wickedwords

 Last week, I made green french lentil picnic salad.  I love making this for warm weather days, as it's cool and tart and the whole thing sits for a day to soak up the vinaigrette that I make for it.  The trick is to get the lentils just right, so they aren't too hard or too soft after resting for that final day. 

Lar and I chatted as I worked, cutting up the vegetables and both of us sorting through the green lentils to make sure it was all good after I pulled the bag from the shelf.  But something went wrong this time, and while the lentils were soft enough to be called cooked, they just weren't right.  There was a grittiness to them that I didn't remember, and it lacked the favor and punch that I expected.  "Maybe it needed more time," I muttered to myself, and I could not get past the fact that it just wasn't what I wanted. 

Today, I went to the cupboard to get the bag of green peas for the split pea soup I planned to make tonight.  The only thing I found was a bag of green french lentils instead. :)

 ( Can I remember how to do a cut tag? )

The first of March, we decided not to go out to restaurants anymore because of the coronavirus spread in the community.  Since then, My life seems to consist of cooking, cleaning, books, and netflix, with a small amount of exercise to break up the day.  So far, the star baking items have been:

Week 1: Larry's Naan bread
Week 2: Yellow cake with Chocolate Frosting
Week 3: Tie - Berry pie and Banana bread
Week 4: Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping
Week 5: Tie - Rosemary, Sea Salt, and Olive Oil crackers and Larry's Homemade Pizza dough (New York Style)

I still have a pre-made pie shell, so that might become either a quiche or I might do a pudding or custard based pie.  Or I could go all out and try a pot pie instead! 

Friday we ordered take out for the first time in three weeks.  I'd seen an article interviewing the owner of the mexican restaurant at the bottom of our hill, and he talked about the rough time they are having -- they have 2 restaurants, and 5 people working on take out and delivery orders but they aren't turning a profit.  So we decided to order something last night, and Lar picked up.  We descended on the enchiladas, corn chips, and soft tacos like we were ravenous wolves or something.  Or at least cats that didn't think they'd been fed for a day.  It took us maybe 15 minutes to eat, and oh, it was so, so good.

However, it did break through a mental barrier I had: We picked up Starbucks this morning too.  We're going back to eating at home, but it was like the high from a couple of 'cheat meals' when you're on a diet.  I think that's the only way to explain how it felt.

 My house is about 5 miles from the Life Care Center of Kirkland, and J's father-in-law lived there for awhile.  My little city of Redmond had some of the first responders help with the mass evac of the facility, so we are at 3/4 staffing right now.  The mayor declared a state of emergency to get help with that, but needless to say, the city government is being incredibly cautious right now.

Such as: I usually go to Tai Chi on Thursdays - but all of the senior programs and city classes with more than 10 people were canceled as of last night. It's going to be on a week-to-week basis that they decide whether or not to close. I cannot imagine that they will reopen next week, or that I would go if they do.

Still planning on individuals coming over to the house, but we are no longer meeting friends at restaurants. I do have one final fast food outing scheduled for a friend's house, where we will pick up and eat at her place to minimize contact with workers.  Not the best, but we've got two months (more or less) of build up to go through before we get to peak; at the moment, the risk of infection is low, so one final hurrah.

Lar has been advised to work from home as much as possible; no one should go into the office.  We are going to have to figure out a place where I can put my computer as his con calls are already loud and annoying to me.    Maybe it's time to reclaim the living room from the cats, and set myself up with an office there.

Per the research I've seen, it looks that the bulk of the infection spread outside of china will hit around the early part of summer, right when we have scheduled our trip to England.  I am waiting a couple of weeks to confirm that expectation, but if it happens, we will probably cancel early so we can get something of a refund.  We aren't flying United, but given that the company is already canceling international flights into April, I think that we might not be able to get there by June anyway.  I do have trip insurance, so I could wait until something happens that actually prevents us from going and make a claim then, or I can do it this month and have everything settled.  Argh.  Decisions. 

At least the taxes are done.  No refund, but nothing to pay either.  One more worry down.