Category Archives: Pandemic

April 20, 2020 · 18:03

Food for a Pandemic

When we were quarantined in China (during H1N1) the Chinese government provided the food. Three meals a day, all Chinese and quite delicious. Every meal included ingredients I recognized as considered particular healthful and strengthening based on Chinese medicine. I appreciated the effort although I’m fairly certain most of the rest of the people in quarantine did not and would have killed for a burger and fries. I can’t say I’m making much in the way of medicinal food during this quarantine. Our focus is more on comfort food like rice, stir fry, tofu, asian noodles, mac and cheese, pasta with meat sauce.

Finding things missing on the grocery store shelves has led me to do some reading up on life and cooking in England during World War Two and rationing. Its actually pretty interesting. I even found a website where someone had followed the rules on rationing and found they lost weight and felt great. I suspect they were following rationing rules for the beginning of the way, not the end, but it was still interesting.

Its particularly interesting because some food items are actually hard to find like flour, yeast, sometimes milk and eggs. Many a joke has been made over who are all these people baking all of the sudden and what the hell are they doing with all the yeast? But the other day, there was actually flour at the store and Francis said he would bring some home. He presented me 2 quarter pound plastic containers of whole wheat flour because all the food from the bulk section is now prepackaged and you are limited to buying 2 of the thing.

What does one do with such a small amount of flour? Make a depression-era cake of course.  I tweaked the original recipe by reducing the flour from 1 1/2 cups to 1 cup and the sugar from 1 cup to 3/4s of a cup.  I also added the cinnamon and the 1/2 cup of almond flour.  Of course, that means my version can only be made by those with a well stocked pantry.  While the original was a bit dry around the edges, the crumbs applied to plain vanilla ice cream, resulted in a damn fine cookies and cream ice cream where the cookies tasted exactly like the chocolate part of an oreo cookie. 

Pandemic Chocolate Cake for a Well-Stocked Pantry

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Dry Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 cup almond or some other nut flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon salt

Combine all dry ingredients in an 8 inch square cake pan. Make sure there aren’t any lumps and that the cocoa and cinnamon are well mixed.

Wet Ingredients 

5Tablespoons vegetable oil (I’ve been using virgin olive oil)
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 1/2 – 2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup water

Working quickly, draw 3 parallel trenches across the dry ingredients.  Pour the oil in the top trench, the vinegar in the middle and the vanilla in the bottom. Pour the cup of water over the whole thing.  Using a fork or whisk to combine the ingredients to a smooth batter without lumps.  

Stuff in the oven and bake for 30 minutes but checking the center for doneness after 25 minutes.

Comments Off on Food for a Pandemic

Filed under Monday, Pandemic

April 2, 2020 · 21:14

Everything Old is New Again

On March 26, 2020, the United States had a total of 68,000 diagnosis of Covid-19 and about 1001 people had died across the nation. On Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 504 Americans died from the corona virus. That was the highest number of Americans to die in a single day from this virus, well, until the next day when 1,040 Americans died of the virus in a single day. Today, April 2, 2020, there are 245,160 people just in the United States diagnosed with the virus and nearly 6,000 have died. This afternoon, the governor of the state of Washington announced that the shelter in place, the stay-at-home, the quarantine, will continue until May 4th, nearly 2 full months. What impact this will have on the spread is unknown since there are still way too many states (more than one) think this is a made-up crisis and are still ignoring it.

I am sitting at home searching the internet for patterns for homemade protective face masks while all the odd bobs of cotton fabric I have collected over the years swish around in the washing machine. When the super hot water wash cycle is over, I will fry everything in the dryer. Because, you know, before you make your mask, you need to make sure your 100% cotton fabric is as shrunk as it can be. Yup, its the 21st century and I am making my own medical equipment which might have garnered an approving nod from Florence Nightingale or perhaps Clara Barton as long as they didn’t know it was the 21st century and still medical equipment was in short supply and people were dying for no particularly good reason. And just as I would have then, I am going to be hand stitching these buggers because I never did figure out how to work Rose’s sewing machine or Nana’s sewing machine and I am thinking this is NOT the time to start.

From the declaration of pandemic (versus “bad cold” or “flu” which is the descriptor clung to by the US government for nearly 6 wasted weeks) homemade face masks have been a controversial subject. Personally I thought about making one for me because I figured it would at least keep my sneezes to myself and I’ve been sneezing plenty thanks to spring allergies. But I waffled and didn’t do anything for a couple of weeks. Many observed that homemade masks made of a piece of cotton can’t stop a virus. And others were saying homemade masks would create a false sense of security and people would stop “physical distancing.”  “Social distancing” is now being referred to as “physical distancing” because “social distancing was having a negative impact on moral.  By saying “physical distancing” instead, we can remind ourselves to stay close to our friends and neighbors who are still out there waiting to be social over things like FaceTime or Zoom.

Then researchers and scientists figured out that huge numbers of people have zero symptoms for DAYS and even WEEKS before they start with a sore throat or headache or cough and that during that entire time, these typhoid Marys (well not exactly since she never ever got typhoid, she just shared) cough and sneeze bazillions of virus bits all over everything every day–a single sneeze being able to propel its load of virus as much as 20 feet away which is most unhelpful if you are dutifully only 6 feet (or one prone Francis which is our family unit of measure) away. The ability to propel bazillions of bits of virus bits all over everything is significantly reduced to only millions if one is wearing a homemade face mask when one sneezes. In a raging pandemic a drop from bazillions to mere millions is quite significant so now the World Health Organization and the CDC and the White House are all rethinking everything and a directive to wear face masks All The Time But Not The Ones Used In Hospitals because there is a dire shortage of real medical equipment to protect all the medical people.

East Asia including China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc, etc, etc is surely feeling smug since wearlng a mask with a cold or any manner of sneeze is part of the culture and seen as being a good citizen and which until now has been mocked by know it all westerners as completely ineffective and silly.

And so here I am with a stack of fabric and a collection of patterns for making face masks first for me and then for the rest of the family. Everyone needs at least two. I foresee a lot of hand stitching and not much knitting the next few days.

Remember to make the inside different from the outside

 

 

Comments Off on Everything Old is New Again

Filed under Pandemic, Thursday

March 16, 2020 · 20:20

Its a Brave New Social Distancing World

On Wednesday, March 11, the World Health Organization declared Corvid-19 to be a pandemic. By March 13th, schools in Seattle and the rest of King county were closed along with the public libraries and public places like the Seattle Parks and Recreation Centers, including Mt Baker Rowing and Sailing Center. But people were still going out to eat and there were even groups focusing on eating at small ethnic restaurants (like the Asian places in the International district) to support them through this drastic decline in business.

Three days later, all schools in Washington state are closed until the end of April, you can’t gather in a group of more than 50 people (and you can’t have a group of less than 50 unless you can guarantee keeping everyone 6 ft apart), teleworking is everywhere, museums are closed, restaurants are closed or can only do take-out or delivery, pubs are closed, movie theaters are closed, retail establishments are either closed or must limit the number of people in the store at one time to maintain six feet between shoppers. Seniors are encouraged to simply stay home and self-quarantine. Everyone else is encouraged to go out only if absolutely necessary. And if you do go out, remember to stay 6 feet apart and WASH YOUR HANDS.

The goal of the closures is to slow the spread of the corona virus which has been dancing around the world with ever increasing positive test results and an increasing death toll since late December, 2019.  It first jumped from animals to humans in Wuhan, China but really it could have been anywhere.  More than one scientist has warned of possible pandemics arising from all the melting permafrost, viruses from hundreds of thousands of years ago.  But corona virus, or Corvid-19 to use the formal name, is now all around the world with new cases decreasing in China and the rest of Asia but rapidly increasing in Europe and the United States. In Italy, it is especially tragic because the virus is so much harder on the elderly and Italy has a large aged population.  27,980 people have been tested in Italy and found to have the disease. In Iran, things are also believed to be very hard but because information isn’t really being shared, no one knows for sure. But it has been said that mass graves in Iran can be seen from outer space. Everywhere in the world, people are being tested for exposure and restrictions imposed in hopes of slowing the spread. As of this post, there are 181,975 confirmed cases, 7,144 deaths and 78,996 who have recovered.

Well, except in the United States where restrictions are a brand new thing from the last few days and where we have hardly tested anyone because you know, if you test people and the number of victims goes up, then people might worry and think the government was doing a crappy job. So at this point, the United States has tested less than 10,000 people.  By contrast, South Korea has tested over 200,000 people.   The low numbers of confirmed cases are believed to be the reason many Americans think this pandemic is a “so-called” pandemic — bull shit designed by a conspiracy of Democrats and the Deep State and whomever who want to thwart the reelection of the Great Leader.  Those Americans who believe this is a “so-called” pandemic keep going to bars and night clubs and restaurants and weddings and not washing their hands and mocking all the people in their houses with a months supply of prescriptions and lots of toilet paper. Of course, that group of Americans are likely not paying attention to the news out of South Korea that many people (mostly in their teens and twenties) have the virus without symptoms while seniors and those with compromised health can get the virus and be dead in hours.

I’m figuring in another 3 days, basically when I’m recovered from my surgery tomorrow, we may be closer to knowing which group is right.

 

 

Comments Off on Its a Brave New Social Distancing World

Filed under Pandemic