Thank you all so much for the wonderful feedback about my quitting my job last week! It has been a fun ride so far, and it feels so natural to be doing the bakery full-time that I hardly remember my former life as a library assistant.
For this post, I want to focus a bit on some delicious recipes I've tried recently that I think you should try, too. Enjoy!
This shortcake wowed the pants off of me. I covered it with a rhubarb sauce that was lightly sweetened, and the result was fantastic.
This two-ingredient frosting is so ingenious! I use coconut milk and chocolate chips all the time, yet never thought to make something so great out of them.
Curry is curry, right? SO WRONG! This curry beats all curries, including the ones we get at our local Thai restaurant. I can't go back to store-bought curry now that I've tasted this.
These brownies are actually healthy and completely allergen-free. Yesterday I tried them with a prune paste (instead of bananas), and they were even more intensely delicious.
What are your currently-favorite recipes??
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Life Update
This is an exciting time for me, and I'll tell you why.
This decision took some time. Some serious thought. Some tears. Some high blood pressure. Some reassuring hugs and words from D. In the end, though, I felt good and ready to do it. Last Sunday, the 12th (Mother's Day) was my last day of employment.
My fabulous coworkers (whom I will miss beyond words - they have all become wonderful friends) gave me a great farewell: they stood at the edge of each of the five floors the library has and wished me a fond goodbye, then clapped. Last week my closest friends from the library pitched in and gave me a cute apron and a lovely glass jar with the word "Cinnamon" (my bakery's name) engraved in it. It was full of cinnamon sticks.
To say I feel loved and supported in this terrifying endeavor is an understatement. I feel love from everywhere I look; this just might be one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life! With it comes fear, though, and lots of stress. My chest feels tight and my head is always talking to me. But eventually, I think some of that will calm down when other parts of my life calm down (namely: the decision to move after we had a bad experience with our current house). And then I'll feel what I did when I left the library last week: excitement, and, ultimately, the feeling that I was doing the right thing.
What big (or little!) thing have you done that's scared you?
I just quit my job, my career, if you will, to pursue my bakery and become 100% self-employed.
This decision took some time. Some serious thought. Some tears. Some high blood pressure. Some reassuring hugs and words from D. In the end, though, I felt good and ready to do it. Last Sunday, the 12th (Mother's Day) was my last day of employment.
My fabulous coworkers (whom I will miss beyond words - they have all become wonderful friends) gave me a great farewell: they stood at the edge of each of the five floors the library has and wished me a fond goodbye, then clapped. Last week my closest friends from the library pitched in and gave me a cute apron and a lovely glass jar with the word "Cinnamon" (my bakery's name) engraved in it. It was full of cinnamon sticks.
To say I feel loved and supported in this terrifying endeavor is an understatement. I feel love from everywhere I look; this just might be one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life! With it comes fear, though, and lots of stress. My chest feels tight and my head is always talking to me. But eventually, I think some of that will calm down when other parts of my life calm down (namely: the decision to move after we had a bad experience with our current house). And then I'll feel what I did when I left the library last week: excitement, and, ultimately, the feeling that I was doing the right thing.
What big (or little!) thing have you done that's scared you?
Monday, April 22, 2013
Happy Earth Day!
In honor of our earth, which gives us a home, food to eat and water to drink, I'm wishing you a very happy earth day!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Spring 2013 in Portland
Every year I write a post about spring in Portland. This is because spring, to me, represents so much: the days get longer, the rain stops every once in a while and the sun actually gets to shine, and flowers begin to grow and bloom. Summer is my favorite season, but spring allows me to hope once again for summer; after the dreary months of winter, when everything is dark and cold, I can see the fresh beginnings of spring and be happy again.
Thank you so much for all your comments about my migraines in my last post. I stopped taking all synthetic medicines (including birth control) and am now only ingesting vitamin supplements. My headaches have lessened, although they are still there, and my blood pressure seems to have lowered itself (but I can no longer have ANY caffeine, or it goes right back up). I've started acupuncture, but my previous practitioner turned out to be a flake, so I have to go to a new one starting next week. D and I have started meditating regularly at home, in the evenings, which is a time I look forward to. My main concern now is for my health. I feel like I have lost so much of who I am in this whole situation that I'm not quite sure how to get that former self back. I am so fortunate to have loving friends and family by my side even when I am not well enough to be physically there with them. This seems to be a long journey, but I know I am not taking it alone.
It seems that, in the light of the Boston tragedy that just occurred, we can all use some pictures of sun and happy flowers. My thoughts are continuously with those in Boston who are suffering right now from a pain I can't even begin to fathom.
Thank you so much for all your comments about my migraines in my last post. I stopped taking all synthetic medicines (including birth control) and am now only ingesting vitamin supplements. My headaches have lessened, although they are still there, and my blood pressure seems to have lowered itself (but I can no longer have ANY caffeine, or it goes right back up). I've started acupuncture, but my previous practitioner turned out to be a flake, so I have to go to a new one starting next week. D and I have started meditating regularly at home, in the evenings, which is a time I look forward to. My main concern now is for my health. I feel like I have lost so much of who I am in this whole situation that I'm not quite sure how to get that former self back. I am so fortunate to have loving friends and family by my side even when I am not well enough to be physically there with them. This seems to be a long journey, but I know I am not taking it alone.
It seems that, in the light of the Boston tragedy that just occurred, we can all use some pictures of sun and happy flowers. My thoughts are continuously with those in Boston who are suffering right now from a pain I can't even begin to fathom.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Living With Pain
This post has been written in my head for quite a while, but has yet to make it from fingertip to keyboard to blog. For the past 8 months, I've been plagued with migraines. To say "plagued" sounds a bit dramatic, doesn't it? And yet, that's how it feels. Over half of the month, I wake up with a headache. This headache is not just any headache. It's one that has the power to make or literally break my day. If I decide to go ahead and take Excedrin, it may or may not help, and if it does help, my day turns out all right (albeit, a bit jittery). If I don't take anything (or sometimes, even if I do), my headache will most likely get worse and worse over the course of the day until it's unbearable to do anything but lay down and wish that I were not here.
I've been prescribed myriad high-strength migraine medicines, but they don't work, especially because you're supposed to take them at the onset of the headache, which is prior to when I wake up, so, thus, an impossible task. Ibuprofen doesn't even touch the headache, and often, the only relief I get is from sleeping. After talking with co-workers who also suffer from migraines, I started taking more supplements: Vitamin B2, Vitamin D, Magnesium, and Vitamin B12. These helped for about 2 1/2 months, and then it was like the migraines came back with double the power and a vengeance against me, to boot.
I finally asked my general doctor for a referral to see a neurologist. I met with her on Wednesday the 13th, and she prescribed an extremely low dose anti-depressant that's supposed to replenish the serotonin levels thought to be depleted when one suffers from migraines. I took it for 3 days before suffering from the first side effects. Now, mind you, I'm a slight person: I weigh 115 pounds and am pretty dang fit, so things often affect me faster and more powerfully than your average person. That being said, I think everyone (especially me, even though I have a very long history of allergies to medicines) was surprised by just how fast these symptoms hit. Saturday morning I woke up with a tremor, and my heart seemed to be beating abnormally quickly and heavily. I gave myself a lovely panic attack and nearly fainted, all while D was feverishly looking up common side effects to this drug. They were all there, so we both thought it would be all right if I continued to take it.
The worst part about taking this drug is that my doctor had informed me it would take at least a month before I'd feel migraine relief. With these symptoms adding to my already-debilitating headaches, I didn't really know if I could last the whole month, but I soldiered on, thinking it would pay off in the end. Until Thursday.
I saw a new naturopath on Wednesday the 20th who was quite taken aback at my high blood pressure. I've never had such high blood pressure in my life, and now I was beginning to get quite concerned as well. I went home after getting blood taken for possible food sensitivities, and thought it was all just par for the course. Thursday, I woke up with even more pain, heart palpitations, and the scariest feelings in my chest I've ever had. I called the advice nurse to make sure I could stop taking the medicine without any adverse side effects (HA!), and then asked D to stay with me all day to make sure I wasn't going to die. By the end of the day, I felt okay, even though my energy level wasn't amazing, so I figured the drug was already working itself out.
Friday came, however, and by the evening, I literally thought I was having a heart attack. I've never been so scared in my life, so D rushed me to the nearby urgent care so I could get checked out. In the time before he got home, I started putting together a list in my head of folks I should quickly text to tell them I loved them before I died - that's how terrified I was. When I told the desk clerks that I had pain in my chest, I was immediately rushed back to get my blood pressure measured, and it was indeed very high - so high that I thought they would be getting together a will for me to sign. Thankfully, D was there with me every step of the way, so in my head, if I had to die, at least it was while I was with the love of my life.
Thankfully, when I got placed in a room (which happened rather quickly - it seems that the words "pain in chest" are magic when it comes to hospitals!), the nurse who was attending to me said that the numbers he was seeing on my charts were, although a little disconcerting, not nearly bad enough that I should think I was dying. In fact, he -- and later the doctor as well -- said that people live with those kinds of numbers for years. I can't tell you how much better this made me feel. Although it didn't take away the pain or lessen the pressure, it was as if a different, invisible layer of stress had been lifted. I wasn't going to die after all!!
Another technician came in and did an EKG, and finally the doctor came in and had a great talk with me. He listened to all my symptoms, concerns, and questions, and told me I truly didn't have anything to worry about. He told me to go to the MRI that I have scheduled this coming week, and to try to deal with my stress a little bit, as that can be a cause of migraines. He thought the migraines were probably the main cause of my high blood pressure, and that, if I was able to lessen their frequency, my blood pressure should probably resolve itself and go back to normal.
I can't even tell you what a relief that was. Of course, that doesn't mean that I'm free of the headaches, nor is my blood pressure even back down to what it should be yet, but today I woke up feeling like I wasn't going to die (a great improvement over the past week!), and very confident about the healing road ahead.
I realize this is an insanely long post, and there are probably only two of you who have actually read to the very end (thank you!), but I wanted to tell you all of this for two main reasons: the first one is that you might be wondering why my posting here has gotten a bit limited. The answer is that it's kind of hard to feel motivated to cook, write about the food and then publish it when your head is pounding and your vision is blurred. The other reason is because I feel like so few people actually talk about the pain they're in that I wanted to be sure and mention it here. I'm 29-years-old and very healthy, yet I have been stricken with this chronic pain that has seemingly appeared out of nowhere and doesn't seem to have a clear cure. It's terrifying being in this spot, and I know of very few other people who have spoken about chronic pain, though I know there must be thousands of them who suffer the same or even worse than I do. Let's try and be open with this pain, and share it with each other, in the hope that it may make it feel just a little bit better.
Thank you so much for reading, and please feel free to leave any comments you may have below.
I've been prescribed myriad high-strength migraine medicines, but they don't work, especially because you're supposed to take them at the onset of the headache, which is prior to when I wake up, so, thus, an impossible task. Ibuprofen doesn't even touch the headache, and often, the only relief I get is from sleeping. After talking with co-workers who also suffer from migraines, I started taking more supplements: Vitamin B2, Vitamin D, Magnesium, and Vitamin B12. These helped for about 2 1/2 months, and then it was like the migraines came back with double the power and a vengeance against me, to boot.
I finally asked my general doctor for a referral to see a neurologist. I met with her on Wednesday the 13th, and she prescribed an extremely low dose anti-depressant that's supposed to replenish the serotonin levels thought to be depleted when one suffers from migraines. I took it for 3 days before suffering from the first side effects. Now, mind you, I'm a slight person: I weigh 115 pounds and am pretty dang fit, so things often affect me faster and more powerfully than your average person. That being said, I think everyone (especially me, even though I have a very long history of allergies to medicines) was surprised by just how fast these symptoms hit. Saturday morning I woke up with a tremor, and my heart seemed to be beating abnormally quickly and heavily. I gave myself a lovely panic attack and nearly fainted, all while D was feverishly looking up common side effects to this drug. They were all there, so we both thought it would be all right if I continued to take it.
The worst part about taking this drug is that my doctor had informed me it would take at least a month before I'd feel migraine relief. With these symptoms adding to my already-debilitating headaches, I didn't really know if I could last the whole month, but I soldiered on, thinking it would pay off in the end. Until Thursday.
I saw a new naturopath on Wednesday the 20th who was quite taken aback at my high blood pressure. I've never had such high blood pressure in my life, and now I was beginning to get quite concerned as well. I went home after getting blood taken for possible food sensitivities, and thought it was all just par for the course. Thursday, I woke up with even more pain, heart palpitations, and the scariest feelings in my chest I've ever had. I called the advice nurse to make sure I could stop taking the medicine without any adverse side effects (HA!), and then asked D to stay with me all day to make sure I wasn't going to die. By the end of the day, I felt okay, even though my energy level wasn't amazing, so I figured the drug was already working itself out.
Friday came, however, and by the evening, I literally thought I was having a heart attack. I've never been so scared in my life, so D rushed me to the nearby urgent care so I could get checked out. In the time before he got home, I started putting together a list in my head of folks I should quickly text to tell them I loved them before I died - that's how terrified I was. When I told the desk clerks that I had pain in my chest, I was immediately rushed back to get my blood pressure measured, and it was indeed very high - so high that I thought they would be getting together a will for me to sign. Thankfully, D was there with me every step of the way, so in my head, if I had to die, at least it was while I was with the love of my life.
Thankfully, when I got placed in a room (which happened rather quickly - it seems that the words "pain in chest" are magic when it comes to hospitals!), the nurse who was attending to me said that the numbers he was seeing on my charts were, although a little disconcerting, not nearly bad enough that I should think I was dying. In fact, he -- and later the doctor as well -- said that people live with those kinds of numbers for years. I can't tell you how much better this made me feel. Although it didn't take away the pain or lessen the pressure, it was as if a different, invisible layer of stress had been lifted. I wasn't going to die after all!!
Another technician came in and did an EKG, and finally the doctor came in and had a great talk with me. He listened to all my symptoms, concerns, and questions, and told me I truly didn't have anything to worry about. He told me to go to the MRI that I have scheduled this coming week, and to try to deal with my stress a little bit, as that can be a cause of migraines. He thought the migraines were probably the main cause of my high blood pressure, and that, if I was able to lessen their frequency, my blood pressure should probably resolve itself and go back to normal.
I can't even tell you what a relief that was. Of course, that doesn't mean that I'm free of the headaches, nor is my blood pressure even back down to what it should be yet, but today I woke up feeling like I wasn't going to die (a great improvement over the past week!), and very confident about the healing road ahead.
I realize this is an insanely long post, and there are probably only two of you who have actually read to the very end (thank you!), but I wanted to tell you all of this for two main reasons: the first one is that you might be wondering why my posting here has gotten a bit limited. The answer is that it's kind of hard to feel motivated to cook, write about the food and then publish it when your head is pounding and your vision is blurred. The other reason is because I feel like so few people actually talk about the pain they're in that I wanted to be sure and mention it here. I'm 29-years-old and very healthy, yet I have been stricken with this chronic pain that has seemingly appeared out of nowhere and doesn't seem to have a clear cure. It's terrifying being in this spot, and I know of very few other people who have spoken about chronic pain, though I know there must be thousands of them who suffer the same or even worse than I do. Let's try and be open with this pain, and share it with each other, in the hope that it may make it feel just a little bit better.
Thank you so much for reading, and please feel free to leave any comments you may have below.
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