Turkey Soup Fights Back

I don’t know why I remember this. Probably because it was a funny and painful all at the same time. I was grocery shopping the other day and needed some spices. Smelling some spicy sausage a lady was sampling as I selected my spices brought back a painful post-Thanksgiving memory. I thought back to my last altercation with ground red pepper.

It was shortly after last Thanksgiving when I decided to make turkey soup. I wanted to start with homemade stock, so I put the leftover bones and a mire poix in a large kettle of water. The aroma of turkey filled the kitchen as the meat boiled from the bones. After about two hours, I started to add my spices. After about another hour I tested the stock. It was still fairly bland, and I added more sea salt, fresh ground pepper, garlic salt and seasoned salt. Next I added a small amount of ground red pepper to give the stock just a bit of zing. Unfortunately, I did not realize that some ground red pepper spilled on my hand.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and my dear hubby had fallen asleep on the couch watching an old western. John Wayne fired a shot at his adversary as I adjusted my glasses and rubbed my eye. The red pepper from my hand fell in my eye. At first I just felt the fine powder. Next I was sure that the shot Mr. Wayne fired went directly into my eye. In an attempt not to wake up by hubby by yelling, I jumped up and down in the kitchen, holding my eye. Apparently, in my diminished state, something inside me thought that this act would shake the pepper from my eye and relieve my pain.

My desperate whispers of, “Oww! Oww! Oww!” brought my Rat Terrier, Opie, running from his comfortable, fluffy bed in the living room. Opie was a good dog, but a little too in tune with human emotions and angst to not come to my rescue. He instantly jumped repeatedly on my legs and back as I leaned over the sink to run water over my burning eye. I forced my eye open and attempted to drown my entire head under the kitchen sink faucet. When Opie realized the situation was perhaps too dire for him to resolve himself, he ran back to the living room to wake my hubby. Of course, I didn’t want Opie to wake him – I didn’t even want him to know that I’d done this ridiculous thing.

Through my pain, I whispered desperately to my dog, “Opie. Get back here. Don’t wake him up. Oww. Oww. Oww.” At this point I was fairly sure my eye was burning completely out of my head. I was not impressed with myself.

Eventually the cool water washed away the pepper and the burning subsided. With only my other eye open, I bent over and scratched Opie behind the ears, which were still perked up in his confusion. I told him I was okay, even though tears still streamed from my eyes. His chest plumped out as if he was a rescue dog who had just saved my life. He stood by for about half an hour as I rendered my stock and did other things around the kitchen. He stood guard until I was done and went back into the living room, just to make sure my condition steadily improved and I didn’t relapse.

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