In this entry:

I. Creativity in the Kitchen

II. Garden Love

III.  This Month’s Gallery

Chris:

Jean and I are sheltering-in-place: trying to stay well and stay creative as we respond to the March 19 order by the governor of California for all 40 million in the state. We are staying in touch with our children and grandchildren around California and the U.S. through our smart phones and our computers–using the various amazing technologies that we have at our hands to erase the miles and bring joy to our hearts.

We also stay in touch with our friends and our colleagues, and they stay in touch with us. We say “in touch,” even though a handshake or hug is what we dare not do in this climate of extreme caution. But by talk and writing and staying attentive to messages, we perhaps are more “in touch” than mere touch implies.

How fortunate we are!

We do not think for a moment that we are alone, and we hope that all our loved ones and friends know that we are thinking of them throughout this health crisis, unprecedented in our lifetimes.

I. Creativity in the Kitchen

Jean:

These circumstances are challenging my creativity.  We actually had a fair amount of pantry supplies because we always keep some things on hand for emergencies like fire, flood, or earthquake, when we might have to hang out in a damaged home for a period of time, so I figure this is as good a time as any to dig up and use all those things.

I also had bought extra food for a surprise birthday party for Chris early in the month (well before the sheltering-in-place directive), and fewer than half the guests showed up, probably due to coronavirus worries.  I don’t blame them.  I worried about it as well, but then put the extra food in the freezer.  Some of it, including the birthday cupcakes, we have been munching on for two weeks.  I actually can’t wait for these to be gone so I can make a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.  Thank goodness I have plenty of butter, chocolate chips and nuts.

Part of the trick to getting through this, I think, is allowing yourself to anticipate a dish you want to make next, but only after you finish something you have started.  Zero waste allowed.

Canned fish:

One of the food types I have mentioned in earlier posts is canned fish.  Sardines, anchovies, tuna, kippers, whatever.  These are good for you.  They pack a punch (too much for some people).  However, there are several different ways you can go with them, and a little can goes a long way to making several different dishes.  They can go into

• a tomato-based seafood soup like San Francisco cioppino
• a pasta dish with lemon, capers, bread crumbs and parsley
• a ramen dish with Asian–flavored broth.

For example, as you see in the photo above, I built a ramen dish using a ramen packet that I had on hand with a very strong flavored chili sauce, so I saved some of the sauce to flavor other sauces after using a little of it in this dish, tempered with fish sauce, soy sauce and packaged miso soup.

Using the Fruits and Veggies You Have in the Fridge and the Garden:

This ramen dish doesn’t come from a recipe; it’s just about pulling out what you have and thinking about it a little bit.  This is a great time to dig out those spice packets and things you’ve thrown into the pantry or bottom of the drawers in your refrigerator.  I also used the last wilted and some frozen vegetables I found while digging around in there, and I thought about what dishes I could use my old spices in.  I know, spices supposedly don’t hold their potency forever, but a little flavor is better than none.

Of course, this is also a great time to use whatever vegetables may be growing in the garden in this transitional period between winter and the spring planting. See the garnish of fennel in the ramen dish?

Here’s another dish–with South Asian flair–that I made using chard from our winter garden, plus spices and veggies on hand:

Aloo Palak

1. I sauteed in coconut oil (you could also use clarified butter) some chopped onions and garlic, plus South Asian spices including cumin, garam masala, and ginger.

2. When the onions were softened, I added diced potatoes and veggie broth and cooked the potatoes down for about ten minutes.

3. Then I added chopped greens–including kale, spinach (both of which I had on hand), and the star of this dish, our beautiful chard from the garden, and cooked those down for another ten minutes.

4.  Next I threw in a small can of chick peas (AKA garbanzo beans), some jarred chopped jalapenos (for extra punch) and a small can of diced tomatoes (fresh tomatoes in season are equally great).  I let all that simmer another 5-10 minutes.

5.  Finally, I served up and topped the colorful mixture with plain yogurt and a garnish of sliced radishes.

6. This dish was perfect over white rice.

Here’s another example: my own version of Waldorf Salad

Yesterday I grabbed some lettuce, arugula, baby chard and parsley from the garden to make a little salad of greens.  Then I topped it off with a Waldorf salad made from one Granny Smith apple I had, plus some raisins and walnuts, dressed with plain yogurt and mayonnaise.  As a side dish to balance the sweet of the Waldorf ingredients, I found some of last season’s vinegar and salt pickles, still crunchy. Oh, yes, and I garnished the salad with garden fennel and some kiwi fruit from the fridge. The lunch was yummy, fresh tasting, and packed with complementary flavors:

What about Eggs When There Are Shortages?

Speaking of fresh ingredients, we were running low on eggs and couldn’t find any on the one trip we made to the store so far since starting to “shelter in place.”  I did manage to grab a container of egg whites that day, however, so I decided to make an egg white frittata, using mostly egg whites plus a couple of precious whole eggs.  I added frozen peppers, canned chopped jalapenos, and plenty of cheese, so I threw together something that cooked up quickly, looked pretty and tasted delicious.  It made enough for more than one breakfast for both of us.  Remember, eating some of your best leftovers is also a treat to look forward to!

The bottom line:

• Be inventive
• Use what you can find
• Appreciate what you have, including your health, and
• Stay positive!

II. Garden Love

Part of our good fortune dwells in our garden, where love abounds.

Chris:

It seems reasonable to claim that a gardener loves the garden, when we think of the daily work, even when minimal, that goes into gardening. But not only work, which can sound like drudgery. Care is a better word, the tenderness of which embodies that time each day when the gardener studies each plant, tends here and there–or just looks at and admires the garden, every plant in it, every one.

And not only the plants, but the animals that live within it or visit from time to time, and who gloriously use what the plants provide, and in turn pollinate other plants. Right now, in March, bees glory in the flowers of so many plants, and hum their music;

 

 

 

 

 

while the birds, some of them our year-round citizens and some returning from migration, sing more beautifully than the best orchestra, play in the birdbath, or at least talk articulately among themselves in many languages. Listen for the bees humming and birds chirping in this video of one of our visiting sparrows:

But can we say that the garden also loves the gardener? What I know for sure is that as I garden I am feeling wonderfully “in touch” with the plants, and have a kind of regular conversation with the birds and bees and fruit flies and worms: a conversation that hovers between peaceful coexistence (with the bees and worms), banter (with the jays and hummingbirds), mutual but affectionate annoyance (with the fruit flies), or my being just an appreciative audience (for the mockingbirds, warblers, and doves).

I don’t know if this is love, but what would you call it? Last summer I transplanted a fennel that was growing tired in its pot, and now it rewards me with a magnificent deep green, feathery fragrance that goes to my head. Last summer I also transplanted arugula that was weary of its pot along the front walk, then flourished through the fall, turned dry and brown in winter, and now is sending up from the ground thousands of new green shoots that are just as peppery and aromatic as ever.

What is this if not love?  And what about the apricot tree, who is bursting with tiny green fruit just now beginning to turn toward red and orange?

Will you let me call it love, if that is what this gardener feels?

The garden surrounds our home like a sanctuary. It makes sheltering-in-place anything but isolation.

III. This Month’s Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on to April, in hope….