Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

Five years ago, I was diagnosed with primary mediastinal diffuse large B-Cell lymphoma, a subset of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a blood cancer (background: Living With Lymphoma). But with the help of my family, friends, and a wonderful team of oncologists and nurses at Stony Brook University Medical Center, I went into remission on September 2, 2005. After six rounds of chemotherapy, I’m now celebrating my fifth year of being cancer-free.

But others aren’t as lucky. Each year since 2006, I’ve been participating in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light The Night Walk, which is held every October at Suffolk County Ball Park in Central Islip. It’s a nationwide event to pay tribute and bring hope to thousands of people battling blood cancers and to commemorate loved ones lost.

Each walker carries an illuminated balloon—white for survivors, red for those who support them, and gold for remembrance of a loved one lost to blood cancer. There are still too many gold balloons—and I am asking for your support in helping me raise money so we see even more white balloons at future Light The Night events. Read the rest of this entry »

So, now I have nine two-liter soda bottles of Miller Lite I need to use – and I don’t drink beer. If you want to know why I have so much beer, see my previous post.

My first attempt to use the beer was Susan’s Beyond Easy Beer Bread. And it was indeed easy! From bowl to piping hot loaf, it only took an hour. I modified the recipe to make four different flavors. The result:

• Top left: Onion (added a packet of Lipton’s Recipe Secret Onion – but if you do this, nix the salt in Susan’s recipe)
• Bottom left:  Cranberry (added lots and lots of Ocean Spray Craisins and replaced Susan’s granulated sugar with brown sugar)
• Top right: Italian (added dried parsley, oregano, powdered garlic, and fresh Parmesan cheese)
• Bottom left: Spicy (added curry and cinnamon – I ran out of flour, so that’s why it’s smaller and denser. It has the consistency of pumpkin bread)

So each bottle of beer will make approximately five loaves. I’m going to try all different types of flavoring. Next, I think I’ll try cinnamon and raisin, again replacing the granulated sugar with brown sugar. It’s a tradition for Mom and I to have a slice of toasted cinnamon raisin bread and a cup of coffee on the first day of school (the Wednesday after Labor Day on Long Island). Even though I’m no longer in school, we still have our bread and coffee!

Last Saturday, I held a BBQ to celebrate five years’ remission from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Overall, it was a wonderful day – except for one thing. The beer keg.

In hindsight, the weekend before Labor Day was probably not the best one to schedule a party – a bunch of my friends and family couldn’t come because of prior engagements. Everyone seemed to schedule a summer’s-last-hurrah on Saturday. When I ordered and paid for the beer keg a week earlier, I’d been expecting a certain amount of people – many of them beer drinkers. As the week progressed, I did receive some RSVP cancellations – and mostly from the beer drinkers. (Maybe it was the Miller Lite that scared them away. I don’t drink beer, so I asked my brother what I should buy.)

I decided to go along with the keg anyways, convinced my party would drink my money’s worth had I purchased bottles. As people trickled in and out, I suggested they drink some beer. As the night progressed, “suggested” slightly turned into “ordered.” I began posting  (rather, begging) on Facebook, offering free beer and food. I just wanted the keg to go away – I knew that keeping it cold over the next few days was going to be a big chore. No one grabbed at the ice-cold opportunity. Seriously, was it the Miller Lite? By the end of the party, the keg was still about 75% full, despite the 60 or so attendees. I dumped the last of my freezer’s ice tray in the big bucket, filled it with water, and called it a night.

Day Two

Sunday, my sister told me her boyfriend’s brother was having a BBQ later that day. Perfect! I could dump the keg on him! He gladly accepted, and the beer keg made the quarter-mile trip down the road to his house. I could forget about icing the 75%-full beer keg for an entire day. Life was grand.

Day Three

I woke up bright and early, with visions of an empty beer keg in my dreams. I dialed my sister’s number. She picked up on the seventh ring.

“So, how’s the beer keg?” I asked.

“No one really drank the beer,” she replied.

%$#@! I knew it. The responsibility was back on me. Read the rest of this entry »

I ate all sorts of strange things on my trip to Taiwan earlier this year – sea cucumber, shark fin, jellyfish, stinky tofu – so eating chocolate-covered bacon seemed, well, somewhat normal. My friend Sarah’s blog mentioned the curious snack (but with caramel), so I hit Google looking for the perfect recipe. I decided to try my hands at Michael Symon’s Chocolate Covered Bacon with Almonds.

Armed with a pound of Oscar Meyer Bacon, a bag of Hershey’s semi-sweet chocolate chips, and some slivered almonds, I made quite a mess of the kitchen tonight.

I laid most of the bacon across cooling racks before putting them in the oven, so the fat dripped off of them and they stayed flat. The ones that were laid directly on the baking sheet curled too much and it was hard to coat them with chocolate. While the bacon was cooking in the oven, I melted the chocolate in a double boiler (or in my case, a sauce pan inside a sauce pan). I read to add a little vegetable oil to thin the chocolate a little bit, otherwise the chocolate would overpower the bacon. Of course, I added my own secret ingredient – pepper, madam? Lexcie hand-chopped the almonds, but it would have been much easier had we purchased slivered almonds.

Nice and crispy – you don’t now how difficult it was not to eat a slice of bacon before it hit the chocolate! The chocolate was the perfectly smooth and covered the bacon evenly – I just had to make sure to let the excess chocolate drip off the bacon. I then laid it on a piece of parchment paper (another commenter said not to put it on metal or the chocolate would crack off). Thirty minutes in the fridge, and voilà! A crispy, chocolaty, perfect-blend-of-sweet-and-salty snack. It’s delicious! I will definitely make this again, and may try using maple-flavored bacon next time.

“Chocolate is sacred – you just defiled my church. I still love you, but respect you a little less. I can’t wrap my head around this.” – Deena Baikowitz

Well, perhaps not the Rolling Stone, but Newsday‘s good enough for me. I was interviewed for the cover story “Their New Lifeline,” which talks about Long Islanders with illnesses and how they’ve used the Internet to share their experiences. The story came out great, and there’s even a full-page photo of me on page A4. If you’re a Newsday subscriber, you can read the story here (with a sidebar on social media). I put a request in for a reprint, so hopefully I’ll have something to share with those who aren’t subscribed.

I was also taped along with a few others for a short video clip:

Exciting!