This week's big event for me has been dental surgery. Some of you may have noticed that I used to brush my teeth with a Sonicare toothbrush. This resulted in the recession of some of my gums. The hygienist has switched me to an Oral B with a very soft brush and a draconian cleaning routine. Unfortunately, it was too late for three teeth and I needed a connective tissue graph (don?t look at this one while you?re eating, it?s gross).
So here I sit, two days later, with a swollen face, a black eye, and stitches all over the inside of my mouth. My current diet is composed primarily of Ensure supplemented by soups, yogurt, and apple sauce. It will continue as such for the next few weeks.
While the procedure and the aftermath have been unpleasant, I can comfort myself in the following facts:
1. The procedure wasn?t as bad as 14 hours of natural labor.
2. The diet in the aftermath isn?t even close to having my jaw wired shut and drinking only Ensure for 6 weeks (this happened to Cathy in college).
These two comforts came from my hygienist and Cathy. Neither mentioned them with direct reference to my predicament. Well, maybe Cathy?s comments on the jaw wired shut were. The hygienist made her comments when she and I were discussing whether or not I should get general anesthesia for the procedure (which I declined in the end). She commented that it would be fine with my mouth being numbed as long as I didn?t freak out when I saw dental instruments. In reference to not liking the loss of control involved with general anesthesia, she mentioned that all three of her kids were natural births. I made the connections between that and this procedure not being as bad as child birth on my own.
It seems that child birth will now be the extreme example used to compare all painful events. It?s kind of like comparing all bad movies to Highlander 2.
Now that I?m now on my all very soft foods diet, I?m going to be making a bunch of soups. I may start posting soup recipes as a result. This may result in a burst of postings over the few weeks or it may result in more radio silence. I?ll let you make your own bets on the outcome.
Last night, we made broccoli, apple, and peanut butter soup (yes, it?s really a recipe). It was different in a good kind of way. Here?s the recipe. It?s slightly modified from Soups for all Seasons by Nava Atlas.
Broccoli, apple, and peanut butter soup
2 tbs butter
2 large onions (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 medium carrots (sliced)
3-4 cups broccoli tops (very finely chopped)
2 medium apples (peeled and diced)
6 cups of vegetable stock
¼ of white wine
1 tsp of garam marsala (it?s a spice)
2/3 cup peanut butter
¼ cup of lemon juice
Melt the butter and sauté the garlic and onions in a soup pot. Cook over medium heat until the onions just start to brown. Add carrots, broccoli, apple stock, wine, lemon, and garam marsala. Bring to boil and allow to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and add peanut butter. Use a hand blender to puree the soup. Fish out any chunks of food that obstinately avoid the mixer and feed them to the baby. If you should be in the unique situation that you are not cooking for someone on a liquid diet, feel free to leave the soup a bit chunky.
The soup is now ready to serve unless you aren?t allowed to eat anything hot. If that is the case, wait until it is lukewarm and then enjoy.
We had a first when we took Dalton to the park yesterday. The ?park? is the playground at the local elementary school. It has the standard jungle gym with attached slides. Dalton loves slides. We generally put him at the top, hold his hands, and he zips on down. Once he?s at the bottom, he turns around and tries to climb back up the slippery slope. Having been at a number of parks with slides of late, I?ve been surprised at how many kids climb up the slide as opposed to climbing the ?stairs? on the other side.
Yesterday, one of the slides was pretty short and Dalton started going down it on his own. I don?t know if I?ve posted this before, but he has a ?no? with a head shake that is in his vocabulary. When Cathy would stand at the middle or the end of the slide, he would say ?no? and shake his head. If she was clear, down he would go on his own. He was also walking around and climbing up the stairs to the top of the slide on his own. It was very cool to watch. We would have gotten pictures, but we?re bad parents and forgot the camera.
I know that you all want to see some pictures of my puffy face and black eye, or better yet, the inside of my mouth. Unfortunately, I don?t have any at the moment so you will have to settle for a cute picture of Dalton signing ?more?.
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