I mentioned earlier in the week that there’s plenty of time right now for reflecting, and I’m no different. I’m a bit of a list lover (ok a lot) and so I’ve been doing what I do best, and making a list. They are my observations and our experiences, yours may of course be completely different, and that’s ok. I’ve pondered about sharing these, how to categorise, should they be funny or serious and whether to share at all. I don’t have the answers to many of those and have decided it’s important to me to record these, and that simple is often best, so that’s what I’m doing.
A natural grouping happened as I reread the list, and so, I’m starting with food, and food related things. Which, is never a bad place to start is it?
As this crisis started, things started to be in short supply - including, bizarrely toilet roll (why?), something I never thought could cause so much angst for so many, though obviously if you haven’t got any it’s easy to see why.
1 Sourdough breakthrough
Yes, let’s get the lockdown cliches out of the way first. Everyone seems to be making sourdough, and while I’ve been making it on and off for years, often teasing my starter out of semi-retirement in the process, I’ve upped my sourdough game.
The trouble is, as I’ve said before, homemade bread doesn’t hang around for long, it’s too bloomin’ tasty! And in the past few weeks I’ve made some of my best loaves in a while. I’ve discovered, quite by chance, that if I leave my starter wetter, it makes a better loaf.
It also seems to make for a more active starter, as it’s burst out of its ice cream container home a couple of times too. Which in a full fridge isn’t always welcome…
2 A baking cliche too, banana bread
Yes, I’ve made banana bread too, probably in week 1 of lockdown (it’s the end of week 9 as I write this post). It seems to be the cake of choice, and it’s a very good choice too. I am one of those people that’s quite fussy about my bananas, there’s an optimum ripeness for eating, and anything before or after that isn’t enjoyable.
So once they’re past this stage, bananas are either destined to be eaten by MOH, banana bread, breakfast muffins or the freezer (I peel and store in takeaway containers) ready for use another day.
And so far, we’ve done all of these. Some of the frozen bananas have even made it out of the freezer too.
3 In short supply
It’s probably all the baking going on, but here we’ve struggled to buy flour and sugar. Bread flour arrived with our supermarket shop, which was good news and recently we were able to buy some self-raising flour on a local shopping trip too, so it’s ok. I’m not much of a ‘fine and precise’ baker, but my cakes are edible and some flour is better than none.
At one point though I was quite concerned about eggs, or being able to get some, though that was thankfully just a bit of a blip. Butcher’s bacon was more of a disappointment for MOH, but that too is now back to normal, and still much tastier than anything a supermarket sells.
4 We drink a lot of tea
That’s mostly because during the working day MOH makes a lot of tea! I’m not really complaining of course, but I’ve never drunk so much. I think partly because my working day used to involve me running between meetings for most of the day, so cups of tea didn’t happen. Sometimes I’d remember to take a water bottle along, and even sometimes remember to drink it.
MOH was also clearly perplexed by my work day drinking habits, or lack of them, and quite seriously asked if I had a Butler at work to make tea for me. I don’t, but have asked him if he’d consider the position when office life resumes. He wasn’t keen.
We now have a new tea regime, which involves drinking ‘funny tea’ as MOH calls it in the afternoons. ‘Funny tea’ is anything that doesn’t come out of the usual tea bag container, and includes rooiboos, chai, green, mint etc.
We’ve even threatened to break open the tea pot and loose leaf tea, but haven’t reached that stage quite just yet. Or not least, during the working day.
5 A pretty plate helps
We used to take lunch to work two or three days a week, and grab something on the other days. Now lunches are a bit more planned, as grabbing something is no longer an option. I’ll admit though, planning lunches and dinner is dull, and I’m the person who likes a plan. But it helps avoid those ‘we’re hungry, what shall we eat’ conversations, when quite frankly no one is at their best.
Some days/weeks I’m more resourceful than others, cooking some extra pasta the night before for pasta salad for lunch; some leftover potatoes for a Niçoise salad, or finally opening some tinned fish which had been labelled as ‘too smelly’ for the office, but actually wasn’t and was rather tasty.
And yes, a pretty plate helps. So does being able to eat lunch in the garden.
6 Husbands and pulses don’t mix
However, a word of caution. It may just be our household, but overloading one of us with too many pulses isn’t a recipe for success.
Just saying. Lesson learnt.
7 The dishwasher is having a fantastic workout
With all this eating at home, our dishwasher is having a better workout than me! Seriously.
There’s another upside to this lockdown that I don’t want to overlook, and that’s we seem to be making a breakthrough in where things go in the dishwasher. I still occasionally have a slight rearrange, for old times sake, but goodness, it’s only taken almost twenty years.
Apparently I’m exaggerating, it’s only 17 1/2 years, and anyway, sometimes the plates, dishes, mugs fancy a change….!
8 More Margot than Barbara
My vegetable growing is off to a slow start this year, only two (late planted) broad beans have shown up, and to repeat what I think I’ve said here before, this year might be the year for broad beans with Christmas lunch at this rate.
My tomatoes are also slow starters, and way behind where I’d hoped they would be, so they will be receiving some attention this weekend. My spinach is just starting to get going, and some turnips which I’d sown after remembering how well they grew on the allotment, and how pretty they were, have been a little munched.
Munching, or selective munching has also happened in the greenhouse with basil, marigolds and one half of the lettuce seed tray left as stalks. I’ve still to work out if it’s the spicy lettuce mix, or the softer farmer’s market mix that’s gone. I bet it’s the latter, as that’s the one I was most looking forward to. I’ve sown more of each, and taking better precautions, so hope to find out relatively soon.
So I’m definitely not feeling very Barbara, I’ll share why I’m feeling more Margot in a future list. And if that sentence made no sense, it’s a Good Life reference.
9 No weekday chocolate ‘fix’
Often while grabbing lunch, I’d pick up some chocolate too, most likely a Twix or Maltesers, or sometimes the very best cherry flapjacks baked in the cafe on site. The sort that are so sweet that you can feel the sugary-ness coat your teeth. And obviously I’d try and choose the largest one, with the most glacé cherries in - quite a skill, and a big decision.
Well, that’s stopped too. And despite having sweet treats each day, and doing less exercise - I am no longer walking an hour each day to and from work, and don’t make use of my permitted hour of exercise, I’ve needed to ask MOH to add a hole to my belt, as my clothes were too loose.
Certainly food for thought there.
10 Fridge Jenga
Eating more, well all, our meals at home, combined with trying to keep shopping trips to a minimum means more food in the house, and the fridge. Our fridge is currently operating at a Fridge Jenga level usually reserved for Christmas. I have found, and expect to continue to find, MOH peering in wondering i) where things are and ii) what’s safe to move to avoid an avalanche. As that’s entirely possible, I usually rescue him, it’s easier all round, and better than retrieving blueberries from all over the kitchen - they’re pesky little wotsits for escaping.
I also have been know to marvel out loud about how everything fitted in. Of course I have a list of what’s in there, just so I know. And yes, I really do.
Well, that turned into a longer post than I expected, but quite a cathartic one too. There’s plenty more on my list so I’m sure there’ll be further posts, in the meantime what’s on your lockdown learnings list?
