Kitchen Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to my new kitchen!

I've wanted to make changes to my kitchen here for quite some time, and the opportunity finally presented itself, so I've been taking advantage of all the time I could get, while I could get it.

Renovating The Kitchen...
Okay, I'll admit it - I just had to redecorate my online kitchen. I wasn't happy with it. And, I do like yellow in the kitchen. So, I'm hoping this will work for now, since I already had these images to make graphics with.

I'm really happy and excited about this kitchen makeover on my website, as it is giving me an opportunity to share a lot of things with all of you. Some of the new recipes in this section are quite old ones that have come down in my family, and others are ones that are new and recent additions to our family. With the addition of all the great cooking shows on television today, and my forced inactivity due to illness, I've learned a lot more about cooking in the last few years, as well as picking up a lot of new recipes.

Come Into My Pantry...
I've added the "Pantry" section to share kitchen related matters other than recipes with you. I'm still learning about the importance of good nutrition and diet on my health, and that came about because I want to do everything I can to help my recovery from illness along. The good Lord has allowed me to remain here on this earth far longer than the doctors said was possible, so I want to make the most of this opportunity to really appreciate and be thankful for all that He has given us.

I've come into contact with a lot of people who also suffer from either cancer or another debilitating illness since I've been ill, and many of them are searching for answers to a lot of questions. One of the most powerful applications the Internet can provide is the free exchange of information that provides help to people in need.

When we are hit with a terrible shock like a life-threatening illness we simply don't function as well, since our brains are on overload most of the time. It may take years to get ourselves completely back on track. There are more unanswered questions than we can even think to voice, and sometimes, due to all the confusion, it may be a long time before we even realize we want and need information to help us to better cope with our lives, and we need more information to help us improve them.

I think it very important that we share and contribute our experiences in this time of confusion and doubt, as part of the difficulty we all have is in trying to make all the monumental decisions that are asked of us. With that in mind I've gone through all the information I had stashed in cubby holes on my computer, and I've been working to put together information that will help you organize your thoughts, your chores, any everything else I can find, that may help you get your life back on a more even keel.

While there is a great difference in the way some cancers and other illnesses are treated, some of the side effects and changes to our bodies bleed over from one illness to another and are the same. Consequently, suggestions to help with that will be of use to a lot of people. Our personal experiences with side effects, with problems we develop and our successes and failures, all of these could be of benefit for others, so I suggest that a journal of your experiences, and a log of all reactions and side effects will not only be helpful to others, but also to yourself in the future, since most of us have some degree of memory loss, or suffer from overload enough of the time that our memories do not serve us as well as they once did.

I've added information for coping with loss of appetite (for whatever reason), to help those who have weight loss they must fight against, and for those who have some difficulty eating certain foods due to illness, treatment, or medical procedures. While this is not what you'd assume the average "Joe" would have to deal with, the chances for being diagnosed with cancer in YOUR life are now (from 2006 statistics on the American Cancer Society website) 1 in 2 (50%) for American males, and 1 in 3 (33%) for American females. And, while for some types of cancer the survival rate is a whopping 85% or so, for my type of cancer it remains at just 15% to survive five years after diagnosis, and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the country (second only in all deaths except for heart disease). It has now been more than four years since I was diagnosed in August 2002, and approximately 10 years since I contracted cancer (the estimate of my oncologists). I have been ill all those years. As you can probably tell from this information, I have gone from trying not to think about birthdays any longer, to celebrating greatly with every one of them that I reach! Okay, that's all the bad stuff; on to the good stuff.

My Cooking Evolution...
I've grown quite fond of my kitchen at home. Well, not actually the physical layout and design aspects of it. Since we've just moved in, there are some things I want to do with it to make it work more efficiently. What I meant was that I enjoy working in the kitchen more than at any other time in my life. For one thing, Jim and I do a lot of cooking together now and we both enjoy that, we are both open to trying new things and do that quite often, and we've discovered a lot of new "stuff" about cooking and food in the last few years. So much for not being able to teach old dogs new tricks!

Jim (my husband) and I have been married for only seven short years, and were not only raised at opposite ends of the country, we descend from completely different heritages, all of which affected the foods we grew up with, and the things we ate. As I've said before, many family traditions we all have (all of us meaning you and I) are tied to the meals we've shared with family in the past. Many of our fondest memories come from them. Food is more than just nourishment for the body, it is a heritage that we need to pass on to future generations. As I see that more and more people cook little, or not at all, and many families do not sit down to a dinner table and eat meals together, it saddens me deeply to see the family unit disintegrating. We are robbing our children and future generations of one of the most precious aspects of our lives - the integral family unit, that provides the feeds the core of their well being, along with a deep religious faith, and keeps them well grounded.

Adjusting to "What Is..."
Jim and I have had a lot of food and eating adventures in the time we've been married. We have blended our diets so that we eat some foods from each of our backgrounds, and we've added a host of new menu items that are special to just the two of us. Along the way I discovered Food Network TV (when I became too ill to work), and there's nothing to help like watching someone cook something, as well as to take the strangeness off new techniques, using new tools and equipment, and learning new tips and tricks in the kitchen. As Rachael Ray (a TV cooking show host) says, "It's not rocket science here, it is just food." You can do whatever you'd like to with food and a recipe, so if you see a recipe here that you think you might like but would want to change something about it, then don't hesitate to do so. The very worst that can happen is to have to go get some takeout (or have sandwiches or soup or something) if it doesn't turn out right. We learn by trying, and living life to the fullest means we open ourselves to new learning experiences.

Food is meant to be shared, so I'm sharing here with you some of the things we like to eat, and some ways in which to make working in the kitchen more economical by keeping and storing foods properly so they last longer once you get them home, and ways to simplify cooking and shorten the time you spend doing it, while providing nutritious food for your family. I've also included some shortcuts like menu lists I've developed to help "tickle my taste buds" when the loss of appetite inherent in my illness pops up and the method of making the grocery lists I need now, since we live in such a rural area we shop for major supplies only once a month or so.

A Family Recipe Book...
After I moved to Oregon three years ago, my sons asked me to redo the small recipe book that contained all their favorite foods, I'd given them after they'd grown and left home. One of them had lost his in a move, and the other's was dog-eared. I began doing that two years ago, and it became a much larger project than any of us envisioned. Others in the family wanted recipes and I wanted to include some of their recipes, so it grew into a Family Recipe Book. Then, as I was researching something for genealogy (I am the extended family historian, or storyteller, of my generation) I came across some family recipe books on the Internet that included genealogical information combined with scrapbooking-type pages with photos and information about all the people whose recipes were contained in the books, and I thought that was a wonderful idea..... now this change really made the project grow, but I loved doing it all. I ended up working on it for an entire year, it had more than 300 recipes, a full table of contents and alphabetical index, copies on photo paper of precious old family photos that could be shared with family, and lots of family anecdotes and stories of bygone days, as well as stories of how kitchens and cooking was long ago, through my childhood and life.

There are many ways of putting together something like this, and while mine used some things specific to me, since I had working experience in publishing, there are ways most anyone who can use a computer can put one of these together to make a priceless gift for family members. I highly recommend it. I think we need to do all we can to keep the family unit as close-knit as possible in these times when family is scattered all over the globe, and this is a good way to do that.

Many of the recipes you will find here come from that recipe book. Prior to that, many of my favorite recipes had no measurements, so I had to examine just how much of this and that I was using in each recipe when I put them together. Now, when we concoct something different we pay much more attention to that type of thing, and generally type it all up immediately so we have it for future reference.

Final Thoughts...
November 15, 2006: As I'm nearing the end of this update I realize that it is much more extensive than what I planned when I began, but then this happens with many of the things I do as I get caught up in them. I would love to spend even more time working on it, but I simply must go on to other things for now. I hope you enjoy what I've done so far, and it provides some help in the various articles. If you have suggestions for other things you'd like to see included, let me know.

More Final Thoughts... November 20, 2006 As I'm putting this update "to bed" and preparing to upload it to the server, I wanted to say that during this last few days I saw my doctor again, and my health (as we feared) has worsened a great deal recently, and I've just resumed chemo. You'll find a new Journal Update about that elsewhere on the site. As I thought about what all I've done on this portion of my website it occurred to me that it has been some good therapy for me right now. You see, I've been off chemotherapy long enough so that right now, this very minute, I'm going through the progression of new chemo side effects, and if it were not for wanting to get this uploaded to the server, I would probably be huddled under a blanket, groggy from medication and other reasons, and would be lying there trying to think of something else to think about, rather than how I felt. Not only has this therapy helped me avoid that, it has allowed me to get through the letdown that comes from knowing my fears were confirmed, and I'm not doing as well as I'd like to be, it has stopped the downward spiral of my spirits that brings along with it. Consequently, I will be able to move forward more quickly, working toward fighting off the cancer more quickly than otherwise.

I have more changes I want to make right away, also, and will be starting on them immediately. I'm going to now log records of my treatment, my side effects, and my progress for those who need reassurance that what they feel is normal under the conditions, or those who want to compare with what they have, or just for those who will be able to read it and say... "There but for the Grace of God..."

So, watch for this further update, which will come soon, I hope, and will continue for a long time.

Now, please go on to the Table of Contents to choose where you want to start your tour of my "new" kitchen!

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