Soup Season

It's a good thing that it's a time of year for comfort food like soup, because I am still hurting two weeks after surgery.

I had  my stitches out on the 5th, and Dr. G told me it might be 2 or 3 more weeks until I feel 100%. Not that I ever feel 100% but it will be nice to be able to stand, sit and walk for any length of time without my knee hurting.

I can get library books via my new phone, so I downloaded Ree Drummond's book about dinners. I made this amazing potato soup:

I did a little at a time over the course of two or three days, and I took a short cut by buying ready-cleaned carrots, onions and celery. A little more pricey but so worth it to reduce my time standing in the kitchen. My Chop Wizard toy finished the job of dealing with vegetables.

The recipe was probably meant for a big family (there are 6 people in Ree's) and I ended up with enough for a week's worth of lunches. I gave some to Katherine, who loved it.

I also made an oven-barbecued chicken recipe. I had the idea to start the chicken off on the real barbecue, like I do when I make fall-off-the-bone ribs. I had bone-in chicken thighs, something Nicky picked up for me by accident. (He was supposed to get boneless breasts). But hey, for $1.69 a pound it wasn't a loss.

So I put the chicken on the barbecue and check it once to turn it. I go back in the house and I swear, minutes later, the barbecue is on fire! Flames shooting up in the air! Baking soda took care of that, but left a hell of a mess. The chicken was black, black, black. I almost threw it out and then realized it was only the outside, and I could easily remove the skin. So I did this and dumped on the sauce (via Ree's recipe, which I tweaked anyway). I cooked it the next night and OMG it was goooood. Mike even came back for a second serving, and he doesn't generally like bone-in meats.

Anyway, I will definitely be making this again, but I'll keep a closer watch on the grill. I probably shouldn't try to multi-task when I'm hurting.

Today, we are going to Michael's for the first dinner at his house. I hope to write about it soon.