I’ve even been acquiring fabric for my imaginary someday quilt but never made the time to get started until now.  On twitter, Libby, who blogs at The Allergic Kid, pointed people following the #foodallergy hashtag over to the Arizona Food Allergy Alliance’s “Squares of Friendship” page and the story of Arizona teen Adrianna Aguirre.  AFAA writes:

Adrianna accidentally ingested peanut while at a friends house in Spring of 2011. She was without oxygen for several minutes. She then was in a coma for over a month. Today Adrianna is slowly improving and able to communicate by blinking her eyes. We have hope for Adrianna and would like to show her our love and support. 

Together we will create a quilt through AFAA’s Squares of Friendship. AFAA will collect donated squares and sew a quilt to be given as a gift to Adrianna. Submissions need to arrive by May 31, 2013. Details below. If you know of someone in the community that is in need of an AFAA Squares of Friendship Quilt, please emailinfo@arizonafoodallergy.org, they need not reside in Arizona. We support those in need of this program, worldwide. Thank you!

My first thought was for Adrianna’s family and friends as well as the young lady herself.  I can’t imagine what they must all be going through.  The idea of a quilt made up of well wishes resonated with me and I told my mother in law (she and my sister in law are my quilting Jedi Masters, Yoda and Obi-Wan to my Luke Skywalker – and yes I probably whine as much as he did too!) that I was ready for her to teach me the ways of the force quilt.

“Cut even squares” and “right sides together,” were her initial guidelines.  Okay, I could do that (or so I thought).  I used my rotary cutter (I’d been stocking up on supplies for three or four years) and it looked okay to me.  I was using flannel I had been using to make memory bean bags, an idea for E when she was small that used the concept of the game “Memory” where you flip over squares to try to find matching images but each square was also a bean bag you could toss or play with in another way.  I believe I made four bean bags before getting sidetracked (also, it is not easy to sew with a baby in your lap) but here were some bright colors that seemed to match a “hot” green recommended by AFAA.  The deadline to mail out the square is May 31, 2013 so I didn’t want to lose time by trying to get to the fabric store for other options.

Squares cut, I was ready to piece them “right sides together.”  This involves making a sandwich of two squares with their patterns facing inward on one another.  Done and done.  Now I had to take the square pairs and sew them to make the 2 x 2 quilt square I envisioned.  I messed up and sewed along the wrong line so that the squares were all together like butterfly wings.  My mother in law set about using the seam ripper to undo my over-enthusiastic creation while I tried again with some other squares.

I was so proud!  Now to cut the sides so that they fit into the 7.5″ x 7.5″ requirement on the instruction sheet.  I measured twice, cut once, and… had managed to cut the wrong side so that my square was now too small.  Time to add some fabric, right?  I measured twice, cut once, and had a strip of grey flannel ready to go on the sides that came up short.  Sew, sew, sew, and… I managed to sew the strips onto the wrong ends of the square.  Now I had a rectangle and not a square by any stretch of the imagination.  Some more adjustment, more grey flannel, and…

Success!  I think AFAA can just use a little of the extra seam allowance I gave them.  I’m too scared to cut this square for fear of messing up again.  It actually looks a little more finished with the grey, don’t you think?  I am putting it in the mail with a letter for Adrianna per AFAA’s instructions.

It is a small act, I know, but I will tell her how she impacted my life as I am ready now to do something I’ve been putting off, that my children sat in my lap as I made this, and that I hope she is well soon.

____

Upcoming Blog Roundup: If you are a blogger, please feel free to head to this link, log in, then submit a post of yours that you’d like featured in the Food Allergy Blog Carnival.  My last go around at hosting can be found here if you are curious about how the submissions are used.  Thank you!

Framing the issue as “work-life balance”— as if the two were diametrically opposed— practically ensures work will lose out. Who would ever choose work over life?

Sandberg, Sheryl (2013-03-11). Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Kindle Locations 354-356). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

So life is life and work is a part of it but cliche as it may sound, my family is my priority and that includes everything from managing this food allergy journey of ours to getting to forget about litigation for moments here and there to watch my children enjoy a splash pad on a sunny day.

May 12th marked the start of Food Allergy Awareness Week 2013.  With everything having a “day” or a “week” or a “month” I can see how sometimes a day can’t just be a day, however, the positive energy that comes from making a concerted effort to raise awareness is encouraging.  I have increasingly taken up the cause of advocacy in food allergy.  Just a few things that make recurring appearances on my daily written to do list are the 2013 Las Vegas FARE Walk, the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference, the Food Allergy Parent Education Group, and Nevada Senate Bill 453.  In the meantime, we have also been doing new food allergy testing and food challenges for E and R (so far egg, milk, corn, and soy are officially off of the “avoid” list and we have an upcoming challenge for wheat – so we’d be left with peanut, tree nut, sesame, and oat as food allergies plus E’s severe cat and dog allergies).  I have to say I once felt jealous of parents who’d speak of their children outgrowing food allergies just as I’d also get frustrated with the refrain of many people when I’d tell them about food allergies: “kids outgrow those, don’t they?”  And yet.  Here we are now, with new doors suddenly open to us and the prospect of being able to instruct my daughter’s future teachers on a few less seemingly innocuous food items that could do her harm.

I am on the walk committee for the 2013 FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) Walk here in Nevada and we have monthly conference calls to catch up on progress getting sponsors, team sign ups, and just general advocacy.  During last month’s call, one of our walk directors, Dana Gordin, told me she had some “Be a P.A.L. [Protect a Life]” bookmarks (about 100) that she could give to me to share at the school we’re sending E to this fall.  I contacted the school and they were delighted at the prospect so Dana very generously shipped the bookmarks to me (I think she understands how hard it is for a busy mom of two kids under 5 to just zip over and pick something up – it was very much appreciated!) and E and I went to her school to give the bookmarks to the school nurse.  There was a time when I planned to homeschool E, even though I personally did not enjoy homeschool as a 7th and 8th grader, and now we are making plans for her kindergarten experience.  With other children!  She only attends preschool once a week right now for 2 1/2 hours so switching to half day, daily kindergarten will be an adjustment for us all.  I hope to be an active classroom mom as much as my schedule can allow, though, and have been trying to get her used to the idea of this new place and new friends.  She loved taking the bookmarks to the school and when the nurse asked her about her allergies she spoke for herself.  A surprising development in that I am used to being her voice.  When we left I asked what she liked most about the new school and she said she liked that there was a nurse.  My inner voice worried that this meant my daughter was fearful about her allergies and being safe but then that was countered with the sense that my daughter felt encouraged by the safeguards in place for her, and other children, to have a positive experience at school.

A few weeks earlier, I brought the children with me to view, here in Las Vegas, the televised hearing regarding Senate Bill 453, which would allow for stock epinephrine in Nevada schools.  You may recall that my involvement (though minor) with the progression of this legislation reaches back into late last year.  Caroline of Grateful Foodie has been working non-stop at each stage of the legislative process to keep momentum and support for the bill strong so it is through her e-mails that so many of us knew to come to the Grant Sawyer Building to rally in support of the bill when it was before the Senate committee and later the Assembly committee.  The bill has passed both committees as well as a vote of the full state senate so next up is the Assembly floor vote and hopefully Governor Sandoval’s desk!

Everyone I tell about the bill says it sounds like something they would support, but you can’t take common sense for granted when it comes to the legislative process.  Bills die without voices to hold them aloft and this bill would be no different.  I wanted the children to know that this is how you make a difference, by being present even if it is just to cheer on the policy makers and wear light blue to let them know who you’re with.  Even watching the livestream of the Senate vote from home, from afar in Vegas while in Carson City history is being made, is exciting.  I explain to the children that we have to make sure children who can’t afford epinephrine or don’t know yet that they have allergies can get help fast if they need it and it really is as simple as that.  Now, as a friend recently pointed out to me, it can’t stop at schools because there are many more people, such as adults in workplaces, that need injectable epinephrine that is readily available and the wherewithal to administer it, but this is a start.  Laws often work in narrow areas before they grow and change to wider implementation.

SB 453 is about as serious as things get on the advocacy side, but the fundraising of things like the FARE walk or the food free easter egg hunt hosted by FAPE or the Food Allergy Bloggers Conference all have a place in the order of things as well.  I was approached by Jenny at Multiple Food Allergy Help earlier this year because she wanted to put on a conference to bring the online food allergy community together.  You can read more here or even find out about registering and buying tickets to hear fantastic speakers, meet with company representatives for allergy aware products, walk with the blog conference team on November 2nd, and so much more.  It has grown and blossomed to be an event people are looking forward to and justified the feeling I had early on that I could make a positive contribution.  We have the support already of a local FARE walk grant, sponsors, ticket buyers, speakers, our host hotel the South Point…it is coming together.  Devin at Nom Yum & Free even gave us a very kind shout out so word is getting out and I will get to meet many in my support network in person when November rolls around!  I’m also hopeful that the local food allergy community will love what we have in the works.

Speaking of the food allergy community…. Jennifer at Food Allergy Buzz hosted the fourth annual Food Allergy Awareness Week twitter party tonight (well, if I get this post done in the next few minutes that is – more fourth wall breakage going on!) and one theme that resonated among participants was the level of support we get and give on the internet.  I have been able to find research, news, support, recipes, and more through the blogs of others dealing with food allergies when the allergists we tried out one after the other just weren’t offering the guidance we needed.  And so during this twitter party, which is kind of like a chat session open to anyone that searches for a particular topic marker called a hashtag for those unfamiliar with twitter, a few exciting things happened.  First, there was a great energy among participants and second, we “trended” on twitter!  That means that enough people were talking about #foodallergy that the hashtag was displayed to other twitter users (see the screenshot above).

Now as I sit here pondering all of the goings-on of the past few months, I wonder if I focus on the advocacy and awareness aspects of food allergy because I don’t want to think about the real threats to E’s safety.  Of losing her.  I’m not sure.  I actually had my first reaction related nightmare the night before Mother’s Day, that she was hurt and I couldn’t save her, and it unsettled me.  Am I devoting time to other pursuits that ought to be dedicated to my children?  This week has been one of a string of reflective ones for me as I contemplate whether working on things like a blog or going to hearings or looking at the computer screen for anything other than a “have to” instead of “want to” is the best thing for the people that depend on me directly.  I’m not sure I have an answer.  I read a fantastic post by Rosie Molinary (an author and blogger that the lovely Tami Hackbarth introduced me to), that outlines “honor[ing] your rhythm [...] values [...] and time” to achieve some sense of balance.  I was able to ask her some follow-up questions after reading the post and she suggested making a set time on the calendar open for saying “yes” and once that slot was full I should be comfortable saying “no” or deferring someone to the next available slot of time.  Does this strike anyone else as brilliant?  It struck me that way and I am trying to implement it.  I don’t want to come across as being ungrateful for the opportunities I have to help or be of service but as my children move into new phases and need different aspects of me, I need to be attentive to that.

None of this is flowing particularly well but it is authentic and it is me and I hope some of these updates are of interest.  I do know that I feel invigorated by time I spend nurturing my mind with reading and connecting with others so I see those things as helping me in my capacity as a mother and a wife.  There is so much to be thankful for and so much to keep striving for.  Thank you for still reading.

____

Elsewhere…my latest Vegbooks.org Posts:

Hilda and the Bird Parade 

The Penny Books

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah

Treasury for All Seasons

Baby Shower Gifts for Veg Moms

My friend Jenny at Multiple Food Allergy Help forwarded me a request from the Canada-based company Allergic Solution looking for bloggers to try their baking mixes, review them, and do a giveaway.  I was intrigued by their bean flour mixes because while I know classic gluten free baking used bean flours, I had heard mixed things about them and only used garbanzo bean flour early on in my attempts to make safe treats for my family.  After I discovered rice based blends I never looked back but the big selling point for bean flours is that they have a higher protein content than rice flour.  Hence my interest in trying these mixes.  I e-mailed the company’s representative and they didn’t mind that my blog is a small one and didn’t even have any specific requests regarding the giveaway.  I liked that they genuinely seemed to be interested in sharing their product in case it was a good fit for people dealing with food allergies or other special dietary needs.  The mixes are normally $6.79 for what is pretty much a single use portion customized into one of four categories: Pancake & Waffle, Vanilla Cake, Yeast Free Bread, or Carob Cake.  I mention the price because that can be a big factor when we’re already having to buy so many specialty products to accommodate food allergies.

I started with the pancake mix.  Despite touting on the packaging that the mixes are free from common allergens such as egg, wheat, corn, soy, and nuts, the recipe included on the package involved using eggs.  While alternate recipes are on the company’s website, I would have liked to see an allergen free recipe on the package and the egg-inclusive version on the website instead (Edited to add: Scroll down to the comments to this post to read an explanation from the company’s founder regarding space limitations dictating the choice of recipe for this package).  Speaking of the allergens, Allergic Solution is open on the packaging about there being potential corn and/or soy traces in their mixes.  This goes to the heart of some of the disclosure debate going on here in the U.S. – do we want to know that a product could have the tiniest trace of an allergen so we can decide whether to use it?  I for one appreciate the company’s openness.  But I digress.

The pancake mix was the perfect opportunity to break out Colette Martin’s Learning to Bake Allergen-Free (amazon affiliate link) because of the sections where Colette gives the reader advice on adapting store-bought mixes to be allergy friendly (I have so many recipes in her book on my “to try” list but have been swamped with work lately!).  By the way, if you haven’t checked out Colette’s website, Learning to Eat Allergy Free, I highly recommend it.

I used tips from Colette’s recipe to adapt the package’s recipe for our purposes and the results were well received by the kids, my mother in law, and myself for breakfast.  I love that Colette’s book gives you the tools you need to make substitutions on the fly by specifically laying out ingredient equivalents.  The pancakes that resulted seemed a little soft in the middle at first but as they cooled they improved and the bean flour made them feel substantial and pliable.  Though they weren’t thin, they reminded me a little of crepes and I ate my pancakes with sugar and lemon juice.

On another morning I decided to give the Vanilla Cake mix a try.  The package’s recipe didn’t need adapting aside from how much sugar I wanted to add (I believe I went with a third of a cup or so) and I added 1 1/2 cups of frozen blueberries to the batter before spooning portions into cupcake liners for baking.  I baked them for 24 minutes and they made for a lovely breakfast treat.  These were my personal favorite with a little Earth Balance Soy Free Spread melted on them fresh out of the oven.

The Yeast Free Bread mix was up next.  I didn’t have ground chia seeds as recommended by the recipe on the package so I used whole chia seeds and that may account for the crumbly nature of the bread when it came time to slice it.  The texture and flavor were good but a sandwich bread this was not.  Of the four mixes it was my least favorite because my mother in law makes a garbanzo bean biscuit that I prefer but that isn’t to say we didn’t finish this loaf up in about a day.

Last, but not least, was the Carob Cake mix.  I’ve never tried carob that I know of and it had a subtle flavor that grew on me quickly.  We put more sugar in these than we had in the blueberry muffins (half a cup) and even then they weren’t overly sweet.  R and I spooned teaspoons of raspberry jam onto the tops of the batter after filling the cupcake liners and the jam ended up sinking to the center of the cupcakes with delicious results.  I suppose it is the height of decadence to not even have to put jam on your breakfast baked goods because it is already inside but by this point the kids were starting to think that every day we were going to have something yummy to start our day aside from the usual rice cereal or rice bread toast.

We really enjoyed all the mixes and look forward to sharing some with you!  Just a few other notes for my review first – my mother in law remarked that the font size on the English/French packaging is very small.  The warning about potential soy and corn cross contamination is printed on a crease near the top of the bag and might be missed if you are not careful.  That said, along with my comment above about the chosen sample recipes on the packages, I think these are minor points.  It is obvious that Allergic Solution wants you to use their mixes as a canvas and it was fun to experiment a little bit with pre-made mixes.  Even at $6.79 I can see keeping the cake mixes especially on hand for the emergency birthday party notice.  I didn’t get to test how one of the cupcakes froze, however, which I’d hoped to do as I was thinking about birthday party possibilities.  They simply didn’t last long enough to go into the freezer.

As a result of trying these mixes, my husband asked if we could seek out some other bean flour based recipes.  I am looking forward to it!

____

Thank you to Allergic Solution for sharing the mixes with me.  I’d like to pick one random commenter on this post (with a U.S. address) to receive a set of the four mixes featured in my review.  I’ll select one comment at random after entries close on April 30, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time.  To enter, simply comment on this post and let me know if you’ve ever tried baking with bean flours.  Please provide your e-mail address so I can contact you if you win.  The winner will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail notification of their win with their U.S. mailing address so I can put their mixes in the post or I’ll randomly select another winner.  The winner is Amanda from Celiac and Allergy Adventures!

Good luck!  Thank you!

My mom is a Labor and Delivery RN and she would come home from her night shifts sometimes and hug us oh so tightly.  She’d sigh as her arms finally let us go.  When I was a little older I realized that those were the mornings that dawned after nights where they’d lost a baby, or even a mom, at the hospital.  My mom hugged her babies after nights spent comforting people that had lost theirs.  It was she who taught me about people withdrawing when they see someone grieving and that she never wanted me to be that way.  Even if you don’t know what to say, she’d tell me, call them.  Write to them.  Offer your time and a sympathetic ear.

Though I try to be there for people, I am certain I don’t always succeed.  I am not without those that think poorly of me and aren’t afraid to tell me as much – I don’t want this post to sound like someone reading isn’t already being there for people in need.  I think what I’m getting at is that I don’t feel right without acknowledging that even though on the internet things move at light speed – one moment we’re sharing in shock as current events unfold and the next we’re back to swapping recipes or stories of our days – it is never business as usual.  Also, there is no expiration date on grief, so reaching out to someone weeks or months or years after something that shook their world can also provide comfort and support.

There is enough sadness in the world without the addition of willful, destructive acts (or, as T.H. White put it in The Once and Future King - “Life is too bitter already, without territories and wars and noble feuds.”).  All we can do is to keep loving as much as we can and hope for better tomorrows.

As with any food option, please make sure they suit your comfort level.  I, for example, will buy things for our family that are in a shared facility with, say, eggs or soy, but not tree nuts or peanuts.  Recently E has grown out of her milk allergy and we’re working on some other food challenges but aside from feeding the kids yogurt and or cheese, I haven’t gone back to dairy.  I always told myself that I’d go back in a heartbeat but then as the months wore on I realized that my excuse for eating dairy in the face of animal cruelty implications was that it would be “too hard” to stop.  When I stopped eating dairy for my daughter’s sake I realized a vegan (versus a vegetarian) diet involved many more flavors and options than I thought.

If anything jumps out as something you’d like a recipe for, please let me know in the comments.  We were able to start eating corn again this past summer but aside from tortillas, tostadas, or corn itself, many of these options are still corn free.  We also were able to re-introduce tomatoes and grapes in the past year, much to my relief.  You can also check out the What We Eat page for other recipes I’ve posted about.

Baked Potatoes with Mushrooms and Onions

Bean Burgers on Rice Bread (or Tapioca Dinner Rolls) with Ketchup and other fixings

Brussels Sprouts or Asparagus (roasted) with Mushrooms (we used Portabella Mushroom Caps a few times) and Rice or Quinoa

Cauliflower “Popcorn” with Roasted Vegetables and Wild Rice

Cereal or Granola and Rice Milk

Chickpea UnTuna Salad (here’s a recipe I started with but of course leave out the nuts)

Green Lentils, Rice, and Plain Coconut Milk Yogurt

Grilled Cheese (Daiya) on Rice Bread

Masala Dosas with Coconut Milk Yogurt

Misto alla Griglia with Wild Rice

Nachos with Daiya and Pinto Beans

Pakoras with Quinoa and Vegetables

Persian Lima Bean Rice with Tomato Onion Salad (I make a healthier version of both these days with a lot less oil)

Quinoa and Roasted Asparagus or Corn

Salad (Quinoa with Cilantro Lime Dressing or with Brown Rice Couscous)

Saffron Rice with Beans and Baked Yams

Shepherd’s Pie with Fresh Cranberry Sauce

(Baked) Spaghetti Squash with Marinara Sauce (I’ve cut the oil and sugar in this recipe with great results)

Spinach and Mushroom Risotto

Steamed Vegetables and Rice or Quinoa and Marinara Sauce

Steamed Artichokes with Roasted Onions and Quinoa with Balsamic Vinegar

Sunshine Burgers (or Quinoa Burgers) and Alphatots (or Oven Fries)

Tabbouli with Falafel and Bean Dip

Tostadas topped with Refried Beans, Guacamole, Salsa, Lettuce, and Tomatoes

Wild Rice (or Quinoa) and Oven Roasted Vegetables with Balsamic Vinagarette

What are some of your family’s “fast” dinner options?

You may recall that last year I was able to speak to the Nevada Legislative Committee on Healthcare during their public comment portion regarding a proposed bill that would allow for school access to epinephrine.  The bottom line is that epinephrine saves lives when administered quickly and appropriately.  Nevada is on the cusp of joining a hopefully growing list of states that are providing a legal framework for schools to carry what is called “stock epinephrine” so that students that either don’t have their auto-injector as prescribed or have their first anaphylactic event at school can receive potentially life saving intervention as soon as possible.

The people working hard to move this bill forward in Nevada need your help.

Caroline of Grateful Foodie up in Northern Nevada has been meeting, often at a moment’s notice, with stakeholders, lobbyists, and representatives to tell the stories that will give a voice to this bill.  I was so excited to help that I contacted our Assemblywoman, Ellen Spiegel, before we even had a bill draft number.  I was nervous, I didn’t want to trouble her but she not only replied to my e-mail, she had someone from her office call and chat with me at length about what this bill means to our family and to families like ours in Nevada.

Do you have 10 minutes to spare?

Did you know that the medical incident response time for ambulance services in Las Vegas can be as long as ten minutes and fifty-one seconds?  (Source: Page 87 of this Nov 2012 PDF: http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/ICMAfirestudy.pdf)

A child having an anyphylactic event at school may not have 10:51 to wait for help so I’m asking my fellow Nevadans to take 10 minutes now to take action about SB453 and encourage your representative to support the bill as it moves through the legislative session.

Here is the e-mail I wrote to Assemblywoman Spiegel, I have to update her office with the bill number actually since we have one now!  You don’t have to write much but I hope this gives you an idea of what you can write:

____________

Dear Ms. Spiegel,

I reside in District 20 and I wanted to reach out to you as our Assemblywoman to offer my voice as a parent of a child with multiple severe food allergies.  There is a bill trying to make its way through the legislative process regarding stock epinephrine in schools (the goal being to mandate schools to carry these life saving devices). 

I know you are busy so I will link to my blog post containing the statement I offered the Nevada Legislative Committee on Healthcare last year when the question of such a bill came up:  http://ohmahdeehness.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/my-prepared-statement-presented-to-the-nevada-legislative-committee-on-health-care/

Food allergies are on the rise and actually in a Sunday New York Times feature printing on 3/10 there is a riveting and powerful story of the rise in food allergies in children and the measures parents and loved ones take to protect them:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/magazine/can-a-radical-new-treatment-save-children-with-severe-allergies.html?hp&_r=0

There will be a fiscal note on the bill, I’m told, because of the mandate (version permissive language for the bill draft) but the expense to Nevada would be far greater if lives are lost to anaphylaxis.  Las Vegas’ emergency response time, for example, is over ten minutes, which is the time window when epinephrine needs to be administered to have lifesaving effect.  If a child has a reaction at school and has to wait 10 minutes for an ambulance they could very well die.  25% of anaphylactic reactions in schools occur without a prior food allergy diagnosis.  So there are children that could have a reaction absent a 504 plan or absent a prescription for injectable epinephrine.  These children, as well as those whose parents simply cannot afford the approximately $100 per injector (if they have no health insurance) need Nevada’s help.

Thank you for reading and I would love to have the opportunity to chat with you about this issue that is near and dear to my heart.  Thank you also for representing our district!

____________

There is to be a hearing regarding the bill this Thursday, April 4, 2013.  Even though the main activity will be up in Carson City, you can contribute here in Las Vegas at the Grant Sawyer Building at 555 E. Washington Ave., Las Vegas, Nevada 89101 at 3:30 p.m. – feel free to comment or email me if you’d like more details on participating.  Be sure to wear light blue to show your support!  I am hoping to be there but even if I can’t make it I will be wearing light blue on Thursday and hope you will too.

If you’d like to find out where your address places you as far as representatives to contact, you can go here:

http://mapserve1.leg.state.nv.us/whoRU/

Thank you to FAPE Las Vegas for the link, here are some other suggestions they shared:

Senator Justin Jones Justin.Jones@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Debbie Smith Debbie.Smith@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Tick Segerblom tsegerblom@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Joe Hardy Joe.Hardy@sen.state.nv.us

Senator Ben Kieckhefer Ben.Kieckhefer@sen.state.nv.us

Thank you! 

This eggplant/aubergine dish is deceptively simple but we have eaten it as a side dish, snack, and even a topping for brown rice.  Does anyone else call eggplant “aubergine” or is it just those of us raised in households with European and/or Middle Eastern backgrounds?  Now I do know someone who is allergic to eggplant and eggplant is featured in the graphic on a recent New York Times call for comments and submissions titled “Is There Such a Thing as a Cucumber Allergy?” so hopefully this is a safe choice for your family.

Supplies

Cutting Board

Paper Towels

Knife

Baking Pan

Aluminum Foil (optional)

Oven with Broiler

Food Processor or Blender

Ingredients

1 medium to large eggplant

1 tablespoon of sunflower seed butter

1/3 of a tablespoon of fresh basil leaves, chopped

1/4 of a teaspoon of sea salt (even though E is clear of her corn allergy I still use sea salt instead of iodized salt), plus more for preparing the eggplant

Olive Oil for the pan

1 lemon’s worth of fresh lemon juice (you may want to adjust this to taste but fresh lemon juice is crucial)

2 medium cloves of garlic, crushed

Directions

To prepare the eggplant you need to peel it and cut it into rounds about 1/2 an inch thick.  I prefer rounds to dicing just because it is easier to salt them at this stage and they will break up when you pulse them in the food processor or blender later on.  Salt both sides of the rounds and lay them on a paper towel, sprinkling salt over both sides of each round before you place them.  I like to place the paper towel on my cutting board.  Then layer another paper towel on top and you can keep layering salted rounds with paper towels as needed.  Now let them sit for at least 20 minutes.  You’ll find that the paper towel absorbs some of the liquid drawn out from the eggplant.  I believe it improves the flavor of the eggplant by drawing some of the bitterness out.

Near the end of letting the eggplant sit, you’ll want to start your oven.  Prepare a baking or jelly roll pan by either lining it with foil (non-stick foil can be great if you’re trying to go easy on oil) and then brushing some olive oil on it to lightly coat the surface or just brushing olive oil directly on the pan.  My pan is in pretty bad shape from years of cooking so I opt for foil.  Place the eggplant rounds or cubes onto your prepared pan.  Sometimes I simply bake the eggplant at 450 degrees F until they are tender, remembering to flip them at the 10 minute mark an assessing when I am content with how “done” they are before switching to the top oven broiler to give them that roasted flavor and other times I just use the broiler to start, keeping the pan 6 or 7 inches away from the heating element and turning as needed.  The all-broiler method requires some attentiveness so that may help you decide but you’ll be pureeing the end result so you just want to make sure the eggplant is cooked all the way through.  I apologize for the vague instructions but depending on how much oil you use on the pan and whether you have rounds or diced pieces your cooking time may vary.

While the eggplant cooks, you can juice your fresh lemon and set the juice aside.  You’ll add it in increments to the eggplant, sunflower seed butter, fresh basil, and salt in the food processor or blender.  You can put the still warm eggplant directly into your mixer of choice but if you are using a blender don’t put the lid on right away because you don’t want the steam to build.  A food processor is more forgiving if you leave the food pusher out so the steam can escape.  Give your ingredients a whirl, starting with maybe a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and then taste what you’ve made!  Warm Baba Ghanoush is lovely but letting the dip sit covered in your fridge overnight will enhance the flavor as well so it is your call. It rarely lasts overnight at my house.

According to my calculations, the recipe should be less than 200 calories for the whole dish so you can enjoy the dip fairly guilt-free with a serving of brown rice or chips.

I’m not sure how best to tell the story of this race.  I know some people think that blogging is narcissistic so I hopefully don’t come across that way with a bunch of details but what I’d like to convey with my recap is how much I appreciate the things that brought me to the finish line, both from within and from without.  We made it to the Suncoast Hotel where they were picking up runners to drive out to the start line just in time to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus.  The start was 7:00 a.m. so we didn’t wait around long (I believe it was around 44 degrees Fahrenheit at the time) after leaving the warm bus before we were crossing the starting mat.  One young woman I met while we waited told me that she’d run the course a year before and that I should be prepared to walk.

Now, I had a hard time getting back to feeling good with my runs after the 10k race in January but a few days before my 30th birthday in February I pushed myself to a 13.1 mile training run (no walking) in 2:29:05.  I had the Red Rock Canyon Marathon and 1/2 Marathon’s unique course in mind when I opted to make sure I could cover the half marathon distance before the race because I had been warned by several people that I would not be able to run the whole race.  It sounds pessimistic to prepare for walking but: first, there is nothing wrong with walking, and second, my goal was to finish the race without injuring myself so knowing I could really run 13.1 all the way through was my way of giving myself permission to walk on race day if I had to.  I tried to incorporate hills in my training but nothing prepared me for the relentless 5 miles of an uphill course that yielded about an increase of 900 feet in elevation.

So to have the subject of walking come up made me think about how I had mentally prepared to allow myself to walk.  I would be of no use to anyone if I pushed so hard that I really hurt myself so I opted to deal with the course (see a video of some of the terrain here) as it came.   The first mile or so was really good, a loop around the visitor’s center at the park entrance.  I did it in under 11 minutes and felt good though I was of course easily passed by much of the field, including my husband.  Then we started to climb.  It was slow work and my legs were not cooperating with me.  I told myself I could walk when I hit the 2 mile mark, hoping that at 2 miles I could convince myself to run to the 3 mile mark and on but I simply couldn’t do it.  I walked.  The picture above is the only one I took on the course but it wasn’t my only walking break (most of the other pictures in this post were taken by my husband while he waited for me at the finish line, having finished about half an hour ahead of me).  Other people were walking as well so I didn’t feel as bad as I’d feared and each time the pain lessened I would run as much as I could before taking another break.  My training, I think, helped me recover during the walk breaks even though I hadn’t incorporated a walking interval into a run in a long time.

On the way up a hill I found myself walking with a woman who had brightly colored shoes.  I complimented her on them and after saying thank you she remarked that it was a bad idea for us to walk up a hill, we should run, so we ran alongside one another for a while and even chatted.  She told me about Team in Training and pointed out shirts of people in the distance who were also running to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  She remarked as to how little children fight cancer and here we were running.  She told me about her coach and the support network she’d found when before she thought runners were crazy for doing it.  It had helped her find her place as a runner.  I told her about someone I love dearly who is battling Rheumatoid Arthritis.  How I think about her when I run and how hard she has to work on most of her days to get her body to cooperate and let her move, and how the effort anyone puts into something is what matters, not the distance they cover or the time they manage while doing it.  My companion slowed to a walk and encouraged me to keep running.  She really boosted my spirits.  That said, I believe I reached the hour mark only having done 4.5 miles or so and my heart sank.  I started calculating in my head what my pace meant for my finish time and for some reason I cannot do basic math while I run yet I kept attempting to do so.

This is another finish line shot from my husband to give you an idea of the snowy mountains in the distance and the beautiful red rocks that are the namesake of the Canyon.  I did finally reach the overlook area.  There was a welcome aid station there and I had been making certain to drink water at each station and eat a few Jelly Belly Sport Beans as I completed miles on the course.  One thing I learned during my training run two weeks prior was that I seriously hit a wall a little after the twelfth mile and I believe that happened because I never hydrate during runs.  At one aid station I did accidentally take a sports drink but luckily it didn’t upset my stomach or anything.  After the summit I complimented another runner on her sparkle skirt (I think I see a pattern in my ability to start conversations with people, but why wear awesome shoes or a flashy skirt if you don’t want compliments, right?) and she told me “this is the last bad hill.”  I asked her if she’d run the race before and she said that she had not but she did train out at Red Rock so she knew what to expect.  Good enough for me!  I may have told her I loved her for telling me that news and she laughed.  After that “last bad hill” she took off and I didn’t see her again.

The downhills were letting me gain back some of my pace time, I hit 9.5 miles at the two-hour mark, so I did 5 miles in the second hour and knew a sub-2:45 time was in reach.  Not great considering my training time but not as bad as going over three hours as I had feared during the early part of the ascent.  The volunteers at the aid stations were so kind and encouraging, I made sure to thank them for their time and even though I went back and forth between feeling cold and warm I had to pour a cup of water over my head a little after mile 10 just to cool off a little bit.  It was certainly a work out!

The traffic on the course wasn’t too bad, cars were quite courteous though it was hard to see the cyclists whizzing down the hills while I kept adjusting my form to accommodate my hurting knees and ankles.  Downhills are easier for me but they are not without their own complications.  Some of the descent was so steep that I felt like I was just falling forward but it still took energy to move and though at mile 11 I started to feel like just maybe I could run the rest of the way with no more walking breaks, it just wasn’t to be.  I was hurting and needed to keep taking breaks as needed.  The mile markers seemed to pass by so slowly near the end and I just could not see the finish line anywhere.  I passed a young woman stopped at the side of the road by her bicycle and she cheered for me.  I told her this was my first half marathon and she told me I was almost done.  I knew my friend Mindy had promised to be at the finish line with her husband and her three children (one of whom was just fourteen days old!) with posters and I started to envision seeing them and what the signs would say.  I wondered how my husband was doing, how long he’d been waiting for me at the finish, and if he had hurt his knees that were already giving him trouble in the days leading up to the race.

At last I could see the structure in the distance that I knew was the finish line and I started to think of how I wanted to stop and walk again but I couldn’t because I was in sight of the end.  Because people would see me walking and even though my legs were burning and I couldn’t feel my hands (I’m thinking I’d stopped breathing properly or maybe had tensed my arms up but there was something enough wrong circulation-wise to be distracting), I had to keep running.  I saw my husband holding his phone up to take a picture of me and I shouted to him that I was hurting.  I was crying at this point, a mix of “I’m almost there!” and “I don’t know if I can make it!”  Just then the young lady that had been by her bicycle rode by slowly, calling out to me that I was about to finish my first half marathon.  I could see my friend Mindy with her neon colored signs with my name on them and my husband’s name on them.  She was smiling.  Everyone was smiling and I was just crying.  I ran across the timing mat and kept crying as the kind volunteer let me know he needed to cut off my timing chip from my shoe.  Someone put a medal around my neck, the medal I had been dreaming of but could not even look at because all I wanted to do was hug my husband.  I could hear cameras clicking so I think someone got a few shots of me crying and I am certain I ruined my finish line picture but at least the shot my husband got shows me with a smile, albeit a pained one.

I love that you can even see the woman on her bicycle coming up behind me as well as the beautiful scenery.  My husband had finished with an official chip time of 2:06:30.48!  My official chip time was 2:38:13.36 for a pace of 12:08 per mile overall, my RunKeeper track is a little off but you can see the course and elevation map below.

I was able to say hi to Mindy and her family while my husband stood in line for me for some finish line food…

…and remembered to ask her to take our picture before we left.  My husband was (and is) amazing.  I love that we did this together, taking turns watching the kids so we could train early in the morning, running together when we could, and encouraging each other.  I think sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of life and to have goals bigger than yourself that you can also share as a couple is a pretty special thing.  We also got to share in a pretty epic anniversary lunch the next day with the calories we earned from the run.

The bus for the Suncoast was full and Mindy and her husband offered to drive us back to our car on their way home instead of having us wait for another bus (what an amazing friend to come out early on a Saturday morning with her whole family and then to give us a ride, she is a total star — thank you so much Mindy!).  We took them up on the offer and were on the road home in no time.  The kids had both woken up before we left the house and we were eager to get home and give their grandmother a break (she is another star by the way!).  I did finally have a chance to check out my medal and I will be wearing my race shirt with pride.

I am not sure what will be next, I am honestly feeling a little burned out with the long training runs over the past weeks and months.  It also has meant a lot of time away from the children but my hope is to do a maintenance schedule of 5K / 5K / 10K for my three runs each week and incorporate more strength training as well as bicycling to my exercise regimen.  As with most goals we do wonder what comes next and though I have been trying to savor the feeling of accomplishment I know the weeks and months ahead are filled with other challenges.  I do want to think back on running even though I wanted to stop, how the thought of people that mattered to me kept me moving forward, and that even though we have to walk sometimes we still can make whatever progress we can.  We’re not trying to do better than anyone else and as Plato wrote, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”  No one person’s journey is comparable to another’s.  As always, thank you for reading and may you have the friends and family you need along the way to fight your own hard battles.

_____

Some songs that came up in my mix during the race:

Non E Per Sempre – Eiffel 65 (amazon affiliate link)

Your Disco Needs You – Kylie Minogue (amazon affiliate link)

There is a Light That Never Goes Out – The Smiths (amazon affiliate link)

Waka Waka – Shakira (amazon affiliate link) – my older sister shared this one with me the night before the race, I thought of her when it came on!

Take Me Away – 4 Strings (amazon affiliate link)

The new Las Vegas Discovery Children’s Museum (formerly the Lied Discovery Children’s Museum) will be opening March 9th but today we had the great fortune of taking part in a member preview of the museum!  Located right next to the Smith Center, the new museum has so many neat details inside that I tried to capture with my little phone camera so I wanted to share them.  For example, the railing in the picture above is from the courtyard by the museum, I love the detail in the design that looks like children with their arms reaching upward.

We hadn’t received a confirmation e-mail for our RSVP so we arrived half an hour early and let the kids run around in front of Reynolds Hall.  It was a gorgeous day, albeit a little windy.  My husband and I had been to Symphony Park just the day before to catch West Side Story at the Smith Center but we don’t usually get to explore when we’re there for a performance.

I will never tire of taking pictures of the Smith Center.  I’m so proud of Las Vegas for Symphony Park and the offerings there so far!

We made our way back to the entrance of the museum and a line had formed so we knew it was time to wait instead of playing on the grass.  The kids did pretty well, actually, with the waiting.  The day before we’d been at “Touch a Truck” over by The Orleans and they’d surprised me with their patience while waiting to go on the garbage truck.  I was getting really excited to see the museum myself and it did not disappoint.

They have screens up showing the pricing and it now reflects that ages 1-99 are $12 per person which is a change from their previous pricing and it looks like their packages for memberships have changed as well.  I wanted to talk to someone about party pricing and was told they’re already taking reservations for parties but by then it was lunch time for the kids and we needed to leave.  The member preview did offer food but not really anything safe aside from a bit of the fruit and I was also told that while we used to be able to bring our lunches to the museum they have adopted a no outside food policy for guests as well as for any parties or events.  Good to know so that I can plan accordingly.

These kites are suspended over the entry area to the left of check-in/ticketing – I love the playful colors that seemed bright and energetic without being cloying as multi-colored decor can sometimes be when people are decorating for children.

There was an area for pretend play, so you had a pirate ship, a castle, and even a dress-up stage on the first floor.

We didn’t go into toddler town but it was adjacent to the fantasy area and the water play area.

I snapped a picture of some of the dress up options inside the castle…

…and her’s another picture of the pirate ship.  It was a packed museum, all three floors, but everyone was just excited and friendly so it all worked out.

Our kids did not want to leave each area we explored, especially the water play section which is a huge improvement over the one in the previous museum location.

Lots of splashing so pack a change of clothes for your kids or take advantage of some of the ponchos they have in the area.

I’m not sure if the ponchos will be a regular feature but then again in the summer it won’t be too difficult to pop outside to dry off before returning to the museum to play.

They had no maps available yet so I got a few shots of the one on the wall just to share so I apologize if any of the exhibit names are hard to make out.

The details were amazing and lovingly done.  I snapped this photo on the second floor.

The area I think we’ll spend the most time at in the future has to be “Young at Art” – there are all forms of media for cutting, pasting, crayon rubbing, and even digital painting.  It took a while to convince the kids to move on!

The museum has an elevator and regular stairs but through the center of the building is a staircase of sorts that lets you play, slide, and make music all the way to the top.

The very top was not yet open but should be soon.  I love the pinpoints of lights that reminded me of stars.

Other areas include a mystery town where you can use various clues (such as those using morse code) to solve a crime.

I was extremely worried the car exhibit we knew and loved in the old museum would not be at the new museum but the spirit of it lived on in Eco City!

The Smiths store in Eco City was another familiar find though slightly updated.

Next to the Smiths and Findlay Car Care area was a construction zone (foam blocks), an animal clinic, airport, and a mini Jamba Juice complete with counter and pretend food for serving to patrons.

What a treat it will be to continue exploring all the museum’s offerings in the coming months and years.  If you are even just visiting Las Vegas with your children in tow I have to say this is a world class museum and worth the price of admission.  I’m gushing, I know, but the museum exceeded our expectations and then some.  The best thing of all is that the friendly staff and volunteers are just as wonderful as they were at the old location and their enthusiasm and excitement for their new home shows.

I wanted to share for local folks that there is a great opportunity to bring a friend, family member, or caregiver for the child in your life to a free training that will help them gain a better understanding of food allergy management!  Be sure to RSVP to fapelasvegas@gmail.com soon so that they know to expect you at: