Log Splitting Accident

Things have been a little quiet on the blog because we have been dealing with a little log splitting accident. If you are a facebook fan, I alluded to the incident but figure it's time to spill the long story here. A week ago Thursday, Alex was splitting some logs in the backyard. Our kind friends gave us two ash tree's worth of wood stove fuel after the trees were taken down by arborists.

The wannabe lumberjack was driving a steel splitting wedge (actually a reclaimed axe head) into a large log. Upon striking it with the back of the splitting maul, a shard of metal flew through Alex's shorts and into his upper inner thigh. Feeling only a punch with an intense burning sensation at first, he stepped back and touched his leg. When he straightened up and looked at his gloved hand, he found it covered in blood and more dripping down his leg.

Alex rushed inside and de-pantsed. He applied pressure and was able to stop the bleeding but not before Lillian saw him. She was terrified.

Meanwhile, I was driving home from meeting with Allie Lehman who is designing a logo for Hounds in the Kitchen. I called, Alex answered and put me on speaker phone, talking incoherently about bleeding and log splitting and Lil being concerned. I gathered that an ambulance was not necessary but sped home anyways.

Alex was pale but mobile. The wound looked like a slim cut and he assured me he could feel nothing left inside. We decided he should take it easy for awhile. We thought a visit to the doctor would only be necessary if there were signs of infection.

We had a low key weekend celebrating Father's Day. Alex left Monday for a week long business trip to Connecticut.

On Tuesday I received a call from him. "Last night, a huge yellow bruise appeared on my leg. Do you think I should go to the doctor?" "Get thee to an urgent care facility!" I advised. He sent pictures and again I urged him to go see a professional.

Many hours of waiting room time later, an xray confirmed that in fact there was a piece of metal still lodged in his thigh. The urgent care doctor recommended seeing a surgeon to remove it who unfortunately wasn't able to make an appointment until Friday.

Alex did not want to be in Connecticut all weekend without anyone caring for him after surgery so he came home to Ohio on Thursday. The recommended surgeon here could not see him until today, Monday. All docs were quick to remind him to head to the ER immediately if signs of infection appeared and take it easy in the meantime.

An hour before his appointment on Monday, the surgeon canceled. He said Alex needed to see an orthopedic surgeon instead.

Alex finally got in to see an orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday afternoon. Contrary to what we were expecting, the orthopedic doctor recommended leaving the metal in his leg. Surgery to remove it would be rather invasive and have an extended recovery time. The body will form scar tissue around the shrapnel and muscle will heal within a month.

It looks like Alex will forever bear the mark on a lumberjack!

Lessons learned:

• Even though the metal shard didn't hit anywhere near his face, Alex will never split wood without wearing eye protection again. If this accident had angled upward, we would have two one-eyed hounds in the kitchen.
• Have an emergency plan in mind for household accidents. Alex know enough first aid that he was thinking about the time he had before bleeding out if he happened to hit an artery and was ready with the phone to call if needed. We are still working on a way to teach Lil how to use our cell phones to dial 9-1-1. (Any ideas on this issue from fellow land-line-free folks?)
• If you are hit by a foreign object, seek immediate medical attention. Alex could have saved himself twelve days of anxiety by going to a doctor immediately.

Once I get over a summer cold, it will back to regular programming around here. Whew!

Fathers

I am surrounded by fantastic fathers. These inspiring, caring men enrich the lives of Lil and I:

l to r - Mitch, my dad; Mike, my uncle; Tom, Alex's dad, click to enlarge

My dad, Mitch, is patient and funny. He encouraged his four girls to be strong curious women, enduring the resulting loud and confusing dinner conversations. I clearly picked up Dad's love for the outdoors, good food and strong drink. Speaking of eats, allow me to add home cook extraordinaire Uncle Mike to this list. While not a biological father, Mike opens his heart and home my cousins and myself with as much generosity and kindness as a father would. He's a fun-loving man, always creating something, always ready for an adventure.

Tom, Alex's father, inspires me to think and question. He has been a father figure in my life as long as I can remember. I admire that he is a life long learner, fearless traveler, and hard-working artist. Most of all I thank Tom for his part in raising his son, my partner.

Because of the men I grew up with, I expected that Alex would be an engaged dad. He is. Alex includes Lil in his interests, patiently answers her questions about history and language, and is a great friend to her friends. He is a curious cook, keeping us in bread and sausage, and always pushing us to try new things.

I am painfully aware that many, if not most, women never experience such strong and loving fathers. I am thankful for Dad, Uncle Mike, Tom, and Alex every day, but especially this day. Happy Father's Day, y'all!

Last Minute Father's Day Gifts {Friday Five}

My dear Dad, pictured at right, will be the recipient of a gift to facilitate his camping trip to the Pacific northwest later this summer. If you are left with only a few days to buy something for your father or the father of your children, here are my top five last minute ideas: 1) When I need a gift for a cook in my life, father or not, I can always find something at Wasserstrom. They have fun drink ware, professional grade kitchen gadgets, and knives. Every father man I know loves knives.

2) Let's be frank - father's often have reason to drink. Wrap up a bottle of locally made Watershed gin, OYO vodka, or Brother's Drake mead to soften the sleepless, frustrating moments of parenthood.

3) Give Dad an experience to remember with a Columbus Food Adventures tour or special menu dinner at a local restaurant, like the Goose Island dinner at Latitude 41. Not in Columbus? Look for tours in your area - I just came across awesome sounding bike tours in Cleveland.

4) If your pop is more of the bookish type, my second favorite father, Alex, recommends these foodie reads: Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman is "an incredibly well-thought out and put together book. He takes a lot of time to describe the techniques used in addition to the recipes." Don't mind cursing? Try Alex's other favorite, Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles cookbook, replete with vividly-told stories of the New York restaurant scene.

5) From the self-promotion department: How about a gift registration for a preserving class? Many dads would love to learn how to make pickles, barbecue sauce or bacon. Register for my Preserving Series classes at Wild Goose Creative online.

We are hosting a local burger cook-out for our Dads on Sunday. What are you doing for Father's Day?

Homemade Biscuits From The Freezer

At the Tayse family Xmas extravaganza, Grandma Joyce, of Rhubarb Crunch and Ginger Snap fame, inquired about freezer biscuits. She is a fantastic biscuit maker, trained by the best I've ever known, her mother (my late great grandmother) Leona.

Now living alone, she would like to have a biscuit or two for dinner but doesn't want to consume a whole batch. She could buy some of those dough boy frozen ones, but she is too thrifty (like all good Tayses) to spend more than a dollar a dozen. What's more, she suspects they don't taste as good as her own.

Always up for a challenge, I set out to find out the best way to store homemade biscuits in the freezer. The next time I made biscuits, I froze two before baking (raw) and two after baking just before they were browned. Holler in the comments if you want the recipe I use - it's a standard from Betty Crocker.

This weekend, I took all four biscuits out of the freezer. I immediately put one raw and one baked in the toaster oven, preheated to 350 degrees F. The baked one I pulled after about five minutes when the top browned; the raw baked for about 25 minutes until the top was brown. The other two were allowed to thaw in room temperature, and then I baked the thawed raw dough for 20 minutes until brown.

Both frozen-raw biscuits had less than desirable texture, though the rich buttery taste remained. Neither rose to the height of the pre-baked biscuits. You can see that in the biscuit pictured below and to the right, the raw frozen one, the fat pooled in pockets rather than lofted the flour into flaky layers as usual.

The pre-baked biscuits held their flaky texture and tasted great. Lil judged the one reheated in the oven as the very best and I agree. The thawed and not re-baked biscuit was perfectly passable.

My advice to Grandma and any person wanting to save the trouble of baking a mess of biscuits for a small gathering is this: bake a large batch of biscuits, removing what you wish to save for later just a minute or two before they are fully 'done'. Freeze these on a cookie sheet and then pop into a freezer safe bag, squeezing out the air. When you later wish to eat a biscuit, cook one in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes, or until brown on top.

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 46.

Laurie David & Asata Reid on Food, Health & The Environment

BlogHer Food ended Friday with a keynote from movie producer, author, and activist Laurie David and chef turned educator Asata Reid. What follows in a recap of their informative and inspirational discussion on family dinner and living green.

Laurie and Asata each had an 'aha!' moment that led them from carrying on their lives and drove them to engage in environmental activism.

For Asata, the moment came when she surveyed the shopping carts of fellow shoppers in a big box store one day. She saw baskets filled with boxed, canned, and jarred stuff. It hit her that if you gave some people five servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day, they wouldn't know what to do with it. She figured she must break down cooking skills into manageable bites for the busy family.

Laurie was called to examine the consequences of societal choices when pushing her child in a stroller one day. Standing on a street corner, she felt surrounded by gas-hogging SUVs. It was the first time she considered that as a mom, she had to protect resources her child might need, not to mention her personal health, by advocating for more eco-friendly practices.

Later, when her daughters were teens, Laurie recalls a single family dinner. Her girls were sitting around the table discussing life hours after dinner concluded. Unlike other families who feel disconnected, Laurie's was not. She felt she had done something right to insist on the family dinner ritual.

Family Dinner

"Every issue I care about crosses the dinner plate," Laurie asserted. Her family rule was that everyone must come to dinner Monday through Friday and sit down together. "The whole point of dinner is to sit and talk," she said.

Asata agreed. "How are you a family if you aren't scheduling time to be a family together?" Statistically, Americans have found time for internet surfing and video games, and some of that time could be used for dinner. Laurie believes, "everything you worry about as a parent is solved by family dinner."

Truth, Picky-ness, and Table Topics

Kids are becoming overweight and diabetic at alarming rates. Children deserve to know the facts about food. "You gotta tell kids what food does for you," Asata said. "Give them that information." Both women agree that talking honestly about food, the good and the bad, gives children the foundation to make their own decisions.

Many parents deal with picky children. The chef and home cook agree that it takes awhile to build a palate. Parents must give their child a chance to develop, not indulge in picky desires. Kids need to be repeatedly introduced to unfamiliar foods.

At the dinner table, Laurie and Asata encourage their kids to take one bite of each food. Then they guide the conversation away from food and towards more friendly topics. They play games like "What I like about you" where each family member compliments others. Laurie's book The Family Dinner includes dozens of conversation starters.

How To Change Food Habits & Make Green Decisions

If a person wants to change their food habits, Asata advises gathering passive information through blog feeds or magazines so that healthy menus and recipes are ready at hand. Buying organic improves the health of the environment and individual. Families can start new rituals, like meatless Monday, to take a small step towards sustainable eating.

Making greener decisions that relate to the dinner plate can be equally simple. Eat seasonally and you will reduce transportation resource use. Look at what you eat a lot of, i.e. where the biggest impact can be made, and make better choices there. If you family consumes a lot of broccoli, for instance, pledge to buy organic.

Give your children opportunities to understand the political aspects of food decisions. Pick berries and meet farmers. Talk about current events. Laurie encourages parents to view "every meal as a teachable moment."

Be a change agent by starting at home. Then, influence your circle of friends. Laurie believes it is "incumbent on you to teach others." Sometimes, she says, "we have to get a little mad, have to get a little activated...and push for change."

Added to Hearth & Soul 49.

Friday Five: Firsts and a Last

I intended to post this for Friday Five but didn't hit the publish button. Oh well, pretend it's yesterday again. This week was full of milestones at Hound Central. 1) First time the three of us have slept under different roofs. On Wednesday night, Alex was in Fort Lauderdale for work, Lil was at my parents', and I was sleeping at home before waking up early for a flight to BlogHer Food '11.

2) First lamb tartar. On Tuesday I had the pleasure of visiting Jorgensen Farm for an Ohio Lamb media event. It was inspiring to tour the farm, sample six dishes created with lamb, and see an amazingly detailed butchering demonstration. I will share more about the farm and lamb recipes soon.

3) Rachel's first ipod. The smart and generous people at Moe's Southwest Grill emailed me a few weeks ago to offer a ride from the airport to the conference hotel. The convenience and company were gifts enough, I thought. I was shocked to find that the swag bag included an ipod shuffle. Wow!

4) Lil's last day of preschool. After four years at the School for Young Children, Lil will be an alumna after Friday's class. We love this play based pre-school; Alex and I are presidents of the advisory committee. There are still a few spots available for children who are 3-5 years old. See their enrollment page to give your child and family a strong emotional foundation.

5) First moments of our homeschooling. After weighing options for Lil's education, we settled on homeschooling. We look forward to continuing our flexible, adventurous lifestyle while learning as a family.

Bird Houses: In & Out

Two birdwatchers building a birdhouse...

...and two orpington chickens happy to be free from theirs.

Added to Five Minutes for Mom Wordless Wednesday and Dagmar's Momsense WW .

Mother's Day Wishes

Alex has asked me several times if I have any desires for Mother's Day. Like so many moms, I think it would be great to have a day with all the benefits of motherhood (children's hugs, "You're the greatest", etc.) and none of the work. Let me complete a project, phone call, night's rest, or a simple thought without interruption. Let the world be at peace. Let it be quiet most of the time. Let it stop raining so that I might plant my garden.

Alas, I know that my husband and child can't make the impossible a reality.

They could lavish me with gifts. I would love: a chicken weather vane garden statuary - a dog or gargoyle would be fun framing for my Joachim Knill polaroid a new lens for my camera something cute to wear

Or, they could address the practical needs: replace the garage door opener hang the bat house that has resided in the garage for three years build the patio add a rain barrel to the garage

What are you making, procuring, or requesting for a Mother's Day gift?