Catching Up

It's been a month since my last posting and what a month it's been. The day after Halloween I turned wrong and felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I took it easy the rest of the day, but by the following day I had pain shooting down my left leg. After a week of visiting the chiropractor with no relief, I made an appointment with our family doctor. He sent me to Billings for an MRI and made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon the following day. I won't go into all the details but that appointment was extremely frustrating due to the surgeon kind of giving me the brush-off because he had a dinner to go to and they were having difficulties bringing up my MRI on the computer. He pretty much told me he didn't have time for me. He left a message the next day on my phone telling me what he thought was wrong and I could make another appointment to see him. At this point I had made the decision to shop elsewhere for anther doctor. In the meantime, we had a trip planned to Phoenix to celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary. We talked about cancelling, but I decided that I may as well hurt in Arizona as Montana so we flew to Phoenix on the 19th and spent three days visiting with our friends who moved to Tucson last year.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place in Mesa which had this beautiful fireplace in the lobby. The weather was beautiful while we were there, but it does cool off at night so I guess they do need fireplaces occasionally in the desert.

We met Terry and Terri when we first moved to Colstrip over 38 years ago. Ken and Terry became instant friends. They played tennis together, basketball, softball and as they got older Terri and I became golf widows. They moved to Tucson last year and have been missed. They drove up to Phoenix and spent a couple of days with us. We did some sightseeing, shopping and of course, eating. Even though I was somewhat limited with my leg pain we had a good time. While the guys golfed, Terri and I visited the Frank Lloyd Wright house, Taliesin West in the foothills of Scottsdale. He built his winter home here in 1937 and it became a camp for aspiring architects and it is still being used as as a architectural school. I was familiar with some of his work, but not with his personal life. I was so fascinated by him that I came home and ordered two books about his life and work from Amazon.

The panels on the roof in the picture below are made of canvas, so when it rains the water comes right through on furniture and whatever else is in the room.
When we returned home last weekend, I made the decision to find a new doctor and try to get something done with my back. An acquaintance told me about her doctor and he sounded almost too good to be true so I gave him a call. He was caring, knowledgeable and gave me the same diagnosis as the orthopedic surgeon. I made the decision to schedule surgery with him. When I told my sister about him she begged me to reconsider. It turns out that he did surgery on her mother-in-law and completely botched it. She also told me of several others who had bad results. So now what to do? Ken and I decided back surgery is so risky that we wouldn't dare have someone operate who we didn't entirely trust. So back to square one. Tomorrow I am basically starting over in my doctor search. The condition I have is called spondylolesthesis, basically the L5 vertebrae is fractured on both sides and slipped over the first bone of the sacrum and is pinching the nerve root (the reason for all the pain). Our cruise is only 8 weeks away so now I am worried about being able to go. We have travel insurance for the cruise but I don't want to cancel, we have been planning this for a year. Hopefully, I can find some answers and get something done soon. I have been living on pain pills and I hate taking pills!

Soup and Bread

I had to do another post right away so that the picture of the awful snakes wasn't showing whenever my blog was opened. Halloween night I made this soup for dinner along with the bread shown below. I thought it was delicious and want to share the recipe.

Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup

1 pkg. sweet Italian sausage (1.25 lb size) I used hot sausage
1 onion chopped
1 clove garlic minced
2 lg cans diced tomatoes
4 cans beef broth
1 1/2 cups red wine
2 lg. carrots chopped
1 pkg. frozen spinach (thaw and drain)
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 tsp. oregano
1 pkg dried cheese tortelline (I used the fresh 5-cheese tortellini from Costco)
shredded Parmesan cheese

Remove casings from sausage and discard casings.
Brown sausage, onion and garlic in a large dutch oven, stir until sausage crumbles and is lightly brown. Drain and return to pan.

Add tomatoes, broth and wine, bring to a boil. Add vegetable and herbs. Stir, reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes

Add the torellini and cook for 15 to 20 minutes if using dried tortellini. If you use the fresh, as I did, you will only need to cook it for 7-8 minutes.

Garnish each serving with parmesan cheese.


I served it with this delicious oatmeal molasses batter bread. Easy to make and really good with soup.



Oatmeal Molasses Batter Bread

2 pkg. yeast
2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
1 cup quick cooking oats, uncooked
1/2 cup molasses
1 tablespoon margarine or butter

Combine yeast, salt and 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl. Set aside. In a 2-qt pan mix the oats, molasses, 1 T. butter add 2 1/4 cups water. Heat over low heat until very warm (120-130 degrees) . With electric mixer on low speed, gradually beat liquid into flour mixture, just till blended. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. Beat in 1/2 cup flour and beat on med for another 2 minutes. With a large wooden spoon, stir in remaining 2 1/2 cups flour to make a stiff batter that leaves the sides of the bowl. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place until double in size, about 1 hour. Grease two 2-qt. round casserole dishes. Divide dough into equal portions and turn into casseroles. With greased hands, turn dough to grease top and shape each into a ball. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise about 45 minutes, until double in size.

Place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven and bake for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Remove from casseroles and serve warm.

(There is only 1 gram of fat in each serving and no cholesterol)