My Twelfth recipe - Shrimp Scampi -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Twelfth recipe for the new cookbook - Shrimp Scampi

1 Shrimp Scampi

or

1 unit. cooked shrimp
1/2 unit pasta
1/2 unit broccoli
garlic
lots and lots of butter
Heavy cream
dash of white wine
too much olive oil
lemon squeeze
use pasta water to thin out the meal



This recipe is dedicated to New Orleans. 

So I'm watching the New NCIS New Orleans show, when I realized I did not have shrimp on the menu.  Shrimp Scampi is perfect for puree.  Great garlic flavor, extra heavy cream for putting on weight.  Also found out that the non-mint toothpaste does not kill the smell of the garlic.


SHRIMP
OK, so I'm a fan of Gulf of Mexico shrimp.  My mom use to buy it from the fish-lady who would come around in New Orleans.  But I'm not against Maine shrimp either.  The point is - when you puree it doesn't matter what the shrimp looked like in the first place.  Shrimp does get swallowed up in the flavors of a pureed shrimp scampi.  With the main dish, you get to bite a shrimp tail with a little sauce.  Add extra shrimp to the puree.

PASTA
Any pasta will do - but I still think if you are making it yourself, use angel hair pasta.  There is something magical about angel hair.  Other pastas have the look of "my kids' pasta".  Our family has also been experimenting with rice pastas which are great for survivors with gluten issues.  When I switched the pasta on the kids, they didn't even notice.

BROCCOLI
Except maybe peppers, broccoli has always been my favorite vegetable to go with garlic and pasta.  Just blanch the broccoli, or even cook it in the pasta water.  You are going to use the pasta water to thin it out anyway.  I use florets, if you are going to use stalks, I recommend over-cooking them.

Last night I substituted zucchini, which purees beautifully.

SPICES AND CREAM
Lots of Butter!  Lots of Garlic! Lots of Cream!  The more cream you add the longer the puree stays warm.  When the dish gets cold, it is not as much fun.  Perfectly fine to re-microwave.  I do not recommend letting this dish refrigerate for a meal the next day.   Something about shrimp scampi two days in a row loses the charm.  Not to mention your co-workers will appreciate your breathe.

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My Eleventh recipe - Swordfish Dijonnaise -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eleventh recipe for the new cookbook - Swordfish Dijonnaise

This recipe is dedicated everyone that ever worked at the Versailles Restaurant in Lexington, MA. 

Although the Versailles restaurant was sold to Bertucci's more than a decade ago, most of the recipes are still locked in my head.  Before I started working there, I was pretty much a yellow mustard-kind-of-guy.  Working in a french restaurant, gave me a chance to taste different kinds of mustards.  

I was a waiter there while in college.  The cooking area was quite accessible by the waitstaff, so I often watched the Chef's prepare the food.  The chef's used to joke that I was a chef-wannabe.

One of the most common employee meals was chicken dijonnaise with saffron rice and julienne vegetables.  Lucky for us today, Whole Foods had a sale on fresh swordfish, so I made a seafood variation.  Swordfish is very easy to puree, and I have had great success with a regular blender. (Before I got my Vitamix)

This is the first recipe that I would drop in the category of SPECIAL DINNER.  Most of the recipes so far have been comfort foods,  one of the big losses for eating pureed food is not being able to eat "fancy" foods for celebrations like anniversaries.

1 Swordfish Dijonnaise

or

1 unit. grilled swordfish or chicken

1 unit turmeric rice

1 unit sauteed vegetables

Dijon Mustard

Heavy cream

dash of white wine

too much olive oil

SWORDFISH

Nearly any white fish will work - haddock, cod, flounder, etc.   I recommend buying fresh fish instead of frozen, as it is easier to puree.  No need to season the fish before you grill it.  You will add the mustard to the blender.

MUSTARD

Mustard is one of the spices that most oral cancer survivors can still taste during treatment.  Remember to start "Light", because you can always add more mustard later.  Warning, It might also burn open mouth sores.

TURMERIC RICE

Cook the rice with some mild onion, turmeric, and salt and pepper.  Pretty simple recipe really.  If you can afford Saffron, add it.  Saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world.  The nice thing about turmeric rice, is it makes the puree a bright yellow,  which is far better than the typical grey meals of the other recipes.

VEGETABLE

You don't have to get fancy and julienne the vegetables, unless you have two people eating and one wants a plate of food, while the other has a bowl.  Typically, I use root vegetables like carrots, rutabaga, turnip, etc.  Although the Versailles would blanch the vegetable first,  for this recipe, I typically cut up the vegetables and toss them into the rice while it is cooking. Keep it simple!

PUREE

Place the swordfish, rice, vegetables in the blender.  Add mustard, heavy cream, and additional water.  Although Swordfish Dijonnaise sounds fancy, it is really a simple recipe.  Hence, the reason the chefs often made it as the employee meal of the shift.

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My Tenth recipe - Chicken and Dumplings -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Tenth recipe for the new cookbook - Chicken and Dumplings

This recipe is dedicated to Rosie, a caregiver, I met on-line that is at her wits end to get her father to eat.  I told her what I was doing, and asked her what his favorite recipes are and she said "Thank you! He's a steak-and-potato and chicken and dumpling guy."

My Tenth recipe - Chicken and Dumplings -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

IMPORTANCE OF CHICKEN AND DUMPLINGS

Normally, I would lump Chicken and Dumplings in the soup category and say "It's not really a meal." and be done with it.  But Chicken and Dumplings is more than a meal.   It is one of the most important foods that refreshes the soul.

I grew up in a Coast Guard Family with seven brothers and sisters.  This couldn't be done today.  My mom had to make one dinner that everyone loved - or they were allowed to not eat for the night.  Well, not really, but everyone knew dinnertime was dinnertime.  My mom's recipe included Bisquick(TM) dumplings.  To this day, I love Bisquick(TM) Dumplings.  I pray for the day that Betty Crocker starts to sell organic Bisquick, so I can bring them back into my organic household.  My favorite memories are those days in the Fall, when the hard frost is on the ground but the snow hasn't fallen yet, and there I looked out the window at the bird feeder while dining on dumplings.

Fast forward to 2014.  Now most friends know, I grew up on D&D, and have enjoyed Live-Action Role-playing with a Group out of Massachusetts called Legends, and have staffed for almost 20 years.  Last Spring, I was afraid that my second cancer might end my LARPing career.  All the players knew this.

Now typically on a Saturday evening, there is a lull in the game, and the players gather around a fire and share a dinner that they cooked themselves.  I was dressed as the Governor of the town, when I was invited to join the villagers for dinner.  Now at this point in my radiation treatment, there was not much that I could eat.  I really needed to have little spice, and be a semi-solid food, with a large glass of water to help wash it down. "Governor, we have Chicken and Dumplings, care to join us?"  I almost cried.  Not only was the soup soft, but the dumpling were like mom-used-to-make.  There is something magical about the way the dumpling holds the warmth of love as it slides down the throat.   I'm just pleased that the players didn't ask the Governor for any special privileges, because I would have granted them in an instant.

ETHNIC VARIATIONS

Every ethnic group has a variation of stone soup.  Dump the vegetables: boil them in a slow cooker; and add a touch of seasoning.  With my daughter being a vegetarian, my wife's Matzo ball soup has gone chicken-less the last couple of years.  Which is quite alright, because she used to only make it with white meat, and I'm a dark meat kind of guy.  However, the Matzo balls are to die-for.  No wonder it is called Jewish penicillin.

SLOW COOKING

The most important part about chicken and dumpling is slow cooking.  Before I was married, I lived with my friend, Bill Kenerson, and I still remember the day he slow cooked a whole chicken for at least 4 hours.  The most important part about a good chicken soup, is the smell that fills the whole house.  When you walk through the front door that smell makes you an elementary student again.

CHICKEN BROTH

My sister-in-law, Dorothy, is a champion at making chicken broth.  I can only bow to her expertise.  Going through this past cancer treatment, she specifically made me a batch of chicken broth.  You know it is a great batch when the chicken fat has congealed in the top of the container.  It is SO IMPORTANT to cook the chicken - bone and all.  There is a magical ingredient that can only be found in chicken bones.

PUREE ISSUES

Yea, there is not much to pureeing chicken and dumplings.  However, there are two main issues in pureeing this soup.

The biggest issue is making sure the soup isn't too hot.  Unlike most soups, everyone wants to take a bigger bite of this soup.  So, blowing on the soup, doesn't really cool off spoon full of soup.  I really recommend not using a spoon for this meal.

Secondarily, white meat does not puree well.  There always seems to be some chalky bits of chicken and get stuck in the throat or in the teeth.  If you are not going to boil us a whole bird, I recommend using thigh meat with the skin still attached.  The skin and bone are very easy to remove after cooking, and before pureeing.

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Spoon, sip, or chug -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

HOW SHOULD YOU EAT PUREED MEALS?
How should you treat a pureed meal.  Is it a soup?  Is it a drink? Is it a smoothie?  The simple answer is yes.  It really depends on where you are in your treatment process.

When I was going through treatment and my mouth was full of sores. I couldn't eat a thing without my magic mouthwash.   Numb the whole mouth and then eat.  I generally had about fifteen minutes to eat.  Most of the time I was the zombie eating very slowly.  Caregivers know that you try so hard to get the patient to eat, and watching them take 15 minute it eat just a little amount of food is frustrating.

Just today, I was online when a daughter/caregiver was at her wits end begging for a better way to get food into her father.

Spoons are for people you want to eat and feed themselves.   When you are not at that point, it is clear that using the spoon was an effort in futility.  To much work and pain for the amount of food I was getting into the belly.  Each small amount of food, required a huge effort on swallowing too.

The other day, I went out to lunch with my sister-in-law at Panera Bread, it was the first time I used a spoon in months.  Mostly, because I cannot open my mouth wide enough to get the spoon in.  I recommend giving up the spoon and treat the meal more like a drink.

Remember, for the survivor, food is no longer fun.  It hurts to eat.  Many have lost the sense of taste.  The food choices suck (but I'm working on that).  And worst of all, the people you love the most are berating you to eat.  After a while, I stopped listening to my wife, because I didn't want to hear it from her.  Luckily, my son stepped up and said "Dad, you have to eat."

Now my son wrote an essay about DON'T POKE THE BEAR.  At our lowest point during treatment all we want to do is sleep and growl.  We get pretty good at both.  When my son woke me up from napping he never knew what he would find - happy dad or grumpy bear.  Which to be depended mostly on whether I slept through taking my next dose of pain-killer. . . 

So, I'm a big fan of chugging food.  Chugging allows a mouthwash pain killer to work, and then just pass the food down the gullet as quickly as possible. The major factor in deciding whether you should sip or chug is how hot the food is.  Cold food gives a throat freeze which can be very painful.  Hot food can easily burn the lining of the mouth.  So what is the right temperature?  Think a baby bottle.

Use the same techniques that you use to test if a baby bottle is too hot.  I always did the put a little on my forearm.  A baby will chug down the bottle if they are hungry.  Unlike a baby, the cancer survivor eat their food very slowly.

However, this all sounds good, but you have to be able to have the throat control to be able to swallow, and not choke on it.  So if they cannot chug without aspirating, don't even attempt it. 

My family would make me lukewarm cups of soup, after about 1/2 hour, they would swap out the cup for a different lukewarm cup of soup.  They would never make a comment about how much I ate, they just kept a fresh cup near me..  They realized that eating, for me, was an hour long process.  

Unless there are other people sitting at the dining-room table, I never ate there.  Nothing more lonely than sitting alone at the dinner table. 

I often would sit in front of the TV and watch AMERICAN CHOPPER (mostly because I didn't have to worry about keeping track of the plot) and they would place the food next to me.  Every once in a while, I would be inspired to take a gulp.  Sure the magic mouth wash had worn off, but I wouldn't realize that until after I swallowed.

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Chemo treatment at Dana Farber

My Ninth recipe - Chicken Cacciatore -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Ninth recipe for the new cookbook - Chicken Cacciatore

1 Chicken Cacciatore with pasta

or

1 unit. breaded and cooked cooked chicken
1 unit roasted red pepper
1 unit un-spiced tomato sauce
pesto, capers, oregano, and garlic to taste
dash of white wine
too much olive oil
Parmesan cheese to taste (I put cheese on everything)
thin with chicken broth
EXTRAS:
1 unit vegetable like spinach or zucchini


This recipe is dedicated to the military wives who put together a recipe book of favorites that my mom used for years, and started me on the road to being a foodie. 

Chicken Cacciatore is a classic what do I have on hand to make a dressy simple meal.  In my house, I am more likely to have a large jar of roasted red peppers on hand rather then fresh peppers in the vegetable bin.  I also recommend it because pepper skins can prove problematic for survivors with swallowing issues.

VEGETARIAN
Yes, Zucchini Cacciatore is excellent.  Ratatouille is not far down the path, and I recommend it too. I'm talking the food not the movie.

PASTA
Since everything is pureed it doesn't matter what the original pasta looked like.  However, after all that we have gone through, I recommend fresh pasta.  First, it taste so much better.  Second, pureeing fresh pasta is a lot easier.  I will often use a cheese ravioli or a tortellini - yes, because it has cheese in it.

VEGETABLE
The ladies in my life would be very mad at me if I didn't include vegetables in this dish.  And they are right.  These are meals, not dishes.  It is hard enough getting one cup of food down the throat.  The more goodness we can combine into one bowl the better.  Fall is a great time to add seasonal vegetables like summer squash and zucchini.  In the winter, I am likely to add frozen spinach or frozen kale.

NEXT DAY'S LUNCH
This meal travels to work well.  Unlike the sole florentine.  It is wonderful when my co-workers are jealous of the smell coming out of the microwave.   They are not jealous of the smell of sole florentine.  Today, I brought my Moussaka to work, only to find out I grabbed my container of blueberry smoothie instead.  Imagine my disappointment, it was a cool New England day, and I was going to have a nice not cup of moussaka . . .

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My Eighth recipe - Moussaka -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Eighth  recipe for the new cookbook - Moussaka

1 Moussaka

or

1 unit. cooked lamb (since you are going to puree the dish, Stew lamb works well too)
1 unit cooked potato
1/2 unit eggplant sauteed in olive oil
1/4 tomato paste
Ras el hanout (a mixed blend of spices)
Parmesan cheese to taste
enough mint tea to puree (thickness is a personal preference)
EXTRAS:
unflavored yogurt
unflavored protein powder (great with vege-protein)
liquid vitamins


This recipe is dedicated to Chef Issac Dray, who used to own the Versailles Restaurant in Lexington, and mentored me on the art of french cooking. 

Over the last couple of weeks I have had several visits to this blog from Countries around the Mediterranean particularly Turkey.  Since Moussaka and Shepard's Pie are nearly pureed already, I thought it would make a great addition to the book.  Not to mention I have been craving Moussaka.

VEGETARIAN
I am a fan of lamb,  but making a meatless moussaka is extremely common.  Remember that eggplant soaks up oil and spices.

RAS EL HANOUT
Every family that eats moussaka has their own blend of spices.  My ingredients include allspice, coriander, cumin, paprika, garlic, and turmeric. If you look up moussaka online no two recipes will have the same spices combination, so feel free to experiment, or ask your grandmother.  It seems that grandma's recipe is always better than moms recipe for this dish.  Because moussaka is powerly spiced dish, you can add a lot of healthy extra ingredients.
A neat little fact I learned on Wikipedia:  In the past, ras el hanout sometimes included cantharides in its ingredients, for its aphrodisiac properties, but the sale of cantharides was banned in Morocco in the 1990s.

POTATO
I am discovering that potatoes are the most friendly puree ingredient.  It is so easy to cook the potato in the microwave, slice it, and drop it in the blender.  The only issue with this recipe is after you microwave the potato, slice it, and add it to the sauteing eggplant to brown them a little.

COOKING
For simplification I saute all the ingredients in olive oil . . .  a generous amount of olive oil.

EXTRAS
OK, I hope I don't mean to offend grandma, but you can add a lot of extras here.  I've a listed a couple of my favorites above.  Talk to your nutritionist about what they recommend you add to your diet.

COMMENTS
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Steak and Potatoes -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My First recipe for the new cookbook - Steak and Potatoes

4 oz. cooked steak (pot roast works well)
1 cooked potato
8 oz. beef stock or pot roast juice
some chive
two scoops sour cream
3 pats of butter (or more)
dash of steak sauce or Blue Cheese
enough water to puree (about 2-3 cups) thickness is a personal preference


This recipe is dedicated to my niece Antonia Hoyland, who after I first posted the recipe, suggested that blue cheese would go fabulously with steak and potatoes. 

The ingredients are designed to be standard items that you would have on hand for steak and potato night.  This is literally a dump the ingredients in the blender and puree recipe.  When blending the ingredient you will need to monitor how much water you are adding.  It is hard to judge how much water the potato is going to need, as different potatoes are different sizes and have “dried out in the pantry” differently.

This recipe is a basic design, so if you have special dietary requirements, be sure to modify as needed. For example, I know a number of people with dairy restrictions.  I have tried the recipe with and without sour cream and butter – still taste great.

POTATO FIXINGS
How do you eat your potato? Sour Cream? Chives? Only add what you normally love on a potato.

BLENDERS
I have two blenders at home a Vitamix 500 and a Waring Model 51BL26.   The Vitamix has a “SOUP” setting that will puree the food right down to a liquefied drink.  The Waring even after 10 minutes will puree the food down to having very small but perceptible pulp.  If you are a friend of someone going through head or neck cancer I recommend joining with friends and purchase the survivor a Vitamix.  They are not cheap; however, they are a Godsend for the patient and the caregiver.
COMMENTS
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My Seventh recipe - Sole Florentine -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Seventh recipe for the new cookbook - Sole Florentine
1 unit Sole Florentine

or if you need to make it from scratch

1 unit sole
1 unit frozen spinach
1 unit boiling water
1 unit pasta or rice pilaf (Polenta works well too)
1/2 unit ricotta cheese
1/2 unit mozzarella or provolone
dash nutmeg
dash of seasoning salt


This recipe is dedicated to my wife, Randi, who is a pescatarian.  I needed to make sure that fish is represented well.  This past summer, she was brought to tears because she has lost her favorite dinner partner, because there was nearly nothing I could eat.  I now deliberately make a bowl of food and sit with her when she comes home late from working a Neiman Marcus. 

DUH
Over the last couple of weeks, friends have been submitting suggestions for meals.  My friend David Blake, from Colorado, suggested Chicken Florentine with Alfredo sauce, (I'm working on it), which made me think "why hadn't I added one of the most common and mild seafood dishes of all time".

SOLE
I'm not a stickler for sole.  I, being in New England, know there are a lot of choices of whitefish - flounder, haddock, cod.  In fact the old fishermen's tale is that Scrod and Schrod were used to denote the use of Cod or Haddock.  Since we are going to brutally puree the fish anyway, there is little sense it using such a wonderful light fish as sole. Suddenly, the Disney song "Le Poisson" popped into my head.

PREMADE
I gave this one, two options, because the goal of these meals is so the survivor can have the same meal that everyone else is having.  Not much special prepping is needed to turn a traditional Sole Florentine into puree - just add water.  This is also a good dish when you want to practice chewing again, because you can chew as much as you can (before your mouth muscles get tired) and then puree the rest.

FROM SCRATCH
Boil water.
Add spinach to water, bring the mixture back to a boil
Add fish on top - cook the fish through
add spices
Dump cheese into blender
Dump fish mixture into blender.
Dump pasta or rice into blender
Add extra water as needed

WHAT IS A UNIT
Part of the problem with eating while you go through Head and Neck Cancer treatment is you never can get enough food in the body.  You are going to lose weight.  So get the most out of every meal. Some days are better than others.  Ideally, I'd love every recipe to be about proportions and the ratio of ingredients. Whatever volume you use for the main ingredient, use the proportion  on all ingredients.

COMMENTS
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My Sixth recipe - Buffalo Chicken and Rice -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Sixth recipe for the new cookbook - Buffalo Chicken and Rice


1 unit cooked boneless thigh or leg meat
dash to a pour of buffalo sauce or BBQ sauce
1 unit cooked rice or potato
at least one unit sweet tea as needed to thin the meal (or heavy cream)
1 dollop of Daisy sour cream
blue cheese as needed


This recipe is dedicated to Lindsay Vaughn, who always made the best buffalo Chicken Dip the Friday before New England Patriot.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
It's the first weekend of the NFL season.  I needed a meal that can be served at Patriot Day games.

CHICKEN
I have always been a fan of dark meat chicken.  Yes, I was that kid who always took the dark meat from the Kentucky Fried Chicken original-style bucket.  As much as I would have loved to use chicken wings for this recipe, trying to peel the meat off the bone would have taken forever.  Besides my passion for dark meat, I am slowly discovering that white chicken meat does not puree very well.  I cannot get the same results with my blender, as I can with the Vitamix.  Sometimes the meal comes out too, well, chalky.
Although I've used both thighs and legs, for simplicity I normally use boned thighs.  I recommend boiling the thighs first, before you either grill, bake, or fry the thighs, to help retain as much moisture as possible.

BUFFALO SAUCE
Go light, my friend, go light. When adding buffalo sauce to the blender go lightly.  You can never un-pour buffalo sauce.  And even after the meal is blended, you can always add more per serving.  I gave an option to substitute BBQ sauce, in case buffalo sauce is not to your liking.

RICE OR POTATO
Buffalo Chicken puree is too intense by itself.  One idea is to add rice to bulk up the recipe. The other idea is to add potato because most game day meals include several forms of potato.
Today I am going to try pureeing cheddar and bacon potato skins to see how those work in the meal.  It might be that you have to have two cups - buffalo chicken in one and potato skins in another, and then take turns sipping each of the cups*.

SWEET TEA OR HEAVY CREAM
Yes, sweet tea - it's a southern thing.  Yes, heavy cream - it's a northern thing.  I will probably switch to heavy cream when the Patriots start playing when there is snow on the field.

DOLLOP OF DAISY
It is a tradition with my daughter and I. My daughter is a foodie like her father.  There are certain brands you don't mess with . . . Ok, my New England friends are allowed to use Hood - it's a Boston thing.

BLUE CHEESE
In this house, blue cheese is considered a separate food group.  We add a lot more blue cheese than is consider normal, so I can't really tell you how much blue cheese to add.  Remember that you can't un-add blue cheese.

WHAT IS A UNIT?
Part of the problem with eating while you go through Head and Neck Cancer treatment is you never can get enough food in the body.  You are going to lose weight.  So get the most out of every meal. Some days are better than others.  Ideally, I'd love every recipe to be about proportions and the ratio of ingredients. Whatever volume you use for the main ingredient, use the proportion  on all ingredients.

COMMENTS
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* sipping out of two different cups is SO much better.

My Fifth recipe - Pork Slider and Slaw -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My Fifth recipe for the new cookbook - Pork Slider and Cole Slaw
1 unit slow-cooked BBQ pork (done the right way, if you can't make it yourself have a professional make it)
dash or two of extra sauce
1/2 unit cornbread
sweet tea as needed to thin it out (or beer* is your nutritionist allows it)
1/2 coleslaw


This recipe is dedicated to Christine Pinney and Lester's Roadside Bar-B-Q, Burlington MA.  Christine challenged me to come up with the recipe.   Once I realized I did not have the skill set to prepare a proper pulled pork.  I drove over to Lester's and talked about my situation - they were more than happy to help.  

IT IS A MEAL
I created this meal working backwards.  I wanted to make sure that the after-taste is the most important part.  I have yet to meet someone who eats sliders without drinking either sweet tea or a cold beer.  It's in the southern handbook (look it up).

FLORIDA GATORS?
It's football season and the Florida Gators play their first game of the season in one hour**.  The biggest situation, as a loyal fan, you are going to run into as a true tail-gator, is what to eat in the parking lot.  My friend Mike Conrad writes article under Gotta Have Gadgets.  He highlighted a cordless Margarita maker.  So I figure, there has got to be a way to rig up a blender while tail-gating. I'm not beyond re-purposing a margarita maker to do pulled pork.  I really I do have my priorities.

PULLED PORK
The fact that there is a Florida Gator working at Lester's has nothing to do with the fact that I think they are the best in the area.  I understand that if you are in an area of the world where you have to buy your pulled pork from a supermarket, that you consider yourself living in a third world country.  I'm sure Amazon Prime can overnight something better to you.  It is important to start with serious! pulled-pork.  Remember to get the extra sauce.  Second, remember that the sauce can be very spicy.  Pureeing the pork is going to need as much extra juice as possible.

The other day I picked up Pulled-Pork from a local supermarket hot food bar.  I didn't realize that one of the ingredients was chipotle   - ow ow ow I was on fire.  Did not see that one coming.

CORNBREAD
Although a slide goes on a bun, there is nothing better with pulled pork, than home-made cornbread - toss it in.

SWEET TEA
The whole way home from Lester's I was racking my brain trying to figure out what to use to thin out the meal.  It's 90 degrees out my air-conditioner in the truck is broken, and I suckin' on sweet tea.  DUH, it only made sense.   I add the sweet tea, ice and all, into the blender is I'm outdoors,  because drinkin' a hot drink, on a hot day just doesn't work

COLESLAW
Coleslaw is the problematic issue, because you need to make sure that the blender can puree the cabbage fine enough.  Make sure that if your cabbage in the slaw is still firm, that you blend the meal longer than you might think you need to.

WENDY'S
Wendy's now has a pulled pork sandwich.   I stopped in last night, explained my condition, and asked if I could get it without a bun.  She was really happy to be able to help me - even going so far as to putting the food in plastic instead of paper, so the food would be fresh and moist when I got home.

EUROPE
It is nice to see that readers in England, France and Poland read this Blog.  I'd love to know if there is tail-gating in the EU countries.  Please feel free to leave me a comment.  I am always locating for ethnic or regional meals.

WHAT IS A UNIT?
Part of the problem with eating while you go through Head and Neck Cancer treatment is you never can get enough food in the body.  You are going to lose weight.  So get the most out of every meal. Some days are better than others.  Ideally, I'd love every recipe to be about proportions and the ratio of ingredients. Whatever volume you use for the main ingredient, use the proportion  on all ingredients.

*There are non-alcoholic beers that you can use to thin it out.  As long as you are using it in a recipe, you aren't really drinking it, so you don't have to worry about losing proper real man status at the tail-gate.  Besides you just kicked ass on cancer, no one should challenge you.
**OK the first game was cancelled because of thunder and lightning.

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My fourth recipe - Pigs in a Blanket -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My fourth recipe for the new cookbook - Pigs in a Blanket

1 pancake, or flapjack, or hotcake (cooked in butter) (Waffles, too)

1 breakfast sausage

milk as needed, soy, almond, and rice milk work too

1 swirl of syrup (as a New Englander, I recommend pure maple syrup)

OPTIONS:

Tree nuts (like Pecans)

Coffee (The coffee is a vasodilator, so I can cut down on my pain meds 
This recipe is dedicated to Alec Hoyland, my son, who is at college and at the cafeteria, he has a choice of scrambled eggs, bacon, and home-fries (or any combination of the three).

BREAKFAST CHOICES?

For my quick and easy breakfast I typically poach three eggs and add it to a morning smoothie with non-dairy milk, and a dash of coffee. 

UPDATE: 15 Dec. 2016

My current favorite breakfast is two waffles, one turkey sausage, Vt. Maple syrup, dash of pumpkin spice, 16 oz. black coffee, two Tylenol, 1/4 cup of blueberries.  Makes about 5 cups of puree.

My friend Mike Wade sent me a list of breakfast options from the web: http://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/diet/pureedbreakfast.cfm#bacon%20and%20eggs 

Fall is known for family gatherings for the football season.  I was looking for the meal you would most likely encounter in a social situation.  I am a big fan of pancakes and waffles, so my list of comfort foods wouldn't be complete without adding them in.  Most item on a breakfast buffet can be pureed into a smoothie.

PANCAKE

Although, I've been known to drink cookie and pancake batter, I know that raw eggs can be dangerous.  Which lead me the experimentation of having to actually cook the batter.  You need to make sure that the pancake as a dark brown outside, otherwise when you puree it up it taste to much like pancake batter.  Waffles are a great second choice, just understand that you will need to puree the waffle longer to grind up all the little corners in a waffle.

BUTTER!  

After all that we have been through, we deserve butter.  I think all pancakes should be cooked in melted butter, instead of non-fat spray oil.  If I add hot coffee to my blender, I we add a 1/4 stick of butter . . . Don't judge me, you know you have always wanted to do this.

SAUSAGE

Any breakfast sausage with do.  I have become accustom to chicken sausage at my house.  My local Whole Foods makes the large "Italian Sausage-sized" breakfast sausage.  If you can find them, you only need 1/2 sausage per pancake.  

Remember that pre-made sausage might have RED PEPPER to make the sausage spicy.  You can even use paddies, because you don't have to worry about rolling the pancake around the sausage.

If you are super sensitive to spices, it was really easy to find recipes for make-your-own-paddy-sausage on the internet.  The beauty is that since you are pureeing the sausage, you don't have to mix the spices in, you can sprinkle them on top when you cook them.

My daughter is educating me on vegeburgers.  Turns out there are also vege-sausage.  Trader Joe's carries a meat-less sausage that has a wonderful sausage flavor.

SAUSAGE IN A PINCH

I often keep a pre-cooked ground meat in the refrigerator.  By adding traditional sausage spices to the blender with the ground meat, you can achieve the same taste.

MILK

All forms of dairy and non-dairy milk work as a thinning agent.

SYRUP

Got to have good syrup!  We deserve only the best syrup.  Don't tell my Canadian friends, but New England syrup is best - just like the Boston Bruins are better than the Montreal Canadians.

Local Farm Store

COMMENTS

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FACEBOOK

I have created a companion page on Facebook called: 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors.  Sometimes it is easier to share a FB page than send a blog address.

My third recipe - Eggplant Parmigiana -100 Meals You Never Thought You Would Eat Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients

My third recipe for the new cookbook - Eggplant Parmigiana (this is my first vegetarian option)

RECIPE
1 unit eggplant (or zucchini)
1/2 unit red sauce
1 unit rice (or over-cooked pasta)
extra water as needed
healthy additions as needed

This recipe is dedicated to Emily Biever, my nutritionist, at Dana Farber.  She was always looking for recipes for Head and Neck Cancer patients that contained both the maximum amount of nutrition and the maximum amount of "happy to eat".

WHAT IS A UNIT?
Part of the problem with eating while you go through Head and Neck Cancer treatment is you never can get enough food in the body.  You are going to lose weight.  So get the most out of every meal. Some days are better than others.  Ideally, I'd love every recipe to be about proportions and the ratio of ingredients.  So what ever measurement you use for eggplant, use about the same amount of rice, and half that much "red sauce".  I remember some days a cup of food is about as much as I could eat . . .

THE BEAUTY OF EGGPLANT
The beauty of eggplant is that it is a wonderful sponge.  Emily and I always chatted about how to get more good oil, like olive oil; more protein, like vegetable protein powder; and more healthy additions, like liquid vitamins, turmeric, or vitamin D powder.   I also recommend zucchini, because for some people eggplant is not at the top of the preferred vegetable list.
Instead of breading the eggplant in the traditional style, I either grill or saute the eggplant.
For grilling, cut the eggplant slices into 1/2 inch to 1 inch pieces.  You need thick pieces to hold together after you soak the eggplant with olive oil.  Place the slices on the grill (but not over the open flame), pour the olive oil over the top, but be careful not to overflow.  After about one minute, flip the eggplant and coat the top again.
For sauteing, place the slices in a large sauce pan with about 1/4 inch of olive oil.  Cook under low heat, adding more olive oil as the eggplant absorbs the oil.
Cook the eggplant until the slices start to fall apart.
Depending on the survivors ability to swallow, you may need to remove the skin before you puree.

RED SAUCE ???
Here is where we dive into the deep end.  Last Night, at the Emerson Hospital Oral and Head and Neck Cancer Support Group, we discussed the hidden spices that burn the mouth of cancer patients.  Everyone is different, and different spices affect us differently at different times of treatment and recovery.  Art, a multi-year survivor, was trying the Frank and Beans recipe and by the time he got to the fourth spoonful, his mouth started to burn.  He believed it was the spices in the hot-dog - WHO KNEW HOT-DOG SPICES BURNED . . . I recommend that the survivor sample a teaspoon of the red sauce before you make the recipe.
Red sauce is the generic term for all the different kinds of Italian tomato sauces.  The can range from the Hunts Tomato paste in the can, through marinara sauce, to my daughter favorite - Muir Glen Organic Italian Herb pasta sauce.  For some cancer survivors, nothing is more comforting than mom's home-made tomato sauce. GO FOR IT!

RICE
 Yes, my great-grandma is looking down from heaven and frowning at me for suggesting rice with eggplant, and further more suggesting that I over-cook the pasta.  I just wanted to let you know that you can experiment with any of the recipes.  I like the rice idea, because it is easier to keep rice pre-cooked in the refrigerator, than boiling up 10 pieces of pasta (although keeping pre-cooked pasta covered in olive oil works too).
Rice can be as simple as cooking up boxed rice like Near East Rice Pilaf.  Our families favorite "simple rice" recipe is 1 cup white rice, 2 cups water, swirl of olive oil, seasoning salt, and three diced vegetables.  Diced vegetables are typically one carrot, one celery, and 1/2 sweet onion.  Microwave the entire contents for 10 minutes on HIGH.  If the rice is only for the survivor, add an extra 1/2 cup of water to make sure that the rice is soft before you puree it.

OLIVE OIL
I free pour my bolus tube feeding.  I am not beyond pouring 30 ml of olive oil right into the syringe before I pour in the puree.  Great way to add extra calories.   I find the extra olive oil keeps me warmer.

HEALTHY ADDITIONS
Tomato sauce flavor can hide a whole bunch of healthy add-ins.  Some of my favorites are 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric, one scoop of vegetable protein (pea protein), powdered vitamin D, and spinach.  I'm sure your nutritionist  has a list of foods they would like you to eat.

Grilling outdoors

COMMENTS

Please add your comments and suggestions to my blog.  Nice to see people from around the globe reading my blog.  Please follow you want the latest recipes.

FACEBOOK

I have created a companion page on Facebook called: 100 Meals Pureed - Recipes for Head and Neck Cancer Survivors.  Sometimes it is easier to share a FB page than send a blog address.