The Big Quarantine – Tuesday, April 7, 2020
The Day in Spring Walking: Today I put shorts on for the first time in 2020. I didn’t have to over-think my first official leg shave of 2020 because no one would be close enough to critique my lady-razor techniques. In the park, I saw a black bird shimmying up a tree branch just starting to show buds. (Aw, you guys, I miss my buds!) I saw a beer truck making a delivery. Obviously the world is a freakin’ mess, but if I look at my little piece of it, I can feel the end of this and the beginning of whatever we’re heading into.
Just a quick note on that. I had intended the summer of 2020 to be a time of drastic change for me. I had a load of plans that looked different for me than anything I’d previously done. Then…Covid. Except for the horrific virus, the upheaval completely aligns with my plans. Super sorry I had to drag the rest of you in. I’ll try to make it up to you.
The Day in Pickles and Buttered Bread (Not to be Confused with Bread and Butter Pickles): I posted this week about my one of my Covid food comforts, pickles. My Aunt chimed in to inform me that my Grandmother made her own pickles and one of her snacks was a whole pickle wrapped in one slice of buttered bread. A pickle taco? Pickle in a blanket?
I gave Grandma’s snack a try today, in sandwich form. The pickles I have may be similar in flavor to Grandma’s. They are refrigerator style. You just cut the cucumbers, immerse them in a spiced, vinegar-based, spiced brine, and in a few hours, you have pickles. I do this a lot in the spring when the new and tiny cucumbers start to show up at the farmer’s markets. They are spectacular, especially for the merest effort you have to put into them.
I did a teeny pickle and buttered bread sandwich (pictured below) to get an idea of Grandma’s combo. I liked it and quickly realized I was eating a bastardized version of the classic Crustless Cucumber Sandwich that is a staple of English High Tea. That particular sandwich is simply thinly sliced cucumbers (lightly salted, perhaps hit with a mere pinch of white pepper), placed between two pieces of crustless and dainty sized thinly sliced white bread that have been schmeared with some real butter. My version was a thinly sliced toasted rye from Allez and Boomtown Biscuits house pickles. I’m calling my version the OTR Pickle sandwich. I’m not basing my emerging culinary empire on it, but it’s a winner.
In the store you can buy a jar of bread and butter pickles which are a variety of sweet pickles cut into slices like chips. Apparently they are called ‘bread and butter’ because during the Great Depression pickles were cheap (people were mostly making their own) and so was bread and butter, so people ate the pickle and buttered the bread sandwiches my Grandma turned into her snack. I’m not trying to forewarn anyone of oncoming doom based on the eating habits of previous doom, but buttered bread and pickle sandwiches might be something to put in your food repertoire.
And one more thing, on the internet Peanut Butter and Pickle sandwiches occasionally have their day. That combo is a staple that more people than you might think grew up with.
And one more thing, place a potato chip on a pickle and chomp them together. Thank me later.
The Day in a Plethora of Vodka: Way back when I had an office job that was making me quite cranky, I briefly stocked my desk drawer with an assortment of mini bottles of vodka. Having no intention of drinking it at work (I didn’t bring mixers, or limes, or proper glassware) I meant it as a solidarity joke with people I thought would find it funny.
They did not find it funny.
You know how sometimes it hits you that you may be in the wrong place?
Well screw(driver) them. I took my vodka back home where I promptly forgot about it, until I added them to my Covid Provisions Pantry! Who’s laughing now?
The Day in Miniatures: Here are some pickle sandwich eaters.
Covid 19 Info
If you want to help local bars and restaurant and their workers, please check out the links below:
Pleasantry OTR and Allez Bakery: Buy a meal for a healthcare worker
Restaurant Workers Relief Program: https://leeinitiative.org/
This organization needs funds and donations to keep feeding furloughed restaurant workers for the Restaurant Workers Relief Program. All donations go right back to the restaurants in your city that are feeding people in need.
We need supplies: diapers, baby food, tampons, toilet paper, canned food, and shelf stable food.
We can only buy in limited amounts so we need you to help us
Please order online at @amazon @target @walmart @instacart @meijerstores or any delivery service, buy supplies through your account and ship it to the local restaurant that is giving in your city.
𝗟𝗼𝘂𝗶𝘀𝘃𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲- @610magnolia 610 W Magnolia Ave, Louisville KY 40208
𝗗𝗖 – @succotashrestaurant 915 F St NW, Washington DC, 20004
𝗟𝗼𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀 – @chispacca 6610 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
𝗦𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 – @salareseattle 2404 NE 65th St, Seattle, WA 98115
𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗴𝗼 – @bigstarchicago 1531 N Damen Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
𝗗𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿 – @eatwithsafta 3330 Brighton Blvd #201, Denver, CO 80216
𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗹𝘆𝗻 – @olmstednyc 659 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238
𝗕𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗹𝘆𝗻 – @gertienyc 357 Grand St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
𝗖𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶 – @mitascincy 501 Race St, Cincinnati, OH 45202
𝗔𝘁𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮 – @restauranteugeneatl 2277 Peachtree Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30309
𝗟𝗲𝘅𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻, 𝗞𝗬 – @greatbagel’s 3650 Boston Rd #108, Lexington, KY 40514
𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗢𝗿𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘀 – @cochon_nola 930 Tchoupitoulas St, New Orleans, LA 70130
CDC – Cases in the United States
Updated April 7, 2020
These numbers are updated regularly at noon Mondays through Fridays. Numbers close out at 4 p.m. the day before reporting.
- Total cases: 374,329 (Yesterday = 304,826)
- Total deaths: 12,064 (Yesterday = 7,616)
- Jurisdictions reporting cases: 54 (50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and US Virgin Islands)
* Data include both confirmed and presumptive positive cases of COVID-19 reported to CDC or tested at CDC since January 21, 2020, with the exception of testing results for persons repatriated to the United States from Wuhan, China and Japan. State and local public health departments are now testing and publicly reporting their cases. In the event of a discrepancy between CDC cases and cases reported by state and local public health officials, data reported by states should be considered the most up to date.
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 
I believe the word you meant to use was “shinnying” not shimmying. Shimmying is to go back and forth whilst shinnying is to climb up.