Jaw Surgery

Well after three years of working towards the jaw surgery I had it done.

This started with a sinus infection that lasted for 6 months. I did have one at the start but it turns out that I was having TMJ pains, I was unhinging my jaw to eat, talk, yawn and all sorts of other things. This caused my joint to no longer be round.

I then had to wear a dental splint, 24 hours a day taken out only to brush my teeth, for a year to figure out how bad my bite was. At the end of that it was found out that my lower jaw was too small and that I have been grinding and clenching my teeth all the time, I wore a hole into the splint.

Braces were the next stage of treatment and then jaw surgery. A year and a half into the brace treatment it was also found that the upper jaw did not fit the bottoms, there was a see saw effect the right side would touch and the left side would not and vice versa. So also needed the upper jaw broken to fit the bottom. I needed a La Fort 1 and a sagittal split osteotomy.

I had the Surgery on the 29th of Dec. It was an overnight stay at the hospital, having people wake you up every 2 hour for vitals, having the alarms on the IV pump go off every hour or so and then having the ice melt every hour I did not get much sleep. But at least I had pain meds.

This hurt more than I thought it would and drinking is very hard. My jaw is banded shut. I am drinking by taking sips from a spoon, I feel like a little kid again having my mom feed me meds and trying to use a sippy cup to drink. I can not use a straw. That and I can not feel my lips so drooling is a large problem.

Tigress’ Can Jam

I joined Tigress’ Can Jam. I will be canning something as least once a month.

S J Tucker song

Jam making on Sunday

Lets see I made plum almond jelly, spiced plum and walnut jelly, plum jelly, three batches of mixed fruit jam and two batches of cranberry sauce. I was tired after all of that. The Plum jelly did something funky. It was my first go at jelly and I think that I boiled it to hard.

Ilona Andrews' new book is out

Ilona Andrews has a new book at. YAAAaaaa!!!!! It is called On The Edge and is not part of her Kate Daniels series. I am so excited.

Plum Pepper Jam

This is a sweet and spicy jam. How hot the jam is depends on what kind of peppers you use. This goes well on chicken and pork. It is good with eggrolls. When mixed with cream cheese it makes a decent dip.




Plum Pepper Jam
3 1/4 cups finely chopped plums
1 1/2 cups chopped green or red peppers
1/2 cup chopped jalapeno peppers
2 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups cider vinegar
1 box low sugar pectin

In a 8 quart sauce pot stir in plums, peppers and vinegar.

Measure the sugar into a separate bowl. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and box of low sugar pectin in a small bowl.

Stir pectin-sugar mixture into fruit in sauce pot. Add 1/2 teaspoon butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired.

Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.

Stir in remaining sugar quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam.

Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover, bring water to gentle boil. Process jams 10 minutes. Adjust processing time according to Altitude chart. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars seal, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. If the lip springs back, lit is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.

Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Store unopened jam in cool, dry, dark place up to 1 year.

Peach Pepper Jam

This is a jam that can have as little to as much heat as you want. It all depends on what type of peppers you use. It goes well with chicken and pork. Great on crackers. If mixed with cream cheese it makes an excellent dip.

Peach Pepper Jam
2 1/4 cups peeled and finely chopped peaches
1 1/2 cups chopped green or red peppers
1/2 cup chopped jalapeno peppers
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups cider vinegar
1 box low sugar pectin

In a 8 quart sauce pot stir in peaches, peppers and vinegar.

Measure the sugar into a separate bowl. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and box of low sugar pectin in a small bowl.

Stir pectin-sugar mixture into fruit in sauce pot. Add 1/2 teaspoon butter or margarine to reduce foaming, if desired.

Bring mixture to full rolling boil (a boil that doesn't stop bubbling when stirred) on high heat, stirring constantly.

Stir in remaining sugar quickly. Return to full rolling boil and boil exactly 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim off any foam.

Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of tops. Wipe jar rims and threads. Cover with two-piece lids. Screw bands tightly. Place jars on elevated rack in canner. Lower rack into canner. Water must cover jars by 1 to 2 inches. Cover, bring water to gentle boil. Process jams 10 minutes. Adjust processing time according to Altitude chart. Remove jars and place upright on a towel to cool completely. After jars seal, check seals by pressing middle of lid with finger. If the lip springs back, lit is not sealed and refrigeration is necessary.

Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Store unopened jam in cool, dry, dark place up to 1 year.

a reading meme

We encourage you to be creative with this! Please choose one or two questions to answer or try to answer all the questions in five words or less. Or choose a picture to answer a question! Brevity is the goal of today!

1. How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears? Laying the book flat open?

Dog-ear, some times bookmark

1. Do you snack while you read? If so, favorite reading snack?

Not anymore, used to be popcorn

1. Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

The Non-fiction yes, fiction no.

1. Fiction, Non-fiction, or both?

Both

1. Are you a person who tends to read to the end of chapters, or are you able to put a book down at any point?

Yes, it depends.

1. Do you have a favorite time of day and/or place to read?

Anywhere, any time

1. How do you organize your books? (By genre, title, author’s last name, etc.?)

I have 3 bookcases for paperbacks and 3 bookcases for hardbacks. They are then organized by author's last name.

Tuesday with Dorie

This week Lyb of And then I do the dishes- chose Chocolate Armagnac Cake - The Cake That Got Me Fired.

I will be a little late, this week was just not conductive to cooking. I got my eyes dilated yesterday and well they stayed that way until bed time, 4-6 hours my foot. Today I had my first meeting with an oral surgeon. It turns out that I will need both upper, Le Fort I Osteotomy and lower, Mandibular Sagittal Split Osteotomy jaw surgery. I will meet with 2 more surgeons later this month.

My lower jaw is to short, I have been unhinging my jaw to talk, eat, yawn and many other things. I knew that my lower jaw would need to be moved forward but the fact that my top teeth do not touch in the right places was a surprise. I can get one to touch right but the other does not touch at all and vice a versa.

The part that will be tha most fun is that for six weeks after the surgery I will have to change my diet. To start for the first few weeks I will be on a liquid diet, then a very soft food diet working my way up to cruncy foods. I am sure that at the end of that I will really want some nachos. The good thing is that this will not be happening for a few months to a year.


As a bright and shiny distraction I have the quilt I finshed last month for my neice's birthday.

Tuesday with Dorie - Caramel Crunch Bars

Whitney of What’s left on the table? chose Caramel Crunch Bars, or really her children did. This was a very easy recipe. Instead of using the 9 by 13 pan I used 2 tart pans. One I used chocolate butterscotch chips on and the other has a crushed up butterfinger with what chocolate chips I had left. I did end up adding 2 tablespoons of milk to the base, it was very crumbly.

Tuesday with Dorie - Berry Surprise Cake

This week Mary Ann of Meet Me in the Kitchen chose Berry Surprise Cake. Which did not want to play nice with me. I tried to make it twice. The first time it just did not rise and the second in rose and then fell all the way. This is a cake where I have a feeling that the altitude that I live at played a factor in. 6062 feet is just a little high and this tend to make some my baking a little different. I ended up using what I had in a few trifles. Which went over well at the parties I went to last week.

Tuesday with Dorie - French Pear Tart

This special three kings day version of Tuesday with Dorie was Chosen by the author herself… Dorie Greenspan has chosen the French Pear Tart. This tart was very good. If you were to make it all in one day a little time consuming but I did a little for the last few nights so it was not that bad. The recipe had me do some new things for me. I poached pears and made almond cream for the first time. Poaching the pears was not near as hard as I thought that it would be. I used the left over syrup in a muffin recipe as the liquid. For the glaze I used some peach jam.

Tuesday with Dorie -Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

Well this is just a week late. Last week, December 30: Anne of AnneStrawberry chose Tall and Creamy Cheesecake. Wow this was a good basic cheesecake recipe. This is a recipe that you can do a lot of things with. I just changed the crust, I used Oreo cookies, this was fun. The cake did not last more than 2 days. My brother and I had a small piece and then I took the rest to work where it did not last after lunch. Everyone like cheesecake, the pieces take were fairly large.

Cookie Exchange

I got some very good Scandinavian Christmas Nougats from Siri, the Transplanted Baker. With them was some black liquorice and a very cute ornament. Well the Nougat is disappearing fairly fast, by the time I got the picture two and a half pieces were gone. Wow this is good. I liked the liquorice but my brother did not.

Thank You! Batter-Splattered for holding this.

Tuesday with Dorie the Cookie edition

December 2: noskos of Living the Life chose Linzer Sables

December 9: Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

December 16: Heather of Randomosity and the Girl chose Buttery Jam Cookies

I have to say that I am not that good at making cookies, I generally can make the dough OK but the baking of the cookies mostly goes wrong for me. The Buttery Jam Cookies came out the best. I used cranberry jam and they come out a little biscuit like. I will most definitely make them again.

Linzer Sables Cookies these were the cookies that really went wrong. I think that they needed some more moisture, the dough was very dry. I padded out half of the dough and spread some more of the cranberry jam and sprinkled the rest of the dough on top. After cooling I cut the cookies as if they were bar cookies. They tasted good but in no way looked like what they should have.

Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies taste great but I had trouble rolling and cutting them out. In the end I just rolled them into a log and sliced them. They did take twice as long to cook.

I am glad that I am done with cookies for a while.

Dorie will be late

Back up computers! Especially if there is irreplaceable info on it. That and you can buy a 1 Tera bit external hard drive at best buy.

Canned Cranberry Sauce recipe

When I went to my Sisters for Thanksgiving I sent apple and peach pie filling and 3 jars of canned Cranberry Sauce that I had made. The cranberry sauce went over well, there was none of the three jars left, and my sister wanted the recipe so I thought that I would put it here so that I could reference it later if need be. It was partly taken from the Ball Blue Book of Preserving, one of the best canning books I have.

Cranberry Sauce - Whole Berry
Yield about 6 pints
8 cups cranberries
4 cups sugar
4 cups water
zest of a lemon or an orange
2 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 to 1 cup of crystallized ginger, this depends in how much of a zing you want

Wash and sort cranberries
Combine sugar and water in a large saucepot. Boil 5 minutes.
Add cranberries. Continue boiling, without stirring, until the skins burst. Lower temp to low.
Add the zest, ground ginger and crystallized ginger. Stir, smash cranberries with potato masher until the texture you like.
I tend to have to cook the cranberry sauce for 30-40 minutes to get the constancy that I like. Just stir every once and a while.

Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Adjust two piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.

I had to add another 15 minutes for altitude. I am at 6038 ft, just over 6000ft.

Bookmarked Recipes - Crockpot Peanut (Not Brittle) Candy

This weeks Bookmarked Recipe is from A Year Of CrockPotting who has a very cool website, I have been looking to make some of her stuff, I needed thank you gifts for spending the night at relatives so I started with Crockpot Peanut (Not Brittle) Candy. I made it the day before I left, it was very easy and most everyone liked it, the only person who did not like it does not like chocolate.

I tended to call it nut candy. I made some changes and found out that this works much better cooling on silicon or parchment paper than aluminum foil.
It stuck to the foil big time. As in I could not get any of it off.

Changes:
Added 2 cups more nuts, we like our nuts. I used half almonds and half peanuts.

After pouring out the candy to cool I sprinkled some chocolate chips and when they had melted I spread them out.

For one of them I had also added some dried cranberries. It gave the candy just that little something extra.

I will most definitely be making this again. Every one wanted the recipe, at the end of the week I had it mesmerized from writing it out so many times.

flight home pictures

Well I am home, Tuesday with Dorie will be a little late this week. I got home late. Seattle was wet and the Day after I got home, the day that I was going to the store it snowed all day and I got 6-7 inches of snow. Anyway here are some pictures I took an the flight home. The first one has the moon, Venus and Jupiter with a sunset.

Tuesday with Dorie - Arborio Rice Pudding

This week Isabelle of Les gourmandises d’Isa chose Arborio Rice Pudding. As rice puddings go this was pretty good. I did get around having to stir and make sure the pudding did not burn by cooking this in my crockpot. The other change that I made was that I added another 1/4 cup of rice and some cinnamon. I put everything but the water in the crock pot and set it to high for 30 min and then set it to warm overnight. It was good the next day. I had some some warm for breakfast. For more pudding check out Tuesdays with Dorie.