A little freaked out by the H1N1 virus

I admit, I'm a little over-the-top freaked out about the H1N1 flu. It has most definitely reared it's ugly head in our geographic area, and every time I go grocery shopping or on errands and hear people hacking and sneezing, I run for my hand sanitizer and, to be perfectly honest, am considering wearing a mask when I go out. Of course, I'd use some pretty cotton quilt fabric so it would be a "designer" mask, but still... I worry about Mr. B too. He has asthma, which automatically makes him a candidate for the vaccine. EXCEPT he's highly allergic to eggs -- which are used to "grow" the ingredients in the vaccine. Both Mary and I have called the health department to ask if they can obtain one of the few vaccines not "grown" with eggs, but no one ever calls back. His pediatrician simply tells us to contact the health department. I may have gone overboard a bit. Last week Mr. B was pitching a fit for his mother because he couldn't find his "hanitizer" (hand sanitizer). I don't want to instill germaphobia in the poor little guy, but I also don't want him to catch this flu. To be honest, I'm not terribly sure either of us would survive it. Literally. That's scarey stuff right there. My doctor gave me a regular flu shot, and a new 7-year pneumonia vaccine (I had borderline pneumonia twice last year), and I'm on Lipitor which is now showing in studies to possibly fight off the H1N1 virus. But I still haven't gotten the H1N1 flu shot itself. Last week our health department had the vaccines in -- 3000 shots and more than 6000 people stood in line for two days for them. Six thousand people coughing and sneezing in my immediate vacinity... no thanks. I picked my husband up at the airport the other day, and the first thing I did when he got in the car was hand him the hand sanitizer. Sanitize first, welcome back kiss second. I considered bringing Listerine with me as well, but managed to talk myself out of that one. I have told my daughter that if Mr. B gets sick, he simply must go to the pediatrician and be "cleared" before he comes to my house. It seems he catches everything imaginable from his 3 days in daycare. It made me feel a little better when I picked him up at daycare the other day to see a large dispenser of hand sanitizer just inside her front door. I found this interesting web site. If you have a cold or the flu, and wonder if it might just be H1N1, you can go to this web site, put in your symptoms, and it will tell you if you should hightail it to the doctor or not. It's provided by Emory University.

I'm not just cooking

It seems all I've been posting are recipes lately. But I'm not just all about cooking these days, honest! I've been doing my usual routine of babysitting for Mr. B. Who, by the way, is growing in leaps and bounds, and has become quite a wise old man for his young age. His favorite words is "Wuskifeye"... as in "Wuskifeye shut Joey (the killer cat) in the door - will he bite me?" or "Wuskifeye don't want to take a nap at your house?" or "Wuskifeye pick this spider up and put him on your lap?". You guessed it. "Wuskifeye" is "What's going to happen if I....." I've also been sewing! That's right - me! sewing! One day the bug hit and everything else but babysitting went by the wayside. I made some Fall pillows and tablerunner for the family room, and now I'm quilting a queen-sized log cabin quilt done in the same Fall colors. My Cathedral Window squares continue to be my night time TV watching project -- I have about 30 done now. I was a bit alarmed when I discovered I need more than 400 for the finished quilt (!) but if I can get 10 done every week, I'll have a gorgeous heirloom quilt done in about a year. We all know how fast a year goes by these days, so that's not all that long! Jeff is taking Mr. B to the Air Force Museum in Dayton today, so I have a Sunday to myself. Laundry is already going, and I will have to do some ironing later. I've cleaned up the kitchen and have the dishwasher running, swept the kitchen floor, shook out the area rugs, and gotten out some homemade turkey sausage for tonight's homemade pizza for dinner. I hope to spend most of my day in the quilt room, quilting the above-mentioned log cabin quilt in a large, easy meandering quilt pattern to get it done quickly. I have a quilt class coming up on November 19th to do a quilted jacket. I've wanted to try some quilting clothing for awhile, so jumped at the class when I saw it. I was hoping to pull the fabrics from my stash, but the fabric combination that is in my head (I'm thinking Cranberry solids and assorted batiks) isn't in my stash! The jacket is a lot of work, so I'm not going to use fabric that I won't want to wear -- so it's off to Fabric Shack on Tuesday. I'm fortunate to have one of the Internet's best discount fabric shopping web sites just about 20 miles from my house! Halloween. Sigh... Has this holiday become a complete bust for everyone? We used to get 200+ kids at our door. Last year we had no kids at all. This year we had two. I miss seeing all those little faces so proud of their costumes and so sure they were going to scare me when I opened the door! It was such a special night for kids - with weeks of planning and anticipation and creating costumes and decorations. There are holidays we can do away with, but this shouldn't be one of them! Off to the quilt room - where things sometimes make more sense!

DASH diet Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

In the near future, I think I'll move these DASH diet recipes over to their own blog. I'm having great fun discovering ways to flavor food without the use of salt (or very minimal use of salt) and fats, in an effort to control my blood pressure and cholesterol. As someone brought up in an age when mothers thought putting butter on everything would prevent your child from choking on food (and my mother could get me to eat anything she cooked if she put a pile of mayonnaise on top), it is time to drop old cooking habits and eat more healthy. OK, it's passed time - but that I can't change. I've always wanted to try pumpkin soup or pumpkin side dishes. Pumpkin has many health benefits (which you can read about here), including antioxidants, fiber, and a good source of zinc and iron. I found this recipe in a magazine (possibly Prevention, but I'm not sure...) and simply took away most of the sodium and added some flavor of my own. It's an unusual soup. When I first tasted the final product, my reaction was that it had a very "clean" flavor to it. Be sure and use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling! Pumpkin Black Bean Soup 1 can no sodium black beans, drained and rinsed 1 can no sodium kidney beans, drained and rinsed 1 can no sodium diced tomatoes 1 can pumpkin puree 4 cups no sodium vegetable broth 1/2 cup onion, diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp allspice 1/4 cup Splenda Brown Sugar 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (or add 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp ground cloves) 1 tsp ground black pepper Place oil, onion, garlic and seasonings into large pot and cook on low-medium heat until onion is translucent. Place beans, tomatoes and half the vegetable broth in a food processor or blender and puree. Add these with pumpkin and rest of broth to pot. Heat to a simmer and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes. Add Splenda brown sugar and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serves 6-8.

DASH Diet Potato and Corn Chowder Recipe

The other evening I had leftover mashed potatoes (simply mashed with low-fat buttermilk black pepper and Mrs. Dash) and some left over no-sodium canned corn, and this is the recipe I came up with. I have to say, it is FULL of flavor despite being low in sodium and cholesterol. Being New Englanders, we do love our chowder! This is a nice alternative to high fat, high cholesterol chowder: 1 tsp olive oil 1 strip turkey bacon, diced 1 small onion, diced 2 stalks celery, diced 4-5 cups low sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth 2 cups mashed potatoes (made low sodium method of your choice) 1/2 cup no salt added canned corn 4 oz no fat shredded cheddar cheese 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground black pepper 1 tsp dry mustard 1/2 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp curry powder 1/4 tsp celery salt 4-6 drops hot sauce 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk 1/4 cup plain no fat yogurt 1 cup leftover chicken breast, cut in 1" chunks* Add oil to large pot over medium-high heat. Add turkey bacon, onion and celery and cook until onion is translucent. Add all other ingredients except cheese and chicken and stir until well blended, then simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Add cheese and stir until cheese melts. Add chicken, taste and re-season to your liking. I topped the bowl of chowder with crushed no salt pretzel (to replace the standard saltines) and a few chopped green onions. Serves 4 to 6. *The chicken is optional. I just happened to have a bit of leftover cooked chicken breast, and decided to add it in. It makes the chowder a bit hardier, but isn't necessary for flavor. Remember, I'm a "bit of this and a bit of that" kind of cook, so measurements may not be exact! Also, this is NOT a salt-free recipe! The DASH diet tells me that I need between 1200 and 1500 mg of salt per day, thus the addition of the salt and celery salt.