A big appetite on a small budget
Ten weeks in, even the keenest home cooks among us–namely, my mom and I–are hitting quarantine cooking fatigue. The meal planning two weeks in advance, the masking at the grocery store and sanitizing at home, the having to conjure up a reasonably healthy meal three times a day– it is what my mom would call “a production.”
…
In other countries, with functioning federal governments, coronavirus cases are few and lockdown restrictions are easing. Friends in Australia have told me about hugging their mothers, making pasta with friends, and throwing dinner parties. From my vantage point in D.C., it is tantalizing and maddening to see this alternate reality– to know that hugs and friends and meals could have been ours now, too, if only our government had its act together.
…
Like this pasta, or these cookies, this easy pan seared halibut recipe is a great one to have in your back pocket. You can make it with almost any kind of white fish. You probably have most of the ingredients in your well-stocked pantry. The pan sauce–with lemon, butter, capers, and white wine–begs to be mopped up with some crusty bread (you know, from those quarantine sourdough experiments). And the impressive presentation means nobody but you will know this took less than 30 minutes to pull together.
…
Earning a Ph.D., it turns out, was excellent preparation for a global pandemic. I spent five years alternately isolated in my home or at the archives, working with little supervision, while a niggling sense of unease about the future played at the back of my mind. The crucible shaped me into a new person, but truly—grimly—there’s no denying that self-isolation and grad school are one and the same.
…
For decades, our house was a Bette’s-pancakes-only zone. Why introduce anything less than perfection into our weekend routine?
So I have no idea why, in October 2003, my mom felt moved to clip this pumpkin pancake recipe from Bon Appétit– but ho boy, I am so glad she did.
…