Pasta milestone

For the first week of my recovery at home I was on very light duties. Majella was determined to keep me observing the restrictions on lifting and movement. I was allowed to do little more than sit or lie around and take an occasional short walk.

By the second week I was becoming more active with my daily walks and could do most things for myself. Pushing a lawnmower would have exceeded the permissible load so Majella took over in that area. She also continued to cook all the meals, leaving me off our regular, 3 nights each per week, cooking roster.

That persisted to the end of my second week home by which time I was comfortably managing 2.5 km on my morning walks and averaging a few more than 6000 steps per day. I was still only halfway through the expected six weeks of initial healing but starting to feel I could begin easing back into regular activity that would not impose too great a strain on my healing parts.

Saturday is one of my regular cooking days and, over the past few years, I have customarily made fresh pasta for Saturday dinner. On the Saturday just passed, Majella left early in the morning to spend the day at a music workshop. That left me at home, free to do as I pleased at my own pace without causing concern that I might be overdoing it.

Early in the afternoon I started making fettuccine. I started by harvesting a good handful of leaves from the basil plants growing in our back garden. Those were pureed using the stick blender and then added to the flour and egg before mixing and kneading for 10 minutes. I don’t usually add anything to the flour and eggs for pasta but it seemed a good time to try something different and the basil was begging to be used.

By the time I had completed kneading, rolling, cutting, and hanging the fettuccine to dry I needed a rest. My stamina may be returning but it has not yet arrived.

When Majella returned after 4:00 pm the pasta was dried. I had checked ingredients earlier in case I needed to go out to buy some but we had the onion, garlic, chicken, mushrooms, and cream needed for one of the sauce recipes in my collection.

I served the pasta with the sauce, grated parmesan, and a salad accompanied by a bottle of Majella The Musician. We enjoyed dinner. I was tired but survived. That’s another milestone on the road back to health.