Pumpkin and Spice

Hey, everyone... Things are pretty stressful right now. At the begining of the month, my father was feeling ill with flu-like symptoms. After nursing what he and my mom thought was the flu for a couple days, he collapsed and had to be taken to the hosptial. Blood cultures revealed that he had MRSA, which is a medication resistant staph infection. He was on anti-biotics for two weeks, and seemed to be doing better. The day he was supposed to be released, his blood cultures showed he still had infection in his system. He had an endoscopic cardiogram, and the doctors determined that the MRSA had settled in a heart valve and had damaged the valve, meaning that he would require open heart surgery to clean and replace the damaged/infected valve.
He went into heart surgery yesterday, and things went well (or as well as can be hoped when you're having open heart surgery...) However today his heart was being "sluggish" (the doctor's words) and was not pumping as strong as they were hoping.

This morning, he went in to surgery to have a balloon pump in his heart (I don't know what that means.) Currently he is in critical care. His blood pressure is exceptionally low and he is on constant dialysis to keep fluid from accumulating in his lungs and other organs. Kyle and I were going to fly up (to Kansas) on Monday to visit, but have moved our flight to tomorrow morning, as at this point things are pretty precarious.

I've been doing great at getting to the gym after work, however, the downside is I don't get home until 6 or 6:30- which means by the time I walk in the door, I am starving. Kyle gets home shortly after, also hungry.

When I wasn't doing the gym-thing, I had an extra hour and a half to cook, but now, if I want dinner on the table by 7ish, I've got to be a little craftier. I'd love to spend time simmering, peeling and whatnot, but sometimes (and I'm sure you're with me on this) I just need to get dinner ready now.

My okra with sausage and shrimp fits the bill perfectly. It's quick, easy and healthy- plus, most of the ingredients are freezer or pantry stable, which is a bonus (in my opinion) because it means I can plan in advance, but if something comes up, nothing's going bad waiting to be cooked. (I usually plan 4+ cooked meals a week, but don't always wind up getting around to cooking all of them- either we go out or eat leftovers or whatever- so it's nice to have at least one that can lapse into the next week without ingredients spoiling.)

 Whew! Yikes, that was an exhausting December! I really, honestly thought I'd post more last month, but I spent most of the month working, shopping or squeezing in some family time. I'm sure you all were in a similar boat- it's a busy season. Hope you all had lovely Chanukahs, Christmases and Champagne-soaked New Year's Eves. (Me? I had two glasses and was in bed by 11. I had to be up at 7a for work the next day, and I'm a girl who needs her eight hours.)

New Year's Eve is great- I love that feeling of having a new chance at a fresh start. I know it's just the turning of the calendar, but something about a new year makes anything seem possible. Did you make any resolutions? I did, and it's probably the same one many of you made- to lose weight. I make it every year, but I'm never very good at it. I've been going back and forth in my head about this, but I've decided that this year, I'm going to blog about it. Please don't roll your eyes- I know this is a food blog, but this is about food. I've tried to share with you all my adventures in food, and I feel like this is going to be a significant adventure for me.

And, well, it's my adventures in food that brought me here. I was a chubby kid, and a chubby teenager, and in college, thanks to the tried and true method of exercising a bit and not eating everything that wasn't nailed down, I managed to lose quite a bit of weight. Later, when I got engaged, I slimmed down even farther... but, with the threat of a strapless dress immortalized on film forever no longer looming, and the cozy comfort of newlywed-hood, a few pounds crept back on. Not a big deal, but then I went to pastry school and put on a few more, then I went to Utah and packed on some winter weight on top of that, and well... never really lost it. So, in a nutshell, I am an embarrassing 45lbs heavier than I was three years ago (thanks mostly to croissants, cakes, and other sweets...)

Still staring down the last remains of turkey in your fridge? Can't stomach the thought of anymore turkey sandwiches?

Personally, I underestimated my family's turkey-eating capabilities and had hardly any leftover turkey (in retrospect, I would have gone up a couple pounds, so as to have more leftovers.) However, I greatly overestimated how much cornbread dressing eight people could eat, and had three (!) tupperware containers filled with dressing. I froze one, we ate the other as sides with various meals, but I wasn't really sure what to do with the final tub. I mean, I loooves me some cornbread dressing, but even I have my limits.

I was fully intending to post my turkey recipe prior to Thanksgiving, you know, when it might have done some good. But I was a little busier than I anticipated- I worked every day for eight days before Thanksgiving, so there was a lot of pre-holiday prep work that occupied my evenings (when I might have had time to blog), plus with family coming into town there was a lot of cleaning to do. I kinda overestimated my free time, I'll be honest.
Well, there's always the Christmas turkey.

(Also, before we go any further, my "h" key is sticking, sooo... if any words are missing "h's", that's why.)