Other Food Items I Shouldn't Eat

Last night I told you about not being able to eat anything with hot chili pepper/spicy seasonings. 

I have gout which I inherited from my father.  He suffered immensely from the pain of gout attacks.  It normally doesn't affect women.  The first time I had an attack I was at work and couldn't figure out why the big toe on my left foot was throbbing.  My foot around the area of the toe was beginning to swell.  I told my supervisor I was going home and called my doctor.  One look at me and he knew right away what the problem was.  I took medication for years then stopped.  One of the aftereffects of taking the drug is kidney failure.

As long as I don't eat the "No, No" foods I am okay.  Once in a while I will have some throbbing in the big toe.  My left ankle will also throb sometimes.  It has been a few years since I've had a really bad attack.

So, the foods I should not eat:
1. any kind of shell fish, seafood...i.e. shrimp, lobster, crab.  I can eat all the fish I want, it doesn't bother me.
2.  beans...i.e. pinto beans, kidney beans.  During the winter time, I want to make chili...can't have it.
3.  asparagus...I can eat it in moderation.  Like the doctor said "don't eat 3 lbs at one sitting".  We love fresh, California asparagus.
4.  gravies...in moderation
5.  braised meats...like roast beef...in moderation.

I also can't have dairy products.  Although I will eat some ice cream once in a while and it won't bother me.  I love cheese...sometimes its okay to have, other times NO.

It can be a real bummer sometimes trying to figure out what to eat.

Memo to Self: Read the Labels

I've been craving a hotdog and potato salad.  So yesterday when Gerry and I went to Bel Air, I got the makings to satisfy my cravings..

First let me say, I can not and do not eat anything that is chili pepper hot.  If I do, it is a 911 event for me.  My throat constricts and I am in trouble.  So I don't eat a lot of Mexican food, spicy BBQ sauces, hot and spicy Korean food...you get the picture.

Well, I like sliced olives in my potato salad.  I put 2 small cans of them in my basket yesterday.  I made up the salad when we got home, planning to have it for dinner along with a grilled hot dog.  We had gone over to Round Table Pizza for their lunch buffet after finishing shopping so we decided to eat dinner late.

All was well until I took a bite of the potato salad and realized something was hot in the salad.  There was a piece of an olive in that first bite.  I grabbed my drink right away and said to Gerry that something was spicy in the salad.  I had put a dash of celery salt in the salad.  He thought maybe it was the red bell peppers in the relish.  I kept saying no...so I got up and got the other can of sliced olives.  And right there on the label under "sliced olives" was "with red jalapeno peppers".  Who would have thought??  I didn't read the label assuming it was just sliced olives.

I've been eating the salad, just making sure to pick the olives out.  We're surprised that the rest of the salad is not contaminated with the "heat" from the olives.

It more than likely would have been a 911 event if I had taken a bite with more olives in it.  Even Gerry said the olives were pretty "hot" and he loves spicy food.

So gotta be more careful...

Preacher Cake & Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani's Birthday

Today is my granddaughter's birthday, Rebekah-Elizabeth Noelani...she is 19 years old.  Time goes by so quickly...I can still remember receiving a phone call from Denise telling me she had given birth to a girl.  And she said:  she is named after you with her first name hyphenated like yours is".  That was music to my ears. :)  Denise's middle name is Noelani.

She has moved to Auburn, AL to attend Auburn University this fall.  She completed one year at Enterprise Community College.  Auburn is about 100 miles from Enterprise so she'll be able to go home if and when she wants.  She is sharing an apartment with her best friend and 2 other girls.

So about this cake...I found the recipe on the "Just A Pinch Recipe Club" website.  I've been wanting to make it and decided today was the perfect day to make a cake.  It is so easy to put together and really Yummy!!

It was Gerry's idea to take a picture of the cake with a picture of Bekah in it.  This picture of her is taken off my phone.  See Gerry's hand holding my phone...:)

Here's the recipe as written then I'll tell you what I did different:
Preacher Cake
2 cups of sugar (I used 1 cup of sugar.  It was suggested to reduce amount of sugar otherwise the cake would be really sweet).
2 cups all purpose flour
2 eggs
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans)
1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, undrained

Frosting:
1 8 ounce pkg of cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 tsp salt (I left this out)
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans)
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Cake:  Combine dry ingredients, add remaining ingredients and mix by hand.  Bake in a 9 x 13 prepared dish (I guess oiled & floured...I didn't do this...didn't need it) at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.  (Mine was done at 30 minutes, preheated oven first).

Frosting:  Mix all the ingredients well and spread on cooled cake in pan.

You will notice there is no milk or butter in the cake.

So here's what I did differently:
I didn't use the nuts in the cake or frosting since I can't eat them.  I added some golden raisins and coconut instead to the cake batter.  I didn't measure...just poured some of both in.  After Gerry mixed up the frosting, I added some coconut to that too.

The cake is very moist and the frosting is so good!

Ernest Ha'akua Chung-Hoon Ohana Group on Facebook

I created a Group Page on Facebook called the Ernest Ha'akua Chung-Hoon Ohana.

One of my nieces, Sandee, posted these pictures that she inherited when her mom (one of my older sisters) pasted away a few years ago.  They are absolutely priceless!!

In this photo are Violet, Beatrice, Dad, their wet nurse Auntie Ida holding Cyril.  Marie is sitting on the bottom steps.  I am not sure if the girls are in order except that I believe Auntie Vi was the oldest of the girls.

Sister Violet and Dad.  I am named after Auntie Vi.  She had a flower shop and nursery for many years on the corner of 6th Avenue and Waialae.  When we lived in Palolo Valley I use to get off the bus that brought me from Kaimuki Intermediate School to catch another bus home.  I'd go into Auntie's shop to say hello while I waited for the Palolo Valley bus.

Auntie Marie, Daddy and Auntie Bea.  Both aunties were school teachers.  I had Auntie Marie as a teacher, for a short while, when I was in the 6th grade.  Auntie Marie was my favorite aunt.  She never married.  She taught me to tell time when I was in the 1st grade.  In December of 1948 my mother gave birth to my baby sister.  We all went to stay with relatives while she was in the hospital.  I got to stay with Auntie Marie; that's when she taught me how to tell time on a huge red school house clock.  She also bought me a beautiful red coat for Christmas.  I loved that coat so much and would wear it even though it was not cold.  Guess that's why red is my favorite color.  :)

Here's a picture of a very young Daddy.  I have no idea  how old he would have been in this picture.

So far we have 74 members in our group...which is pretty awesome!

Sewing Projects

I've been sewing, off and on, for the past few weeks, well...more like the last two months.  Here's a few projects that I've made. 

Last October Gerry did a ride over in Lakeport, northwest of Sacramento.  The ride was around Clear Lake.  I found a quilt shop to browse around in and purchased some material to make some tote bags.  

This one is blue with hydrangea flowers.
 The lining is a pale blue.

 This one is a dusty pink with roses.

 The lining also has roses.

 This one is red with white roses, probably my favorite one.

 The lining.

 This is a vintage hanky tote bag.  I saw this on Pinterest and really liked it.  I knew I had a hanky that my mom had given me years ago, so I went hunting for it.  The hanky has purple flower sprays on it.

I purchased the canvas tote bag from Hobby Lobby.  Then used double sided fusible interfacing on the hanky, fusing it first to the hanky then to the bag.  I then sewed all around the outside of the hanky on the bag.  That was a little tricky, however being able to remove part of the sewing arm on the machine made it possible.

I trimmed the handles with large purple rickrack.  Before I sewed in the lining, I sewed a pony tail band in for a loop.  I covered a button with some of the lining fabric and sewed that on the front.

 The lining is purple although it looks blue.

 I had fabric left over from these projects so decided to make some zippered pouches.  I went on to You Tube and found a couple of videos to use.  They are not the best, however, it doesn't really matter.  They are for me to use.

This project I started back in April.  It took about 3 weeks to complete it.

I purchased 6 fat quarter pieces of fabric, all different...different colors and patterns...and cut each one in 3 6 inch strips.  I sewed each of those together and then top stitched each strip.  I also purchased one fat quarter to use as a border.  After I got all the strips together, I realized that I was going to need more fabric for the border and would have to do rows.  So back to the quilt shop I went.  The owner of the shop had helped me pick out the fabric, initially, so she helped me pick another piece of fabric to use.  Thankfully they had more of the first fat quarter I had bought to do the border. 

 To break up the rows, I sewed white rick rack between each row and top stitched each row.  It has an elastic waist.  I finished in time to wear it out to eat on Mother's day.  I really love the way it turned out and it is fun to wear.  

Nancy's BD Party/Dinner

This past Saturday we were invited to a birthday party for a friend, Nancy Riddle.  She was celebrating her 60th birthday.  Three of her daughters and her husband planned a surprise for her.  These girls are so creative.  They did a beach theme...they did an awesome job.  One of the daughters, Janet, made the birthday cake.  It is individual cakes put together.  However, I think Gerry told me that the little blue cakes were actually cereal put together and frosted.  She used Fondant icing on the cakes.

 My pictures don't do justice to the way this looked IRL...it made a beautiful presentation.

 We've been friends with Tom and Nancy for a number of years.  We used to go to church with them and their family.  Tom and Nancy were one of the 3 married couples on a church trip to South Korea in 1997.  Tom is 10 days older than my youngest brother...he decided we should be brother and sister so he calls me Big Sis and he is Little Bro.  They went on another trip to Korea on their own...two of their daughters went with them and another person, who has become a very close friend of theirs.  They've also made a few trips to Hawai'i and love it.  One year the whole family went over and worked on the USS Missouri.

We went to Sam's Club today to refill a prescription for me.  After a hotdog lunch, we did some shopping.  One of the items we purchased was this package of Asian Style Beef Sirloin.  Gerry put it on the grill and we had it for dinner.  Wow!!  Super ONO (as we say back home).  The package was almost 2 lbs of meat, cut in thin slices.  The slices were rather large so after it was cooked, Gerry cut the slices in strips.  We ate a large portion of it and have leftovers for another meal.  It is so good, it was hard to stop snacking on it after we had finished dinner.