What Am I ? (#4)

1. Despite being one of the more common medical disorders, I am extremely difficult to treat.

2. Surveys show that between 5 and 15 percent of people have experienced me for six months or more in some form or fashion.

3. Ancient remedies for banishing me included everything from earthworms boiled in goose grease placed in the ear to cutting a freshly baked loaf of bread in half then binding it to the ears while still hot.

4. Doctors know that I'm caused when the flexibility of the nerve hairs in the inner ear go bad. However, I'm much more complicated than just a ringing in the ears. I'm more like a ringing across the brain! That's what makes consistently effective treatment of me so difficult.

Have you figured out what I am from my clues? * Scroll down for the answer.





















I am tinnitus!













*Facts provided by the October 2010 issue of Discover Magazine.

Favorite Five - TV Game Shows

I've rarely seen a game show I didn't like. Oh, I can think of a couple... The Gong Show, Three's a Crowd, and maybe a few others. It was a thrill when we first moved to the country and got a satellite dish to discover a channel devoted entirely to game shows. At the time Game Show Network (or GSN as it's now called) showed repeats of all my favorites from my childhood along old black and white shows from the early days. Certain months of the year I have more time available for mindless TV and in those days I always landed on GSN. These days it's more often the Food Network, but I still have a soft spot for GSN.

I seriously doubt any of you are the game show freak that I am, but surely there's at least one show you enjoyed. Here are my favorites:

1. Family Feud - Any host will do (there have been many), but my favorite was Richard Dawson.

2. Jeopardy! - I rarely watch this anymore, but there was a time when my kids were little that they knew not to disturb me during that half hour!

3. The Match Game - My younger two kids would play along with this using their dry-erase boards. I only liked the version with Gene Rayburn, who was my favorite game show host of all time.

4. The Price is Right - I found it interesting to watch some of the early B & W episodes with Bill Cullen as host. Totally different! I've only seen the newest version with Drew Carey a couple of times.

5. Password - I had the home version of this game. I never could picture Betty White married to the host, Allen Ludden. The only other version I watched was with Bert Convy as host.

Other favorites: Pyramid, Hollywood Squares (Peter Marshall version), Wheel of Fortune, Press Your Luck, Lingo, The Weakest Link... and I could go on, but I have to stop somewhere!

Quinoa

I first learned of quinoa years ago. Not a grain commonly sold at my local WalMart, I managed to find some at a local specialty store. My purchase sat on the pantry shelf for ages waiting for me to find just the right recipe for it. In time it got misplaced and eventually tossed when rediscovered well past its expiration date.

It was when I saw a recipe for quinoa at Sook's blog that I was reminded of the grain and my desire to try it. This was reinforced when I saw it featured on two different programs on the Food Network. So.... back to the specialty store for another package. This time I decided to wing it and come up with my own recipe. I prepared quinoa with black beans and sausage. My husband ate it, but felt it tasted a little too much like couscous, which he doesn't particularly care for. When my son came by the next day for leftovers, he made the same observation. In his case, that was a good thing. I'm not sure I tasted the similarity, but I thought it tasted good.

What about you? Have you eaten quinoa? If so, did you like it?

Aunt Pat's Spicy Corn Muffins

I was so pleased with the pulled pork BBQ recipe found in the back of Delicious and Suspicious by Riley Adams that I just had to try another one of her recipes. This time I made the corn muffins. I've mentioned several times here that my husband doesn't do spicy, so I left out the peppers and used a mild picante sauce. Also, I subbed canola oil for the shortening.

They turned out great and are definitely worth making again. Sorry - no photos, but here's the recipe.


Aunt Pat's Spicy Corn Muffins

2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening, melted
1 cup self-rising cornmeal
1 cup sour cream (not low fat)
1 8-ounce can creamed corn
3/4 cup picante sauce
1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno
1 cup grated extra-sharp cheddar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.
Beat the eggs into the melted shortening (after it has cooled somewhat).
Stir cornmeal into egg-shortening mixture. Add sour cream, creamed corn, picante sauce, and jalapeno. Beat well.
Spoon half the batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with remaining batter.
Bake for 30 minutes or until done.

Religious Literacy

Some of you might remember a post I had earlier in the year concerning Civic Literacy. It even included a fun quiz you could take to test your knowledge. Today's entry is about a different kind of literacy, one maybe just as important. (sorry, no fun quizzes this time)

There was an editorial by syndicated columnist Charles C. Haynes in my local paper today that I felt touched on an important issue: religious literacy. Too many people are woefully lacking in knowledge about religion... not just others' religions, but sometimes their own. I'm not sure what the reason for this is. Fear? Apathy? Who knows? I believe that now more than ever it's important for us to try and understand what others believe. It just might make a difference in how we get along with each other.

One of the devotional guides I use recently shared a link to a website that compares many of the world's religions. I don't know how accurate or detailed it is considering I've just started looking through it myself. However, if you're interested in checking it out for yourself click on the link below. Also, I've provided a link to the editorial I mentioned. Read it and see if you agree with me.

Religion Facts

"Why Religious Literacy Matters"

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox

"After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper."

With an opening line like that, I felt The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox would make a good choice as my final book for the RIP V Challenge. That and Michael Cox's association with ghost stories. As an added bonus, it would count as my seventh book in the Typically British Challenge. So, uncertain of what I was really getting in to, I set off on a 700 page journey into Victorian England.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the varied blurbs on the cover. Cox's writing is compared to Dickens, Austen, Trollope, Wilkie Collins and the Brontes. The story itself is described as spooky, thrilling, haunting, stunning, and fascinating.

Turn out it's an easy and quite enjoyable book to read. Written in the form of a "confession", it is edited by a fictitious Cambridge professor who provides a number of informative footnotes.... some of which blurred the line between fact and fiction in keeping with the storyline. Throughout the novel we follow the life and obsessions of the narrator, Edward Glyver. And obsessions they most assuredly are: love, hate, wealth, revenge. We encounter murder, deception, mystery, and decadence.

Despite the length of this book and being a slow reader, I never once lost interest in the plot. Cox writes in a way that totally drew me in and kept me there. It was one of those rare books that kept me thinking about the characters when I had to leave their world for my own.

The crowd awaits

I got this in an e-mail recently. Fill in the blank with the person of your choice.

With breathless anticipation, the crowd awaits the unveiling of the _____ statue.

You never know

You never know what you're going to learn by reading other folk's blogs. Take Debby's blog for instance. Recently she's mentioned two interesting products I had never heard of:

Bully Sticks

and

Anti Monkey Butt Powder


Am I the only one who wasn't familiar with these products?

Fruit Filled Cupcakes

Today is our younger daughter's birthday and last night the entire family gathered here for a birthday meal.

Several years ago I tried a cupcake recipe from Simple & Delicious which made a big impression on her. This was the first birthday in quite some time that she's been able to come home to celebrate, so she specifically requested these cupcakes instead of a cake.

They are moist, delicious, and quite simple to make.

1 pkg. strawberry cake mix
2 cups (16 oz.) sour cream (I use "lite")
2 eggs
strawberry preserves
white frosting

Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds then an additional 2 minutes on medium speed. Fill 24 baking cups about half full with batter. Spoon approximately 1/2 teaspoon preserves into the center of each cup. Top with remaining batter. Bake at 350F for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Frost when cool.

6 String Theory

I think many of the folks who don't care for Jazz have a set idea of what they believe all Jazz music sounds like in general. Now, ask a Jazz lover about their music and you'll get an entirely different attitude. There will be references to artists, instruments, styles, vocals and more. It's a huge genre with a wide variety of options within.

I recently purchased Lee Ritenour's 6 String Theory. It came out earlier in the year, but I only discovered it a few days ago. I'm amazed at the variety of music captured in the 15 tracks on this album! Consider some of the guest artists: Slash, Neal Schon, Vince Gill, Taj Mahal, Keb' Mo', B.B. King, Jonny Lang, George Benson, Joey DeFrancesco... and that's less than half of them. There are Country influences, Blues, Rock and Classical, along with some acoustic work.

Lee Ritenour alone would have made the album for me. All the others just make it that much better. I have a feeling it's going to be an album I listen to over and over and over.