The Covid Diaries --Day 2

Safety Choices

There's a crap-ton of information floating around for all to enjoy regarding the Coronavirus.  The news is sensationalized and the political debates are depressing. Not that I don't advocate, but I do believe there are actual professionals, expert in areas of study where I am not, knowing a thing or two about their profession, for someone like me to learn from and analyze the data and hopefully make an informed decision. All I really know at this point is I don't want the Rona. If my kids get an allergy, I freak the fuck out. So, there's that. Here are a few of the facts: We are being ordered to stay home. That means if you are not an essential employee needing to report to work and unless you are traveling to pick up essential items, you need to please stay home. I cannot go into my office to work. The kids have no school. 

These are some of the extreme and irresponsible safety choices we have made and the reasons why. First, we are not socializing. I miss my running buddy. She just returned from being away from me for a year and we were finally back together running, right before this pandemic hit. Running is a major part of our lives. We ran a few times together, staying 6 feet apart, until a couple weeks ago when the number of infections and death count continued to rise, we decided it's best we run solo, for the safety of our families.

I'm fortunate in that I live in a neighborhood full of walking trails and paths, however, everyone else has the same idea of 'getting out' and these once naked paths are now full of families, strollers and dogs. I'm forced to run in the streets where I'm a bit more able to distance myself.

I mentioned the friend thing regarding my children in my previous post. We are not allowing our kids to visit friends. They do have access to call and communicate, but not visit in person. The reason is not so much the kids but we don't know where their parents have been. I have friends on the front line, working in health care. We ourselves could be infected and not even know it. 

My husband continues to golf. The golf club is so busy because it's one of the few places not closed. I'm not trying to throw him under the bus BUT HELLO! He says he's staying six feet apart. Fine. While he's out, he will pick up the groceries for me. I'm the cook. I'm the shopper. I always get the groceries, but right now I'm so scared that I haven't gone out at all. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I am. I'm also a control freak and surprised I'm allowing him to get groceries because I can't monitor what he's touching and how he's shopping, but that's how scared I am.
Speaking of husband, he's a chemist. So we have crazy debates about how I don't like chemicals like Mr. Clean in my house and he 'rationalizes' the actual chemical makeup.  I don't care. To me everything is cancer causing. Anyway, he just bought a farm animal medication to combat Covid-19.

Ummm, yeah, Ima have to take a hard pass on this. The kids and I are not taking this.

I think you can easily lose yourself in the craziness, the changes and inconveniences. I know people cope with change in lots of different ways.  The first few weeks didn't seem to be a big deal but this week my 10 year old had a melt down, crying, telling me he missed his friends. Heartbreak. Yesterday, the 13 year old informed us he was the only teenager on the entire planet not allowed to hang out with his friends. This was shocking to us as parents (cue the stair stomping and door slamming.) Believe me, I know, if I was living in this as a 13 year old I would have been giving my parents hell.  This will be life changing for the young people. I try to remind them, this is incredible! It's devistating that people are dying, it's awful. This will somehow change your character and I truly believe only for the better. 

The Covid Diaries --Day 1

Per assignment, I'm to take five pictures that demonstrate what my life looks like during this pandemic.  These photos are supposed to be interesting and representative of who I am. I'm not sure how interesting they will be because the days have been very similar and familiar for at least a few weeks now. I try to somewhat keep a schedule and some structure in order to break the days into more interesting pieces. I'm encouraging the kids to do the same thing because they tend to let the day get away from them too often.
Cooking and cleaning the kitchen three times a day sucks. And I love to cook, well, at least I used to. Gone are the days I tried a new recipe every evening. It's the same carb-loaded meals that the kids won't whine about (such a Debbie Downer!) So, with the whole diary, honesty thing, I'm letting the kids sleep in. I think they are thinking, why get up today? I'm cooking a late breakfast and making an early dinner.  There. Down to two meals and kitchen clean-up per day. They've eaten the snacks too fast to last for the next grocery trip so they are learning the term and meaning of 'rationing,' which is a word my mom used often during my childhood because we did not have extra money for tons of snacks and extra food to spontaneously invite friends over for dinner.

Dish washer runs twice a day instead of just once.

Multiple walks a day to get out of the house.

After breakfast we have to move! I'm running now more than ever because of the need to get out of the house. My 10 year old has movement issues, as in, he doesn't want to move his body off the couch, so he and I take walks around the neighborhood or he rides his bike down to a park and back. He's no longer allowed to play at the park or with his friends. It's difficult because he can see other kids in the neighborhood still playing together and we decided that was a risk. I'm feeling terrible for my kids. They are 10 and 13 and their friends are their world. I was the same way at that age. In fact all throughout my childhood I only wanted to play with and see my friends. I'm sure this quarantine is much harder on them than it is on us.

Jason bikes to this wonderful park in our neighborhood.

My husband works from home when he's not traveling and he's definitely not traveling. I'm a realtor and have only showed one vacant house since the quarantine and most of my clients are waiting to move. I'm using my work time to catch up on continuing education and planning for a busy summer and rest of the year. It's great I have that to focus on. The kids have student resources available to them through their school district. The activities are voluntary at this time. They take the rest of the morning or early afternoon to get in some math practice and reading.

Working from home looks like no shower, no makeup, large bags for me!

Dining table is for puzzling and school work.

Mid-afternoon has been the most difficult time of the day for me. I'm tired of reading and I already exercised. I've found it helpful to call a friend or parent just to talk which is very spirit-lifting. I'm dying to go to a happy hour and I've never really did that much prior to the stay-at-home order. The fact that I can't see my friends makes me want to have more meet-ups for coffee and come over to my house for back-porch drinking. When this passes, there will only be better perspectives.
Dinner time gives me a second wind while getting out the cutting board and chef knife. Maybe I'll even pour a glass of wine and I think about the rest of my family that I can't see. Dinner has been eerily quiet. I guess everyone thinks they don't have a 'day' to talk about. I wonder what everyone is thinking, but I'm just kinda dozing off into space myself. It could be so much worse. We've spent time counting our blessings and feeling grateful for what we have.
We try to agree on a movie to watch in the evening. I'm the only female so I'm always outnumbered by Marvel, another episode of The Office or another episode of the Simpsons. After about a half hour into whatever we're watching, one by one, people start disappearing from the family room to go text a friend, finished up some work, or get into the shower and I'm left with the remote I don't want because I'm scrolling through Facebook looking at all the funny memes about The Rona.

Fantastic Food Fake Out

Ever see those recipes come through your feed with only three ingredients?  Skeptical.  The pancakes are good, the energy bites are okay.  Then I saw this two ingredient gnocchi recipe.  What? There's no way.  It's sweet potato and flour.  Take a roasted sweet potato, mash it up and add enough flour to bring a dough together.  I can't believe it actually worked!

This came at a time when the last few dinners were total battles trying to get our picky eater to eat something, anything, that was somewhat nutritious.  I'm not saying flour is good for you, but getting that sweet potato in along with the delicious bolognese sauce I had already prepared, was a sneaky way of fitting in some much needed nutrients and protein.

This type of meal should be presented on a day following several previous battles at the dinner table. After hearing whining night after night of, "What?  You know I don't like that!" Responding with shame, regarding respect and gratitude and starving children everywhere.  When you switch food up, it needs to be introduced something like, "Fine.  We're having pasta tonight."  It may seem different but after the last few nights of fighting, they may be less inclined to question the look.  Yes, it's a story of great manipulation, however, certain stages of life require certain skill sets that will last as long as they're needed.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi
Ingredients:
1 roasted sweet potato (Poke a medium sweet potato with a fork all over, wrap in foil, roast in a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until done)
unbleached, all purpose flour

Directions:  Leaving the skin behind, mashed up a sweet potato in a medium bowl.  Add flour until you're able to knead into a dough.  Cut dough into smaller portions at a time to roll into about 1/2 inch log.  Cut bite sized portions from the log then use a fork to press indentations into the dough. Drop gnocchi into simmering water.  Once the dumplings rise to the top, remove with a slotted spoon.

The entire dough. Cut smaller portions to roll into 1/2 log.

Strain the gnocchi once you remove it from the boiling water.

You'll have a delicious, fluffy, sweet vehicle to support the boldest of sauces.  Here's the recipe I used for an amazing Bolognese Sauce found on Food.com:

http://www.food.com/recipe/real-italian-bolognese-sauce-83950

If you're looking for more adult versions, consider the following sauces:
Garlic, brown butter, herb sauce
Maple, cinnamon, sage, brown butter sauce
Balsamic, sage, brown butter sauce

Amazingly, this was a winner for us especially since we never see second portions taken!  For me, it was glorious to watch all that Vitamin A unknowingly going down the hatch {insert evil laugh.}

Punishment Soup ~ Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics

Winter Break starts out so exciting, with finishing up shopping, anticipating the holidays, baking treats, delivering gifts, visiting friends and family and eating until guts burst.  It can be a whirlwind of activity up through New Year's.  Then shortly after the New Year, normally, people return to work and the kids head back to school.  Oh, but not us.  Our kids have an entire extra week off school, which having moved from the North two years ago, I'm still not used to all the school year time off they get versus a long summer vacation, which I'm properly prepared to handle. 

It's really chicken, noodle, vegetable soup

Once the Christmas decorations get stored away and that (I already got crap and no longer have to behave) magic is gone, I start feeling (in my best Madea voice) like the 'chirren are tearin up my nerves.'

Admittedly, I have my parents' voices in my head with the memory of their, "I can't WAIT for you to have children!"  Oh the paybacks hath cometh.  I don't understand how my parents made it through my brother's and my fighting.  We drove them crazy and now I know the feeling.  My mother usually handled it by yelling at us to go to our rooms.  If she didn't feel like yelling, she would take off into the kitchen and violently rattle the drawer where she kept the wooden spoons and we would run in all directions out of her sight.

Each generation seems to say, "Kids today are so different."  I don’t know if they are or not.  I haven't read a parenting book since my first born was born, so about a decade.  Most days I still don’t know what the F I'm doing.  I used to lie in bed at night and rehash all the parenting that I could have done differently that day, but now I'm even over that.  It's not at all that I don't care-- I love my kids, would do anything for them, blah, blah, okay.  We are in a stage with our little family where there is an endangered supply of fucks given.  And this is how I'm going to push through this trying phase.

   

Sending the kids to their rooms or kicking them out of the house is only a temporary solution for their personal safety.  It's not really a punishment and it's not behavior changing.  In fact, I don't have any ideas for changing behavior since I'm still saying, "Eat over your plate, please" 500-600 times a day. 

You know where you are?  You're in the jungle baby!

My parental goal is to hopefully raise kind individuals.  It's a simple, yet thoughtful goal and I'm hoping to get back to that goal in the next stage because we've temporarily detoured to, "I hope you have a plan by the time you're 18." 

So getting back to the kids fighting.  This is about their fighting.  If they have time to fight, then they have time to work.  I've decided that whatever items are not yet checked off of my to-do list, will immediately become their next redirection.  I'm totally using their fighting to my benefit, AND I LIKE IT. We hit the jackpot today. Just as poor choices were being made, I had just started dinner. 

Children should learn cooking, cleaning and organizing anyway. Mine don't have a strict schedule of chores.  The projects they don't volunteer for become distractions, gets them some one-on-one time with a parent and almost always leaves them with a feeling of accomplishment and pride.  No, they are rarely happy about it, but that's why I do it.  Hopefully they learn something from it. 

This dough is easy to roll out and cut with a pizza cutter if you don't have a noodle maker, but I feel like how Princess Vespa feels about her industrial strength hair dryer and I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT!

Recipe for Punishment Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 egg

1 Tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 large carrot, diced

3 medium gold potatoes, diced

1 cup white wine

6 cups chicken stock

Bay leaf

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 whole roasted chicken, picked and chopped

homemade noodles

Hand Cut Noodles (make these first)

In a food processor, using the dough blade, pulse the flour and egg.  Slowly add a very small amount of water just until the dough comes together to form a ball.  Wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. 

On a floured surface, cut the dough into fourths.  Roll each section very thin then cut into desired length strips. Allow noodles to dry on floured parchment paper while preparing the rest of the soup.

Rest of the Soup:

Melt butter in a large Dutch Oven.  Add the onion, celery, carrots and potatoes.  Sautee until the vegetables soften.  Add the wine stir often while it cooks out.  Add Bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Add chicken stock and bring to boil.  Reduce to simmer and cover for about 20 minutes. Check that potatoes are soft then add the chicken and noodles.  Cook for about 10 more minutes, stirring occasionally.  

  

  

Banana Bread...Unrefined, But Still Classy as Hell

Once those bananas get a few too many dark spots, I know they're all mine.  Sometimes I make those three ingredient pancakes.  One smashed banana, one egg, two tablespoons flour are all you need to make a healthier hot cake.  There's no leavening, no sugar, none needed.  I use coconut oil to grease the pan and that makes it even more delicious.  Top with a little maple syrup or low sugar blueberry jelly from the Farmer's Market or sliced fresh fruit.

Anyhoo, today I have four lonely, nasty looking, sugar filled pods I'm about to bust open to make this week's school snacks and after dinner dessert.  The bowl is fitting.

Past your prime potassium posse

WHOLE WHEAT BANANA NUT BREAD

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1 cup of coconut palm sugar

4 bananas, mashed with a fork

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter and sugar.

Then add the mashed bananas and eggs.

Next, in a separate bowl, combine the flour, soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Stir to combine.  Add this to the creamed mixture.  Mix just until combined.  Stir in vanilla and chopped walnuts.

Pour mixture into a greased loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Test with toothpick to make sure center is set.  Cool slightly then remove from loaf pan and place onto a cooling rack.  

 Now that's what I'm talking about

Takin' it Back to the Old School

Because it's Friday and we like to celebrate with chocolate, peppermint sandwich cookies.  

The kids were asking to make cookies this week.  We make the same chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal cookies all the time.  They're our favorite.  So I thought they might have some fun looking through this old timer....

Then my oldest found them.  Sandwich cookies that I'd never have attempted whenever I first acquired this book.  The dough comes together very fast but you do have to chill it for several hours or overnight.  I stuck mine in the freezer for a couple hours.

{insert yule log joke}

Here's the original recipe.  I subbed in 1/4 cup of coconut oil for 1/4 cup of shortening and I used 1/2 cup of coconut palm sugar instead of regular sugar.  I couldn't help it, it's 2015!!!

 My helper

Triple stuffing these suckas!

These were fun to make and yeah, they're not going to last very long.  

Stank Eye Pizza