Special Soup II

This isn't a Valentine's post, but it is about caring for someone, sort of. Hopefully it's a nice way to welcome February 13th.

The first time I made lunch for my mom I was in the 2nd grade and did something dumb. Her request was simple--hot tea (weak), light toast, and tomato soup. I put bread in the toaster, made sure there was water in the kettle and put it on the stove. Then I got out the can of soup. The directions were easy. Empty contents into a pan, add one can of water, heat and serve. Simple.

I placed the cutting wheel of the manual can opener on the top edge of the can, clamped the handles together and started to spin the turning key. Everything was going great, for about 2 spins. Then the can stopped spinning when I turned the key. I unclamped and re-clamped the can opener, but it wouldn’t work for more than a few spins. I ended up with a can that had punctures and cuts all around its top, but none that connected enough for me to get the soup out. I considered my options and came up with a great idea.

I went to my father's work bench in the cellar and got a hammer and one of his wood chisels. I returned to the kitchen and proceeded to use the tools to cut around the edge of the can until I was finally able to lift the lid on one side. I poured the soup into the pan, added the water and made special soup for my mother.

What made it special? Love? No. What made it special were the metal slivers that HAD to be in the soup from my use of the wood chisel. Hopefully the slivers settled to the bottom and were not served to my mom along with her tea and toast. But hey, we need iron in our diets, so I'm sure a little tin never hurt anyone! ;P


PS - This was one of my earliest posts. Since the very few people who saw it no longer blog, I thought it would be okay to repeat it. Plus, I've learned since then that what I did wasn't dumb after all. Cans were originally intended to be opened that way--can openers weren’t invented until long after people started canning food. I love it when it looks like I knew what I was doing when, really, I had no idea (it doesn't happen often).

http://www.ehow.com/list_6811631_description-parts-can-opener.html