Ovarian Cancer Awareness month and recipe

September is Ovarian Cancer awareness month and for the second year in a row, Sara of Ms Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso are hosting the O foods contest to raise awareness of this important health issue.

  One:                                                                                                        

   Post a recipe to  your blog that starts or ends with  the letter O (e.g. oatmeal, orange, okra, olive, potato, tomato, onion) .  Include this entire text box in the post and send your post url along with a photo 100 x 100 to o foods [at]gmail [dot] com by 1159 pm Italy time on Monday, September 28th, 2009.

Two: Or if not into recipes , post this entire text box into your blog to help spread the word and send your post url to O foods [at] gmail[dot] com. ,same deadline as above.

 La Vita E Bella’s Recipe entry for O foods:

Recipe:            OLIVE FOCACCIA

Prep: 30 minutes        Rise: 1 1/2 hours

Bake:  20 minutes        Cool : 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups warm water (105 degrees to 115 defrees F. )

       1 pkg active dry yeast

        4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

        1 tsp. sugar

    4 1/4 to 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

   1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

1 tsp dried oregano, crushed

2 tsp. coarse sea salt or Kosher salt

1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, sliced

1 recipe Fresh Grape Chutney ( recipe)

Directions:

 

1.  In a small bowl combine warm water, yeast, 3 Tablespoons of the olive oil, and the sugar.  Let stand about 5 minutes until bubbly.  In a large bowl combine 4 cups of the flour, the rosemary, oregano, and 1 teaspoon of the salt.   Add olives and yeast mixture to the flour mixture.  Stir until a dough forms.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough (5 to 8 minutes total).  Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning once.  Cover, let rise in a warm place until double ( 1 to 1 1/2 hours ).

2.  Turn dough onto a lightly oiled  15 x 10 x 1 -inch  baking pan.  Press dough to fit pan.  Brush dough with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.  Sprinkle with remaining sea salt.  Cover and let rise 30 minutes. lo

3.  Meanwhile, prepare Fresh Grape Chutney.

4.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden.

Remove to wire rack; cool at least 20 minutes.  Cut into squares.

Serve with Fresh Grape Chutney if desired.  Makes 24 servings.

Each Serving:

105 Calories, 3 gram  Fat, (0 g. sat. fat), 0 mg cholesterol, 197 mg sodium, 16 gram carbo, 1 gram fiber, 2 g protein, Daily Values: 6 % Iron.

Fresh Grape Chutney

Start to Finish: 10 minutes

4 cups red seedless grapes ( about 1 1/4 lb.)

1 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 tsp snipped fresh rosemary or 1/4 tsp dried rosemary, crushed

1/4 tsp dried oregano, crushed

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1.  Place grapes in food processor bowl; process with 3 or 4 on-off turns until coarsely chopped; set aside. In  a large skillet melt butter; add onion and cook until  just tender.  Add rosemary and oregano .  Cook for one minute.  Add chopped grapes and vinegar;  cook 1 to 2 minutes more until heated through.  Transfer to serving bowl.  Serve using slotted spoon.  Makes 24 ( 2 tablespoon ) servings.  Each serving: 24 cal, 1 g fat  (o g sat fat), 1 mg chol, 4 mg sodium, 5 g carbo, 0 g fiber, 0 g protein.   In

 Both recipes from: Better Homes and Gardens November 2005 issue

I love the taste of Focaccia Bread and I saved a copy of this  recipe into one of my recipe folders  before I started using a computer.  There are many in my collection according to category I set-up, Dinners, Desserts, Holidays.

A word on Ovarian Cancer:

 

While on a mini vacation in the Lancaster are in August, we stayed at a B& B.  While eating breakfast, you have a chance to meet other travelers.    One woman  and her husband shared this.  She had just completed her rounds of chemotherapy for Ovarian ccancer.  Her story, whas that it was not diagnosed the first time that she went to the E.R.  S he first noticed gaining weight even though she was eating any more food than usual; she had retired as a teacher in June 2008, this  syptoms started in January 2009.  She noticed that she didn’t feel quite right and had some abd pain.  The E.R. , I recall did not find anything.  She went to her Gastro intestinal Dr., and he ordered diagnostic tests.  The G I Dr. is the one that found the cancer.  I said,” it in a way makes sense for him to find it”, because your ovaries and Female organs are in the same area as your intestines.   A word of advice that we all may have heard before.  Get a second opinion, if your syptoms do not go away and/ or you know that something is not feeeling right with your body. 

This lady said that all of the ovarian cancer cells and intestinal cells were gone after several rounds of chemotherapy.  She had lost all of her hair and was wearing a cute beige cap because she said she wasn’t comfortable with her look.  She said she appreciates each new day,even the everday

* Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancers in the United States and is the fifth leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women; a woman’s lifetime risk of ovarian cancer is 1 in 67.
* The symptoms of ovarian cancer are often vague and subtle, making it difficult to diagnose, but include bloating, pelvic and/or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly; and urinary symptoms (urgency or frequency).
* There is no effective screening test for ovarian cancer but there are tests which can detect ovarian cancer when patients are at high risk or have early symptoms.
* In spite of this, patients are usually diagnosed in advanced stages and only 45% survive longer than five years. Only 19% of cases are caught before the cancer has spread beyond the ovary to the pelvic region.
* When ovarian cancer is detected and treated early on, the five-year survival rate is greater than 92%.

And remember, you can also always donate to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at our page through FirstGiving!
Please help spread the word about ovarian cancer.
Together we can make enough noise to kill this silent killer.

 

The photo below is not mine……sorry Iva of Lucullian Delight , I don’t know how to delete it under the edit section.