Making A Favorite Memory With Dad

My father was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma the day after Easter 2014.  He and Mom had been in the Keys with friends on Easter when he suffered from a grand mal seizure. He was air lifted to Miami.  A friend drove mom up to the hospital.  My sisters, brother and I all flew in to be there for his brain surgery.  We were all there when the Dr. gave us the news.  With my job I new immediately what the diagnosis meant. Only 2% of glio patients live 12-15 months after diagnosis.  We all take turns flying out to see dad and the whole family got together for Christmas here in KC.

It's been 16 months.  Last week I went for a quick trip, Thursday - Saturday, to see him.  He can no longer walk, he doesn't talk much maybe two or three words at a time and his short term memory is all but gone.  Dad's long term memory is sharp.  He introduced my youngest sister and I to the staff and even told them where we were from Kansas and New York.   We watched a John Wayne marathon, he remembered actors names and he would quote lines before John Wayne would speak. We took him outside each day for fresh air and some quiet as his roommate is a talker.

As the fates would have it I got caught up in the East Coast FAA computer shut down Saturday and was rescheduled to head home Monday.  I was sad that I would miss college move in for the girls, but my hubby assured me they could handled it. I knew they could, I just wanted to be there.  I believe everything happens for a reason. My sister picked me back up from the airport and we headed back to hang out with dad.  If I had flown home on time I would have missed what has turned out to be my favorite memory from our visit.  Dad is ornery and loves to play with the call button.  This time my sister told him he looked like he was ready to sing karaoke.  He smiled, with a twinkle in his eye and we asked him to sing for us.  To our surprise he held the call button up to his face and sang a line of "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". We all clapped and the smile on his face was priceless.  Him being a Marine and us being Top Gun fans, it was the perfect song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVNWSEX-WqU&list=RDHVNWSEX-WqU

Thai pork chops minus the peanut oil

The girls and I are getting very creative with recipes now that I am allergic to nut. 

I miss Thai food so here's are latest recipe

Pork Chops (boneless)

Angle Hair Pasta 

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil (you can use 2 tbsp Sesame Oil or 1/4 c peanut oil)

1/2 cup Soy Sauce (low sodium)

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup Cooking Sherry

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 tbsp Cornstarch

2 tsp Minced Onions

Mix liquid ingredients in a bowl. 

Place pork chops in a plastic bag and pour 1/2 cup of mixture over chops, seal bag and refrigerate for an hour or so to marinate.

Heat skillet on med high heat with about 1 tsp oil and toast the minced onions. 

Brown pork chops in skillet.

Place browned chops in a 9 x 11 baking dish. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Add cornstarch to the reserved  liquid and pour in the skillet lower temp to medium, stir often. Sauce is ready when it thickens.

Make pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse.

Place pork chop on bed of pasta and top with sauce.

Our side dish was home grown green beans sauteed w/ minced onion and garlic. Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Cookies w/ Cousins

The beginning of December has been relativity sane. Just a few parties and a couple of school activities.
This weekend was crazy. 5 gatherings in 3 days.  Open houses, Family Christmas celebrations a birthday party and cookies with cousin.

Cookies w/ cousins 9:30am on Sunday.  No this was not my idea. It just gets harder to schedule the more kids we have and the older ones going to college and then starting their own families.

To save me time the girls talked me into buying box gingerbread cookie mix.  Once home I decided it would not make enough so I made my favorite gingersnap recipe.   I formed it into a ball and put it in the fridge, and proceeded to make the box mix.  It was more the constancy of brownie mix. It says to refrigerate before rolling out the dough so I'm hopeful.  We have are 4th party to attend at 7:00, so I'll bake when we get home.

My youngest made a beautiful cake for my oldest daughters best friends b-day.  Her 1st baking job. Were all friends, were having a good time and stayed till after 10.  I decided to get up early Sunday and bake the cookies.  I've made 3 dozen Chocolate Chip cookies at 6 am in less then 30 mins. for school plenty of times.

This was not well thought out. After all you must roll out and cut gingerbread men.  I tape my rolling sheet to my table, flour it and my rolling pin and get the two bowls of dough out of the fridge. One is in a ball and one still looks, well, less than appetizing, there is no way it will roll out.  I have a couple of  pans with gingerbread forms in them, I'll just smoosh it into those.I took turns  rolling out and cutting 3 dozen lil men,  and smooshing  the other dough into the forms and baking them.  I take a quick shower while the second batch is in the oven.  I have 3 girls I can shower and wash my hair in less than 10 minutes.  The first batch of smooshed ones turned out really think more like bread than cookies.  I try less dough. still pretty thick, maybe if I just drop by spoonfuls it will spread into the forms themselves. Nope.  2 dozen rolled men and 18 formed ones I'm covered in flour (as is the dog, don't ask) and running out of time.  I wake up my the girls while the oldest is showering I have one smoosh (she was not impressed with the goo) and the rolling and cutting.
 5 dozen gingerbread men later we are ready to go. I swear some of them looked like they were going to run away.

 3 teenager girls and we were only running 5 minutes behind.  Off to pick up my sister and her kids to head to our cousins house to do cookies with 14 kids ages 3 months to 19 years.  My 19 year old held the baby and decorated a cookie for her.  14 kids, 4 moms and a dad (he is the oldest of the grandchildren and brought the 2 great grandchildren).  Since their is only one round table the kids decorate in shifts.  Younger kids decorated first w/ the older ones helping with getting and putting away cookies.

1 1/2 hours later with no injuries and only a few frosting mishaps we came home with some wonderfully decorated cookies and a few odd ones.  2 gingerbread men each missing a leg and decorated to look like it was bite off, complete with red frosting at the site of the injury. These were made by my oldest and youngest, at separate times not knowing the other had done it. I may have forgotten to mention my family has an odd since of humor.

The rest of the morning was spent cleaning, sewing and shopping for last minute gifts for Christmas w/ the in-laws at 2:00.  That is a whole other story.