My husband got sick this week. Not have-to-stay-home sick, but that yucky-head-cold type of sick that makes you feel as if someone pumped your head full of lead.
My office mate was sick, too. Same type of thing. She got sick on Valentine's Day, yet found herself in her kitchen with a jacket on cooking up a meal for her family--not because they needed her to do it, but because she wanted to. I told her I was going home later that day to make some soup for Scott.
"He's really struggling," I told her, and we exchanged knowing glances because "really struggling" is code among women for my-husband-falls-apart-and-turns-into-a-child-when-he-gets-sick. I have a theory that when many men get sick there is a trigger switched deep inside of them that causes them to morph back into a state of early childhood dependence. Of course this is a gross, gross generalization and one made with the kindest intentions, and my apologies to all the men out there who do NOT fall apart when they get sick.
I didn't know this about men until we were new parents, and L. was five months old. We were just barely getting our footing with all the new parent stuff when the dreaded rotavirus swept like some mad, horrible thing through our lives. L. came down with it first, and the first two days and nights passed in a blur of vomit and phone calls to the pediatrician; we went through sheets and onesies and washcloths like there was no tomorrow. I was so afraid, too, for L.--my new baby--and thinking about all those unspeakable worries that rise up in a mother's head during the awful wee hours of the night, when you're cradling your sick, feverish baby and just counting the hours until the dawn.
Then, 48 hours later, I got sick.
Then Scott got sick. I remember still being in the throes of the virus and trying to feed L. a bottle in between trips to the bathroom to throw up. Scott, who had been doing the bottle feeding only moments earlier, had gotten up suddenly to use the bathroom. He was gone a long time. A very long time. I put L. down in the pack and play and made my way to the bathroom. Maybe I'm adding melodrama to the memory, but I think I had to hold onto the hall walls on my way, I was so weak. I knocked on the bathroom door and listened. I heard a low, strange moan. When I pushed open the door I found my husband lying on the floor, curled up in the fetal position. The rotavirus had definitely got him. He stayed there for hours, completely and utterly out of commission, while I finished feeding L., changed his diaper several times, fed him some more, vomited several times, changed more clothes/diapers, and brought fresh clothes and cold washcloths to Scott.
I think, I'm afraid to say, I was a little grouchy at him for shutting down so completely on me.
"What would have happened if *I* hadn't been there?" I raged at him when life had resumed some semblance of normalcy again. "Who would have fed L.? What would have happened?"
"But you WERE there," he said weakly.
I was. Thank goodness for that.
Thanks goodness we're there.
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My friend/office-mate makes the most amazing peanut soup and I've been bugging her for the recipe for months now. When she heard me wondering aloud to myself what type of soup I could whip up fairly quickly for Scott, she sent me the recipe. It's easy and just about the best, most satisfying soup I've had in a long time. The flavors are wonderful, the texture so comforting, and the leftovers the next day just as good as the night you first stirred the pot.
African Peanut Soup
1 and 1/2 to 3 cups sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 onion, diced (I used a half onion, because that's all I had)
2 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 or 2 jalapeños (with or without seeds depending on how spicy you want it), diced. I used 1 pepper and the soup was pretty spicy!
1-2 cups salsa
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 to 2 cups peanut butter
1 to 2 cups cooked white rice (you can make some fresh, or use leftovers. If you want to soup to be more stew-like, use 2 cups of rice)
6-8 cups vegetable broth, depending on how watery you want the broth
Saute the first 5 ingredients in olive oil for 10 minutes or so until the sweet potato isn’t completely hard. Add vegetable broth and salsa. Simmer all ingredients until sweet potato is soft (not mushy). Whisk in the peanut butter and add can of drained and rinsed black beans and cooked rice.
Enjoy!
Happy Weekend!
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