How’s everybody doing? Here in the Wallace house, we definitely have good days and bad — actually good hours and bad. I’m thankful for every day we remain healthy. And I’ve seen signs that some positive things may come out of this. For example last night, we had a family discussion about reading that ended with my son giving my daughter a tour of his bookshelf and loading her up with his favorite books, saying, “The cool kids read books dummy.” Baby steps, right? While we are struggling with “distance learning,” missing friends, fears and worries for the future, and generally the blahs, we are also having unprecedented amounts of family time, which is a gift.

Yesterday was Easter, and I was a little low. We bickered through the online church service, partly because of technical glitches and partly because the kids didn’t get why we had to “watch the whole thing.” I wasn’t feeling great (allergies and back spasms, woe is me), and the high was 28 degrees. Oh, and then there’s this whole pandemic-slash-quarantine thing. (Weirdly though, the Easter snowstorm made things feel a little less strange.) Anyway, after moping around for a bit and trying to rest, I picked myself up and got busy in the kitchen at about 2 p.m. And you know what? I snapped out of it. I got my daughter to help me make meringues for mini pavlovas that were supposed to look like poached eggs (not sure why but they didn’t really work out), and I even made an old school green been casserole using some of my quarantine staples: frozen green beans and cream of mushroom soup. The meal was huge (too much food), but being in the kitchen really lifted my spirits — that, along with a glass of wine and the family agreeing to watch Ratatouille after dinner. Cooking and choosing movies are things I can control (well, sorta).

 

Here’s what we ate the rest of the week; you will notice some meals are less exciting than others and few are really “blog worthy.” This is getting hard, not gonna lie. And I’ve gotten over the whole “pandemic is a productivity contest” phase of quarantine. I mean if Ina Garten can have frozen waffle PB & Js for breakfast and post about it on Instagram, we are clearly over trying to best each other with our quarantine accomplishments, right?

Sunday, April 5 (I’m switching from quarantine day #’s to dates, just as an exercise in keeping in touch with reality) – I got out a relatively new (to me) cookbook, Everyday Dorie,  and bookmarked a bunch of recipes I want to make in the upcoming weeks, starting with her Chicken & Salad Milanese Style, for which, remarkably, I had everything on hand, except white balsamic vinegar (I subbed white wine vinegar). It was really easy, less greasy than I’d expected, and so delicious.

Monday, April 6 – Tonight we had a dish that I consider one of my family’s “back pocket” favorites, meaning I can whip it up without a recipe and rely on it to be good and generally well received: Baked Cod with Parmesan & Lemon. I’ve made this so many times I can’t begin to count, also I’ve streamlined and lightened the recipe from the original I found years ago, which involved melting butter and zesting the lemon. Here’s how I make it these days.

Baked Cod with Parmesan & Lemon
Ingredients
1 1/2 lb. fresh cod fillets (or thawed frozen fish)
2 tbs. olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbs. fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the fish in a rimmed baking dish. Grate the cheese and mix with chopped parsley if using. Drizzle the oil onto the fish and turn it to make sure the fish is coated on both sides. Season with salt & pepper. Sprinkle cheese mixture generously over fish. Bake for 15 mins. (check after 10 mins.); fish is done when it can be flaked with a fork. Before serving, squeeze lemon juice over fish.

Tuesday, April 7 – I spent the entire day making giant pots of soup as a fund raiser for some medical staff  at a local hospital. (BTW, thanks to my local friends who bought soup; the response was overwhelming and gratifying and the money will go toward supplies, treats, childcare — whatever’s needed — for nurses, lab workers, and respiratory therapists.) I did not want to make dinner and had forgotten to take anything out of the freezer (a new daily ritual that’s been hard for me to stay on top of). So we ordered takeout from a local restaurant that just happens to be owned by some of our friends, Machete Tequila & Tacos. My experience it that sometimes foods like tacos can be decidedly less good when you get them to go, but it was amazing. And so fast and easy. We called and placed the order and were happily eating camarones and carne asada tacos within half an hour. And their margaritas are excellent and available to go, too. Highly recommend.

Wed. April 8 – I had a random can of enchilada sauce we had picked up on our New Mexico shopping trip a lifetime (er, three weeks) ago, so I made chicken enchiladas. Nothing super special, but they were very comforting and, as usual, a crowd pleaser.

 

Thurs. April 9 – We had some frozen flat iron steaks that I thawed and we grilled outside. It was a beautiful evening. For dessert I dug out an ancient box of Bisquick from the pantry and made strawberry shortcakes to use up the rapidly deteriorating strawberries in the fridge. I can not recommend this highly enough. Seriously, one of my favorite desserts ever.

 

Fri. April 10 – Since it was Good Friday, I decided to attempt a homemade fish fry. The entire family was dubious, but I forged ahead dredging and pan frying cod fillets, and it was downright killer. Next time I will make twice as much. (No real recipe, but I just seasoned flour with salt, garlic powder, and pepper, dredged the fish in the flour, and then cooked in about 1/3 inch of olive oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 mins. each side.)

 

Sat. April 11 – I was able to visit with my mom and sister since the weather was nice; we sat in chairs in my mom’s driveway six feet apart — so, socializing at a physical distance as opposed to social distancing. For dinner, I made pasta with shrimp, creating the recipe as I went along, and it was really good. This is a great way to use frozen shrimp if you have some among your quarantine provisions. Normally, we don’t eat much pasta, but clearly now is not “normally.”

Pasta with Shrimp & Vegetables
Ingredients
1 tbs. olive oil
1/2 onion
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped
1 can chopped tomatoes (with juice)
Shrimp (I made about 16 large shrimp for 4 people, thawed if frozen)
1-2 handfuls spinach
Salt & pepper
Dried oregano
Crushed red pepper
1 package spaghetti, linguini, or angel hair, cooked according to package directions (save about 1 cup of the pasta water before draining)

While pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet and add onions. Cook for about 5 mins. until soft. Add garlic, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Cook until slightly thickened and reduced. Add shrimp and cook until opaque. Season with salt & pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Stir in spinach until just wilted. Toss with hot pasta, and loosen with pasta water if needed. Serve with grated parmesan.

Sun. April 12 – The strangest Easter ever, right? I hope you all were able to celebrate in some way. After live streaming mass on TV, my son made homemade huevos rancheros for breakfast, which were really good and really spicy. Normally we don’t have a huge Easter dinner, but as has been made abundantly clear, nothing is normal right now (and, as you can see, we were in our Sunday best, ha!). So we kinda treated the day like Thanksgiving by cooking all day. In addition to the green bean casserole straight from the Campbell’s website, we had a green salad with peas, asparagus, roasted fingerling potatoes, and a rack of lamb. Whew.

Please leave your dinner ideas, questions, successes, failures, or general musings in the comments. I’d love to stay connected as well as possible during this scary, lonely, and freaking strange time!