Haven't Been Cooking

I haven't cooked for weeks.  Literally weeks.  I missed Thanksgiving which is one of my favorite holidays.

On November 19th I had eye surgery to hopefully repair a detached retina.  It was unexpected and pretty fast and somewhat scary.  I am fortunate to have wonderful friends and customers and canceled everything I had planned through December 6th.

Once the surgery was over, I was told that I would need to be facedown and could sit up for 15 minutes an hour.  The facedown was for at least 2 weeks, we'd see then.

Okay.  Surgery Friday went well, Saturday doctor visit went well and then the pain hit.  I never expected or experienced so much pain.  Any vibration had my head pounding, and by vibration I meant another person breathing.  We filled the pain medication and started taking them.  It took several hours for it to kick in and and then I was much better.  Of course it knocked me completely out, but it did make the facedown thing easier.

My husband wanted to take care of me, so I had planned menus that he could make and Thanksgiving was included.  Friends wanted to bring food and visit, but the pain medication thing really didn't leave me open for visiting or even eating sometimes.  

All is well now.  Or at least much better.  After almost 2 weeks I am now allowed to sleep on my side and I'm healing well.  The pain seems to be gone and the medication should be out of me today.  Yay! 

We had Thanksgiving, my husband timed it around the medication so I would be awake to eat.  He made turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sauteed spinach and pecan pie.  I used Trader Joes for cranberry sauce, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie. 

His pie turned out well.  He used the recipe on Food Network from Frank Brigtsen's restaurant.  I knew it was good, since I had eaten there during my trip to New Orleans.  Trader Joes made the pie crust too. 

Pecan Pie from Frank Brigtsen

• 3 eggs
  
• 1 cup granulated white white
  
• 1 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup darkly roasted pecans, ground
• 1 cup medium pecan pieces

In an electric mixer with the wire whisk attachment, add the eggs and beat on high speed until frothy, about 1 minute.  Add the sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla, salt and ground roasted pecans.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Stir in the pecan pieces.  Pour the filling into the pie shell.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.  Reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is browned on top and the crust is light golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before serving.

We don't actually know how long we baked the pie.  I had taken pain medication, he was tired Wednesday after working all day and we both passed out for a while.  No idea how long, never ask the medicated wife to listen for the oven timer buzzer.  The pie was good though. 

I get to cook tonight and am making lemon chicken from a new Barefoot Contessa cookbook.  Can't wait to get back to normal!