25- Caramel apple bark

You can stick just about anything in chocolate and call it a bark.

This one is chocolate, caramel, pretzel, and granny smith apple.

And it’s a bark!

Okay, I wrote that part last night and today I attempted said “bark”.

Remember when I said that this would be a bark? Yeah, no. The pretzels, although freshly purchased and freshly opened, were stale. Ick.

And the freshly cut apples were too juicy for the chocolate to set properly.

And the caramel, that went on the freshly cut apples, did not stick to the apples.

A mess really.

Won’t be doing that again and really calls into consideration next week’s planned bark. I may have to reconsider.

This is the second week of the Fall theme of November. Uninspired, I know. But there are only THREE CTIATs that count in November. The 4th is Thanksgiving and I will be delivering no cookies to the hospital on Thanksgiving. Sorry, folks on call.

I will make it up to them with the December theme, though.

Also tragedy struck my Pinterest account.

It was deleted. On purpose by the company. Despite my appeals.

Apparently I am too political. Funny other people can post wildly political things in the opposite direction. It was getting too corporatey there anyway.

I would have continued to save political stuff. Sorry, not sorry. I will continue to save political stuff, just not there.

But with it goes all 3200 CTIAT recipes I had saved. Some for future themes, some were favorites, some just looked cool.

That’s okay, I have a hell of a memory and can reconstruct most of it.

Because Pinterest is just a storage vault. And I was expecting something like this for awhile now.

I had been cross-saving some very special looking recipes to another type of vault.

Again, sorry, not sorry.

This won’t slow me down at all!

Probably not as they intended but oh well.

Good thing I have at least 20 cookie specific cookbooks I’ve been saving for a rainy day.

This also gives me permission to be more organized with my saving. CTIAT was organized and I had about 50 different subsections.

But I remember all the subsections and will use them to build CTIAT recipe repository 2.0.

I will rebuild, I have the technology and I can make it multi-level. I can make it better than it was.

Better, stronger faster.

The first bionic CTIAT repository.

Bonus points if you know where that is from.

And a gold star.

Peri-operative nurse’s week

But, but, mister, what does a peri-operative nurse do.

Well, I’m glad you asked that, Billy. Well, you see I don’t rightly know. When I went in for surgery there was a nurse and a tech and the doctor and anesthesia in the operating room. But there was another nurse before who helped me get ready and yet another nurse when I woke up. But hell if I know what they all do.

No one knows.

And we like it that way.

All jokes aside, a quick google search revealed conflicting answers.

To the Mayo Clinic, the peri-operative nurse works with patients prior to surgery, to complete paperwork, to help answer any questions and to calm the fears of patients.

To the National Institutes of Health, the key responsibility of the peri-operative nurse is to maintain a sterile environment for the patient and the surgical team. Before, during and after surgery.

To Johnson and Johnson the peri-operative nurse provides care and guidance to patients during their surgical journey by doing pre and post op assessments, managing post op pain and side effects, but they also have a specialized role in the intra-op phase.

See, clear as mud. And contradictory.

All of these examples are correct but they don’t tell the whole story.

I often tell patients that the circulator, one of the type of peri-operative nurses, is the wall that functions to protect the patient from everyone else. The surgeon, anesthesia, reps, disease causing germs… everyone and everything.

Yes, we do do it all.

And smile while doing it.

We’ll be there, by your side, every step of the operative journey.

It’s what we do.

Tuesday Top of Mind 11/11/25-Raise a glass to a veteran

It is Veteran’s Day in the United States.

Not Victory Day for World War I as a certain recent occupant of the White House wanted to rename it.

It is not just a day for World War 1.

It is not just a day for World War II.

It is not just a day for the Korean War.

It is not just a day for Vietnam.

It is not just a day for Operation Desert Storm.

It is not just a day for any American’s who served in the military.

It is not just a day for any I hope this is the pathway to American citizenship for those who have served as non-citizens of the U.S.

It is not just a day for any non-citizens who died or bled for the U.S.

It is the day for to remember their sacrifices, both in terms of youth and blood and sanity.

But also to remember the debt we owe ALL of them.

I continue to have conflicted feelings of whether or not I am a veteran. I certainly don’t feel like it. I was certainly ready to sacrifice for my country. I certainly recited the officer’s oath and I learned for 2 years as an ROTC cadet.

But that is me.

And there are a lot of former and current service members who are not getting the care they deserve for their sacrifice. No matter how small.

Raise a glass, sponsor a dinner for a veteran’s association, wear a remembrance poppy, thank a veteran.

Hell, do all of it.

Just remember what they gave and what we took from them.

And don’t let anyone take anything else from them.

Like their healthcare.

Like needed support because we threw them to the dogs and didn’t bother to care for them properly when they limped home.

School Me Saturday 11/8/25- Et tu, Cornell?

In another of “This is a real nice university, shame if something happened to it” shakedown of the flagship universities of the United States, Cornell has caved.

Remember, the government has been withholding research and other monies from the universities that it has singled out.

This is separate from the 8 universities there were asked to sign the pledge.

And it only cost Cornell $60,000,000 to restart the spigot of $250,000,000 in federal funding. $30,000,000 to be paid directly to the government with another $30,000,000 to be invested in U.S. Agricultural research.

Of course, the government says that this is in response to phantom antisemitic Title VI violations that they have not been found in violation of.

This makes me so angry.

Both that the university rolled over and showed it soft underbelly to the government for pennies. And that the university caved at all.

But don’t worry, in agreeing to this bullshit deal, Cornell is admitting to no wrong doing.

Except selling out which puts pressure on all the other universities to do the same thing.

All so that government and the Department of Education can use them as an example of “doing the right thing”.

Yeah, more like doing what the bullies tell you to do so the floggings and beatings stop.

They should be ashamed.

I would say that the government should be ashamed of running this shitshow but I imagine the opposite is true and they are proud of making the universities submit to the boot on their neck.

Shame on them for running the government like a 2 bit protection racket.

FFS Friday 11/7/25- Freaking Finally

Freaking Finally the message from the left is breaking through to those who need to know that we have their backs. Even if they are so brainwashed to hate everything about the left they cannot hear or comprehend that the left fights for all American’s freedoms, not just the right’s.

Before Tuesday’s overwhelming repudiation of the administration’s cruel policies and money grubbing ways, I have to admit it was feeling a little bit like the boys at the barricade in Les Miserables. There they were, fighting for the little guy, fighting to make everyone’s lives better and, after a long dark night with the loss of Eponine, they came to the realization that no one was coming to fight alongside them.

If you are interested, the song is called “Dawn of Anguish” and is track 34. With thanks to Victor Hugo who wrote the seminal book and Cameron MacKintosh who wrote the musical.

Enjorlas, the leader of the revolutionaries, is singing mostly to himself at the beginning. Perhaps to give himself courage. His words echoed how I was feeling on Monday. When he is informed that the revolutionaries are low on ammunition and the rain has ruined the gunpowder, he addresses the small crowd.
“The people have not stirred.
We are abandoned by those who still live in fear.
The people have not heard.
Yet we will not abandon those who cannot hear.”

This neatly sums up how I have been feeling since January.

In the 2012 movie Les Misérables, after Enjolras states this, the street urchin and revolutionary child Gavroche pipes in with an echo of his song and the main Les Mis theme.
“Do you hear the people sing?
It is the song of angry men.
It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again.
When the beating of your heart echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes!”

I spent a lot of time recently listening to Les Mis, especially after the latest No Kings protests on October 18th. Yes, I realize that the story is somewhat problematic and some of the words are not PC, but I enjoyed my deep dive into the source material.

Les Misérables is a tragedy as nearly all of the revolutionaries at the barricade are dead. However, there is some hope there too. In Marius and Cosette’s story.

However, even if the revolutionaries at the barricade would have won the battle of the barricade, they would have to come to grips with the realization that the battle of the barricade is just that, merely a battle. A battle win is not the winning of the war.

The election results on Tuesday, November 4th are not the war. They are merely a skirmish during the war.

Yes, we had an amazing turnout for an off year election. Yes, we had most of the amazing wins, including the four marquee races in New York City, New Jersey, Virginia, and California.

This is not the time to let off on the pressure. There will be more skirmishes and battles to fight.

Keep the faith that what we on the left are doing are for everyone.

But be aware that this is not done.

See also the refusal of the administration to fund the SNAP benefits, even after 2 judges told them they had to, and another judge affirmed it.

Yay us on Tuesday November 4th!

But there is work to be done.

Volunteer to be a poll worker.

Keep up the phone calls.

Continue to protest in the way that you can.

And maybe donate some food kits to a food pantry. If you are able to.

Cookie Thursday 11/6/25- Pumpkin Pie Pudding Cookies

Pumpkin pie pudding.

Now say that three times fast.

This is a new recipe and I have some thoughts.

The first thought is that the pudding was required to be pumpkin spiced. Yeah, but according to the ingredients it is only spices. And I have a pumpkin pie spice container that I concocted myself.

The reason I point it out is because none of my local stores had a pumpkin pie pudding 3.4 oz packet. Heck, they had no pumpkin pie pudding at all. Full stop. Amazon had it but Amazon and I are having a beef these days. Or rather I am having a beef with Amazon and only ordering minimal things from there. So I can clearly not choose this option.

So I made my own dry vanilla pudding recipe, measured out 3.4 ounces and add as much pumpkin pie spice to the vanilla pudding mixture as my heart desired. Hint, it was at least 2 tsp, maybe more. No I did not measure.

My second thought is that the 12 oz of white chocolate chips is entirely too many. I usually add half a bag of chips. Which would have me adding 6 oz of white chocolate chips. All those chips made the dough hard to stir and scoop out.

My second and a half thought is that mini white chocolate chips would be better. The regularly sized chips made for a lumpy cookie. Pretty cookie, but lumpy.

My third thought was what other pudding flavors could I mock up and use in a cookie.

Perhaps in the new year.

Call Secrets of the OR- Keeping up with the Joneses, Dr. Jones that is

Call is my job and has been for nearly 4 years, since December 2021.

In that time, many surgeons have come and gone.

There have also been many different pieces of equipment that may be useful at night that have been introduced to the OR.

There have been many changes to the instrument sets.

There have been many changes to the type and style of suture that are kept on site.

There have been many misguided re-working of the OR core. The general cart specifically.

There’s even been a brand new robot introduced into my OR.

Guess what?

Even with all of these changes I am expected to still know everything.

When a surgeon asks for a certain piece of sterile supply, an AbThera, I am required to know where it is. And when I convince the surgeon that no such thing lives in this OR because it doesn’t match our negative pressure wound machine, I have to be able to trouble shoot Macgyvering or cobbling together a facsimile of available sterile supplies. While we are putting our Frankenstein dressing on, I am required to listen to the surgeon bitch about the department not having such a thing. After all downtown’s hospital has it. The why doesn’t this hospital is sometimes silent, most likely not.

Sigh.

The point of this post is that it takes a lot of time and effort to keep up with the various changes to the operating room. But also not look I’m struggling when I can’t find the exact thing the surgeon is asking for. Kind of like Ginger Rogers dancing all the dances with Fred Astaire; only backward in heels.

I just have to bear in mind that the surgeon and I are united in our desire to provide the best care for the patient currently on the table.

Sometimes that requires a little imagination. And a little homework.

In order to keep up with the Dr. Joneses, I tour the OR when I am there and make note of the changes. Because, you know, no one is going to loop me in.

I read my work email nearly every day, looking for policy changes.

I attend the staff meetings when I am able.

I ask questions.

Just keeping up with the Joneses (department changes) can be a full time job.

Good thing I am built for this position.

Tuesday Top of Mind 11/4/25- Did you vote?

Every election is important.

Every opportunity to flex your constitutionally given powers* is important.

I used an asterisk because in the constitution only white, male, Protestant land owners could vote.

Of course.

By 1830 most states had dropped the religious and land owning components.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment recognized African Americans as citizens, giving the males the right to vote.

Of course, this led to some states denial of this right.

In 1870, the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote. This amendment prohibited any state or local government from stopping them from voting.

But they still tried.

In 1890, Wyoming recognized a women’s right to vote. And they did so in the state constitution.

Go, Wyoming!

In 1920, the 19th Amendment was added to the constitution. This gave women the right to vote.

In 1947, all states granted Native Americans the right to vote.

And then some of states, outraged by being outnumbered, instituted a poll tax in the 1880s and 90s. This meant that people, mostly black men, had to pay a tax in order to vote. Naughty naughty. Some people will cheat to win, won’t they.

In 1964, the 24th Amendment stated unequivocally that no-one should be denied the right to vote because of bullshit, made up “tax”.

The 1960s were hot because in 1965 there was an amendment to the Voting Rights Act, the very same one the 2020s Supreme Court has been chipping away at, that banned the use of literacy tests.

In 1971, the voting age was lowered to 18. I am not sure if this was because of the Vietnam War. Because of the draft teenagers and 20 year old were old enough to die in a senseless war, but not old enough to vote.

Today your mission was to have voted.

It is the only way to send a message that some people will understand.

Beyond the economic blackout that is being planned for the end of the month.

Someone else said it best. Perhaps we should have a non-corporation holiday season and focus on the small companies.

FFS 10/31/25- Feed Me, Seymour!

It is definitely cartoon villain adjacent to give another country $40 BILLION dollars to shore up their currency when your own people are facing double or triple insurance premiums in 2026.

It is definitely cartoon villain adjacent to dangle food assistance for the food insecure people as a gotcha to make the Democrats do what you want and capitulate to the bullshit budget bill that will double or triple the healthcare exchanges premiums.

It is definitely cartoon villain adjacent to extort the Democrats to capitulate with your demands or 40 million American people will lose their SNAP benefits.

It is definitely cartoon villain adjacent to starve your own constituents.

It is definitely cartoon villain adjacent to give talking points to the bots that says that they don’t want their money to go to others having steak and candy and baked goods that they don’t have to bake themselves. And have it taken up by the mommy bloggers and the manosphere to endlessly repeat it.

Did you know that according to the USDA, in 2023, the average household who received SNAP got $332 per month. This is $177 per person. FOR ENTIRE FUCKING MONTH’S FOOD SPEND!!!

Now, I know that the vast majority of congresspeople and senators and people in the government do not do their own food shopping. I’m going to tell you gently that $177 is not steak money. It is money that goes to the dollar stores or Walmart to try to cobble some semblance of healthy food for the household. Again, for the entire fucking month. Breakfasts, lunch, dinner, a snack if you are lucky.

To do the math, even a little bit, $177 is roughly $5.90 per day. Again, not steak money. Hell, it isn’t even fruit and vegetable money.

But, but, Kate, it is in the name of the program “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program”, it is supposed to be in addition to whatever you have to spend on food.

Ignorant fucker.

These numbers are from 2023. Before the inflation went nuts, before every little thing at the grocery store started to shrink in size, for the SAME price. This is known by the cutesy name “shrinkflation”. But what it really is is the multi billion dollar companies trying to make us pay more for less. Look, they cry, it is the same price as before.

Yeah, fucker, for less product.

This was hammered home to me yesterday when I pulled out the bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos so I could make a Halloween treat for Cookie Thursday is a Thing. This is not something I would normally buy the house as I anticipate no one would like it. The bag was 10 full ounces less than what was called for in the recipe I was following, almost half the number of ounces. 10.75 oz to the recipe ingredient which was a 20.5 oz bag. This made me take evasive maneuvers with the suddenly twice as much caramel than I needed.

I am lucky in that I can afford the prices and drive to more than one store, searching for the best price. But for how long? And even that is only if I maintain my current employment as a full time nurse in a hospital. But what about the ones that cannot?

As of this writing, a federal judge Rhode Island, Jack McConnel has blocked the administration from ceasing to pay SNAP benefits during the shutdown. Despite the lawyers for the administration arguing that SNAP doesn’t exist and there is not entitled to the $5 billion that was set aside by Congress in case of an emergency.

Like a government shutdown.

Their villainy strokes are so broad and diabolical you’d think they’d be afraid for their immortal soul.

Look, I don’t care if my tax dollars, and as a double income no kids couple we always pay, go to feeding the food insecure. It is a pittance compared to the corporate welfare that the gigantic companies receive every year.

So stop clutching your pearls and consider not torturing the single mother who is struggling.

The way better and bigger target are the corporations and the billionaires.

Cookie Thursday 10/30/25- Trick or Treat

Foiled again by the rain.

It’s been raining for 4 days. Cold, spitty kind of rain. The kind of rain that raises the humidity enough that candy won’t set.

But, like I wrote in last Wednesday’s Call Secrets of the OR, I am nothing if not flexible.

You see, Halloween is my favorite holiday. What’s not to love?

The costumes!
The candy!
The carving of the pumpkins! Or, if you’re me and busy, the buying of pumpkin to put on the front stoop.

I had planned four different candies for this Cookie Thursday is a Thing, Halloween edition! This is a traditional even that has been rained out several times during CTIAT.

But alas, it is too humid.

I was going to make an old fashioned vinegar candy.
I was going to make marshmallow candy corn.
I was going to attempt pop rocks again.
I was going to attempt strawberry mochi.

But what did I make as a pivot?

I made no bake matcha bark (gotta have something green, you know), caramel sweet chex mix, cheddar pickles and, the only recipe that made the line up for this Trick or Treat CTIAT Halloween edition, caramel hot Cheetos.

Also, there is a Trunk or Treat at the hospital right after CTIAT, so I didn’t want to get too ambitious.

The cheddar pickles was something I’ve made before and the department really liked. This was a super easy quick bake. Put the pickles in a layer on a paper towel and pat dry, taking care to make sure they aren’t too small or too large. Very goldilocks this recipe. In a mini muffin tin, put some shredded cheese into the bottom, top with a pickle, top with another layer of cheese. Simplicity itself.

Everything else was a new to me recipe.

The no bake matcha bark was decidedly simple to make. Three ingredients. White melting chocolate, matcha, and rice Krispies. Melt the chocolate, add the matcha, and when it is all combined to a pale green, add the cereal. Chill to set. This was surprisingly tasty. My husband swears by matcha, which is why we had it in the house.

I started the caramel for the caramel hot Cheetos. This is also a simple recipe, 2 c brown sugar, 1 c butter, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 10.5 oz bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. Make the caramel, stir in the baking soda until the mixture is pale and frothy, add caramel to the Cheetos. Double check the bag against the recipe and realize that the bag was 10 oz of Cheetos.

Shrinkflation strikes again.

All of a sudden, I had more caramel than I knew what to do with. I portioned out most of the caramel into the Cheetos and stirred. I spread them out on a baking pan and baked at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring halfway through. I remembered we had a box of peanut butter chex that had not been eaten. I quickly upended it onto a baking sheet and stirred in the caramel. Now I needed more binder/fluid and I poured in the rest of the white chocolate. After the caramel Cheetos came of the oven, I popped the sweet chex mix in. I didn’t bake this for an hour, more like 20 minutes. When I pulled it out, I stirred it all together. The white chocolate was melty and the caramel was caramelly. Good enough. I chunked it apart and went to lunch with my mom.

When I got home I pulled the match bark out of the fridge and broke it apart.

I used parchment paper as boats for the four makes, so that the pickle juice wouldn’t get on everything and because it just looked neater that way.

Off I went to the hospital with my 2 trays of makes.

Another CTIAT Halloween down. Time to start planning the rest of the year.

Psych!

I’ve already got the rest of the year planned.