Text 31019, 150 rader
Skriven 2012-11-15 23:10:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av RUTH HAFFLY
Ärende: nursing homes 567
=========================
 -=> Ruth Haffly said to Jim Weller <=-

 RH> up the suggestion that he's now thinking of a nursing home for Mom.
 RH> His thought, tho, if he did, it would kill her.

I doubt that, especially if her awareness of her surroundings
is dimming.

 Might do her a world of
 RH> good and right now it's killing him to do all he is doing.

That's almost as important.

 Plus, having
 RH> Mom still in the house, she is a hazard to both of them. He has aged so
 RH> much since Mom broke her hip, more so since she came home from the
 RH> hospital. He's her primary caregiver and it's really taking a toll on
 RH> him.

When a partnership becomes one-way in any endeavor, well, I
feel sorry for you all, though it eventually happens in most
lives and loves. But he has to do it, more power to him.

 JW> Here's a thought: most places, if they have vacancies, welcome short
 JW> term visits. That way they can check out several places with trial
 JW> runs to see what they're really like, your dad gets breaks when he
 JW> needs them and your mom can look forward to coming home after a
 JW> brief visit, knowing she's not making a permanent commitment, just a
 JW> "vacation". And she may decide she likes one enough to make it
 JW> permanent later on without complaint.
 RH> Sounds like a good idea but a place has to be found before it is tried
 RH> out. It's been years since I lived in the area so I really don't know
 RH> what's available in the village where they live or close by. I know
 RH> there are some further away (about 45 miles) but it's a drive Dad
 RH> wouldn't want to make every day.

When you make a site visit, note the eating situation. Are
the residents happy with what they get? Would you be happy
eating what they get? As mealtime becomes the most focused
on part of life (not that it isn't already for some of us),
this becomes incredibly important. We noticed this with
Billy - the quality of the food, even though we did get to
bring stuff, did a lot to color his experience and aid or
hinder his convalescence.

 He has mentioned that if she were to
 RH> go into an assisted living place, he would go with her.

This probably works - maybe adjacent units? I've seen
several couples who have done this, so one would be there
when needed, and when the weaker one had to be transferred
to a 24-hour-care facility, the other didn't have to move
but could instead visit as wanted.

==

 RH> The other day Steve was talking with an Afghani friend about food. the
 RH> friend mentioned he liked lamb with onions and garlic, with spinach
 RH> wilted over it. We had some lamb in the freezer so tonight I small cut

I've never had the spinach wilted over it but rather cooked
into the sauce, which I like much. There is a loose knit
"chain" of Afghan restaurants run by various members of the
Karzai family (i.e., well connected) of which I've been to
ones in Cambridge and San Francisco and maybe one othe place,
and lamb and spinach usually appears on the table along with
the now almost stereotypical kaddo bowlani, see below
(diabetics, beware this recipe, because if you cut out the
sugar you get something completely different and I believe
inauthentic).

 RH> about a pound and a half, sliced one and a half onions and minced
 RH> about 5 cloves of garlic. Browned the meat, onions and garlic, then
 RH> added a couple of cups of beef broth (made from Better than Bullion)
 RH> and about 2 tablespoons of schwarma seasoning. Let that cook for about
 RH> an hour, covered, then added about half a pound of washed and torn up
 RH> spinach leaves. That was cooked covered for a few minutes, then
 RH> uncovered to let the liquid thiccken/reduce for a few minutes. Served
 RH> it over steamed brown rice with plain Greek yogurt stirred into each
 RH> portion (about 2 tablespoons per portion). Steve said it could be made
 RH> again and he's going to tell his friend what I did. Wonder how close to
 RH> his dish I got. (G)

Sounds good, as schwarma seasoning is just the usual middle
eastern sweet spices plus maybe some cumin, which I figure
would go well in this dish, even though in my experience it
isn't a regular (or perhaps wasn't used in this kind of dish
in the Karzai family compound).

Pumpkin Kaddo
cat: starter, Afghan
servings: 6 or 9

3 sm pumpkins
oil
brown sugar
3 lg onions, chopped
oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb ground meat
1 lg tomato
6 oz tomato paste
h - spices to taste
garam masala
ground coriander
ground black pepper
ground turmeric
salt
curry powder
h - sauce
2 c whole fat organic yogurt
2 garlic cloves, minced fine
mint
salt

Take three medium-to-small pumpkins. Slice vertically each into sixths,
and put in a greased glass or non-stick baking dish. Coat each slice of
pumpkin in canola or peanut oil, and sprinkle with brown sugar. Put in a
350F oven and bake for a long, long time. Like three or four hours.

After about three hours, make your meat sauce. Brown three or four chopped
onions in oil-of-your-choice with two or three finely chopped cloves of
garlic for about twenty minutes. Take a pound of ground lamb or goat and
brown it with the onions. Add a large chopped tomato, and a small tin of
tomato paste. Throw in a few tablespoons of your prefered combination of
garam masala, ground coriander, black pepper, tumeric, salt and curry
powder, depending on what you've got to hand.

Finally, take about two cups of whole fat organic yogurt, and mix with two
thinly minced garlic cloves, and a big handful of chopped mint and a
little salt, to make a raita-like sauce.

To serve, put two or three slices of baked pumpkin on a plate, and put two
serving spoonsful of meat sauce on top with a few tablespoons of yogurt
sauce.

The same baked pumpkin also works well for dessert: add a little maple
syrup or brown sugar, and serve with ice cream.

M's note: the traditional recipe uses an amazing amount of sugar,
and the result is almost candied. This adaptation, with its
sprinkling of brown sugar, is a compromise between the real
thing and and western tastes.

(Based on, but changed from, Helmand's kaddo recipe, as published in the
New York Times, 28 October 1998.) - jofish.com, 12/11/04

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