Anyone who knows me knows that I bake when I am stressed. Or bored. Or worried. And some of my favorite baked goods are a result of some of my most stressful times. I guess it’s kinda nice that good comes out of bad.
This week’s menu has several new items….and the Molten Lava Cookies and the Chocolate Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Muffin are the good that came out of bad. And unfortunately, it was Lil that got hit with the BAD. But anyone who has had a sick kid far away- knows how miserable and helpless it is to be hundreds of miles away when they feel crummy.
I will preface this with a.) Lil is fine now and b.) If you are easily grossed out, maybe you skip this week’s post!!
Okay, so Lil and her team were in Florida on a training trip. The weather was rainy most of the time- they even got a video of a tornado touching down a few miles from their hotel. They returned to campus on January 16th, and took the bad weather with them. It was stormy and very wet. When Lil got to her dorm room, she noticed water on her bathroom floor. Since the athletes were the only ones back on campus, she knew no one had been in the bathroom. She made a maintenance request and when they came out they told her that the water was from all the rain they had gotten recently.
Hmmm. Her bathroom is on the interior of the building. No windows. And they live in the basement. When she told me the water was from the storms, I thought it sounded strange but I didn’t say anything.
Several days later, their suite shower started filling with sewage. SEWAGE.
They called maintenance and they came out and did something- and said it was fixed.
I asked her if she smelled bleach.
“I think so. Maybe. I'll go get some bleach.” (Spoiler alert- it was too late.)
Two days later, the shower filled with sewage again. SEWAGE, AGAIN!!!
12 hours later, at 3:45am I got a text from Lil. “Mom, I have never been so sick in my entire life.”
I mean, the poor kid was violently ill. And Lil is not a puker. A little side story- when Izzy was little, she had cyclic vomiting syndrome. It was rough. She landed in the hospital a few times, but eventually outgrow it. Just as she outgrew cyclic vomiting, she got C.Diff from taking a spectrum antibiotic for a sinus infection. It was brutal, but we caught it relatively quickly and she responded well to treatment. But it took its toll on her (and me!) and she eventually went to therapy for her fear of vomiting!! But ever since that era - I have given my kids probiotics. I swear by them, and knock on wood- we tend to get off easy when it comes to GI bugs.
So when Lil got sick, I immediately asked her if she had been taking her probiotics. Yes.
I asked if anyone at school was sick. No.
I asked her if she ate anything strange. No, she ate the exact same dinner as 3 of her friends.
It was a very rough 72 hours- I tried not to call/text incessantly. But man I was so worried. I had never had a kid sick like this- and I couldn't be there with her! I did almost get in the car and start driving to North Carolina- but luckily a friend’s mom who was visiting and is an ER doc stopped by and checked on her- and shortly after, she started to turn the corner!
Long story short, the school eventually sent her and her roommate to stay at a cute little inn on campus while they disinfected her suite. It took a week for her to start eating again, and even so, she was so cautious. I FedEx’ed a big box of homemade breads and baked goods to campus! (And included a few of my newest creations that I had perfected as I paced around my kitchen waiting for an update!)!
BUT, as miserable of a week as it was…..Lil is doing great now, and I have a bunch of new recipes that I am excited to share with you all. The Molten Lava cookies are AMAZING- almost like a brownie, but softer. And I am calling the muffins healthy, since they have bananas and peanut butter in them. But they are delicious but not too rich, despite all the chocolate! And the Banana Loaf became my favorite late night snack….I guess since it doesn’t have chocolate chips, I convinced myself it was health food….please no one try to tell me otherwise!
Sorry this email is so late - it was my first day back baking for you all and I must have been out of practice because everything took much longer than I expected! But I am super excited about the new items on next week’s menu….If you try any of them, let me know what you think! And if you got the new Babka Muffins today- let me know if you liked them! My crew loves them!
Xo,
Heather
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