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.

 

[iamshadow21]

Soup and brownies, must be Tuesday!

I've been craving spicy peanut butter soup, so I made a large pot. Mum was happy when she found out this morning, because she has a lot of school work to do over the next few days and it means she doesn't have to cook for herself. This one has potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, carrot, and swede.

Also mum bought a bunch of stone fruit and asked for help eating it. Partner can't, but I've been wanting to put apricots in a brownie for about a year now, so I made a half and half. One half with fresh apricots, one half with raspberries. I also put both white chocolate and milk chocolate chips in the batter, because I don't go through the chips anywhere near as fast as the melts, and all my chips are way out of date. Like, years. I don't want to waste them, and I won't buy more until I've used them, so I'm going to try to use them in as much as I can for the next while.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Happy Fat Tuesday! Happy Paczki Day!

Paczki Day 2026 is Tuesday, February 17, celebrated as Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) in the US to indulge in rich, jelly-filled Polish doughnuts before Lenten fasting. Particularly popular in Midwestern cities like Detroit and Chicago, these, often custard or fruit-filled, pastries are used to consume household lard, sugar, and eggs.

I have an appointment this afternoon, so DH and I will stop at Nino's for a few groceries and paczkis for each of us. They are sickeningly sweet - not to mention loaded with fat - but it's a tradition in Michigan, so we indulge in the custom.

My beef/mushroom/barley soup is wonderful: The broth is very flavorful. We'll have some again tonight, then tomorrow will be a meatless meal on Ash Wednesday - Pasta Puttanesca. Pasta Puttanesca

 

[iamshadow21]

Happy Fat Tuesday! Happy Paczki Day!

Paczki Day 2026 is Tuesday, February 17, celebrated as Fat Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) in the US to indulge in rich, jelly-filled Polish doughnuts before Lenten fasting. Particularly popular in Midwestern cities like Detroit and Chicago, these, often custard or fruit-filled, pastries are used to consume household lard, sugar, and eggs.

I have an appointment this afternoon, so DH and I will stop at Nino's for a few groceries and paczkis for each of us. They are sickeningly sweet - not to mention loaded with fat - but it's a tradition in Michigan, so we indulge in the custom.

My beef/mushroom/barley soup is wonderful: The broth is very flavorful. We'll have some again tonight, then tomorrow will be a meatless meal on Ash Wednesday - Pasta Puttanesca. Pasta Puttanesca

The food cultures to do with Lent and Easter is really interesting to me, because raised LDS, we didn't do any of that. My brother remarked when he was hospitalised for a few weeks in a Catholic institution that it was always fish on Friday, which just wasn't something we grew up with. No booze, Coke, cigarettes or drugs, yeah, but we didn't change our diet completely for an entire section of the year.

Different, and beautiful, because food cultures come up with such lovely and creative variations whenever there is a religious or cultural taboo or something to celebrate.

 

[IceIce9]

The food cultures to do with Lent and Easter is really interesting to me, because raised LDS, we didn't do any of that. My brother remarked when he was hospitalised for a few weeks in a Catholic institution that it was always fish on Friday, which just wasn't something we grew up with. No booze, Coke, cigarettes or drugs, yeah, but we didn't change our diet completely for an entire section of the year.

Different, and beautiful, because food cultures come up with such lovely and creative variations whenever there is a religious or cultural taboo or something to celebrate.

I used to work in a clinic where nearly all the staff members were Catholic. Only a few of us were not. I was in charge of ordering lunch every day. That was back in 2001-2007 when drug reps were allowed to provide lunches for doctors, we had 5 doctors in our clinic so we usually had lunch every day of the week.

All during Lent we had fish for lunch, and every Friday year round we had fish.

It was a nice place to work, the doctors liked for all of us to eat together in the break room like a family.

 

[killarney rose]

There used to be a Seventh Day Adventist hospital in Orlando. Don’t know if it’s still there. They cooked by their rules and everything was homemade. Even the cafeteria vending machine sandwiches were on homemade bread. It was delicious.

 

[muggles63]

Today is Pancake day in the UK, everyone has pancakes

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

The food cultures to do with Lent and Easter is really interesting to me, because raised LDS, we didn't do any of that. My brother remarked when he was hospitalised for a few weeks in a Catholic institution that it was always fish on Friday, which just wasn't something we grew up with. No booze, Coke, cigarettes or drugs, yeah, but we didn't change our diet completely for an entire section of the year.

Different, and beautiful, because food cultures come up with such lovely and creative variations whenever there is a religious or cultural taboo or something to celebrate.

Are you familiar with this book? History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat. If not, I think you might enjoy reading it - or at least parts of it. The book is 800 pages and reads like a college textbook, but it is fascinating. I haven't read it cover-to-cover but have read a significant portion of the lengthy tome.

Synopsis
This wide-ranging and comprehensive reference history covers in one volume the history of foodstuffs, the story of cuisine and the social history of eating. From the origins of mankind, and the transition from a vegetable to an increasingly carnivorous diet, the story unfolds of the interrelationship between people and diet, between particular foods and social mores, between dietary custom and cuisine.

A strong theme of natural history runs through the book. Bees and honey are examined and discussed, as are pulses, soya, fungi, cereals and the sources of vegetable oils. Game and meat of all kinds from poultry to horsemeat are described, as are all kinds of sea foods. Domestic animals, vegetable and fruit farming, fish farming and other human initiatives are compared with the economic markets they serve, and the dietary effects they have. Foods of pleasure, from confectionery to wine, from coffee to caviar are also covered.

This vast survey concludes with an investigation of scientific issues, including methods of food preservation, dietetics and the importance of vitamins. A selection of significant illustrations is included in the text, and there is a comprehensive bibliography and index. The French edition of this book won the History Prize of the Societe des Gens de Lettres de France.

 

[iamshadow21]

Are you familiar with this book? History of Food by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat. If not, I think you might enjoy reading it - or at least parts of it. The book is 800 pages and reads like a college textbook, but it is fascinating. I haven't read it cover-to-cover but have read a significant portion of the lengthy tome.

Synopsis
This wide-ranging and comprehensive reference history covers in one volume the history of foodstuffs, the story of cuisine and the social history of eating. From the origins of mankind, and the transition from a vegetable to an increasingly carnivorous diet, the story unfolds of the interrelationship between people and diet, between particular foods and social mores, between dietary custom and cuisine.

A strong theme of natural history runs through the book. Bees and honey are examined and discussed, as are pulses, soya, fungi, cereals and the sources of vegetable oils. Game and meat of all kinds from poultry to horsemeat are described, as are all kinds of sea foods. Domestic animals, vegetable and fruit farming, fish farming and other human initiatives are compared with the economic markets they serve, and the dietary effects they have. Foods of pleasure, from confectionery to wine, from coffee to caviar are also covered.

This vast survey concludes with an investigation of scientific issues, including methods of food preservation, dietetics and the importance of vitamins. A selection of significant illustrations is included in the text, and there is a comprehensive bibliography and index. The French edition of this book won the History Prize of the Societe des Gens de Lettres de France.

That sounds like exactly the sort of nonfiction I like to read. Thank you for the recommendation!