Johns Hopkins Reports ECT Helped Autistic Child Reduce Severe Self Injury

Deanna Chieco, in the Johns Hopkins Newsletter, reports on a case study in which ECT, electro convulsive therapy, was used to treat a young autistic child who was incurring 109 self injurious incidents per hour. With ECT the self injurious behavior was reduced from 109 to 19 incidents per hour, permitting the child to be able to attend educational programs, behavioral therapies and family activities and thus dramatically improving the child's quality of life.

This article and the study on which it reports should be must reads for parents of autistic children, neurodiversity ideologues, autism therapists and health care professionals and researchers. Reducing severe self injurious behavior should have no ideological component. Even Michelle Dawson, Ari Ne'eman and Estee Klar will have a difficult time arguing that dangerous, life restricting behaviors should not be reduced by treatment.

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Shrimp & Mango Skewers

With a Cuban inspired dinner menu planned in February, I wanted to give a taste of the tropics despite the cold winter weather. I always thought food on a stick were fun so skewers were added to my menu. These shrimp and mango skewers are both sweet and savory as well as colorful! They're easy to make and lend a nice refreshing flavor.

Shrimp & Mango Skewers
original Joelen recipe

1 cup homemade salsa verde
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 lbs shrimp (jumbo size)
1-2 cups fresh mangoes, cubed
chopped cilantro for garnish
lime wedges for garnish

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (or warm your grill to a medium heat).

Prepare your salsa verde (or use a bottled version) and add the minced garlic and oil. Stir to combine to create a basting sauce.

Skewer the shrimp and mangoes alternately onto your skewer (I used metal skewers).

Once they are all threaded onto the skewers, brush the salsa verde basting sauce over the prepared skewers and place on a baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes until shrimp are pink and cooked through.

Serve on a platter with lime wedges and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

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Whole Baked Tilapia Cuban Style

For a Cuban inspired dinner, I prepared the following recipe. It was both easy and flavorful and definitely a hit among our guests! The recipe comes from Emeril Lagasse and I used whole tilapia fish. I will definitely make this again!

Whole Baked Tilapia Cuban Style
recipe adapted from Emeril Lagasse

2 (3-pound) whole fish, such as striped bass, tilapia, flounder, or sole, cleaned and scaled
2 limes, juiced
3/4 cup Spanish olive oil, divided
2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced, divided
1 large green bell pepper, cored, seeded, and thinly sliced, divided
1 lemon, sliced thin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 cup dry white wine
Sliced green onions for garnish

Rinse the fish well under cold running water and pat dry on both sides as well as inside the cavity. Make several slits about 1/3-inch deep on both sides of the fish. Place the fish in a non-reactive shallow dish or platter and pour the lime juice over the fish. Set aside while you continue with the preparations.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Rub the bottom of a shallow glass or ceramic dish large enough to hold the fish with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Saute 1/2 of the onion slices and 1/2 of the pepper slices in 2 tablespoons olive oil and then place along the bottom of the baking dish. Lay the lemon slices over the vegetables, but reserve a few slices to stuff inside the fish. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons more of the remaining Spanish olive oil and season with salt, black pepper, to taste, and crushed red pepper flakes. Place the fish on top of the sliced vegetables.

Using a mortar and pestle, combine the garlic, kosher salt and oregano and mash to form a paste. Spread the garlic paste inside the cavity of the fish and into the slits on top. Place the remaining lemon slice inside the cavity of the fish. In the same small bowl that you used to make the garlic paste, combine the tomato puree and vinegar and stir to combine. Pour this tomato mixture all over the fish. Top with the remaining onion and pepper slices and drizzle the remaining olive oil and the wine over the top. Season again with salt and black pepper, cover the dish loosely with aluminum foil, and bake until the fish flakes easily when pierced with a fork, 45 to 50 minutes. Garnish with the green onions and serve hot or warm, with the pan juices drizzled over all.

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President Obama Requests Autism Research Dollars, Let's Hope Some Is for Environmental Autism Research

President Barack Obama has requested $211 million as part of the Department of Health and Human Services budget for autism research and services. Let's hope a substantial portion of the research is directed towards environmental research, including possible vaccine causes, and for treatments. The "it's gotta be genetic model" of autism research funding identified by Teresa Binstock in 1999 has ignored the environmental component of autism causation referenced on several occasions by Simon Baron Cohen. The notion that this complex condition is entirely genetic was never evidence based.

Hopefully President Obama will not let the IACC continue its shenanigans. Hopefully he will ensure that funding is set aside out for vaccine autism research as recommended by Dr. duane Alexander, Dr Bernadine Healy and Dr Julie Gerberding amongst others AND FOR ALL OTHER appropriate environmental autism research.

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Winner of Foodie Freebie Friday: Cook's Illustrated!

Are you ready for the weekend?! It boggles my mind that we're just finishing the month of February and it's soon to be March! For this week's Foodie Freebie Friday, I was curious to see what cooking and baking resources (books, magazines, websites, etc) use to inspire and guide them in the kitchen. It was a great response of so many places to find recipes, tips and hints! I think it just goes to show how much of an impact cooking and baking has since we all have to eat.

It was especially interesting to see how many enjoy using online sources such as food blogs reflected in personal Google Reader listings and specific recipe websites including AllRecipes.com, FoodNetwork.com, CookingLight.com, Recipezaar.com, etc. There were also many that referred to classic & popular cookbooks such as Joy of Cooking, Better Homes & Gardens, and Baking: From My Home to Yours.

I use a combination of resources using the internet and cookbooks I've collected over the years. With many dinner parties I host around a theme, Google and my Google Reader has been a great tool for inspiration. My cookbook collection is varied where half offer recipes for specific cuisines, types of foods and/or are chef specific. The other half of my collection are more culinary reference books and textbooks with some culinary reads mixed in (think Tender to the Bone, Garlic & Sapphires, Heat, Mangoes and Quince, etc.) Then there are my large wicker baskets of magazine subscriptions including Cook's Illustrated, Saveur, Gastronomica, Cooking Light, Food, Taste of Home, Clean Eating, and Diet & Nutrition. .. and a handful of other trade magazines and publications. Writing these all out, I'm wondering if I should scale back on the amount of culinary information I'm housing!

So for this week's Foodie Freebie Friday, a lucky reader will get a 1 year gift subscription to either the Cook's Illustrated Magazine or Website! It's a hard choice to decide between the two since they both are great resources for cooks and bakers alike!


Magazines: More than 1.3 million home cooks rely on Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines to provide trusted recipes that work, honest ratings of equipment and supermarket ingredients, and kitchen tips.


Websites: Our websites allow members online access to 16 years worth of recipes, menus, up-to-date equipment and ingredient ratings, and video content, including episodes of America's Test Kitchen. Members can easily search for, and print, recipes and shopping lists, build menus, watch videos, plus more.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

19

Timestamp: 2009-02-27 14:10:43 UTC

Comment #19 comes from Laure who said...

The Joy of Cooking is my cooking & baking bible. I am not sure how a household can survive without a copy of this book! My copy is very worn, very loved. I think it's great to know the basics so that you can feel comfortable with your skills, and build on them with your own unique creativity.

February 23, 2009 10:16 AM

Congratulations Laure! Will you choose the magazine or the website subscription? Please email me at itsjoelen@gmail.com so I can confirm which subscription you'd like!

Thanks again to all those that commented and stay tuned to the next Foodie Freebie announcement on Monday,March 2, 2009! Don't feel discouraged if you haven't won yet - I have a whole year's worth of freebies ahead and next week is one that you won't want to miss!

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WELSH CAKES

When we think of Wales and all things Welsh, what comes to mind?

The Queen’s Welsh corgis?


Leeks?


A funny language and a bonnie Prince with large ears?


And Rugby! (again)

Ooops! That’s Chabal of Les Bleus…my mistake!

Friday night France vs Wales. I know that I keep talking about the Rugby 6 Nations Tournament, but this may very well be an exciting match! And, of course, this calls for a special traditional Welsh treat.


These are not quite as light and airy as scones, but dense and spicy, redolent of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger with the fruity sweetness of raisins or currents in every bite. JP loved them hot off the griddle, smeared with butter and jam. I can see them, avec ou sans the currents, eaten with a sharp cheese. Perfect!

WELSH CAKES

8 oz (225 g) flour + flour for kneading
4 oz (125 g) butter
3 oz (75 g) sugar + sugar for dusting
2 oz (50 g) currents
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 large egg + milk to bind if needed

(This recipe can be doubled. As is, I made 11 cakes.)


Place the flour, sugar, currents, baking powder and the spices into a large bowl. Whisk or stir to combine.


Cut the butter into cubes and toss in the dry ingredients. Then rub the butter and flour together until the mixture resembles sand or cornmeal.


Beat the egg lightly in a small bowl, then stir quickly into the flour/butter mixture until it all pulls together into a ball of dough. If there are clumps of dry left that don’t cling to the dough, then add milk, a little at a time onto the dry and stir again, until you have moistened all of the ingredients.


Scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead very quickly until you have a smooth, homogeneous dough.


Roll the dough out to a thickness of about ¼ - to a slight ½-inch (½ - a slight 1 cm). Cut out circles (I used a 2 inch / 5 cm cutter).


Heat a griddle or a heavy-bottom frying pan over medium heat – if you have the heat too high, the cakes will cook too quickly on the outside leaving you with an undercooked center.

Using a paper towel or a brush and soft butter or margarine, quickly and lightly butter the surface once the griddle or pan has heated up. Place several Welsh cakes on the hot surface and allow to cook for 2 minutes. You will see the bottom cook, and when you take a peak underneath, you will see them golden brown.


Flip the cakes and cook on the other side for another 2 minutes. They will be a deep golden color on both sides.


Remove the cooked Welsh cakes onto a plate, sprinkle with sugar and serve hot. With butter and jelly.



Now sit back, enjoy your Welsh cakes with a cuppa and watch France win! Allez les Bleus!

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Conor and Mom Check Out the 7:10 Sun

Conor and Mom check out the 7:10 Sun. Mom is the "less tall" of the two :-)

The light in the window in the bottom pic is not the sun, it is the flash from my camera.


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