Kitty's Scratch Pad

Recovering from surgery in style

Last Thursday marked my second and final round of Osseous Dental Surgery.  I have struggled for many years after being pregnant with Fen to get my gums healthy again.  Part of the issue is just poor gum health from not taking care of myself and part of it is hereditary.  My mom just had a similar procedure a week ago.  The first surgery was pretty terrible.  I have had a LOT of mouth work in my life.  It began at the age of seven when I received my dental and orthodontic "game plan".  My mouth was too small for all of my teeth.  In the end, I have had 16 teeth pulled of which 8 were permanent.  All 4 Wisdom teeth were impacted and I was given a general anesthesia for the surgery.  I thought this would be the same.  Then when I arrived, they explained I would be given a local which was customary.  I am sure I simply convinced myself I would be knocked out because all of the paperwork my dentist handed me very clearly said otherwise.  So I tried to be tough.  The other fun to all of this is I am horribly frightened of needles.  So the thought of massive needles full of Novocaine in my mouth left me uneasy.  The first procedure took a little over an hour and the entire time I was moments from passing out...literally.  They had me at a 45 degree angle upside down and had to stop every 2-3 minutes to let me breathe.  My hands were numb.  Alex told me to load a pod-cast onto my Zune which I thought made sense until I realized this week's episode ended up being This American Life's 1 hour show about the Great Depression.  I will spare you the details of what was actually happening in my mouth and make this long story shorter. When I went back for my follow up and to schedule my next surgery, at two separate and unrelated instances, both my dentist and hygienist recommended I come an hour early next time for some medication to alleviate my stress.  And here I thought I was brave.  I didn't pass out (which I have done before).  To add to my list of why I am a terrible patient, I also don't take medication very well.  My body goes into hyper-reaction and every side-effect happens to me.  They offered Valium and Halcion.  I spent the next month deciding which to take.  My friend just had laser surgery for her eyes and said Valium wasn't enough so I went with the harder stuff.  And since I am putting it all out there for maximum feel-sorry-for-me effect, I will also have you know I came down with a cold on Monday before my surgery which I mostly kicked by Wednesday only to come down with a UTI which had me doubled over in pain and frightened my surgery would have to be postponed.  No way in hell was I going to allow this.  Some quick conversations with my nurse and I had a prescription called in for Alex to pick up after my surgery the next day.  So...Thursday came, I took the Halcion and got through the surgery just fine.  I was applauded for such improved behavior!  Alex picked me up and I was sleeping in my bed soon after.  I woke up though and that lovely I-don't-care-about-anything feeling quickly changed to an acute and severe I-care-and-now-feel-everything pain feeling.  I took my antibiotics and a Vicodin.  About 4 hours later I took another Vicodin.  Then about 8pm, my body called pharmaceutical mutiny and I had an involuntary case of bulimia which lasted most of the night. 

The next day was better but I began referring to myself as "we".  I separated my body from my brain - they became two independent and very opinionated versions of myself that were in complete argument about how I should be feeling.  I decided to book some time away.  Sort of like women who have plastic surgery next door to a luxury hotel.  I imagined if it worked for them then it should work for me.  After Fen's swimming and Karate classes, we drove him up to spend a night with his grandma and we kept driving north to Vancouver.  Luckily hotels are desperate for patrons and we got an amazing package at the Opus which included free valet parking, dinner for two at Elixer and late check out of 2pm.  It was exactly what I needed.  We drove to Granville Island before checking in to stock up on Canadian Maple Syrup and amazing Elk Prosciutto at Oyama and we walked aimlessly around the little public market.  Then we made it to our hotel for some relaxation before our 9pm dinner reservations.  We went straight to bed and slept in until 9am.  Then we wandered to find me a pancake and get Alex some Dim Sum.  We stopped by the art museum, grabbed a cup of joe from our favorite coffee spot Cafe Artigiano and wandered some more though a local market Urban Fare which is better than Dean and Deluca.  We wandered some more and arrived at our final destination Vij's for one last meal before heading back to the states.  It was nice not having an agenda and just letting "we" get back to "me".

Vanilla Bean Caramel

Something I don't want to forget...  This New Years Eve party I made vanilla bean caramel for one of the fondues and it was delicious.  The recipe is below:

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 to 2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
• 1 cup granulated bakers sugar
• 3 tablespoons dark corn syrup
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces (I recommend using Plugra)

Preparation Instructions

Bring the cream and vanilla bean to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove the vanilla bean. Scrape out the tiny seeds with the tip of a knife, and add to the cream. Discard the vanilla bean. Set aside.

Place the sugar and corn syrup in a 3-quart saucepan, and mix with a wooden spoon until as much of the sugar is coated with the syrup as possible. Scrape any sugar back into the pan. Turn the heat to medium. The sugar will begin to break down after 3 or 4 minutes. Stir once or twice, mixing the undissolved sugar into the warm liquid. When it becomes foamy after about 2 more minutes, stop stirring. Continue heating for 2 minutes until the syrup begins to turn medium brown and the smell of caramel begins.  Be very careful not to overcook as the sugar will burn quickly. 

Whisk in the butter a little at a time and continue whisking until the mixture comes together. Remove from the heat and very slowly whisk in the cream a little at a time and continue whisking until the mixture comes together again.

The caramel is extremely hot and initially will bubble up as the cream is being added.

Return the saucepan to the burner over low heat and sir until the caramel sauce is completely smooth and all ingredients are incorporated. Sauce will thicken as it cools.

Allow the caramel to cool completely before storing in a covered container in the refrigerator. Serve warm with sliced apples and bananas.

Trip to Napa August 2008

Catching up on travel notes from last year, I thought I would share with you the tasting summary from our August trip to Napa.  Each year we take our annual trip (okay sometimes we go more than once a year) to Napa for the Chappallet Club party.  It is always a wonderful time and they treat you like family.  The Chappellets were the first to plant vineyards exclusively on high elevation hillsides (Pritchard Hill to be exact) and the second winery to be established in the Napa Valley after Prohibition. While organic farming is important, the family felt sustainability was more important than having the "organic" stamp of approval.  They employ many of the principals that make up organic farming.  The introduction of solar panels to 100% offset the winery's energy bill, bird boxes, compost tea and nutrient rich cover crops are a some of examples of the changes the family has made to help their efforts of sustainable farming.  The funny thing is, if you asked them why they are doing all of this they would tell you above and beyond any social benefit, they truly believe it makes the wine taste better and that is what really matters as grape growers. 

First off, if I haven't explained this trip already, it is worth a little background.  Alex and I have folding bikes that we can fit in the plane and we have been pretty excited about finding places to fly to where we can ditch the car rental for simply landing, unfolding our bikes on the tarmac and riding off to our destination.  This trip would prove to be our farthest ride.  We always stay in Calistoga which is 38 miles from the Napa County airport.  If you ever want a great place to stay in the Valley, our favorite two places are Indian Springs (easy on the pocketbook) and Solage (less easy on the pocketbook).  Over the next three days we traveled over 125 miles which I know doesn't sound like a lot until you take into account the folding bikes weigh 30lbs and well, there was some wine tasting.  It was a little deflating each time a nice, light roadbike would pass us on the road.  Nevertheless, we pedaled away and were pretty happy to be out getting exercise and enjoying the scenery. 

A benefit to riding was it kept us relatively close to where we were staying when we were off tasting wine.  We ventured between St. Helena and Calistoga throughout the weekend.  Below is a quick summary of our tasting highlights.

Duckhorn- We liked the 2004 Howell Mountain Merlot and 2004 Estate Cab best. The 2005 normal cab was "ehhh"...not really interesting at all.

Summers- The Summers Cab was nice, but their Charbono was the most interesting & we also grabbed a bottle of Petit Sirah port which appears to be a hot thing now.

Cuvaison - Their normal wines were so-so, but we got two bottles of Brandlin Cab which interestingly enough doesn’t have any Cuvaison branding on it.

Montelena- Their Estate Cab continues to be great. Their normal one (which now has very subtle branding distinctions from the real one, but for example is what they pour at Purple) is "ehhh".  The one thing we found funny is how many people were swarming the winery.  Bottle Shock was in theaters and those who hadn't heard about the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" wine tasting, had after seeing the movie and everyone was just dying to try the Chardonnay which we think isn't all that amazing.  We saw the movie and it was very cute.  I would recommend putting it in your Netflix queue for sure.

Chappellet- Their 2003 Prichard Hill Estate Cab seemed great. The 2005 signature didn’t really impress me that much. I continue to love the 1999 signature cab…  The special thing we got was the 2007 Cultivation. The barrel tastes were great- if their other 2007s are as good, this is a good sign.

We enjoyed eating a ton of great food too:

Thursday mid-afternoon snack - Bouchon Bakery

Thursday dinner - Solbar at Solage

Friday dinner - Terra

Saturday dinner - barVino

www.flickr.com