Amazon icon Audible icon Autographed icon Book Bub icon Booksprout icon Buy Me a Coffee icon Email icon Facebook icon Goodreads icon Instagram icon Mastodon icon Patreon icon Periscope icon Pinterest icon RSS icon Search icon Snapchat icon TikTok icon Tumblr icon Twitter icon Vine icon Youtube icon LinkedIn icon

Strep Throat

My little girl has strep throat. You might never have guessed it, though, to look at her. She’s energetic, happy, has an appetite… in short, she doesn’t look sick. Except that her throat hurts on and off because her tonsils are massive.

swollen tonsils
swollen tonsils

She was sent home from school about 10 days ago with a fever. I put her to bed, pumped her with fluids and natural remedies (echinicea, gelsenium in case it was the flu, aconite for viral infections), and watched her carefully for the telltale strep rash, yellow bumps on the back of her tongue, or pustules on her tonsils. Her fever broke the next day, so I figured it must have been a passing viral infection.

Guess not.

Her throat was still bothering her a week or so later, so I brought her into the pediatrician’s office. Sure enough, the strep bacteria showed up immediately on the in-office culture. Dang.

Did you know that they have strep tests that return results in 3 minutes now? When I was a kid, my sister and I were strep “carriers” and had it 5-8 times/year. Since my father was a doctor, he would bring the culture swabs home from the hospital and swab our tonsils himself, then drop the thing off directly at the lab — bypassing the pediatrician altogether. The worst part was that he wasn’t a good shot and swabbing would take multiple attempts. It sucks gagging when your throat already hurts, let me tell you.

The thing with strep is that if you leave it alone your body might fight if off by itself, or it might become a chronic infection, or it might migrate to your heart in the form of rheumatic heart fever, scarlet fever, or kidney problems. Some of these can leave you with a permanently weakened heart.

I remember when I was in 4th grade and one of the other student’s mothers was our playground aide. She died suddenly that year, at age 36, because of a weakened heart from a childhood bout with strep that turned into rheumatic heart fever. She left two young sons. Very sad.

So my baby girl is on heavy duty antibiotics. She loves the taste, but they are ripping her insides up and giving her diarreah, poor child. As soon as we finish the course I’ll pump her full of probiotics to help repair the carnage that’s going on.

My infectious disease specialist cousin-in-law suggests that we treat the whole family with antibiotics. The thought is so distasteful to me that I’m going to wait and see if anyone else turns up with any symptoms first. I’ve disinfected the bathrooms, faucets, lightswitches, and doorknobs, and washed all the linens in hot water. Maybe we can avoid this fate. I suspect that being on so many antibiotics during my lifetime helped me end up with multiple sclerosis. That’s one of my theories, anyway.

The incubation period for strep is about 3 days, and sickies are most contagious when the symptoms are most acute, which was about two weeks ago now, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that we came through it ok.

Baking v Cooking; Savory morning muffins

As Emeril says on his shows, You can put your own personality into cooking, but it’s very difficult to do this in baking. In baking you gotta follow the formula. That’s because cooking is an art while baking is a science.

I actually did well in science in high school. Me and my late friend Melanie jockeyed for position at the top of the class in theoretical chemistry with a friendly competition over who could get the higher test scores. I could really nail those theorems and apply all the right formulas to solve the calculations. You’d think I’d be able to get baking.

But I don’t.

See, the way I cook is with inspiration (based on a recipe I might have seen, or a restaurant meal I’ve eaten, or simply what I have in the fridge) and desire (what do I feel like eating/cooking?) along with a dose of time constraints (is it 5 o’clock already? I’d better start thinking about what to make for dinner!) and a skew towards healthier foods and cooking methods.

When I apply the same qualities I use when I cook (inspiration, desire, time, healthy) to a baking project, I’m often disappointed with the results.

Duh: baking is a formula, not a creative endeavor! I should know better.

For me, cooking is often an artistic expression, a creative outlet. The problems come when I try to be creative with my baking, too… sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I can’t seem to get it through my head that I must follow the formula/recipe exactly as written to get good baked goods. My stubborn nature gets in the way. I just can’t help myself. Tell me I can’t do something and my first question is usually, “Why not?”

Yet, I still try to bake sometimes. Usually because I see a recipe for a baked good and I get inspired. This should probably be my first clue to set it down and step away from the recipe. But no. I blunder on heedlessly, blithely thinking that I can mold the recipe to my liking and end up with something delicious. As I did last month when I saw a recipe for savory breakfast muffins in the newspaper.

Ham and Cheese Buttermilk Breakfast Muffins, in fact.

Savory Breakfast Muffins
Savory Breakfast Muffins

These would be great, I thought, to make as mini-muffins and keep in the freezer. Just pop one in the toaster oven for a quick and substantial breakfast. Like a one-pot meal for breakfast. What a great idea! They’re sugar-free, so maybe they’d even be acceptable to my sugar-phobic husband.

Except, well, the ham part kinda disgusts me, so no ham.

And I don’t have buttermilk, so I’m just going to use the same amount of whole milk.

The recipe calls for finely diced red pepper, but I’m going to use finely diced zucchini as well. I’m sure it won’t make a difference.

Oh yes, and to make it a little healthier, I’m going to substitute 1 cup of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. Just because I’ll feel better about serving them if they have whole grains in them.

Let’s not forget that I’m at altitude, but I have no idea what to do to adjust for this, so I don’t. I like to use it as an excuse, though.

So, instead of following the formula for Ham and Cheese Buttermilk Breakfast Muffins like Emeril says you must when baking, I used the recipe more like it was a guide with suggestions. I’m the kind of person that chafes when told I have to follow the rules. Baking has rules. This should have been clue #2.

The biggest bummer with trying to make baked goods healthier by changing the recipes is that things often go directly to the trash, and I hate wasting food. These were truly inedible. My Ham-Free Ham and Cheese No-Buttermilk Breakfast Mini-Muffins were like little chunks of sandstone. Super dry and crumbly, tasteless except for an overwhelming sensation of cayenne in the back of your mouth.

Next time maybe I’ll try to follow a recipe for baked goods as it is actually written. There’s always hope.

Here’s the original recipe, if you want to give it a try yourself:

Serves 12

3 c all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp baking solda
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 large eggs
1 1/3 c buttermilk
2 Tbsp. canola oil
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 c thinly sliced scallions (about 1 bunch)
1 cup diced ham (6 oz)
1 cup grated extra-sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 c finely diced red bell pepper (1 small)

Heat oven to 400 degress. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray or line it with muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pepper, salt, and cayenne pepper.

In a medium bowl, whisk togethe the eggs, buttermilk, oil, and butter. Sir in the scallions, ham, cheese and bell pepper.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and use a rubber spatula to mix until just moistened. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan (the cups will be very full).

Bake the muffins until the tops are browned, about 20-25 min. Let the muffins coolin the pan for 15 min, then loosen the edges with a knife and transer the muffins to a cooling rack. Serve warm.

To store, individually wrap the muffins in plastic and refrigerate for as many as 3 days or freeze for as long as a month.

To reheat, remove the plastic wrap, cover the muffin in a paper towl and microwave on high for 30 sec.

cal 248,  fat 11g,   chol 62 mg,  carb 27, pro 10g, fiber 1g, sodium 787 mg

Tell me your results if you try it!

Jack-o-lantern Pizza

Happy Halloween!!

*Sorry for the missing pepperoni on the chin – my hubby snatched it before I could snap the photo.  🙂  This is just pepperoni with black olives for eyes – so easy!

Where Germs Lurk

Bathroom faucets, remote controls, and telephones are likely culprits for harboring the germs that cause colds.

Scientists at the University of Virginia have tested many common surfaces to see if germs could live on them and then be transferred to the next person. The big news? Yes, absolutely.

Germs can survive in many common spots in public places as well as in the home. An earlier study had shown that germs could survive up to 2 days after a guest checks out of a hotel room.

Here are some of the sobering numbers describing common germ hotbeds to think about as we head into cold and flu season. Spots found to harbor the germ:

6 out of 10 doorknobs

8 of 14 refrigerator handles

3 of 13 light switches

6 of 10 remote controls

8 of 10 bathroom faucets

4 of 7 telephones

20% of the toys in the “sick-child” waiting room at the pediatrician’s office

17% of the toys in the “well-child” waiting room

30% of the toys in the sack to choose from after getting a shot

What can you do to avoid picking up these germs?

Besides remembering to wipe down and disinfect doorknobs, light switches, and phones along with the regular cleaning routine in your home, do your best not to touch these things in public places. That’s what I do. In public areas I turn faucets off with the towel I’m using to dry my hands, flip lightswitches with my elbows, and pull my sleeve down over my palm (or grab the bottom of my shirt) when forced to grasp doorhandles. It’s awkward, but worth it to keep my hands clean and germ-free.

I try not to touch escalator handrails, railings, and elevator buttons, preferring to use my elbow when possible. If I must touch something like the pole in a subway car, I try to wash my hands the first chance I get and remember not to touch anywhere near my face or food until then.

As I’ve said before, one of the best ways to be healthy is to not get sick in the first place!

Halloween recipe: Monster Heads

Halloween calls for fun foods. That’s when Monster Heads make an appearence at our table.

Monster Heads for Ghoulish Eaters
Monster Heads for Ghoulish Eaters

I place boiled Brussels sprouts atop flat ravioli “shoulders” and affix them with some marinara sauce to make them look particularly bloody. We like to cover them with “snow” or “dandruff” (depending on the child!) by sprinkling with grated Parmesan cheese to top it off.

I trim the end and put a shallow “X” in the base of each Brussels sprout before boiling to help the insides soften to be more amenable to little teeth. I find the smaller heads to be more appetizing for smaller children as they tend to be sweeter and easier to chew.

If your kids find Brussels sprouts bitter, try adding a dash or two of sugar into the boiling water. It will infuse the sprouts with a bit more sweetness.

We typically use cheese or chicken-filled ravioli squares that we get as part of the delivery from our frozen food co-op. With Town and Country Foods, we pay about $119/month to keep our freezer stocked with meats, veggies, and convenience foods like gourmet frozen ravioli.

Talk about making dinner easy! Sometimes I even boil the Brussels sprouts in the same water I use to boil the ravioli — only one pot to clean!

Monster Heads are one of my kids favorite meals, and has made them lovers of Brussels sprouts (who would have thought?). And fall is a great season for Brussels sprouts!