self isolating in the kitchen during COVID-19
For lunch we had mortadella sandwiches from Mastellone’s and picked up some groceries there.
For dinner Matt made fried rice using leftover chicken, fresh corn and coleslaw mix.
Then we had a snack of Italian bread and some cheese and sopressata.
It was lovely weather so I spent some time in the hammock reading.
I visited my mom this morning and then came home to make lunch.
I heated up the leftover pork chops, slaw mix and tossed it with some mi goreng (really the best pandemic purchase has been that case of noodles).
For dinner Matt made Maryland style fried chicken with my grandpop’s secret ingredient—a little bit of granulated chicken bouillon sprinkled into the flour—and cornbread and salad. We have so much chicken leftover! I didn’t eat too much of it since we had pork for lunch.
Then we watched The Invisible Man on Netflix DVD and the first bit of a new New Zealand/Canadian show on Acorn.
For lunch we had fish stick sandwiches with homemade tartar sauce and leftover potato salad.
For dinner Matt made barbecue spaghetti. We still have a ton of pulled pork left!
Non-food related activities:
We watched The Last Resort and Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado on Netflix.
Set up some stuff for my mom.
Matt took Lulu for a long walk and Mitzi and I played in the yard.
For lunch I had leftover tuna salad on crackers and Matt had leftover wild rice and hot dogs.
For dinner I made a succotash salad and Matt made some sockeye salmon.
Non-food related activities:
We visited with my mom.
We watched The Witches on (Netflix) DVD with Joan Fontaine.
Reading, puppy playing.
I had to set up my mom’s hospice so I had a super early lunch of mi goreng and leftover pulled pork then wild rice spinach and mushrooms for dinner.
Since it’s our “vacation” we got steamed crabs, coddies and clam strips from Conrad’s market. The hot food was okay and the crabs were tasty and heavy but the spice was very heavy on the black pepper.
For dinner Matt made crab rice with some leftover corn and fresh okra I had bought on Tuesday. I had bought some claw meat in case we wanted that in the crab cake and didn’t end up using it. So good!
Non-food related activities:
I went to my parents’ house to drop off cake for my dad and pick up some mail/look over paperwork.
Lunch was more pulled pork on naan with fresh coleslaw. Dinner was fried rice with the leftover chicken, fresh zucchini and mushrooms.
My mom has been downgraded from the ICU and seems stable! She was able to talk to my dad a little.
Basically spent the day planning for tomorrow! Eye doctor and a drive to PA to meet and hopefully bring home the puppy!
For lunch we had some of that Taiwanese ramen with some of the leftover chicken from yesterday.
For dinner Matt heated up some leftover pulled pork and served it on naan with cherry tomatoes and coleslaw he made.
The unexpected part of the day was that I got a phone call from the hospital. They said to hold and then my mom got on the phone! She told me she was at the hospital and they kept making her eat Jell-O. She sounded sort of slow but obviously knew who I was and was surprisingly with it. Then she started to doze off.
Later in the day the PA called and said she will probably be sent to a rehab or maybe back home with my dad. She isn’t even in the ICU anymore. What a turn around. I really don’t know what to think.
Non-food related activities:
Watch some more Kingdom on Netflix. The show is surprisingly low stress despite being about people getting out of prison and fighters.
I confirmed our eye appointment for Wednesday. Fingers crossed that goes well. I cannot wait for new glasses! And contacts.
Lulu and I did a survey of all the flowers in the yard. I love our August blooms.
Somehow I managed to make chocolate-butterscotch butter mochi while discussing my mom’s unchanging condition at the hospital and how I told them not to do any heroic measures (which the PA said was best) with my dad. And the butter mochi turned out just fine. Perfectly even. Even though I ended up having to whisk it though a sieve after noticing a bit of cooked egg after I put it in the pan—all while talking on the phone. I am a modern marvel.
Right now, they’ve put her on some more medicine to help with the seizures and apparently she has been awake a tiny bit and talking but they don’t know what tomorrow’s EKG will bring. The doctor is calling me first and I’m the one who has to make all of the decisions so that’s unpleasant. My dad was like “it’s so nerve-wracking waiting for them to call and trying to figure out what they mean, it’s better and less stressful they call you and then you tell me.” Not better for me! But he is hard of hearing and has a hard time following conversations sometimes so it makes sense. My brother doesn’t seem to want to be very involved in it? Oy.
Anyway! We can’t visit her thanks to the pandemic and they are only calling us once a day so we are just going about the day as usual. We finished off the Costco chicken with some A-sha Tainan-style Noodles that Matt brought at Costco (2 boxes of 10, good thing we liked them) and green onions.
Matt smoked a small (4 lb?) pork butt most of the day and then finished it off in the oven but it still wasn’t pull apart texture. We sliced some for sandwiches because we were hungry, turned up the oven and roasted it some more. Now it’s pull apart texture like 3 hrs late. The leftover will be good though. We used this rub/method which we’ve done tons of time. I don’t understand what happened! Matt was upset about it but I was mostly happy for food I didn’t have to make. We had chips (Utz, obvi) and bagged salad with it.
Non-food related activities:
Puppy proofing! Our house is small and old with no pantry. I got some big plastic totes to put some things in that would normally be on low, open shelves. It’s not pretty but it’s not like we are entertaining anyway!
We watched some Kingdom and the last episode of Damnation on Netflix.
For lunch I made us home fries with leftover Chinese sausage, mushroom and onions.
For dinner I had some frozen shrimp and Matt made himself noodles with cottage cheese and tomatoes. The fridge is super bare!
I made tuna pasta salad for tomorrow’s lunch since I’m going shopping.
Non-food related activity:
Not much! Watched the new show on Britbox, Wild Bill which was odd.
