Oh, my aching back . . . or, how I went in for an injection and came out with a $6,730.00 bloody nose.

A little background. In 2003, I had back surgery to fuse vertebrae L4 and L5. The surgeon also did a little judicious scraping here and there to open up the nerve channels, and he replaced my once-functioning disc material with cadaver bone and titanium screws. Four of 'em. Limited mobility, but no pain, was the upshot. Until recently. It seems that sitting all day at an 8-to-5 job is not good for a person with my history. In fact, it's very, very bad.

Mind you, I do get up from my chair every hour on the hour to stretch, to walk around my cubicle, or to go mind somebody else's business, but evidently that's not enough. No, I have what is referred to in the trade as "Failed back-surgery syndrome." FBSS. Yes, there is probably some BS in there.

Not that I shouldn't have had the surgery. I should have. But I didn't follow up properly enough. I didn't strengthen my core. I didn't even know what my core was until I was told that I had to strengthen it. So let this be a warning to you all. Find your core. Strengthen it. Or else you, too, will end up with a $6,730.00 bloody nose.

I went to see a local Pain Specialist. What they do is this. They listen to your complaint, tell you that you have FBSS, and then they tell you that the only way to fix it is to have a steroid injection in your spine. Alright! That'll do it! Did I ask about side-effects? No. I had this same procedure in 2002, twice, prior to the surgery. So I knew about all of them. Sleeplessness, irritability, edema, headaches, etc. No sweat - except for the night ones.

Did I ask how much it would cost? No. My insurance in 2002 paid for it - all of it. Should I have? Oh yeah. I got the bill yesterday. I won't have to shoulder the entire burden. Only about $1,060.62 of it. Still. That's a lot to pay for a bloody nose.

So now you are asking - "What's up with the bloody nose, fer chrissake?" Well, just before the anesthesiologist squirted the stuff that would give me blessed release from the anxiety that accompanies the knowledge that someone I just met would be swabbing my naked backside with antiseptic and then threading a 30-foot needle into my back thigh via my sacrum, he inserted two tubes into my nostrils. Oxygen, he said. Fresh from the bottle, he said. Dry, he neglected to say.

For two weeks now I have been scraping bloody crustables from my interior nasal cavities. The air out here - minus 20% humidity - doesn't help. I'm probably anemic by now. But I figure that $6,730.00 is a small price (for me and my insurance company) to pay. Except for my wallet, I am pain-free. And I am well on my way to having a strengthened core. Whatever that is.

I Heart Alton Brown!

I have always liked Alton's show on the Food Network, but never more so than during the recent election. His show airs out here at 6:00 p.m., at the same time as network news - which I actually stopped watching about a year ago - but also at the same time as shows like "Bill O'Reilly" on Fox or "The Lehrer Report" on PBS. My husband is a politics/news junkie, but I was getting fed up with election coverage. I even published blog posts on it. Yikes - what was I thinking? That any of that stuff mattered? Well, yes, but that's another post.

By happy accident I discovered - after taking the remote into my own hands - that "Good Eats" could take the place of election coverage while I was cooking our eats. Now I'm hooked. I can't wait to get home, prepare dinner, and tune into Alton Brown. Yes, he's a little goofy, a little gimicky, but his recipes are good.

Tonight he recast that Thanksgiving classic (since 1955 anyway) the green bean casserole, into a suave, silky, eminently edible dish. I am going to make it. And it will appear on my Thanksgiving table! Along with another Thanksgiving classic, Chicken Marengo!

Vive l'haricot, vive l'oignon, vive le champignon!

Here is the recipe. I hope some of you will join me in this Thanksgiving treat:

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Prep Time:

25 min

Inactive Prep Time:

hr min

Cook Time:

45 min

Level:

Easy

Serves:

4 to 6 servings

For the topping:
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Nonstick cooking spray

For beans and sauce:
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Combine the onions, flour, panko and salt in a large mixing bowl and toss to combine. Coat a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan. Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, approximately 30 minutes. Toss the onions 2 to 3 times during cooking. Once done, remove from the oven and set aside until ready to use. Turn the oven down to 400 degrees F.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan. Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately plunge the beans into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Decrease the heat to medium-low and add the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, approximately 6 to 8 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve immediately.

Printed from FoodNetwork.com on 10/08/2008

© 2008 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved

We Are All Individuals!

I'm not.

(Click on bottom photo for something completely different)

It's a Big World After All

No matter who wins the election, it behooves us all to remember that politics does not move the world. The realm of politics is but a miniscule portion of life on planet Earth. Politics=this much. The Universe=EVERYTHING.

Politicians do not create, they do not innovate, they do not discover, they do not matter.

What if we gave an election and nobody came?

What would happen if we quit listening to politicians and listened to Beethoven instead?

What if, instead, we gazed at the stars, and wondered if anyone was looking back?

What would happen if we stopped giving politicians our oh-so finite and valuable time? What beautiful works could we create? What inspiring books would we read? What wonderful movies would we watch? What challenging discussions could we engage ourselves in?

What if we refused to allow politicians into our homes via the television, the radio, the internet?

What if they figured out that we don't care?

Would they go away?

Probably not. But we can hope. And we can keep looking up.

I'm Optimistic

In 1939 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (see Thought for the Day) joined a secret group of high-ranking military officers based in the Abwehr, or German Military Intelligence Office, who wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by killing Hitler. Bonhoeffer was arrested in April 1943 after money used to help Jews escape to Switzerland was traced to him. He was charged with conspiracy and imprisoned in Berlin for a year and a half.

Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at dawn on April 9, 1945 just three weeks before the liberation of Berlin and one month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany. The manner of execution was, like other executions associated with the July 20 plot, so brutal and graphic that even Wehrmacht soldiers were loathe to watch.