Waiting for marshmallows

A snip from my reading spreadsheet.

New covid restrictions

Our county was among most in California that got bumped back down to the strictest tier of COVID restrictions. I go four places – the golf course, the grocery store, the library and the outdoor swimming pool at my health club.

I believe the library will have to close, but I can still get curb-side pick-up and digital books. The health club can no longer have indoor activities, and I would be surprised if they keep the pool open. Perhaps no swimming for me.

All in all – no big deal. We are prepared to ride this out. As social misfits, it seems like we were born to hunker down. Even before the pandemic, I’d freak if the doorbell rang. Who could that be? What do they want?

The governor is also thinking about a curfew. As in maybe shutting everything down by 10 p.m. OK by me. I forgot people stayed out that late. And I’ve long maintained nothing good happens after midnight.

Just so you know, I am an equal opportunity critic. Governor Newsom went to a dinner party at the famous Napa restaurant, The French Laundry. Aside from the ridiculous cost when people in the state he represents are suffering and dying, and normal restaurants can’t survive, people from several different households attended the dinner. It was outdoors, so he thought it was OK.

Seriously. He should know better. I like the guy and overall, I think he’s doing a good job, but that was just plain dumb. To his credit, he apologized, which is something his critics in Washington can’t seem to manage. I can forgive someone who makes a mistake and admits it.

I think a lot about why people can’t band together and do what it takes to control the spread of this virus. I’ve concluded some people are just stupid or arrogant, and others lack the discipline to stay the course.

Remember the marshmallow test? Social science researchers put a marshmallow in front of a child and said she could have a second one – but only if she can last 15 minutes without eating the first one. The kids who can hold out for double the payout presumably have the willpower to do well in school, work and life.

Somewhere along the line, it seems we ended up with a boatload of people who can’t wait for the second marshmallow. And here we are.

Comfort Food

That’s why God invented comfort food. I’ve been making a list of our favorite decadent dishes we hope to make over the next several months. Of course, we don’t eat like this every night.

  • Stuffed Cabbage – cabbage rolls stuffed with ground meat (we use bison) and rice and simmered for hours in a hearty tomato sauce. Served with dark rye bread and European butter.
  • Transylvanian Layered Cabbage – a casserole with layers of sauerkraut, rice, sour cream and a mixture of ground pork, diced bacon and thin-sliced smoked sausage that has been well-browned. Served with dark rye bread and European butter.
  • Venison Meatloaf – a retro meatloaf made in a ring mold. Seasoned with onion soup mix, topped with a tangy ketchup-brown sugar sauce and smothered with melted jack cheese. Accompanied by wide egg noodles in a thick poppy seed-sour cream sauce.
  • Roast Duck – duckling roasted crisp in the oven with a slightly sweet orange sauce. Maybe some wild rice and a veggie to go with, but it’s all about the duck.
  • Beef Stroganoff – thin slices of beef tenderloin browned with sautéed mushrooms in a sour cream-shallot sauce. Served over wide egg noodles.
  • Porchetta Tarts – individual free-form tarts in a pastry crust filled with a pork-pancetta mixture, seasoned with fennel and sage and served with sage-butter sauce.

non-edible entertainment

As for entertainment you can’t eat, I’m back on the Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen. For some reason, I had a hard time getting started with The Marco Effect, which is fifth in the series. I’ve checked it out three times and never read it, finally going back one more time. And it turned out to be my favorite so far. I think it was election stress that kept me from focusing.

All of the sudden I’m a fan of British crime shows. I started with Unforgotten, free on Amazon Prime. I absolutely adore Nicola Walker as DCI Cassie Stuart leading the department that investigates cold cases. The show is less about violence and more about how crime affects people’s lives.

I’m just starting River, which is on Netflix and also features Nicola Walker. Amazon has a bunch more British crime shows, but most of them are not on Prime. BritBox would be another option, but I don’t want another subscription at this time. We’ll see how long that lasts!

22 thoughts on “Waiting for marshmallows”

  1. I have to admit when I saw the title of your blog post, I thought it was going to be about your absolutely fabulous marshmallows you make. I thought you might be sending a box to your favorite followers. 😉

    The day you brought a marshmallow to my office was the day our relationship moved into a new realm.

    Keep up your great posts and love your food adventures.

  2. Tasty segue from the marshmallows to the comfort food!

    For British shows, try to find Broadchurch, Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax. All top notch British shows.

  4. Did you know you can make fondant from marshmallows? Why one needs fondant, I don’t know, but that’s something I learned from the Great British Baking Show.

    How refreshing to have a governor who will apologize. Pretty rare for someone to acknowledge a mistake these days.

    Have to concur with Derek’s British show picks. We also liked an Australian show in Netflix called Unwanted.

    1. My sister swears marshmallow fondant is great. I do love all things marshmallow, so maybe.

      I will check out Unwanted.

  5. I do one subscription within Prime a month. This month it’s PBS Masterpiece and when that’s finished,I probably will need to go over to Acorn, most of them are six dollars a month, so it’s okay! I just finished Crimson Rivers and Baptiste (French and French English specifically). And yes, the Great British Baking show has value as well. I’m all for marshmallows, I actually adore peeps. And candy corn.

    1. Here’s the real question — do you like your peeps fresh or stale? It’s a cult-like thing. I love candy corn, too. And circus peanuts! There was a brand of peeps in the old days from New York, and I actually bought one of their molds after they closed.

  6. That crime novel series sounds good, I will write it down. I have Britbox and Acorn, together they have lots of wonderful British/Australian/New Zealand shows and are only maybe $6 a month. A bargain I think. The foods you list sound fabulous, now I want to cook a duckling, it has been maybe 20 years! I wonder where I would buy one.

    1. We wondered, too, about the duckling. Dale says Whole Foods usually has them frozen. There are some farmers near us who advertise ducks for sale, and we may try that as well.

  7. Another fun post! Dinner party? I cannot even imagine. My family and I have been discussing Thanksgiving, and we aren’t even going to do that. I don’t love the idea of spending it alone, but I prefer it to lingering in a hospital ICU. I have not ventured back to my fitness center for swimming; we just have too many cases of COVID and too many careless people for me to get a comfort level there. So I’ve been reduced to walking our local trails for exercise, which I love in many ways but regret for my painful feet. Yay Penetrex and CBD lotion!

    I’m beginning to think I need to make homemade marshmallows. But for now a hearty beef stew for our first day of snow.

    Thanks for the suggestions of shows to stream. I concur with all of Derek’s suggestions and have added Unwanted to my list thanks to Sheila. I recommend The Fall if they are still showing it on Netflix. Seriously great show.

      1. Thank you for re-posting the marshmallow recipe. I do recall reading about it, but somehow never succumbed to actually making them. I have made your lemon-blueberry scones, which I love! Thanks again.

  8. Donna, your observations keep ringing in my head. I’ll add “waiting for marshmallows” to “drinking the bleach”! Home has long been a place I didn’t need to take a vacation from. It sounds like your home is the place that supports and sustains you. I enjoy cooking and eating; I’m not sure which is #1. Don’t suppose you offer curbside pick-up for that comfort food list? You sound like Jon Bon Jovi – when you can’t do what you do, do what you can. I’m fortunate that the homemaking activities that I enjoy can keep on during this pandemic response.

    1. Mona, I appreciate your observations as well! Whenever we make something delicious, we say, “We could sell this.” But I bought Dale a book a long time ago about owning a small restaurant, and it cured him of that notion. It was too hard before the pandemic! However, California has a law that allows people to prepare and sell certain foods out of their homes. You never know.

      I read more on the vaccine this morning, and it does give me hope. As you noted, I can happily ride this out as long as it takes, but a little help would be welcome. In the meantime, we will hold out for the second marshmallow.

    1. We quit buying ground beef years ago when we had easy access to ground venison. That got harder to find, so we started buying the bison. We use it for burgers, tacos, meatballs, you name it. And wide egg noodles. Just thinking about them makes me happy.

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