Wow it’s been a while. When I logged in tonight, WordPress was all, “Wait – who is this? Oh, it’s you. I didn’t know you were still in town.” So I said, “Yeah, well you’re the one who wouldn’t let me upload any images. You’re lucky I came back.” Snap!
Seriously, though – it’s been an eventful couple of weeks.
First, as many of you know already, Honey had a bit of an unpleasant surprise the Friday before last. She’d been complaining of a sore jaw for a couple of days – thought she’d clonked it in her sleep. It didn’t get better so we called her dentist, who saw her despite the fact that her office was closed that day. Amazing. And fortunate, because as it turned out she had two raging infections, and we were hustled off to an oral surgeon who took one look at the x-rays and said he’d take care of her right then, despite the fact that his office was crazy that day. They took out a couple of teeth and a real bully of a cyst. Thank you for good medicine and great healthcare providers.
It wasn’t pleasant, to say the least, but it’s over. For about 4 days Honey looked like she played for the Bruins, and then she started to feel like herself again. She was flooded with kindness, though. Phone calls from her family around the world. Movies from our neighbors. One friend called to see if she was ok, since she didn’t go to school that day, and about 20 minutes after we hung up, another friend from her class appeared on our doorstep with 2 pints of Haagen Dazs. In the early evening, our neighbor Michael called to see how she was doing, and when I asked Tom how Michael knew what had happened, he replied, “Oh, Mary told him.” Mary is one of our favorite cashiers at Safeway.
I was reminded of two important truths: we are truly surrounded and buoyed by our community, and we’d better not do anything unseemly, because it will be all over town in a heartbeat.
On to a nicer, tastier surprise. One night as I was trying to figure out a new soup to vary up the soft-food diet, I experimented with a potato soup that ended up tasting great!
I wish I’d written it down straight away – it was so simple I was positive I’d remember. Duh.
But, it went something like this:
Saute a little garlic, half an onion and a chopped up leek in some olive oil until soft. Add 4 good sized potatoes, peeled and cubed. Add a carton (4 cups) of vegetable broth) and a can of small white beans. Cook until everything is soft. Puree it in the blender. Add a dash of pepper. Some of us had bacon (smoked, not crispy, finely chopped) and some of us had toasted pumpkin seeds on top. (I happened to have both.)
Here’s what I’m telling you. It was AWESOME. Maybe we were all just super hungry, but everyone loved this soup. Even Hot Wheels, and he’s not a major soup lover.