Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine #8

[iamshadow21]

Maybe your cousin could text in advance before knocking on your door next time? I try to get people to text me when they get to my house because we used to have total hysteria from the dogs if someone knocked. Now one of the dogs is resting in peace, and the other one is pretty deaf, but I would still prefer people to text, especially since we have signs discouraging solicitors, who apparently can't read.

Edit: punctuation

For very good reasons, which include periodic homelessness and housing insecurity, my cousin has a blanket unconditional invitation to come anytime. She tapped on the door very quietly, in case we were asleep. It wasn't her fault I was on a hair trigger because of my own mental health stuff. It is a bad day for me, and that's my job to manage.

We also used to have dogs who alerted us of any passing children, dogs, buses, gusts of wind, but they are all gone now. Maybe if I still had them I wouldn't be quite as jumpy, but maybe not. I worked out today that I haven't left the house since New Year's. The back end of 2025 had a whole bunch of intense stresses including dental surgery and bereavement, and I'm still climbing up from that.

The Bailey's was lovely. Really good strong deep caramel flavour. It'll probably take us a year to drink it, but that's fine. They released a cinnamon scroll flavour recently, so that's waiting under our bed for when the caramel one is finished.

 

[PayrollNerd]

For very good reasons, which include periodic homelessness and housing insecurity, my cousin has a blanket unconditional invitation to come anytime. She tapped on the door very quietly, in case we were asleep. It wasn't her fault I was on a hair trigger because of my own mental health stuff. It is a bad day for me, and that's my job to manage.

We also used to have dogs who alerted us of any passing children, dogs, buses, gusts of wind, but they are all gone now. Maybe if I still had them I wouldn't be quite as jumpy, but maybe not. I worked out today that I haven't left the house since New Year's. The back end of 2025 had a whole bunch of intense stresses including dental surgery and bereavement, and I'm still climbing up from that.

The Bailey's was lovely. Really good strong deep caramel flavour. It'll probably take us a year to drink it, but that's fine. They released a cinnamon scroll flavour recently, so that's waiting under our bed for when the caramel one is finished.

You know sometimes it’s just about comfort and you need to indulge.

My youngest age 27, finally received her autism diagnosis this last summer. High functioning for sure and as her mom, I’ve known since she was 3 y/o. I’ve made simple accommodations for her over the years so she can find that inner peace. Sometimes it’s a pot of homemade veggie soup and a pan of cornbread.

Last year she came out of hiding in her room at 9pm and was poking thru the kitchen cabinets and fridge. She didn’t seem like she could settle and focus on a meal. I offered to make a breakfast casserole and engaged her in prepping the veggies for it. An hour later she was much more settled and was able to sleep.

Take good care my dear. (((Hugs)))

 

[iamshadow21]

You know sometimes it’s just about comfort and you need to indulge.

My youngest age 27, finally received her autism diagnosis this last summer. High functioning for sure and as her mom, I’ve known since she was 3 y/o. I’ve made simple accommodations for her over the years so she can find that inner peace. Sometimes it’s a pot of homemade veggie soup and a pan of cornbread.

Last year she came out of hiding in her room at 9pm and was poking thru the kitchen cabinets and fridge. She didn’t seem like she could settle and focus on a meal. I offered to make a breakfast casserole and engaged her in prepping the veggies for it. An hour later she was much more settled and was able to sleep.

Take good care my dear. (((Hugs)))

We're all neurodiverse in my family, all some flavour or combination of autism and ADHD. There's also degrees of hoarding disorder, too. Mine is also complicated with complex PTSD, GAD, and possible OCD traits. None of us in our generation or the ones before were diagnosed as children. All four of my brother's kids were.

Helping with food is such a big thing. With me, my anxiety is my biggest barrier to eating. Sometimes I can only eat my safe foods. Sometimes I need to take valium to calm down enough to not feel nauseous so I can even think about food. But cooking and baking for me are a joy. I'm sure you all probably think, 'oh, dear, she's made brownies AGAIN!' but I just love finding something that is even more satisfying to make than eat, and I love eating them, and I love creating variations on that theme that can be new and surprising. Just finding something in my cupboard and throwing it in to see if it works.

And there are some things I love to make exactly the same way, because they satisfy me in a very precise way if they're just right.

When I'm feeling less self-conscious I should take a picture of my cupboards, all my spice jars and ingredient jars. I think Nigella has more than I do, but I have a lot. Lots of weird and wonderful ingredients. They're all a bit dusty and cobwebby, though, because the shelving most are on is actually in our garage.

 

[slowpoke]

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
I hope today you feel all the love you deserve today.