I want to talk about a phenomenon that all-too-commonly happens to folks with chronic illness, disabilities, mental illnesses, or basically any condition that needs any kind of help to stay alive or suffer less. whether that is medical care, the process of getting access to medical care, accommodations, or anything else.
I am not sure if this has a name, but it is widely known, it happens all the time, and understanding it is in my eyes essential to disability rights.
it is not exclusively a disability rights issue, and chances are this will help you understand other people, or even might help you understand your own self. this is a difficult topic, and I cannot write about every possibility where or how this happens. but I will do my best here.
is there anyone out there with a nyt cooking subscription
will they send me the chamomile tea cake with strawberry icing recipe
This buttery, chamomile tea-scented loaf is a sweet pop symphony, the Abba of cakes. A pot of flowery, just-brewed chamomile isn’t required for drinking with slices of this tender loaf but is strongly recommended. In life and in food, you always need balance: A sip or two of the grassy, herbal tea between bites of this cake counters the sweetness, as do freeze-dried strawberries, which lend tartness and a naturally pink hue to the lemony glaze. This everyday loaf will keep on the counter for 3 to 4 days; be sure the cut side is always well wrapped.
Ingredients Yield: One 9-inch loaf
½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter 2 tablespoons/6 grams chamomile tea (from 4 to 6 tea bags), crushed fine if coarse 1 cup/240 milliliters whole milk Nonstick cooking spray 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar ½ teaspoon coarse kosher salt 2 large eggs 1 large lemon 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour 1 cup/124 grams confectioners’ sugar ½ cup/8 grams freeze-dried strawberries
Preparation
Step 1
In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon chamomile to a large mixing bowl. Pour the hot melted butter over the chamomile and stir. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour. Step 2
Use the same saucepan (without washing it out) to bring the milk to a simmer over medium-high heat, keeping watch so it doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat, and stir the remaining 1 tablespoon chamomile into the hot milk. Set aside to steep and cool completely, about 1 hour. Step 3
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper so the long sides of the pan have a couple of inches of overhang to make lifting the finished cake out easier. Step 4
Add the sugar and salt to the bowl with the butter, and whisk until smooth and thick, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, vigorously whisking to combine after each addition. Zest the lemon into the bowl; add the baking powder and vanilla, and whisk until incorporated. Add the flour and stream in the milk mixture while whisking continuously until no streaks of flour remain. Step 5
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until a skewer or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean (a few crumbs are OK, but you should see no wet batter), 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Step 6
While the cake cools, make the icing: Into a medium bowl, squeeze 2 tablespoons juice from the zested lemon, then add the confectioners’ sugar. Place the dehydrated strawberries in a fine-mesh sieve set over the bowl and, using your fingers, crush the brittle berries and press the red-pink powder through the sieve and into the sugar. (The more you do this, the redder your icing will be.) Whisk until smooth. Step 7
If needed, run a knife along the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Holding the 2 sides of overhanging parchment, lift the cake out and place it on a plate, cake stand or cutting board. Discard the parchment. Pour the icing over the cake, using a spoon to push the icing to the edges of the cake to encourage the icing to drip down the sides dramatically. Cool the cake completely and let the icing set.
most of the notes were just like “this is why we should communicate better and just say it” but i feel like this person elaborates a bit on the deeper root of this problem
Yeah, I remember thinking that everyone around me thought I was faking my illness or didn’t even notice because the only people bold enough to say anything were the people who insisted I was faking. Everyone else stayed quiet. Then, after I notably improved over the course of months, people kept coming up to me to tell me I looked so much better and they were so glad I didn’t look so sickly anymore. Some of them had thought I had cancer(I didn’t). One person complimented my weight gain, then gasped and apologized because they thought they committed a faux pas. I laughed it off, assured them I didn’t have an ED, and acknowledged I had been skeletal and was also glad to gain weight.
They had all pretended nothing was wrong. Didn’t ask after me, didn’t offer help when they saw me struggling, didn’t say anything at all. Most of them had assumed I was dying. The most someone did was insist I keep my winter coat on indoors because I looked cold, and she also insisted wearing my coat inside would be a normal thing to do. The silence, the ignoring me when I even slightly alluded to what was going on, and the people who came up to tell me I was faking all made me think no one knew at all. It made me think I was less ill than I was, and I was just too weak-minded to power through. The reality was that everyone knew all along.
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