16 hours after the food got stuck, it was removed. I woke up a short time later and spent the rest of the day in and out of a coma-like state. Normally anesthesia makes people drowsy, but the anti-nausea drugs I was given mixed with the anesthesia to create an extremely potent cocktail.
Now I am home, writing this blog. That pretty much sums up my life for the past little bit.
The last time I posted was three weekends ago. The following weekend I went to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square. It was wonderful to wander around the temple grounds, in and out of the visitors centers. I spent some time sitting in front of the statue of Christ in the North Visitor's Center. It was a wonderful experience.
Then I met up with a friend and we went to lunch. I figured since I was on the road, I would taste some food made by the professionals rather than my own cooking for a weekend. Ironically, I this gave me food poisoning (we think) and Monday night was a very miserable night spent on the couch. How surprising! All these weeks of eating my own, amateur cooking and never a problem. Eat something made by a pro and that luck changes. It boosted my confidence.
The next weekend my mom and dad got the four-wheelers running. The plan was for them to go for a ride, but my dad had a headache so mom and I headed out for a relaxing trail ride. We didn't know that there were going to be motocross races that day. We got stuck in the middle of the races and were stuck trying to find a way around them for a long time. Eventually, we gave up and cut through the course. In all, we were gone for about 2 hours and I did not feel at all like cooking when I got home. So I didn't. Instead, I set about getting ready to go to Needles for work.
This weekend, well this weekend I'm actually home. Not in Needles. I inherited many things from my father. Unfortunately, I also inherited his esophagus. I have acid reflux disease. Over time the acid causes narrowing in my esophagus and makes the muscles spasm and misfire from time to time. These two combined make food sometimes get stuck. Until this past week I was always able to get the food unstuck on my own, but Wednesday night was different. Michael and I sat down to dinner at about 8:30 and the first bite didn't go down. I took a drink, which usually pushes the food down, but then the water stopped, hurt and then came back up. All over the place. After a while of fighting with the piece of chicken I gave up and told Michael we were going to need to get to a hospital.
We made some phone calls and discovered that the closest place that could do the necessary procedure was in Las Vegas- 2 hours away. We had a truck to unload that night and there was no way for Michael to drop me off at the hospital and then make it back in time to meet the truck. So, when the truck showed up at 1 AM we unloaded it and met my parents in Searchlight. We made it to the first hospital at about 6. They couldn't do the procedure. 6:30 we hit St. Rose Dominican Hospital Siena Campus in Henderson. At this point, the food has been stuck for 10 hours.
After some x-rays, IV drugs with a very small success rate and several hours of waiting I was taken to same-day surgery to have an endoscopy- scoping of the esophagus. 16 hours after the food got stuck, it was removed. I woke up a short time later and spent the rest of the day in and out of a coma-like state. Normally anesthesia makes people drowsy, but the anti-nausea drugs I was given mixed with the anesthesia to create an extremely potent cocktail.
Now I am home, writing this blog. That pretty much sums up my life for the past little bit.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Speculoo?
Speculoos are a biscuit style cookie better known by the name Biscoff- the brand that is served on Delta Airlines flights all over the world. It is also probably my favorite cookie. That's saying something because I don't do favorites :)
The recipe I shared a link to in my last post turned out pretty decent. Something is just off, and I don't know quite what it is. Perhaps some other time I will try other recipes and play around more. The cookies are good, don't get me wrong. I would probably eat the whole pan if my parents weren't also enjoying them. Just goes to show how good they are, even when they're off they still rock! Plus they're probably the easiest cookies I've ever made, which is always a plus.
As far as the instructions to roll out the dough, it doesn't work. You have to chill the dough first because it is entirely the wrong consistency to roll out. Because of my wonderful patience, I chose to spread it around on a cookie sheet with a rubber spatula. It worked, but in the future it is worthwhile to chill the dough, roll it out and cut it before you bake it. That is the only way you will really get the cookies to bake evenly. Other than that maybe more brown sugar. Give it a try! They're great!
The recipe I shared a link to in my last post turned out pretty decent. Something is just off, and I don't know quite what it is. Perhaps some other time I will try other recipes and play around more. The cookies are good, don't get me wrong. I would probably eat the whole pan if my parents weren't also enjoying them. Just goes to show how good they are, even when they're off they still rock! Plus they're probably the easiest cookies I've ever made, which is always a plus.
As far as the instructions to roll out the dough, it doesn't work. You have to chill the dough first because it is entirely the wrong consistency to roll out. Because of my wonderful patience, I chose to spread it around on a cookie sheet with a rubber spatula. It worked, but in the future it is worthwhile to chill the dough, roll it out and cut it before you bake it. That is the only way you will really get the cookies to bake evenly. Other than that maybe more brown sugar. Give it a try! They're great!
I'm a little behind so...
...this blog will have 2 weekends' worth of cooking.
Last weekend my brother brought his fiance home to meet the family. As I was debating what to try cooking it was brought to my attention that I would not be cooking for myself as usual, but rather for the family. Because of this I decided to do something I knew would work out and leave the experimentation for the appetizer. We had Orange Chicken and Lettuce Wraps like those found at PF Chang's.
Since I only mentioned the orange chicken and never really discussed it, the recipe can be found here. It is a lot of work, but very much worth it. I did not have the red pepper flakes and my mother (who was helping me because these are both rather involved recipes) suggested adding cayenne pepper to spice it up. I gave the go ahead and she put some into the sauce. It really made everything else pop, but there was no spice. I told her to put more in, and there was still not the spicy element I was going for. Unfortunately it did bring the flavors out even more and in the end the orange chicken was too strong. A minor mistake. It still tasted great, the orange was just a touch too strong. Moral of the story: adding a bit of cayenne can really bring out the flavors, but be careful not to add too much.
The lettuce wraps were a narrowly averted disaster. Knowing that making these two complicated recipes at the same time would be a stretch for me, I mixed the cooking sauce before starting the real cooking. I put it in the fridge and forgot about it. I got everything cooked up and thought "this is not working, the flavor is not there." Frantically, I had my mother stir as I scrambled and threw a little of this and a little of that into the pan. Just as we were about to serve the meal, my mom opened the fridge, pulled out the sauce and asked what it was. I just about died from the embarrassment. We put some in and let it simmer a little and served dinner. Afterword while thinking about what I had added to the pan, I realized that we had ultimately re-created the cooking sauce plus some chili paste. The appetizer was amazing, very much like PF Chang's. The chili paste gave it a little bit of flare- almost enough to make you breathe fire if you got a chunk of chili. It would have been better with some cashews added. Also, shiitake mushrooms are hard to come by in Delta, so I used portobello mushrooms instead.
So far this weekend I have made Orchiette Pasta with Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce. There are biscoff cookies in the near future (the ones served by Delta Airlines), but I'm still in debate on that. The pasta worked out okay. Rather than a pound of wild mushrooms, I used the rest of the portobella mushrooms from last week. Everything but the cream was eyeballed and I intentionally added extra cheese. Ultimately I think it was good, but missing something. After some discussion with my parents I decided a little bit of sweet Italian sausage would be perfect. For those (like me before making this) who do not know what orchiette pasta is, it is the little shells.
If I make the biscoff, or more properly speculoos, I will write about it later. The recipe I am looking at is here. These are probably my favorite cookies, so finding a recipe has made my day! I no longer have to wait until I have an excuse to fly in order to enjoy them! Assuming of course I can bake, we'll see about that...
Last weekend my brother brought his fiance home to meet the family. As I was debating what to try cooking it was brought to my attention that I would not be cooking for myself as usual, but rather for the family. Because of this I decided to do something I knew would work out and leave the experimentation for the appetizer. We had Orange Chicken and Lettuce Wraps like those found at PF Chang's.
Since I only mentioned the orange chicken and never really discussed it, the recipe can be found here. It is a lot of work, but very much worth it. I did not have the red pepper flakes and my mother (who was helping me because these are both rather involved recipes) suggested adding cayenne pepper to spice it up. I gave the go ahead and she put some into the sauce. It really made everything else pop, but there was no spice. I told her to put more in, and there was still not the spicy element I was going for. Unfortunately it did bring the flavors out even more and in the end the orange chicken was too strong. A minor mistake. It still tasted great, the orange was just a touch too strong. Moral of the story: adding a bit of cayenne can really bring out the flavors, but be careful not to add too much.
The lettuce wraps were a narrowly averted disaster. Knowing that making these two complicated recipes at the same time would be a stretch for me, I mixed the cooking sauce before starting the real cooking. I put it in the fridge and forgot about it. I got everything cooked up and thought "this is not working, the flavor is not there." Frantically, I had my mother stir as I scrambled and threw a little of this and a little of that into the pan. Just as we were about to serve the meal, my mom opened the fridge, pulled out the sauce and asked what it was. I just about died from the embarrassment. We put some in and let it simmer a little and served dinner. Afterword while thinking about what I had added to the pan, I realized that we had ultimately re-created the cooking sauce plus some chili paste. The appetizer was amazing, very much like PF Chang's. The chili paste gave it a little bit of flare- almost enough to make you breathe fire if you got a chunk of chili. It would have been better with some cashews added. Also, shiitake mushrooms are hard to come by in Delta, so I used portobello mushrooms instead.
So far this weekend I have made Orchiette Pasta with Wild Mushroom Cream Sauce. There are biscoff cookies in the near future (the ones served by Delta Airlines), but I'm still in debate on that. The pasta worked out okay. Rather than a pound of wild mushrooms, I used the rest of the portobella mushrooms from last week. Everything but the cream was eyeballed and I intentionally added extra cheese. Ultimately I think it was good, but missing something. After some discussion with my parents I decided a little bit of sweet Italian sausage would be perfect. For those (like me before making this) who do not know what orchiette pasta is, it is the little shells.
If I make the biscoff, or more properly speculoos, I will write about it later. The recipe I am looking at is here. These are probably my favorite cookies, so finding a recipe has made my day! I no longer have to wait until I have an excuse to fly in order to enjoy them! Assuming of course I can bake, we'll see about that...
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