Hospital Food

[Maison Rustique]

@Nancy in Pátzcuaro, glad you are recovering and hope the ablation does the trick for you. My sis had one this week, too. I'm not sure she even had food while she was there. She had some complications and was in ICU for a couple of days.

[Nancy in Pátzcuaro]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I am grateful that my procedure went smoothly and that I was able to leave the hospital on schedule. Now it remains to me to do the work of rehab, including doing something for my back so that I can resume my normal life. If that's the only thing I have to do to fully recover, I will feel doubly blessed.

[Katie Meadow]

1 hour ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I am grateful that my procedure went smoothly and that I was able to leave the hospital on schedule. Now it remains to me to do the work of rehab, including doing something for my back so that I can resume my normal life. If that's the only thing I have to do to fully recover, I will feel doubly blessed.

May recovery be smooth. So far, 2024 has not been a walk in the park.

[Kim Shook]

23 hours ago, Nancy in Pátzcuaro said:

Just returned from a cardiac ablation in Guadalajara at a quite nice hospital. Nursing and support staff were excellent--the food less so. The best was the dinner on the night I was admitted before I had to fast for the surgery. 3 nice meatballs with lots of vegetables in a tasty broth. In Mexico they're called "albondigas," and they're my husband's favorite meal. Some sort of unidentifiable juice, the requisite jello, some fresh fruit and a cookie. The rest of the meals went downhill, and pretty rapidly, after that. The low point was 2 halved zucchinis filled with unseasoned ground meat and then topped with melted cheese. I took a couple of bites and couldn't eat the rest. Red rice (which I dislike) and jello (of course) and chopped apple, with horchata to drink. Not sure why white rice is so often served since it tends to stop you up. And the bed killed my back. I'm still recovering from that horrid mattress.

 

And then there was the interminable delay to check out. Our insurance evidently went through the bill with tweezers to pluck out the most minor expense. I was really glad to get home, though it was a 4-hour drive.

Glad you're home!  Take care!

 

[Smithy]

On 5/10/2024 at 3:36 PM, Smithy said:

This bread roll looks innocuous, doesn't it?

 

 

Thing is, I rescued it from one of my husband's uneaten hospital meals.

 

In February.

 

I had planned to use it for bread crumbs, or to make croutons, or some such, but events got in my way. Then I got curious about its apparent longevity. It still looks pristine, some 10 weeks later. I think I'm going to leave it in its wrapper and see how long it takes for something to sprout. Maybe, like the infamous wrapped Twinkie in the office of some food writer (Michael Pollan??), it will last for years. Don't think I'm going to feed it to anyone I love!

 

It's now June, with no visible change in the roll.

 

 

Could it be bagged in, say, a nitrogen atmosphere? Or is it really so heavily laden with preservatives?

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

18 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

It's now June, with no visible change in the roll.

 

 

Could it be bagged in, say, a nitrogen atmosphere? Or is it really so heavily laden with preservatives?

 

It's really heavily laden with preservatives.

Whatever the atmosphere it was bagged in, since that type of wrapping would allow gas exchange, would have been replaced by the ambient atmosphere long ago.

Scary.

 

[Maison Rustique]

Are you sure it isn't Soylent Green?

[Smithy]

On 5/10/2024 at 3:36 PM, Smithy said:

This bread roll looks innocuous, doesn't it?

 

 

Thing is, I rescued it from one of my husband's uneaten hospital meals.

 

In February.

 

I had planned to use it for bread crumbs, or to make croutons, or some such, but events got in my way. Then I got curious about its apparent longevity. It still looks pristine, some 10 weeks later. I think I'm going to leave it in its wrapper and see how long it takes for something to sprout. Maybe, like the infamous wrapped Twinkie in the office of some food writer (Michael Pollan??), it will last for years. Don't think I'm going to feed it to anyone I love!

 

On 6/10/2024 at 4:02 PM, Smithy said:

 

It's now June, with no visible change in the roll.

 

 

Could it be bagged in, say, a nitrogen atmosphere? Or is it really so heavily laden with preservatives?

 

...and here it is, apparently unchanged, in July. 

 

 

When/if I get around to opening that bag, I think I'll do it outside just in case there's some sort of noxious spore growing. But I can't see any changes in it. I'm really curious about how long it will hold like that.

[rotuts]

@Smithy

 

interesting experiment

 

keep it as long as possible

[ElsieD]

21 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

 

...and here it is, apparently unchanged, in July. 

 

 

When/if I get around to opening that bag, I think I'll do it outside just in case there's some sort of noxious spore growing. But I can't see any changes in it. I'm really curious about how long it will hold like that.

What's it like if you squish it?

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

What's it like if you squish it?

 

It has a little bit of give and springs back, as an old dinner roll would be expected to do. It doesn't feel spongy-nice like a fresh, soft roll, but it also doesn't crumble or cave in when I squeeze gently.

[MaryIsobel]

Had the occaision to spend a couple of days in hospital. I was in the ER for the duration of my stay as they tried to figure out what the heck was wrong with me. I was fed in a timely manner though. I only have one photo and that was dinner on my first night there. Fortunately my daughters were there and brought me a fig jam, brie and apple pannini from the cafeteria. Lunches and breakfasts were great. Breakfast was yogurt and fresh fruit and granola with a muffin (and that strange liquid that they pass off as tea.) Lunch was a homemade tasting soup, a warm whole wheat roll, a salad (with radiccio!) with balsamic dressing and canned diced pears. Lucky for me there is a Starbucks in the lobby so whenever a visitor asked if they could bring me anything, I always got a London Fog.

[Smithy]

On 7/10/2024 at 5:04 PM, Smithy said:

 

 

...and here it is, apparently unchanged, in July. 

 

 

When/if I get around to opening that bag, I think I'll do it outside just in case there's some sort of noxious spore growing. But I can't see any changes in it. I'm really curious about how long it will hold like that.

 

The "bread roll" you see in the photo above is still in its wrapping, in our bread box, apparently unchanged since I brought it home in February. Maybe it's a little harder to the touch.

 

@MaryIsobel, I hope they didn't serve you anything like that! It sounds as though Starbucks and visitors kept you well fed.

[rotuts]

from todays Wall Street Journal :

 

[Smithy]

On 5/10/2024 at 3:36 PM, Smithy said:

This bread roll looks innocuous, doesn't it?

 

 

Thing is, I rescued it from one of my husband's uneaten hospital meals.

 

In February.

 

I had planned to use it for bread crumbs, or to make croutons, or some such, but events got in my way. Then I got curious about its apparent longevity. It still looks pristine, some 10 weeks later. I think I'm going to leave it in its wrapper and see how long it takes for something to sprout. Maybe, like the infamous wrapped Twinkie in the office of some food writer (Michael Pollan??), it will last for years. Don't think I'm going to feed it to anyone I love!

 

It's been a while since I posted about this roll, but all this time the roll has been sitting unmolested (and frequently forgotten) in my bread box. Today I remembered to check it, for the first time since at least Thanksgiving. Sometime in the interim it's gone hard. Looks the same, but I'm pretty sure a good squeeze will turn it to powder.

 

 

If I remember, I'm going to pitch it out into the woods on the stroke of midnight tomorrow. Out with the old, in with the new!

[Maison Rustique]

Or use it for skeet shooting!