Fish Tacos

From what I understand there are two schools when it comes to fish tacos.  Some fish taco recipes call for lightly breaded cubes of fish fried in oil.  The other recipes call for grilled or sauteed fish that is flaked after cooking.  I've never been a fan of fried food and I hate what cooking with hot grease does to the inside of your home. 

I marinated a couple pieces of mahi mahi with lime juice, fresh ground pepper, salt, cumin, and shot it with cooking spray.  It's very important to put oil on your fish if you are cooking it on the grill. It keeps it from sticking and falling apart when you turn it. 

Baja fish tacos are commonly served with a cabbage slaw.  I shredded about a cup of cabbage. To that I added a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, juice of half a lime, teaspoon of Penzey's red chipotle powder and a few leaves of cilantro.  A little less lime juice would have done since the sour cream has some acid in it.

I grilled the two pieces of fish on my medium sized Weber grill, but I only started enough charcoal for the small grill.  With the fish in the middle of the grill, I could warm my tortillas around the fish.  When the fish was done I flaked it.

When you eat at a restaurant in Mexico they always bring condiments like diced onions, salsas and lime wedges  to the table. I chopped a few ingredients to embellish our tacos.  Cilantro, tomato, avocado and lime wedges.

And finally the finished product. The tortillas were a little tough due to cooking them on the grill.  I'd probably be better off just steaming them in the microwave.  It was still delicious.

What's Cooking?

There are many reasons I love to cook.  First of all I love to eat.  But I want to eat foods with flavor and variety.  There is no room on my palate for bland food.   

Those of you that I've cooked for know my saying, "I'm glad you enjoyed what I made for myself."  The truth is I get great pleasure from watching and listening to you enjoy my creations.

For me cooking is great therapy.  I find that it's a great way for me to leave my thoughts behind.  I can spend time by myself in the kitchen, listening to some good music and slicing and dicing to my hearts content.

I cook by feel.  I try to avoid measuring devices as much as possible.  A little of this and a little of that serves me well.  If I am intrigued by a dish that I read about or see on a cooking show, I'll search out some recipes on the internet.  But I rarely cook specifically to any recipe.  I'll look at a few and make my own interpretation.

I try to be conscious about what ingredients are in the refrigerator and plan meals accordingly. Wednesday evenings I am usually home alone and I make supper from whatever I can find in the house. 

This was a Wednesday supper.  It started with a leftover flank steak salad.  I boiled about 5 oz of linguine. While the noodles were boiling I made a dressing of soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, honey, and chili paste.  I tossed the salad with the dressing and then I tossed in the hot cooked noodles.  The heat from the noodles warmed up the salad and wilted the lettuce just a bit.  It was really yummy.

What's Next?

Lyme disease has been the focus of our lives for the past couple of years.  It is still with us, but has less of an impact on our daily lives than in the past.  Lynette's recovery has progressed to the point that she is able to live a normal life.  She is definitely not back to where she was before she got sick, but there aren't many tasks that she can't undertake.

The rest of Lynette's recovery is going to depend on her body's ability to repair itself.  The nerve damage caused by her immune system's reaction to this infection will be long to heal.  She would love to be able to run again.  I would love to face her across the net on the tennis court.

Since I've not had much to report about, I will be changing the focus of my blog.  I have much to say about many other subjects and I love to write about them.  I look forward to using this space to share my pleasures, annoyances and anything else that flows from my finger tips. 

I love to cook and I love share pictures and tactics of my cooking methods with anybody who's interested.  I will be sharing my passion for cooking on this blog.  But I will also be talking about life and Lyme disease and whatever else is on my mind.

I guess I need a new name for my blog.  Any suggestions?

Wonder Woman

Lynette's employer changes their work hours during the summer.  They work 4 ten hour days and have Friday off.  Lynette doesn't really care for it much, but she does make good use of the extra day off.  Last Friday she helped Lauren and Danielle move into their dorm.  Lynette wasn't yet home when I fell asleep a little after 11:00 that night.  The next morning she was up at 6:30 headed off to Anna's volleyball tournament an hour away in Reidsville.

It's 9:00 pm on Friday.  Lynette is not yet home this evening.  She is at the Wake Forest University volleyball match.  I have not seen Lynette today but I can tell she has been a busy girl.  She cleaned our bathroom from top to bottom.  She vacuumed from our bedroom carpet the evidence that we have a dog.  She washed Sparkles (Danielle's duct tape covered car).  She drove my truck to have lunch with Anna at school.  From there she took our recycling to the dump where she sorted and tossed various bottles and boxes.  She filled my truck up with gas!  And when she got home, she cleaned the recycle bins and backed the truck in with extreme precision!

We went to see Dr. J two weeks ago.  He was proud to let us know that his daughter Jordan has been cancer free for 3 months.  There was a mix up in the appointment scheduling.  Anna and Lynette were each supposed to have an appointment but the office had only booked time for one.  Dr. J saw Anna and Lynette in a single appointment slot and only charged us for one.  I think the mix up worked out in our favor.

He did not make many changes to Anna or Lynette's treatment protocols.  He told Lynette to keep doing the same thing.  He reduced Anna's drug holiday from 3 weeks to 2 because he doesn't think she is progressing quickly enough.  She admittedly is not very disciplined about taking her antibiotics.  He told us to come back in 6 months. 

A year and a half ago Lynette couldn't walk. Her capabilities now are a testament to the medical treatment that she has received. What is the IDSA thinking when I see a person whose quality of life has improved infinitely by the exact treatments that they disapprove of?

We still have Lyme

Things are much better than they were not too long ago, but I have been reminded lately that Lyme is still in our life.  Side effects of medicines.  Symptoms of infection.  Expensive prescriptions.  We're not out of the woods yet.

Lynette was featured in the Patient Spotlight section of this month's newsletter from Dr. J.

Happy Anniversary

My father drove down from Richmond last year around Valentine’s Day. He came to help me install the chairlift so that Lynette could get up and down the stairs. At that time Lynette could hardly walk on level floor with a walker. It was great to have his support and help. Lynette’s first appointment with Dr. Fishman was the Monday after that weekend.

My father recently made a return visit. I took Thursday and Friday off last week and we built a storage room under our screen porch. This time dad saw a different Lynette. On Saturday she and Anna got up early in the morning to head off to a softball tournament. They made it back in the afternoon only to turn around and head off to a concert. On Sunday Lynette and Anna took off to Boonville to our niece’s wedding shower. My dad was amazed and happy to see how much Lynette has progressed.

Lynette and Anna are in Washington DC right now on a school field trip. Lynette managed to arrange an appointment with Dr. Jemsek while she is up there. She had to fight the unfamiliarity of the subway. I looked at Google maps and street view images and the Metro map and did my best to give her accurate instructions ahead of time. But things never work out exactly as you plan. Lynette still managed to catch up with the kids after her appointment.

Lynette had a lot of questions for Dr. J and he made some tweaks to her therapy. Tomorrow is the anniversary of Lynette's first visit to Dr. J.

It's also our 16th wedding anniversary.

Still Rising

There was good news in the scientific Lyme community today. Connecticut physician Sin Hang Lee along with his colleagues at Milford Hospital have developed the first highly specific and sensitive DNA test for early infection with the Lyme disease bacteria.  Traditional Lyme disease tests check for your body's response to the infection.  In most patients these antibodies are not present in large concentrations in early infection.  This results in many false negative serological Lyme tests.  The new test detects the bacteria in the bloodstream in early infection before it has a chance to migrate to the body's organs and away from the bloodstream.  Early detection is important.  It's the most opportune time to treat the infection effectively. 

In another Lyme related development, scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found a gene in the Lyme bacteria that when deactivated, blocks its ability to infect it's host.  This clue about the inner workings of the bacteria opens the door to new vaccine techniques.

We had the great opportunity over Easter weekend to borrow Lynette's folk's RV.  We drove it down to Myrtle Beach for a 4 day weekend.  The weather was beautiful and we had a fantastic time.  Things were a lot different for us last Easter.  Lynette was still having trouble walking on her own.  It was great to see Lynette doing what she wanted to do, without being encumbered by her health.  She spent most of the weekend doing her favorite thing.  Spending time with her daughters.  

A year ago around Easter time I compared Lynette's recovery to the resurrection of Christ.  She continues to amaze me.  She is still rising.