CSA week 5

I'm suprised that my skin is not turning green with all the greens we have been eating lately, not that it ever turned the color of processed foods during the last few months. I do feel better about what I am eating, even though i can justify eating more bacon when served with the greens (bacon, arugula and tomato sandwich anyone?)

So here's what we got this week:

• 1 lb apricots
• 1 lb cherries
• 1 bunch japanese turnips
• 1 bunch mizuna
• 1 bunch napa cabbage
• 1 bunch swiss chard
• 2 romaine lettuces
• 1 bunch cilantro
• bonus- garlic scapes

I love how we are getting things I have never heard of before. Like Mizuna- yeah, it's one of those greens you'll find in mesculin mix

I also made vientamese spring rolls for lunch today- they were yummy, and I felt good eating something so healthy, so here's what went into them:

Vientamese spring rolls

-rice paper wrappers

-rice noodles, softened

-julienned cucumber

-scallions

-bean sprouts

-shrimp, sliced in half

-thai basil (from the 2nd plant; I killed the first one)

Dipping sauce:

-hoisin sauce

-minced ginger

-rice wine vinegar

-sriracha sauce

-light shake of sesame oil

These really should be eaten within an hour or so of preparing, which I had no problem with. I will definitely make these again.

CSA week 4

I'm falling behind! Thankfully it's mostly on the posting end, not on the eating end. We received our week 4 share June 25th, but I still wanted to let you know what we got:

• 3 quarts strawberries
• 2 lettuces (butter lettuce is my fave)
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 2 pounds of peas (english peas, thank goodness for tv when shelling these)
• 1 bunch of arugula
• 1/2 lb spinach (this was a swap for the bok choy)

At the end of the week the only thing we had left was about half of the arugula, still looking good. The week was a roller coaster week when it came to food. Sunday I made my hubby love me forever when I bought some rhubarb and made my first ever rhubarb strawberry pie (yes, emphasis on the rhubarb, as in 3 cups rhubarb and 2 cups strawberries), and I also created a lattice crust (thank you Pillsbury). The edge of the crust was overbrowned by a few minutes, but I was very proud of my first pie with a top crust, ever.

The low point came when I was eating a sandwich at work, and I had a "friend" join me. I made a turkey sandwich with buffalo wing cheese and butter lettuce (rinsed off under the tap). Halfway through eating the sandwich, a small worm, about 1 cm in length crawled directly on the teeth marks I left less than ten seconds ago. That was the end of THAT sandwich. I visually inspected the worm, and thankfully he was all there, meaning that reverse peristalsis would not be necessary. I called the hubby as I had made him a sandwich the night before as well, and he was already 2 bites into the sandwich and was willing to take the chance. He called it a bonus. My tech called it protein. I called it disgusting.

I thought about giving up the whole organic thing, but then realized there's probably worse stuff in all the processed food I eat. I just can't see it. From now on, every green will be triple washed AND visually inspected.

CSA week 3

It's official, the fruit share is here! This week we got 3 quarts of strawberries (all organic, just like the veggies), and they were delicious (emphasis on the were). Thursday we had strawberry shortcake, Saturday we had strawberries with chocolate fondue, and Monday I tried making a Strawberry Margarita pie. It wasn't fully frozen by the time I served it. I don't know whether it was because I didn't freeze it long enough, didn't store it in the deep freeze freezer, or if it was because I was an alcoholic and kept adding more tequila "to taste". The recipe wasn't perfect, but it was still a fairly delicious frozen concoction.

So here's the rest of the share:

• one head butter lettuce
• one head romaine
• mustard greens
• radishes
• one pound spinach
• one bunch arugula
• bok choy (still in need of loving as of Wednesday)

Not my job

I'd like to thank Ms. Mean for reminding me about a wonderful nurse ( can you feel the sarcasm?) I had to deal with a short while ago.

One of my older patients came in to tell me that her doctor gave her a free new blood glucose meter to replace her old one. She only had a few test strips left, and the doctor did not give her new prescriptions for test strips or lancets. She did not know which meter the doctor gave her, but i can forgive 80+ year old patients for not knowing, figuring the doc would have documented this in her chart. She has Medicare, so I fax the doc's office requesting they mail us prescriptions with the name of the test strips and lancets, testing frequency, diagnosis code, etc.

A few days have passed, and I still haven't received anything. I call the doc's office again repeating everything I sent in the fax including how I need the rx's mailed, and 30 minutes later I receive... a fax. Test strips for an old meter (aka NOT the meter she received in the office). I call the office and finally work through the phone tree until I get to speak with a nurse, and I ask if they can pull the patient's chart to verify what meter THEY gave her (you know, that documentation thing that pharmacists talk about all the time), because I know the one they faxed over was wrong. She pulls the chart, and says there's no mention of a new meter.

Me: "It's not documented? Can you check with the doctor to figure out what meter your office gave her?"

Nurse with attitude: "I don't have time to do that. Why don't you call the patient to figure out what she got, then call me back and let me know" *click*

Woah. That's low. I'm going out of my way to take care of something that you should have done before the patient even walked out of your office, and you have the nerve to assume that I sit on my ass all day and have the time to take care of your problems? What makes you think that I'm not busy in the pharmacy? In addition to taking care of problem scripts like these, I still have ten people waiting in the store for scripts. And then you hang up on me?

I'm sorry, but I get enough crap from patients, I don't need it from doctors offices too. Some patients don't know better, but you do. If you dropped the attitude and didn't hang up on me, I would probably be willing to help.

I consider myself to be someone who goes out of my way for others, but this was unacceptable. I called the office back to let them know I did not appreciate the way I was treated by this nurse, and sure enough, 30 minutes later, I received faxes for the correct test strips. It still took another week to receive hard copies of these scripts for Medicare, but I still felt like this was a victory.

CSA week 2

I'm such a slacker- it's Thursday and the day to pick up the new batch of produce, yet I have yet to blog or finish cooking everything from last week. Aarghhh!

So here's what we received week 2:

• 2 lbs red spinach
• 1 bunch mustard greens
• 1 bunch arugula
• a baby bok choy

It's hard work eating all these vegetables. I cooked up the spinach in some bacon fat and feta cheese, and made an asian-inspired slaw salad with the baby bok choy and the radishes from last week. Half of the arugula and the bunch of mustard greens are stll sitting in the fridge. (Here comes the rant) I'm glad I get to pick out the veggies this week. If Will wanted the mustard greens so badly, then how come he didn't cook them himself? I know I love to cook, but I would have preferred the rapini, or a helper in the kitchen.

CSA week 1

In an effort to be healthy, my hubby and I signed up for a cropshare with Native Offerings Farm.  The way I see it, we have one week to eat through everything before we pick up the next wave of veggies.  

Here's what we received week one:

• 1 bunch mustard greens
  

- final destination: saute pan with bacon (BACON!) and gorgonzola

• 1 bunch rappini
  

- final destination TBD

• over 1 pound red spinach
  

- final destination: quiche

• 1 bunch thyme
  

- final destination: mixed with eggs, still "hanging around", and butt of pun-intended jokes

• 1 bunch of radishes
  

- final destination:  still pleading for help in the refrigerator (aka the rotter)- any ideas? And they came with the greens too!  We have one day to think of something!

Swish and swallow

Another example of why e-prescribing will not take over the world...

Rx:

Nystatin sus 100,000 units/ml

swish and swallow 4-6 ml four times daily

disp: 60ml

Congratulations, you can read the prescribing information for this drug!  At this point you're as skilled as a monkey (you know, the one that fills all of your prescriptions overnight, allowing you to call in an rx at 2 in the AM and expect it to be ready when the gates are opened).

Now, let's see if your degree can help you apply this knowledge...

4-6 ml.... Yeah, that's the recommended adult dose, but did you LOOK at the population you're prescribing this to?  If I write this on the bottle the patient will be back with an empty bottle in three days because they thought that a ml is a teaspoon, or worse, tablespoon. (And for laypeople out there, 1 teaspoon=5ml.)  Just write one teaspoonful!

But it gets better, because since you only wrote for 60 ml, they WILL be back in three days.  I really hope you don't think it will a day for this to clear up, but sadly I know you wrote 60 ml because, oh, in the prescribing information this is available as a 60ml bottle (for infants!).  What? you actually wanted your patient to be on this for one week?  Well it's a good thing I called to cover your ass.