My Favorite Recipes 8/11/11

Meet Cristi Shindler, Diamond

When Cristi Shindler was 13 and living in Waha, south of Lewiston, her grandfather had cancer. The family often drove to Spokane via Colfax and Cristi vowed some day she would be a nurse in this town.

“It just seemed really nice,” she said.

She has been a nurse at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center since 1998.

“I always wanted to be a nurse,” she recalled. As a girl she dressed up as a nurse for Halloween. Growing up on the farm she was accustomed to caring for animals; she just wanted to focus that same caring on people.

Cristi studied nursing at Lewis-Clark State College. She started off wanting to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, but that required more schooling than she wanted to undertake.

While attending nursing school, she met Rob Shindler from the Thornton area. He was attending WSU, and they met at a dance club in Lewiston. They were married in May 1997. They started off living at Dodge and have also lived in Benge, LaCrosse and now Diamond.

“All the boony places. We wanted to live where it was cheap,” she said.

In 1998 Cristi started working part time as an LPN at Whitman Hospital and Medical Center. When she graduated from nursing school in 1999, she started working full-time.

In 2000 she earned her OB certification to care for moms in labor and newborns, but she still deals with other patients.

“I’ve worked everywhere. OB nurses work everywhere here,” she noted.

Rob started to work at Schweitzer Engineering Labs in 2000. He is now on his way to being a manufacturing engineer. Prior to that he had worked in LaCrosse as an ag teacher for three years.

Cristi and Rob have two daughters, Cassidi, 10, and Cora, 7.

“We love to be outdoors,” Cristi remarked. “Basically anything outdoors makes up happy.” That includes boating on the river, biking, camping, mushrooming and gardening. Their Diamond home, the former Grange building, has two acres that they keep populated with horses, chickens, dogs and calves for the girls to take to the fair. Cristi noted the former grange hall is still a work in progress and probably always will be.

“We go and see our families a lot,” she said. She is the black sheep of the family for moving so far from home. Her mother has lived on the same road all of her life except for two and a half years. Cristi’s sister still lives in the house where they were raised.

Cristi also likes to sew. She admits she tends to come up with huge projects that take her away from other things like housework and dinner time.

Cristi is the OB coordinator which means she has to manage the rest of the department, making sure they have all the supplies they need, running meetings and overseeing the other OB nurses. She is on clinical leadership teams. She is also the clinical AT nurse so she helps with electronic medical records for all patients. She also teaches childbirth and breast feeding classes.

“Almost every month I have to renew a certification,” she said. But, if getting more certifications means getting to take care of more people, she is more than willing to do it.

For her senior project at nursing school, Cristi was given the task of coming up with a plan that would benefit her and the patient. Her plan was to be a nurse that follows the patients before, during and after labor. She was told then that she was crazy. Her plan turned out to not be that far off from what she is now accomplishing. Cristi is there teaching expecting mothers about childbirth and care; she is there for the labor and she is there afterward checking car seats, helping with breast feeding and fielding questions and concerns from new parents.

Recipes:

Cora’s Favorite Impossible Flan Cake

4 eggs

1 can sweet condensed milk

1 can evaporated milk

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

4 oz. cream cheese

chocolate sauce

For the chocolate cake part:

1 cup devil’s food cake mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

Blend together eggs, milk, vanilla and cream cheese until well mixed.

In a separate bowl prepare devil’s food cake mix by mixing all the ingredients together until you obtain a smooth batter.

Pour about 2 to 3 Tbsp. of chocolate in the bottom of a baking pan. (You can use some non-stick spray in the pan also.)

Pour the flan mix over the chocolate sauce.

Pour the chocolate mix slowly and evenly over the flan mix. It will go straight to the bottom, but it will raise while baking.

Place the pan into a larger pan with about 1/2 cup of water in it to bake in (Bain Marie or double boiler)

Cover with foil and bake for about 1 hour. The chocolate cake will move to the top and you can check readiness with a knife or toothpick.

Remove from oven and let it cool.

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before inverting the cake over a cake dish. The chocolate sauce will flow over the cake.

Corn Bread Casserole

1 (15 1/4 oz.) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14 3/4 oz.) can cream-style corn

1 (8 oz.) pkg. corn muffin mix (recommend Jiffy)

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill (or freeze dried)

Preheat over to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, cheese and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. Sprinkle Dill on top. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

Twice Baked Stuffed Potatoes

5 lg. Idaho baking potatoes, about 1 lb. each

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground white pepper

1 cup crumbled bacon

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (8 oz.)

1 cup sour cream

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature

2 Tbsp. snipped chives

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Rub the potatoes with olive oil and season with 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/8 tsp. pepper. Put the potatoes on the baking sheet and bake until fork tender, 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let the potatoes sit until cool enough to handle.

Cook the bacon in a medium skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until crisp and the fat is rendered 5 to 6 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Peel 1 potato completely, discarding the skin. Place the pulp in a large bowl. Cut the top quarter from each of the remaining 4 potaoes and, using a spoon, scoop the pulp from the potatoes into the bowl, leaving a 1/4 inch layer of pulp on the skin. Return the potato shells to the baking sheet.

Using a handheld masher, mash the potato pulp until smooth. Add 1 cup of the cheese, the sour cream, bacon, chives and remaining 1 1/4 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. pepper and mash until smooth. Spoon the potato mixture back into the potato shells, top with the remaining cheese and bake until hot and the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Lemon Angel Pie

4 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind

1/4 tsp. salt

2 cup, whipping cream.

Beat 4 egg whites, gradually add 1 cup sugar and cream of tartar. Beat until stiff, but not dry, Spread on bottom and sides of buttered 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Take 4 egg yolks and beat slightly. Stir in 1/2 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp. lemon juice and 1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind, 1/4 tsp. salt. Cook until thickened in microwave for 4 minutes (stir every 30 seconds) Cool completely.

Whip 2 cups whipping cream and fold 1/2 of whipped cream into lemon mixture. Pour into cooled meringue shell. Top with the remaining whipped cream. Chill for 24 hours.

Chicken Tacos

4 Chicken Breasts

1 jar of your favorite, salsa

1 package taco seasoning

Taco sheIIs (I prefer soft)

Usual taco toppingss (tomatoes, cheese, lettuce)

Place chicken breasts, salsa and Taco seasoning in your crock pot. Turn to low and leave. on all day. Shred chicken and mix well with cooked salsa/seasonging. Fill your tacos to your liking.

I love to use the leftovers of this recipe to make chicken taco soup. I add 3-4 cups of chicken broth (depending on the amount of leftover chicken you have and how far you want/need to stretch the meal.) Add 1 can of corn, 1 can of drained and rinsed beans (your favorite, I usually use white beans). Bring to a boil, then serve with corn chips and top with cheese. (You can adjust this recipe, any way you want).