On the mend

The top two wisdom teeth came out no problem. A third, bottom, one required more expertise and a whole month to heal. The last and most recent one was brutal. The dentist cut, drilled, pulled and stitched a week ago and I'm still bruised and a little swollen. On the first day I didn't eat anything. After that, I have been on a liquid, geriatric diet that bans spicy and crunchy things.

My care givers gave me canned soup, pudding and Jell-O cups, a trifecta of store-bought things I really don't like. I slurped, sipped and swallowed these packaged meals and snacks for a few days and I was grateful for it because it soothed the harsh hunger that ensued my painful ordeal.

I'm still healing. I'm glad this is the last wisdom tooth of mine that has to be dealt with. Just as a precaution — and because I'm still sore and my jaw is still really stiff, I'm still on this liquid diet, but it doesn't come from a can anymore.

Remember my earlier blog about me hating soup? Boy, am I glad I'm over that stage! In this past week I have tried to make the best of my situation and explore some new menu items and make some new soups.

I made egg drop soup for the first time. It was really easy and very tasty. This is a good soup to have if you're mouth is on the mend. Recipe here. I added a little soy sauce to the recipe and used real chicken broth that was left over from some boiled chicken we had the day before.

Our family butchered a sheep for the first time last week before my ordeal. We had mutton steaks, ribs and fried intestines and with some left over meat my mom made mutton stew. I added pieces of frybread to the juice to make it soggy and soft. My mom also made blue corn mush, which is a fine ground blue corn mix, like cream of wheat, that I like to eat with sugar. Others like to eat it with salt.

I went to Chachi's for the first time in Las Cruces and I ordered albondigas, a Mexican soup with meatballs. It was great. Simple vegetable broth with large chunks of carrots, squash and potato with corn. The meatballs were the diamonds in this dish. They had a spice in it that made it very tasty. The limes and cilantro added a perfect accent, a touch of Mexican flavor to remind you that albondigas is a Mexican dish. Ah, anything served with limes and cilantro gets a gold star in my book.

I made aush, an Afghan soup the other day. It's quite simple to make, actually. It's ground beef spiced with coriander, paprika and tomato paste. It's served over noodles in a chicken broth with beans and I added kale for the vitamins. To finish this dish, you add yogurt and lemon. Dried mint is suggested, but I didn't really like that in there. I followed this recipe.

Just because my mouth is healing, doesn't mean there shouldn't be any flavors and variety to my meals. I got tired of canned, watery chicken noodle soup very quick. I need something from China, the Navajo reservation, Mexico and Afghanistan to satisfy me; and I deserve my satisfaction because I went through that pain and that hideous bout of swelling.

 

Next, I think I'll try to perfect a soup I made a few weeks ago. It had chicken, lentils, kale and noodles. It's spiced with turmeric, onions, bay leaves and some other stuff. It was really good and quick to put together (I also made up a turmeric baked chicken recipe that was genius! I need to perfect that one too). I also want to order the new spicy Ramen at Kim-Chi House. I had it a few weeks ago and it was the best twist on Ramen noodles I have ever had. I want to try the fish soup from La Guadalupana, the new Mexican joint in town and find a good clam chowder somewhere. Any suggestions?

And a bonus: I lost five pounds in one week by eating soup and laying around the house watching movies. If I keep it up I'll shed 20 pounds this month, which I need to do. So I will not complain about being hungry all the time. Soup is very healthy and can be really low fat. I find myself making healthier choices since this all happened. I'm eating things that I know will be good for me and good to help me heal. At Chachi's I was going to order an enchilada plate because enchiladas are soft, but I ordered albondigas instead because it was the special and I had never had it before. I can't wait to slurp down dinner. It's leftover aush tonight!