Ow.

Just. Ow. I feel like I've been smacked around pretty good, but at least my bleeding's stopped. Considering it was making me sick yesterday, that's not anything small.

Despite the fact that I was not a good girl and had a massive crying jag after the procedure (I blame the sedatives and bleeding, two of my least favorite things), I decided to go ahead and use my birthday money on yarn. Hey, my face is stretched out of shape and bloaty, I feel like I've gone a round or two with Tyson and I wanted new yarn. I think that's a good enough set of reasons!

By the way, this is going to be a huge, long, photo-intense post, so I'm going to put a jump break in here:


OK, now we're done with the jump break, here's my new toys:

Cascade 220 in a pretty heathered green and brown. I loves me some 220. It's superwash, so it's not a full on worsted, but it should still knit up into something big and pretty. Me likey.

Mochi Plus in a pretty swirl of blue, purple and green. It's an average of worsted weight, and only 196 yards. But I likes it, and I wanted it. So I bought it. All she had of that colorway, actually, so 196 yards it is. I'll figure out something for this, too. I'm clever like that.

Right before I went to the yarn shop, I went to the store:

See, previous to this, I've been subsisting on stuff like this:

That stuff's pretty good, by the way. Tasty. Probably better for me than the crap I routinely eat.

Luscious Gerber Vanilla Custard Pudding with Bananas aside, I wanted to make myself some mashed potatoes. I mean, it's got to be more solid than baby food, yogurt or ice cream and all I've been able to eat since the midnight between Wednesday and Thursday has been yogurt, ice cream and baby food. OK, maybe the ice cream is pretty darn solid, but you can only eat so much ice cream before you get tired of it. I made a trip to the grocery to get potatoes, leeks, onions, chicken broth and some sour cream.

Then I started up with the doctorin':

Three big cloves of garlic. Smashed with the side of my knife to get the skins off and chucked into a pot just broken up. Big chunks don't matter in this recipe. You'll see.

A white onion. I didn't want to blow my head off with onion power, so I only used half of this one.

Chuck it in the pot with four green onions -- the whites and half of the greens -- , the white and light green part of one largish leek and a great big chunk o' butter for juice (around about 1 1/2 tablespoons):

Sweat it out until everything is soft then toss in a can of chicken, including the juice. I use a generic brand that does chicken in water with salt -- no other additives or ingredients, but use your best judgment. Salt and pepper it gently and let it warm through completely.

Chuck that stuff in a blender and let 'er rip! It's not completely smooth, there's still some slight chunkiness, but I like some chunk to my chow. Your mileage may vary.

Now, cut up about 7 smallish yellow potatoes -- the kind they tout as 'buttery' -- and put them in the same pot you just used along with most of a 32 oz. box of chicken stock, just enough to cover the potatoes. I personally love Kitchen Basics, but again, pick your own poison.

Boil until they're soft and mashable and drain most of the stock out -- most, not all; leave in about...eh, 1/8 cup of stock in the bottom. It's good for you. Slop your leek/onion/onion/garlic/chicken goo into the pot on top and mash it like you mean it.

Don't forget to make like Paula Deen and add some more butter at this point. It really helps smooth out your mash. As you can see, I personally prefer the aerobic benefits of a hand masher, but you can use your hand mixer if you must. Weenie.

And you can barely see it, but I grated some fresh nutmeg on top. Mmmm, nutmeg. Sorry, I didn't mean to channel the KY commercial, but it works with just about everything: leeks, potatoes, onions. I have a grater and a big bag of nutmegs, so I have to try it out on everything, anyway, but that's neither here nor there -- it tastes good, trust me. That's maybe...eh, a sprinkle of less than 1/4 tsp.

(And the green tinge in this photo is from a suncatcher in our kitchen window. It doesn't look like mold in the pot, believe me.)

Toss some in a bowl, put some sour cream on top for garnish (to cool it down; I'm not supposed to be eating really hot stuff right now, so I'm telling myself it was to cool it off) and complete the picture with a spoon.

This is the result:

Good golly, that stuff was good. And thanks to the puree setting on my blender, I not only got some veggies and potatoes, I got chicken, too. Without having to make do with the incredi-nasty canned meat of baby food jars.

It was so good, in fact, that I went crazy and ate two bowls. I'm having trouble choking down baby food, but I could take in two whole bowls of this meal mash.

And yes, I'm schlubbing around there in that photo. I just had four teeth pulled/drilled out of my head. I feel like crap.

I'm going to go pet my yarn and maybe have a little more baby food for dessert and then drink some water. I hope it gets me through the rest of the day which is, according to the dentist, the worst of the recovery.

From his lips to God's ears, is all I have to say.