So, long time no post!

The past three weeks have been a blur…not necessarily because of quarantine and the warped sense of time that that’s created, but rather because there just hasn’t been anything super notable lately. (Okay, there is one event I can recall quite clearly and jarringly, but more on that later.)

For the most part, I’ll be relying on my camera roll to help me chronicle what’s happened the last few weeks. Allora, cominciamo! (Oh yeah! I’m still learning Italian—that’s one thing the camera hasn’t captured. Every day I do a few lessons of Duolingo and listen to an episode of Coffee Break Italian, a podcast that teaches basic Italian phrases. I’m actually pretty obsessed! 🇮🇹)

Ooooo so the first thing I see are tons of food photos. I’d recently bought myself a Dutch oven (my first!), and it’s been extremely fun to experiment with. So far I’ve used it to make rice pudding, pea soup, and chicken stock/soup.

Although this Dutch oven has become my new favorite kitchen implement, here are also some photos of food I made without it: the first is a concoction of steamed broccoli, baked sweet potatoes, and chicken on top of chickpea pasta; the second was inspired by Swedish meatballs and an abundance of leftover broccoli!

In the latter dish, I experimented a bit with the sauce! I’ve been learning about the five “mother sauces” of French cooking, from which many “small” or “secondary” sauces are born. What I made here was a combination of a modified béchamel (which is typically dairy-based, but I threw in soymilk) and a velouté (light-broth-based). It sounds fancy—ah, how French words have that effect—but really, it wasn’t!

Anyways, the sauce had a tinge of sweetness, which I was SO thrown off by when I first tasted it. It wasn’t gross, just extremely surprising. I thought it was because the onions had caramelized, but that couldn’t have happened because the cooking time was too short (less than 10 min). And then I realized…it was because the soymilk was sweetened!

All in all, making (and later analyzing) that sauce was a fun experience in culinary detective work. 😎 Alrighty, next photo!!

Ahhh I remember this. It was taken last Friday.

Clearly, I’m enjoying a nice Capri Sun (fun fact: my boyfriend pronounces it “CA-pree sun” instead of “Ca-PREE sun,” which I find hilarious), but what’s less evident are the unfortunate events that preceded it. I bought the Capri Sun—along with a ton of other drinks, like Gatorade, apple juice, and cranberry juice—in bulk, in response to an anaphylactic reaction that I’d experienced the night before.

Without getting too into the details, that Thursday night I’d inadvertently consumed peanuts, which promptly led to an allergic reaction that spanned multiple hours. A stomachache, hives, multiple bouts of vomiting, pills, and one Epipen later, I was fine. But I didn’t have any energy-boosting drinks for replenishing post-reaction, so the next day I made a bulk Instacart order of multiple sugary drinks…y’know, just in case.

Okay, back to some lighter stuff! This next photo’s from two Saturdays ago. (Ignore the TUMS in the background—what can I say, ya girl has a sensitive stomach! 🤷🏻‍♀️)

The weather that day was beautiful so I dressed up for my afternoon walk with Coconut. Wearing clothes that weren’t pajamas or for working out felt nice. I mean, don’t get me wrong, as soon as I returned home I changed back into sweats…but it was still fun to assemble this outfit!

Later that weekend, I also started an indoor herb garden! A local hardware store was selling supplies for cheap, so I thought, why not? (Also, can you imagine how delicious fresh herbs would taste!?)

The signs are all in French but in order they read: tarragon, chives, sage, oregano, and basil. After so long without seeing any progress, I was beginning to worry—it honestly just felt like I was watering dirt—but a few days ago, my oregano finally sprouted! It’s the first of all the herbs to do so. C’mon, aren’t these lil sprouts adorable? 🥺

Aaaand that’s everything! Other things my camera roll didn’t capture were the hours I spent reading (an April Books post is coming soon!), playing with Coconut, running, watching movies, and Facetiming friends.

All in all, besides the peanut incident, things have been quite peaceful the past few weeks. 🥳 Continue to stay safe, healthy, and rested out there!