By Janelle Leatherwood, RDN

Get ready to ring in the New Year with standout recipes that pack goodness into every bite?

Armenian food is known for tantalizing flavors, and these five recipes will not disappoint. Best of all, these crowd pleasers include options for everyone at your gathering, whether meat-loving or plant-focused.

Five Hors d’oeuvres sure to be the talk of the party

1- Yalanchi Sarma

Makes 60 sarma

• 1 large jar, Grape Leaves (16 oz.)
• 3 cups chopped onion
• 1 ½ cup, Calrose rice
• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¾ cup pine nuts
• 1 small can of tomato sauce (8 oz.)
• 1 ½ cup minced, fresh parsley
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• Juice from 2 lemons (about 6 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• A few fresh mint leaves to add to the water when baking.
• 1 ¼ cups hot water
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Directions

1. Rinse the rice under cold water in a strainer. Set aside.
2. Dice onions finely by hand or in a food processor. Sauté onions in oil, until translucent.
3. Add salt and rice. Cover with hot water and simmer for 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and add a can of tomato sauce, minced parsley, pine nuts, paprika, pepper, sugar, dry mint and lemon juice.
4. Assemble sarma. Flatten a single grape leaf on a plate or cutting board. Snip the stem off the grape leaf. Be sure the thicker veins are on the outside. Put a heaping tablespoon of sarma filling in the middle. Bring the bottom of the leaf up over the filling. Tuck in the sides and roll to the top.
5. Line an oven-safe pot with a layer of grape leaves. Stack the rolled sarma into the pan. Add a layer of grape leaves over the top and add 1 cup of water and a few fresh mint leaves to the pan. Cover the top with a stoneware plate for added support and then add the lid on top.
6. Bake at 350° F for 75 minutes.
7. Refrigerate sarma and serve cold.

2- Lula Kebabs

Serves 6

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 1 lb ground beef
• ½ cup chopped parsley
• ¼ cup chopped mint
• ½ yellow onion, minced
• ½ tablespoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons lemon
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin oil
• 2 teaspoons allspice
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

Directions

Mix together both kinds of ground meat, onion, and seasonings. Shape the meat into long patties and skewer, if preferred, before barbecuing. Grill until cooked thoroughly, but be careful not to let it get dried out.

3- Armenian cheese borek

Makes 20 borek

• 1 pound of phyllo dough
• 1 pound of jack cheese, shredded or chopped in a food processor
• ¾ bunch of parsley
• ½ of a large yellow onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoons melted salted butter (slightly cooled)
• 1 egg
• 1 ½-2 cubes of melted salted butter for brushing between layers of phyllo dough

Directions

• Finely dice the onion and parsley leaves. Shred or mince cheese in a food processor.
• Whisk an egg with 1 1/2 teaspoons of just-melted butter (slightly cooled so you don’t curdle the egg).
• Stir all ingredients together (onion, parsley, jack cheese, butter and egg).
• Unroll a defrosted package of phyllo dough. Cut the entire stack of phyllo dough sheets in half, length-wise, to make strips about 3-4″ wide.
• Cover one stack with plastic wrap and a wet towel to keep it moist.
• Butter one strip of phyllo dough with a pastry brush. Add another strip of phyllo dough to the top, and brush that layer with butter. Add a third strip of phyllo dough to the top, and brush the final layer with butter. You should have three sheets of phyllo dough, buttered in between.
• Add 2 tablespoons of filling to the bottom corner of your phyllo dough. Take the bottom corner of all sheets and make a diagonal fold to the other side. Continue folding using a flag roll method.
• Brush the tops and bottoms of all the boreks with butter before baking and place on a cookie sheet. (You won’t need to grease the cookie sheet.)
• Bake in the middle rack at 375° Fahrenheit for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned on both sides. Serve immediately.

4- Pomegranate and Pine Nut Lahmajoun

Adapted from a recipe by Kamal Al-Faqih

Makes 48 small lahmajoun

• ½ batch of Heavenly Armenian Pita Bread dough
• (You can substitute with 4-4.5 lbs of store-bought bread dough)
• 1 lb ground meat beef, lamb or turkey
• 2 finely diced onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• ⅛ Teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 ½ teaspoons allspice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup labni cheese or strained Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon dry mint
• ½ teaspoon sumac (optional)
• 1 cup pomegranate seeds
• ½ cup pine nuts toasted in butter

Directions

• Chop onions by hand or in a food processor. Strain excess water.
• Combine raw ground meat, onions, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, labni, tahini, and spices in a bowl. Stir thoroughly. Add pomegranate seeds and stir until combined.
• Roll dough to ⅛ inch thick and cut 3″ circles with a glass or cookie cutter.
• Brush a little olive oil over the dough. Then top each piece of dough with a teaspoon of the meat mixture and spread thinly over the whole top.
• Place about a dozen lahmajoun on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 6-7 minutes on a lower rack and 6-7 minutes on an upper rack. Check to make sure meat is browned, but be careful not to overcook the dough.
• Drizzle baked lahmajoun with pine nuts toasted in melted butter.

5- Muhummara

Serves 16

The first three ingredients are for the pomegranate molasses. You will use ½ cup of the molasses for this recipe:

• 1 quart pomegranate juice
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 3 red bell peppers
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• ¼ lb. saltine crackers, usually one sleeve of crackers.
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• Salt to taste

Directions

• First, make the pomegranate molasses. Over medium heat, bring 1 quart of pomegranate juice to a slow boil. Add ¼ cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Then stir until the sugar dissolves. Continue to simmer on low until the mixture turns into a syrup consistency (approximately 60-90 minutes).
• Mince red bell peppers. If using a food processor, you will want to strain them afterwards. (To strain: Place paper towels in a fine sieve and scoop minced bell peppers on top of the paper towels so any residual water can drain. You will be surprised at how much water will drain.)
• Coarsely chop walnuts by hand or in a food processor.
• Coarsely crush crackers by placing them in a zip-lock bag and using a rolling pin to crush them. Or place them in a food processor.
• Place all minced ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add olive oil, the additional ¼ cup of lemon juice, and ½ cup of pomegranate molasses. Add cumin, a dash of cayenne and salt to taste.

Disclaimer
The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

English

En 2022, el esposo de Lisa Barron, Jeff, empezó a tener síntomas urinarios que los doctores atribuyeron a una infección urinaria (IU). Puesto que Jeff perdió amigos y familiares debido a cáncer de próstata, presionó para una prueba de antígeno prostático específico (APE). Los resultados indicaron una alta posibilidad de cáncer de próstata, lo que marcó el inicio de un proceso tortuoso para los Barron.

“Hubieron meses sin fin en los que no pudimos dormir esperando por los resultados de las pruebas y temíamos en silencio pensando en ‘qué pasaría si hay resultados positivos'”, dijo Lisa. Se descubrió después que el cáncer era agresivo y que se había propagado a los ganglios linfáticos de Jeff.

Actualmente, el cáncer de Jeff es prácticamente indetectable. Sin embargo, el proceso no termina todavía. “Sabemos que la palabra ‘indetectable’ no significa que el cáncer no reaparecerá”, dijo Lisa. “Cada consulta de seguimiento viene acompañada de esperanza y temor”.

Incluso si no tienes una próstata, probablemente conoces o quieres a alguien que sí. Aquí encontrarás lo que debes saber sobre el cáncer de próstata.

Este recurso educativo se preparó con el apoyo de Bayer y Merck.

During perimenopause and menopause, hot flashes can happen anytime day or night. Heat rises up through your body. Your face, neck and chest might become red, and you may start sweating. And it’s more than just a pain in the neck – hot flashes, especially when they’re severe, can be really disruptive. In fact, about 3 in 10 women with hot flashes have them so badly they need treatment.

Hot flashes — one of the two vasomotor symptoms (VMS) of menopause — happen when a hormone in your body called estrogen begins to drop. Estrogen affects the part of your brain that controls body temperature. Up to 8 out of 10 pre- and postmenopausal women experience hot flashes, and they can last between seven and 10 years — and Black and Hispanic women often experience hot flashes for even longer.

The most effective treatment for hot flashes is hormone therapy (HT). But not all women can take hormonal medication for a variety of reasons. “This includes women who’ve had estrogen-sensitive breast or uterine cancer, heart attack, stroke, blood clots or pulmonary embolisms,” said JoAnn Pinkerton, M.D., medical director of Midlife Health Center and member of HealthyWomen’s Women’s Health Advisory Council. Other women may choose not to take HT for personal reasons.

Now, these women have a new option. In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new hormone-free drug called elinzanetant to help treat moderate-to-severe hot flashes. It joins fezolinetant, which was approved for the same indication in 2023. With more nonhormonal treatments available than ever before, it can be hard to know which one is right for you.

Here’s what you need to know about hot flash treatments.

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

Lung cancer has been the leading cause of cancer death in the United States for many years. And it accounts for about 1 in 5 of all cancer deaths throughout the country. In fact, more Americans die from lung cancer than from breast, prostate and colon cancer combined.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that about 125,000 Americans will die from lung cancer this year — and about 60,000 of those will be women.

Smoking is still the leading cause of lung cancer, with the ACS estimating that tobacco use causes about 8 out of 10 lung cancer cases.

But there’s some good news, too. New cases of lung cancer have decreased by an average of 2.4% each year according to the latest statistics. And death rates have fallen an average of 4.2% per year over the last decade.

Anti-smoking efforts have helped many Americans quit smoking or, better yet, never start. And lung cancer treatments have become much more effective over time.

One more factor helps account for these improvements: lung cancer screening for people at high risk. Researchers estimate that lung cancer screening could reduce the lung cancer death rate by up to 20%.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about lung cancer screening.

This educational resource was created with support from Merck.

As told to Erica Rimlinger

November is National Caregivers Month.

My son Jack, a second grader at the time, stayed home sick from school on Friday, but woke up Saturday feeling better and ready to play in his two basketball games — one was the championship. It was going to be a big weekend, for more reasons than we knew as we piled Jack’s gear into the car that morning. Shortly after Jack assisted in his team’s championship win, he was admitted to the hospital on his way to getting a life-altering diagnosis.

Jack is an active, healthy kid who loves sports and plays baseball, basketball and football. He’s always been prone to stomach issues, but it never concerned his pediatrician, so it didn’t concern us. An upset stomach wasn’t an unusual symptom when Jack was sick. But that Friday he also said his hips were hurting. It wasn’t quite a red flag, but it was a little unusual.

After the championship game, Jack, my mom and I drove from our home in Erie, Pennsylvania, to Pittsburgh to see my niece’s dance recital. Jack was tired, which made sense: he’d played intense sports shortly after recovering from a stomach bug.

Courtney’s sons, Jack and Benny, 2025

At the recital the next day, he turned to me and said he felt very dizzy. The red flag appeared to me. He then told me it had been hurting him to urinate for a couple of days. More red flags popped up. We had to leave.

We stood up, shuffled quickly out of the recital, and drove home to Erie and directly to urgent care, where Jack’s urine sample showed signs of blood. We were sent to the emergency room, and learned Jack was in kidney failure and his creatinine, a kidney enzyme, was more than five times the normal level. He was rushed to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. There, Jack passed 15 kidney stones over a two-day period.

Why was this happening? The doctors first looked for answers in Jack’s diet. They asked me what Jack was eating and drinking. I was stunned when they asked if it was possible that he had drunk antifreeze.

But as Jack’s painful kidney stones passed — and he was so brave passing them — his high creatinine levels dropped immediately, and Jack felt better as well. But when his levels stabilized still above the normal range, the doctors now believed his kidneys were being affected by a chronic illness, a disease he’d had for a while.

We settled into hospital life as Jack was monitored, had more tests and awaited a diagnosis. I was a full-time professor of math education at Penn State’s Erie campus and taught my classes from Jack’s hospital room. My mind flashed back to all the warning signs that didn’t register as red flags. Jack was prone to stomach bugs, but we compared that to the way some kids had frequent ear infections. Jack was always thirsty and couldn’t seem to get or stay hydrated, but we thought that was because of his active lifestyle and sports schedule.

2024 (Photo/Kibbe Photography)

When we first came to the hospital, one doctor had listed primary hyperoxaluria (PH) as a possible cause for Jack’s illness, but said it was unlikely. It’s rare because it’s genetic and both parents must carry the gene for the disease to appear. Although PH causes symptoms in the kidneys, it’s a liver problem where the substance that breaks down waste products (like oxalate) is either too low or missing entirely. This causes a cascade of problems that lead to kidney stones, chronic kidney disease and kidney failure. Untreated, it can impact other organ systems as well.

Because the doctor thought this rare disease was a possibility, Jack was diagnosed within two weeks. Most people with PH take years to get diagnosed, so we were lucky in the sense that we knew quickly what we were facing.

We were also lucky that a new treatment had been developed that year. Before this treatment, doctors would just hydrate a person and wait for a kidney transplant, liver transplant or both.

I’d never heard of PH, and once the diagnosis was confirmed I switched gears from just surviving to intense researching. I spent every spare moment learning about the disease. The goal of treatment is to stop oxalate from building up in Jack’s kidneys and blood vessels. Jack gets an injection every three months, and we have to monitor his hydration carefully, but Jack has always been great about drinking water.

Jack is incredibly fortunate his kidneys are stabilizing on the medication. The injections don’t reverse his kidney disease, but they prevent more damage from happening.

We hope Jack won’t need a liver or kidney transplant and that his creatinine levels, while still high, can be maintained. Jack’s medication is so new that his case is being studied. There are still a lot of unknowns, but we try to remain optimistic and proactive while also staying grounded and informed. We learned from a genetic test that both my husband and I are carriers of PH, and that our younger son is a carrier. Only Jack has the illness.

We see doctors that specialize in kidney and urinary tract health and travel from Erie to Pittsburgh or Akron to see them. Despite the disruption, Jack lives a mostly regular life as a sixth grader. He still plays baseball, football and basketball and loves all his sports.

While Jack’s day-to-day life is as normal as possible, I can feel anxiety grow when we approach a date for a bunch of important lab tests or a nephrology visit. I find myself bracing for the fear that comes with seeing his test results come back as abnormal, which is a jarring feeling when you’re watching your healthy-looking kid run around on a football field.

Sometimes the coordination of Jack’s care feels overwhelming. Between the medical teams across hospitals in different states, the insurance, the specialty pharmacy and at-home nurse that gives Jack his injections, it can be exhausting. But family, friends and support networks help.

2024

We found a support network through the Oxalosis and Hyperoxaluria Foundation (OHF) and it’s made a huge difference. I never realized that when you’re dealing with an ultra-rare disease — one many doctors haven’t even heard of — you have to become your own mini-expert and advocate with medical teams, schools and sports teams.

Events offered by the OHF are the only place where Jack has been in the same room with other people who have the same disease. It’s the only place where people understand how hard it is to explain and coordinate care for this unfamiliar condition.

We don’t have it all figured out, but we’ve learned to give ourselves the grace of recognizing that. So many good people have come into our lives because of this, and Jack is happy and healthy today. For me, that adds up to a good foundation for optimism and hope.

Have your own Real Women, Real Stories you want to share? Let us know.

Our Real Women, Real Stories are the authentic experiences of real-life women. The views, opinions and experiences shared in these stories are not endorsed by HealthyWomen and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of HealthyWomen.

Your body is full of information that can give you a clearer picture of what’s going on inside it. Sometimes you just need the right book of translations to understand what it’s trying to tell you. For cancer, biomarkers (short for biological markers) can be that translator.

Biomarkers are useful tools to help you and your medical team understand your diagnosis, gene makeup and treatment options. Read on to learn what biomarkers are and how they can be helpful if you’ve been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, also commonly called colon cancer.

This educational resource was created with support from Merck.

English

Noviembre es el Mes Nacional de los Cuidadores Familiares

Conocí a mi esposo cuando me estaba inscribiendo en clases de periodismo en la Universidad de Misuri hace 50 años. Dean estaba atrás de mí en la fila y me preguntó si quería salir con él a tomar una cerveza. Me reí y dije no.

Cuando llegué a la mesa de inscripciones, la clase que necesitaba tomar estaba llena. Dean dijo que podía presentarme al instructor. Resulta que Dean había cenado con él la noche anterior y el instructor había escrito un libro de periodismo suburbano con la colaboración del padre de Dean, un editor de una cadena de periódicos semanales de Ohio.

El instructor abrió una vacante más para mí en la clase y terminé aceptando la invitación para tomar una cerveza.

Después de casarnos, Dean y yo nos dimos cuenta que sería difícil que ambos siguiéramos trabajando como periodistas. Él decidió trabajar en ventas, mientras que yo traté de conseguir trabajos de edición. Nos mudamos siete veces por mi trabajo, lo cual requirió que él encuentre un trabajo nuevo cada vez. Eso nunca fue un problema para él.

Él apoyó mi carrera incondicionalmente, editó mis hojas de vida, proporcionó apoyo técnico y usó un traje de etiqueta para venir como mi pareja a los eventos que me invitaban por ser editora de publicaciones. Él me cuidó.

Después de jubilarnos, le diagnosticaron cáncer prostático metastásico de etapa 4. Eso nos conmocionó. Siempre asumí que yo recibiría la primera prognosis mortal debido a los dos diagnósticos de cáncer de mama de mi madre antes de cumplir 50 años y su muerte por linfoma.

Dean no tenía antecedentes familiares de cáncer de próstata. Ninguno de sus padres, que vivieron hasta los 89 y 94 años, murió de cáncer.

Era mi turno de cuidar de él. Me convertí en su nutricionista, entrenadora personal, animadora y terapeuta sexual.

Durante los dos primeros años, le recetaron un plan terapéutico de radiación y una terapia de privación androgénica (TPA), que era una castración química. Estos fármacos eliminan el interés en el sexo así como la capacidad de tener una erección. Para mi esposo, eso era lo más cruel.

Le dolió perder su libido. A pesar de que él ya no tenía deseos sexuales, se rehusó a pensar en la posibilidad de que yo ya no tenga sexo. Lidiamos con eso usando un calendario en el que dibujaba corazones en los días que tendríamos intimidad. De esa forma él podría dar seguimiento sin dejar que las semanas pasen. Para declarar su intención, me compró un camisón de seda negro semanas después de su diagnóstico.

Hubieron otros efectos colaterales. Durante esta época, tenía dificultad para concentrarse, bochornos, pérdida de su tono muscular, insomnio y aumentó de peso.

Cambié nuestra dieta para seguir las pautas nutricionales de pacientes con cáncer, que se basaban en verduras y proteínas, y agregué pilates, yoga, pesas y natación a su rutina regular de pickleball.

Para contrarrestar la fatiga mental, escribo una lista de quehaceres todos los días y establecí un sistema de verificación que usamos antes de que salga de la casa. ¿Tiene su teléfono, llaves, sombrero, botella de agua y billetera?

Ahora que estamos en el año cuatro, Dean tiene un cáncer de próstata resistente a la castración, lo que significa que los fármacos básicos ya no funcionan. Ha tenido dos rondas de radioterapia dirigidas, pero más puntos cancerosos siguen apareciendo. Se está sometiendo a quimioterapia, lo que implica un conjunto nuevo de problemas. Tiene dificultades con mareos, cada vez más fatiga y cambios de apetito.

Dejó de disfrutar el café o su cóctel favorito, un Old Fashioned. Hay que recordarle que tome agua. Se rehúsa a ingerir las verduras que incluyo en su batido matutino.

Programamos sus siestas cotidianas. Me acuesto al lado de él, cara a cara, sosteniendo su mano hasta que duerme profundamente.

2025

Una consecuencia sorprendente del trastorno ha sido como ciertas personas han desaparecido sin dar explicaciones Si bien el cáncer no es contagioso, algunos familiares y viejos amigos ya no están en nuestras vidas.

Afortunadamente, encontramos una comunidad y asesoría en Wellness House, un centro de asistencia relacionada con el cáncer que ofrece cientos de programas gratuitos. Dean asiste a un grupo de asistencia para pacientes con cáncer de próstata, donde encuentra consuelo cuando conversa con sus compañeros. También asiste a un grupo de asistencia para pacientes de cáncer en general y ahí recibe asesoría individual de un psicólogo clínico empático.

Yo frecuento un grupo de asistencia para cuidadores de pacientes con cáncer donde me entero a veces de historias más tristes que la mía.

La comunidad que encontramos nos ha ayudado a lidiar con la angustia antes de las pruebas APE, las imagenologías de TEP de AMEP y mensajes de MyChart. Ahora entendemos que ya no vivimos en función de suposiciones. Estamos planeando lo que sigue.

Colgué dos pizarras blancas en nuestro hogar. Una monitorea lo que debe hacerse: Revisar el testamento, registrar los vehículos para que los dos constemos como los dueños, simplificar las finanzas, anotar las contraseñas y tener una conversación acerca del testamento con nuestros dos hijos adultos.

La otra pizarra tiene el título de “Vivir la mejor versión de nuestras vidas”. Tal vez no nos queden muchos días juntos, pero todavía nos quedan aventuras por vivir.

Hacemos la planificación por trimestres: En octubre viajaremos a Europa para asistir a los tres teatros de ópera más importantes del mundo, caminaremos en las playas de Aruba en diciembre, Dean asistirá a clases de pilotaje de rally en junio, celebraremos el cumpleaños 40 de nuestra hija en Hawái en diciembre de 2026 y nuestro 50º aniversario de bodas en mayo de 2027.

Pero el cáncer no toma vacaciones en nuestras mentes. Despierto con un dolor estomacal de desesperación y duelo anticipado. ¿Como será mi vida sin mi mejor amigo, el hombre que he cuidado y que me ha cuidado durante dos tercios de mi vida?

Nos mantenemos ocupados para tener poco tiempo para ponernos tristes. Incluso cuando estamos procesando el dolor, tomamos la decisión consciente de tratar de tener placer y encontrar alegría. A veces tenemos días en los que no hablamos de cáncer.

Dean es más feliz cuando hace ejercicio con sus amigos con los que juega pickleball, cuando juega póquer virtualmente con su cuñado y cuando pasa tiempo con nuestros nietos. Espera haber creado muchos recuerdos para cuando ya no esté con ellos.

Dean dice que es el hombre desafortunado con más suerte del mundo. Él tiene calma cuando toma sus decisiones. Él ama y le han amado mucho.

Hemos descubierto que incluso cuando no hay esperanza, todavía puede encontrarse alegría. Solo hay que proponerse buscarla.