Just a little less of me

A friend sent me an email complaining that the blogisphere has gotten a wee bit empty with my absence. While I seriously doubt that anyone notices, here we go...

Its been an interesting winter. Interesting is a good word... kind of leaves a nebulous feel to it without actually describing anything. Somehow that is a pretty good description of a winter full of snow, little to no riding, stress, tummy troubles that I thought was stress, and my new black, blue, green and yellow tummy.

Turns out stress has a new name, gall bladder. Yeah mine turned out to be defective and had to come out. Once Marc got his hands to stop shaking, he ripped it out. Or maybe thats why I have 4 holes... too much shaking. I thought that Marc had two hands, the other holes must have been for PRACTICE!

Now I did notice in the photos that Marc gave me that there was some extraneous yellow stuff left over. I would have thought that a buddy would have taken that out while he was in there dumpster diving through my intestines.

The worst part? Choose one... mouth like the Sahara until my bestest buddy J snuck me diet Cokes. (which she got yelled at for doing, but J was not going to let her fearless leader damn die of thirst...) Almost barfing in J's car on the way home even though J was technically going the speed limit as she hit every pothole on Patterson Ave... Or maybe being 8 months pregnant for days with the mother of all gas bubbles... My pick, itchy surgical glue. I'm thinking its a new torture device.

The best part? The best friends a cranky girl could ever have. From Mike who drove me at 5 am, to J who made sure that I was taken care of, Marc and crew who put up with my weird sense of humor (although the Scottish anesthesiologist didn't quite appreciate my saying that Marc was going to rip anything out... ) and all my buds that made sure that I laughed my way through it all.

In the meantime, until I can write about getting dropped in races, here is a treat for my vegetarian fans. Us carnivores like it, too!

Garlicy white bean dip

1 15 oz can of cannelloni beans
2 tbsp of roast garlic (recipe below)
dash of olive oil
pinch of salt

get a nice size head of your favorite garlic, cut the top of the head off and lightly anoint with olive oil. Put in tin foil and bake in the oven for 40 min at 350 degrees. Peel off any extra "paper" and squeeze the now roasted garlic out into a bowl. Mash. (You can use this as a spread all on its own, the roasting takes out the harsh garlic taste. Honest)

Drain beans and heat in the microzapper for 1 minute. Put beans, garlic paste, a splash of olive oil and a pinch of salt into a food processor. Whip into a smooth consistency.

Yum, yum, good. Serve on pita chips, make a great sandwich with roasted veggies, or a dip for veggies. Yum. Really.