And in other exciting news for the day, there was a Home School Fire Drill administered accidentally at the Meyers' Household. The mother, while homeschooling son who was working on his Spanish test, cooked hamburgers, sauteed onions, potato wedges, breaded zucchini. No one was hurt, not even the potatoes.
False alarm, just another day in Pandemia, now, please go about your day.
Throughout this stay in place order in California, I have been blessed to get to work from home and to also have the true joy of writing, cooking, and publishing more books.
Today's thought for Friday is how various movie clips can be related to our current situations. These are random clips and you the reader may place different value on the clips, for me many of the movie clips sum up the life I am living in these historic and unusual times.
I just watched the plan from the President of The United States on getting the states back and running in phases. Dr. Birx presented a plan to reopen the states to stop the spread of Covid-19.
This song from The Wizard of Oz keeps running through my head. Is Glinda to you like Dr. Deborah Birx? Dr. Birx helps us to stay safe and gives us best practices advice on how to mitigate the threat of the corona virus and she wears pretty scarves too and of course Glinda keeps the munchins and Dorothy safe, Glinda, "The Good Witch" also has magical powers, wears pretty gowns, has a scepter.
Trivia Tidbit: Billie Burke who played Glinda The Good Witch was 54 years of age when she took the role of Glinda!
This movie clip reminds me of how people might act after the corona virus threat has passed. The part where Adam Sandler says, "somebody put some pants on that kid" cracks me up cause I am sure a lot of people are looking very comfortable "staying in shelter".
For me, this movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic has a lot of answers to our Corona Virus Crisis and I truly can relate to the character in that she keeps trying to figure out what is going on and what she wants out of her situation.
Our economic crisis due to corona virus and her job interview at Successful Savings when she really wants to work for a fashion magazine. Isla Fisher while interviewing cannot open her purse to hand her resume over, so instead looks at a newspaper that is folded and thinks there is a "fis.." "fish crisis" instead of a "fiscal crisis." Ooops.
Trying to get a better job during the corona virus....
And just the process of getting the mail and the bills are quite tedious. I get the mail only once a week to avoid contact with potential corona virus bugs. I wear a mask, gloves, disinfect all of my mail, eventually open.
So get out those ruby colored slippers cause there is "no place like home."
So are you ready to break up with covid? THAT pesky boyfriend/girlfriend that just won't let go, that's how I feel about Covid, enough already! Fortunate for me, I met my boy toy only last week, yes, I made it through 2 1/2 years of the rough stuff, only to get the highly contagious BA5. I wanted to blame it on the cafeteria at my son's future college, I wanted to blame it on the kids that bowled next to me, heck, if I could have blamed my illness on the mailman I would have. Now that I know I'm human and my immune system is not super human, I'm beginning to realize that throughout it all, we're lucky that we can get medication now and that it doesn't have to ground me for good.
Living healthy and safely through Covid.
Wash hands
Sanitize
Exercise
Eat healthy, plenty of fruits and veggies.
Examine your health history.
Look at your stress levels.
Take vitamins such as vitamin C and B complex as well as Zinc and Airborne.
There is a saying, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” The magic panacea found in a simple sugar or plain cone, you don’t even need a newfangled waffle cone to hold the icy cold concoction, sometimes just a plastic bowl. When I was a little girl, my Grandpa Joe would drive us home to Fresno from San Francisco. The car would automatically drive itself to The Foster Freeze in Los Banos. There we would always order an orange freeze. Much like ice cream, except it was an orange sickle of goodness in a glass with some sort of orange soda plus orange sherbet ice cream.
The feeling was the same as ice cream. Contentment. Like no matter what was going on in the world or in my sphere, that Orange Freeze could temporarily ice everyone and everything in its’ wake.
Lemon wedge
Orange Juice
Shaker
Ice
Pink Sprinkles
1 Marshmallow Peep
Directions: Squeeze lemon wedge around the rim of a glass. Lemon juice will trickle down the glass so when you shake the pink sprinkles it will fill the glass. In a shaker with ice, add about 3/4 cup of orange juice. Shake. Pour into glass and add a peep to the top. Enjoy.
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons of salt
2 Tablespoons of Butter
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons of finely chopped chives or scallions
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tablespoons of of grated Parmesan cheese
Directions: Cook potatoes with water, a dash of salt. Reserve some of the cooking liquid mash the potatoes with butter and a little of the cooking liquid. Add a tablespoon of milk if you like. Beat eggs and mix into potatoes using an electric mixer.
Spread potato mixture in a buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, scallions, and mozzarella cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.
Lately, I find myself resorting to my favorite pastimes, knitting, baking, cooking, exercising, movie watching and family time. Lately, I have been improving upon my Banana Bread recipe and it got the thumbs up from my son Lucas.
The bright side to all this extra time is I have been experimenting in the kitchen, this evening, I made Taco Tuesdays in Quarantine, an easy and healthy recipe that you too can try at home.
Stay safe and enjoy this special family time that only a pandemic could provide!
Quick Movie Recommendations:
Xanadu
Onward
Houseboat
Crazy People
Julie and Julia
Princess Bride
13 Going on 30
Groundhog Day
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Brighten Your Day Banana Bread
1/2 cup of butter at room temperature or melted in the microwave to soften (if butter cube was in the freezer, fyi)
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons of sour cream
4 bananas
3 eggs, prefer brown eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of allspice
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan or coat with a thin layer of butter. Mix wet ingredients together and add eggs, one at a time, using an electric mixer. You may also add the bananas and if need be, mash slightly with a fork. Next add baking soda, salt, flour and any other dry ingredients. It isn't necessary to consider the cinnamon and all spice as dry ingredients, you can add those with the wet ingredients. Pour the batter into a prepared loaf pan and scoop excess batter out with a spatula. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until the center of the banana bread with a knife or toothpick comes out clean.
Tip: if you keep your bananas in the freezer like I do, microwave with the peels for 30 to 60 seconds per banana. It will heat up the peel and make for easy peeling.
