Month: November 2012

November 23, 2012

Thanksgiving and other musings

I guess I am on a roll today. Technically, this will be three posts in a matter of hours. Does it count if one was written 3 months ago and one was started a few weeks ago? I thought so …

I last had an A1c in August and was clambering for another one because I ~~just love to watch myself bleed~~ really want to be sure I am doing the right things with my diet and exercise. But let’s not talk about exercise. I will likely have to start over on the ~~torture machine~~ elliptical at 5 minutes again as it has been so long since I have been there.

WalMart has a home A1c test for less than 10 bucks. It comes with a prepaid envelope, loads of instructions that are mostly easy to understand, a couple of sharp implements, an alcohol swab and other various items needed to procure blood from a ~~turnip~~ finger. The object is to leak out enough blood onto two dime-sized dots. One thing they stress: keep the slip of paper with the secret code to log in securely and get your results if you ask they email them to you. Hint: do not lie when filling out the card you mail in and be sure your handwriting is legible. It will likely come in handy when the slip of paper doesn’t materialize because you know you will put it someplace secure and will promptly lose it or forget where that spot is hidden.

All of this to say: my A1c was … :::::drumroll please::::: 5.6! It went down .3 points since August. If you go by the Mayo Clinic, they say that 5.6 is a normal level. Other websites state that it needs to be under 5.6. Either way … I am almost there. I will have another test by the local labs in December but this is just so damn exciting. I have worked hard to achieve this goal … along with a weight loss of just over 50 lbs. The scale is moving again in the right direction.

My dad and stepmom came to town for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice to have them here. I wasn’t sure what time they were going to arrive. I am so glad I called them when I did … they were 30 minutes out!! Michael suggested to me that I might want to put on pants as I was still in my jammies. I retorted, “I need to shower first!” and quickly jumped into the shower. Michael then observed, “Everyone was just walking around, ‘Oh, I am going to be lazy’ until they heard how soon grandpa and grandma were going to be here!'” He was quite right.

Dinner was nice. We had lots of food … no one went hungry. My dad has quite the aversion to garlic so the house had been a garlic-free zone for a few days. I even put the heads of garlic in the garage just for him (speaking of which: they can come out of isolation now). Dad noticed the “potatoes” I was making were not quite right by asking, “Why are you making cauliflower!?” He declined to try my cheesy mashed “potatoes”. More for me, I say!

Here is a picture of everyone except myself and my husband.

Such a good lookin’ bunch!

After dinner, the football game was paused while we ate (though they were not kind enough to just sit down on the sidelines so we could eat: we took advantage of technology for that) and Dad suggested cleaning up before resuming the game. The men were going to clean up. Instead, they spent an hour or so trying to unclog the drain that some unwitting soul put the peeling of over 5 lbs of potatoes down through the garbage disposal. I promise to never do that again.

So … the dishes sat. A run to the store to get some Liquid Plumber and an hour or so later, still not working. I called the home warranty people and was given a name and number by a ~~very nice lady~~ robot who I never once told to go jump. I don’t usually do well with computers that talk to me like I am some idiot. I have teenagers for that, thankyouverymuch. I waited, not so patiently, for a call from the plumber. I called at 7:50 a.m. today and got a voicemail for a man, not a company. I hung up. Googled the phone number to be sure it was corrected and called back a short time later. Left a voicemail this time.

The owner of the company called me back and told me he would be happy to come out: Tuesday morning! I asked him what sort of company was it that my home warranty referred him to me when he couldn’t handle emergencies? He told me he WAS able to handle them but he was currently booked through that time … oh wait, I might be able to squeeze you in Monday afternoon.

I contacted my Realtor to see if she had any contacts whereby I could talk to a human. She got on it. I talked to her later in the day and decided to try calling the warranty folks a second time and discovered there really was a way to get a human on the line: and in this case, it is NOT pressing 0 repeatedly. That just caused the ~~crazy bitch~~ robot to hang up on me. This human gave me a different name and number. For those local: I would not recommend SOUL-UTIONS Plumbing & Drain Cleaning but would certainly give a two thumbs up for Swoosh Plumbing Services. I called Joe about 2:15 or so and he was here just after 4. It took him about 2 hours to unclog the drain and he had to use the big guns. He apologized for the mess he made and for using towels that Alex had already sacrificed to the plumbing g-ds.

Alex and the kids finished up the dishes (RJ and Michael had already done the silverware in the bathroom sink as it was all dirty and we thought we might need some). It is nice to have my kitchen clean again.

So, Thanksgiving 2012 is winding down and I declare it a success. I hope that yours was, too, and this is just the beginning of a joyous holiday season, whatever holiday you will be celebrating!

November 23, 2012

Low-Carb Praline Pumpkin Pie

(Update: I have made a couple of modifications since starting this post and really apologize it was not done before Thanksgiving. It is just that good, however; I think you should make it whenever the mood for pumpkin sweetness hits you. Like today).

My favorite-most pie in the whole wide world is a praline pumpkin pie that my mom started making many, many years. It is the best one in the world. The thing that makes it so special is the scalding of some milk and water before mixing the ingredients together. No other pumpkin pie holds a candle to this one. I scoured the internet and blogs in search of recipes. None of them seemed like they would really work for me.

I did find two low-carb crust recipes: one uses almond flour as a crust and the other was just using finely chopped pecans, brown sugar and butter. Well, I am not using sugar but … you know what I mean. So, I decided to use a praline crust: partly because I can’t make crusts and partly because I wasn’t sure how the almond crust would merge with the praline layer.

First, gather up the ingredients:

Notice the mortar and pestle. I am a salt snob. I only use Celtic Sea Salt. It is large, crystal-like rocks. Before my m&p, I would have to grind out what I needed. Not any more! Also, just to brag a little. Notice the KA in the background. That monster is over 30 years old. It was the smallest commercial mixer available when my dad bought it. If I remember correctly, it is a KA5. Or something like that. It is a powerhouse and I am in love with it.

Here is what I used for the pie crust:

Praline Pie Crust

1 cup finely chopped pecans
4 TBL melted butter
1/2 cup sugar substitute (I used … Ideal)
a titch of blackstrap molasses

Melt the butter, add the pecans, sweeteners and mix together well. Press into the bottom of a pie plate and bake at 450 for 8 – 10 minutes. It will burn rapidly so watch carefully. Remove from oven and let cool. Turn oven down to 350.

This is what a twitch looks like. This is a dinner teaspoon.

Ready for the oven:

Baked to perfection!!

Now for the custard. This is just so good. When we make it for a non-low carb pie, we get enough custard leftover that we just put it in a dish and bake it. No need for a crust. Yes, it is that good.

Pumpkin Custard

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin (this is NOT pie filling)
a scant 1 cup of sweetener (I used Ideal)
a titch of mollasses
1 1/2 tea pumpkin pie spice
1 tea salt

Scald the cream and the water. In a separate bowl, beat eggs slightly. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Add the milk mixture last and mix thoroughly. Pour into the cooled pie crust. Don’t be worried if a few of the pecans float to the top. It will still be yummy.

Already for the liquids!

Scalding of the milk really doesn’t take that long. Is it necessary? I have no idea but I love the pie and am not willing to chance it. Why mess with perfection, unless it is to make it low carb??

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes, until set but still soft. A knife inserted in the center should come out clean.

All set for the oven!

Cool on wire rack. Tell everyone to back away from the pie!

The first one, I used a full cup of Ideal and it was a bit too sweet for me. No one else thought so but no one else complained about the other two I made with less.

Oh so good!

November 23, 2012

Another Doc Visit

(Ooops … adding WP to Minnie, my beloved friend), I saw that I had two draft posts. WTF, I thought? I found this post. From August 21. No wonder I had no comments on it).

Had another visit with my beloved Dr. V yesterday, though I did tell him, as much as I love him, we need to stop meeting like this. I won’t be able to afford monthly visits next year, when I won’t meet my deductible in the first 6 weeks of the plan year. He said we won’t have to meet like this next year. Phew.

He is very pleased with my progress and said that my A1C test was in the “pre-disposed for diabetes” category and on the high side of normal for non-diabetics. I asked about changing my diet to a more veggie lifestyle and he agrees with me that “don’t break what is working” is a good motto to follow. Since eating carbs can spike me, and most vegetarian sources of protein are filled with carbs, it worries me to try it. Besides, I really like meat. Maybe after we move, I will experiment and see what happens.

I have increased my dosage of Gabapentin, from 100 mg to 300 mg, as my toes still hurt and ping all night long. They usually wake me up after an hour or two. And this is on top of the 3 melatonin and two benadryl I take each night. Oh, I throw some naproxen in for good measure, too. I dropped the aspirin once my carotid artery lining stopped hurting.

I also got new scripts for my lancets as I don’t like the one that comes with my current meter and for the 500 mg Metformin for evening use. I am on 1000 mg for daytime use. I am still testing at least 4 times a day and plan on keeping that up for the foreseeable future.

This whole “fasting blood sugar” thing still confuddles me at times. I had nothing out of the ordinary last night, except for a sugar-free, carb-less margarita. One. At 7. With dinner. 2 hour reading was fine. Fasting this a.m. was NOT. Sigh. Does one ever figure things out things like this?