Cookies! Yum!

So I guess today I was feeling like making stuff, because now I have got cookies for you too!

I did some recipe searching and adapted a couple of different ones to what I had in my pantry (My biggest inspiration came from: http://www.bigoven.com/recipe/132238/pudding-mix-chocolate-chip-cookies)

Lemon Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package lemon pudding mix
2 eggs
1/2 bag each chocolate chips and white chocolate chips
dark chocolate (for drizzling)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and pudding. Beat until smooth. (I melted the butter first and used my stand mixer so it took about 30 seconds on a high speed.
3. Add eggs, mix. Then add flour mixture a little at a time.
4. Mix in both types of chips.
5. Place spoonfuls of batter on cookie sheets. Leave some space, cookies will expand while baking.
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned on the top.
7. While cookies are baking get your dark chocolate melted and ready.
8. When cookies come out of the oven move them to cooling racks (you might want to place paper towels under the racks). Drizzle cookies with dark chocolate.

Yields: about 3 dozen

Here is my finished product. Ignore the missing cookies, John and I couldn't help sampling.

Extracts

A couple of weeks back I decided to make vanilla extract, but today I decided to try something different: nutmeg and cinnamon extract!

First I found a couple of mason jars and grabbed about 5 fresh cinnamon sticks and 3 whole nutmeg seeds.

I'm pretty sure the cinnamon sticks will be extracted fine in the vodka, so I just dropped them into the mason jar.

The nutmeg I rough chopped before placing the pieces into their own mason jar.

I filled each jar with vodka, and sealed them up tight.

Now I'll just wait a few months and I am hoping I'll have really yummy extracts!

Health Insurance

So let me tell you a story that happened to me today.

In the past since I've begun to pay my own way and have had to get health insurance and pay for anything uncovered I have been screwed pretty much every time. I am terrified to go to the doctor, because of how much it will end up costing me. A year ago I had a normal female exam. (I didn't even need to be tested for STDs) In addition to my co-pay of $50 and the fact that I paid my insurance company (American Republic Insurance) $150 a month I also ended up owing around $300 to be told everything looked fine and that I could have a prescription for birth control. The same thing I have heard for the previous 5 years.

So here I am now a year later and I find myself in need of another prescription. I've switched to a different health insurance (Allstate, through my employer HyVee) which is about $160 a month and only a $25 co-pay. This year I thought that I would be able to do things a little easier and use a cheaper method, one designed for people who don't make that much. Planned Parenthood. They are supposed to be affordable or free. And they sounded like exactly the kind of people I needed. After all, I wanted help to make a decision about my best birth control option so that I can get pregnant when we are ready in about a year.

I went in only to find out they don't honor my insurance and that at $35,000 a year John and I make too much money to even qualify for the sliding scale! It isn't just that it wouldn't be free, I don't even qualify for a discount. That means I'd have to pay $205 dollars for the consult plus $24 a month for birth control. Although the nurse reiterated to me that the $205 doesn't have to be paid today, just within 3 months. I'm sorry if I don't have the money now $200 isn't going to fall out of the sky tomorrow! Here I thought that having trouble paying the bills every month would mean the government would cut me some slack when I tried to do the right thing and keep from bringing extra babies, babies that neither I nor the government can afford to take care of considering we are both in debt. I was wrong. I'm not sure how little you have to make to be considered "poor" but apparently we aren't there...

I made me literally sick to realize my current situation. The amount of money I have paid to insurance since starting at HyVee would be enough to pay not only for the visit, but also a full year of birth control. Now instead I have to find a doctor on the list, pay $25 plus whatever they decide they don't want to cover. AND then $15 a month for birth control. Or we can switch to another method, though mind you that winds up costing a decent amount as well, or we can take or chances and hope we don't end up with even more costs that we can't afford right now. I suppose I should say in Allstate's defense they haven't screwed me over. But I can't help adding "yet" to the end of that.

All in all I just don't know how to be proud to live in a country that punishes me for trying to do the responsible adult thing.

Opening my eyes

John recently introduced me to Michael Moore's films. We are watching Capitalism: A Love Story right now, and the other day we saw Sicko. On the one hand I don't like his films because they are a bit over the top and in your face, but the other hand is there is a very good point being made. Why do we just stand by and let this stuff happen?

I particularly like the quote by John Stienbeck "socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."

The more I look and learn about politics and religion (but that's another post) the more I realize that so many people are just sweet talking us into doing what they want. I'm done with that. I want to be able to go to a doctor when I'm sick and not pay for it for the next year or more. I want to feel safe, I want to be able to trust the people who are running my country. I'm not rich and I never will be in the top 1%. In fact I don't know any person who ever will be...


In some ways I wish the entire economy would just collapse. Maybe we need to go through a period where it is more beneficial to burn our dollar that to keep it. Maybe something that drastic will remind people that it's time to change. I think there is a problem when a woman can die in a hospital waiting room and no one notices for 45 minutes. I think it's a problem when a country that is the "best place on Earth" is trailing so far behind in how we treat our weakest members. According to the UN out of 195 countries we have the 33rd lowest infant mortality, behind not only most European countries, but also: Cuba, Slovenia, South Korea, Czech Republic. The CIA World Factbook puts us down at 46th out of 224. How is this not a problem? Over all our health care (not just infants) falls on the same lines. The World Health Organization ranks our overall health care as 37th. We do win at one thing though: in a ranking of how much the individual pays for health care we come in at 1st place. Oh wait... that's kind of like losing.


I only hope that the people of my generation will start showing up at the polls and make our voices heard. There are more of us, we need to catch up to the rest of the world and fix these problems that were created by a bunch of brainwashed embarrassed millionaires.

Gyros

John and I had gyros today... it turned into quite a mess.

I started the process yesterday, I was using Alton Brown's recipe for both gyro meat and tzatziki sauce. You can find the recipe here. I chose to use the rotisserie method, this is what ended up being my mistake. At first everything was going well.

I chopped and drained the onion (I could not believe how much water is in an onion!) added the spices and 1 lb each lamb and beef. Next you form the loaf and wrap it in saran wrap. This part worked fairly easily. I basically tossed everything into a food processor and processed until I had a well incorporated paste. I refrigerated my loaf for about 20 hours.

In the meantime I began the tzatziki sauce. This was what I was most worried about, but it turned out to be REALLY easy. I bought Greek yogurt instead of straining regular yogurt. (Don't worry I got it on sale so it wasn't so expensive!) Before starting the meat I had peeled, seeded and finely chopped a cucumber so it had been draining. I put everything for the sauce (primarily cucumber, yogurt, mint and garlic)  in the freshly cleaned food processor. The sauce came out tasting fantastic! Not exactly what I've had in restaurants, but it was still very good.

Next I decided to try and tackle pita bread. I used this recipe. It was super easy and the pita bread came out tasting exactly like I've had in Greek restaurants. (Except mine weren't as pretty and round) It took about six minutes for the pita to be ready. I couldn't wait and last night I immediately had some pita with tzatziki, it was awesome!

Today John caramelized some onions and cut up some tomatoes while the meat was on the rotisserie out on the grill. I went to check on the meat and turn down the heat only to find that my loaf had fallen apart! The tin foil we had put down had luckily caught all the meat though. I ended up cooking the meat as if it were just hamburgers and then had to try to slice it. My gyro meat turned into basically ground beef in large chunks. :(

The good news was the flavor was definitely there and we had yummy if not authentic gyros. Next time though I think I'll try the meatloaf method...


As a side note, John also made chips to go with the gyros. We had both russet potatoes and sweet potatoes that we sliced and fried. They were also delicious!

Comprehensive--passed!

John gave his comprehensive on Friday and he passed! Actually I think he did really well, he was able to field questions about his research (questions that Dr. W probably should have had to answer for him) plus his written portion was 140 pages (instead of the normal 40).

Dr. W told us that during the private meeting where the committee votes to pass or fail they just sat there and talked about other subjects. They didn't think they could just immediately tell him he passed, had to make him sweat a little bit.

We celebrated all weekend with family. Now he has to start on the defense. He should give it this semester, but likely he won't actually walk and get hooded until next December. But either way he feels like he has accomplished something now.

And most importantly, I am very proud of him for everything he has accomplished.

Missing John

John is in Colorado, which makes me sad. I miss him, and I think Lady is worried that he abandoned us. She seems very depressed. He should be back soon though, I'm hoping he comes home tomorrow. But, what's more important is that he is almost done with his comprehensive. That is totally worth my missing him. He should be giving his comprehensive on January 7 and then his defense in April. I'm going to be married to a doctor in May! :)

The only downside is when he is stressed out about it I don't know what to say to him. Things like, "you're so close just push though it" make him really angry. "I'm proud of you" makes him feel like I think I want it more then he does. Complaining with him is always a bad idea, because I don't know how he feels. I'm trying to just be a sounding board, but I feel awkward just sitting there not saying anything. I guess I'll just keep trying not to get in the way or be annoying?