Food Explorer: Ham

I love food. I love to eat, I love to cook, I love to savor, I love to taste, I love to smell, I love the experience of food. I have been thinking a lot lately about food. And the way that I completely relate to Remy on Disney's Ratatouille. The way that the artists illustrated the experience of food with light and swirls, sound effects, music....that is me. Ahhh....delicious!
Food is a blessing because it keeps me alive and nourishes my babies. It can also be a curse because I love it and have to watch what I eat so that I don’t turn into a giant blueberry (you are what you eat right?). Food brings us together. Traditionally we have holidays and feasts, family dinners and festivities, the one thing that we find in common across the globe and throughout time is food. Food is a major part of life, it is a necessity. Without food our bodies don’t grow, renew or maintain themselves in a proper working order. If we eat too much food our bodies are unable to process the excess efficiently and we find things like love handles or thunder thighs ever increasing in size. Our poor body in the mean time is attempting to create some sort of storage for the future famine which is sure to ensue. Food can help us to maintain a healthy function through things like fiber and antioxidants. Or food can shut down our body or potentially kill us like peanut butter does to those with severe nut allergies or gluten for the gluten intolerant. And amazingly our children and babies come pre-programmed to eat the right amount....we may go into that on another day...
When I was pregnant with my second child I found my body not functioning properly when I was 34 weeks along. I spent many days in and out of the hospital, and doctors’ offices as we tried to help my body overcome what was ailing me. In the end it was a month of I.V. antibiotics, lots of pain meds and a handful of other meds to control the affects of the antibiotics before I was finally able to start feeling anything close to normal- er well as normal as you can that far into a pregnancy. Turns out I had a severe case of E. coli, kidney infection, kidney stones and something else in the microscopic realm that was highly resistant to treatment. What may have started as a case of food poisoning quickly turned into a huge ordeal in which I was fighting for my life and the life of my unborn child. Food may or may not have been the initial culprit, but either way I was unable to eat to nourish my baby and I, we both went into starvation mode. I lost 8 pounds, ended up in ICU because my body was shutting down and in the end had a baby who was six days past due and weighed only 6 pounds 3 ounces. She was a teeny tiny baby who had learned in the womb the importance of food and nourishment to development and sustaining life. Nowadays she is a chunky baby who seems to enjoy food as much if not more than the rest of us. Like I said food can be a blessing, or it can be a curse. Food can heal us or it can make us sick, either way it is something that we can’t live without.
Recently I was thinking a lot about meat. I am not exactly sure why but I was sort of on this meat kick. I guess my body was craving extra protein or something, I probably should have looked to more varied sources of protein but did not. Anyway as I stood there in the meat section of a local store trying to decide what types of meat I should take home to feed my family over the next couple of weeks. Then it hit me-BAM like a frying pan to the face. (ha ha ha) What exactly is the difference between regular bacon, Canadian bacon and some of the other types of bacon out there?
Bacon is technically made from pig, though I have had a substance called turkey bacon. This was tasty, but it was not the kind of bacon I was thinking of. Today I will be referring to the pig variety only. Here are some of my interesting findings:
There are several kinds of bacon- I already knew this if you didn't then you are missing out and should try some of them. There are bacons made from the belly, pork butt and from the back.
Bacons made from the belly:
•    American bacon
•    English streaky bacon
•    Italian bacon (pancetta)
Bacons made from the pork butt:
•    English gammon
Bacons made from the back:
•    Canadian bacon
•    English back bacon
•    Irish bacon
Bacons made from the back of a hog are much leaner, and do not taste the same as bacons made from the pork belly. *Amazing....pigs carry their fat in much the same place as people do, belly first, then butt, then back.....of course all of them are stubborn to get rid of and none look good hanging out of a bathing suit....* Bacon made from the back of the belly are fatter than bacon made from the front of a belly.
Because it is cured, bacon tends to keep for a very long time....that is when it is cured and stored properly...

http://cooking-basics.suite101.com/article.cfm/bacon_beyond_breakfast

Pancetta

Pancetta is an Italian-style bacon that is cured with salt, peppercorns and cloves. Traditionally, pancetta is not smoked. Usually, pancetta is packaged in a roll--like a sausage--and is sold to order by the slice.

Irish Bacon

This smoke-cured bacon takes on the appearance of a boneless pork loin roast. Irish bacon is lean meat obtained from the "eye" part of a piece of pork loin. This bacon can be sliced to any thickness desired.

Read more at Suite101: Types of Bacon - Pancetta, Canadian, Slab Bacon: From Spaghetti to Salads, Incorporate Meat into Other Meal Pairings http://cooking-basics.suite101.com/article.cfm/bacon_beyond_breakfast#ixzz0iO2SOUCc

Canadian Bacon

Similar to Irish bacon, Canadian bacon is also obtained from the pork loin. It contains less fat and calories than American-style bacon. This bacon is also sometimes referred to as "back bacon" because the meat for the bacon comes from the back of the pig.

American-Style Bacon

Virginia bacon is one of the most common types of American-style bacon. This type of bacon comes from the stomach of the pig. American-style bacon is cured in salt and then smoked; before slicing, the rind is taken off.

Slab Bacon

Slab bacon is a large, single piece of bacon with the rind left on. This type of bacon receives additional flavor when it's smoked over roasted corncobs.

Peppered Bacon

The name of this bacon says it all: The bacon receives a spicy coating of coarsely ground black pepper.

Apple Wood-Smoked Bacon

Smoke from burning pieces of apple wood is the key to curing this bacon and infusing it with a slightly sweet, rich flavor.

Pretty amazing .....makes me want to go out and try some of these types of bacon....maybe I will....in moderation of course, I don't want to end up looking like the pigs the bacon came from.

Queen B

VP3D: The videophone of the future?

Motherhood...a calling...a blessing...a destiny...

Please, watch this video then read what I have to say.


I know that I've heard of the Neilsons before through the morning news and Oprah when we were living in Utah. But it was nice to see her story told more "straight from her mouth" without a lot of editing out what she had to say.

I know that being a mother is different for each of us and it is hard in different ways at different times. At this time in my life my struggles are very different than they will be when my girls are older and can do more for themselves.

Having arthritis like I do makes tasks hard for me like changing a diaper, doing up snaps on baby clothes, wiping dirty faces and even rocking my crying babies when my joints are stiff and swollen. But I agree with what Stephanie conveys that without my pain and stiffness I was a different woman in some ways, now I am better. I am more the woman I want to be and am more aware of the blessings and tender moments when I KNOW that motherhood is a part of my divine calling and destiny. I know that I can do all things in the Lord. My body is weak but my heart and spirit are strong.

Seeing this video helps remind us all that there are different struggles for each of us. And while I could not deal with the struggles that some others go through, I know that the Lord has given each the struggles that we are able to abide. I am grateful for my arthritis and the trials of my last pregnancy because they have brought me closer to my Heavenly Father and I have learned more to rely on the spirit when teaching and caring for my family. I know that through our trials we are refined. When we go forward with faith we are taking steps toward our divine eternal destiny.

I echo and add to Stephanie's words that:
It's been sort of therapy for me to write my feelings and what I'm going through and the pain....[journal and blog writing have become a task I look forward to rather than dreading].
....[at times] a wave of emotion [takes] me over for a few minutes. I [miss] me again; I mourned for that woman again. I felt that familiar sadness. [that my body is not what I want it to be and is worn and unable to accomplish what I could once do] But then it was followed by a beautiful spiritual confirmation that this is my new life...It is oh, so good...[the weakness and problems of my body are] not everything. I'm just grateful that I'm here on this earth and I have the opportunity to be a mother and do the things that I love and enjoy [even though they take more patience and time than before.] ... I view my role now as more divine. It's something more....a mother who enriches and teaches about the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's a privilege. And I see it more as a privilege than anything. To me, beauty and motherhood are one, they're the same thing.....Spiritually now I have a better sense of who I am, what my divine purpose is....why I'm still here...

And then like she describe them, there are those moments when I feel like I am being given a treasure of great worth. When my spirit sings because of the wonderful blessings I am a part of....Like yesterday when my sweet 3 year old came to me as I nursed the baby. Tugging on my sleeve she looked up into my face and said, "Mommy can we be friends?" I smiled gently and said, "I have a better idea, why don't we be best friends." She looked up into my face with her sparkling blue sunshine eyes and said," Best friends forever and ever and ever, Mommy?" My heart swelled and I said, " Yes, my sweet girl forever and ever and ever because I love you that much." Those are the times that I live for, the times when the spirit speaks and I know why I am still here and why I need the experiences and trials I've been given.

I know that my Savior lives, I know that he loves me. I have a strong faith that gets me through the times when my life is darkest. It is in the darkness that we learn to appreciate and seek out the light. I am so blessed. I know that through the power of the priesthood I have been healed at times and have been given life. We all have depression, pain and sorrow but they are in our lives to help us to learn and know what is sweetest; which are the joy, love, peace and strength we get from on high. Author Charles Frazier wrote, "[P]ain [...] goes eventually. And when it's gone, there's no lasting memory. Not the worst of it, anyway. It fades. Our minds aren't made to hold on to the particulars of pain the way we do bliss. It's a gift God gives us, a sign of His care for us." I know that I have a Heavenly Father who has placed me where I need to be and who guides me as I seek his light. I know that the scriptures are true and each time I study them I learn and notice more things that testify of and lead me to our Father in Heaven. Because of the trials I have had especially in the last year, I have become stronger. I know that through the trials and times of difficulty I have been reminded to rely on my Heavenly Father and to savor the special moments and time with my babies because it could all be gone in seconds.

I love my family. Thank you all for the love that you share with me. The examples of womanhood and the strength that you share when I don't seem to have enough. You are angels who have borne me up. Thank you. And I especially want to thank my Heavenly Father for blessing me with life. That I am able to enjoy an eternal marriage with my best friend who I would not be able to do all of this without. Thank you my angel I love you eternally. And though you are not reading this now my children, I hope to share it with you in the future. Thank you for being a source of light in the darkness. For loving me, for helping me, for teaching me and for walking with me back to the arms of our Heavenly parents hand in hand, heart to heart. I love you with everything I have I love you forever no matter what just as I was taught to love by my parents, I hope I can teach you what this love is - it is awe inspiring.

 
I challenge each of you to look at your life and count your blessings. I have been working hard at this since I got sick last fall. And as I look for blessings each day I am humbled and inspired by the numerous blessings I have. I notice more and more the moments that take all the pain and all the suffering away and I am whole because my spirit sings and I am full of gratitude. In those times I am inspired and receive answers I seek in my heart and in my mind through the Spirit. My testimony is strengthened and I move forward more aware of and open to the promptings of the spirit. Those promptings are another great blessing and gift because through them I am able to know what I should to in regards to caring for others and myself and in what I should do to raise up a righteous generation unto the Lord.

I bear you my testimony of the truth of these things and of the blessings that come when we are aware of the blessings we have. May your spirits sing and rejoice with me as we seek eternal life and find happiness and joy along the way. In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pruny Fingers

Today I was bathing my kids when a thought occurred to me. Ha ha well, not just one thought but a few. One thing that I was thinking about was the way that I always have random questions and thoughts floating around in my brain an this blog is supposed to be where I record them for my entertainment. Back in the day I would have recorded them in a little steno notebook, but come on it is 2010! This is the year I though about as a child and was sure would never come.....if it did come then I would be super old. Here we are in March and I don't feel old and I record my thoughts by typing them out because I get too frustrated that my hands don't work to hand write things as quickly as I would like.
Seriously, if you think about the productivity that there is now that we have computers versus the turn of the 20th century it is amazing! But at the same time it is sort of negative. People used to get out and about, they used to actually meet and greet one another. You knew who your neighbor was and if you heard music coming from their flat you knew there was a happening party that you were late for. Now we don't get out much and if we do many of us are not familiar with our neighbors or visa versa. When we hear muffled music coming from the next flat or even the next house we get frustrated and mad. I get mad because I'm a mother of two young children, the music is usually offensive and the people listening to it are driving me nuts anyway. Come on people how are my kids ever going to take their nap with you banging around over there and blasting that garbage for my little angels to hear!
Woah Nelly! Sorry, I got a little diverted, actually I'm not really sorry but sometimes I like to apologize anyway. :)
Anyway the original intent of this post was to bring up a topic that I have been bugged by for a while: pruny fingers. Ok, we all know what it is like to go swimming or take a warm bath and be in the water for a while. You get out and the pads of your fingers and toes are all shriveled. Ugh! I hate the feeling of those mushy deflated pads under me as I get my clothes and towel and attempt to regain a normal feeling in them.
When I was younger I loved to take extremely hot showers. Seriously. Not good, but I loved to do it....secretly I still do but I don't get them very often due to the way that they dry my skin out and use way too much hot water and energy. So, I would take these showers and they would last for like half an hour. My skin would turn all red I would stay in there until I felt like I couldn't anymore and then I would reluctantly get out. My fingers and toes would be all pruney and I would wrap up in my towel. I was sure that someday the hot water would last longer and I might find myself with my flesh falling from my bones from being so cooked. A few too many times I didn't take clothes into the bathroom with me and I would sneak across the hall to my room to get dressed. I wasn't so good at sneaking and my family caught me and would tease me about the fact that my fingers were all pruney and my butt- yes my butt- was steaming through the towel.- Like I said super hot showers.
Why do your fingers and toes look like I dried prune when you have been in water too long? Where did my obsession with hot showers come from? Ta Da with the power of the internet I can answer the first question quickly and easily. According to the site I found by searching the phrase: why your fingers prune 
Wrinkly fingers and toes, or pruning as some people call it, happen when your skin soaks up water. Our skin has a kind of waterproof oil on it called sebum. That's why water rolls right off your skin in the bath or shower. If you spend too much time in the water, the sebum washes away and guess what? You're not so waterproof anymore. Your skin soaks up the water causing it to swell in some places which makes it look wrinkly. Now, this only happens on your toes and fingers because they don't have any hair. The hair follicles on the rest of your body are able to keep making enough sebum so it doesn't wash away. The wrinkly skin isn't dangerous or permanent. After you get out of the water, it doesn't take long for your pruny fingers and toes to go back to normal. 
Ahh, I feel so much more educated now, don't you? As for the second question, well, I'm not sure I think a big part of it came from too much tv and movies. I remember so many shower scenes where the person was in, came out of, or went into a bathroom full of steam. I found that the best way to steam up our family bathroom was to spend a long time running really hot water. Once I figured that out I decided that since people in the movies had steaming bathrooms I should too. Strange thought, yes. Semi unhealthy, yes. Did it make me feel cool? Extremely.
So there you have it, prune like fingers and toes explained. And you know a little more about the strange things bouncing around in my head.
As Tigger would say, "TTFN! Ta ta for now!"

Hello World

Here goes, I’m doing it, I’m posting to this blog. Wow, that sounded a lot more dramatic in my head than it looks here on the page. Oh well, this is me. I’m here for my own entertainment. If anyone ever reads this, I’m so glad you came to peek into my window and say hello. If nobody reads this, well, that is OK too because like I said this blog is all about me, for me. *Narcissist!* OK, yeah, maybe a little. This blog is so that I have a place to put all of those thoughts I have bouncing around in my head. Good things, fascinating things, random questions – hopefully their answers too as I find them, and whatever else I want to talk about. I’m going to treat this site as sort of a journal, but before I get much further I want to explain why I chose to call this blog “Window into the reverie of me.”
The word reverie sounds so wonderful and luscious, it is like a chocolate covered strawberry sitting atop a pile of whipped cream. But what does it mean? Let’s define the word reverie for those who are unsure of its meaning. As defined by dictionary.com:
rev•er•ie   –noun
1. a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing: lost in reverie.

2. a daydream.

3. a fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea: reveries that will never come to fruition.

4. Music. an instrumental composition of a vague and dreamy character.

Ah, reverie! Pretty much each of those definitions fit what I feel this blog is about and what there is going on inside of my head. OK, now that we took care of educating ourselves on the meaning of one of my favorite words we can move on to more pressing matters.

Let’s talk about me. I am a stay at home mother. I have two beautiful children and hope someday to have more. I love my full time motherhood. I really could not come up with a more perfect job for myself, well, unless it was doing what I do every day and getting paid for it. But, this job really is THE most perfect job because I happily do it without any monetary recompense. There are days when it is hard and I want to rip all of my hair out, but I also have days full of light, peace, and joy. Those days and even small moment are what keep me going and what help me to know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and has some amazing things in store for all of us.

I love my kids more than I ever imagined I could love anyone. Because I have had my eyes opened to a new found deeper love by being a mother, I have also been able to feel greater love toward my fellow man. I have noticed an exceptionally greater love toward one man in particular…my husband. I never cease to feel wonder and amazement at the man I have married. He is my best friend, my lover, my support, my therapist, a source of strength, my biggest fan, and one of the most amazing people I know.

I grew up in a house where we moved a LOT. I don’t even know exactly how many times we moved before I graduated high school but it was a lot. No, I’m not a military brat, we just moved from house to house and town to town for a while. Each time there was a slightly different reason, but each time it was what needed to happen and we learned and grew from it. There was a time in my life when I was really bitter about all of the moves and the way that it had deformed my childhood. Looking back though, my childhood was not deformed. Was it hard? Absolutely, picking up and going to a new neighborhood and starting all over was very difficult. Did I grow up a little faster than I should have because of it? Maybe, but without the rich and varied experiences I had I would not have the strength of character, depth of feelings, and ability to adapt that I have now. Those times that we had to move and change schools and start over were enriching. I was able to meet and be touched by so many different people who blessed my life. I grew in ways unimaginable. Besides now that I am an adult and we have moved three times during the five years we have been married the skills I learned as a child have come in quite handy.

I like to think that I am musically inclined, but sometimes I wonder if I could ever do something with it. I love to craft and create beautiful things. I have a thirst for life, a love and appreciation for different cultures and people. And I aspire to have my children grow up knowing the love of their parents and Savior for them, be well-adjusted people and live a life full of joy and peace.

Thanks for peeking into my window, maybe someday you’ll come back by.

Queen B