Pandemic cooking

Cooking is soothing and rewarding for me: the process of preparing food is a pleasure, the meals I cook give pleasure to my family, and it gives me control over something. I have been a seriously excellent provider of meals if I do say so myself. One of the pandemic-specific cooking efforts I have made is to make simple yet luxurious lunches. I am especially great at dips, which add punches of flavor to substance to platters of raw veggies: some are bursting with herbs, some pop with pickled peppers, today’s is a hot buffalo chicken dip. I also make lovely dinners, of course. Lately I’m trying to do more vegetarian dishes: last week was a whole week of vegetarian meals, and no one even really noticed, because we all just enjoyed what we were eating. Finally, I have been trying new things from scratch. At Passover we made matzo -- not kosher because it had olive oil in it, but so much more delicious than the stuff in a box.

And I regularly make yogurt now. The Instant Pot makes it a little easier, and we are working out our system for draining it.

The kids also cook willingly and with pleasure and pride. I love what they are learning and when they do it, I remember to take pictures. :) Jordan got it into his head one day to make gnocchi; we used sweet potatoes, and it was fantastic.

We make our own pizza, including the dough; why not, we've got all day, and it's easy enough. I have not yet run out of flour or yeast.

One day Jordan asked to make an elaborate dessert, so I had him make and frost a layer cake. I figure, if he can go off to college ready to make a fun birthday cake for a friend, he is an asset to any dorm.

Another day, he and Aaron made a rhubarb upside-down cake. Desserts are motivating for sure... I've been making a lot of them myself, and we grow the rhubarb.

On Wednesdays, Aaron's school has "expeditionary education" days, where they are asked to choose from a variety of educational activities that are beyond the confines of regular school: wash the dog, camp in the yard, make dinner. Aaron pretty much always chooses to make dinner. Here he is making broccoli melts, which came out absolutely delicious.