Cooking in a Pandemic

Cooking during a pandemic

Food and drink have always been a major part of our life together. Cathy is an amazing home cook. She is aways finding new and exciting dishes to make. She puts a lot of energy into planning our meals and shopping. We have an extensive cookbook collection, and constantly go back to this Blog to reference dishes we have previously cooked together.

The process was simple, find a recipe that inspires, possibly match it with another dish or two, choose a wine. We had a routine of stores where we shopped: McCall's, Gelson's, Cookbook, Proof, etc. Many times friends would either be invited over for dinner or just drop in, knowing there is always a place for them at our table. Cocktails are served everyday at 6pm.

Covid has overturned all of that. We are aware we are experiencing it differently from most people. We are extremely fortunate to have a large enough house with a yard, so we don't go stir crazy. Previously we would easily shop and assemble the all of the ingredients for a dinner. The pandemic confined us to our house, making shopping no longer possible. It also disrupted the supply lines, meaning finding eggs flour and many other staples was no longer easily possible.

It took a while to find sources that could deliver whatever they might have in stock. Over time, restaurants,  desperate for a source of income, began to sell pantry items and vegetables.  We also became more comfortable doing contactless curbside pickup and learned to improvise or  substitute what we had on hand for what the recipe called for.   Now we spend much of our time foraging for ingredients online.

The biggest challenge for us is that we can't be truly with our friends and share food, drinks and stories. We do have friends over for a drink (at safe distance) and video chat with them, but nothing replaces the intimacy of spending quality time over drinks and food with our friends. Hopefully the good times will return. Until then, in the words of Winston Churchill in the worst part of the Battle of Britain his clarion call was: "Keep Plodding On".