Too much

One of the hazards of having so much time to fill is overdoing it.  If that involves cooking or baking, you can freeze what you can't eat.  But sometimes it just goes to waste.  That can also happen if you try something new which it turns out you don't like, of course.  Then you don't have the potluck group to suffer through it with you!  The old wisdom or sayings about it being harder to cook for 1 or 2 certainly seems true.  I try to cut recipes in half but that's harder when it's half an egg.

Other activities can get to be an overload as well.  When you're home all the time, it's easy to get caught up in the same thing again and again.  Finally, you look up and say - wow, I'm kind of sick of this now!  Sewing, anyone?  I'm trying to set a more reasonable pace to avoid burnout.  Also, I'm running out of thread.

All the projects that I've been putting off over the years are now invading my dreams.  Why aren't I working on those?  I should be more productive, take advantage of all this time to focus.  All these little ducks are following me around, quacking for attention.

What has you on overload these days?

Trivial details

As the scope of our world has shrunken somewhat, small details become more obvious.  This feeds right in to my head full of useless trivia. 

This week, I've come across a new word which is rarely used but some of you may remember it from the Watergate era.  During the hearings, the inimitable Sam Ervin found the possibility that the Nixon Whitehouse was using charity as a shield for their activities preposterous, so he posed this question to the witness - "Are we to believe that the [Committee to Reelect the President] was an eleemosynary institution that gave $45,000 to burglars simply because it felt sorry for them?"  After the laughter died down in the room, Ehrlichman replied "I'm afraid that I'm not your best witness on that, Senator."  Indeed not.  LOL

This delightful word, eleemosynary, turns out to be useful in another way.  I had heard it spoken and so I had no idea how it was spelled.  In an effort to figure out what this word was, I turned to Google and entered my best guess based on pronunciation 'iliamossenary.'  And then, a rare phenomenon occurred.  A fun internet puzzle is to try to find a word or phrase which stumps Google and comes up with nothing.  Google is pretty sophisticated at this point and will usually suggest some likely alternative with suggested pages.  But this misspelling did the trick - no hits returned and no suggested alternatives.  So cool to stump Google!  I had to guess a few other spellings to find the actual word I had heard.

Back to our main topic of food, I've been paying more attention to the ingredients I use in my normal dishes.  So when it calls for cheese, I make sure to buy the extra sharp cheddar or the more expensive Romano to add a flavor kick.  Or we add Canadian savory to the eggs in the morning for a little more pizzazz.

Have you been paying more attention to small things in your cooking or to other things during isolation?

Clearing up

Yesterday was chain saw day.  It was a good time to examine the yard and cut away the dead wood and useless understory - at least until the blade was too dull and needs sharpening.  My trouble with all gardening is that when you are done and the debris is neatly cleared away, the area looks as if it always looked that way and nothing has been done.

I've been doing some of the same in the house.  Looking at the pantry, I wonder what anardana (dried pomegranate seeds), mace, star anise, and cardamom pods were ever used for?  Will I ever use brown rice flour or 1/2 a pack of old ladyfingers again?  I'd hate to throw them away and then have to buy them again.  So the cooking and baking is getting a little more inspired, in an attempt to use these old odd ingredients in various recipes over the last month - red wine vinegar (marinated pork roast), bay leaves (creamy chicken potato soup which didn't call for bay leaf but I used it anyway), smoked paprika (patatas bravas), pickled okra (cuban chicken rice bake).  Baking now seems to use up common ingredients which you can no longer find in the stores - raisins, chocolate chips, flour, sugar.  So I've tried to make more unusual (if less successful) desserts like Carrot Banana Ginger cake with yogurt and honey frosting.  I think the frosting was worth it.
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1 tbsp honey
2 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup of hazelnuts (optional)
cinnamon to taste

Have you been using any unusual ingredients lately?  What has coronavirus lockdown caused you to uncover in your house or yard?

Losing focus

Mechanisms for coping with social isolation depend on personality.  This morning, I joined my first coronavirus zoom conference.  Strangely, it was a sing along with everyone but the guitarist on mute.  It made sense but still seemed somehow even more remote.  I've also joined a 75+ member mask sewing brigade.  It's good to feel useful and imagine that I'm part of something larger.  Perhaps we'll all get together for a group photo at some time in the future.  So far, I feel like an international spy - picking up my materials and instructions at a designated drop spot, wearing gloves to ward off polonium poisoning and a mask to hide my identity from surveillance.

A friend of mine has a teenage son, who wanted to connect with his friends so much that he wrote out several riddles, put one each in plastic easter eggs, and had his mom drive him around to his friends' houses so he could hide one in their lawn for a customized egg hunt.  The friends were supposed to solve the riddle and send him the answer in email.  So creative.

Another friend has started a series of facebook videos, in which she dresses up in a costume and presents a one minute message of the day.  These are everything from political jokes, to a new food pyramid featuring Oreos and snacks, to destroying a dollhouse with her crinoline skirt.  Crazy.  Oh, and a matzoh headband - I don't know what it was either, you had to see it.

Continuing on to our topic of food - I tried a seldom used scone recipe this morning.  They turned out edible, luckily, after I had to rescue the dough from 2 major baking mistakes.  I think I'm starting to lose focus.

How has your cooking been going lately?  Any disasters or successes?

Another Wednesday with no potluck

As I found myself standing over my dresser organizing my earrings yesterday, I decided that lack of social activity is really taking its toll.  You'd think with all this cleaning, gardening, hiking, and mask sewing I've been doing to stay busy I'd feel like I'm getting in better shape but it doesn't seem that way.  Also I'm trying to resist the urge to comment excessively on social media.  Put the computer down - people still don't need everyone's 2 cents on everything.  A lot of social media is just to vent.

Which leads me to today's post.  I hadn't realized how much I enjoy eating anywhere but home.  It's fun to see somewhere else, try something else, be with someone elses.  Of late our version of changing it up for dinner is to eat leftovers, Bill reading a book (biography of DeGaulle) and me continuing to binge watch whichever series I'm on now (season 2 of Star Trek Discovery).  Perhaps it's time to arrange a picnic lunch out of the house.

What have you been doing to mix up your mealtimes?

Where have you ordered take out?

During social distancing, the kitchen seem to become the hub of activity.  There's no more meals packed to go, after hiking.  No more eating out sometimes.  Even those strange places where you order at a window and then eat at a table outside - the tables are packed up.  I'm guessing food trucks are also a thing of the past - too risky.

To help keep the local restaurants open, Bill and I are going to order take out sometimes.  Yesterday's pickup shows the real advantage of this.  Bill likes spicy Asian food but as you know, I'm not a fan. So we each ordered what we wanted from 2 restaurants across the parking lot from each other, to be done at 6pm.  It was great - curbside service from each.  I had shrimp provencal and vegetable tamale from Venable and Bill had spring roll, papaya salad, and curry from Thai Station.

Gotten any good take out lately?

Are you trying any new recipes this week?

Due to the quarantine, Bill and I are having to plan out our meals rather than be spontaneous each evening, deciding what to make or to go out in the afternoon.  Probably planning out the week is a better way to go on a regular basis, a good habit to start up.

This week, in addition to some of our usual fare, we're trying a new recipe for meatless lasagna.  I know someone made this as main course for at least one potluck but it's the first time either of us has tried it.  We'll freeze half the batch for later.  Here's a link to the recipe we're using.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/meatless-lasagna/

In other news, I'm glad to have found a way to be useful (besides weeding the garden).  Friends of ours have just been able to return from Europe and are in self-quarantine - the kind where the county health department calls them to make sure they are at home.  So we (or more likely I) am going to do their grocery shopping for them and drop it on their step.  I tried to set up shopping online (where you drive up and pick up your stuff) but all the slots for that with local stores is already full.  We wear gloves whenever we go anywhere now, which isn't much of anywhere at all anymore.

Hope all of you are well!