Cognitive tests
I’m no fan, but I’d like to thank President Trump for talking about the results of his cognitive test. Now I know you have to count backward from 100 by 7s, and I know I must avoid taking this test or I can say bye-bye car keys. The truth is, I can’t count forward to 100 by 7s.
Let’s call it a learning disability, but I struggle with math. In school, I barely got through algebra, and geometry was next in line to feast on the remains of my carcass. High school geometry was like going to class where everyone was speaking in tongues. I remember sitting there, dizzy with confusion, thinking, “Oh, fuck.”
I got into college anyway. That’s why God invented the journalism major.
Even today, I often use my fingers for simple addition. Dale calls it the digital calculator. As for cognitive tests, he suggested I apply for an accommodation. While other people have service animals, I would ask to bring my service calculator.
Although my earlier idea for a service cat didn’t work out, I’m willing to give the calculator a try. I’m already thinking about a name. A little vest.
COVID update
The COVID-19 numbers in our county are going up. Dale and I huddled this morning to reassess our situation and discuss course corrections. After a robust discussion, we concluded we’re already being quite prudent and are not making any changes at this time. That means we will continue to go to the grocery store as needed, and I will continue to play golf.
In a lot of ways, this is easier for us, because the closest family member is several hundred miles away, and we haven’t made any close friends since we moved here when I retired. This is pretty much how we lived before the pandemic.
We decided to stock up on a few essentials – mostly paper goods – but to otherwise avoid purchasing a lot of extra food. We have two refrigerators and a well-stocked chest freezer, so we feel good about our options. We’re also flexible about what we eat – if they are out of one thing, then we’ll have something else.
Pandemic hobbies for foodies
When I think about food, I am so grateful neither one of us is a picky eater. I can’t imagine how people arrive at conclusions about common foods they will and won’t eat. But then I’m in recovery. I was picky as a child but eventually grew out of it. Although I like some liver, about the only thing I won’t eat are entrails and internal organs. Just because it grosses me out.
We cook a lot of Mexican food, so we stock a hearty supply of dried beans – pinto and black. I recently concluded we are in a rut, relying on the standards we’ve made for years … tacos, burritos, tostadas. In wild pandemic craziness, I reorganized the cookbooks, and for the most part, lumped like-cuisines together. Oversized books have a special shelf and are in no particular order.
I found 14 cookbooks dedicated to Mexican food! I started going through them to learn more about the full scope of the food from Mexico and to see what we might have overlooked the first time around. It’s a fun pandemic hobby … if you’re a foodie. The first book I tackled was “The Cuisines of Mexico” by Diana Kennedy. It was published in 1972.
She writes about certain foods being nearly impossible to find in the U.S. – tomatillos, fresh tortillas. She even said Monterey Jack cheese was hard to find in some parts of the country. I remember buying cilantro for the first time at a Korean market in the early 70s, and it came in a pot. Of course, now it’s everywhere. When we lived in Germany the first time, we bought tortillas in a can. We are so fortunate these days to have such a wide variety of foods readily available.
There’s a new documentary out about Diana Kennedy, who is 97. I haven’t seen it yet, but in the reviews, some question her legacy – a privileged white woman who became a so-called expert on Mexican cuisine? Others beat her up for being so puritanical about her version of authenticity. Still, she gets grudging respect as someone who did her research and earned her stripes.
I owe her one for teaching me to make tortillas. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Gosh I hope we don’t go back to the hoarding that made grocery shopping so unpleasant in March and April! That was just awful, and really for no good reason in that the food supply was never disrupted. Sigh.
My guess for California is that certain cities might see tightening of restrictions, but not the state as a whole. I think the governor is very cognizant of the difference between counties, and is now dealing with things county by county. It would also appear that being outdoors, masked, and socially distant is not creating any adverse issues, so our current rules, assuming they are followed(!), should be sufficient for the long run.
We’ll see!
I feel sorry for the governor. I mean, people complained when things were closed, and now they’re complaining when they’re open. I agree with you — it seems being masked, outdoors and socially distant works. As you said, we shall see.
Do you have a tortilla press, or do you pat them with your hands? We used to go to a Mexican restaurant in Denver where you could watch tortillas being made by hand as you stood in line waiting to get in.
Have you ever listened to Splendid Table on NPR? It’s a foodie show for people who like cooking and people who like eating. Lots of ethnic recipes on their website like Cochinita Pibil from the Yucatan peninsula, which sounds wonderful if you’ve got spare banana leaves lying around.
I make corn tortillas in a press. Dale makes flour tortillas. He mostly uses a rolling pin but pats them a little to get the shape and thickness correct. Splendid Table sounds great! I will definitely check that out, both the show and the website. We used to go to the Yucatan quite a bit, and they make some amazing food. I just checked, and Amazon has banana leaves!
As for the cognitive test, I think I could do the clock. But then I saw they want you to draw a camel. Geez. One hump or two?
I meant to say that I practice counting backwards by 7 just in case I ever have to take one of those tests. I bet I’ll be so nervous I’ll forget, but right now I can do it. So far it’s only been the clock face test, which I passed. Whew!
That’s funny about the cognitive test. I tried the counting back from 100 by 7 and did ok. I’m more visual so if I could write it went faster. I failed miserably all math except statistics which for some reason I understood completely. Maybe it’s a spatial thing.
Anyway, we love Mexican food and use a lot of beans. I love chili Rellenos and make them occasionally when the New Mexico chilis come in. Oh, BTW, I’m still thinking about another freezer. Do you find it useful to store flour too? Besides meat things, I think an extra freezer would be a great addition. But I don’t want to go overboard with things.
Dale also makes chili rellenos, one of my all-time faves. Love those Hatch chili peppers!
In the chest freezer: small tubs of homemade chicken stock, soup, uncooked meat and poultry, leftovers wrapped in individual servings, leftover homemade pizza wrapped individually and sealed in a giant Ziploc, nuts and seeds. One whole section of it is devoted to some types of flour and similar products such as masa harina, bulgar and couscous. For flour, we generally don’t freeze AP, wheat, bread, Double 0 and High-Gluten because we use all fairly frequently. We do freeze pastry, a special whole wheat flour for Indian breads and rye. It’s a great way to prevent those items from attracting bugs or turning rancid.
When and where I grew up (small town southern Ontario in Canada), even pizza was exotic. How far we have come. I still remember my childhood friends coming over to my place and goggling at the (plain) yogurt in the fridge and asking what it was and how you ate it. Now of course, yogurt is very mainstream as is kale. No longer the weird and wonderful of immigrant families, alone.
I just love learning new cuisines. Immigrants have made my 1st generation Canadian culinary life so rich! I would love to learn more about Mexican cuisine someday.
Deb
I know exactly what you mean. Even though I grew up in California, I don’t think I had pizza until I was a teenager. Yogurt? I don’t even remember the first time I heard of yogurt.
In my former career, I gave a lot of cognitive tests…now I am retired and over 65 so I have to TAKE the test! The counting backward question always makes me nervous? There is an alternate to the math, you are asked to spell world backwards (lots of people hate math)
What a relief to know there’s an alternative to math! Thanks for sharing the good news. I’ve been practicing world backwards just in case …