Covid Chronicles, Week 26

 How was your Labor Day weekend?

Ours was very busy!

On Friday we went for our weekly picnic lunch at a local winery, this time in Woodstock, CT.  As we drove there, we went by a street where friends live.  The husband is a trained chef, and was the chef in Peter's old dorm at UConn.  (Peter was a waiter, so Ben was his boss.)  I said, "Hey, let's stop to visit Benny and Elaine on the way home!  We can call before stopping, we have our own chairs, and we can all sit outside.  We can also get them a bottle of wine."

So there we were in the afternoon, ten feet away from Ben and Elaine, enjoying a beautiful day in the shade.  Being a trained chef, I'm sure Ben will enjoy the wine!  Little did we know that his 89th birthday was Monday.  Stopping there was a good move!

On Saturday, our next-door neighbors got married!

It was a very small ceremony, of course.  

We had plans to drive to visit Katie in the afternoon.  We got takeout from a Texas Roadhouse restaurant.  Another lovely afternoon in the shade on her back porch!

After we got home, we wandered over to the neighbor's house when we saw their outdoor firepit lit.  (Yes, we had been invited.)  People there sat a little closer than I'd like, but we spaced out a bit from them and enjoyed the fire and conversation.  We saw a few pictures of the wedding ceremony, which was nice.  

On Sunday we decided to bite the bullet and get the flu shot from our local CVS.  We were able to make a reservation and it was all fairly quick.  

In the afternoon, we harvested our "Chinook" hops!  Peter cut down the strings that held the "bines" up.  We brought them home, and sat on our front patio to remove each hop.  They then went onto a drying rack.  Peter is now looking at making beer......no real surprise.  He'll probably have more success with beer than I had with mozzarella, LOL!  

The bines are actually very pretty.  I took a piece of them and used them as a decoration on our table outside for the evening.  

Monday was more relaxing, except for the part when I went to do my weekly bathroom cleaning.  In the bathroom on the basement level I have been seeing dead winged insects around the base of the toilet.  Gross, right?  I've seen these before, perhaps a year ago, but they went away.  Now they are starting up again.  

Now they have ALL been found dead, mind you.  I have been simply picking them up and then spraying the area with Raid every week.  In the past four weeks there have been more each week in spite of that. 

I decided I needed another person's perspective.  So I pulled Peter down there.  

Apparently he has seen these before when he had to get septic systems dug up.  He was despairing that perhaps he will need to take out the toilet and re-seal it, something which he absolutely abhors.

I said perhaps we should google the critters, and maybe we can do something simple before considering such a drastic measure.  He agreed.    

I suggested that he google, "Winged insects around base of the toilet," but I guess he googled "septic flies" instead, and was successful.  They are also known as "drain flies,"  but I'm sure that's not the official entomologist's term.  

One site had some simple household interventions, like pouring boiling water down suspected drains twice a day for two weeks.  After that, you can put baking soda down the drain once a week for maintenance.  

Considering that the drains in that room don't get a lot of use, I decided this is a good thing to try.  Perhaps they fly out of the drains and get drawn to the bottom of the toilet, only to eat Raid and die.  

So this project has already begun.  I hope it is effective!

Onward to our next season......

Covid Chronicles, Week 25

 Happy September!!!!

This week I am pondering my "Covid Dreams."

You know, the kind of dream where you are in a really crowded place,

and you suddenly realize that no one is wearing masks,

and you aren't either?

I had one where I was at a house party.

People were EVERYWHERE.

No masks, indoors, lots of people!

I realized I didn't want to be there.

I had to search from room to room to find Peter.

I said, "I want to go home!"

He indicated that now wasn't the time.  

I must have freaked out enough to realize that I was in a bed. 

But I thought the bed was in this crowded house.

Yikes, I was sleeping all night in this crowded house?  

Then I actually woke up.  

It's comforting to be able to keep saying to yourself, 

"Relax, it was just a dream.  It didn't really happen."  

I have a feeling others have these types of dreams, too.  

Peter noticed having a few of these after I shared mine with him.

I've had a number of them so far!

Have you had one?

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On Sunday my Facebook page reminded me of a memory from August 30, 2013.

It's definitely a keeper!

I decided to re-post it onto a Speech Pathology group page that I belong to.  

I got OVER 1,000 "likes," and over 26 ALL-POSITIVE comments!

1092 at last count.  

I'm so glad they could relate.....

Here it is:

Today I made a quick stop at a local grocery store. An elderly man was outside selling raffle tickets. After I asked what it was for, I knew he had a communication impairment because he only pointed at the prizes.

I didn't have money on me at the time, so I went back to my car after accumulating my $1.50 on bottle deposits. I needed $3.

He was so pleased that I returned! He then thanked me using his assistive communication device, a older-looking model on which he typed in a sentence and it spoke for him.

"I'm a speech pathologist. I know about things like that," I smiled.

"I don't like the girl," he replied, and I realized that he disliked the female voice it used. He pushed the device toward me.

I was reluctant. Perhaps this unit had broken a bit, and there was no male voice.

"Oh, I don't really know about these...." but he persisted.

Okay, look for what makes sense..... After a few of my attempts, a loud male voice resounded from the unit.

He was so thrilled! He wanted to GIVE me more raffle tickets, but I didn't think that would be right.

Gosh - It's amazing how doing an act of kindness can perk up a day.

Feeling happy

Covid Chronicles, Week 24

 Our hot summer is continuing!

Meanwhile, the cheese saga continues.....

On Saturday, I decided to try again.

I had a bottle of whole milk, no organic or grass fed this time.

Plain old regularly pasteurized whole milk. 

No ultra-pasteurization.

I was encouraged when I saw initial curdling 

as I heated the milk and citric acid to 90 degrees.

I added my rennet solution.

I stirred gently, covered it, and set it aside for five minutes.

No luck.

I covered it again for five minutes more, as directed.

No luck.

In an attempt to salvage my investment of time and money, 

I gently heated the milk mixture to 190 

(the temperature at which I have made ricotta), 

then poured it (using a ladle) through cheesecloth.  

I collected much less curd than I do when making ricotta, 

only enough to fill a 6-oz custard cup.

When I tasted it, I discovered that the texture is GRAINY 

and not appealing at all.  

At this point, I am giving up mozzarella cheese making.

I wrote to the company that makes rennet, 

and suggested that if they think the rennet is at fault, 

they might send me more.

However, I told them, 

otherwise I am limiting my cheese-making to ricotta.  

That has always come out pretty good!

They responded that this problem happens 

if the milk was pasteurized above 168 degrees.....Sigh.  

That's it for me!

That's okay, the regular ricotta recipe hasn't failed me yet!

I used to make ricotta with citric acid, 

then I discovered that the vinegar method worked fine.  

Here's a basic recipe, similar to what I've done in the past.  

Some other recipes call for heavy cream to be added for a creamier ricotta.  

How To Make Homemade Ricotta Cheese

How To Make Homemade Ricotta Cheese Milk, lemon juice, and about a half-hour of your time — that's all you need to make a batch of fresh, creamy hom...

Covid Chronicles, Week 23

 Last weekend was fun.....well, mostly.

Peter's 65th birthday was Saturday.  Kind of a monumental Medicare day, right?  

Like, now you're officially a "senior citizen."  

I made a card for him (as I'm not going shopping in a brick and mortar store if I can help it), 

and had a book I thought he'd like as a gift.  

I pretended I was just making a nice dinner for him for his birthday.....

but in reality I invited the kids over, and told them it's a surprise.  

They were expected at 3 pm.  

Hmmm....we usually watch Mass online at 4 pm, 

so he should have been mostly finished with whatever he was doing by 3.

However, there was no way I could tell him to come in at 2:30 for a shower.  

That's too early to be ready for a 4 pm online Mass!

John arrived as Peter was driving away with the truck to park the trailer, 

which he was still using to pick up brush after storm Isaias. 

Peter arrived home soon after that, 

and wasn't really surprised that John happened to drop by on his birthday to say hello.  

However......then came Katie with her two dogs!

Surprise! 

After Peter's quick shower, we had a steak dinner outside, just the four of us.  

Nice and socially distant, which is why we are not all together in a photo, 

which I put on Facebook afterwards.  

(Unfortunately, Andy could not join us as he was working.)

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The next day, we finally got some much-needed rain!

Looking good, right?

I decided it was a good day to make mozzarella.

I have a friend who has been making cheese throughout Covid, 

and she told me how easy it is to make mozzarella.

I had a "30 minute" recipe, with step-by-step illustrated directions. 

I had already learned to successfully make ricotta, so mozzarella was intriguing.

I had secured a glass bottle of whole milk from a local farm stand.  

The milk was actually from a farm in Enfield.  

Farm fresh whole milk!  Should be awesome!

Unfortunately, nothing happened.  

Yes, I mean nothing!  

$6.50 + $2.00 bottle deposit and nothing happened!

No curds AT ALL.  

My friend thought that perhaps the milk had been ultra-pasteurized.  

(That's using extra high heat for pasteurization to increase shelf life.)  

This is not supposed to be used for cheese making.

I contacted the company.....really, this information should be on the bottle!

They responded.  They said this milk is actually great for cheese making, 

but they never told me the temperature at which they pasteurize......

so perhaps this was an accidental high temperature batch.  I don't know.  

(They, of course, suggested that I give their milk another try.)  

Well, no one was about to consume this liquid after I had thrown in:

    Citric Acid, water, and rennet (for the Mozzarella),

    then vinegar (in a last ditch attempt to make ricotta),

    and even salt (in case the ricotta attempt was successful).

Still, nothing happened.  No curds whatsoever.  

Live and learn.  Down the drain it went. 

May your week be filled with great cheese.....unless you have dairy issues!

Covid Chronicles, Week 22

 In the afternoon of Tuesday of last week, storm Isaias hit Connecticut.  

Interestingly, hardly any weather forecasters seemed to know how to say the name of this storm. 

They kept saying, "Ee-sah-EE-sis," like it's a process, not a name.  

I finally looked it up, and it appears that there are many ways to say this name.  

Notably, in Spanish it's "Ee-sah-EE-ahs," but in other countries it's "Ee-SAI-ahs." 

Americans would probably say, "Ai-ZAY-as."  

Why they chose a name with such a complex pronunciation is a quandry.  

So anyway, Isaias rolled on through that afternoon, with a path to our west.

Not good.

To the west of Isaias, they got rain, which we certainly could have used.

We didn't get much rain at all.

On our side of Isaias, we got wind.  

It wasn't a hurricane, but there were "microbursts" and shearing winds that twisted branches.

You know where this is going.....

Luckily, our power flickered but did not go out.

Most of our town, however, lost power.

The next day, when we lost power for three hours, 

we also lost internet for almost five days.

Our best connection to the outside world was 

our old-fashioned newspaper, and the radio. 

The cell phones worked for talking, 

but with delays in texting, inconsistent emails, and nonexistent web pages.

All the way until Sunday afternoon.  

We found out about its return when we got back from one of many trips to bulky waste.  

So there you have it.  A mess.  

The power company is getting its due now, for sure.  

So is our cable company.  

Our town had trucks all the way from Canada to get our power back!

I had a friend come by to charge her phone, and I also lent her a charging brick.

I offered more charging services to other friends, as well as water for those with wells, 

but they did ok I guess.

Ironically, our son, living on a street notorious for losing power, did fine!

He just lost power for a few hours on Sunday after a transformer blew.  

We were armed and ready to help him with a small generator and water so he can flush,

but miraculously, it wasn't necessary yet again!

Now is the time to re-assess the trees in our yard, 

because you never know when another storm might hit.  

Wishing everyone well!

Covid Chronicles, Week 21

I know that last week I posted a video of how masks work, but this one is 100 times more entertaining!

Watch this one for a laugh!

Do Masks Work Or Not Proving Whether Masks Stop Covid 19 Transmission with Uncle Rob

Do Masks Work Or Not Proving Whether Masks Stop Covid 19 Transmission ...

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Last week we finally harvested some of our Shishito peppers, 

which are growing on our back porch in pots.  

 

Approximately one of ten of these peppers pack a punch, the rest are sweet.

They are served blistered in olive oil from a frying pan, with a simple sprinkling of salt.

Take a pepper by the stem and eat it!

The fun is not knowing when you'll get a hot one!

This time we charred the peppers in a vegetable basket on the grill.

Then they were tossed with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt.

Delicious!!!  And much better than splattering oil all over the stove!

We didn't get any that were actually hot, just a few that were a bit spicier than others.

Covid Chronicles, Week 20

Another week checked off!

This week I came across this interesting video about how masks work:

How do masks work against COVID-19? | The Kid Should See This

How do masks work against COVID-19? | The Kid Should See This If you've been wondering how masks work against airborne infections like COVID-19, take a look at the Schlieren ...

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On Sunday (7/26) we drove up to Katie and Andy's house in Lancaster, MA.  They will be married TEN years on August 20!!  We brought them an early anniversary gift of a gas grill, to go on their back porch, alongside their new patio set.  We also brought the accessories and food to put it to good use right away.  It was fun to surprise them like this.....they only knew that we were coming, and bringing food, and that we needed Andy to be present with some tools and a mask.