I’m creating a new category for the blog, Vexations, for things that vex me. Not like politics or current events which make me by turns angry or resigned. A little perturbed. A little angry, but I know it’s a little thing or it could be worse. Instead of starting out with the many, many fine vexations of 2023/2024, I must recount what happened to me this morning.
So I decided I was going to try to make soup.
I guess I wanted to learn how to make full use of the Christmas turkey so that when the hard times come (see politics or current events), I can extend the meals I get from black or turkey vultures I manage to bludgeon with a shovel. Also, my oldest is supposed to be learning to cook and to write about them for his senior project at school. So we used a pressure cooker to make stock with the Christmas turkey right after Christmas.
However, my beautiful wife and I did the Whole 30 Diet for the first 30 days of January, so my boy(s) and I did not make soup right after Christmas as I did not think we would eat it all before my consumption was locked down. So I put it in the freezer, but I got it out again on January 31.
However, even though I selected a recipe, my boy(s) and I did not come together to make the soup in the week that passed after I took the stock out of the freezer. I am not sure how much time the boy could have counted toward his project as I picked a slow cooker recipe, so basically it was to cut vegtables up and put them in the slow cooker.
But we put it off long enough, so this morning, I went to the grocery store very early to pick up a couple of things we’d need–mostly heavy cream and some small potatoes (no small potatoes, as it turns out, $6 for 24 ounces). And by we’d need, I mean I’d need since, by this point, I didn’t think the boy(s) would proffer much help as it required preparing the vegetables and letting it cook for hours. They could have chopped vegetables when they got home from school (and before the oldest went to work) and the soup would have been ready at like 8pm. So I figured I was on my own.
So around 8am this morning, I chopped carrots, celery, potatoes, and an onion slowly and carefully and put them in a ceramic bowl. I started the pot a-warming, and then I put the stock into the pot, spilling only a lot of the stock in the process, and added the four pounds (and $10) of vegetables. Then I thought I would use up the remaining onions in the refrigerator and maybe jalapeños into the mix.
You see, as part of the Whole 30 Diet, I cooked a lot with green peppers, onions, and jalapeños, so when I chopped one up, I’d store what I didn’t use in the fridge for later use. I put green peppers in a plastic container, but onions and jalapeños in glass jars so that their smell/flavor would not penetrate.
I opted against the jalapeño, but I dumped the onion directly into the slow cooker and turned to get a spoon to scrape the ones sticking to the side of the jar, and when I put the spoon into the jar, I heard a little tinkle. “What was that?” I thought.
And I discovered a small hole had broken out of the bottom of the jar.
I guess that the temperature change from the refrigerator to the warm air above the stock pot weakened the glass. Did it break when I dumped the onions or when I touched the glass with the spoon? I don’t know either. I looked and even touched the top layer of vegetables, but I could not see any broken glass amidst the finely chopped onions and minced garlic.
Of course, I could not take a chance. So I binned it all.
Man, this really vexed me. Probably more so because I has put it off, and then when I finally went to do it, I made the big mistake. So it’s my fault, too. Although I am not sure if I’ve really learned a lesson, since it’s entirely possible I will never again try to make soup to be in a position to not make this mistake again.
Not a really big thing. But certainly a vexation.
