Curdled Tuna Noodle Soup

After feeling better on Friday, my waning symptoms resurfaced as a bad sinus headache Saturday morning. Jeff also had the very had sinus headache and we spent Sunday quite miserable with our pressurized heads and Emma, bouncing off the walls. Jeff and I wanted to practice the principle recommended in parenting books and “sleep when your baby sleeps.” Mandy was great with the plan and took 3 good, long naps, but Emma disagreed.

By late afternoon on Sunday we were ready to send Emma on the train to Grandma’s house. She was bored with her sick parents and tried anything and everything she could think of to be entertained, including being obnoxious. I finally put Man From Snowy River in the VCR and we all watched the movie for awhile. I saw that it was 5 o’clock and wondered when she was going to get hungry. She had enough at 5:15, 5:32, 5:46, and 6:00, she asked, “Eat now?” whenever there were not horses racing across the screen. I had stalled long enough and lumbered to the kitchen. Keep in mind that I have been sick for quite some time and have not been to the grocery store since before Christmas. Staples were running low, quick meals were gone a week ago, and my imagination was buried deep behind a sinus headache. I found a package of cheese sauce and mixed together the powder and liquid, thinking I could use the leftover cooked noodles from lunch. I would mix in some tuna and peas and call it Tuna Noodle Casserole. I put the sauce in the microwave, but the pressure increased in my head and I fell down into a chair moaning. Jeff came to my rescue and said, “I’ll finish dinner. What do you need me to do?” (He really is the best husband ever.) I told him my plan and told him the sauce needed to be stirred and then microwaved again until it started to thicken. I buried my head in the couch and was lost in painful delirium when he yelled from the kitchen, “Is this sauce really going to thicken?” It had been about 10 minutes; Emma was wining and playing dead because she was so hungry, so I went to the kitchen. The sauce had not thickened. I apparently added too much liquid in my initial preparations and Jeff microwaved the heck out it thinking it would eventually go from soup to sauce. I stirred it and saw that all the heat had curdled the cheese sauce. I took a big whiff to smell if it was OK, but couldn’t tell a thing with my stuffed nose. I added some cornstarch, heated it again in the micro and we sat down to eat.

I spooned the first bite to my mouth and ate with trepidation. My sense of taste was completely gone, so all that greeted me were grainy lumps of curdled sauce on elbow macaroni, with tuna clinging like fur among the mushy peas. My eyes met Jeff’s and he smirked with a bite in his mouth. I choked and then giggled. We both laughed and laughed until our eyes watered and I had to go get Kleenex to blow my nose. Across the table Emma ate bite after bite. “Do you like it?” I asked her. “Mmm, funny noodles good, Mommy,” was her reply.

Again, I am feeling better today. I have plans to get to the grocery store. I am glad that soupy curdled cheesy tuna and peas was our biggest tragedy yesterday. We have so much to be thankful for.