Autism and Wandering: It's A Matter of Life and Death

The Vancouver Sun is one of the very few media outlets that has presented an honest, reality based picture of autism disorders  to the public.  The series Faces of Autism remains one of the most comprehensive, honest portrayals of autism ever presented by mainstream media.  It comes as no surprise then that the Vancouver Sun has highlighted the important autism issue of wandering autistic children for exactly what it is ... a life and death issue.

In Search for missing boy highlights autism issue Autistic children are prone to wandering, forcing parents to take drastic measures to protect them the Vancouver Sun presents a Mike Appleyard/Postmedia News report on Adam Benhamma, the young, mute, autistic boy from the Laval area near Montreal who has been missing for several days near icy waters. The article tells of the tendency of autistic children to wander, of the efforts parents must make to protect their autistic children from wandering and the impact it has on them, and reports on the IAN, Interactive Autism Network,  announcement of a national survey to study the prevalence of wandering among individuals with autism.

Veronica Fraser, mother of James DeLorey,  the young autistic boy from Nova Scotia who was lost in a snow storm and died in hospital shortly after being found provides insight from her son's tragedy. Wendy Fournier of the National Autism Association comments on the IAN study and on her own personal experience with her wandering autistic child:

"Fournier said she hopes this study will help parents understand why autistic children wander.


"We have parents who literally sleep outside their child's door because they're afraid their kids are going to get out of the house. It's a huge, terrifying problem," she said.


Fournier noted that her daughter Aly is autistic, and said she has experienced the fear of losing her child -something that is common among parents of autistic children.


"One day I was sitting on the couch, drinking coffee. All of our doors are completely locked -there's no way she can get out of the house. And my doorbell rings. It's my neighbour telling me that my daughter is next door trying to get into the swimming pool. And I have no idea that she was even out of the house.""

I have remarked on several occasions on this blog site about my personal experience with wandering, of the day when my son Conor slipped out of the house while I was on the phone discussing a business matter.  Thanks to good luck, a Good Samaritan who removed Conor from traffic on a busy street and him to a safe location, and our local 911 service Conor, and I, were very fortunate, we came out on the happy side of  the life and death reality of wandering autistic children.

Adam Benhamma and his family are living with that life and death reality right now.

I hope that Adam, despite the grim situation, is found safe and sound.

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Potato Chip Crusted Pork Chops

After spending time with Frito Lay recently, I was inspired to use some of their All Natural potato chips in recipes. I left Frito Lay with 3 bags of their potato chips and only 2 bags made it home lol. I thoroughly enjoyed the Garden Tomato & Basil chips while my husband devoured the Tangy Carolina BBQ chips. The remaining bag of Sweet Balsamic Onion chips ended up being the lucky flavor I used to make these Potato Chip Crusted Pork Chops. The chips alone were loaded with flavor that only imparted more flavor with the pork chops... but you can certainly use plain potato chips or another flavor that suits you. The bottom line is, potato chips aren't just for snacking on!...

Potato chips make a great ingredient to use in cooking. It especially works nicely as a crust or coating on meats like chicken, pork, even fish. In this case, I used crushed potato chips to coat a few pork chops. The pork chops were seasoned, dipped in egg and buttermilk then dredged in the crushed potato chips before baking. The result was delicious and didn't make me feel guilty enjoying chips!

Potato Chip Crusted Pork Chops

recipe adapted from Foodies @ Home

1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 boneless center cut pork chops
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 1/3 cup potato chips (finely crushed)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Liberally season both sides of each pork chop with the seasoning mixture.

Dredge the seasoned pork chops in the flour.

Whisk the egg into the buttermilk into a medium sized bowl. Dip the flour coated pork chops in the buttermilk and egg mixture.

Place the finely crushed potato chips into a shallow pan and dredge the pork chops to coat completely.

Place the coated pork chops on a greased baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, flipping halfway through.

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Autism, Epilepsy and Self-Injurious Behavior: A Reality Based Autism Blog You Should Read

I have recently added a new blog to the "Autism Reality Favorites" section of my sidebar. Autism, Epilepsy and Self-Injurious Behavior is authored by Kim Oakley whose videos about her autistic son also provide an honest portrayal of the very serious challenges autism disorders present to severely autistic children and adults.  This is not the feel good "autism is just  a different way of thinking" of Dr. Laurent Mottron,  Estée Klar or Ari Ne'eman. I strongly encourage anyone with a serious interest in autism disorders, especially parents of newly diagnosed autistic children and public policy makers whose decisions affect the availability of public services for autism to check out Autism, Epilepsy and Self-Injurious Behavior.  While you are there follow some of the links to the videos Kim Oakley has posted with their honest portrayal of serious autism self injury issues.

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No Knead Parmesan & Herb Bread

Fear not the yeast! For so long, I was intimidated by baking with yeast and once I tackled it, I realized it wasn't so bad after all. If you're not comfortable working with yeast, perhaps this recipe for No Knead Parmesan & Herb Bread will help you ease into it. This happens to be the easiest yeast bread recipe I've ever worked with... and it's foolproof every time! The best thing about this recipe is that you can customize to your tastes to make it with various herbs and seasonings...

The Almost No Knead Bread was what I made awhile back. This time around I incorporated some additional flavor with the use of Parmesan cheese and dried herbs (oregano and thyme.) I must say that it's just as easy to impart some flavor but still is a great bread without. This bread does require some patience though, so don't plan on having bread the same day you make it. If anything, allowing enough time for this bread to proof and rise is the most challenging... but your patience is definitely worth it.

What makes this recipe so easy? Well, it entails combining bread flour, yeast, salt and warm water. You can then add your choice of cheeses and dried herbs. Mix it up and let it rest... for 12-20 hours. After that, the dough is shaped and allowed to rest for another 2 hours. The last leg of the process is just firing up the oven and baking for 30 minutes. So tackle that yeast and get to baking!

No Knead Parmesan & Herb Bread
recipe adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

3 cups bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder


Combine all the above ingredients in a large bowl. The dough will be shaggy and messy, which is exactly what you want. Leave the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Keep on your counter for 12-20 hours.

The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Wet your hands and form the dough into a ball shape. Generously dust a cotton kitchen towel with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours.

When you have 30 minutes left for your dough to nap, place a five-quart dutch oven into your oven and preheat to 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

After your oven has preheated for 30 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Remove the pot from oven. Holding the kitchen towel your dough was sitting on, turn over and dump the dough into pot. Shake the pot to even the dough out. Cover and bake the bread for 30 minutes. Uncover the bread and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F.

Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool on a wired rack.

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Μια ιστορία για επιλογές διεξόδων

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Η χώρα μπορεί να μοιάζει με μια κόρη.Η λαϊκή σοφία της ανατολής εμπλουτισμένη από κινεζικές εντυπωσιακές φωτό. Η ιστορία για δυό βότσαλα μεταγλωττισμένη.

A story about two pebbles

View more presentations from Dennis Labadarios.

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10 Buttermilk Recipes to Butter You Up With...

So you've made that long awaited recipe using a small amount of buttermilk which you went out of your way to buy... but then what? Have you ever looked at that buttermilk and asked yourself what you can make to use it up? I've asked that question many times and after trying a few recipes, buttermilk is now a staple ingredient in my kitchen. If you're looking for ways to use that tangy milk, here are 10 Buttermilk Recipes to Butter You Up With...

Buttermilk Brined BBQ Pork Chops
A buttermilk brine is a delicious way to tenderize meats...

Crunchy Potato Wedges
These fries take a quick dip in buttermilk just before coating...

Cheddar & Bacon Biscuits
A one bowl recipe packed with flavor...

Buttermilk Onion Strings
These are perfect on juicy burgers!...

Mom's Banana Bread
A favorite recipe from Saveur magazine...

Chicken Cobb Salad with Ranch Dressing
A colorful salad with a tangy dressing to tie it all together...

Oven Fried Buttermilk Chicken
Skip frying in oil and bake your buttermilk chicken!

Jalapeno Ranch Dressing
This is ranch dressing with a slight kick!

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
One perfect way to start your day...

Italian Buttermilk Pork Chops
 This uses buttermilk as a marinade for tender pork chops...

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WHIPPED LIME CREAM TART

LIFE AS AN ADVENTURE

We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.
- Anais Nin

I am bursting with news, overflowing with stories, tales of Adventure and Excitement, Challenges and New Beginnings! Yes, indeed, each of these words, these ideas does demand to be scrawled across the page in capital letters! Big, bold and brash plans deserve to be proclaimed from the rooftops, achievements bragged about, courage flaunted! The excitement is palpable in our house and growing with each new step we take. This may not be the Giant Leap for Mankind, yet our own Small Step for Man has the power to change lives! We are moving forward to making plenty of announcements, I do hope, and I can hardly think of anything else! But for now, this is truly a waiting game and my lips must be sealed until things are settled, decisions taken, heads nodded.

I’ve always yearned for adventure and of achieving great things! Little girl, as shy, reticent and quiet a homebody as I still am today, I would dream of flying away, free from the constraints of society, the small world in which I lived of school, parents, teachers and chores. My imagination, fueled by hours upon hours of books and reading, was filled with discovery of the odd and unusual, mysteries to be solved, treasures to uncover. But days would find me curled up in an armchair or perched up in the branches of a tree, nose buried inside one of these books, rather than out living anything even remotely exciting! I lived vicariously through my favorite youthful heroes and heroines, those who did indeed dare, reading the tales of their courage to run, the adventures of their discoveries, my daydreams alive and vibrant as if I had joined them on their travels, participated in their pranks, been a part of their war council! I would lose myself in worlds before unknown, unafraid of the challenges set out before me, boldly grab onto whatever dropped down in my path and rewrite my own personal history without ever leaving the safety of home.

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
-André Gide

Yet eventually, adventure has come to me, and then to us, in many forms. We have jumped at each occasion with the knowledge that these things aren’t to be refused. Drawn to adventure, excitement and travels and energized by each and every challenge, we also play a part in our own destinies by creating, nurturing, opening ourselves up to new worlds. Around each and every corner lurks something to be learned, discovered, savored and appreciated. Many look at us as if we were absolutely crazy, as if each change in our life were simply a decision to cut and run, at best a fancy escapade made to draw attention to ourselves, at worst some wild and dangerous undertaking, risking society’s displeasure and falling off of its radar. Yet don’t they realize that each step we take, each unexpected opportunity that lands in our lap is something thought about, worked for, sought after? Some days we feel as if we are two storybook characters with a panoply of skills and hi-tech gadgets at the ready, our bundle of most treasured belongings tied up in a tidy little parcel, ready to be snatched up at a moment’s notice, cameras strapped to our backs and sneakers laced up oh-so snugly, just waiting for our parents’ backs to be turned when we can dash off unnoticed towards new exploits and accomplishments, the realization of yet one more dream.

Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
- Henry David Thoreau

Meanwhile, the man’s birthday came and went in a tumble of giggles, good moods all around inspired by visions of that new and exciting future. I sacrificed my subscription to my American newspaper so he could receive that new gadget he had been dreaming about, staring longingly at each time we passed the Mac shop, nose nearly yet not quite pressed to the window. He swore he didn’t really want it, certainly didn’t need it, but such joy and pleasure written across his face as I urged him into the shop, pushed him across the threshold, that I convinced him that nothing would give me more satisfaction than his having this particular machine warming his idle hands and his weekend hours. He and son have been sitting huddled over it, giddily fiddling with it, learning everything it could do, reveling in all of the magical possibilities and calling me over now and again to show me in all of their schoolboy-like innocence and glee.

I’ve been baking up a storm lately, activity spurned on by all of the excitement and nervous energy: cakes and cookies and breads of all sorts and flavors, and now we were in the mood for something different. I asked the Young Dudes what would be their pleasure, if they had any favorites or ideas. They are, after all, expected to consume most of what gets baked in this kitchen of mine so I thought it only fair that they have a say in the matter. I also run out of ideas now and then and was hoping that they wouldn’t be too shy to make a suggestion or two, let me know what they really loved! And Valentin told me that Lemon Tart was high on his list of favorites. Bingo! I had a jar of freshly made Lime Curd in the refrigerator just looking for its own adventure. I knew that Clem loved the Lemon Tart I make, in fact he makes it himself when he has a dinner party to go to. The wheels started turning as my mind raced through the multitude of possibilities and I finally decided to whip up a Lime Cream Tart just in time for the Big Day. Why make the expected 2-layer, frosted Birthday Cake when I could surprise and delight with something creamy, dreamy, tangy and tart?

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.
-Helen Keller

WHIPPED LIME CREAM TART
This luscious tart is a snap to create and truly a pleasure to eat. Light as air yet rich in flavor, the ideal treat for any citrus lover and adventurous palate.

1 pre-baked Sweet Almond Pastry Crust
1 ½ cups (375 ml) Lime Curd, more or less, to taste
1 cup (250 ml) heavy whipping cream, chilled

LIME CURD
6 Tbs unsalted butter
3 large eggs, whisked to blend
½ cup sugar
½ cup limejuice (4 – 6 limes)
Zest of 1 or 2 limes

Have a very clean pint jar or 2 jelly jars prepared and waiting.

Melt the butter over low to medium heat in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the sugar, the limejuice, the zest and the lightly beaten eggs. Continue whisking as the mixture cooks and thickens and a custard forms. This should only take a few minutes and the custard should thickly coat a spoon. The Curd should be creamy, unctuous and smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature before pouring into the clean jar or jars. Refrigerate to chill before using.


SWEET ALMOND PASTRY CRUST
1 ¼ cup (175 g) flour
¼ cup (50 g) sugar
½ cup (45 to 50 g) finely ground almonds or hazelnuts
7 Tbs (100 grams) unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg, lightly beaten

Combine flour, sugar and ground almonds in a mixing bowl or on a work surface. Using only your thumbs and fingertips, rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the consistency of damp sand and there are no more large chunks of butter.


Using a fork, vigorously stir in the lightly beaten egg until all the dry ingredients are moistened and a dough starts to pull together. Gather the dough together into a ball and place on a lightly floured surface. Using the heel of one hand, smear the dough little by little, inch by inch, pressing into the table and away from you in quick, hard strokes in order to make sure that all of the butter is blended in well. Scrape up the dough together, reflour the surface lightly and working very briefly and quickly, kneading until you have a smooth, homogenous dough. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at 15 to 30 minutes until firm enough to roll out without sticking to the rolling pin.


Butter a favorite pie tin or plate, approximately 10 inches (25 cm) in diameter and 1 1/2 (4 cm) inches deep then flour, shaking out the excess. As the pie is not baked (although the pie crust is) there is no particular need for a pie plate of a certain size. Using a larger pie plate will make for a larger, shallower tart while using a smaller pie plate will make for a deeper, thicker tart, but I would suggest a tin no smaller than 8 inches (21 cm). You can also make individual tartlets.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until you have a circle the diameter of the bottom of the pie plate plus the width of the two sides. Gently roll the dough around the rolling pin and lift and unroll onto the pie dish. Line the prepared pie tin or plate by lifting and pressing into the dish and onto the sides. Trim any overhang. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).

Remove the chilled pie shell from the refrigerator and remove the plastic wrap. Prick the shell all over with a fork. Line the shell with a piece of parchment or oven paper and weigh down with ovenproof weights or dried beans, pushing the beans up against the sides of the tart shell. Bake in the preheated oven for 6 to 8 minutes then carefully remove the shell from the oven and gently lift out the parchment liner with the beans. Return the shell to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes or so until the shell is set and golden and the edges are lightly browned. Carefully lift up the pie dish (if using a transparent glass pie dish) and make sure that the shell’s underside is also uniformly golden brown. Remove the baked shell from the oven and allow to cool completely on a rack before filling.


Prepare the Whipped Lime Cream Tart:

Using an electric beater, beat the chilled whipping cream until very thick and peaks hold when the beaters are lifted up. Add the chilled Lime Curd about a half cup at a time to the whipped cream and continue beating until all of the Lime Curd has been incorporated into the cream and the resulting cream is thick and fluffy. Carefully pour or spoon the Whipped Lime Curd into the pre-baked Sweet Almond Pastry Crust and spread evenly. Refrigerate for at least an hour or until ready to serve.

Just before serving, decorate with fresh raspberries or strawberries.


Alternately, you can spread the Lime Curd over the bottom of the pre-baked Sweet Almond Pastry Shell then top with whipped cream beaten until stiff peaks hold and sweetened with just a couple of tablespoons of powdered/confectioner’s sugar.

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