Oatmeal Muffins

This story starts 36 years ago, the year of the Vancouver Expo.

It was a cool evening in the foothills south of Calgary; there was a thunderstorm in the distance, and I was learning to barrel race. Actually, I was trying to figure out how to just stay on a horse.

It was my turn to tackle the barrels; Woody, a big chestnut, and I were midway around the course when we both heard the clap of thunder. Woody took off, just to come to an abrupt stop when he reached his buddies; I, however, kept going - I really should have held onto that saddle horn.

Miraculously landing in an upright position I walked back to the horse .I put my foot in the stirrup; I hopped to get some momentum into the saddle; I ripped the ligaments in my left knee as my shattered fibula gave away. According to the ER orthopedic surgeon, tearing a ligament beats labour and delivery pain, any day.

Fast forward to 2011.

One way to stabilize loose, damaged knee ligaments is to just replace the knee. A knee replacement on the right arthritic joint had gone “A-Okay” four months earlier, so when it came time to finally repair the riding injury, I thought, "Why not?"

Why not? Because, with two knee replacements so close together you need two crutches, and two hands to hold them; eccolo, no hands for cooking.

Andrea to the rescue; she's a former teaching colleague, our personal fitness trainer for whom we have pet nicknames ( censored), and the kind of friend who comes over and opens the fridge to help herself. Andrea is family to us. Andrea brings us food when we’re sick, or just home from the hospital. Andrea's the best.

Large doses of pain medication can decrease an appetite and cause nausea. However, comfort foods, like muffins, are the perfect snack with tea as you lay moaning on the couch. Andrea’s muffins are delicious and remarkably good for you with their high fibre content. And, because they’re always delivered with care and kindness, we feel warm and comforted as we gobble them down, and lick the crumbs.

Muffins were just one of the dishes that Andrea brought while I was mending. The perfect high fibre food for someone on pain meds, nauseated and not moving around too much – yay Andrea!

So, when you have a friend who needs some comfort food with tea, try these oatmeal muffins; your friend will be glad you did.

Andrea uses this recipe from www.epicurious.com

Oatmeal Muffins

Makes 8 large or 18 standard muffins Active Time: 20 minutes Total Time: 3 hours 50 minutes (includes baking and cooling time) Ingredients: Non-stick vegetable oil spray 2 1/3 cups quick-cooking oats 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup chopped pecans (about 2 ounces) 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar 1/2 cup sugar 2 tablespoons natural oat bran* 2 tablespoons wheat germ 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup canola oil 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup boiling water 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries * Natural oat bran can be found at many supermarkets and at natural foods stores. Preparation: Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray 8 large muffin cups (1-cup capacity) or 18 standard muffin cups (1/3-cup capacity) with non-stick spray. Whisk oats and next 9 ingredients in large bowl. Add buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla; whisk to blend. Stir in 1/3 cup boiling water and let stand 5 minutes. Fold in blueberries. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. Bake muffins until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 28 minutes for large muffins and 20 minutes for standard muffins. Cool 10 minutes. Turn muffins out onto rack; cool. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The recipe is at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Oatmeal-Muffins-361819

Sometimes we can make the simplest food, and sometimes a recipe takes more time and effort. This recipe is the latter – definitely a dish of kindness.

The muffins freeze well, so you can make tons of them for later, or, share some and eat the rest yourself. Or, you could become friends with Andrea, and she’ll make them for you!

In the meantime, pain meds, and immobility can work together to make other things stop working altogether. Help your buddy out by taking them high fibre foods, lots of bottled water, and my favourite new food during my knee recuperation, prune juice. Yep...just a tip from my nursing days....

Warmly,

Wendy

P.S. Check out Andrea’s blog at www.runrunrunning.blogspot.com, or her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Move-Eat-Vegetables-Give-Yourself-a-Hug/286886691375186and get ready for down-to-earth inspiration, encouragement and more healthy food ideas!

Lemon Chicken Birthday Dinner

Logan and Adrian get our team logo painted on their faces!

I share my birthday week with my partner, Hubert. A mere two days (and 5 years) separate the days we celebrate each year. This birthday was one of the absolute nicest in 58 years.

Logan, Hubert’s daughter, and her buddy, Adrian, spent the day with us. We all participated that morning in the Hike for Hospice; we walked, laughed, raised money, and ate hamburgers with over 600 other hikers and volunteers.

Later, back at home after our early start, while Hubert and I had Sunday afternoon naps, Logan and Adrian cooked our birthday dinner - in our kitchen.

We woke to an appetizer platter with salami, stuffed olives, goat cheese with truffles, organic crackers, and hold onto your seats, home baked rye bread – yay Adrian! Delizioso…

Adrian and Logan whip up the popovers!

The  strawberry and spinach salad with poppy seed dressing reminded us spring had finally arrived. Already bursting, we nonetheless continued to stuff ourselves with the main course: lemon chicken with fresh herbs, rustic garlic mashed potatoes, Balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts, deep brown gravy, and even light popovers. 

It was such a treat to have dinner prepared, served, and the kitchen cleaned without having to exert one iota of energy.  I really appreciated the effort that Logan and Adrian had put into our birthday dinner: they had taken time to create a delicious menu, the food had been purchased from an organic grocer, the preparation executed so quietly that we could sleep, and then voila, dishes of kindness were served up on our own dining room table. I was deeply moved.

Then, too full to move from our chairs, we continued the evening by enjoying another birthday gift; we played the very fun card game Apples to Apples. I WON! !!!

Dishes of kindness + time together = a wonderful birthday celebration from Logan and Adrian. Thank you!

I’d like to share my Lemon Chicken  recipe which is very similar to the one created by Logan and Adrian. This particular recipe, pollo al limone, is from the Villa Delia cooking school in Tuscany where I spent an amazing 10 days on my first trip to Italy. There isn’t an easier way to make lemony fragrant, moist, delectable chicken.

                                                            

Original notes I scribbled at cooking school.

  Pollo al limone 

1 chicken ( about 1.2 kg)

1 large lemon

1 head of garlic, separated into cloves still with skins

1 big bunch of fresh sage ( or thyme, or rosemary, or a combination)

Chicken broth as needed ( I use the low sodium kind in tetra boxes)

A glass of white wine

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Preparation:

1.  Cut the ends off the lemon, and pierce it several times with a sharp knife to allow the juices to come out.
2.   Put the chicken into a baking pan, making sure that the pan is not too much larger than the chicken.
3.  Salt and pepper the cavity of the chicken.
4. Into the cavity, stuff the garlic, most of the sage, and the lemon
5. Tuck the remaining sage into the crevices of the wings and legs. Tie legs together.
6. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
7. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil – massage into the skin.
8. Cover, and put the chicken into the refrigerator.
9. Leave the chicken for a few hours. You can leave it overnight.

Cooking:

1. Bring the chicken to room temperature . This is VERY important to avoid tough meat.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Put in chicken, uncovered.
4. After 10-15 minutes, if the pan is too dry or burning, add a bit of chicken stock.
5. After about 20 minutes, sprinkle the chicken with the glass of white wine.
6. Cook for about 40 minutes, or until done.
7. Remove the chicken from the ove, and let it sit, covered, for about 15 - 20  minutes before carving. Remember, the chicken will continue to cook.
8. Ready yourself for shouts of praise and groans of ecstasy as family, friends and neighbours devour every last morsel of meat.

 Eccolo! There it is!

I also make this recipe with just chicken thighs. Spread the garlic, sage, and sliced lemon evenly across the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish; lay the chicken parts on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper, drizzle and massage the olive oil into the chicken; follow the rest of the recipe. Of course, the baking time is less – closer to 30 minutes. Fast.

In the meantime, this is an easy, and user friendly dish to take to a pal in need. The whole chicken, cooled and wrapped tightly can later be warmed up, used in sandwiches, pulled right from the bone as a nibble, or frozen for another day. Protein is vital for a creature under stress; when you share  pollo al limone, you're nourshing your buddie's body, soul and spirit. It's truly a dish of kindness.

Beans, beans are good for your heart

Celebrations!

Birthdays, anniversaries, house-warmings, weddings, team victories; all those events that we can’t wait to get to.

And the celebration that teachers enjoy the most – the end of the school year!

Yeah, kids like that one, too.

The second last weekend of June is the perfect time for a baseball party to celebrate surviving another school year. You get to hit that ball (sometimes), run around the bases (with help from some of your friends), and slide into home plate (rarely). The highlight? Walking home from the diamond to some Triple B in the backyard – beans, burgers and beer.

At the last "end of school" baseball party before I retired, I watched my teacher friends eat the beans the same way as always – taking seconds, thirds, and scraping the roaster. Laughing about the game, telling stories about the school year, and beginning the wind down to summer holidays made for wonderful memories, and great photo ops. We relaxed and celebrated before leaving each other for the summer; and we were reminded of the support, the encouragement and the genuine care that helped us through another school year. For me, a career.

 I think that what we really celebrated was friendship, that singular bond that lasts for years.

Here's the bean recipe that my buddies either finished off at the baseball parties, or took home in empty sour cream containers from the bottom kitchen drawer. I got this recipe almost 20 years ago, from Joan Kendal, a generous and kind “ole timer” from ranching country southwest of Calgary.

Joan Kendal’s Baked Beans           Serves 30 -40

2   1.36 litre cans beans ( I use Heinz Deep-Browned Beans with Pork and Tomato Sauce)

3 Tbsps. Worcestershire Sauce

¼ cup brown sugar

1 cup ketchup

2 large onions, chopped

½ lb. bacon, chopped, fried, and drained

12 oz. ( about 350 ml) can drained pineapple tidbits ***save the juice

½ cup cooking molasses

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix all the ingredients, except the pineapple juice,  together in a large roaster. Cover tightly. Bake about 3 – 3 ½  hours, stirring occasionally during baking. Add the pineapple juice if necessary, especially during re-heating.

The beans will continue to bake after you remove them from the oven. They should still be slightly runny when removed from the oven.

Easy easy peasy.....

At my last party, I put the beans in a slow cooker to stay warm – they REALLY firmed up. If you want to try this, add extra pineapple juice, and check on the beans frequently.

However, next time, I’m just going to leave the beans in the roaster;  they stay hot for quite a while if I’ve just cooked them that day. The other benefit of cooking them the same day is that they’re in the oven early, no last minute preparation for those guys, and the house smells oh so mouth-watering homey.

In the meantime,  beans are wonderfully nutritious; they're high in fibre and iron, low in saturated fat and a good alternative to meat. However, they can be difficult to digest. Friends and family who are grieving, or under a lot of stress, often have digestive systems that are a bit compromised; it's probably better to save the beans for sharing at potlucks, and fun celebrations. Because, beans beans are good for your heart; the more you eat....

Warmly,

Wendy

Follow me on Twitter #adishofkindness

Table Talk with Grieving Kids

The year after the death of one of my neighbours in ranching country south of Calgary, his family trekked up the hill where Bob’s ashes had been placed under a large boulder (it’s handy having big tractors on a ranch). As the adults shared memories of his life, and said comments like “Dad, you always took care of us.” 5 year old Josh was becoming increasingly agitated.

Confused about what was going on, he finally asked his mom “Where’s Granddad?” 

She told him that his grandfather was under the boulder. Suddenly Josh yelled, very loudly, “Hey, if Granddad’s under that rock, somebody better get him out before he dies!”

Thanks, Josh.

Talking with grieving friends and neighbours can be an unnerving endeavor : what to say; what to avoid; will I help or make things worse; how much will they understand?  Sometimes, when we take  baking, or other dishes to a bereaved family, we find a grieving kid or teen in the house as well. Yikes. Table talk with grieving kids.

There are many simple things that you can do to feel more comfortable talking with  grieving kids. If you would like some ideas, check out my current "Ed in Grief" blog at edingrief.blogspot.ca .

 

The article is based on one of the topics I cover in my upcoming online course " Walking and Talking with Kids about Death and Dying." You can find more information about this 3 week course, starting on May 10^th, at Life and Death Matters online  programs.ldmonline.ca

In the Meantime what suggestions or hints have you found helpful when you're talking with grieving kids or adults? Heartwarming stories?

Take care!

Wendy