Tuesdays With Dorie: 1 of 10

I realize I've left you all hanging from the Cambodia trip - it was so amazing and so much more to tell you. But let me interrupt to let you know about another little thing I'm doing.

I've always enjoyed baking, there's something about homemade desserts that add a special touch - a feeling of warmth, of home. I've been missing that feeling lately and longing for it deeply. When I was reading Ms Greenspan's blog and she was talking about a new internet group "Tuesdays with Dorie" I had to check it out. It's a growing group of some of the most amazing baker's - can't believe I actually joined them, but I did.



We will take a recipe a week from one of my favorite dessert books : Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from my Home to Yours". I adore this book, discovered it around Christmas 2006 when looking for Christmas cookie recipes and fell in love with some in this book. So far everything I've made from "Baking" has turned out yummy.




Including this week's selection for the group - Caramel-topped Flan.

pay no attention the unevenness of the flan, the slightly lumpy texture, or the lack of color in the caramel topping - it tasted good and lessons were learned

This was my first attempt at anything flan-like or custardy. They have always intimidated me a little since my culinary skills are so limited. ~By-the-way, I am WAY over my head in this group, really, really not worthy to be among their ranks 'cause after scootin' around their blogs - they are some awesome cooks. You should seriously check them out.

Anyway, I thought the coconut version sounded real good so that's the one I made. I've never caramelized sugar so really didn't know how to do it and after stirring and stirring to keep the sugar from burning, I finally gave up on the rich amber color that was on her flan in the book. (turns out that to caramelize sugar you put it on med-high heat and let it cook without stirring, but with a watchful eye to avoid burning).

The flan was actually fairly easy to make,but was very exciting since I'd never entered this domain of baking. I mean caramelzing, whisking without the kitchen aid, baking in a water bath... all new.

I was a little hasty at first and although the recipe specifically states that the flan should cool in the fridge for 4 hrs after cooling to room temp - I couldn't help myself I ate one warm. big mistake, way to eggy tasting. The flan needs time to settle and for the flavors to merge. It tasted way, way better after a day in the fridge.

It also turns out that you don't use convection setting for flan - I figured it out after 40 minutes or so of baking and turned it to conventional bake and it took another 30 minutes - it should have taken 30-40 total. (in a few months I'll have this new oven figured out!)

BTW: for the week of April 1
(week #11)

Leigh of Lemon Tartlet has chosen…

Gooey Chocolate Cakes on pages 261-262

Here's the recipe for caramel-topped flan!


For the Caramel
1/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp water
squirt of fresh lemon juice

For the Flan
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1-1/4 cups whole milk
3 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a roasting pan or a 9-x-13-inch baking pan with a double thickness of paper towels. Fill a teakettle with water and put it on to boil; when the water boils, turn off the heat.

Put a metal 8-x-2-inch round cake pan-not a nonstick one-in the oven to heat while you prepare the caramel.

To Make the Caramel: Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice together in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan. Put the pan over medium-high heat and cook until the sugar becomes an amber-colored caramel, about 5 minutes-remove the pan from the heat at the first whiff of smoke.

Remove the cake pan from the oven and, working with oven mitts, pour the caramel into the pan and immediately tilt the pan to spread the caramel evenly over the bottom; set the pan aside.

To Make the Flan: Bring the cream and milk just to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a 2-quart glass measuring cup or in a bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Whisk vigorously for a minute or two, and then stir in the vanilla. Still whisking, drizzle in about one quarter of the hot liquid-this will temper, or warm, the eggs so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the hot cream and milk. Using a large spoon, skim off the bubbles and foam that you worked up.

Put the caramel-lined cake pan in the roasting pan. Pour the custard into the cake pan and slide the setup into the oven. Very carefully pour enough hot water from the kettle into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the cake pan. (Don't worry if this sets the cake pan afloat.) Bake the flan for about 35 minutes, or until the top puffs a bit and is golden here and there. A knife inserted into the center of the flan should come out clean.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven, transfer the cake pan to a cooking rack and run a knife between the flan and the sides of the pan to loosen it. Let the flan cool to room temperature on the rack, then loosely cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

When ready to serve, once more, run a knife between the flan and the pan. Choose a rimmed serving platter, place the platter over the cake pan, quickly flip the platter and pan over and remove the cake pan-the flan will shimmy out and the caramel sauce will coat the custard.

Yield: 6 to 8 Servings

my modifications:
13.5 oz unsweetened coconut milk and eliminate the cream, reduce the milk to 1 c.
I also baked it in 6 - 6 oz ramikins.

I hope you make it. And better yet, come join the group!

.

Pagoda on the way to Kampong Chhanong

Thurs March 21 several of us took a "field trip" to a local province, Kampong Chhnang, to visit the hospital and deliver some supplies. On the way we stopped for a photo op at this beautiful pagoda.
(To be honest we had one team member who was quite difficult and there were a few of us who needed a break - particularly me! )

It happens that the day we are there is a Buddhist holiday so there are some people there visiting their family mausoleums.
We also were visited by some of the local girls. They came up from the river whether they're homeless or just sent out to beg, we don't know.





The pagoda was beautifully painted with a lovely sculpture garden.
















A lion
















cute little monkey - didn't really see many of these.












A statue of Buddha holding a pot for rice.

















statue - light fixture, I think


















An elephant carrying the king





















There were rows of beautiful mausoleums. Some well cared for, some not












A family celebrating/ honoring their ancestors at a mausoleum










The beautiful girls that came up from the river. Rather than money, we gave them lollipops - they had mixed feelings about that - really wanted "dollars"






















Saying her thanks







I was over and over again awe-inspired. This pagoda and these girls were beautiful. The day did go on and that will be the next post. We went to the local hospital, to a village on the river, and stopped an ox cart delivering pottery... The trip was surreal.

starting

I'm starting with some random photos to get me rolling... There's so much to say it's hard to know where to start...So, I'll just start.

We went with this agency for two weeks to provide medical support for severe cardiac cases to the poor of Cambodia. There is a hospital in Phnom Penh that is for the poor people. In the past the organization has worked through this hospital but was limited in the surgeries they could perform there. Last year they were able to work in the local Heart Center which was made possible by delicate negotiations. The heart center is very much a for profit place and people are asked to pay for their procedures and surgeries before they are able to be admitted. this leaves a large majority of their population unable to have much needed surgeries and is why we are seeing congenital birth defects in 30-40 year olds that would have been repaired in infancy here in the US.
So our patients would have to register at CSI hospital, then carry their charts to us at the heart center where we would evaluate them and set them up for surgery if it was needed. My personal part was in the evaluation. I would see the patient, take a history, do a physical exam and then send them for an echocardiogram. All of this was made very interesting by the language barrier and by the fact that the murmmurs these folks had are rarely heard here in the US and I had to rely on textbook knowledge - not experience.
It's amazing that we were able to negotiate with the hospital - we brought many supplies with us and because of that they were willing to let us do open-heart surgery on these people for $1000 each - their normal charge being about $3500. Amazing. We had negotiated to do 20 surgeries over the 2 weeks we were there - the hard part being that there were many more than that who needed surgery. We simply had to postpone theirs in hopes that they'll live another year until we come back in 2009.




These little cuties are the brothers of an 8 yr old with a congenital heart defect.
The local Khmear Dr.s at the heart hospital were able to repair her PDA, patent ductus arteriosis, using a catheter through her femoral artery - therefore she didn't need open heart surgery.
She was beautiful (looks so much like her brother facing forward here) and extremely afraid of foreigners. I tried to limit my contact with her because it made her cry, but it was difficult cause she was so cute.
Luckily she did very well and was discharged from the hospital quickly and home to her village.







another shot of her brothers with their dad.
apparently he is a single dad - don't exactly know what happened to mom.













This is a woman who was a patient last year. Dr. Smith did valve replacement surgery on her then - she still has a few issues, but is doing quite well. I didn't work her up this year, but was in the office when she saw Dr. Smith. Her face lit up and it took a while to peel her off of him - not that anyone tried. she was so grateful and said that he changed her life.
That was a familiar song this trip. It's amazing the pathology these people are living with - more than once after surgery Dr. Smith said "I don't know how they were living, their hearts were in such bad shape"





















A walk around the heart center revealed this row of ambulances. I rarely hear a siren and we were on a very busy street.









This is where families stay wen their loved ones are in the hospital. they camp out on the grounds with hibachis - cook their meals and provide 24 hr care to their family member bringing them food, providing baths, toileting....














more families camping out on the grounds











An often seen sight is saffron robed monks walking down the streets . A very cool sight. Cambodia is a very Buddist country with shrines at every corner.

Home again, home again

I know many of you have done this return flight from Asia, but I'm here to say it's much worse than going over. Strange, but going from LA to Taipei was a 14 hr flight, Taipei to San Francisco only 10, but because of the time change I didn't want to sleep too much in order to reacclimate and it seemed much longer because of it.
Regardless, we all made it home safely and in relatively good health. I got to my home at 11pm sat night took an ambien and was in bed by 11:30. Sunday is a blur - I wasn't able to stay awake. That is, until the remodelers arrived at 2 pm to begin their jackhammers (until 8pm). Apparently he got pneumonia while I was gone and was able to complete very little so they tried to make up for lost time on Sunday. Just as well, I was a waste of skin and just layed around when I wasn't sleeping.
Since arriving, Leo and Lannie haven't been out of my sight. I missed them a lot and it's great to be able to snuggle their smelly mugs again. Apparently Leo had a little, but costly mishap while I was gone and ate a pound or so of unrisien bread dough causing him a trip to the emergency room. They made him vomit and then not being sure it all came out wanted him to stay the night then the next day at our regular vet. Sad to say he was recognized and known at the emergency room - and I wonder where all my money goes!
I'm happy to say that all is well now and he's as feisty and enthusiastic as always.
I know you all want to hear more about Cambodia and that will happen, it's just when you're so far behind, you have to start somewhere so why not at the end!



Here's the progress on the basement so far. The light in the background is from the new egress window that they were able to complete while I was gone. adn the wood studs in the foreground are supporting where about 1/3 of the concrete wall is down - that's what they've been hammering away at since yesterday afternoon.

After hours and hours of travel, we have made it to Phnom Phen. Know that any attempt to describe this will not do it justice, partially from fatigue or limited writing skills, but also from lack of perspective at this point to have any of this get well-seated in my mind.
We arrived at the airport with our MANY pieces of luggage, each of us bringing one personal bag and one filled with medical supplies. We were met by Gabi, an RN on the board of CMMCJH (for brevity, I will refer to the mission group as JH from here out) who has stayed since the January trip to coordinate and build relationships with the local hospitals and staff, and also by Nary, a lovely young Cambodian woman working with JH as our local administrative liaison. After Nary choreographed our luggage into a truck and all of us into a van, we headed off.



We had a few hours before we could check into our hotel so were taken to a military complex that is being newly built that will house a medical and nursing school. JH, I believe, has been involved in creating curriculum for the schools. The buildings were closed for the day, so we just walked the grounds. From there we were taken to our hotel.















The drive was fascinating with motorbikes, trucks and cars of all sizes weaving and bobbing along the road in what looks like a death-defying dance. We did see a crowd around a lamppost where a small car had crashed. Other than that, no accidents to report (amazingly) I’ll post a few photos that I took from the second row seat in the van to attempt to give you some perspective.



























Once at the hotel and finally checked in we had one hour to unpack and freshen up after 36 hours of travel before walking to hour the hospital we’ll be working at for the next two weeks. We I went’ to my room it was still dirty. I wanted to cry, but instead went to Bernadette’s room to wash my face and change into some fresh clothes I had carried in my carry-on. Not a much needed shower, but that would come in time.
The hospital is only a short walk from the hotel. The heart hospital is quite different than any hospital in the states. There is a central courtyard filled with grass and palm trees with the cath lab, OR suite, exam rooms and patient rooms all surrounding the courtyard. Families of patients are very involved in their care and sort of live on the sidewalks of the hospital. I didn’t take many pictures there not wanting to be disrespectful.

We did meet one woman who is scheduled for surgery tomorrow (actually late today as I’m writing this after waking at 2am Mon my time- noon Denver time). She is scheduled to have an ASD (hole in her heart at the level of her atrium) repaired. However the surgery is complicated by the fact that she also has dextrocardia, which means her heart is flipped in her chest. Not life, threatening – rare!, but not life threatening, it just complicated the surgery for Dan. This woman is one of the elders of Cambodia being 63 – I can only imagine what she’s lived through after Po Pot’s reign in the 70’s

After the hospital, back to the hotel for a team meeting then finally off to dinner then a much needed night’s sleep. I was able to sleep about 6 hours before waking. ‘m now going to look over the charts of some of the people we’ll being seeing later today. Of the two I’ve looked at, one needs a lung removed after sever scarring from TB, the other needs her mitral valve fixed after scarring caused by rheumatic heart disease.

More later..
Pats to the pooches





Court yard of the hospital from first and second level

WE;ve arrived in Taipei after a flight to LA with 3 hr layover the 14 hours in air here. Now another three housr before we board to Phnom Penh. So far, so good... Will update soon. (The other blog I set up for this trip ... I'm having some technical difficulties, so just posting here for now.)
Peace

Inspiring

I've found links to this video in my inbox several times now and find it inspiring. I'm sure you've all seen it by now, but look at it again!

"... in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about HOPE."

6 more sleeps!

That's all that's left before my trip to Cambodia.
I'm going a little crazy!

Let me fill you in a bit...
I've decided to redo my basement, I have a smallish two bedroom two bath home and would love to have one more bedroom and a playroom for the little beam. It seems that the project will start while I'm gone. So, my junk-filled basement has needed to be cleaned out.
I had planned a long weekend last weekend to accomplish this dirty task, but my sweet girl had her brush with death, consuming all my time. A few days after she was out-of-the-woods, I contracted the plague and spent most of this past week flat on my back (feeling much better now, thank you). Oh, and the week before Lannie's mishap, major car trouble/work costing mucho dinero. So, thus far, 2008 had been all about hemorrhaging $$$
Anyway, I spent the last two days getting most of the work done in the basement (another hour down there, and I'll be done). Here's a little tour of my dirty, dirty basement - until now it's been storage and where the dogs hang out during the day, so I don't spend a lot of time down there. It was rather obvious when I started moving stuff around - yikes!
Here's a tour of the "before".


The scary stairs you need to take to get down into the dust bowl..
These will be redone! Yay!

















Then the first little storage room...
The wall to the right is coming down, to open up the space and a storage closet will be at end of room.



















Then the next, slightly larger room...
The wall on the left is the same wall that is coming down. The window at the end will be turned into a 4x4 egress window. Those are pocket doors on the far right closing off a room that currently is housing all my things, but will eventually be a small bedroom. Where I'm standing to take the photo, will be a bathroom.


















Another view of the scary stairs.



















While I'm gone, they're taking down the wall and possibly putting in the egress window. If all goes smoothly, they may start on the bathroom, too. It will be quite exciting to see what I come home to. Hopefully the house will still be standing!


So, while I'm being bombarded with illnesses and nasty basement dustballs... Cambodia is closing in.
I do have high hopes of blogging from there, but you guys know how I am about blogging :)
Since a few of my coworkers are going, I don't want them to know about this blog, so I've created a new one.
It's andoffwego. See ya there!

February referrals

Rumor has it that referrals were made for LIDs through December 27, 2005 - that's 8 days of LIDs mathed this month - a mild increase. Congratulations to all those families who will see their daughter's faces for the first time.
So, if My LID is 5/16/06, that leaves only 141 days ahead of me that CCAA needs to match before I see my daughter. If they stay at the rate of 8 days per month... that's 17 more months.

Lannie's brush

Oh, this was a weekend I could have lived without... I think I've sprouted several new gray hairs.
Short (not really) story. My sweet Lannie had a severe brush with death.
Thursday, an already crappy day, the poodles went to the vet for routine dental cleaning (trust me, they were well past due - their breath could sink a ship) After several extractions, x-rays, antibiotic packing, mass removal and pain meds, I went to pick them up. I noticed Lannie panting, but was paying more attention to the rapid depletion of my bank account than her - big mistake. When I got home I noticed she was still panting quite hard and starting to whine a little - very unlike her! I went to give her a comforting pat and noticed her abdomen was huge and tight as a drum - sounding much like one, as well. I quickly called the vet who told me to rush her back for an x-ray... and long story short she had "bloat".
For those two or three of you regular readers, you may remember this happened to Leo a year or three ago. It's when their stomach fills with air then twists on itself both cutting off blood supply to the stomach and cutting of any exit for stomach contents causing more gas to fill the already bloated stomach. Quite lethal if left untreated and time is of the essence. How ironic that my poor puppy was put in harm's way by being monitored at the Vet's office!
We rushed to the emergency room for emergency surgery which was slightly delayed by none other that George W Bush - yep he was in town for some private fundraiser causing the major interstates to be closed, we were on one side of the interstate and the surgeon on the other ( just another reason to dislike the W!). An hour or so later she was wisked away to the operating room where they managed to save her life by twisting her stomach back in position and actually sutured it to her abdominal wall. Unfortunately they weren't able to save her spleen, so she's pretty anemic right now.
The next two days have consisted of driving her back an forth to the vet's office for IV fluids, IV antibiotics and monitoring. I spent many hours with her since I wasn't so sure about their monitoring techniques - have you ever spent and hour or two in a dog crate? I wouldn't consider it something for the bucket list.
The little girl was so weak and out of it from anesthesia that she would barely look up. when we first came home Friday night, the only animation we got from her was after she was home for about 5 min she realized that Sophie was visiting for the weekend. she drunkenly walked to her, gave her a sniff, and about a 3 second wag. Then straight to her dog bed where she slept deeply for the next 10 hours.




















Yesterday was a big triumph when she drank water. Today she actually ate some ground chicken I cooked for her. I think we've come through the worst part - now I just have to keep her very enthusiastic brother from harassing her too much.

The next photo is not for the squemish. It's my sweet girl's incision from her sternum to her pubic bone - poor baby. I guess unless you ckick to enlarge it, you really can't see it too well, so click at your own risk.













Night now
and pats to the pooches
kisses for the kittys
and sweet dreams

Special Request

I've had a request multiple times to update my blog, if for no other reason than to move on from the photo of my disgusting blister. The blister has been healed for many weeks now so i guess there's no reason to torture you with it any longer.

Happy New Year
I'm glad it's here. I'm feeling lighter.
You see, the end at the end of 07 I was a grinchy, cranky, beeatch... Seriously. I think I'm better now though. There's something about the clean slate of a new year that makes me hopeful. I think it will be a good year. Things need to change around here and it will be slow and subtle, but I feel confident that things will change.

This is brief, but sometime soon I'll tell yo about my upcoming trip to Cambodia...

Randomness of the day

I realize that many of you love fall. I know the weather starts cooling off and the days are crisp... but the leaves... they are my nemesis. Luckily my oh so handy brother in law put gutter helmets on my gutters last year so I don't have to worry about them, but the yard is piled high.
I was only able to spend 1an hour and a half raking today. I raked up 8 - 30 gallon bags of leaves and I still have at least that many - probably more - left on the ground.
Yep that's a nasty ol' blister I earned raking those leaves. I'd still be out there raking out from under the massive mound, but I had to quit because I ran out of light and have to run to mah jong - it's mah jong Monday.




























I was finally looking through some of my mom's yarn stash today and guess what I found...
some of her UFOs. The first was a cute little baby blanket that she crocheted. The bag it was in was from Mary Maxim - her favorite place to order from - it was postmarked 1978! I'll bet she intended to make this for a co-worker, or one of my older cousins. The blanket is completely finished other than being pieced together. I don't crochet, but can either learn or find someone
who does that will finish it for me. It's so cute. Unfortunately mom was into acrylic yarn - ever practical and it needed to be able to be easily washed and dried or she wasn't into it.








The other little gem that I found were these cute little booties - the pattern handwritten by someone other than her was with them. I think all they need is a little string with pompoms that you would tie around the ankle to help keep them on.














And lastly, poor Leo - what a goof. He has an ear infection and keep shaking his head and walking around with it tilted to the left. Tough to get a picture of, this was the best one.
It's not that I don't have compassion for the guy, but he's always so dramatic! If he gets hurt he'll cry like there's no tomorrow, if I accidentally step on a paw - he'll limp for a half hour - only when he thinks I'm watching. - not kidding he's a drama queen!
I know, I know, this ear infection hurts.. luckily I have drops left over from the last one so he should be good by morning. Poor guy!

Is your mama a llama?? How 'bout an alpaca?

This weekend was the annual open house at the alpaca ranch. My friend is a gentleman farmer - his wife became interested in alpaca's and now has over 100 head. They are adorable, gentle animals. Each year they have an open house where you can come feed, pet, adore the animals and shop her alpaca finery. I brought two of my friends with their daughters. It was sweet.
(Click on the photos if you want a better look at those amazing alpaca faces)

E and a baby alpaca - it's only a few weeks old.







E surrounded by the sweet animals








This alpaca, Isabella, was bottle fed. She took a strong liking to my friend, D., I think it's because they have the same hair color (Isabella is a suri alpaca which gives a beautiful silky fiber)





Paco, what a funny-looking guy - but a sweetie. (Have you read the book The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell? This is the picture I have in my mind of how the creatures on the other planet look.)












And the little darlings, E & L - plotting their next adventure with the barnyard animals.







And, as promised...
Leo and Lannie with their new doos. The smell so good right now - that only happens about 5 days every 2-3 months after a fresh groom.
If you're wondering what the little pouches are on their collars, it holds all their tags so they don't make noise. I can't stand the jingling sound of their tags - especially at night, so this was a great solution.