Category Archives: Food

Food during the Pandemic

1/2/2020

Nan asked the other day what kinds of dinners we have been preparing. Here are some examples.

The pandemic isolation has brought Karen and me to focus more attention on our cooking. Karen in particular has taken up much more of the work. She actually follows recipes, plans, buys, and schedules things to cook and eat. We have continued to cook for leftovers. Almost nothing better than a night when we graze in the refrigerator for dinner made up of a potpourri of leftovers. I maintain my “open the refrigerator and make something out of what I find” approach. Continue reading →

12/24/2020 – Thursday – Christmas Eve

Slow day.

Wrestled with installation on new Mac-Mini in office. Strange flashing on screens. Can’t seem to replicate conditions.

 We were planning a dinner outdoors with Dave Drake and Hazel Matera. Cancelled due to virus concerns for Hazel. We had leftover duck and fixing from earlier meal with Dave.We didn’t wait up for Santa Claus. Lots of rain over night melting away the snow.

12/6/2020 – Sunday – walk, Leiden Zoom, dinner with Dave and Hazel

Snow on the Catskills already….

Went for a walk. Not our usual  route. Down  to  the Promenade, then on to the water  treatment  plant,  up 2nd to Robinson. At end of 3rd walk down steep hill and back up to Washington St. At the Fire Station walked around to County Social Services building this revealed a path across the eastern end of Oakdale Park. Through the woods to clamber on up to Oakwood Blvd. Along Oakdale Beach on 6th St on to Warren and then home. 3 1/2miles.On Robinson St.

Past the County Social Services bldg. to the path around the eastern end of Oakdale Park.

A lot of this was new territory for us. And new perspectives on well know ground.

Zoom with the kids in Leiden

Jesse scored in the top ranks for selection to the high schools in Leiden.

Dinner with Dave and Hazel

Karen roasted a beer can chicken, made tomatoes and cabbage stew, and I made faro. Dave brought his homemade butter nut pecan ice cream. Temperature was 30 degrees. Dinner lasted for 1 1.2 hours. With the 2 hours with Ted and Anne Saturday looks like a tank of gas lasts for around 4 hours.


More Brokenwood tv

12/3/2020 – Thursday – work – tennis lesson – cooking – library

UTMH work – not much – boring meeting with Seth, Ryder, and Erin….. about how to document new features…..

Paddle-ball court at Total Tennis

Tennis lesson featured a lot of new drills. Instead of usual warm up did volleys and touch and volley. Lots of footwork practices. Health monitor on phone said I took over 5,000 steps in an hour. Roughly 2.5 miles of running. Tired.

Cooked first bean dish in a long while. Vaguely followed a black beans and rice recipe from Moosewood.

Emily Chameides sent me a query about things wrong with the mobile version of the library website.

4/30/2020 – 7/1/2020

I have not felt motivated to write much during this period. The pandemic and its associated tribulations interfere.

We’ve been quite busy with socializing mainly virtually but with warm weather outdoors chiefly people’s backyards. We’ve moved our drinks with Ted and Anne to our backyards on a weekly schedule. Dave Drake has come by for food a number of times. He is working his way through a myriad of curry dishes. Zoom meetings weekly with Esther Hanig, Ellen Feldman, Dave Drake, the Orton siblings, the Leiden crew. 

With less regularity Andrea and company have Zoomed and appeared here physically. Though we have seen Noah and Nyla twice now in the backyard once including Noah’s girlfriend Kiara Guyton. Andrea actually talked with us for almost two hours in a singe stretch. Probably my longest conversation with her in decades. Nyla wrote a great high school essay, “Aunt Jemima Ain’t Chure Mammy”

4/18/20 – Saturday – library, exercise……

Up early. Listened to Only a Game podcast.

HAL Board of Trustees mtg – active, happy meeting. Received $58,500 PPP money from SBA. Good for 2 1/2 months salaries etc. Lots of talk about new fundraising strategies. Emily made extensive report on our online library programming.

Went to Letterbox Farm to pickup order of eggs and greens.

Karen participated in Balance for Seniors from the library. I did my exercises for the first time in weeks.

Ordered grab bars and other bathroom stuff from Amazon. This will allow us to make the first floor bathroom safe for us to shower in. Short term fix without all of the work planned for a walk in shower.

Karen made meatloaf and sautéed spinach. We drove a portion over to Dave Drake. Had lengthy drinks with Ted and Anne.

Watched the first 30 minutes of China Moon (1995). Gave up at that point. Back to Person of Interest

3/18 – 4/7/2020 – Coronavirus Isolation

Wednesday 3/18/2020

Hudson Area Library closes; all programs stop.

Friday 3/20/2020

Gov. Cuomo announces shit down of all non-essential businesses.

Saturday 3/21/2020

HAL hold first online Board of Trustees meeting; library closed

Tuesday 4/7/2020

Today marks the end of the third week of isolation. Excepting for a couple of trips to the grocery, bank, and liquor store we have had no contact with any one closer than 6 feet.

Walks

Fortunately for us we have been taking daily walks, sometimes lengthy enough to be called hikes. It has been remarkable how few people we see during these walks. You might think that people would be getting out for exercise, air, nature…. maybe this reflects how sedentary we have become as a society. Our walks have mainly featured a route up Warren St. around the hospital and then back down the hill to home – about 2.5 miles (4K). We have extended and varied this to make it both longer and more challenging. 

Here are reports for a few.

Continue reading →