England!

I've been a little silent recently.  There have been major technological issue in my life, my faithful laptop may have died completely this time. it's been chugging along for over years and may have finally given up the ghost.  Then my router died, then my blackberry died. Both router and BB have since bee replaced, however I'm reduced to using my netbook, writing stuff was the reason that I bought it, but It was better when I was using it by choice.

Anyway.

In January I am off to England, specifically London.  Now this moderately ties in with this project due to the reason I am going, it's not my colon's last meal, but it ties in with the blog. I get to that later..

I was there once in 2003,and fell in love with the city.  Two things that always bring back strong and specific memories have been music and food, both very related topics. For me there are very specific memories triggered by tied to that trip. Some things trigger those memories and some memories trigger longing.  I spent an evening celebrating a mid-summer festival with a bunch of Swedish people drinking heavily and eating strawberries on the porch of the hostel I was staying at.  Whenever I hear the song Moving by Supergrass, I'm reminded this one night where one of the guys* staying at the hostel played the song over and over again as we sat drinking with a bunch of people. And every so often  think of how I would go to Marks and Spencer, buy a pint of milk, a bag of salt and pepper crisps and a roast chicken and stuffing sandwich, then find a park somewhere and eat lunch.  It was a good sandwich, not the best sandwich I have ever eaten**, but I would kill for one.  I've tried to recreate it, but it's never the same. Perhaps the location I was in made it taste different, maybe the fact it is completely inaccessible fuels the desire***.  It's hard to say, but if I get there and for whatever reason they are no longer selling them, I'm going to be super pissed.  I'll find a pub and drown my sorrows.

When I started this the first person that I wrote to was Isabel Monteiro of the band Drugstore.  I have long been a fan, and in my musical hierarchy they are in the second tier alongside Radiohead and The Magnetic Fields.  Below Tom Waits, but above Supergrass.

They are heading into the studio to record in January. I'll spare you the details, but for reasons unrelated to this blog or medical conditions, I get to spend  a day at the studio while they record the new album. And that is why I'm heading to London.

*That guy was named "Snoop", because he looked a little bit like the rapper Snoop Dogg, he lived at the hostel and made a living selling pot to American backpackers.

**For the record the best sandwich that I have ever eaten in my life (that I did not personally make), was in June of 2004 when I visited a friend in Kentucky. It is the sausage sub sold by the American east coast based sandwich chain Penn Station. 

***This is most likely the reason why whenever I get back into Canada after being away for  more than a week, I have an unholy desire to eat back bacon+ and consume maple walnut ice cream++.

+this is not entirely true I desire to eat back bacon on a fairly regular basis.

++ The only time I that ever eaten maple walnut ice cream (at least in the past decade) has been in the first 2 days in Canada after getting back from a trip#.

#Does any one know how to create proper footnotes using Blogger? I'm tried of using random symbols.

Basic, Simple and Healthy . . . Mike McCready from Pearl Jam

So when I came up with the idea for this blog, one of the people who I wanted to get in contact with is Mike McCready, the lead guitarist for Pearl Jam.  I've always like Pearl Jam, I guess it's ingrained guys who grew up in the 90's.
In 1993 I would have been in grade 7 or 8, and one day I found a grey unmarked cassette tape.  It was mix tape that someone had made, and dropped in the school, and being curious I kept it and played it when I got home. From what I recall there were only two songs that stood out*, Cannonball by the Breeders and Daughter by Pearl Jam. I'm not sure if it's the song itself or because that song was my first taste, but to this day it is my favourite song by Pearl Jam.

Now beyond being in Pearl Jam, there is a specific reason that I wanted to hear from Mike, and that is because he has Crohn's Disease, the meaner brother of Ulcerative Colitis. The main difference between the two is UC is specifically contained in the colon, whereas Crohn's can attack anywhere in the digestive tract.

Mike has been using a couple of methods to control Crohn's, through medication and by following the Specific Carb Diet. Unfortunately SCD didn't really do much for me, but there are lots of people that has helped, (there is a chance that I didn't give it long enough).  The diet is very strict in terms of what you can eat, take a look at the legal/illegal list.

So I sent an e-mail to his management company and ask them to pass it on, which they did and the next day I had a response.

Mike wrote:
"Jason,  First of all have you tried Humira? It might be something to look into before surgery. I am obviously not a doctor, but there are many options out there. I would suggest something that will make you feel good about your body. Maybe fish with rice and a vegetable? Take care, Mike

Yes it's short, but I've noticed a trend when I've asked people for suggestions. They seem to fall into three groups**.
The first recommends that generally have the term "the hottest you can find" attached to the description.  The idea behind that has been to make my colon "pay" for the last couple of years.
The second very often recommends something extravagant.  either it's decadent, complicated or very unhealthy.
The third group seems to recommend  something that is healthy in some way, either physically nourishing or nourishing to the soul.

The majority of people I've talked to with Crohn's give suggestions that fall into the third category.  I'm not sure if it's because of the strained relationship that Crohn's patients have with food, but it seems very likely.  Most of those suggestions involve some sort of food that they themselves can't eat.  Having a salad comes up a lot.  Salads as healthy as they may seem are big no no for a lot of people with IBD.  There will be another post in the near future where I share those suggestions.

Now Humira,  the medication Mike is on, was something that I was looking into, but like Remicade it is an expensive medication.  To get on Remicade I had to apply for Gov't assistance to help pay for it.  Unfortunately in Ontario, the provincial gov't thinks that surgery is a far better option than Humira, as such they will not help pay for Humira for people with Ulcerative Colitis, so unless I win the lottery I'm out of luck.

Normally I'd try to give a set of links on how you can cyberstalk the person who helped out with a suggestion, but I can't seem to find much of an online presence for Mike.  So in addition to the link for the Pearl Jam site, I'm providing links to a few other sites that you should look into supporting.

The official Pearl Jam site is here.

I also recommend checking out the following links:
Advocacy For Patients With Chronic Illness
The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada
The Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America
The National Association for Crohn's and Colitis (UK)

 *The reason can say only two stood out, is because here we are 17 years later, and I can only remember those two songs.
**There is actually a fourth group, and they are people who have had the same surgery I'm going to have. That response seems to be "It doesn't matter, once you have the surgery you'll be able to eat whatever you want".

Jason

So another glass And a cigarette . . . Isabel Monteiro from Drugstore

Drugstore is a band I fell in love with. I bought their second album "White Magic For Lovers", based solely on a 3 second clip of music that I had heard in a commercial for HMV.  That album stayed in heavy rotation until Songs For The Jet Set came out. From there I tracked down a copy of the then out of print self titled first album.  

Drugstore, who took their name from the film Drugstore Cowboy, is a London based band with a multinational cast of characters led by the wonderfully talented Brazilian born Isabel Monteiro.  After their third album Songs For The Jet Set, and much to my disappointment, they went on a hiatus of sorts and seemed to disappear from the musical landscape. 

Things were quiet for 7 years, and then in 2009 there were rumblings from The Cave, and Isabel popped her head out.    That year saw a reunion in the form of a sell out gig at Dingwalls in London.  That reunion wasn't enough for the fans or Isabel.  The start of 2010 saw a search for new "Cowboys" to join Drugstore, and shortly after that another sell out gig at the ICA . 

As of right now Isabel and her crew are in the midst of recording a new album.  Which I and many other fans are eagerly awaiting.  I personally recommend the songs "I Wanna Love You Like A Man" and "I Know I Could" (from which the title of this post is taken from).

Isabel is not only the first contributor to my quest, but happens to also be the first person I wrote to.  Which seemed like a very good sign, so far I'm batting 1000.  Isabel keeps an online presence through Facebook, Twitter and her blog, Drugstore Anatomy. Visit them all.

The recipe is called Brigadeiro, it's a Brazilian dessert and just looking at the ingredients make me want it. Once I have pictures of the process and the final product I'll post them.

Isabel wrote:
"Sending you a super-basic recipe for a traditional brazilian sweet treat.
It's prob the 1st thing you learn as a kid, but it stays w/ you forever.
Every now and again, when I'm feeling cold and grey, I get a tin of condensed
milk and make a batch of 'Brigadeiro' - takes me right back to my childhood.
Hope you'll enjoy it. Maybe serve after meal, w/ coffee and liquors?
Recipe attached.
Hope everything's gonna be cool w/ you.
keep me posted.
love
x
isabel"

The closest thing I have to a liqueur in my house is a bottle of Jameson's, that should work. The recipe is as follows.

‘Brigadeiro’ (brigadier)

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

100g of dark chocolate

25 of butter (2 tablespoons )

Chocolate sprinkles or granulated sugar

Tiny paper candy cups

Method:

Combine first three ingredients in a heavy pot and stir constantly

over medium heat, bringing to a boil.

Continue stirring until mixture thickens enough to coat the bottom

of the pan.

Remove from heat and carefully scoop hot mixture out of pot into a

separate bowl to cool.

Cool completely.

Coat hands with butter and scoop out a tablespoon sized amount

into the palm of your hand. Roll into a small ball, roll the ball in

sprinkles or sugar and let rest in paper cup.

Makes about 40.