Soup, Soup and More Soup

So, once you get home, you are forced to drink soup. The homemade kind. Which means you either prepared some earlier in anticipation, or you stood in the kitchen, feeling sorry for yourself, hurting, hungry, and alone, wishing you were back in hospital being looked after.

I was lucky and had a great friend who picked me up from hospital and took me home, saw me comfortably in bed and rushed off to make some pumpkin soup. What a gem! Later that day she dropped in said soup, with a good luck wish and vanished again.

So, at least you get a couple of days grace before standing at the food processor...But you need rest, lots of it. Because you are not eating you are very weak. If you are lucky you have a Jr Her to help out, put the washing on, hang it out, berrate you for bending over...

Your first shower in your own shower is, well, fun. The sight of the black spots on the sticking plaster makes you queasy, and you have to wash your feet. Forget it, you aint bending down that far! Gingerly you touch the sore bits, wincing at the pain (or perhaps the thought of it). Nothing too bad. But man, you are tired! Back to bed you stagger. Not even a good show on telly. Bugger!

However, as it is still quite cool you are so cosy under the blanket, and the cat comes in to keep you warm so its not a total loss. What do you have for a snack? Cold soup because you drink it sooo slllooowwwwwllllly.

Luckily I had a birthday a few days after my hospital stay, and top of the list was a cup to keep my soup warm. I got one - a 1 litre thermous! Excellent!!! It sat proudly beside my bed all week.

Now its time to make your own soup. You have to make it yourself because it has more nutrients. Plus the fizzy vitamin you have to endure every day (those things ought to be banned as a health hazzard). So you are standing in the kitchen, pot at the ready, chopping pumpkin, peeling chicken, and cutting carrots. It all sounds sooo good, your mouth waters.

Once its cooked, you put it through the food processor till it is liquid, then through the strainer. Oh joy, what a mess! But it still smells so good. Doesn't it? Well, it does smell a bit funny. But it will tast great. And you are so hungry that anything will taste good.

About a week later, and so much soup you are orange, you stand dispondantly at the freezer, wondering which variety of soup you will warm up for lunch, and suddenly you realise, you really hate soup. You don't care if you never see a tub of soup again! Time to introduce thicker fluids. Go for the custard! Bring it on!!!