Desperate to Create
Yes, I have been absent for a while. BUT WITH GOOD REASON!
The latest challenge I've been dealing with is a really nasty skin infection on my left knee/leg for the past 5 days. By far, this is the weirdest thing I've ever had to deal with. Completely out of the blue my knee started to hurt on one side of the kneecap, kind of like a bruise. This was just after supper on Tuesday. I still carried on with my normal duties even going for a walk with Tessie as per usual. Bye the end of the day I thought, "Well, that's weird - I must have banged into something" because it felt like I bruised it yet there was no sign of a bruise or a cut of any kind.
The next morning I could hardly stand on my left leg. I called in sick to work and made an appointment to see my Dr. ASAP. He took one look at it and pronounced that it was a "skin infection or possibly an infection of the bursa". Ohhhhkaaaaayyyy ... but "how did I get this?" Doc: "It could even be a microscopic injury on your skin and that's all it would take." I mean, what if it had been flesh-eating disease?! You just never know what type of bacteria you're dealing with!!! Sheesh!
The only thing that comes to mind is that about 7-8 weeks ago during Christmas season I fell while walking the dog right onto my left knee cap. It ruined my jeans and I developed a nice bruise and a big scab that took a few weeks to heal. But it healed and I didn't think anything of it. Perhaps something got in at that time and it's taken all this time to "fester" and "lie in wait" to irritate me at just the right time!!!! Actually, it IS perfect timing since 2 big projects at work were just completed so I don't have all that work responsibility weighing heavy on my mind. Such a relief! See? Even when bad things happen God can make something good come from it! Besides, resting like I have for the past 5 days has been a treat - more Bible study, web-surfing, emailing etc. Oh, and let's not forget SLEEPING. Man, I've been so tired!
Oh yes, so Doc gave me strong antibiotics and painkillers. I must say that on Wednesday and Thursday (Days 1 and 2) I was in excruciating pain that I would compare to a broken bone which I also experienced at 18. It was that bad. So after 72 hrs on oral antibiotics it still wasn't markedly improving so I checked myself into ER. They confirmed that it was a skin infection and started an IV antibiotic treatment. I've had 2 now - 1 each day at about the same time. I have to go again tonight and will be reassessed by ER afterward. I'm still dealing with a lot of discomfort but I'm able to tolerate the pain now so no more codeine laced meds! (which really should be read: no more constipation)
At its worst, my knee/leg looked like this:
Needless to say NO WORK which also means NO HOUSEWORK and NO BAKING or COOKING! No creativity! I'm dying here! I felt "spry" enough today (after a morning nap - I KNOW!!!) to experiment in the kitchen with a new recipe - oh, it felt wonderful to be back in the kitchen again!!! In my browsings on Pinterest I found a recipe for Mandarin Orange Layer Cake which I just had to try!
The recipe is from here.
Madarin Orange Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
11-ounce can mandarin oranges, undrained
3.4 ounce (4-serving size) box instant vanilla pudding
8-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. In a small bowl, whisk flour and baking powder. Set aside. Cream butter and 2 cups of the sugar. Add eggs one at a time until all combined. Add entire can of mandarin oranges. Beat into batter, slightly crushing up oranges.
(Okay, at this point be careful not to really "beat" the mandarins only because they are very liquidy and when I did this it splattered everywhere. So ... word of advice - GO SLOW on the speed of your mixer being sure to crush up the orange segments.)
Slowly add flour mixture until well mixed. Divide batter between the 2 pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
(I found on my oven that they needed about 45 minutes to bake through thoroughly. You just have to watch your cakes and test them for doneness.)
Cool cakes in pans for at least 2 minutes. Remove from the pans and completely cool on a wire rack. Place one cake layer on serving plate. Ice with 1/3 of frosting. Place second layer on top. Ice top of cake with 1/2 of remaining frosting. Ice the sides of the cake with final amount of frosting. Refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving. Store leftover cake in refrigerator.
Frosting:
Whip cream with remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and pudding mix until stiff peaks form. Hand stir in the pineapple and juice.
The latest challenge I've been dealing with is a really nasty skin infection on my left knee/leg for the past 5 days. By far, this is the weirdest thing I've ever had to deal with. Completely out of the blue my knee started to hurt on one side of the kneecap, kind of like a bruise. This was just after supper on Tuesday. I still carried on with my normal duties even going for a walk with Tessie as per usual. Bye the end of the day I thought, "Well, that's weird - I must have banged into something" because it felt like I bruised it yet there was no sign of a bruise or a cut of any kind.
The next morning I could hardly stand on my left leg. I called in sick to work and made an appointment to see my Dr. ASAP. He took one look at it and pronounced that it was a "skin infection or possibly an infection of the bursa". Ohhhhkaaaaayyyy ... but "how did I get this?" Doc: "It could even be a microscopic injury on your skin and that's all it would take." I mean, what if it had been flesh-eating disease?! You just never know what type of bacteria you're dealing with!!! Sheesh!
The only thing that comes to mind is that about 7-8 weeks ago during Christmas season I fell while walking the dog right onto my left knee cap. It ruined my jeans and I developed a nice bruise and a big scab that took a few weeks to heal. But it healed and I didn't think anything of it. Perhaps something got in at that time and it's taken all this time to "fester" and "lie in wait" to irritate me at just the right time!!!! Actually, it IS perfect timing since 2 big projects at work were just completed so I don't have all that work responsibility weighing heavy on my mind. Such a relief! See? Even when bad things happen God can make something good come from it! Besides, resting like I have for the past 5 days has been a treat - more Bible study, web-surfing, emailing etc. Oh, and let's not forget SLEEPING. Man, I've been so tired!
Oh yes, so Doc gave me strong antibiotics and painkillers. I must say that on Wednesday and Thursday (Days 1 and 2) I was in excruciating pain that I would compare to a broken bone which I also experienced at 18. It was that bad. So after 72 hrs on oral antibiotics it still wasn't markedly improving so I checked myself into ER. They confirmed that it was a skin infection and started an IV antibiotic treatment. I've had 2 now - 1 each day at about the same time. I have to go again tonight and will be reassessed by ER afterward. I'm still dealing with a lot of discomfort but I'm able to tolerate the pain now so no more codeine laced meds! (which really should be read: no more constipation)
At its worst, my knee/leg looked like this:
 |
| You can see how far the redness spread and also the round scar left from the scab of my original fall. |
Needless to say NO WORK which also means NO HOUSEWORK and NO BAKING or COOKING! No creativity! I'm dying here! I felt "spry" enough today (after a morning nap - I KNOW!!!) to experiment in the kitchen with a new recipe - oh, it felt wonderful to be back in the kitchen again!!! In my browsings on Pinterest I found a recipe for Mandarin Orange Layer Cake which I just had to try!
The recipe is from here.
Madarin Orange Cake
2 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
11-ounce can mandarin oranges, undrained
3.4 ounce (4-serving size) box instant vanilla pudding
8-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. In a small bowl, whisk flour and baking powder. Set aside. Cream butter and 2 cups of the sugar. Add eggs one at a time until all combined. Add entire can of mandarin oranges. Beat into batter, slightly crushing up oranges.
(Okay, at this point be careful not to really "beat" the mandarins only because they are very liquidy and when I did this it splattered everywhere. So ... word of advice - GO SLOW on the speed of your mixer being sure to crush up the orange segments.)
Slowly add flour mixture until well mixed. Divide batter between the 2 pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
(I found on my oven that they needed about 45 minutes to bake through thoroughly. You just have to watch your cakes and test them for doneness.)
Cool cakes in pans for at least 2 minutes. Remove from the pans and completely cool on a wire rack. Place one cake layer on serving plate. Ice with 1/3 of frosting. Place second layer on top. Ice top of cake with 1/2 of remaining frosting. Ice the sides of the cake with final amount of frosting. Refrigerate for at least one hour prior to serving. Store leftover cake in refrigerator.
Frosting:
Whip cream with remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and pudding mix until stiff peaks form. Hand stir in the pineapple and juice.
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| The cakes |
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| A closeup (of course!) |
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| The frosting! |
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| A piece of the finished cake - oh man! |
At the moment it's chilling in the downstairs fridge - can't wait to eat more than just a spoonful!
This would be easy to bake up in a sheet pan, like a 9 x 13" pan, throw the frosting on top to serve up a crowd. LOOK at those chunks of dark orange from the mandarins! So moist.
Hope you give it a try! Oh, and next time you get some road rash or any kind of open wound injury, be sure to wash it out thoroughly as soon as you are able and use peroxide!!!!!!!
E
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