Being a trooper; in which I am cured by bacon

When I originally wrote this post, it was the first thing I'd tried to cook since wrecking my hand (which, incidentally, wasn't a broken scafoid bone as they originally thought for the first 3 weeks - it was 3 bones in the back of my hand instead). Everything still hurt a lot, and I had to do all sorts of complicated acrobatics to do basic things like getting dressed, never mind chopping things to cook for dinner. I was being a major leaguetough guy by even bothering, is what I'm telling you. Now, it's essentially better - I mean, not all the way, but close - and I've realized that baking is way more advanced than cooking in terms of hand usage. Listen. Cooking, all I really need it for is chopping. I can saute something pretty well with my left hand. But baking, not only do you have to measure things, which means one hand has to pour the stuff and the other has to stay steady holding the measuring spoon or whatever, but mixing is an issue, and you have to lift heavy stacks of bowls down from the cabinet or carry things of flour... it's harder. I've started baking again - posts to come about that; they're already on the blog, I'm a few weeks back - and I'm learning all this as I go. It's kind of like when you ride a bike along a route you're used to walking or driving. You suddenly notice there are hills.

But this was back when everything was uphill, so I took great joy in the fact that there was a minimum of chopping. And it's a soup, so you get to more or less leave it alone for most of its cooking time. Also, it has bacon, which is well-known for its healing properties, so if you are injured or ailing in some way, you should probably make this and it will fix you right up.

My recipe for this chicken, bacon, and wild rice soup does not actually match what you see in the photo. I made some changes while I was cooking and I should have made some slightly different changes, and the recipe reflects what I should have done rather than what I actually did do. So if you make this and it doesn't look like the picture, that's why.