Physical Therapy Week 2

About a month ago my podiatrist ordered physical therapy for my plantar fasciitis. Actually, it is a complication of the plantar fasciitis because of the way I unconsciously roll my foot to the side. His orders were 3 days per week of PT for 3 weeks. I've already completed 2 weeks and unfortunately, my foot doesn't feel any better than it did when I first went in for therapy. The therapy session begins with putting my foot into a small jacuzzi (which feels very good) and doing several exercises involving rotating my ankle in both directions in sets of ten. I do that for 12 minutes. Then after drying my foot, I sit in a chair and pick up a rubber ball with my toes and hold my foot up for a count of 5 for a total of 2 minutes. After that, I do 10 stretches against a wall by bending my left knee while stretching the other leg (my bad foot). That stretches the whole calf muscle which is attached to the fasciia. Then I sit down and draw the whole alphabet with my foot twice. After that is finished I go into another room and I lie down on a table and stretch my foot with a rolled up sheet for 5 minutes. And then comes the piece de resistance: the dreaded ice bottle! I roll my foot on a medicine bottle filled with ice for 8 minutes. By the time my timer goes off, my foot feels like a popsicle. Then last but not least, I get to lie on my tummy and just do nothing while the therapist uses ultrasound on my foot for about 5 minutes. That's really the best part. So that's how my therapy day goes. And I have 3 more sessions to go. Then I will make an appointment with my foot doctor and we'll go from there. He told me the last time that I saw him that if the therapy did not work, then he would put me in a boot to wear on my foot. I just hope that something works soon because I have been dealing with a lot of pain for several months now.

Crustless Mushroom Spinach Tart Recipe

I tried out a new recipe last night and it was a big hit! We only had one piece left and my husband ate that for lunch today. I got the recipe from Taste of Home's Guilt Free Cooking cook book. Here's the recipe:

2 tbsp. seasoned bread crumbs
1/2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 c. chopped onion
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 c. 2% milk (I had fat free and it worked out fine)
1 c. egg substitute
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/4 shredded reduced fat Mexican cheese blend, divided
1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1. Coat a 9 in. pie plate with cooking spray. Sprinkle bottom and sides with crumbs; shake out  the excess. Set plate aside.
2. In a nonstick skillet, saute mushrooms and onion in oil for 12-14 minutes or until all of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat; stir in spinach.
3. In a bowl, combine the milk, egg substitute, salt and pepper. Stir in the spinach mixture, 1 cup Mexican cheese blend, and Parmesan cheese. Pour into prepared pie plate. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Sprinkle remaining Mexican cheese blend around edge of tart. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing.

To me this is sort of like a quiche but without the crust. It yields 6 servings and 1 slice is 218 calories. Not bad!

My Top Ten Movie Favorites

Here is my list of my top ten favorite movies that I own:
1. E.T.
2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
3. Gone with the Wind
4. Fried Green Tomatoes
5. Titanic
6. Big
7. Where the Heart Is
8. Steel Magnolias
9. Coal Miner's Daughter
    Places in the Heart ( a tie for no. 9)
10. When Harry Met Sally

Word of the Day

Sabbatical : (suh-Bat-i-kuhl), noun
1. Any extended period of leave from one's work, especially for rest to acquire new skills or training, etc.
1.Of or pertaining to the Sabbath.
2.Bringing a period of rest.

I guess as a teacher that you could say that I am on a sabbatical. I went to a workshop this summer and hopefully learned something. I learned how to put 60 ears of corn up in the freezer. And trying to improve my writing skills by writing this blog. And I am definitely trying to get some needed rest. I hope everyone whether you are a teacher or not have a good summer!

Puttin' Up Corn

Well I bought 60 ears of corn from the market today to put up as cream style corn. This is no job for sissies! First you have to shuck the corn and remove the silks. Then you have to wash the corn and try to remove most of the silks. This corn was really wormy so I had to cut a lot of the ends off. There were a few ears that were so bad that I just had to throw them away. Then I had to cut the corn off of the cob. And after that I had to scrape all of the cobs so that I could get that good milk out of them to make cream style corn. (That is the hardest and messiest part) And now all I have to do is to put the corn into my containers to freeze. I ended up cutting my finger pretty bad with a knife. So I can truly say that I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making this corn! But I know that this winter, I'll be glad that I did it.

Cat in the Bag

My cat found it interesting to play with the corn husks as I was shucking the corn today. And then she was curious about the bag that the corn came in. But then she soon lost interest and went back to lying in her window.

Sweet Corn

I got six ears of  Peaches & Cream sweet corn today at Gainesville's Fresh Market stand. I had to throw one away because it was wormy and some of the others were too but I just cut the ends off. That's something that you just can't tell about corn is if it's filled out enough or if it's wormy. Then I cut the corn off of the cob and I cooked it tonight for supper. Oh it was soooooooo good! I'm going back tomorrow to get two boxes to put up as cream style corn for the winter. That will taste so good this winter when there are no fresh veggies around. My mom gave me a recipe for putting up corn in the freezer where you don't have to cook it first. Here it is:

Linda Craig's Corn for the Freezer

15 cups corn cut off the cob
3/4 c. sugar (she uses less)
1/4 c. salt (she uses less)
5 cups ice water

Combine all ingredients in a large stock pot.  Let stand for 1 hour.
Stir every few minutes. Put in freezer containers and freeze.

Then when you are ready to cook the corn, just thaw and cook on top of stove in an iron skillet with a couple of tablespoons of butter on medium high heat. When corn starts to bubble, turn down on low and stir constantly for a few minutes until done. This corn is so good that it doesn't take very long to get done. And it's so good!