Baking, Sort of

As Atheists, we don't celebrate christmas BUT that doesn't mean that we can't do a little baking! Yesterday my friend Shirley popped by with the most delectable treats I've had in a LONG time. After receiving the recipe last night, I thought that I would put it to the test and have the kids help too!

Here is my version of the recipe for Hazelnut and Cherry / Ginger Chocs


Ingredients
70g packet of hazelnuts
200g dark chocolate
1/2 tin (about 195g) of sweetened condensed milk
50g butter
1/2 cup crystallized ginger, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup candied cherries, whole or cut in half- you choose
24 small muffin (this is more like a candy sized paper cup) baking cups

Method
Line the compartments of two muffin tins with the small baking cups, set aside.

In a microwave proof bowl, combine chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and butter. Microwave until all ingredients begin to melt. Remove and stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour hazelnuts into chocolate mixture and stir until well coated. Split the chocolate mixture into two containers and add ginger to one and cherries to the other. Mix each well making sure all nuts and cherries/ginger are well coated.

Spoon mixture into baking cups distributing the mixture evenly amongst the cups. Place muffin tins in the refrigerator. Chocs should be well set before removing to serve. Enjoy!

Ivy, Melody and Cruz really enjoyed helping with this recipe. It is easy for children to help with the measuring of the ingredients, mixing and filling the cups. There was plenty of spoon licking and still enough to fill all 24 cups.

I hope that you will try this recipe and let me know what you think. It is an easy one to pull off seeing that NO baking is required.

Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of my one and only major surgery. It was on this day last year that my Neurosurgeon, N. Finnis, performed a PLIF on my spine in the L5/S1 region. It is hard to believe that all of this happened one year ago.

BEFORE

When I was pregnant with Cruz, I injured my back while cleaning out the chicken coop. I suffered for nearly nine months with horrific back pain accompanied by shocking/aching nerve pain and numbness in the pelvis and legs. I had seen specialists at the time who diagnosed me with a sprain to the sacroiliac joint and assured me that all would improve after I delivered. I struggled at times to walk and manage the pain. At that time, I thought it was one of the most challenging trials I had ever faced.

After delivering Cruz, my pain and symptoms escalated. I was able to have x-rays and an MRI and was diagnosed with Grade II Isthmic Spondylolisthesis. For the next nearly three years, I struggled with difficulty walking (often having a limp), debilitating pain, and the inability to find a surgeon who would treat me.

The problem, I was a breastfeeding mother. No surgeon would agree to do anything for my pain or back and I was continually advised to "soldier on". Luckily, in mid 2007, I was referred to Mr. Finnis and soon thereafter, he agreed to DO something to help me. It was on December 6, 2007 that I was admitted to St. George's Hospital in Christchurch for my spinal fusion/nerve decompression with instrumentation.

Here you can see the before and after radiographs of my spine.

AFTER

If I thought the struggle leading up to my surgery was harrowing, I had no idea that the post-operative period and onward was going to be equally as agonising. I can vividly remember waking up in the recovery room and thinking that my pain was almost unbearable. I was quickly hooked up to a pain medication pump and started pressing the button like there was no tomorrow. The next nearly five days were a blur. I was in bed for nearly three days before I attempted to stand at the bedside and walking seemed impossible.

I was still breastfeeding Cruz who came to the hospital the day after my surgery and then once or twice every day thereafter. I was sleeping more than awake but still managing to press my pain med button. The medication seemed so ineffective in relation to the severity of my pain. On the last day, Arnold and the kids picked me up and drove me home. I still don't know how I made the journey sitting up in the front seat of the car.

The next several weeks were spent in bed, resting and taking pain meds. The girls' birthdays passed and I barely remember them. My fortieth birthday passed and I was lucky to make it to the dinner table. More time passed and nearly 5 months after my surgery I was able to stop taking my pain medication and begin to live a relatively normal life- yeah right.

OUTCOMES

I knew immediately after my surgery that the pain I had experienced due to my herniated disc was completely gone. Yipee! Unfortunately, nothing ever seems to be 100% and I am left with nerve pain in the pelvis and legs, numbness in the pelvis and legs/feet that comes and goes, and back pain when I attempt to do too much at once. Thankfully, I have been able to get some help with the tasks that I have found aggravate my nerves- repetitive bending and heavy lifting- but you can't exactly tell your child that you can't pick them up when they have fallen and hurt themselves. More often then not, I do what I must and grin and bear it as much as I can.

I'll just have to see what unfolds in this next year.