Monday, April 28, 2014
My Life as a Public Safety Dispatcher & Sour Cream Coffee Cake
I am a Dispatcher by day and a food blogger by night. Yes, I am that voice on the other end of your 9-1-1 calls, the voice you hear on police/fire radio scanners and the voice that is often forgotten as soon as the crises has ended. I have been in this profession for nearly 19 years. What started as a way to work my way through college became a career, a profession, a passion and my life. I have had countless heartbreaks and celebrations throughout this journey-heard voices that haunt me, carry with me scars from the calls I have handled and have memories that play out over and over again in my head. As many of you know I am in the process of completing my first book, about my career and about the impacts it has had on my life, good and bad. However, my copy editor recently asked me,"how have you survived nearly 20 years in this profession? How is it that you are still positive and not cynical and jaded?" And I have thought about this question over and over again for the past few weeks and this is my answer:
- I make a conscious choice to celebrate life because I have heard death. I gave CPR instructions over the phone to a Mother who found her 6 month old dead and death won. I wake up every morning and celebrate the fact that I am alive.
- I make a conscious choice to smile and laugh because I know just how quickly happiness can be taken away. I have heard the screams of my officers fighting for their lives or the sound of a gun shot on the other end of the phone as a life is taken.
- I make a conscious choice to stay positive because when you witness so much death and destruction you never want to let "them" win. The negativity of this profession can suck the life out of you, but only if you let it happen.
- I make a conscious choice to find balance because I have sacrificed everything for this career-family, friends, marriages and I have learned from those mistakes. I tell those who mean the world to me I love them, I make time for the people who are important to me and I take care of myself because I can't save lives unless I am healthy.
- I make a conscious choice to find the beauty in little things because as a Dispatcher my imagination is worse than reality and I have images ingrained in my head that I can't escape. I do not know if it is truth or fiction because I don't get the closure or the visual images that come with responding to the calls. All I can tell you is that when I awake from nightmares in the middle of the night they are my reality. And to make them stay away I look for beauty in every aspect of life.
One of my guilty pleasures involves baking on a Sunday afternoon. So yesterday I decided to make Sour Cream Coffee Cake. Let me start by saying I like the combination of the ground oatmeal, the whole wheat flour and the all purpose flour as it gives the cake a nutty flavor. I also love brown sugar so pretty much anything with brown sugar in it makes me happy. And the sour cream, although I couldn't really taste it, does add some moisture to the cake, otherwise I think it might be a little too dense.
To begin with toast the oatmeal.
Take the majority of the oatmeal and grind it in a food processor until it is kind of the consistency of steel cut oats. I was actually pretty surprised that this technique worked, primarily because I just thought the oatmeal would whirl around in the food processor and do nothing, but it did get ground up.
Combine the ground oatmeal with the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. On a side note I love using coarse salt when I bake, especially for recipes like this one, as it gives a slightly salted caramel flavor to baked goods. Yum!
Next in a mixer, combine the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla.
In the mixer, alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the sour cream, ending with the dry ingredients (I am not sure why, but I just blindly followed the recipe on that one)....and it worked.
Add the mixture to a greased spring form pan.
In a small bowl, combine the leftover oatmeal, brown sugar, walnuts and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender cut in the chilled butter until blended. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the coffee cake.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for...well...the recipe says 38 minutes (random number I know)...but I did closer to 30 minutes. And it turned out looking pretty darn good!! Woot woot!!
Here is the actual recipe:
Ingredients
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (about 2.5 ounces), divided
Cooking spray
4.5 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
1 ounce whole-wheat flour (about 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar, divided
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (8-ounce) carton light sour cream (such as Daisy)
2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts, toasted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon chilled butter, cut into small pieces
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Spread oats in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 350° for 6 minutes or until oats are barely fragrant and light brown.
3. Coat a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray; set aside.
4. Reserve 1/4 cup oats; set aside. Place remaining oats in a food processor; process 4 seconds or until finely ground. Weigh or lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine processed oats, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; stir with a whisk.
5. Place granulated sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/3 cup butter in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at medium speed for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture. (Batter will be slightly lumpy because of oats.) Spoon batter into prepared pan; spread evenly.
6. Combine remaining 1/4 cup oats, remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar, nuts, and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter with a pastry blender or 2 knives until well blended. Sprinkle top of batter evenly with nut mixture. Bake at 350° for 38 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, top is golden, and cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes; remove from pan.
Happy Monday and it is official I am counting down the days until I leave for Italy...yes, I said Italy...eat your heart out...pun intended.
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Thanks for sharing. I can't wait to read your book. And the coffee cake sounds scrumptious. Can't wait to try the recipe!
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