am I too neurotic?

If you found a horse fly (one of those big ugly ones) crawling around on your toothbrush this morning, what would you do? I thought soaking it in Listerine for 10 minutes would do the trick, but even then I gagged at the idea of putting it in my mouth... crazy?

a new endevour

I got my fall placement recently, which will be at a hospital that is a bike ride from my house. I don't think I'll be able to ride a bike there though, considering my dress code includes heels and dress pants or a skirt. It's a nice idea though. My supervisor gave me a sneak peak of what I will get to do. It's a long list of alot of new things that I have never done, including swallowing evals (bedside fiberoptic endoscopic video!, meaning we stick a tiny camera up your nose and down your throat) and therapy, traumatic brain injury, stroke (I have worked with stroke patients actually, just not acute), tumor board (wow, didn't know speech therapists sat on tumor boards), craniofacial clinic (I saw a bit of this in Mexicali, but I am really excited to get this chance again-- this would include stuff like cleft palate and cleft lip), voice disorders, stuttering, and motor speech disorders. phew-- I am nervous already, trying to enjoy the rest of this break but maybe I should be preparing??

It's been awhile

I was looking for my last recipe post and finally found it back in January. It's not that I haven't been in the kitchen since then, just haven't been posting. I wanted to write this one down because it was that good. I can't wait to make it again, and I thought might as well write it here in case other people want to try it. The bread is really really moist, maybe too moist for some. Using frozen berries weighs it down a bit I think, so if you go that direction definitely be patient in the baking-- it may take awhile longer.

Lemon Berry Yogurt Bread
adapted from Smitten Kitchen
servings: 1 loaf
time: 1 1/2 hours

• 1 1/2 cups + extra for the frozen fruit
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1 cup sugar (+ 1 tablespoon sugar for sauce)
  
• 3 eggs
• grated lemon zest from 2 lemons
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups frozen berries, thawed (I used a mix of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries)
• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.

Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Drain the berries on a paper towel and then mix them with the remaining tablespoon of flour to dry them out a bit more, and fold them very gently into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 60+ minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes. Then remove from the pan and pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Enjoy!