Continuous Sniffles and the dull knife

It seems that every time I take a plane, my body reacts with sneezing, runny nose, and coughing. And it is the same with my recent trip/move to Germany. The hacking, the endless tissues are becoming burdensome. All I want to do is run and well, I feel like death walking the two blocks to the German market and home, so that's out of the question.

So the past two days have been filled with endless Big Bang Theory, internet surfing, playing "Yes, Chef" and iMessaging people in the states. I thought walking to the market would be good, but on my return home, I felt weak, so back on the couch I went.

However, this... allergies? cold? ... won't stop me from cooking Chicken Tortilla Soup. Or my mixed version of it. Then I grabbed my husband's kitchen knife and well that almost stopped me.

See the memo of a chef's knife doesn't go in the dishwasher didn't get to my new hubby. Rather his version is, I never said not to nor explained why not to, so he did. Basically, how all my kitchen memos go. I never said not to.

Then again it was the first slice of onion, that I realized that sucker was dull. And while my knife skills are anything but chef worthy my friend's dad would have taken that thing away from me immediately and handed me a new one. But I was left to make due with what I had on hand - a dull kitchen knife or my wusthoff paring knife.

The paring knife was obviously too small for the job, so I chose the hazard knife. With each stroke, I could just feel it slip closer to my fingers and I inwardly cringed. It was dull alright and one of my fingers were going to become it's target. Each cut was haphazard and un-chef worthy.

However, I made it through the onion and pepper with out spurting blood or rushing to get a band-aid. And I was able to prepare my soup without any other issues. It was a hit at dinner and it's gotten better in the fridge.

Now to find new knives.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

1 lb chicken breast
1 taco seasoning packet
1 rotel diced tomato
1 bell pepper
1 onion

Cook chicken in rotel, one can of water (about 2 cups), and taco seasoning in small pot. Dice pepper and onion. Once the chicken is cooked, shred it. Saute pepper and onion  with a tablespoon of olive oil in big pot, once cooked add chicken and left over sauce from small pot. Simmer until you are ready to eat it. We topped ours with cheese and scooped it Scoops.