I just love the name of this website, Womenwhothink.com.
And there is a better chance I am going to making a breakfast than dinner over the next three days of this holiday weekend with the kids out of town.
So here goes.
Baked Apple Pancake Breakfast Recipe
Ingredients:
3 large apples, peeled and sliced thinly
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar (can use more)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (can use more)
PANCAKE MIXTURE
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2-3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350’F.
2. Grease a 9×13 baking pan.
3. Melt butter in baking pan in oven.
4. Place the apple slices evenly over bottom of pan.
5. Bake for about 10 min, or until apples soft.
6. Remove apples from oven, and dust with brown sugar and cinnamon.
7. In a blender, combine pancake ingredients, and spread over apples.
8. Return to oven, and bake about 30-40 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with sugar topping, serve immediately.
As Isaac bears down, a news report on MyHealthNewsDaily by editor Karen Rowan asks the question of whether hurricanes can bring on labor? Talk about a great answer to the question, of “What’d you do for Labor Day?
Exactly what triggers the start of labor remains a mystery, but folklore holds that the weather may influence a baby’s arrival. With Hurricane Isaac making landfall, and two other storms brewing in the eastern Atlantic, some may be wondering if the Southeast is due for an increase in births.
Several studies have suggested that drops in barometric pressure can trigger either the onset of labor, or the rupture of the fluid-filled amniotic sac membrane, which is the technical term for a woman’s water breaking or starting to leak.
“There’s definitely a belief out there,” said Dr. Jonathan Schaffir, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State University College of Medicine. “It’s certainly not cut-and-dried, but there is some scientific evidence that changes in pressure can contribute to membrane rupture,” he said.
Of the studies that have looked at whether the weather might trigger pregnant women’s water to break, two have suggested that it can, while two others have found no association, Schaffir said.
How could the weather trigger labor?
“The idea behind this belief is that the amniotic sac is like a balloon, and if you lower the external pressure on it, there is an increased risk it can ‘pop,'” Schaffir said.
However, in his own experience as a practicing obstetrician for 18 years, Schaffir said he has seen no link between weather events and women going into labor. “In reality, the amniotic sac is protected. It’s kind of hard to imagine that a small drop in barometric pressure would cause a change in the amniotic sac,” he said.
Dr. Salih Yasin, a practicing obstetrician for 25 years in Miami, also said he has not seen any increase in women going into labor during hurricanes.
As for the studies that have suggested a link, their usefulness in practice is doubtful, said Yasin, who is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The ranges of the barometric pressure changes in the studies were not very large, he noted.
In one study, researchers considered 162 women who, over the course of a year, went into labor at a Houston hospital around times of significant air pressure drops. Using air pressure data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the researchers found that more women started labor after a drop in barometric pressure than prior to a drop, according to the study, published in 1997 in the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery. For example, for one drop in pressure, three women went into labor prior to it, but 11 began labor after it.
When looking at the 12 pressure drops that occurred that year, they found 66 women began labor prior to pressure drops, whereas 96 women began labor after the drops.
However, another study’s results cast doubt on the link. In that 1996 study of about 2,400 pregnant women published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the researchers found no link between days with the lowest pressure and the number of women who began labor.
But when the pressure drops were broken down into three-hour time periods, there was a link: fewer women went into labor during the hour after a period of falling air pressure.
“We were surprised to find a significant decrease in the onset of labor,” after the pressure drops, the researchers wrote.
Hurricane Andrew and labor
Yasin and a colleague looked at deliveries around Aug. 24, 1992, when the lowest barometric pressures drops during Hurricane Andrew were noted, at the University of Miami Jackson Memorial Hospital, which had the most deliveries in Miami-Dade County before, during and after Hurricane Andrew hit, Yasin said.
The researchers looked births and complications of pregnancy, and related them to NOAA data on barometric pressures, taking into account women’s ZIP codes, to determine where they lived in relation to the Andrew’s path. No association between air pressure and labor onset was found, Yasin said.
The most important things pregnant women can do during extreme weather events are to maintain their safety, eat and stay hydrated, he said.
Pass it on: Weather conditions such as hurricanes are unlikely to make pregnant women go into labor.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. FollowMyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.
From a site I love: KitchenParade.com.
QUICK SUPPER:
CHICKEN BURGERS with
FRESH SPINACH, FETA and
GARDEN TZATZIKI SAUCE
Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves 5
- 6 ounces fresh spinach, stems removed if tough
- 1/2 cup feta cheese
- 2 tablespoons panko or dry bread crumbs
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pound ground chicken
- Buns
- Garden Tzatziki Sauce (see recipe, left)
- Sliced cucumbers, optional
- Sliced tomatoes, optional
- Lettuce leaves, optional
SPINACH Rinse the spinach leaves in a microwave-safe colander, then place in the mike and cook on high until tender, 30 seconds at a time, for a total of about 90 seconds. Let cool a bit, then roughly chop. (If you like, use a small food processor, then make the Garden Tzatziki Sauce.)
BURGERS Combine spinach, feta, panko, onion powder, salt and pepper and mix well. Gently stir in the chicken, combining without compressing the mixture. Form into five four-ounce burgers, about a half inch thick.
GRILL Heat a grill pan on medium high, spray with cooking spray. Drop in the burgers and let cook, without moving, for about 5 minutes, then turn over and cook the other side for another 5 minutes. To make sure the chicken is cooked clear through, insert a probe thermometer into the center of one burger, the temperature should reach 165F.
ASSEMBLE Place a burger onto the bottom bun, top with Garden Tzatziki Sauce, then sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and finally, cap off the burger.
LEFTOVERS The burgers reheat well and are good cold too.



Okay, I have to start out by saying the cutest thing about Ann Romney is the way she giggles. I don’t think it was nerves. I think it was her very genuine “aw shucks” demeanor. I loved when she said that contrary to media reports, she does not have a “storybook marriage.” That what she has is a real marriage that has survived real life challenges like M.S. and breast cancer. I also liked when she said voters might not agree with Mitt Romney’s positions but they’d have to agree this is a guy who refuses to fail. And probably the best line of the whole speech was when she said if the last four years had been more of a success, no one would be slamming Romney for how successful he’s been. Why deride a guy for turning a state, a company and the Olympics around? When did being good at something, or in this case, being good at many things, become a bad thing? Bottom line on the Ann Romney speech is it was pure Storybook. She is confident, genuine, cute and convincing.