Detached Children With Autism Theory Faces Serious Challenge

Emotional Reactions of children with Autism, Ms Heather Nuske 

Olga Tennsion Autism Research Centre, Latrobe University

For years the autism professional community accepted the non evidence based speculation that autism disorders were caused by detached, cold mothers.  The professions' embrace of this fantasy caused serious harm to many families.  The other side of the coin is that persons with autism disorders are also cold, detached, do not show typical emotional responses.  The cold autistic persons theory has endured but is now under serious challenge from some of the innovative, fresh thinkers at the Latrobe University's Olga Tennison Autism Research Center.

Our family's personal (anecdotal), direct observation  evidence, if such evidence were not strictly verboten in autism research circles, would demolish the cold kids with autism speculation. Through my autism advocacy in New Brunswick I have met other children with autism disorders, from both ends of the autism spectrum, who have displayed emotional responses once they got to know me, including some wonderful smiles, laughs and humor. Many posts on my Facing Autism in New Brunswick blog and the borders on my blog contain pictures of our wonderful, severely autistic son and his warm embraces and brilliant smile. As direct experience evidence from a family  such evidence is given no weight in autism research circles (as opposed to the serious consideration given by autism professionals to the views of persons with very high functioning autism).

Conor's Mom said he was anxious this past February when I was in the 

local Acute Care Unit for a week with respiratory problems.  In the 

picture above Conor, upon visiting me at the ACU, displays emotional 

response, and support, for his old Dad.

Conor displaying emotional responses to his Mom.

Now comes news from the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre at Latrobe University in Australia that the detached, cold person with autism theory/speculation is  under serious challenge by researchers at the OTARC.  In essence Heather Nuske and her colleagues at the OTARC are exploring the idea that persons with autism probably (more research is necessary) display typical emotional reactions and attachments to caregivers and  persons with whom they are familiar while showing no, or very little, emotion or attachment to persons with whom they are not familiar.

Personally I am happy to see Ms Nuske and the OTARC challenging the cold autistic kids speculation and believe that their idea is entirely consistent with our experience with our wonderful son Conor. 

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Caramel Apple Strudel

Happy Friday! I don't know about you, but by the time Friday comes, I'm overly exhausted from the work week and although it's the weekend, I wish I could take a break and relax. This weekend I'm teaching a full day at the kitchen and hosting a very special event - the Chicago Food Swap. It's a fun and free event where folks gather to swap their various food items... all for free. Everything from jams, baked goods, dry spice mixes, prepared foods, sweets, savories, etc, all of it is fair game. So my Saturday is completely booked and I'm hoping that I can get a chance to relax and take it easy on Sunday. In fact, tonight I intend to cuddle up on the couch, wrap up in a comfy blanket and watch some movies or catch up on tv shows with the Baron. After all the recent date nights out and holiday gatherings, we're clearly due for a date night in. On that sweet note, I'm closing out the week with a dessert that is all sorts of delicious. This Caramel Apple Strudel wraps up a filling of apple, toasted walnuts, sugar and apple pie spice in layers of flaky, buttery phyllo dough just before baking to a golden brown. If that wasn't enough, a gentle dusting of powdered sugar and drizzle of sweet caramel is the best garnish for this treat, as is a nice big scoop of ice cream...

This was a great and elegant dessert... but the down side is that it's not gluten free. I have yet to find gluten free phyllo dough or even a gluten free alternative, that is without having to make a homemade phyllo dough myself with GF flour. If you have suggestions for a GF phyllo dough substitute, I'd love to hear it! Otherwise, my non-gluten free friends will enjoy this. It's easy to assemble and bake... and it would make for a lovely food gift for the holidays to stand out from the common holiday cookie plate!

Caramel Apple Strudel

recipe adapted from Cooking Light

4 ounces day-old French bread, coarsely chopped
3 tablespoons butter, divided
5 cups finely chopped peeled Granny Smith apples (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1 teaspoon apple pie spice
8 sheets frozen phyllo dough, thawed
Cooking spray

Powdered sugar for garnish

Caramel sauce for garnish

Preheat oven to 375°.

Place bread in a food processor, and pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1 1/4 cups.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat; add breadcrumbs. Cook 4 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring frequently. Combine breadcrumbs, apples, sugar, walnuts, and apple pie spice in a medium bowl; toss to combine.

Lightly coat each of 4 phyllo sheets with cooking spray, placing one on top of the other. Spoon 3 cups apple mixture along 1 long edge of stacked phyllo, leaving a 2-inch border. 

Fold short edges of phyllo to cover 2 inches of apple mixture on each end. Starting at long edge with 2-inch border, roll up jellyroll fashion. (Do not roll tightly, or strudel may split.) Place strudel, seam side down, on a jellyroll pan coated with cooking spray. 

Repeat the procedure with remaining phyllo dough, cooking spray, and apple mixture.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter, and brush over strudels. Bake at 375° 25 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack 20 minutes before serving.

To serve, dust with powdered sugar, drizzle with caramel sauce and serve with vanilla ice cream.

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Beef Meatball Pho Soup [Phở Bò Viên]

I love soup this time of year. It's warm, comforting and so easy to make. One of my favorite soups is Vietnamese Beef Meatball Pho Soup [Phở Bò Viên]. I especially love the complexity of the broth because it's a unique flavor of rich beef, hints of cinnamon, ginger, star anise, clove, pepper, and even a touch of sweet and salty. Aside from the broth, there's the rice noodles (gluten free!) that absorbs all the broth flavor. And even further, the fresh herb garnishes of basil, mint, cilantro as well as squeeze of lime. Then you get a bite of this tender, beefy meatball that just turns this soup into such an amazing and filling meal. Soup has never been so easy yet so complex as a bowl of pho...


Let me preface this recipe by saying this one takes some time but it's so so worth it. The good thing is, it's a crockpot friendly dish. You can make part of it in advance. Even the meatballs are freezer friendly! But together, the components of this dish really come together as an amazing, delicious bowl of soup. The broth is key and it does take 8-12 hours to prepare. It's essentially a broth you assemble, throw a cover on and walk away to enjoy decorating your home for the holidays or online shopping or playing Candy Crush or taking a nap or what have you.

But, if you want to make use of those hours, you can make the meatballs, as those take 1-2 hours to prepare. Bonus: you can make a big batch of meatballs and freeze them for later. The rest is easy peasy since the noodles don't take more than a few minutes to prepare on the stovetop and you can use whatever you have as a garnish or topping to your soup. All in all, it's delicious and definitely worth the time and effort!

Beef Meatball Pho Soup

recipe adapted from AllRecipes

Broth:
2 pounds beef shank
1 pound beef oxtail
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic
1 ounce whole star anise pods
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 whole clove
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 slice fresh ginger root
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce

Meatballs:
2 pounds ground beef

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons fish sauce

1 tablespoons finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated Ginger

1 1/2 pounds dried flat rice noodles

Suggested add ins or toppings:
chopped fresh cilantro
fresh mint leaves
fresh basil leaves
bean sprouts (mung beans)
limes, quartered
thinly sliced green onion
crushed pork cracklings
sriracha hot pepper sauce
hoisin sauce



To make the broth: Place the beef shank in a crockpot (5-6 quart size). Season with salt and fill the crockpot two thirds full of water. Cover and cook on high for about 2-4 hours.

Skim fat from the surface of the soup, and add the oxtail, garlic and onions. Tie the anise pods, cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns and ginger in a cheesecloth or place in a spice bag; add to the soup. Stir in sugar, salt and fish sauce. Add more water to keep it at two thirds full if needed.

Cover once again and cook on high for 4-6 hours or on low for 6-8 hours. Check for seasoning and season to taste if needed. Remove and discard the spices. Remove the meat off the bones, discarding the bones and reserving the meat aside. Strain the broth and return to the crockpot to simmer on low. Add the reserved meat back into the crockpot.

Prepare the meatballs: Combine all the meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mix it well. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for about 30 minutes to 1 hour. 

Remove meatballs from freezer and place 1/4 of the meatball mixture in a food processor. Process to a completely smooth but firm paste. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the work bowl.  Transfer the beef paste to another bowl. Repeat and process the remaining beef 1/4 of the mixture at a time to avoid overloading your food processor work bowl.   

Cover the processed beef mixture and chill in the freezer for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil.

Remove the processed beef mixture and using wet hands, form into meatballs slightly smaller than the size of a golfball. The mixture will be sticky so be sure your hands are wet when forming the meatballs. 

Place the meatballs into the boiling water and allow them to float and cook for about 7-10 minutes.

Remove the meatballs from the boiling water and transfer them into a bowl filled with ice water for 1-2 minutes. This will stop the meatballs from cooking and help them tighten up. Remove from ice water and drain. [Any extra meatballs not being served in the pho can be frozen and enjoyed later.]

Prepare the noodles: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Soak the rice noodles in water for about 20 minutes, then cook in boiling water until soft, but not mushy, about 5 minutes. 

To serve: Place some noodles into a serving bowl and top with a few meatballs. Ladle hot broth over the noodles and meatballs in the bowl. Garnish with your choice of toppings.

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Gustosa pizza alla Locanda dei Massimi a Roma con Groupon

Se avete voglia di una ottima pizza a Roma, siete ancora in tempo per acquistare il deal di Coupon, al ristorante pizzeria Locanda dei Massimi un ottimo menù con soli sedici euro a coppia!

E' un locale che si gode soprattutto in estate, perché ha la disponibilità di un ampio giardino! Purtroppo quando ci siamo stati noi pioveva e faceva abbastanza freddo, quindi non abbiamo potuto sfruttarlo!

Siamo stati accolti da un prosecco di benvenuto, a seguire antipasto con cartoccio con crocchette, minisupplì, zeppoline rustiche, verdurine sfarinate e polentine e delle deliziose bruschette al pomodoro

 

 

 

A seguire abbiamo scelto delle ottime pizze, una boscaiola (con funghi freschi e salsiccia) ed una capricciosa (funghi freschi, uova sode, olive), entrambe ben cotte e ben lievitate, accompagnate da acqua minerale e bibite.

 

Completavano il menù i dessert: abbiamo scelto un tartufo bianco ed uno nero, artigianali, veramente buoni!

 

 

Arrivederci e grazie alla Locanda dei Massimi ed a Groupon, torneremo sicuramente a trovarvi, magari in estate per poterci godere appieno lo splendido giardino!

 

 

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Nokia Lumia 525 an Entry Level Windows Phone Released

Nokia Lumia 525 is an entry level phone, and also the predecessor, of the Lumia 520 and according to market sales the Lumia 520 makes up 39.9% of the entire Windows Phone 8 market share.

With its 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) IPS LCD, Qualcomm Snapragon S4 dual-core CPU 1Ghz, It looks like Nokia is hoping to get a better market share with the Lumia 525.

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Lenovo Launched Yoga 8 and 10 inch Tablet with three Modes and 18 hours Battery

Lenovo announced their latest offering for the tablet market, and this time they have help from Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher! Yes you read it right, Ashton Kutcher is the product engineer of Lenovo.

The Lenovo Yoga Tablet standout features is its battery power can lasts up to 18 hours of usage. The battery is a cylindrical that is also a base and can be used as a handle grip.

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Lamb Curry – Sautée de Mouton au Curry

SAYING GOODBYE, COMING HOME

Sadness flies on the wings of the morning 

and out of the heart of darkness comes the light. 

- Jean Giraudoux 

Husband flew down to the south of France last Monday. He joined his sisters to say a final goodbye to his mother, Madeleine. Her last wish, this simple, homey, old-fashioned woman, was to be cremated, her ashes blended with those of her husband and her brother and the ashes strewn into the wind. She was a woman who asked very little of others, who gave much, gave what she could, and her passing, though expected, was sad indeed.

I was in the kitchen with my mother-in-law shortly after JP and I had announced that we would be getting married, helping her with the dishes after a Sunday lunch and she leaned towards me and confided “We knew it was serious when he brought you home to join us for Christmas dinner; just the very act of him bringing you here to meet us and we knew. He never brings girls home!” And we bonded just like that. Of course, there was the ritual pulling out of black and white photographs of American soldiers, the army men who liberated their northern French city at the end of the war, who brought them chocolate and cigarettes and made them feel proud, happy and secure once again. The tiny photos with the signature and a personal note written across the back was an object of pride and memory for these good, grateful people and it was shown to me excitedly as they recounted tales of meeting those Americans, the only Americans they had ever met before me some forty or so years later. They were tickled pink.

And I gave them their first grandson, a gift indeed.

Baking with grandmère

Snuggles with grandmère and grandpère

They accepted me with all of my oddities, my stumbling, imperfect French, my American ways and my Jewish religion, accepted me as a welcome part of their family. Over the years, I spent innumerable weekends and vacations in their home, innumerable Sunday lunches at their table eating blanquette, poulet roti frites, pot au feu or roast beef. Innumerable summer afternoons up in the branches of the big cherry tree in their yard or my arm stuck deep into the raspberry bushes tenderly pulling off each bright red berry, playing boules, petanque with the kids, bare feet in the soft grass. Innumerable Christmases watching the boys hang decorations and tinsel on the tree, set up the tiny crèche (that my little Jewish son explained as “Marie, le bonhomme, le bébé et les animaux”…), exchanging gifts.

Life was simple and cozy chez grandmère et grandpère

What a treat for the little boys to spend holidays and vacations with grandmère and grandpère out at the house on the hill, in the lost little village of barely 300 souls surrounded by green and cows and countryside. They were spoiled as only indulgent grandparents can spoil. We were living in Italy and as soon as Clem was old enough to fly unaccompanied, at the grand old age of 4, we began sending him north. Two years later he was joined by his baby brother, the fragile one, the persnickety one. I warned Madeleine that he was a tough one to deal with, especially in all matters food. I sent her a list of his likes and dislikes and she laughed and told me not to worry, she had years of experience dealing with children. A week or so later, I called to check in, and check up on the boys. “How is Simon doing?” I asked, worried out of my mind. “Is he eating?” “Oh!”, she assured me, “I have absolutely no problem with Simon! He eats everything I give him…clean plate at every meal!” “Oh, what are you feeding him?” I asked, wondering what I had been doing wrong for all these years. “White rice! I ask him before every meal what he would like, he answers ‘rice’ and I make him rice and he cleans his plate!” she said, without a hint of irony in her voice, proud as a peacock.

In grandpère's vegetable garden with Tonton Claude

Games in the garden under the cherry tree

She and I were as different as night and day, our backgrounds, our upbringing, our ideology and outlook on life, but we got along like a house on fire. She was kind and gentle, as smart as she was simple and straightforward and offered advice when I asked for it. We may have disagreed on how to raise children, feed and clothe them, but she loved the boys and they loved her and their relationship was perfect. She sat them at the kitchen table and let them help her cook, peel vegetables and press pâte sablée into the pie dish. She and my father-in-law taught them card games and board games with the patience of saints, racking up hours upon hours of rummy and scrabble, boggle and belotte, treating the boys as intellectual equals. Mornings spent in the vegetable garden with grandpère, afternoons in the tiny plastic swimming pool or sitting under the cherry tree looking at comic books, always rewarded with an ice cream. Over the years, my boys learned so much from their grandparents, mostly the joy of spending time with another generation.

When JP arrived back home, I had prepared a hot meal for him, a cross between his simple lamb curry sautée and his Sweet and Savory Lamb Stew with Raisins. A hot meal, a warming, soulful, filling meal to welcome him home and comfort his weary body and his sore heart. Dessert was my Ricotta Tart with Pears (this week’s Plated Stories’ recipe). Clem joined us and we dined as a family to the shimmering glow of the Hanukkah candles.

LAMB CURRY – SAUTÉE DE MOUTON AU CURRY

Stewing lamb (shoulder, neck, chops, etc) for 4 – about 800 g to 1 kg – in large chunks
Margarine + olive oil for sautéing
About 2 Tbs flour
1 large yellow or white onion, peeled, trimmed and coarsely chopped
½ red or green pepper, cleaned, trimmed, seeded and coarsely chopped
1/3 to ½ green chili (mild or hot, as you like), trimmed, seeds removed and finely chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed but left whole
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 tsps good curry powder
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 medium long or round zucchini, peeled and cubed
2 Tbs golden raisins

Heat about a tablespoon each of margarine and olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven until hot and steaming. Add the chunks of lamb and brown on all sides. Remove the lamb from the pot onto a plate when browned.

Put more margarine and olive oil in the hot pot and add the chopped onion, red or green pepper, hot chili and the garlic clove and sautée, stirring often, until the onion is tender, transparent and beginning to color around the edges. Remove and discard the clove of garlic. Add the flour and, stirring continuously, cook for another 2 – 3 minutes until it no longer smells like flour. Deglaze with a bit of water (melt and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot) and then stir in the tomato paste, the curry powder, the bay leaf, salt and pepper. Add the lamb back to the post and add water just to cover. Bring to the boil then lower the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes, add the cubed zucchini and the raisins, cover the pot again and cook for another 45 minutes to an hour or until the meat is fork tender.

When the lamb is tender, check the sauce: taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more salt or pepper as needed; if the sauce is too watery, simply allow to simmer uncovered for a bit until it thickens.

Serve hot over rice or couscous grains.

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