Category: Thoughts

Week 2 of Isolation – Eating

Some of the world around me is worrying about toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Currently, I am focusing my worrying on food. Having enough, getting enough nutrition, balancing stress and comfort eating, and not going hungry.

For the world other than me, there are those that can’t get it easily. SNAP, the Federal food stamp supplement program instituted planned changes reductions weeks before the pandemic hit. Children (and their families) dependent on School breakfast and lunch programs are no longer going to school. I’m doing my best to continue my support of this through Feeding America but I’m open to other ideas.

For those not used to working from home, perhaps it’s sourcing three meals a day plus snacks for yourself when you likely bought lunch or had it where you worked. And many of you have families and kids all at home making this less about packed lunches or money for lunch and more about having to source food, meal prep, and somehow still work. I might be able to help.

Why? Well, because I’ve been working from home for eight years next month; before that, I was a cook, and I’m good at planning and strategy. So, this week, I’m going to talk about the strategies we’re using to feed the two of us. I’ll start with some of what we are preparing and go from there.

If you have specific needs, leave it in the comments and we’ll tackle it one by one. We’re a community here – a tribe and keeping sane and satisfied during this time is going to be a challenge for everyone.

To start the week in food, we braved the farmer’s market today. More about solidarity and community than anything else. As our guv’nah says, keep your distance if you have to go out, pretend you have the virus and do all you can to keep it from others.

It was a small market with sparse attendance so it was easy to stay away from each other. It was very good to see the farmers and sellers we know. Happily East Bay was already out of sourdough, so we nibbled on those pastries you see in the picture before lunch. Upper Crust had some options left, including Everything bagels!

An evening in Albany

Have you been to the Hotsy Totsy?

Do you drink?

Shot and a beer? Or something more clever in cocktail form?

Do you like local memorabilia?

Are you intrigued yet?

The HTC has been a staple of the easy bay since 1934.

Currently owned by Jessica Maria and Michael Valladares (since 2008) it’s a lovely combination of dive bar and craft cocktail establishment. More info on the owners here.

We have had consistently good cocktails each visit.

This visit we enjoyed a “Warm Hug” made with Merlet VSOP cognac, pumpkin butter and black walnut. A lovely dessert drink.

The “Femme Fetale” with Magnus whisky, sour cherry liqueur, LoFi dry vermouth and saffron bitters.

All in all a lovely start to the evening which ended with dinner at Zaytoon on Solano Avenue which had their bar program crafted by Jessica Maria as well.

We ate small plates-style and enjoyed several plates. Handsome was not wowed by the hummus but the rest of the Mazza plate ($12) was balanced, thoughtful and well-crafted.

The wine list is compact but selves into broad regions. We enjoyed both Greek and Lebanese wine with our meal (glass avg $12.50)

The Warak Inab (Lebanese name for the more familiar Turkish dolma) was soft, and fragrant with herbs that made it a lovely contrast to the baba ghanouj and tabbouli $8)

I look forward to trying more on our next visit.

What IS important?

Some times in my life I have found that I move into a sort of chaotic spiral of motion when there are too many priorities and I can’t seem to make headway.

This latest set of challenges has me feeling like I’m stock still and getting nothing done when I am actually moving positively forward. Perhaps it is that there are more, perhaps it is that I have a new way of being with it.

Regardless, I am reminded of the old adage “God will never give you more than you can handle.”

Life does give us more than we can handle and sometimes we do that to ourselves. We say Yes too often, take on projects or causes because we feel we have to even if we don’t have enough time.

I think this happens, in part, because we are being taught how to say No. How to step back. How to have boundaries and care for ourselves. How to grow into being a person that can have balance.

But regardless, sometimes the challenges given to us suck.

Right now, I’m healing from an injury, my kitchen is in disrepair from water damage and frustrating contractor interactions, my time is split between a fulfilling job and a thousand other things that try to take my attention and a number of other things that don’t belong in a food blog.

Suffice it to say, that can make it challenging to get out there and cook, eat out, or even think about food.

But in a nice Ted talk a friend pointed out to me, we as humans are able to manage our time and usually find the time we need when something is important enough.

How? Well, in time management its called re prioritizing. One of you will tell me if Six Sigma has a different term for it. In my life, we call this “What’s bloody important right now?” And we emphasize the right now because it can change in an instant during the day or another activity.

And right now in my life healing and work take priority for most of my awake hours. By choice.

So we’ll get back to cooking soon, we have some plants percolating for winter use, the overall garden plan is moving slowly forward, garden maintenance is being eked out on as “as we can manage” basis, and every day I reinvest in looking at if these are the right priorities.

So there will be more soon here from both past and present. Hope you enjoy.