For the duration of The Plague, I’m changing tack a bit. I am going to write of my own observations, with foody bits, and possibly some memory stuff, if appropriate, as a bit of a record of how I’m experiencing this sudden, extraordinary, almost overwhelming period that everyone in the world has suddenly found ourselves in. I can’t complain about being stuck. And, compared with some of our living conditions down the years, eg our Tent Period (glossary) this is relative luxury: we have a spacious house with a small sheltered leafy garden, terrace and BBQ area. We have good security. We have TV, wifi of course, and Netflix, plenty of cds, dvds, heaps of books and packs of cards, kindles, table games, absorbing hobbies, and our phones. Some things I’ve always said I’d like to change have suddenly become absolutely unimportant, and our #1 job every day is to stay out of reach of the coronavirus, keeping ourselves healthy and sane as we go about it.
For months now we’ve been hearing terrible stories of the ravages of the disease, of how it has overhwelmed hospitals, medical staff, testing inadequacies, increased case numbers and fuelled mounting death tolls, But we’re also hearing of generous kindness and selfless courage, in lots and lots of wonderful warm, caring stories relating to The Plague. Was it really only 4 months ago, last December, that we began to hear about some new virus illness that had arisen in Hubei province of China? This is not a repeat of those reports. I’m not ignoring them, but I’m just not dwelling on them here.
Since we went into voluntary quarantine here in Uruguay a month ago, I’ve have been writing a weekly bulletin on how things are with us here in the capital, Montevideo, and sending it to our immediate family around the globe. We’re scattered across Australia, New Zealand and USA. Everyone sounds as if they’re doing ‘ok’. Of course everyone has some concerns and fears, and everyone’s are different; but we do all have a roof over our heads, food, and no one is totally alone. Thank goodness we have the internet – I honestly think a collapse of all that would be worse than running out of toilet paper 🙂
With all restaurants, cafes, bars, in fact everything except food stores, pharmacies and service stations closed, and gatherings of people verboten, of course we have been cooking at home, as we normally do, anyway. We both have a preference for fresh non-processed food, so naturally include lots of veggies in our fare. Being in lock down means a mealtime is one of the highlights of each day!
This morning, with a nip in the air as the weather gets cooler, I felt it was time to make celery soup for lunch, using a head of celery we had. Putting aside the thicker stalks to have in salad, with a dip or with some peanut butter spread on it, (divino)
- I chopped all the fine stalks to small pieces, about 1 cup
- finely chopped an onion,
- and browned both of these gently in oil.
- To that I added about 1.5L boiling water, a tablespoon of canned diced jalapeno, a good shake of pepper and a couple of chicken soup cubes.
- That simmered about an hour on the very lowest gas jet until lunchtime,
- when I served each of us with a big bowl, stirred in some thick cream,
- and buttered some yummy fresh bread to go with it.
- for a thicker soup add some mashed potato or thicken with a little flour mixed with water or stock.
- Following that we each enjoyed a fresh mandarin.