Tomorrow is Thursday. Again. I think we have all been home about a month now, in Canada. Life is very different and keeping your spirits high is important. I am finding that the hardest part about this pandemic is leaving the house.  I prefer to e at home. I really do. Going out to shop is draining and a little frightening as you have your guard up the entire time you are out. I don’t mind lining up and the sanitizing of the carts and our hands when we go to the grocery. I don’t mind waiting 2 metres away from the person ahead of me in a lane if they are reading package instructions or price comparing. What I do mind are the inconsiderate people who refuse to glance down at the entrance to an aisle and see what direction we are supposed to move. The arrow means follow the arrow down the aisle. This avoids multiple people moving in opposite directions and accidentally coughing, sneezing or touching each other. This has been put in place to prevent us from spreading this virus. If you see an X at the end of the aisle, it means you are going the wrong way. It’s not that hard to figure out. I also lose my mind when you and your husband bring your baby and your toddler to the grocery and to top it off, yell DON’T TOUCH when your baby reaches out for something that has caught her eye. Oh, and another thing that got on my nerves today – the need for people to socialize while social distancing in the line to get into the store. Spit flies! It flies all the time when you talk. The more you talk, the less you realize you have moved a bit closer to the stranger you are trying to distance from. Can’t we just line up and shut up? And when the person ahead of them gets to enter the store, the person lleft in line, looks like they’ve lost a friend and feel the need to turn around to maybe try and talk to the brown girl….wait, no never mind, the brown girl looks kinda angry. That’s right lady. I don’t need a longer Christmas list. I don’t need any more friends and I certainly don’t want to risk your spit landing on me. Turrrrnnn Arounnnnd. That’s right.

Today, let’s see what is still lingering in the fridge from some of the great meals we have had. I found extra plain boiled macaroni from Tom’s mac & cheese. I found some meat sauce left over from the day Logan made his first Lasagna and the very last of some cheddar and Parmesan and some mushrooms that need to be put out of their misery. I found a bottle of red wine dying to be drained and and the remainder of a yellow, red and an orange bell pepper.

This is a no-brainer really. Grab the left overs that would work well together and combine them. Place them in a casserole dish and bake. That tomatoey, tangy-ness and that hint of red wine and the sharp taste of the melted cheese all come together to make me feel good inside. My mom used to make this with her left overs for us. Usually on a Friday. It was mom’s version of fast food. I think when we asked her what it was she called it Italian Delight  because it was delightful. Delightfully made with whatever left over ingredients she had along with some kind of pasta and meat sauce or cooked chicken. After a day (3.5 hours) of being out of the house to get groceries, spending more time lining up and avoiding people while shopping and looking for alternatives to the things I wanted that were no longer in stock and of course add in the time it takes to sanitize everything. I have a spray bottle of Dettol with me, paper towels and gloves and I have a decontamination routine which involves wiping down the gear stick and the steering wheel and the entire dashboard of my car, the seat belt , the seat belt clasp…I wipe down everything I touch in the car and yea, I spray the groceries and the grocery bags. I shopped for my son who lives on his own, I shopped for my un-well in-laws and for our home. So I am taking a break tomorrow and not putting too much effort into Thursday’s meal but I am  looking forward to it and I can imagine the taste of it  – that same delightful taste that Mom captured on random Fridays when we came home starving from school.Delightful times from the past, captured in a dish made of left overs, hoping today for delightful times to come.

I got to a point in this lockdown where I was almost at the end of grocery supplies and I was grabbing things that needed to be finished off from the fridge and their containers recycled or thrown out. I call these ingredients  the lingerers.   

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The first lingering thing I saw in the fridge was a radler. I like radlers but the fact that there are 3 in the fridge is an obvious indication that I am not a drinker. I have occasional gin and tonics, pretty tropical drinks, bloody ceasars and radlers but I can count the number of drinks I have in a year pretty much on one hand. That’s just me and I don’t really care what anyone else thinks. But on Throw Together Tuesday I figure I’ll drink this while I cook and get serenaded by Alexa.

Ok, what’s next. Ah…I found a lone can of red kidney beans at the back of the pantry, on it’s side, just pushed over, most likely when we were looking for another ingredient or when younger inhabitants re-stock our shelves. The can was almost a casualty of overcrowding. Now to the fridge. What have we here? Balsamic vinegar dressing  – about an eighth of a bottle. Ok, what can I do with these? How about drain and rinse the beans, thinly slice a clove of garlic, chop the sliver of onion from the fridge and lets throw them in a saucepan with the balsamic vinegar dressing and let’s add some Himalayan salt and some fresh ground pepper.

I let the mixture simmer for a bit on medium heat, added in the beans, stirred to make sure they were all coated with my concocted brew, before covering and reducing the heat to low.

  Earlier this morning, I realized I had one more bag of seasoned chicken in the freezer.with this being cooked and consumed today, chicken is on the grocery list for tomorrow. I want to make it quickly and easily without using oil that causes the lingering smell of fried chicken in the house (and you know this recipe is all about ridding the kitchen of lingering anything). So, I am going to use my Tefal “air-fryer” and fry 6 pieces at a time for 30 minutes. While that cooks I am going to rummage through the vegetable crisper in the fridge. I am in constant battle with myself to use up all the vegetables I buy. I lose my mind when a half used cucumber or half a bell pepper goes soggy and floopsie. Its a waste of money, and more importantly, a waste of food. I was raised not to waste either. I found 1/4 bag of carrots and some red, yellow and orange sweet peppers (bell peppers) and smidgen of bottle of maple syrup (about 2 tablespoons worth). Let’s see what I can do with that.

I found a couple pinches of dried oats and a handful of salted sunflower seeds in a little baggie in one of the kitchen cupboards. So to counteract the sweetness of the maple syrup, I stirred in the oats and the nuts and stuck it in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 F. The result was a nice blend of sweet and salt that glazed the veggies to perk up the meal.

I served the finished meal with a side salad of mixed greens. And there you have it, a meal thrown together with lingering ingredients that needed to be used up. The alternative was them going to waste. Now I have the time to really look at what I have, use it all and make grocery lists as I deplete ingredients, I have saved money, reduced my time at the grocery and realized that the cooking skills I have acquired from my family have allowed me to be creative while feeding my family nutritious, satisfying and tasty meals. We all have to stay home, keep our distance and stop the spread of a terrible pandemic. We can all get organized, we can all use our creativity and flare and daring. I have learned to let cooking centre me, relax me and give me time to think, solve problems, strategize, pray, and put a smile on my face when I remember learning to make meals with my mother and later my sister, and now I am doing the same thing with my husband and my son. With every meal, we make a new a memory and to me that’s pretty comforting. Stay home. Stay safe. Stop the spread and make memories. Let’s take what we have discovered about ourselves now with us when we transition to safer, healthier times. ~Daniella and family.

Tom is leading the way with a Meatless Monday popular comfort food using the Instant Pot to make a creamy comfort food at a time in our lives that includes the words lockdown, peak, flatten the curve, epicentre, virus, masks, death, infected, quarantine, isolation, social distancing….at least for a little while, we can put those words out of our minds and create something warm and tasty.

Let’s cook!

First, measure the macaroni (this is about 450 g) and your water (about 4 cups) and put into the Instant Pot. Cover and set for 8 minutes on the Manual setting. Manual seems to be the go to setting for almost every dish we make in the Instant Pot. Make sure the toggle is set on Sealing. When the time is up, move the toggle to Venting. To prevent the mess from the starchy spray spittle, place a sheet of paper towel as shown above. Notice where his arms are – AWAY FROM THE STEAM. As the paper absorbs the steam it will curl forward. Crumple and throw out. You will have less starchy mess to clean. Great tip, Tom. I remember Tom was great at feeding babies back in the day. It was his least favorite pastime as a parent but he was always well prepared. He was always armed with a damp washcloth or damp paper towels, a bib for the baby and a make shift table cloth bib for himself as a shirt protecting shield, or he’d be shirtless along with the baby for post feeding showering for them both. Good times!

Moving on! These are the ingredients he stirs in to the macaroni in the pot while it is still piping hot.

Follow the pictures to see how he makes the macaroni cheesy and smooth.

Stir in about 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine.Then add about 2 to 3 table spoons of the Queso and fold. Next add in the evaporated milk (adding too much obviously makes the dish too watery; adding too little makes it too sticky so you add enough to make it creamy and smooth. You will feel the texture as you stir the macaroni and the ingredients with your spatula)

As you stir and the liquid is absorbed and binds with the macaroni, it looks like this:-

Plate, season with a little fresh ground pepper and serve with a slice of garlic bread (Tom’s special garlic bread recipe coming soon), smile and enjoy. Happy Meatless Monday boys and girls. Stay Home. Cook together. Share recipes. Take comfort in comfort food. Pass the time cooking and creating delicious meals for yourself and your family. ~Daniella and family

If you don’t have an instant pot, you can still make this dish. It will take a bit longer but it generally is done in 1 pot, Boil the macaroni, drain and using the same ingredients you can make a smooth pot of mac and cheese. You can also do it in a slow cooker but do check on line for a recipe for guidance for using a slow cooker.

Easter weekend will be here soon. My mom, who lives with my sister and her family, is very into her religion and her church going, was so happy to witness several Palm Sunday services yesterday. I think she might have done a marathon or a binge watch. It is not the same as being there but she was happy to watch what we affectionately are calling “Church-flix” of “Mass-flix”. I feel sad that she can’t be with her church buddies but she understands how serious this virus is and that we are doing all we can to keep her from getting it. She never complains, she texts and calls us and we are doing video calls now so she can see us and her grandsons talk to her often. Still, this is as hard for her as it is for the younger members of our family. I hope she doesn’t feel trapped and like all of us, is looking forward to the first time we can do a really BIG cook and have all of us together again. In keeping with our tradition of fish on Fridays, especially at Easter, the recipe I am going to share is a far cry from salt salmon and dumplings with okra that my mom would make for us to eat on Good Friday. But, every memory I have of her preparing that dish for us was with me as I maneuvered about the kitchen alone. While I like cooking with my family, I like cooking by myself too because that is the time I remember – remember every relative, every gathering, every time I learned something new in the kitchen. The women in my family naturally flock to the kitchen, not because it is our place but because it is OUR place. We aren’t expected to be there. We belong there because because the women in our family own our kitchens. There is a great deal of pride and love that gives rise to each dish we create. Cooking brought us together in the happy times, the sad times and any time. Watching the women in my family cook when I was little to cooking with them when I got older, showed me how much strength and power I am made of. As I cut, season, flour and stir, I am provided with the strength and comfort I need to get through this time of isolation with my family. Cooking and remembering the people who made me, gives me the inner peace I have  that allows me to be ready for anything that might come our way during this time of Covid-19 and in a time like this, I hope sharing my cooking ideas with you will provide you with something different to do, something to distract you or something to provide you with the comfort you might be seeking. Let’s get to the cooking.

So, for this dish, I decided to use the Basa that was in our freezer. I took out 3 large fillets and cut them into 4 pieces each to serve four of us. That left me with another 3 pieces I could use for another dish I have in mind for Good Friday  I seasoned it with salt, black pepper, lemon zest, thyme, basil, ginger red pepper flakes and for some reason, I grabbed the oregano. Dunno why.

After I seasoned it, I added some gluten free breadcrumbs and a little of Tom’s double zero flour that he uses for his pizzas. I was looking for something that would give the fish the light crisp I was looking for. I don’t like thick batters that hold onto the frying oil. i like my fish to taste lemony and light with just a little crunch. I am not a fan of thick batters because as I like to say, fish don’t wear coats. I don’t want the bite of fish to be 90% thick breading….I want it to be 98% fish and 2% coating.

Use enough oil to cover the bottom of a large frying pan. My oil of choice – sunflower oil. Place pieces of fish in the pan with ample space between pieces to allow turning. Cook for 8 minutes, turning every two minutes. Fish should turn golden brown on both sides when done.

   Place fish on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Pat top side with a paper towel as well. Squeeze lemon juice evenly over fish pieces and place in the oven (on warm setting) to stay warm and crispy. I found a jar of cous cous in the kitchen cupboard and Adam who likes beans with everything, asked that I include lentils in the meal, so…I did. Measure out 1 cup of cous cous and 1 1/2 cups of water or broth. I used water and added all purpose seasoning, garlic powder and a little onion powder.  

        In a medium saucepan, bring the water or broth to a boil and with a little butter or margarine (say a teaspoon). I chose avocado margarine today. While you wait on the water to boil, drain and rinse a can of lentils. Once the water comes to a boil, add in the cous cous and fold in the lentils. Cous cous cooks quickly so make sure to reduce the heat after adding the cous cous to the boiling water. Once the water is absorbed, remove the saucepan from the heat and fluff with a fork. If you would like add a little Trinidad hot sauce or whatever hot sauce you prefer.Today I used a bit of Trinidad pepper sauce made by my cousin’s wife’s father.

   This meal was very tasty and filling and didn’t take very long to make. It was a hearty fish dinner enjoyed by all.Happy Fish Friday, Happy Easter, Happy Cooking and eating. Please stay inside and stay healthy~ Daniella and family.

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When I am not de-germing, I think about life and how we got to this point. Life today is so fast. Information is so immediate and mistakes humans make are there on the internet for all to see and re-see and this accessibility takes up so much of our time. It takes time away from conversation, and work and our families. It took a virus to keep us at home and re-acquaint us with ourselves, with our children,noticing how much they have grown and changed. It took a virus to gather us around the kitchen table for more often than for just a hurried breakfast and dinner, maybe in our usual rushed way of living. It took a virus to lead us back to our hobbies and passions and forced us to be creative in a time of need.

Yet, some of us can’t listen, obey, comply or think if not of ourselves, of others. This virus has shown us how kind many of us are and how selfish some of us can be. It separates the ignorant from the knowledgeable, the leaders from the followers and if you look at the news and at some of the people in the grocery store who still don’t understand social distancing, personal space and separation, you’ll see that many of them resemble sloths.They have what I call sloth face — blank stare, clueless, slow moving, stalling for minutes in front of a product, handling it, hugging it, in some cases smelling it — it is amazing to me how stupid and downright inconsiderate some humans are. I don’t know how people aren’t finding things to do at home, especially in such a high speed digital world. How can being at home be so difficult when I’ve seen people out in public in regular times, glued to their phones. We still have cell phone service and data and wifi so now that we are home, we actually are in less danger of getting hit by a car, or falling off the side walk while texting. There is plenty to do at home, believe me! And for the phone addicts, maybe they can try something new, like reading a book. But instead, the stupid humans are looking for loop holes in the protocol, thereby running the risk of contracting and spreading the disease and possibly killing someone we love.

My mind also wondered about industry. With a shortage of medical supplies, mostly because the world relies on importing goods made with cheap labor from the East, the people able to heal us are left poorly protected and at risk of contracting and spreading the virus as well. It is time for Canada to make our own supplies. We have many abandoned factories as a result of American companies pulling out of Canada in favor of cheaper far East or Central American labour and as I recall, there is a particular former auto plant in Oshawa, uselessly empty. We have college graduates and trades-persons in need of employment. We have the bodies to create a manufacturing work force to make medical supplies in Canada and we should — not just now, but moving forward. We don’t need to import things we can make here. I say pay Canadians to make what Canadians need. We rely too heavily on cheap crap from overseas. Any political leader in any future elections who’s platform includes making that happen on a large scale in this province/country, has my vote.That way we can flip the bird to America and it’s impostor of a leader and take care of our nation’s needs Let’s face it, Trump has been (badly) impersonating a president for 4 years and is such an ignorant hindrance to us so many times. He is at best an ignorant bully, voted in mostly by trash.

Moving forward, we have to change the way cruise liners are operated with regards to disease. A cruiser myself, the company we travel with is quite clean but new ways of boosting hygiene and stepping up disease prevention must happen. The way we dine out and commute and shop has to change. I thing the queuing and cart and hand sanitation must continue long after this virus is conquered. I think when you are sick, especially in North America, you should stay home from work, school, activities. That’s what sick days are for. Also, sick days should not be abused because it make it worse for everyone when privileges are abused. If you must go out when you are sick, wear a mask. Trust me, if frivolous aesthetics are your concern (hmmm…who recently said that this week when he publicly said he wouldn’t wear a mask) know that for many of you who think like that, a mask is a damn improvement. Spare us all your face and your germs.

Having time to slow down and take the time to think has happened to me a few times in my adult life and it’s not a bad thing. Surgery, child birthing, raising a special needs child, raising my other child, not having work for a while when we moved more than once, waiting on a terminally ill parent to pass, living in Montreal during the ice storm….I have had my moments of doing nothing and getting by without human contact or certain material things. I am still here. I have learned something valuable from all these moments and I am learning a lot from this pandemic now. Humans need to be slapped in the face by disaster to recognize what they could do better. This is different from a typhoon, hurricane, earthquake or a tornado. This is affecting every one of us on the planet and we have to change how we protect ourselves from disease. We have to stop black market sales of the things people will consume to achieve virility, longevity and hocus pocus cures for diseases or defects. We need to not be medieval in our thinking and trust the proven facts that exist; facts that can protect us. We have to want less material things and work harder to sustain the things we need like clean air, clean water and a clean environment. We need to stop taking shortcuts and we need to take ownership of the things we do wrong and fix them.

Looking out the window, I see birds going about their springtime business, the sun is shining and the wind is gently winding it’s way through branches speckled with buds about to bloom. As the branches nod in the breeze, a chubby rabbit hops up onto the top level of my back deck and is staring straight into our kitchen as if to say, “hmm…still stuck in there huh? Your species needs to rethink some things,” And before I can get my camera (because I too don’t know how to leave things to memory — plus we have to prove everything to each other with visual evidence on Instagram) he hops down the stairs and out the back gate which someone has left open. The rabbits and birds have their freedom. They can go wherever they want just like we could 3 weeks ago. But the spread of this disease is our fault. Humans are incapable of listening, reasoning and following orders for our collective good. I have heard and read stories of people who lost loved ones, pining that they could not be at their side to take their hand, kiss their foreheads and usher them out of the world with love. And while people do die instantly and unexpectedly sometimes, the saving grace of illness is that at least, someone you love could be at your side as you leave your life. This virus has taken that grace away. We are a highly emotional species, yet we don’t take into consideration how we react when our loved ones die…we keep doing the wrong things, over and over and over again.Then tragedy strikes again, we are emotional again, we ask “Why, us?” again, and in two weeks we are back to doing stupid things.

So as we move into week 4 of being at home, we spend time with our family members, we find ways to pass the time and we make the most of this time of re-connection with the people in our home. We re-connect with those far away by phone or computer and we try to stay upbeat, positive and push our creativity to a new level. We have learned to determine what things in our lives are non-essential and moving forward we probably will choose to continuing living without them. We will watch this disease ravage the world and watch as some of us just live like we just don’t care. We watch them spread disease and we watch people lying in hospital struggle to breathe and watch as others are wheeled away shrouded to be stored in a parking garage, an arena or a refrigerated trailer — people who were perfectly fine just days or weeks before. We will watch day after day, hoping in our hearts for an end to this brutal time, thinking of doing the things we love to do and never taking those things for granted again. We will tell our family and friends how much we love them more often and I feel many of us will emerge from more grateful for what we have and who we have in our lives and we will be more appreciative of every person, every place, every action, every bit of joy and beauty around us.

Those of us who survive will have to change. We have to do things cleaner, better and more responsibly. Let us think of ways we can change the way we do things in our lives which will change the way we affect others. We have lots of time to think. Today is a good day to start.

Every Monday and Friday, the 17-year old comes into the kitchen with a good spirit, ready to learn this cooking thing. Friday, Lasagna was the dish of the day. As I am teaching him the steps, I often forget to take the step by step photos but I have put the steps he took below:

I am a lasagna noodle boiler. I am NOT a fan of the oven ready noodles but to keep it easy for him, I bought a box. I have to say, while they did soften, it was not the same as when I boil the noodles and he decided next time, he wanted to boil the noodles instead.

Following the instructions, we put some sauce in the bottom of the baking dish and placed 4 noodles in the dish, overlapping them as suggested.

Next, we spooned on the meat sauce Logan made the day before.  For his meat sauce he cooked up some ground beef and seasoned it with Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, chopped garlic and onion, oregano, thyme and added in some chili flakes. This was ground beef meant for burgers so I showed him how to drain the bit of excess oil that surfaced as he cooked the meat. He handled that part like a pro. Once drained, he folded in some tomato sauce. He let it simmer for 30 minutes on a med-low heat, in a covered pan.

Seasoning the beef

Cooking the beef

  Logan’s meat sauce

After the meat sauce, he sprinkled his shredded jalapeno mozzarella and fresh parmigiana. Once that was done he poured his egg mixture. This mixture is made with a little flour, 2 eggs and a cup of milk. This helps to bind the layers of lasagna. He continued layering with noodles, meat sauce, egg mixture and cheese until each noodle in the box was used. He poured left over sauce on the top layer and topped with more shredded cheese.

Following instructions, we baked for 45 minutes at 375 F. In retrospect, i would have him cover with foil for at least half the baking time and we both agreed that we preferred boiled noodles. But, his lasagna, though a little cheese burnt in the corners, was tender and very tasty. Most of all he was pleased with it, proud to serve it and is happy to know yet another dish.

The served meal.