I’m so sorry I’ve been gone so long. I promise I’ll get back to food posts soon, but it’s been a while since I’ve hit the kitchen in any significant way.

I’ve mentioned that I traveled with my sisters to Portland, Oregon in early September. In preparation for that trip, I went shopping for a comfortable pair of walking shoes. I couldn’t find a pair that was comfortable to try on, not even athletic shoes. I made an appointment with our orthopedic surgeon.

He told me that yes indeed, I had bunions and my other bones were starting to shift. If I had surgery soon, I could have both feet fixed at once. I live in Wisconsin; we specialize in large quantities of snow over many months. So just over two weeks ago, I had my bunions removed, my metatarsals rearranged, and the whole shebang held together with absorbable pins. And I walked out of surgery on crutches the same afternoon.

I spent the vast majority of the first week on the couch with my feet on a stack of cushions, eating canned soup, Thomas’ fantastic chili, and some darned tasty Italian hot beef that our friends Laurie and Tom very kindly sent over.

After a week, and despite all the delicious food, I missed cooking. Following a tip from my sister Jul, who’d had bunion surgery a year before, I had Thomas set a bar stool next to the stove and gather a few items from the pantry. Then, with my feet propped up on an open kitchen drawer, I made a big batch of pasta with chickpeas and spinach, substituting orzo for the soba noodles.

Since then, I’ve been easing back onto my feet and into the kitchen. I promise to get back to my weekly posts. I’ll work in some cooking around the shoe shopping.