Images from The Isolation Cafe

Let's face it, there will come a time where we realize we either have COVID-19 in some (hopefully mild) form or must have had it. The goal is less about stopping everyone from getting it and more about stopping the most vulnerable from getting it or delaying the intensity of the outbreak, so healthcare is available to those who actually need it. IE Spreading out the cases over more time.

There is no cure and treatment comes in the form of making sure a person is in the best place they can be to ride it out and fight it off.

So it makes the most sense to me to keep the ol' body in good working order just in case it's called upon to fight hard... to fight a viral infection like breathing and survival depends on it. Because it might!

These are my goals:

1. Eat well

2. Sleep well

3. Exercise

4. Reduce stress

5. Avoid infection for as long as possible

The Isolation Cafe helps with 4 of the 5. I'll have to take care of the exercise with a different approach, obviously.

We had this meal a couple of nights this week. Ribeye with sauteed onions. Baked purple potatoes, parsnips, carrot. Roasted Brussels sprouts.

Below; Slices of eggplant being "sweated" in preparation for eggplant Parmesan later.

Check out the beeswax food covers my sister bought me for Christmas in New Zealand, a couple of months ago. We love that it saves us from using plastic wrap! My set of covers are awesome blues and florals that I just adore.

The finished product...

Eggplant Parmesan with garlic toast

Homemade bread goes stale much quicker than store-bought.  It's perfect for French toast.

At some point recently, Mark heard that lobster fisherman were suffering too. And that lobster was a good deal cheaper right now. A week later a cooler with dry ice inside was found on our doorstep. You can guess what was chillin' inside!

A part of me feels guilty about the good life, the ample opportunities that we have and the frickin' menu's that are bringing us joy. We are grateful for the motivation to be more creative in the kitchen. That's why I'm slipping a record of this event into an older post. The intent is to be able to look back honestly at our life... but not to gloat about it or even really to attract new readers with this post.

Seriously.. this is the first lobster omelette I've ever eaten!

 AND the first lobster rolls since I left the northeast 15 years ago.

Some days, when you wish you could visit the local restaurant serving Indian, Thai, or Italian fusion cuisine, the only thing to be done is cooking it yourself. This week we have nibbled on Italian, Russian, Indian and French food, fresh from our own kitchen. Even though we'd rather be supporting local businesses, we are grateful for all that we are capable at home too. Comfort food.

Sense and Sensibility in times of COVID-19

You've probably guessed by now that I was a little bit of a "prepper" BEFORE this whole COVID-19 thing went down - long before self-distancing turned into self isolation turned into the current stay at home ordinance.

Supplies for cleaning and baking were always in stock in our house. As were paper towels and toilet paper. I had 3 tiny hand sanitizers for travel purposes and 2 N95 masks to protect me from fumes while painting etc. Our lives would not have been awful if we hadn't been able to buy much at the store in the last couple of weeks either.

That didn't stop us from adding to supplies though and we were quick to buy additional canned and frozen veges, a big bag of flour, more sugar, pasta, rice, potatoes, onions, meat and treats for the cat, a frozen whole chicken for us, plus freezer-type Ziplock bags and reusable plastic storage containers.

In the last week, I have found a few additional things online too - at less well trafficked websites - not even close to the first page of your Google search. I acquired a couple of travel sized/3oz spray hand sanitizers (70% alcohol), UHT milk, two reusable filter masks. All at normal prices and in quantities that are perfect for two people. I refuse to contribute to the hoarding insanity or reward those who are price gouging.

I'm happy to share tips and tricks to make your stay at home more like a vacation than a prison sentence.

Got symptoms and need to leave the house? (Thankfully no... but...)
Personally, this is only the time I'd wear a mask. It would stop me from coughing/breathing germs on others and when I inadvertently touch my face (which we all do) it's a little barrier between dirty hands and direct contact to mouth and nose.

UHT milk. It seems half of the US is unfamiliar with this product. UHT milk is milk that has been heated briefly to a much higher temperature, to kill bacteria. It is packaged appropriately and then doesn't need refrigeration, but is shelf-stable for 6-9 months. If we experience milk delivery or supply issues, having this on standby means no big deal. I will not be leaving the house to go in search of milk. It may not taste exactly like the milk you are accustomed to but it's close and if you are like me, it's absolutely good enough. Much more, natural and less processed than all those nut, soy and oat liquids that call themselves milk, but if that is your thing, you can probably find shelf-stable versions of these too. You can often find UHT milk at office supply stores, FYI. (Or at least, you could.)

What do I think about milk powder? It's pricey and perhaps getting pricier by the day. It will never taste like milk when you drink it or put it on cereal, but Im sure it's a better than nothing for cooking etc.  I do not have any and have no plans to buy any at this point.

On a side note... A few years back I took a camel safari in the Thar Desert in India. We camped on the dunes, slept under the stars and our guide cooked our meals from scratch. Every morning and night, he made us chai over the campfire. We were 3 days in before I saw his "recipe". He had been using baby formula as the milk substitute for campfire chai. Truthfully, it was darn good chai.

The moral of the story is, in a pinch, we use the resources available to us - whether it's price or supply that is the issue, there is often an alternative and our less privileged brothers and sisters all over the world have long been practicing this successfully. As did our grandparents and generations before them, who endured and survived more hardship that we will probably ever experience.

NOTE: I am not suggesting you run out and buy up baby formula!!! Leave it for the babies, please. I'm just saying, in challenging times, we get creative to solve problems. Think outside the box and be grateful for all the alternatives and options we still have. :-)