Info Freaking

Summer is coming to the Northern Hemisphere. Most of people spend a lot of sunny days outdoors hiking, walking through the forest or sitting in the parks. Most of them don’t know that danger lurks anywhere in the tall grass and shrubs. Although it cannot be seen, it doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous.
One of the biggest threats to our health is tiny, almost invisible parasite called – the tick.

What is tick?

Tick is the common name for the small arachnids in superfamily Ixodoidea. Ticks are ectoparasites (i.e. external parasites), living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and occasionally reptiles and amphibians. Ticks are dangerous because they are vectors of a number of diseases, such as Lyme disease, Q fever or Colorado tick fever.
Ticks’ color is usually black, brown, reddish or tan. While they’re young ticks have six legs, and the mature ticks have eight legs. They vary in size and appearance depending on the species (about 900 known species).
A tick attaches itself to its host by inserting its mouth into the skin, and it’s almost impossible to remove it.
However, there is a way, but you first have to find a tick on your skin.

Symptoms

As said, ticks usually vary in size, from the size of a pinhead to almost the size of a thumbtack. You will usually see them as dark spots on your skin. Perform the check naked, because ticks can be stuck anywhere on your body, from head to toes.
However, some ticks are so small it is hard to see them. So you’ll have to pay attention to other signs, such as symptoms of a skin infection which may include:

• Pain, swelling, redness, or warmth on the skin
• Red streaks leading from the area of bite forming an ‘eye’
• Pus draining from the area of bite (in more serious cases of infection)
• Swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin (in more serious cases of infection)
• Fever or chills (in more serious cases of infection)

If you couldn’t find tick, or bite spot, visit your doctor who can perform tick removal and take care of infection.

How to Remove Tick

In case you find tick on your skin, perform following:

• Use fine-tipped tweezers to remove a tick. If you don’t have tweezers, do not handle the tick with bare hands. Put on gloves or cover your hands with tissue paper, then remove tick with your fingers.
• Grab the tick as close to its mouth as you can. Mouth is the part that is stuck in your skin, while the body of the tick will be above your skin.
• Try not to grab the tick around its bloated belly. If you squeeze it, you could push infected fluid from the tick into your body.
• Gently pull the tick straight out until its mouth lets go of your skin.
• Dispose of the tick immediately by burning it or by squishing it using a tissue and then flushing it down the toilet. If you’re concerned that tick might have been infected, put it in a jar filled with rubbing alcohol or freeze it in a plastic bag and save it for later identification in case you get sick.

After you removed the tick, wash the area of the tick bite with a lot of warm water and soap. Be sure to wash your hands with soap and water as well.

Do Not

• Twist or “unscrew” the tick, because this may separate the tick’s head from its body and cause the mouth parts to remain in the skin
• Squeeze, crush, or puncture the body of the tick because its fluids may be infected, containing bacteria of some of the mentioned diseases
• Use old wives’ recipes such as petroleum jelly, nail polish, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol trying to smother a tick that is stuck to your skin
• Burn the tick while it is stuck to your skin

Both smothering and burning a tick could make it release fluid into your body and increase your chance of infection.

If you have a rash, headache, joint pain, fever, or flu-like symptoms even after you’ve removed tick, this could mean you have an illness related to a tick bite. Any of these symptoms, or symptoms of a skin infection, should be taken seriously and reason to visit your doctor immediately.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, so we’ll show you how to make nice feast for your friends and family, whether you’re Irish or not.

Traditional Irish Lamb Stew

This is main meal on St. Patrick’s Day table. There are a lot of versions of this famous dish, but this one follows the traditional way of preparation with one small delicious trick – instead of oil, we will use bacon.

You’ll need:

680 g of thickly sliced bacon
2,5 kg of boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 2 inch pieces
510 g of diced carrots
3 potatoes
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
3 minced garlic cloves
1 chopped large onion
1/2 cup water
4 to 6 cups of beef or chicken stock
2 teaspoons of white sugar
1 g of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup of white wine

Preparation:

You’ll need about 20 minutes for preparation and 2 hours and 25 minutes for cooking this meal.

1. First, place bacon slices in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high until slices become evenly brown. Drain them, crumble, and set aside.
2. Put a lamb, salt, pepper and flour in a large mixing bowl. Mix until meat is coated evenly. Cook meat in frying pan with bacon fat until it turns brown.
3. After that, place meat into stock pot, leaving 1/4 cup of fat in frying pan. Add the garlic and onion and sauté till onion is golden. Add 1/2 cup of water into frying pan, then add the garlic-onion mixture to the stock pot with bacon, beef stock, and sugar. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
4. Finally, add vegetables (carrots, onions, potatoes, thyme, bay leaves) and wine to pot. Reduce the heat, and simmer covered for 20 minutes until vegetables become tender.
5. Serve piping hot in bowls garnished with fresh parsley.

Irish Soda Bread

With this tasty stew, you’ll need slices of nice homemade bread. While the stew is cooking, we recommend you to make traditional Irish Soda Bread – brown variation.

You’ll need:

4 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of bread flour
1/3 cup of rolled oats
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 1/2 cups of buttermilk

Preparation:

You’ll need 10 minutes for mixing ingredients and about 30-45 minutes to bake the bread.

1. Preheat an oven to 220 degrees C (425 degrees F). Grease two baking sheets.
2. Stir together whole wheat flour, white flour, rolled oats, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently, until soft dough is formed. Knead the mass very lightly. After that, divide dough into 4 pieces and form them into rounded flat loaves. Mark each loaf with an ‘X’ and place on two prepared baking sheets.
3. Bake in oven until bread gets golden brown color, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Finally, we’ll need a drink so we can make a toast to our friends and family, and what’s better way than involving Irish whiskey in it. Also, since it’s St. Patrick Day, the drink should be green. Since Shamrock is symbol of Ireland and St. Patrick, we’ll show you how to make the drink of the same name.
There are three variations of Shamrock coctail and these are all three of them, depending on your own taste.

Shamrock #1

1 oz. Irish Whisky
1/2 oz. Dry Vermout
Dash of Green Chartreuse
Dash of Crème de Menthe

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, stir a bit and strain into a chilled martini glass.

Shamrock #2

1 1/2 oz. Irish Whisky
1 1/2 oz. Green crème de Menthe
2 oz. Cream
Maraschino Cherry

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake well and pour into an old fashioned glass.

Shamrock #3

1 1/2 oz. Irish Whisky
1 1/2 oz. Green crème de menthe
2 oz. Cream
4 oz. Vanilla ice cream

Put all the ingredients into a blender, blend until smooth. Pour into a chilled red wine glass or large goblet.

Finally, you have all set for Lá Fhéile Pádraig. Just don’t forget your green hat.