The Lisa Life

If You Have Surgery On Your Foot, That Means You Can't Type, Right?

Hello dear and gentle readers.  I've missed you.  I'm sure many of you have assumed that I must type with my toes, since I haven't updated my blog since before my foot surgery.

Please be assured that I do type with my fingers.  I've just been out of sorts.  The surgery went well.  I will have the gory pictures if I decide to share.  I had 16 or 17 stitches put into my foot along with the screws.  Martin has asked me repeatedly what the screws are made out of; plastic? metal? steel?  I don't know because I really don't want to know.  I like to imagine that they are titanium and wonder if they will make the metal detector at the airport go off.  My mom had several hip replacements and had to carry a little card in her wallet that explained that the material used in her hip replacement made the metal detector go off, versus my little tiny mom packing heat under her sensibly tailored traveling blazer.

I ditched the crutches the second day and the surgical boot the third.  Screw that nonsense.  My foot still looks like a plump and many purple-hued sausage but I can wear one pair of cute retro sneakers.   They go so well with my slacks for work and make me look like I'm going to take a power walk around the industrial park I work at during lunch hour.  Except it wouldn't be a power walk, it would be more like a power limp or lurch since my foot still gets sore pretty quickly and hey, did I mention I drive a car with a manual transmission?

I got a really great Christmas card from my friend Nadine that had a coaster-sized mouse pad tucked into it.  The mouse pad has a picture of a lady with some seriously nice gams ending in some hot red high heels.  The caption says, "Its all about the shoes."  And that inspires me because all my cute shoes will be out of the back of the closet this spring and back on my feet where they belong.

Lots has been in the news about the Oakland County Child Killer case and I have an entry with my humble opinions rattling around in my pointy head. 

So, yeah, that's what going on with me.

Things To Do In Brighton When You're Dead

Tomorrow I am having my bunion surgery.  I'm a little nervous about it.  I'm getting two screws put into my foot, after all.

I am not, however, planning on dying. 

I know I've been a bit melodramatic about this.  I do appreciate all the good wishes.  I don't think there is any precedence of bunion surgery having a high fatality rate, though.

Things I Need To Do:

1) Clean the kitchen and take out the trash.

2) Vacuum.

3) Take off all my nail polish.

4) Take off all my jewelry.

I can have one cup of tea, light on sugar tomorrow before 8 a.m.  Then, not so much as a tic tac can cross my lips.  I'm a grazer.  This is going to be really hard.  I get crabby when I don't eat.

I got a roll of film so I'll take some pictures.  You can share the glamor.  I still can't find the cord to my father-in-laws fancy digital.  (He's getting a bit pissed about it and I don't blame him.)

Think good thoughts for me but really, I'm going to be fine, if a bit cranky and dopey.

Potato Cheddar Chowder

One of my favorite local restaurants, T. W. & Friends, makes a wonderful potato cheddar chowder as one of their house soups.  I liked it so much, I searched the internet for a recipe for cheddar potato soup with bacon and found one on epicurious.com.  The first time I made it, I was not impressed.  It was a bit bland and very soup-like, not chowder consistency at all.  Not that it was billed at chowder, but I thought it would be richer and thicker.  Being the Lazy Italian American Girl Who Sometimes Cooks that I am, I bastardized the recipe til it's actually quite good.

Potato Cheddar Chowder

Half package of bacon, turkey or hi-octane

1 large onion, chopped small

2 pounds potatoes, cut inot 1/2 inch cubes.  Store in cold water to keep from discoloring.

1/2 cup flour

2-1/2 cups water

3 cups chicken broth or stock

1/2 cup dry white wine (or 1/2 cup more of chicken broth or stock)

4 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese

Fresh chopped chives

Couple large garlic cloves, chopped

Fresh ground pepper

Seasoning salt

Chop bacon into small pieces and in large heavy soup pan, cook over moderately high heat until crisp.  Tranfer bacon onto paper towel to drain, reserving pan juices. Cook onion and garlic in pan juices until tender.  In measuring cup, mix water and flour.  Add to onion and garlic with potatoes and broth/stock and wine.   Add pepper, seasoning salt, garlic powder if you like, or fresh sea salt.

Cook on a bubbling low simmer, stirring every five or so minutes, until cooked down.  Usually about 45 minutes to an hour. I generally use a potato masher to make it really thick and usually put in a couple chunks of butter and stir them through.  Stir in cheddar but don't let it boil.

Stir in bacon before serving.  Sprinkle a little cheddar and some chives on top, a couple pieces of bacon as well if you have saved some and haven't munched it.

This makes about eight servings.  It's great to freeze half to have later.

The ABBA Museum

Ed. Note: This is inspired by a conversation I had with Darr and Michelle online.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=243269&GT1=7702

There is no shame in being an ABBA fan.  I may listen to the Ramones and the Femmes and The Cure and slide over into Janis and The Dead and Lucinda Williams and John Hiatt and Etta James and Cesoria Avora and Jimmy Buffett.  Being an ABBA fan should not be a surprise to anyone since I'm all over the board with music. (The 80s New Wave/Punk stuff remains my favorite, however.)

My mother-in-law is an ABBA fan.  So is my husband's friend Eric, who tried to convince us to go to see Mamma Mia when it was playing in Detroit but it was the dead of winter and the tickets were not only difficult to get but very pricey.

I'd so visit this museum.  It's like the ABBA Disco Hall Of Fame in Sweden.