An update from our home in Oakland CA
We're still here, cooking, eating, gardening, living. In small steps, we're going out more, seeing people more, still masked. This virus is a beast and we have no intention of succumbing.
That said, we entertained several times this fall in our backyard. It was so lovely to see our friends, one or two at a time, and to laugh and talk and drink wine. We could almost pretend we were back to normal. Almost.
Now it's too cool and gets dark too early, although we did invest in a patio heater a few months ago. It's never actually hot here at night, and our back yard is shaded then anyway. It works really well - heater on one side, perhaps a fire in the chiminea on the other. Toasty.
I got so tired of cooking these last 20 months or so, it's hard to believe. I'm a cook-a-holic of the most serious kind, but I ran out of juice. Entertaining brought back some pleasure. We kept it simple: Chicken and shrimp jambalaya with salad, Turkey chili with salad, Braised chicken thighs with mushrooms and brussels sprouts. And salad.
Lately we've even ventured out to restaurants, eating al fresco on patios under heaters, and that's really put the spark back in my attitude. I've never preferred restaurant food to my own cooking (unless I'm in Italy of course), but I'd gotten in a rut and it's been fun to climb out and look around. We drove to Sonoma twice just to eat on a picnic bench at El Molino Central. We ate twice on Gabriella's sidewalk patio in Santa Cruz when we were there to do work on a family house. We stopped at Flying Fish's patio in Half Moon Bay to celebrate my birthday with just-caught fish 'n chips and cioppino a month ago. All good. Fabulous, really.
Maybe you're starting to come out of the cocoon too. We can't go too fast, this thing is not over and there are many places going through yet another surge even now. Do what you can. Stay well above all.
Maybe I'll start sharing a few photos and recipes again soon. It feels possible.
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