I love to cook, eat, and entertain, and as an ostomate I can do that again. When I was sick, it was often difficult to do any one of those things, never mind all three. Cooking and entertaining took more energy than I had, and eating…well, anyone reading this post knows all about that.
Last night, I had a couple over for dinner, and I decided to make pizzas. I did groceries around 1 PM, then came home and drank a cup of coffee, and got started. First, I made braised garlic by cutting off the tops of four big heads of elephant garlic, placing them in a baking dish with vegetable broth, rosemary, and thyme, and putting it into the oven. Then I made the pizza dough, kneading kneading kneading, and set that aside. Following that, I made: chipotle paste, puttanesca sauce, chili lime toasted almonds and rose geranium dressing for the salad, garlic-herb aioli, grilled onions, sauteed portabella mushrooms, and sauteed sage-fennel quorn. I sliced fresh heirloom tomatoes, chopped and cleaned the butterball lettuce, shaved fresh corn off the cob, and then I was finally ready to roll out the dough for the ten-inch pizzas. By this time it was already 6 PM, and my guests had arrived. I poured myself a glass of wine, and moved right into the entertaining part of the evening. We enjoyed all of the pizzas: garlic-herb aioli, figs, grilled onions, and goat cheese; garlic-herb aioli, portabellas, and blue cheese; puttanesca sauce, sage-fennel quorn, and fresh mozzarella; and chipotle paste, heirloom tomatoes, corn, and smoked cheddar (all came from the Millennium Cookbook, not including the cheese). We visited, and eventually moved on to dessert over a long game of canasta. I didn’t go to bed until after midnight.
I could enjoy such a day because I am healthy, and I especially appreciate such a day because I know what it’s like to be sick and to no longer be able to cook, eat, and entertain.
As a side note, I know that when you’re considering ostomy surgery, you imagine having various dietary restrictions. While each individual is different and may have certain limitations, I have experienced relatively few. Nothing that I ate or drank yesterday – not the corn on the pizza, the spicy chipotle paste, the red wine, the almonds, the salad, or the cheesecake – adversely affected me at all. Had I still been sick with Crohn’s, any one of those things might have sent me to the bathroom for the rest of the evening. This is my new life. Cheers.
