Sylvia's Journal

When one of our sons-in-law first came to our house and saw the inside of our refrigerator he commented on what he saw: ‘it’s all condiments!’ This particular son-in-law did not like condiments – never had mustard or catchup on his hotdog or hamburger, hated the idea of relish and such. He has changed over the years, partially because I make lots of mustard at Christmas time for family and friends. He has received those for decades and I have seen him put the mustard on something.

I thought about this when I opened our refrigerator this morning: he would sure have exclaimed that it contained nothing but condiments. And he would have been right, it’s now mostly populated mostly by condiments, pickles, relishes, simmering sauces, chutneys, glazes, mayonnaise and a few poorly looking vegetables.

We are trying not to go to the store as we have successfully kept the outside world out and are infection free. We plan to stay so. Not knowing where the virus is hanging out, we prefer to stay put where we are.

As a result we are slowly depleting our supplies of fresh food. At first, we planned our meals using an app in which we store our favorite recipes. It has a meal planning calendar and generates a shopping list.  But some of our favorite meals (like Sag Paneer) have ingredients that are no longer in the house. At first, we did go to a store (over a week ago), then we sent out an order for pickup (6 days ago) and now we have abandoned the meal planner altogether because it forces us to go get the needed stuff from outside and with it comes a complicated disinfecting routine.  We will just look at what is in the pantry and what’s in the refrigerator/freezer. Then it will be mix and match. We should be good for awhile longer.

I have solved the milk problem by ordering a large can of Nido, Nestle’s milk powder that is ubiquitous in developing countries. Axel was surprised (why didn’t you get something that is local, cheaper and doesn’t need shipping?). I must admit it was an entirely irrational buy, driven by emotions and associations. As soon as I saw the image of the product, my mind was flooded with images of that can on my kitchen counter in  Yemen, Lebanon, Senegal. And with those images came all these memories of those adventures. Good old times!

Replenishing our dwindling egg supply is more of a problem because our local hatchery owners are infected. They have a refrigerator outside the chicken barn where you can help yourself and leave the money. But the refrigerator is closed now, no more fresh eggs. And so, we hope that we can drive to Tessa and Steve who live in New Hampshire. They have chickens and thus eggs. It may be a nice outing for this weekend – that is, if such is still allowed. Watching Spain and Italy and France, that freedom may soon be gone too. We wonder how such limitations will go over in New Hampshire, a state that has as its motto ‘Live Free or Die!’ This now means something entirely different than it did before.