January 2015

January 2015 Patient Feature of the Month: Meet Stacy Strackovska, patient since November, 2013   This month's patient is a product manager by day and baker by night. Stacy manages premier technical support in vehicle entertainment for General Motors and affiliates when she leaves for work Monday-Friday. But then on the weekend and some nights after work, she grabs her apron and starts baking heart healthy, low sugar sweets. Her weekend job is her passion and is the focus of our feature this month as we celebrate adopting healthy habits for the New Year! AO - What prompted you to start baking low-sugar, healthy sweets? Stacy - I have a sweet tooth myself but I understand the dangers associated with granulated sugar and know that it is in everything we eat. So, I started baking for myself and my husband. Gluten-free and low-sugar work for us. AO - Tell me more about the sugar you bake with and are your sweets really still sweet? Stacy - Yes, very much. I use turbinado, which is unprocessed natural sugar. You can find it in most natural food stores. It is more in the European style of baked goods, not so sugary but still satisfies the sweet tooth craving! And much healthier. AO - Is your goal to have your own bakery in the bricks and mortar sense? Stacy - Yes, that would be great. Hoping that I will achieve this dream in 2015. It is challenging balancing both worlds of working F/T during the week and baking for friends with special requests in the evenings or on the weekends. I will start with a website and see how it goes from there. AO - Has this passion and art opened any other doors for you? Stacy - Absolutely. I had the privilege of joining the floral design team at the Gaylord at National Harbor for the Audi A3 launch last year and that was such a blast! AO - So, your "artsy" side extends beyond baking. What else makes you smile? And you have a beautiful smile, by the way. Stacy - Thank you. And thank you, Dr. Kortam! I have a dog, Miss Lola. She is a seven year old Maltese and is pretty special. She has quite the personality, is very animated. AO - I bet she loves mom's side job too!  We are excited to feature one of Stacy's healthy recipes this month. We wish her the very best in getting that website launched and trading in her corporate responsibilities for a "sweet" dream job! More News! Ashburn Orthodontics - Starts the new year off with support of health & wellness clinic  We were proud supporters of the Ashburn Village Sports Pavilion's H.E.L.P. (Health Exercise Lifestyle Prevention) Wellness Expo event on Saturday, January 10th. This annual event features health and wellness vendors with free health screenings and loads of fun activities for Ashburn area families. As part of our partnership, we were invited to present on how to achieve and maintain beautiful smiles in the new year. Additionally, we handed out lots of free material and educated many families on the importance of proper dental hygiene. This event is just the beginning of many upcoming community events this year so keep an eye out for us. January / February Contest Details - Share your 2015 resolutions with us! Be prepared! You will be asked to share your resolutions with us on your next office visit. Of course, your participation is always voluntary but we sure hope you'll choose to share. There is no better way to start down the path of your new goal than to announce it to the world! Participation is fun and super easy: You write down what your resolution is - We post to our social media outlets - You tell friends to leave comments - The patient with the most comments on their post wins a $25 Visa gift card. Looking forward to seeing what the New Year holds for everyone! Food Drive for Loudoun Interfaith Relief - Together we made a difference!  We were proud to support the wonderful efforts of LIR this holiday season. As affluent a community as Loudoun County is, there are still deep pockets of poverty right here is our own backyard. You helped us reduce the stress of providing food for families in need this past month. While we did not meet our goal, we did donate over 50 lbs of food. Our practice also made a cash contribution to LIR. Thank you to all our fabulous patients who helped out on this effort and Congrats to Annette Toth for being our lucky winner from the drawing! February is dental health awareness month and we want to spread the word to schools about the importance of good dental hygiene for children and teens. If you would like us to inquire into your school about presenting an educational series for this annual national campaign, please contact Juliana at jderosa@ashburnbraces.com.    Recipe of the Month - Chocolate Walnut Cupcakes, perfect for Valentine's Day! Stacy, pictured here with her Cherry Bomb cupcake Ingredients 6 large eggs, separated (bring to room temp.) ¼ cup plus 3 tablespoons Turbinado granulated sugar 1 ¾ cups finely ground toasted walnuts (toast walnuts in oven and allow to cool prior to grinding) 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, kosher if preferred 1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest ¼ teaspoon kosher salt Confectioners' sugar, for dusting Baking Steps 1.        Preheat oven to 300F.  Line muffin tins with paper liners.  With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk egg yolks and ¼ cup Turbinado granulated sugar until pale and thick.  In another bowl, toss together ground walnuts, chocolate, orange zest and salt.  Sprinkle over yolk mixture; do not mix in.         2.       Place egg white in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, and whisk until whites are warm to the touch. Remove from heat.  With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until soft peaks form.  Add remaining 3 tablespoons Turbinado granulated sugar, and whisk until stiff and glossy (but not dry) peaks form.  Fold one third of egg-white mixture into egg-yolk mixture to lighten.  Gently fold in remaining egg whites.  3.       Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full.  Bake for roughly 30 minutes, rotating tins half way thru baking process.  Cupcakes should be spring to the touch when done.  Transfer to wire rake to cool for 10 minutes and then remove from muffin tin.  Allow cupcakes to complete cool prior to dusting with confectioners' sugar.  For a fun touch use cookie cutters in a shape of a heart to decorate cupcake. Dear Patients, We are so excited to be able to keep you updated on all our patient and community happenings with our new and improved monthly newsletter! Is there an event in your neighborhood, school, workplace, church, where we might be a good fit? Any opportunities for community sponsorships? Please let us know.  In addition, any news in your family you'd like to share? We're happy to include here. Look forward to your feedback! Sincerely, The Ashburn Orthodontics Team