Nuclear Dinner and Foot Skis

Probably the biggest sign that I am recovering from my post-partum difficulties is that this week I laughed myself to tears for the first time in a long time. It was certainly the hardest laughing Neal and I have enjoyed since Joseph was born.

We have a set of neighbors, the Harmons, that we love and admire. Both of them served their missions in Russia. Diana Harmon makes the most delicious Borscht that I've ever tried. Last week, while we hung out with them, I asked Dianna for her recipe. She rattled off a list of ingredients and said that she didn't have a recipe, she just makes it. This is true of all her recipes. She is very talented in the kitchen, but I always get frustrated trying to replicate her results because she cooks by feel.

Because I couldn't remember all of her directions I went to Allrecipes and pulled up their top Borscht recipe: Ukrainian Red Borscht Soup. And even though I got a late start on dinner that night, I was determined to make it, so I got to work chopping up vegetables and boiling beets. Dinner was not even ready until 8 pm, I think.

At which point I plopped down our largest pot, filled nearly to the brim with Borscht, in front of my poor, poor husband. A description is necessary at this point to allow you to imagine the humor in this situation.


The borscht was red. Red like red popsicles. It wasn't thick and delicious like Dianna's borscht - it was soupy and overly-cabbaged. It was just vegetables cooked in red water. It looked, in Neal's words, "like the cabbage had waged a war of attrition against the other vegetables in the pot."


I had already decided that dinner was a FAILURE. Neal and I looked at each other and started to laugh. I told Neal (and this is when the real laughter started) that if he loved me, he would eat it with gusto. He said, what about you? And I said, I don't love me! Then, we laughed until we cried.


The funny thing about it was that we had all of this conversation before we even tried the soup. Hey, it wasn't... awful. It was a bit on the bland side, like I said: cooked vegetables in red water. Later in the week I added some sausage to the recipe (I had made it without sausage on the recommendation of one of the recipe reviewers who claimed it was inauthentic, plus I wanted to save the sausage for something else, but the borscht really needed it) and it really helped make it more satisfying. Yet, we still have a massive pot full of Borscht in our fridge.

The second time I laughed was while Skyping Mom with Neal and Joseph. We were showing Mom Joseph's pajamas as we got ready for bed. This particular pair has the most hilarious feet. I was laughing about them already, telling Mom that they made his feet look really long, like... I paused, and Neal finished my sentence with a single word: "skis." HAHAHA, that sent me right over the moon! I laughed with tears in my eyes again. I will have to post a picture of these particular pj's sometime.

Thank heavens for laughing, and for loved ones who make me laugh! I love my Neal and my Joseph. And all of my family members!