Send to KindleReal conversation between Craig and I on Sunday morning (mind you…I have not had any coffee yet and he has).
Craig: I’m sick
Me: mhm
Craig: Did you hear me? I’M SICK!
Me: Yes, I heard you as did the entire neighborhood. You’re sick. What do you want…a cookie?
Craig: No, I just want you to care.
Me: Do you understand that I don’t give a damn about anything until I’ve had some coffee? You could be lying on the floor with your skin peeling off of you and I would step over you to get a cup of coffee. How do you not know this about me? Even the dog stays away from me until she is confident that I’ve been up long enough to have had coffee.
Craig: You don’t love me. I’m sick and you don’t even care.
Me: That’s the first thing you’ve been right about all week. I don’t care that you’re sick. All I know is if you give me that crap you’re a dead man. I don’t have time to get sick. <I am finally in the kitchen getting my much needed coffee>
Craig: If I told Amber or Linday that I was sick they’d feel sorry for me and wait on me hand and foot until I felt better.
Me: That’s because Amber and Lindsay don’t have to listen to you whine and complain about how your runny nose, scratchy throat and itchy eyes are some mutated form of the Bubonic plague that is no doubt going to kill you and how they should be giving you a tiny bell to ring so that they can wipe your nose, wet your brow and bring you chicken broth immediately as it may be the last act you ever see them do before you perish.
Craig: <silence – discussion.over.>
The Ultimate One Pot Meal - Minestone Soup
I’m not completely heartless, just mostly. I know when Craig’s miserable…the dog and I pay for it dearly. So I decided to make him a huge pot of minestrone soup. Yes, there’s a bit of self servitude in this action (I really like minestrone soup), but the fact is…I made my guy some soup to help him feel a bit better.
Since there’s lots of vegetables, beans, pasta and meat in this soup it’s essentially a one pot meal. The only thing extra you might want to add to the dish is a big hunk of crusty bread.
The other thing you get out of this easy minestrone soup, aside from the fact that a one pot meal means there’s only one pot to clean after making it, is a way to use up any leftover veggies you may have floating around in your refrigerator. I’m not suggesting you use carrots or celery that bow down to you when you take them out of the fridge (those are just going to taste nasty), but maybe you’ve got some leftover vegetables from some other recipe you’ve recently made. Feel free to use cabbage in place of the kale. You could also throw in some potatoes or squash you might have.
So embrace the cold weather, make a sick loved one feel better with a warm belly full of soup and make your dish washing chore a whole lot easier. Minestrone soup is the one pot meal that’s just what the doctor ordered.
Relationship Advice
Marriage is the eighth wonder of the world. After the first six months of marriage, your time is spent wondering how you don’t kill each other.
Yes, one of the big vows in there is “in sickness and in health” and that seems to be the biggie for me.
It never ceases to amaze me how the tiniest tickle in my husband’s throat can turn an ordinary weekend into an Escher image. With every breath there is another staircase leading into another staircase into another staircase and yet into another. This is the very definition of madness by the way.
It starts with the tickle and me running out to buy him just the right bottle of Vitamin C but it quickly escalates into chicken broth, warm blankets, feeling his forehead, digging out the thermometer (I don’t remind him that I think we last used that thermometer to take the dog’s temperature – which is done rectally btw), rubbing his back and ultimately giving up the couch and the bed for his malady.
I don’t begrudge him for getting sick…it happens, but where’s the equality? We both took that same “in sickness and in health” vow. He somehow has to work unbelievably long hours when he even hears me start sneezing and grabbing for tissues. When I’m sick it requires vile liquids emanating from every orifice to even elicit the slightest bit of concern from my husband. It usually takes an Oscar worthy performance to convince him to order me soup from my favorite Chinese place to help me feel better.
After a hundred years of marriage I suppose I should be used to this, but I’m not and pretty sure I won’t ever be.
So let this be a warning to all of you unmarrieds out there. Marriage is an equal partnership until he gets sick.
If you’ve got a sick husband antidote or prescription for how you handle it, please share it below.
Recipe: Minestrone Soup
Ingredients
- I Cup of Small Pasta Shapes (cooked to al dente)
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion (chopped)
- 4 Cloves Garlic (minced)
- 2 Stalks Celery (chopped)
- 2 Medium Carrots (peeled and chopped to small pieces)
- 1 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
- 1 1/4 Pounds Sweet Pork Sausage (cut into small pieces)
- 1 Medium Zucchini (cut into half moon pieces)
- 1/4 Cup Tomato Paste
- 1 Dried Bay Leaf
- 2 Cans Great Northern Beans (drained_
- 1 Bunch Curly Kale (thick ribs removed and chopped to small pieces)
- 1/4 Cup Chopped Fresh Parsley
- 1 28 Ounce Can Diced Tomatoes (preferably fire roasted)
- 6 Cups Chicken Broth
- 1 Cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese (plus more for topping)
- Kosher Salt
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, heat oil over medium high heat add onions and garlic and cook until translucent.
- Add celery, carrots and cook until celery begins to soften and carrots start to take on some brown color. Then stir in the thyme, a pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper.
- Add in the pork and cook until pork is almost cooked through.
- Add the tomato paste and bay leaf.
- Stir in the beans kale and parsley until well combined.
- Pour the tomatoes into the mixture and stir.
- Finally, add the chicken broth and stir.
- Cook for 30 to 40 minutes on medium low.
- Stir in the cooked pasta.
- Just before serving, add the Parmesan cheese and stir in thoroughly.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with Parmesan shavings over top.
Quick notes
The small pasta could be elbow macaroni, ditalini, stars or even Pearl couscous.
This is a thick soup and even after cooking the pasta and beans will continue to absorb the broth. You may want to add more broth to thin it out.
Variations
This is a great recipe to use up veggies that you may have hanging around in your refrigerator. Feel free to improvise on the vegetables that you use.
You could also use different beans. I like Great Northern beans, but garbanzo beans or even kidney beans would work great in this recipe.
Preparation time: 20 minute(s)
Cooking time: 45 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 8
Culinary tradition: Italian
My rating
do they even understand we bleed and cramp for days.. every. frickin’. month? i don’t mind if my man is sick. he needs only say, “hey, i need to sleep this off for a few, could i have some tea” and he’s still in my good graces. but when he sniffles and whines and needs 8 different remedies for the common cold, i go out.
Hi Jasi, You are a smart woman!!!!
One of my favorite soups!
hMy man is a real weirdo if he’s ill … he never mentions it! Once he groaned and when I asked why he said his knees hurt. I asked how long they had hurt and he said 6 years!
That man sounds like a keeper! But 6 years is a long time to be walking around on bum knees. My husband grabs the rubbing alcohol, neosporin, gauze and tape when he gets a paper cut.
Anyone who says a woman experiencing PMS is the worst monster ever has never lived with a man that has had a cold. Or flu or something non fatal. I could go on and on about this one…
And to think there was ever a time I thought I was alone in this feeling!
That soup sounds incredible by the way. Perfect for a cold fall day!
ugh, I’ve had this argument….. my response is usually “put your G’damn big girl panties on!!!!!” Unless we’ve hit the “big time” we all have to live and work while sick. And the world keeps going round.
Hope you’re putting something strong in that coffee! xoxo
I’m sorry your experience is as it is with yours. I know i can be a pill, however I try my damndest to not be a bother. I am sure Liz will say otherwise, but I really do try. She brings it up with me that I am being rather…..annoying, and I do take it to heart. Perhaps a talk at a neutral time when one or both of you isn’t sick is the time to talk about it.
Or just slap him.
I’m going to stick with smacking him. Because…sadly…it appears he has gotten me sick.
Doh! Sounds like a familiar argument! Sorry he’s not feeling well, but your pot of heartiness will heal all sorts of woes.