What's for dinner?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Well, I started Irish stew, but didn't have a chance to get the veggies in it in time to be done for dinner, so we're going out for a double-decker, Mediterranean pizza... so the stew will be for tomorrow.

[Sassy]

That pizza sounds good!  Haven't had pizza for quite awhile...  What do you put in your Irish stew?  

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Usually meat, potatoes, celery, carrots, and sometimes a little of whatever other veggies I have on hand...always some bay leaves and peppercorns, sometimes garlic and onions.  My mom always just made it with stew meat, potatoes, carrots, and celery; it was like roast with lots of broth.  The pizza was great, though, so I didn't regret going out for it.  They have this double-decker pizza that is really good... lots of feta cheese, tomatoes and spinach.  One piece is enough to fill you up.  Still not feeling really up to par, so eating out was just being lazy on my part.

[MountainDon]

...  What do you put in your Irish stew?  

Make it Irish all the way! If you enough Guiness it doesn't matter much what goes into the stew.  

Dinner here was a previously frozen, originally slow cooked in the crock pot, venison pot roast, mashed potatoes, and frozen carrots and peas. Easy and quick.

MIL has decided to die. She's refusing to get out of bed for anything, eats a couple spoonfuls of the soup de jour and says dinner's over. She's called Hospice and signed papers. She says she never did like visiting her mother when her mother was in a nursing home (for about 6 years) and she'll be darned if she's going to live like that. She says she's tired and just wants to join her husband in heaven. She's had mobility issues for a few years now and it would take a large commitment of effort and work to regain the strength she's lost in a couple short weeks. The nursing staff have told us the last time they tried to get her out of bed, into a wheelchair, to the bathroom, it took 2 of them and that MIL said she was trying but she was like a dead weight.

Karen & I can't argue too much her because we both have made it clear to each other that when the time arrives that we can't do our personal things for ourselves we're not interested in being kept alive just because technology enables that.

My Mom made that decision when she was 85, 2 yrs ago. She'd broken a hip ball joint and recovered to where he could walk with a walker. Then kidney cancer stepped in and slowed her way down. When she had to face moving from her own apartment into a nursing home because of mobility and self help issues she said that was no way to live.

So we'll see how this plays out. The rest of her immediate family, 1 son and 1 daughter are likely to have personal issues with this decision of hers.

[Sassy]

Glenn & I have told each other the same thing.  It's hard to let go & let our loved ones make that decision, though, once the time comes.  My mom had congestive heart failure really bad, 2 open heart surgeries & hip surgery, on oxygen most of the time her last 2-3 years.  She just kept saying she was ready to go, she'd prayed to go before my father & she knew she'd be going to heaven so wasn't worried at all.  She'd also prayed to go in her sleep, which was exactly what happened.  My dad was so upset - he'd thought she was just sleeping well for once & kept saying later, "if I'd only known, I could have done something."  We told him, "Mom went exactly how she had wanted to, there was nothing you could have done."

I've seen so many people whom we've had to call a code on in the ER when their heart stopped or they stopped breathing, when a person is elderly & has a lot of health problems, they seldom make it - resuscitating someone can be pretty brutal.  Everyone I work with say they don't want to be resuscitated.  I say "I only want to die once!"  

[MountainDon]

A couple guys I know, both radiologists, agree with me that there are many procedures performed to save the elderly from immediate death that they themselves would never subject themselves or their loved ones to. Once you are up there around 80-something, perhaps with other health issues as well, it may be time to call it a day.

My FIL spent 4 1/2 months postponing the inevitable and having zero quality of life because of family members who themselves were not prepared to deal with his death. Bad bad scene. I don't want to see a sequel.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

After working in a nursing home when I was in college, I made a promise to my Grandma that I would not ever let her live in one... a lot of the people that I cared for went downhill  so fast because they didn't have the daily motions of feeding the dog or cat and just getting up and taking care of themselves.  Granted, many of them were in no mental condition to be left alone, but they deteriorated much more quickly sitting around in wheelchairs and in bed.    I really think my great grandma had the right idea... just about 6 months ago, she was having breathing problems that were serious enough that she had to be in the hospital.  When she was released from the hospital, she made the decision to move into a nursing home because she was afraid of being alone and blacking out, so she made arrangements to teach oil painting and china painting at the nursing home and thus to reduce the cost of living there.  She'd been there maybe three weeks when she pushed her call button in the middle of the night.  A nurse came down to check on her, and Grandma was sleeping when she got down there.  The nurse woke her and asked why she'd pushed the call button, and Grandma said she must've rolled on it in her sleep or something.  The nurse asked her if she was feeling OK, and she said she was feeling great.  So, the nurse decided since Grandma was already awake, she was going to go ahead and take her vitals so she didn't have to wake her up later.  She took her blood pressure and it was fine, and her pulse was fine, and she turned to get a thermometer and she heard Grandma sigh deeply... she assumed that she was just lying back down and settling into bed, but when she turned around, Grandma was already gone.  THAT's the way to go.   She never lost the will to live or to be independent, really, but she was ready and feeling great (in her own words) when she went.  

Don, I'll keep your MIL in my prayers.  It's hard to see someone lose the will to live... probably much harder on the ones who love her than on her.  

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Tonight we're having the stew I made last night... it smells wonderful.  Been a busy day with a long-dreaded dentist's appointment (I'm severely allergic to fluoride) and a run 45 minutes in the other direction to the doctor's office.  The kids thought we were on a road trip.

[glenn kangiser]

I'm severely allergic to fluoride

Bad in a way - good in a way --Fluoride is a poison that nobody should have. Lots of info on the net about it.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I don't think I'm missing anything by not using fluoride... I didn't develop the allergy until after my second daughter was born, and then suddenly one day my gums, face, and airways swelled up and broke out in hives (even down my throat)!!  It would get a little better throughout the day, but then around bedtime the reaction would start all over again.  This went on for about a week where I could barely breathe, and I was cleaning the house like crazy thinking it was the dust or something I was eating... pretty much went on a fast trying to figure out what I was being exposed to that was causing it.  When my gums got sore and bloody, I decided maybe it was the toothpaste, so I started using plain baking soda and it gradually got better.  Then one day my husband had just brushed his teeth and then gave me a kiss, and I swelled up like a balloon again!  So, I called the dentist, who I couldn't afford to go see at the time and asked him what could be causing it.  He said that it was probably sodium lauryl sulfate, so to find a toothpaste without it.  I finally found one without it, but it had fluoride.  I used it exactly three times before I had another severe reaction.  Then I found one that had sodium lauryl sulfate but no fluoride, and it didn't cause the severe reaction, but made my gums really sore.  Finally, at a health food store, I found one that has neither.  Whew!  Anyway, I've never minded going to the dentist until all this happened, and so here I was afraid to go because I'd be accidentally exposed (you know it is a bad reaction if kissing my husband after he's used fluoride toothpaste is enough to set it off!) and swell up and have to go to the hospital or something... I was a bit worried about having the kids with me in case something like that happened, but the dentist was great and put big red labels on EVERYTHING on my chart  with notes that I am allergic, and he told me to remind him every time I come in.  I kind of have a new empathy for folks who are so allergic to peanuts that they can't be around other people who've eaten them...

I was kind of surprised that the dentist was talking and said that he didn't even think toothpaste was necessary.  He said some studies had been done that show brushing with just water was just as effective as using a fluoride toothpaste.  The study didn't surprise me, but the fact that a dentist was saying this did.

[glenn kangiser]

I've heard the same about toothpaste.  I like to rinse with a capful of Hydrogen Peroxide morning and night -- stops the bacteria that cause tooth aches and cavities.

Fluoride info.  Bad stuff.  http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=fluoride+poison&btnG=Google+Search

[Sassy]

Homegrown, you should carry an "epi-pen" with you in case your reaction to the fluoride causes your airway passages to totally shut down in an anaphylactic http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000844.htm reaction where you can't even breathe - that could be bad.  Each exposure usually gets worse & you can't guarantee that you won't be exposed again.  

I've taken care of patients who have gone into anaphyaxis - not a fun thing to happen - it is amazing, though, how some epinephrine helps to turn them around - each dose lasts approx 5 min - had one young girl (I call our patients in their 20's young) who was given a medication that she was allergic to - I wasn't taking care of her at the time, but her boyfriend came out & told me she was having a hard time breathing - I went over to assess her, listened to her lungs which sounded terrible & noticed she had big red welts on her back - called for the MD who was on break & told him she was probably having an anaphylactic rxn to something - started her on oxygen & breathing  treatments (she had history of asthma also) The MD ordered steroids & I was giving her epi every 5 min - for awhile we thought we were going to have to intubate her - sent her to ICU when I got her stabilized & she was able to go home the next day doing fine... but it can be a very serious thing.

We get Tom's toothpaste or Trader Joe's - be really careful that it doesn't have fluoride - we haven't used flouride for 3-4 yrs  - it's not good stuff from what I've read.   Here are a few more links to info about fluoride.

Please get yourself an rx for the epi-pens so that you can carry one with you at all times - it will give you a reprieve so that you can get to the hospital if necessary....

http://www.keepers-of-the-well.org/due_diligence.html
http://www.newswithviews.com/brownfield/brownfield30.htm
http://www.fluorideresearch.org/

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I have an epi pen for my younger daughter who had a bad reaction to something (we still do not know what caused it and she was too little to tell me) but I've never gotten one for myself... I should, as I'm also allergic to bee stings and hornet stings and in recent years have become allergic to a few medicines.  I use KissMyFace toothpaste because I like the flavor better than Tom's... and some of the Tom's, even without fluoride, seems to irritate my gums a little.   It is kind of expensive... but worth it.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

We're having Korean food for dinner tonight, but as I don't have any tofu, we're ad-libbing a bit... we're having soon dubu chigae without the dubu.  The funny thing is that the whole point of the soup is that it is chigae(stew/soup) with tofu, but I'm subbing eggs for the tofu.  They usually serve it with a nearly raw egg floating on top anyway, which sort of cooks as you mix the rest of the stew together.  It also usually has a lot of seafood... oysters and clams and stuff, but when I eat some of the seafood varieties in restaurants, my throat gets itchy, so I skip any seafood but fish and shrimp, and since i don't have any of those, either, it's got chicken and beef in it tonight.  So maybe it isn't really even Korean food anymore... it's morphed into something else... One thing about Korean food I've never quite learned to handle is the temperature at which it is served.  Soups are usually served in a hotpot still boiling like crazy when they're put on the table... it always amazes me to see Koreans gobble them up and I wonder how they can even taste them after their mouth becomes so calloused from being repeatedly burned.  My husband can't do it anymore, either... he's becoming soft I guess.  He also can't handle the spiciest heat in some of the Korean dishes anymore, which I always find hilarious (his face turns red and his eyes tear up and he breaks into a sweat.)  Thankfully the kids both like Korean food, both spicy and not spicy, and so we don't usually have any trouble getting them to eat it.  

What are you all doing for Thanksgiving?  We're planning on making a variety (Korean) of chicken stew with ginseng, garlic, jujubes, and chestnuts.  Usually it is made with bantams instead of full-size chickens, and each person gets a whole, stuffed chicken, but since it'll just be the four of us, we're just using one regular chicken.  We figured it would be better than trying to deal with a huge turkey for just the four of us... last year, the turkey we got from my husband's work weighed over 21 lbs.  We'll have cranberry-orange salad and probably some of the other more traditional Thanksgiving foods too.  It'll be the smallest Thanksgiving dinner we've ever had... last year we went to our pastor's house, and for several years prior to that, we invited all the international and out of state students we knew to our house for Thanksgiving dinner (one year over 100 came, and we still had leftovers, though no turkey left!)  I love Thanksgiving.

[Sassy]

My sister is having Thanksgiving over at her house - we usually have turkey, ham & sometimes tri-tip.  Everyone brings veggies, side dishes, desserts, salads etc.  There's usually around 50 people I would think.  They have a great backyard for kids, usually get a bounce house, have a large walk-in cage (10'x6') with bunnies, another cage with various birds; a fenced area behind with a goat & miniature donkey.  Plus there's a section that is pure sand where he always digs 3' diameter x 3' deep holes that the kids love playing in.  There are so many cousins below the age of 10 - so they have a ball.  The adults get to visit on the back patio & watch the kids or in the house.  They also built on a large sunroom that is "kid-friendly"...

Homegrown, you made me hungry for pizza so I picked one up yesterday - at Pizza Factory - they have pretty good ones - a combination.  Glenn wanted the Canadian bacon with pineapple - I tell him it is not natural to combine pizza sauce with pineapple    The only time he gets that is if there are more people & we order more than one pizza or I'm not around.  I don't even like doing the 1/2 & 1/2 - my pizza is ruined if the pineapple touches my side    I do add a lot of the hot pepper seeds - use about a packet per piece... so I'd probably get along pretty good at your house, Homegrown.  Glenn doesn't like things too hot...  

[glenn kangiser]

When a woman controls the  pizza you are allowed to eat, I think things may be getting a little out of hand. :-/

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Yup, I agree Glenn... and Canadian bacon with pineapple is one of the best ones, too... she just doesn't know what she's missing does she?  Thankfully, my husband likes the combination of pineapple and canadian bacon... but then, he's not too picky about anything.  However, I haven't had good pineapple pizza since we moved up north, but the Mediterranean is a good second.  Pineapple might improve it, now that I think about it... maybe next time I'll ask them to add it.  Pineapple and feta cheese should be good together, right?

[MountainDon]

Glenn wanted the Canadian bacon with pineapple - I tell him it is not natural to combine pizza sauce with pineapple  

Considering the source of the request, need I say anything more?    I have to admit I do like that as well.  

In past years we've usually hosted a small family Thanksgiving dinner; Karen & I, son, Karen's Mom (& Dad before '05). Sometimes a brother-in-law from CO, but usually not. Christmas is our bigger get together because the teachers in the family have more time off.

This year we're planning on a smaller version of Thanksgiving; probably just the 2 of us up in the mountains. The forecast is calling out a 60% chance of snow on the 22nd.  :-/  A little snow is alright, just hope it doesn't do a dump on us while we're up there.

Dinner for 1 tonight... I grilled a salmon fillet and had a steamed bowl of really mixed veggies with it (peas, corn, carrots, lima beans, green beans, pearl onions). Followed by a chocolate éclair (from the local bakery), a rare treat I couldn't resist when picking up a loaf of bread.  

[glenn-k]

Thanks, Homegrown and Don.  I needed the support.  Seems I am now the NORMAL one here.

Anybody else like Smoked Oyster Pizza? :-?

[MountainDon]

Seems I am now the NORMAL one here.
Anybody else like Smoked Oyster Pizza? :-?

For 5 seconds...
...then ya' blew it.

[glenn-k]

Damn.

[Homegrown_Tomatoes]

   Never tried smoked oysters... the only time I've eaten oysters at all was when my husband's crazy uncle was egging me on and trying to tell me that that's what makes him so good-looking.  I ate a few raw ones to make him laugh.  In Korea, the take-out pizza is really good (funny enough, Dominoes in Korea has really good pizza, but I won't even eat Dominoe's pizza in the states) and my favorite is bulgogi (bbq beef) with corn.  Sounds weird, but is really good.   But Glenn, there's not a lot of hope for you being normal... and I don't think it has much to do with what you eat!

Don, a quiet Thanksgiving in the mountains sounds really nice, actually.  I hope you all have an enjoyable weekend with enough snow to be pretty, but not enough to be messy or hard to drive in.

[glenn-k]

Thanks, Homegrown- I needed that.

[MountainDon]

We had a nursing home meeting then dinner at Applebee's on a gift card from an appreciative preschool parent. Chicken Fajitas and a chicken salad; split between us. K had a chocolate mousse dessert.

[glenn-k]

I'm afraid to ask, Don, but exactly where on the chicken is it's fajita located and what function does it serve?  Also is it something we should be eating? :-?