Personal Train Wrecks

 Okay, so this isn’t really a train wreck — it’s an unusual barbecue pit, but this past week, while posting about my family I’ve experienced some train wrecks along the way.  A few spectacular falls, switching from my ATT cell phone to a pay-by-the minute phone that no one seems to know the number, even though I emailed it to the family, my computer refusing to accept WordPress (that will change tomorrow) and assorted other things I will tell you about.

I really don’t know where to start.  I guess first is that I have lived in this building for 11 years now, and have never turned the heat on.  I usually get the heat from all of the people below me who turn their thermostats up to 5000 degrees, and of course, heat rises, so that means I have to turn on my fan, open the windows (which requires liberally spraying them with WD40) and wearing summer clothing all winter.  This year, however, I don’t think anyone has turned their heat on, because I’m freezing.  I may have to break my 11 year tradition by turning the heat on.  You know, that actually hurts my feelings.  How can all those people do that to me?

And of course, the weather doesn’t help a bit.  Cloudy, windy, rainy.  It’s getting in my bones.  I think it’s in bones I didn’t know existed until this year.  And I’m pretty sure I have more joints than ever before too, because they are all achy breaky heart like.

So, one of the ways I’ve tried to combat the weather is by making soup.  Lots of soup.  First was some pumpkin carrot soup.  Gina was supposed to email a recipe for it, but she didn’t send it in time, so I sorta made up my own.  I wish I had remembered to take some photos of my pumpkin cutting routine, but I had pumpkin guts all over myself, and didn’t want to take time out to clean my hands for the camera.  Anyway, I found the pumpkins kinda hard to cut in to.  So, with my knife stuck in the first one, and me unable to pull it out or get it thru, I pulled out my trusty rubber mallet and hammered away at the knife.  Success!  I got the seeds out, then opened the second pumpkin the same way.  Stuck them both on parchment paper lined cookie sheet and roasted them in the oven.  Let ’em cool enough to work with and scooped out the flesh and stuck it in the crock pot with the carrots, some stock, milk, spices, put the top on and let it cook on low all night.  Pulled some out of the pot in the morning, after mashing the carrots up a bit, and it was really delicious.  Had a couple of meals of it, then froze the rest, so I could make more soup.

 Guess you can figure out my next soup project.  Potato, sausage and kale.  That was probably the biggest spud I’ve ever seen.  The blue thingy is my ceramic chef’s knife stuck in the potato.  I was afraid of trying the mallet on that, because I didn’t want to break it.  So, I just had to see-saw the knife until it went thru the spud.  It only took a couple of these to fill up the crock pot, along with the sausage, onions, stock and whatever else I put in it.  I waited until morning to add the kale, because I just wanted it wilted.  I’m still eating this.  I did freeze some of it, but I have one serving left for tonight.

Of course none of this happened without some wounding along the way.  I sorta chopped my finger while I was chopping the onion.  It didn’t start bleeding right away, and I just sat there staring at it for a couple of minutes, just not believing it happened.  So I had to stop and do some first aid halfway thru the soup making process, then put on a rubber glove.  Recovered completely now.  Can’t even remember which finger it was.

A.

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