The Big Quarantine – Saturday, April 25, 2020
The Day in Blind Baking: If you looked at yesterday’s blog I left off with a sudsy colander full of pennies. That was the first step in last night’s quiche. Really. It’s a crust thing.
I usually make a frittata instead of a quiche. Both have the same egg/cheese/meat/vege filling, but quiches have a pie crust and frittatas are crustless. I normally find the crust to be a time-consuming, extra-calorie adding fuss, but here in the pandemic, me and carbs got a thing goin’ on.
Since the quiche filling starts off very wet you are supposed to put it in a pre-cooked pie crust, known as a blind baked crust. That’s what I did. I will shout this off roof tops: the very worst homemade pie crusts are still way better tasting than store bought pie crusts. They may not look as handsome, but they will be quite tasty. My crusts always look like they were made by a drunk toddler, but they really taste great.
And why the pennies? When you blind bake a crust you want to make sure air bubbles don’t form. So you prick the bottom with a fork and cover the crust with pie weights. I don’t have pie weights. But I got coins. They work. My super ugly pie crust is bubble free.
(Which Logically Brings Us To) The Day in Quiche: My asparagus bacon quiche smells amazing, looks haphazard, and tastes pretty damn good. If you’ve got eggs, milk, cheese, and some leftovers, you can make fritatta or quiche. (It’s cool if you use a store bought crust…we can still be friends.) If you’ve never made a quiche or frittata, I think you might find this cooking project pretty satisfying.
The Day in My Pandemic Bod: My walks have gotten longer and longer as the weeks go on. My legs are strong! It’s like my body knows I have about an hour to work off all the day’s calories. Sadly, exercise pants are not like spanx which are made to, ahem, help you hold it together. I pull them up on my way out, and I look alright in the mirror. It isn’t far into the walk, though when the exercise pants give up and adjust to my movement, meaning they perfectly frame and showcase my pandemic carb belly. Gah!
The Day in Seeing Closed Signs: I took a walk up the hill through Eden Park to the Krohn Conservatory. In normal times, I walk up. Go through the conservatory, grab some water, hang around, and then walk home. That’s a pleasant afternoon. Today I walked up, took a picture of the closed sign, and walked home. Soon, soon, soon, we’ll start doing things in places that aren’t our living rooms!
The Day in Boomerangs: On my walk today I came upon a man and a woman walking toward each other rekindling an old argument. She greeted him with, “Why you comin’ all up in here with your smug ass attitude?” “You know you the one who did me wrong,” he said. “We broke up in November,” she said, “What-choo even want?” I couldn’t hear the rest. Did you ever think you were done with a relationship and weeks later the person comes back and says, “One more thing…” Even a pandemic can’t stop relationship shenanigans.
The Day
The Day in Mask Wear: I bought my Mom a bandanna face mask that she can wear around her neck and pull up to cover her face. Even though she isn’t leaving the house any time soon, like everyone else she has to get used to wearing a mask. It may be that the CDC might recommend that more vulnerable population wear medical masks, but they haven’t issued that guidance yet. Whatever mask we settle on, it has to be easy for her older, slightly arthritic hands to manipulate.
She said she put the mask on and she wears it while she’s looking out the window. She also said doesn’t care what the neighbors think. So…mask practice appears to going well.
Nothing Ever Happens on My Street 