As I have done every Saturday for the past four months, I went to my long distance running class, even though I was super tired from particularly late work hours this past week. That's what you have to do with running - make a commitment. No excuses. My run was going okay: not terrible, but not stellar. Somewhere in between. I was glad I had a friend by my side going the same pace, so it made for a relaxed, comfortable time and kept me going during the moments I was feeling slightly apathetic about forward motion. We were on the trails, which are paved, but there was a ton of debris on them from the recent storm. (Which included a tornado with ghastly 45 degree angle downpours of hard rain.) Branches, nuts, leaves, rocks, mud and water were left everywhere, so we were very careful to slow our pace, take the down hills particularly gingerly and step onto clear spaces whenever possible. It wasn't a day to rush. (Which was good, because we didn't miss the family of six deer that were within feet of us at one point.) There was a time when my running buddy had stepped onto an acorn or something and almost twisted her foot. A bit later, I think I hit a rock and did the same slight tripping move. We were both fine though. Nothing major. That is to say, until...
Yeah, well, so much for my being "careful." It all happened quite quickly. In an instant, really. There was a moment when I was trying so hard to catch my balance and then WHAM, onto the asphalt. The full force of my weight landing hard on my knees and me catching my upper body with my palms as I skidded forward like a kicked empty soda can. After the initial realization that I had a fight with gravity and lost, I looked back and saw there was about a 2.5 in diameter short piece of stick that had been hidden under some leaves. I never could have seen it. I think I stunned my buddy who wasn't quite sure what happened to me because in the blink of an eye I had gone from upright to horizontal. Looking back she said I actually appeared to hover there in the air for a moment. Probably for that split second when I was working overtime to try and right my very wronged angle as I was saying to myself, "Oh my, the ground is coming up awfully quickly!!"
Wow, no fun. Certainly one of the most embarrassing three seconds of my life. Yet, I got up and dusted myself off, glad I had on running capris instead of shorts so at least that helped to minorly protect my knees that were now quite banged up. A quick wipe of my bleeding hands and we began walking again. Unfortunately, we were about halfway out and still had a couple miles back yet to run. This is how you know you're really a runner: after a short walk to the next intersection, I said, "Let's go." Maybe it was the Adrenalin from my super speedy plunge to earth, but the second half of my run was actually better than my first - sans the painful right knee and throbbing, bleeding left hand. As another friend said later - take pride, these are your battle scars! (We runners are messed up!)
Some soap and water to clean up my boo boos back at the store and a couple coffees later, I needed to head home to ice my poor knee. (That was likely going to divorce itself from my body even after I apologized for falling on it with all one hundred and *muffled sound* pounds of me at high velocity.)
Needless to say, that night I wasn't in the mood to stand and cook. But I was craving some comfort food. Thank goodness my fridge held some I had made recently that was ready to go.
Potato Leek Soup
2 lbs peeled, diced potatoes
1 large leek sliced in half and then into 1/4 inch strips
4 cups chicken stock
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
2 tbsps unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt (to taste)
Splash of heavy cream
Dollop of mascarpone cheese
This is how I made it. All started with a couple pounds of potatoes. I got some slightly waxy ones. Thought they would be extra creamy.
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| Different sizes are fine. They will be diced. |
To prep things, I peeled and diced the potatoes and put them in water so they wouldn't brown.
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| Make them about the same size chunk. |
Into the pan I was going to make the soup, my Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart French Oven, I added the butter and turned it on medium. As it melted, I threw in the leeks and sauteed until translucent.
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| Gotta love a one pot meal. |
If you have the time to make chicken broth, then sure, do that. I used the box, which I think isn't a bad substitute.
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| Do I get points for it being organic at least? |
Add the stock and fresh thyme and bring to a boil. Then add the potatoes. Bring back up to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 15 - 20 minutes or until a knife can go through the potatoes easily.
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| A simple combination that will bring complex flavor later. |
I don't own an immersion blender, so I did an easy two step process. (After I removed the thyme twigs. Don't forget that part.) First came out the potato masher.
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| Such a handy tool. |
Into the pot went the masher and I, well, mashed stuff. Just a little bit. To scale down the large pieces.
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| Easy with soft potatoes. |
I wanted a slightly creamier consistency than I was getting with just the masher though, so for the second part of the process, I took half of the soup and put it into a regular blender. (Warning: Do this carefully because it's hot and when you stop the blender and take the lid off, the bubble will burst when it settles and you could get hot soup on you. You may want to do it in two small batches and wait a minute.) Pour the blended portions back into the pot and stir all together.
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| Now that's perfect! Creamy, but also with some texture left. |
I don't like to freeze things with milk or cream in them if possible, so I put some soup into one cup containers that I popped into the deep freeze for another day and left some in the fridge. Into my bowl that night, after I heated it up, I added a little heavy cream and stirred it all up well. Then I added a dollop of mascarpone cheese because I happened to have some around. Once it started to melt, I was able to stir that in as well. The soup was so creamy and comforting. Made boo boos all better.
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| Mini mascarpone floating island. |
The other great idea I got was that I remembered I had some cooked turkey bacon in the fridge from breakfast the day before, so I crumbled that on top as well. I mean, potatoes and bacon together. If that doesn't inspire wellness, I'm not sure what would.
It's funny, but you'd be surprised how many runners take a spill now and then. That was news to me! I had friends who have done the same thing (as recently as last week) post their stories to my social networking page, telling me all about their nose dives to the ground. Seems like we're all in good company. (One girl even said she takes a spill every few months. Now that is something!) One thing I know is true about all of us; though we may fall, we get back up again. And we keep running. (Which really is a great model for life in general.) Of course, that doesn't preclude us from sitting on the sofa that evening with a cold ice pack to comfort bruised body parts and a warm bowl of soup to comfort bruised egos. There has to be healing time. For the inner and outer us.
Lesson learned: Sooner or later, we're all going to fall down. Every one of us. So get back up again. You've got much more left to do.
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