Kaki, girl, I got wiped out by a cold this past week.

We’re talking fever, body aches, sore throat, stuffy nose, cough, and eventually viral pinkeye (what in the what).  And a lot of sleeping.  And a lot of dragging myself in to work but then cancelling social plans.  Ugh.

Somehow I managed to muster the energy to make two pots of soup to sustain me for the week.  It occurred to me even as I was cooking how weird that was.  “You can stand in the kitchen for an hour to make soup?  You’ve barely been off the couch and/or awake for the past 24 hours!”  Yes, body, I know, it’s weird, but the sick stomach wants what the sick stomach wants.  And the rest of this sick girl does not want to go to the grocery store.

First up was a riff on this ramen recipe, but with chicken and regular spaghetti noodles instead of egg and actual ramen noodles.  Was it amazing?  Not really.  Was it fabulously soothing and tasty in my sickened state?  Yes, yes it was.

When that was gone I did a take on this tomato-basil soup, which is killer as-is, if you have cream cheese on hand.  I did not, so I strained the whey from some yogurt and used that.  Also I added a peeled-and-diced carrot while the onions were sauteing.  Thankfully I had frozen some basil last summer so I threw in two ice-cubes of julienned basil and it worked like a charm.  The one pitfall of this recipe?  Texture; I cannot, just cannot get it as silky-smooth as I’d like with my immersion blender.  I blame the onions.  Still, I cannot bring myself to strain out all of that vegetal-goodness.  Maybe a Vitamix would work its magic and make it as smooth as I dream it could be.

I’m on the mend now, thankfully, and made up some tasty goodies for Mother’s Day this weekend.  For the past couple of years I’ve made a big dinner for my Mom for Mother’s Day, but not to eat on that Sunday.  No, since Mom is a teacher and this time of year is crazy, the dinner is so she can just reheat portions throughout the week instead of having to cook herself.  I’ve made this Spring Vegetable Pasta and this Lemon Asparagus Microwave Risotto in years prior.  This year I made this great chicken chili, as well as a pear-ginger bread she can have for breakfast in the mornings.  (Shout-out to Mom!  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  I love you!)

Hope you’ve been well, my dear.  Thanks for posting the Shaker Lemon Pie experience, it made for a lovely and hilarious memory of my visit.

Have a great week,

Caitlin

P.S.  I know, I know, blogger-fail: no pictures for any of the above recipes.  But hey, I worked a wedding a few weekends ago and took some pictures of the flowers I brought home!  So, um, here are some pretty flowers: