Heat makes me crazy

I think I must have been delusional when I found out we were moving to St. Louis. For some strange reason, I thought that St. Louis in the summer would be cooler than Washington, DC or Norfolk, Virginia. Ha! I'm not sure why I thought that, maybe it was during one of the heat spells in Norfolk that I thought that. St. Louis is HOT. I think of this as the beginning of summer and with the heat index it is 108 right now outside. I'm really afraid to know what August is going to be like!

I don't know if it's my Irish blood, or the fact that I grew up in mild Seattle, but the heat does strange things to me. Not even taking into account the fact that I burn in under 10 minutes, but if I am out in it for any length of time, I get light-headed, dizzy and downright odd in the head. I am really thankful that I am not working, and I don't have to go out much if I don't really want to!

Thankfully we have central air conditioning, which is something almost unheard of in Seattle. Whenever I think of central A/C I can't help but think of the scene from the movie "Dogma" with the demon Azrael. "No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater than central air...". I whole-heartedly agree with that!

But, because this is an older home that we are renting, there are some rooms that don't cool quite as well as others - the kitchen in particular. My kitchen is 80 degrees right now, while it is 75 degrees in the dining room, where I am right now. As you can imagine, I haven't been wanting to spend too much time in the kitchen, but I have to spend some time in the kitchen - we have to eat!

Which brings us to one of the most recent dishes I've made. I did have to heat up the kitchen to make Rotini with Salmon and Roasted Garlic from "Everyday Pasta" by Giada De Laurentis, but I ate the leftovers cold the next day! If you can remember to roast your garlic earlier in the day or the day before, this comes together very quickly.

But, you can also use the heat of the oven to make on of my favorite side dishes - roasted asparagus. Just rinse and dry your asparagus, and snap the ends off. Place them in a roasting dish large enough to lay the spears flat. Drizzle them with just enough olive oil to coat and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Depending on the thickness of your asparagus, they will take approximately 6-12 minutes to cook.

Rotini with Salmon and Roasted Garlic

from "Everyday Pasta" by Giada De Laurentis

2 whole heads of garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 pound rotini or fusilli (corkscrew-shaped pasta)

1/2 cup Marsala or white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 pound salmon, cut into 1-inch cubes

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons drained capers

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut the heads of garlic in half crosswise and place on a sheet of foil. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Fold the foil up and around the garlic, making sure it stays flat, and fold the edges to seal into a tight packet. Roast until soft, about 60 minutes. Let the garlic cool slightly, then squeeze the cloves out of the skin. Mash half of the roasted garlic cloves into a paste with the back of a fork. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, combine the Marsala and chicken broth in a large heavy skillet and bring to a simmer. Add the mashed roasted garlic and stir to dissolve. Simmer uncovered for 4 minutes, then add the salmon, cover, and simmer for 4 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and add the remaining whole roasted garlic cloves, the lemon zest and juice, rosemary and the cooked pasta. Stir to combine; add the extra-virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and stir once more. Serve immediately.

Our lives for the last month, or so...

Hello again. I think it is a good thing that I don't have a lot of readers yet, with my recent absence. I with that I could say that I won't be away for that long again, but life has a way of throwing curve balls at you.

It has been a whirlwind month. Both Patrick and I are exhausted. Joyce, my mother-in-law, went into a nursing home last Tuesday. This has been one of the most frustrating and difficult situations that we've dealt with in our lives.

I am finally able to sit down in a silent house. All I have heard for the last month is the constant noise of the TV and an oxygen machine. I sometimes forget that I am unusual (in so many ways). Most people need background noise - the TV, radio, etc. I love music, but I need silence in order to relax. Perhaps I should really consider spending some time at a Buddhist Monastery. Before all of this happened, I had been trying to do yoga and meditate, although I haven't had the time nor the energy to do anything lately! I think my favorite thing that has happened in the last month, is the reply to a Facebook entry I made about trying to relax from my friend Shazi -she told me that my new nickname was "Zen Jen". I like it!

It all began on Sunday April 26th. Patrick was off, and we were running errands and trying to explore St. Louis when he got a call from his aunt. His mom was in the hospital. I guess I should fill you in with some background before I go on. Joyce has a myriad of health issues. To summarize, she has been diabetic since 1983, she had a triple bypass in 1999, she has macular degeneration and is legally blind, and has been going through kidney dialysis 3 times a week for the last 3 years. For the last 1o years or so, we have been trying to convince her to move into a facility of some sort. At first we were trying to get her into a senior community, and as time went on, and her health problems got worse, we tried to convince her to go into an assisted living facility and then a nursing home. She didn't want to do that; she did not think she needed to go into any sort of home. Ever since before Patrick retired from the Navy, we had been talking about moving her closer to us. With all of the uncertainties we were facing: where we were going to be, what his job would be and would we like the area, we didn't make any definate plans. We were going to address the issue once he was permanent in his new job and had vacation time. That was going to give us plenty of time to find a community for her to live in. Before the 26th of April, she was still insisting that she could live on her own in an apartment. Then the doctor called us and told us that she could not live alone any longer, and that if we wanted her to be close to us, than it was better to do it soon. Very soon.

So began the scramble. Patrick worked 10 days straight so that he could have 4 days off to bring her to St. Louis. On Thursday, May 7th we drove out of St. Louis after Patrick got off work to pick up my mother-in-law, Joyce (from now on referred to as MIL) in Alabama. We had to be back home by that Sunday (Mother's Day) so that she could make her dialysis appointment on Monday, and Patrick started work again on Tuesday.

We knew even before getting home that having her stay with us for an extended period of time was not going to work. Now, you have to understand that we are renting an old house, with stairs at both the front and back entrances. My MIL needs the wheelchair lift to use the bus, because she can't go up those stairs. Within the first week that she lived with us, she fell 5 times! She did get a nasty gash on one of those falls, but thankfully she never truly hurt herself.

We soon realized exactly how much care she needed.

I think that many young girls dream of being a nurse. I was never one of those girls. I respect nurses. More now than I did before. The last month I have administered her medication, been her aid to and from her three times a week dialysis appointments, bandaged her boo-boos (her words, not mine), tried to cook food she would like according to her renal diet (I'll be doing another post on that), tried to keep the house clean and do laundry, cleaned up fecal matter, helped her in and out of the shower, put cream on a rash on her butt... this list could go on, but I don't want to get into too much detail.

We have realized that I have more patience than I thought I had, and that Patrick has less than he thought he had.

And then you have the difference in personalities. My MIL has always been a bit childish. I think that has something to do with her size. At 4'7", she is a small woman, and her voice is very high (think a little lower than the munchkins in "The Wizard of Oz") . I know that people always mention how cute and adorable she is, and I think at some point in her young life she decided to play that up a bit. She seems to be regressing more and more as she ages. She talks with baby-talk, allot. She refers to her "tummie", when she is hungry she wants some "yummies", things are "all-rightyyy", and any sore is a "boo-boo".

Those of you who know me well, know that I don't watch much television, and when I do I prefer quirky films and programs. Shows such as "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", "The Soprano's", "Weeds", etc... Because of her health issues, my MIL can't do much except watch television. Her favorite things to watch are Disney cartoon movies, John Wayne films and the Andy Griffith show. I found out in the last few weeks that she also watches the Hallmark Channel, Foodtv, and the Price is Right.

We did have a home nurse that came out several times a week to check her vital signs and make sure that everything was OK. That was nice until she told me that my MIL should not even be getting out of a chair or her bed by herself. My MIL sleeps most of the day, and is up at night. I didn't know how I was going to be able to be there all the time that she needed me. Needless to say, I have spent the last few weeks on pins and needles. Scared that I was going to find her on the floor, again. I don't sleep well normally, but I have been constantly thinking of what needs to be done next, and did I give her the right medication, am I cooking her the correct food, what should I cook her next...

Food - sigh. She has the will-power and self-control of a 3 year old child left alone in a grocery store. When I first met her, 14 years ago, she ate McDonald's for breakfast every morning (remember she was diabetic) and from what I can tell she hadn't stopped that, even with being a kidney patient. She doesn't like plain water because it tastes "ickie". She only likes chicken fried, she always wants sweet things, and she salts everything, most of the time before tasting it -including fruit. I felt like I was a nanny again, trying to get her to eat healthy food. Nothing I cooked or did was right, or good enough for her.

Although I am happy that she is in a nursing home, I feel guilty for putting her there. She is not happy and she does not think that she needs to be in a nursing home. I constantly have to remind myself that the nurses know that she needs to be there. Whether she likes it, or knows it, it is where she should be.

The adventure is not quite over yet. She is in a home, but we still need to apply for Medicaid, so that she can stay there. Then there will be the complaints. Neither of us are looking forward to that, but it will be really wonderful to be able to go and visit her once or more a week, spend an hour or so with her, and then come home to silence.

Ahh... silence!