I made these cookies with Lucky Charms left over after Christmas. Our son-in-law, Austin, loves them and we bought them for him for a Christmas treat. I think they are disgusting.  I can’t even imagine putting them in a bowl, pouring milk over them and eating them. But they were fun in the cookies.

Here is a nice round ball scooped out with a cookie scoop and a tasty red “marshmallow” showing.

Here one is flattened. The recipe calls for using a fork but I just flattened them with my fingers.

Here is a cooked one showing all of the wonderful, artificial colors that make Lucky Charms so magically delicious!

Recipe By:

Mercury News

Yield:

24

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cup oats

1 ½ cups dry cereal such as cornflakes, Product 19 or Special K

 Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in egg and vanilla.

4. Add flour mixture. Stir until combined.

5. Add oats and dry cereal to the dough. Mix well.

6. Drop by two tablespoonfuls onto parchment-covered cookie sheet, pressing down with a fork.

7. Bake 9 to 12 minutes until just browning around the edges.

8. Cool on a cookie rack.

 Notes:

Submitted to Mercury News by Carolyn Gutierrez. I am sure she would not approve of using Lucky Charms!

Pseudocyesis is the medical term for a mental disorder that causes a woman to believe she is pregnant when she is not. I am not sure how common this is but I have seen it several times in my practice.

I have cared for several women who were so disabled by Pseudocyesis that they are in the hospital all the time. They are well known to staff in both the Emergency Department as well as Labor and Delivery where they go insisting they are in labor.

Here are a couple of specific cases I have recorded:

Pseudocyesis Case 1

A 27-year-old woman presented at triage saying that her water broke, she was in labor and was about to deliver. She was rushed right up to Labor and Delivery where an examination, pregnancy test and ultrasound proved she was not pregnant. She then admitted she had been seen at another hospital earlier that same day where they told her she was not pregnant. The Labor and Delivery staff sent her back down to the emergency department to evaluate her abdominal pain.

My examination and laboratory tests failed to uncover a reason for her abdominal pain. This didn’t bother her because she didn’t care at all about her abdominal pain. She continued to insist, in the face of all the evidence, that she was pregnant and in labor.

I did my best to convince her, which was not possible. I then tried to reassure her, which was also impossible. I finally resorted to the speech I use in the rare situation where someone cannot be convinced after all I can do. I said something like, “I know you are not pregnant and there is nothing you can do to convince me that you are. You know you are pregnant and there is no way I can convince you that you are not. We are just going to have to agree to disagree.”

After giving my speech, as sympathetically as possible, I turned to walk out of the examination room. She then started to scream, saying the baby’s head was pushing out.

Though frustrated, I stopped, went back in with the nurse and examined her down there again. When I found nothing, she finally left, continuing to complain of feeling the baby coming out and saying that we had done nothing to help her.

Pseudocyesis Case 2

A 51-year-old woman came in by ambulance complaining that her water broke. She claimed to be one month pregnant, which was making her nauseous. She admitted to having had a negative pregnancy test at her doctor’s office earlier that day.

She insisted to me that she was pregnant and demanded to know how far along she was. She said she had seen the fetus and the umbilical cord “with my eyes closed.”

I told her it would be very unlikely for her to be pregnant being 51 years old and having a negative pregnancy test. Upon hearing that, she got irate and started to swear and yell at me, refusing to let me examine her. As she walked out she threatened that if she lost the baby because I didn’t provide her with needed care, she was going to sue me.

Source:

Capitol Cookies, Munch Your Way Across the USA. From Lambuth Memorial Methodist Jewel Circle, Midwest City, Oklahoma

Ingredients:

4 cups flour, 18 ounces

5 cups oatmeal, blended into fine flour after measuring

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups butter at room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 cups brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

18 ounces milk chocolate, grated

24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

3 cups pecans, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine flour, oats, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside

Cream butter and sugars. Stir in eggs and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture.

Stir in chocolates and nuts.

Form into balls with 2 tablespoon cookie scooper.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes.

 Notes:

The cookbook has this note: As its name suggests, $250.00 Cookies are very, very rich. About 15 years ago, Kathy Blalock said her boss brought a tin of very expensive cookies back to the office from a business trip. Later, one of her co-workers found the recipe and they jokingly started calling them “the $250.oo cookies” every time a batch was made and brought to the office. The name stuck and so did everyone’s taste for these exquisite cookies.

Over the holidays, Elizabeth wanted to make  a yellow and blue bag for a Swedish friend.* She had never sewn before and was a bit apprehensive but did a great job.

Here she is, starting out putting the first row on the bottom.

Here, I give her a pointer.

Here she is with the final bag.

The final bag looked so great, she may not be able to part with it!

* The Swedish flag

A 35-year-old man came in saying his shoulder became dislocated when he passed out from his sugar going too low. Besides diabetes, he had Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which causes very loose joints, among other things. He said he had suffered from dislocations like this many times in the past and told us exactly the dose of narcotics it would take to relieve his pain in order to get his shoulder back into joint.

We gave him the amount of pain medicine he asked for but were then not able to get the joint back in place, even after multiple tries by me and by the orthopedist I called to help me when I had been unsuccessful.

We gave him more and more medicine until he finally fell sound asleep at which time, the shoulder slid right into place. It was noted while he was unconscious that his shoulder was so loose, it could just slide in and out of place with minimal pressure. We put it in place and applied a shoulder immobilizer.

When he woke and called for more pain medicine, the shoulder was out again and it became clear he could move it in and out of socket at will. He had been holding his joint out of socket and feigning his pain in order to get narcotics.

We had everyone home for the holidays. While the kids were here, we had bag sewing lessons. Austin wanted one for his iPad and came up with his own design.

Here is Austin sewing his bag.

Here he is with the final creation.

Here is the competed bag.

Here it is open, showing the iPad.

Philip and Elizabeth also made bags which I will share in the next weeks.

I have never been to Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City but I have made many cookies from their recipes and really like them. They are creative in using different ingredients. Here is a variation on another one of theirs I made over the holidays. Don’t be intimidated by having to make up the cornflake crunch ahead of time. It is not that big a deal and makes the cookies really fun.

You will see this recipe has you form 1/3 cup balls, flatten them then put them in the refrigerator for an hour before baking at 375 degrees for 18 minutes! I have cooked them this way and that is way too high a temperature or too long a time for my oven, even when made in such large balls and refrigerated ahead of time. I have tried various approaches to cooking them and fall back to my usual method. I use a 2 tablespoon cookie dough scooper and bake them on convection at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. I cook two sheets at a time, one in the top, the other in the bottom of the oven. I rotate each sheet 180 degrees and switch oven positions after 5 minutes. They flatten more and cook faster if not refrigerated beforehand. Try them both ways and see which way you like them best.

Source:

I first got this recipe from the Mercury News. It is available online and in a cook book: “Momofuku Milk Bar”

Yield:

Makes 48 cookies when you use the 2 tablespoon scooper like I do.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼  teaspoon baking soda

1 ¼  teaspoons kosher salt

3 cups cornflake crunch (See recipe below. I use one whole batch per batch of cookies.)

1 cup mini-chocolate chips

40 Werther’s Original candies

1 ½  cups mini-marshmallows

Directions:

1. Combine butter and sugars in an electric mixer. Cream together on medium-high for 2-3 minutes. Scrape down sides and mix again. Add egg and vanilla. Beat for 7-8 minutes more.

2. While butter mixture is beating, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Scrape down sides and mix again.

4. Still on low, mix in the cornflake crunch and mini-chips, just until incorporated, no more than 30-45 seconds.

5. Unwrap the candies and transfer them to a zip-top plastic bag. With the end of a rolling pin, break the candy up into medium to small pieces — but no smaller than a Nerd. Do not make candy powder.* Mix the candy and marshmallows into the dough, just until incorporated.

6. Using an ice cream scoop or a 1/3 cup measure, portion out the dough onto a parchment-lined sheet pan. Pat the tops of the cookie domes flat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour to 1 week. Do not bake your cookies at room temperature as they will not hold their shape.

7. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange dough at least 4 inches apart on parchment-lined sheet pans. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will puff, crackle and spread. They should be browned on the edges and just beginning to brown toward the center.

7. Cool completely on pans before transferring to an airtight container for storage.

 Note:

*I put them in a quart-sized Ziploc bag, press the air out and put them on a metal anvil I have in the garage. I then hit each starlight mint one time with a hammer and they shatter very nicely.

The original recipe has 40 starlight mints in place of the Werther’s. The peppermints are very interesting, especially for the holidays but I am not really nuts about peppermint.

Sorry this is too late for you to use to add holiday cheer to your lives but don’t wait until next year to give them a try.

Cornflake Crunch

Yield:

About 4 cups

Ingredients:

5 cups cornflakes

½ cup instant milk powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

9 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Pour the cornflakes into a large bowl and crush them with your hands to a quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, sugar and salt and toss to mix. Add butter and toss to coat. The butter will act as glue, binding dry ingredients to cereal and creating clusters.

2. Spread the clusters on a parchment-lined sheet pan and bake for 20 minutes, or until they look toasted, smell buttery and crunch gently when cooled slightly. Cool the cornflake crunch completely before using. The crunch will keep fresh for 1 week at room temperature, or a month in the fridge or freezer.

Becca is one of this blog’s biggest fans. On December 20, 2012, she hosted a badtadmd.com party at her house. She invited several other blog followers who were required to bring cookies made from one of my recipes. I gave her a couple of bags to raffle off. I even showed up with my family for a brief visit and to draw the names of the lucky bag winners. It was a lot of fun.

Here are the party animals who came for the fun.

Veronica won a bag.

So did Lindsay

The cookies were beautiful!

Becca gets a hug. Philip looking on.

Recipe By:

Mercury News

 Serving Size:

60

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup canola oil

2 cups  flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon soda

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups chocolate chips

1 cup oats

1 cup carrots, grated

1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat together eggs, sugar, milk and oil.

3. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, soda, nutmeg.

4. Combine flour mixture and egg mixture.

5. Mix well.

6. Stir in chips, oats, carrots and raisins.

7. Use two tablespoon cookie scoop to form into balls on baking sheets covered with parchment.

8. Bake about 14 minutes.

Notes:

The carrots, raisins and oats give them a lot of texture. The are cake-like.

Early in the morning, a couple brought in their three-week-old baby girl. She was not breathing or moving. We started CPR, placed IVs and put a tube into her windpipe to breath for her. This is a big challenge in such a little person but all went smoothly. We then gave her medicines to get her heart beating again. It seemed like she was stabilizing when she just crumped and died, in spite of all we could do to save her.

Having little kids die is always hard. The pediatric intern was in tears and everyone was upset. The family seemed in shock. I did the best I could to help everyone deal with their emotions but I only had so much time as I had to turn back to my busy emergency department and get on to the needs of the other patients. The family was given as much privacy and peace as was possible to allow them to begin to grieve.

When someone dies, the charge nurse calls and talks to the coroner who decides what to do with the body. The body is released when there are no worries about why the patient died, no need for an autopsy and the patient’s doctor will sign the death certificate. Alternatively, the coroner can take custody of the body until the cause of death has been determined, usually through an autopsy.

In this case, the coroner decided the baby probably died of naturally causes and the body could be released. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone telling him I wasn’t comfortable with that decision. I told him we didn’t know why the kid died and they should do an autopsy. I specifically mentioned we had no way of knowing the kid had not been abused.

He wouldn’t change his mind and released the body. The parents refused permission for an autopsy. I was frustrated but felt I had done all I could do.

A few days later in the paper, there appeared an article stating that they arrested the baby’s father for killing her. I guess the radiologists noticed old rib fractures on the chest x-ray. That led to an autopsy that showed a skull fracture as well. There was no evidence of trauma on the outside of the body that would have given us a clue. That is not unusual for babies with trauma.

This case shows many of the challenges we face as emergency physicians. The medical part of the case was challenging. It is hard to provide critical care to such a little person. If the medical care is difficult, the social elements were even more so. Many of these challenges are out of my control, which leads to frustrations. In this case, had there been no visible rib fractures on the x-ray, no justice would have been done. This realization is very painful to me and makes the emotional part of my job even more challenging.