Sneak Peak...

Feast your eyes - but use your creative juices because the paint is all changing! I have big plans in mind! *Not pictured: 2 bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry room upstairs. Spare bedroom and powder bath downstairs. Cutie backyard with pavers. Garage with painted floor! SO PUMPED. This house is so perfect! Also, I do not know how to get formatting to work on my work computers so please excuse the terrible formatting! AND I had the CUTEST company for my signing of my contract and walk through! Love her :) Oh and her mommy...

The Pace of Life

I wish I was a better blogger. Really. Even if it was just to let my thoughts out. But bygones will be bygones :) Time to get over it or make it better eh? I can't stop thinking about how fast life moves. I thought that growing up through my teenage years whizzed by, but these past few weeks have been a total whirl. Deadlines I never expected, pressure to make life changing decisions in a matter of hours, and answers that I am experiencing seem to be molding me in to even more of a different person than I was a year ago. I am different than I was last year; that is an unalduterated truth. So when I found a house in a neighborhood that I had verbally semi-comitted to a new build in, I was more than ecstatic. This resale had everything I was looking for in my new build (minus white cabinets...but beggars shouldn't be choosers when buying their first home...) and it was considerably less than a new build. Perfect. Lesson #1: DON'T WAIT to move on a resale. Once you like a house enough MOVE. MOVE FAST. I waited until Monday night at 7:00 to call my realtor and tell her about my interest. At 7:20 she called me back and we both got online only to find out that the status had changed...from active to contigent accepted...in a matter of 20 minutes. I was crushed and had to mentally move on. Carolyn suggested we go see the house anyway just to see what I thought about it and get my feelers out for what is important in a house buying industry. When I walked in to the house, I found my coworker's face on the wall in wedding pictures! No way! She was a day nurse who worked on my floor PART time. What a coincidence! House shopping continued for the day and we came across another great buy! Lesson #2: Do your research: Time to get down to the nitty gritties and compare pros and cons. Detailed list after list and hours of analyzing were to follow. But first, I went to work that night only to find out that I would be receiving report from that very nurse. Out of all 15 nurses on for the day, it happened that I was assigned to receive report from. Coincidence? She was overly excited that I had gone to see her house and that I was interested. I asked her why, considering she had already accepted a contract. She said she just "didn't have a good feeling about the contract" she currently had and apologized for that feeling being "weird and unexplained". I didn't tell her, but I kept having a feeling about this house as well, despite it not being the better bang-for-your-buck deal in comparison to its competitor. She begged me to put an offer on it and went home. Lesson #3: Be prayerful in all you do. That night, I decided that as part of my prayerful approach I have tried to have in buying a house, I should talk to my mentor at work who I so admire and look up to. We spent nearly two hours throughout the night breaking down each house and coming to the decision that I should go with my gut instinct and the direction my "spirit" was leading me (as she called it) even if I wasn't accepted. My heart was screaming one house while my brain was screaming the better deal (second house). On my drive home, I turned off the music and prayed about which house I should put an offer on. I didn't ask for a decision to be made by my Father. I simply told him which one I felt better about and let the feelings come. I felt good. A bit of a tingle. Something I haven't felt for a while. I called Carolyn and we schedule a time for after I woke up to sign an offer before going back to work. I trusted my feeling, accepted that it was unreasonable considering I most likely won't be picked considering the buyer already accepted a contract, and moved forward. And it felt good! Now all I have to do is pray that the first offer backs out for some reason...which is highly unlikely. :) Good news is I have a backup house to my backup offer! :) Here's a shot of the outside...in case I end up getting lucky (or it's meant to be!)

Venturing from food blogging...

I know, my blog is supposed to be about food.  But, considering I can't eat it, I've decided I want it to be whatever I want it to be :) So we'll just go with that ok? Ok.

It's interesting the way experiences in your life seem such a waste of time but benefit you later on.  I started my career in the CVICU for four months before going through a long and painstaking process of less-than-kind mentors and a transfer to my current floor (which I LOVE).  This experience is not one I like to dwell on and was a time of LOTS of tears and anxiety.

So last night, we had an admit around 11:00 at night.  The patient wasn't assigned to me, but to a nurse that I am friends with and actually went to school with.  I was standing next to her when she was receiving report from the paramedic and overheard at the end him discussing with her an EKG strip he wanted her to have that he obtained while transporting to our facility.  He showed her a first degree heart block that was showing up and mentioned in passing that her abdominal pain worsened in accordance to when this happened.  He wasn't sure if they were related but wanted to let her know.  A red light went off in my head and much of my training and learning from the CVICU started flooding my thoughts.  1st degree heart block = nausea.  CLASSIC SYMPTOM!  I also was able to be at the desk while my friend was discussing the plan of care with the doctors and heard them dismiss the EKG a couple times telling my friend it wasn't a great concern due to a KUB (kidney, ureter, bladder scan) that came back showing fecal compaction. 

The problem with some care providers is that they are so anxious to find an answer and solve the problem that they don't think outside the box.  It is so important to think abstractly! 

So the doctors left saying they would be back soon and I immediately approached my friend.  I told her about my red light and what I knew from working in the CVICU. Not only that, the girl was looking like crap (as we call it so tenderly).  I suggested to her that she really advocate for the patient to transfer to a cardiac monitoring floor (since we don't have that capability on my floor) because she was most likely experiencing this heart dysrhythmia.  (see image below in case you want to know what it is). She went to our manager and called a few other doctors to obtain another EKG. 

Surprise surprise, she had 1st degree heart block.  Transfer to PICU = done!

I am so grateful for everything that I learn and all the knowledge I am able to obtain each day in my work environment.  The great thing about my career is that it is an never-ending learning process. I get to expand my mind every day!  And in turn, ensure the safety of the adorable kids I get to take care of.

  

There is one major component to 1st degree heart block.  The interval between the small wave before the large one is too long.  This often times is benign and nothing to worry about.  However, if there are signs and symptoms the patient is experiencing, then action needs to be taken! 

Sorry that was super intellectual and not entirely entertaining :)  BUT I was so grateful and so excited that I could use my knowledge that I wanted to share it with you!

Love you all!

Simple joys

As many of you know, I had surgery about 2.5 weeks ago and had my jaw broken, moved, and wired shut for healing.  I was excited and looking forward to this procedure, crossing each of my t's and dotting every i in my path to make sure it would be covered by my 2011 insurance policy...that is until I was hospitalized for a soft tissue infection of the face that spread from a severe ear infection.  (complication #1).  Apparently that's not what Heavenly Father wanted to have happen to me!  That postponed the surgery for about 3 weeks. 

Finally, it was surgery time! This has brought on many more challenges than I could have anticipated. However, beforehand I was positive, motivated, and excited to have this finally taken care of!  Until the anesthesiologist started explaining the logistics of the procedure in terms that I love and understand...but that frightened the heck out of me.  Arterial lines, central lines through an IJ, intubation through the nose, nipride, propofol, pressures of 70/30, and 16 gauge IVs.  As each of these terms kept spilling from the anesthesiologist's lips, I could feel my face begin to lose it's luster and started getting reeeaaall scared, suddenly feeling like I was WAY over my head sust in time to be wheeled back into the OR.  Afterall, these were things we did on our OPEN heart kids at PCH!  There were a few compications in the OR but nothing serious, only a bit more pain for recovery.  All in all, the surgery went fantastically and I was on the road to recovery!

Suddenly, the small struggles started building up as I began regaining strength and the ability to (somewhat) talk.  There are so many things that we as human beings depend on our voice and mouth for.  Things I didn't think of include:
moistening my lips (I have to put chapstick on every 4 hrs now or else I am a scaly lizard for lips!)
sticking my tongue out at people for sass :)
speaking clear enough for my voice activated walkie talkie to function at work
letting my jaw go slack in order to sleep comfortably,
yawning
sneezing
coughing (yikes)
drinking cold and hot beverages (it's a lot easier when you can move your teeth and not have sensitivity issues!)
and finally, EATING.

I am a lover of food.  More than the average person.  It has been like my own kind of personalized torture to suddenly be stripped of a culture I have built around food.  Varieties of foods!  Crunchy, tender, moist, refreshing, crisp, chewy, sticky, soft.  You name it, I miss it.  I have been doing some reading on the relationship between food and mood and you would be surprised what an effect eating can have on one's moods.  There have been studies done on patients that have had gastric bypass done and the resulting mental effect and depressive episodes they experience from merely missing out on the culture of eating. 
Of course, I'm a big believer of everything-in-moderation, but it's the EVERYTHING part that I am desperately missing.  This morning at 8:30 am marks my halfway point to being unwired and you better believe I have written out meal plans for what I will be indulging carefully in following the unwiring. 

So what have I learned so far? Always be grateful for the forgotten blessings in your life.  The human body is incredible and so multi-faceted that we forget how blessed we are to have each system and should be amazed at how it works and benefits the body.  I am so grateful for the ingeniusness of my Heavenly Father and His creation of my mouth.  I can't wait to have it back and never take it for granted again :)

{Pasta}

A comfort food that I can't get enough of is PASTA!

You could say I've been a little busy lately, so yesterday I treated myself to one of my all time favorites...and I actually don't know the name of it.  It is 100% authentic, taken straight from an Italian cookbook owned by none other than Charlie Roberts <3  (forgive me if I haven't remembered it exactly Charles)

It's incredibly simple and so delicately tasty.

Preheat your oven to 325 (I never remember to do this)

Start with 1 lb of fusili noodles (any spiral noodles will work) - oh and I'm making guesses on sizes here. I still don't have the good habit of keeping track of amounts I use. - throw the noodles in a salted pot of water.

Next comes your yummy yummy sauce.  Take 4 tbsp of olive oil and throw it in the base of a sautee pan.  Heat it up!  Next, take about 7-8 Roma tomatoes and seed em...get rid of the juicy nastiness that I hate so much!  Throw those in the heated oil and add maybe a tsp of salt and 1/4 tsp of pepper (just keep it a 1:4 ratio and you're good to go).  Then sprinkle in a generous amount of oregano (lets say 1 tbsp) and let it simmer and soften those tomatoes.

While the simmering is going down, get the cheeeeeese out (I love cheese).  Because I'm on a single-living budget, sometimes I cheat and get the mozarella cheese from the lunch meat area (DON'T tell Charlie!) but REALLY make sure you get the parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the sprinkling on top.  Cut about a cup and a half of little cubes of mozarella chunks and shred maybe a cup of the parmigiano-reggiano. Once the noodles are al dente, drain them and put them in a barely-greased baking dish (I never usually grease the pan - but I thought I'd put it in for formality's sake).  Dump your little mozarella cubeys in and mix it all in - this will be your binding ingredient.  It will get all tangled and mixed up in the spiraly noodles :)  Next, dump that tomato mixture you've probably forgotten about in and very gently mix it in the noodles as well (remember this is a LIGHT pasta - don't expect the thing to be drenched in tomato sauce) After that, sprinkle your oh-so-delicious parmigiano-reggiano cheese on top.  I usually add more than necessary, but like I said, I have a mild obsession with good cheese.

Throw it in the oven to mix it all together for ten minutes and serve warm! (preferably with some french or garlic bread)

My life is awesome once I sit down to a plate of this deliciousness.

I wish I had pictures for you.  I would whine that I don't have a camera, but that is my own fault.  I do have my phone though...hmmm I'll think about that next time. But for now, I will simply document the first time Charlie and I made this beautiful piece of art!  Aaahhh the memories :)

Please watch this video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1092084985487&comments&set=t.642171358&type=1

Hopefully it won't take me another three months to post :)

Guess who's not a blogger?

I do want to be better at this, really!  It seems that I'm my mom's clone in all areas except one vital area...creativity.  Ask me to blog, scrapbook, create, be artistic and I will simply laugh at you!  But I am almost out of excuses.  I graduate in a matter of days at this point and no longer have the "I'm too busy" excuse to use in any aspect of my life :) 

I'm resolving to keep a camera with me when I cook, in order to blog and keep better track of recipes I try and things I create in my only artistic outlet...Mom always says my talents are being hidden when I don't develop them!  So here's to you Mom...

For now...just enjoy what I have been doing with my time.  Like playing with the cutest girl on the face of the planet!

 

I could eat her up!  More to come!...I hope :)

Hodge podge - Jacque style

Soo I'm a big believer in using the left overs...no matter what they are!  I came home from work a little bit early one afternoon this week and even though I had a work party to go to and wouldn't be eating dinner at the house. I was sick of opening the fridge and seeing lots and lots of food! (now see, this is twisted thinking because generally that's a good thing.)  But I like to USE the food in the fridge ya know?  So I made a hodge podge soup - that was based off of Giada's lemon chicken soup in the sense that it had lemon and chicken and was soup...but that's where I went off on my own.

I started out with 6 cups of  chicken broth (low-sodium would be preferable, but we didn't have it) and the juice of like 2 - 3 lemons...I think i just kept adding it till I could smell something besides chicken stock.  Then a bay leaf - because it was soup and I know there are certain logistics to these things.

The left-overs in the fridge were mostly lots of carrots, celery and onions (not really sure why there was such an abundance - but I'll take it!)  So I chopped up half a large yellow onion (tears streaming of course), a bunch of little snack size carrots, and whatever was in the little snack bag of celery :)  (see picture below)

Ok lets be honest... I did remember that my dad would be having some of this so I left a few of the celery sticks out just to feel better about it.  You know, because crunchy stuff is bad :)

Dump it in!  Let them tenderize - about 6-8 minutes

Now the chicken - cheap style.  Those cans of chicken my mom buys for food storage?  Yup, the laziest and quickest chicken in town.  Sooo all you gotta do is drain that delicious stuff, shred it a little with a dinner fork, and season it however the heck ya want.  Mine received some paprika, salt, and pepper.  I kept it simple - this was hodge podge soup of course...fanciness not allowed! 

Dump it in!  Just heat it through a little. 

I'm hugely addicted to pasta and Giada had some in her soup - so I went to the pantry for the box of spaghetti I knew was open but never going to be used because of it's small portion left over (I may or may not have a habit of organizing the pantry when I need a stress-reliever.  Don't judge.)  About two cups of whatever pasta you want - I like the spaghetti type - Savannah said butterfly woulda been better.  Whatever!

And voila!  You put a lid over it and be on your merry way!  Then all the people who trickle in at different times during the night can go to the pot, load up on dinner, and retreat into their respected rooms to continue workin' on whatever they're busy with!

This was about 5 servings of soup
It got good reviews from the family too!  Even dad liked the flavor :)

Study material

Once upon a time, a sweet and loving mother wanted so greatly for her daughter to start cooking more.  Either because she was tired of doing it for her after 20 years, or because she saw great potential in the young woman!  (I'm sure it was the latter.)  But how?  How would she convince this content-with-how-her-life-was-already-going girl that she could develop a talent appreciated by all?  For the Christmas and birthday events following this great conundrum, this sweet and loving mother slyly gifted her daughter with a an assortment of cookbooks, one which was equipped with basically every piece of knowledge needed regarding basic foods, how they work, and what instruments are best to use on them.  :side note - I would suggest this basic cooking material to anyone wanting to know exactly how the food you use works! Genius idea mom!: 

My mom is a genius and knowing how my brain functions, found me a cookbook that explained in detail how each food functioned when placed on heat, which ones were optimal regarding there chemical makeup, and even contained basic how-to pages on how to cut different kinds of meat.  Anyone wanting to really understand what they're doing as they start to cook, should look into a book like this:

Then came my real passion: Italian!  Ooohhh boy how I love Italian food.  And my favorite?  Giada.  Classy dishes with gorgeous presentation.  This is what I love to cook out of whenever I'm feeling fancy!

So many dishes that you will see on this blog come straight from, or are developed from concepts taught in these great books!  They make great Christmas gifts, btw :)

Here goes nothin'

Well, I guess I finally have given in.  I didn't plan on starting a blog by any means.  I was to the point of frustration with trying to create a collection of recipes (I don't call it a cookbook because I don't think I'm that far along in my cooking career...if that's what you want to call it) when my sister in law, Jenny, side commented, "Why don't you just start a blog, don't worry about who reads it, and then make it into a book after you have enough content?" GENIUS!  What would I do without that girl?  Besides getting food poisoning at her birthday dinner...She makes my life so eventful! 

So the point of this blog is not to see how many readers I can get, how many people comment, or how popular I can or can not feel from such a thing, it will simply be a creative outlet to record any ground-breaking discoveries I may someday stumble upon (laugh with me here, ok?) And along the way, I may insert some new recipes in life as well.