So. Here we are beginning Month #4 of our Stay At Home series of food posts.
Going crazy? Yup - you and over 300 million other people. But we do what we can and need to do to survive.
Kids are now officially out of “school”.
But where to go for the summer?
You can’t. ::::Sigh::::: But we do what we can and need to do to survive.
If you’ve got a grill at home? Lucky you!
If you’ve got a pool at home? Luckier you!
We keep on keeping on, doing what we can to combat this pandemic. We should all be working hard on staying safe, eating as well as we can, whether it’s at home or enjoying takeout from our local restaurants, and mostly enjoying when we can gather with friends and family (socially distanced, of course).
We in the U.S. have got a national holiday coming up in 3 days - what’s going for your Independence Day? Fireworks are out nationwide due to cancellations of large gatherings, but hopefully you can find something to celebrate during this oddest of years, 244 years in the making.
ChristinaM
(Hungry in Asheville, NC (still plenty to offer tourists post Hurricane))
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I’ll put these here although technically they were cooked at the end of June. We went van camping for a couple of days at a primitive campsite on a lake. Dinners were planned with campfire cooking and toddler selectivity in mind:
American goulash aka chop suey/Beefaroni - using FIL’s (bland, sweet) home-canned spaghetti sauce, ground beef raised on his land, and canned tomato sauce. Cooked in a big ol’cast iron pot and served up with garlicky fennel cooked en papillote. Smores for dessert (pro tip: never feed to a small child before bed!)
Actually, I just liberated my grill, Mo Weber from imprisonment in our garage since February or March. T-Latch broke then, and I finally called in a repair crew to fix the damn door. I’ve been buying Lump Charcoal since last October, so I have almost 100 pounds of that. And, dried hickory chunks too. I’m planning to bring Mo Weber center stage on July 4th for his Summer debut.
Tonight, we’ll have Dagwood sandwiches on a terrific Potato Bread; with Second Day Potato Salad. No pics will be taken.
Love the chicken and dumplings - once in a while when I need comfort food (last three months?) I’ll do a similar-ish chicken pot pie without a crust, but covered with biscuits.
Wednesday Lunch July 1st … For a change of pace … Fresh tomatoes, baked potatoes and ecological ribs prepared in oven for guests and us. My sons and daughter in laws came to say hello … Served with a 100% Italian Cabernet and also a Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon mono varietal too …
I’ve done my share of van ('70 VW) camping, and my share of camp cooking, but, girl, I wanna camp with YOU! Of course, in '70, I’m not really sure we knew what fennel was other than sausage seasoning.
Tsardusted pork chop with a cider reduction sauce spiced up with a bit of cayenne. Grilled zucchini and yellow squash planks seasoned with Penzeys Mural of Flavor seasoning blend.
Wine alongside.
Because Wednesday.
And just because.
Had a pretty crappy few days - now a week - in the back of a minor interaction, with some fuel thrown on the embers by helpful parties. So, time to go home. Enough already.
Booked a ticket home for two weeks from now (so I’m not getting on a crammed flight at 4x price out of anger).
Informed the adults, who are a bit shocked (even though that was part of the awful after-talk of the nothing situation) and attempting to convince me cancel, given rising cases everywhere and probably increased travel risk.
Will break it to the kids shortly, but they will have 2 weeks to adjust to the idea.
Meanwhile, baked a cake for a wedding anniversary today - kids helped decorate (and write on top after this).
And a delicious late lunch / early dinner for me - scrambled eggs and toast - scrambled eggs a la my vegetarian grandmother who didn’t eat eggs but was the best maker of these ever (grandfather’s favorite), and bread courtesy me and Serious eats’ version of Lahey’s recipe which is really just a few extra days in the fridge.
Just so you know, my D’s original itinerary got changed a few times. Ended up on a flight with mostly pilots and flight attendants, all talking about all the itinerary changes.
If I’m reading things right, NYC is one of the places where cases aren’t increasing, at least relative to population. My D called my father in law, her grandfather, on Father’s Day, and he said “what are you doing THERE?” and she was having second thoughts. She seems okay with it this week. She can now protest without a car. Hope that’s at least a little funny.
I’ve learned there’s a lot to be said for virtual gatherings, even with friends and family spread out over time zones and now continents, that would not have seemed likely even a year ago.
Last night in my home town . Plenty of wine . Starry rockfish caught by my freind out of the Monterey Bay . Multiple kinds of citrus to make a ceviche . Walked out to the garden . With eyes wide open
. Pickled onion and pepper . Cheers . Saw everything and everyone ending on a good note . Back in the mountains tomorrow. Cheers .
