OOPS

 September 24, 2021

Friday night 9:30 pm.  

 I really messed up today making soup.  I put my Instant Pot on sauté while chopping vegetables.  Added some butter and olive oil, then dumped the veggies in.  I opened a new bag of baby spinach and dumped half of it in the pot.  Something told me to taste the spinach so I did.  Yuck.  It had a musty taste and luckily I'd only put it on top. So I scooped it out and put it back in the bag.  I poured the chicken broth in and added my spices.  But I forgot to push the steam valve toward the back. I pushed pressure for 9 minutes and left the room. 

Next thing I heard all this hissing.  Being in the middle of something on my iPad I decided to wait a bit. Bernie came in and said, "Is the Instant Pot supposed to be hissing like this?"  I hurried into the kitchen and steam and liquid was coming out like it was natural releasing. The silver button was up but the pot wasn't counting down.  Hmm, I thought, what do I do next?  I turned it off, pushed the hissing valve back and turned on the pot again.  But it still didn't count down.  So I carefully pushed the valve forward again and let it release all the steam.  Liquid was still coming out making a mess on the lid. Finally I was able to open the pot and the soup looked ok.  I'd sautéed the stuff a while before and the pressure did build.  Nothing was raw and one can drink the broth right out of the carton. 

 So I decided I'd serve the soup anyhow.  Some of the vegetables were a tad more crunchy than usual but on the whole the soup was good.  This was the first time in 3 years that I forgot to push the steam valve back so I didn't beat myself up.

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I Felt Weird so I cooked - 24

This morning I started feeling weird.  Kind of restless, not knowing what I wanted to do.  I allowed myself to sit with it and tapped on feeling odd.  It wasn't a scary type of feeling like something was wrong, just uncomfortable.   It could have been because hubby was outside trimming bushes and a part of me felt like I "should" be out there helping him, although he didn't ask me to.  Before we moved, as we were discussing where we wanted to live, I told him that I did not want to be doing yard work.   I started feeling a tad better when he was finished.  After nearly  61 years of marriage and me having tried to be the "best wife", it is still a bit difficult to be doing my thing while he is doing stuff that might need help.  Being raised in the 40s and 50s I learned well the duties of a good wife. But I'll leave that for another blog.  

1940s housewife

What was I feeling?  Why so restless?  I didn't want to go out, I knew I "shouldn't" sit at my computer all day scrolling Facebook and playing games.  I wandered around the house aimlessly until I reached the kitchen.  Ah, soup!  I love soup and could eat it 4 times a week at least.   I had the ingredients.  First I cooked hard boiled eggs in my Instant Pot.  10 eggs in 5 minutes, quick release five minute natural release, then plunge them into cold water with ice.  They peel so easily too.

While the eggs were building up the pressure,  I chopped onions, garlic, celery and cabbage.  Then cleaned out the Instant Pot bowl and dried it. Then I put it on saute and added some butter and olive oil.  As it was heating, I chopped up a lot of zucchini squash and some more cabbage.  I threw in the onions, cabbage and celery and let them saute a few minutes, then I added the garlic.  I tossed in some garlic powder, Italian seasonings and some other spices I pulled out of the cabinet.   I added a big box of chicken broth and let it heat up for a bit, then I dumped in the squash and cabbage, put the lid on, locked it and pushed the manual button to 6 minutes.

Soup counting down in Instant Pot

After the little silver pin on the top of the lid popped down, I knew it was safe to open.   It looked like this.

soup before blending

I got out my immersion blender so the soup would be creamier.

Soup after blending

Then I added some half and half and a couple handfuls of Mexican Blend cheese.  I tasted it and it needed something more.  Ah yes, a pinch of salt.  Another taste test and the soup was ready to eat.

Out came my favorite love cup that I filled with the finished soup and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

I'm not restless anymore, just FULL!