spinach soup

the soup-lady is back... had some fresh spinach left over from the weekend and i figured that spinach soup could be done one handed. here's what went in:

250 gr fresh spinach, wilted
2 tbsp butter / margarin/ oil
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1 onion, finely chopped
10cm leek (optional), chopped
2 dl cream (i used 2% cooking cream)
100 gr cream cheese
6 to 7 dl boiling water
white pepper, grated nutmed (and salt) to taste
4 boiled eggs (optional)
serves 4







this much spinach took a boiling-hot 2 minute bath...







...and only this much came out, left it in the colander to drain







leek is really optional. i used it only because i had a long one that almost didn't fit into the fridge. so i cut some off and instead of throwing it away, decided to make use of it by addind it to the soup







hint, if you're chopping an onion with just one hand, use a big cutting board. the animal hoover at the shack doesn't seem to eat raw onion (almost anything else food-related goes) so i had to pick up the fallen pieces myself







on medium heat, heat up the fat, add leek and onion, sautee for a couple of minutes, until the onion is translucent







add the flour and sautee for 3 more minutes







pour in 4 dl of boiling water while mixing well (let me tell you, this wasn't easy). once you get kinda smooth mixture, add the cream, cream cheese and spinach and your immersion blender...







and keep blending until the soup is smooth. but, do NOT pull up the blender while it's still on! unless, of course, you enjoy cleaning your kitchen walls off green goo







i had some for lunch with a boiled egg







ps. wellcome, johanna!

snow's a powerful thing

yesterday was a dark and grey day, despite the forecast which said it'd be sunny. well, it's a wonderful, bright, sunny morning today, and i gotta go and run some errands... and not enjoy it sitting outside and maybe getting some more freckles on my nose.

anyways, despite the gloomy weather yesterday i ventured out for a walk with certain someone and the dog. i did wear those studded thingies on my shoes to be able to walk on the icy road.

about one km down the road from the shack we saw this. unfortunately, the roof falling in because of all the snow on it, wasn't a surprise to us, nor to several others in the neighbourhood. the owner was told this would happen, obviously it's his property and he does (or rather doesn't!) anything he wants with it







this is how it looked only a month ago (pic from my feb 19th entry)







just before my surgery i went and bought a new lens (50mm 1:1.4) for my bigger camera (nikon D80). i'm anxious to get rid of this big cast and try the lens out and about, for now i've just been shooting the dog with auto focus. the dog seems to have outgrown his fear of cameras and nowadays let's me get pretty close with one...

if there is a will, there is a way

the beginning of last week was hard, i thought i'd never get rid of that sick & woosy feeling. friday was a lot better, so good in fact that i felt brave enough to try driving. fortunately i have automatic transmission, which in these parts of the world is an oddity rather than the rule. i felt a lot better after being out and about.

however, this monstreous cast makes dressing and choice of clothing a bit challenging. a nurse put this bright warning sign -red bandage over the cast at the hospital. i've since found out that nowadays there are other cool colors of bandages available. might have to change the "wrapping" one of these days







saturday morning i felt courageous enough to try making pancakes... nothing to it, except i'll admit it takes a bit longer and puts a strain on my patience. these were sinfully good with butter and maple syrup







certain someone mentioned earlier in the week that we should make pizza...







...you got it, lahey's no-knead pizza dough. certain someone's input was to mix the ingredients, though i'm sure there is a way to secure the bowl so that mixing could be done with one hand







see, a mandolin can be used with one hand







meat section of the toppings, chicken, pepperoni and prosciutto







the dough makes two pies. we made two different kinds, now officially known as "brooklyn" and "tello's"







brooklyn: mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, red onion, green olives, pepperoni, prosciutto







tello's: mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, red onion, green olives, chicken, pepperoni







this time i used half bread flour, half whole wheat flour, the crust was perfect! this pizza is dangerously easy to make, now that i've got the hang of it







had some of this with pizza...







...but this tasted a lot better!







now, if i could only find a will to get outside and move my ever widening butt... for the last week my excuse was the fact that the roads over at the shack are icy and slippery and that i won't risk falling down and perhaps breaking another limb.

oh, almost forgot to tell, the weekend at the hospital was the worst. they have 3 operating theatres over there and at one point on saturday there were 34 persons waiting to be operated... one guy in my room (yes, there was one man among five women!) who had something broken in his elbow waited for surgery from friday evening until at least sunday afternoon when i left the place. poor man, he was in pain...

i cooked today!

well, if boiling some pasta is cooking, then i cooked. i had warmed all the microwave portions (yes, i've stooped to that low) i got last week and really needed to fix something to eat. as there always is some whole wheat pasta in the pantry, i boiled some of that







dug out some (almost forgotten) sweet frisee







some cucumber, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes in oil, which i almost couldn't use because i almost couldn't open the jar. have you ever noticed that opening a jar with just one hand is very, very hard? not impossible, but hard. you need two leather gloves, but you're not wearing either of them...







and did you know that mozzarella cuts up nice with kitchen scissors? the cucumber wasn't that easy, with just one hand the precision of the size of cubes vary greatly







mixed the pasta, mozzarella, cucumber and tomatoes with some of the oil first, then placed some on a bed of frisee. and once i had finished eating, i noticed the fresh basil that would have been great in the salad... oh well, some other time, some other salad

i survived

what was supposed to be a in and out visit to the hospital on friday ended up in me staying there for two nights. i guess some of the anesthetics i was given before/during surgery made me rather sick (i'll spare you the details), and i was out of this world close to 30 hrs.

i was told the surgery went very well, the surgeon fixed a ruptured something besides the obvious problem of osteoarthritis (or something to that effect). again, i'll spare you the details.

the cast they put on my arm isn't small, or lightweight. don't you just love the hospital green?







i'll be getting rid of the huge cast in 3 weeks, but will get a smaller one for few more weeks. typing with just one hand isn't going too fast right now, but i think i'll be posting more regularly in a couple of days. it's not like i have anything else to do with my time!