What Are You Up To? Covid-19

We started self-isolating, which then moved to  "Stay Home, Stay Safe" as directed by our governor.
So I decided to show you what we have been up to.
You can see what has been our happy spot each day -  baking and cooking.  I haven't been this diligent  since the kids left home and hubby is loving it!   We always had the rule with the kids that whoever  cooked didn't have to clean, so hubby is doing the  dishes.  I love to cook, but not to clean.  
Right as the virus started to reach the United States  I had received my rebate check from my Costco credit card,  so I had stocked up on a lot of things.  In addition,  we have always been taught at church to be  self-sufficient, and to have a year's supply of food  on hand.  I don't know that I have a year's supply, but  we usually have a good supply.  
Hubby happened to read an article the other  night on how people are now making bread  at home, but not very successfully.  We laughed!  I have always loved making breads, but for  a long time, we have done more low carb.  Now  we are eating comfort carbs - food therapy!

Our first comfort food therapy was making pretzels.  

I hadn't done that in forever.  These cheddar jalapeno 

ones were amazing.  

Of course, a basic salted pretzel dipped in 

yellow mustard is hard to beat.  Hubby wanted his 

unsalted and dipped in butter and cinnamon sugar. 

This was the recipe that tempted me.

Those who have followed me for a while know I have 

a wood burning pizza oven, but honestly for just 

the two of us, that seemed such a waste to fire up.  

My daughter had purchased a Pizza Craft portable 

pizza oven for Christmas last year, and we had taken 

it up to our cabin over the holidays.  It worked great.  

So I looked into one of those, but it was close to $300.  

I decided to give this gas stove-top Pizza Pronto oven 

a try for $60.  I ordered it off Amazon, and used their 

recipe for pizza crust. It was amazing.  It took about 

15-20 minutes to heat up to 600 degrees and we cooked 

the pizzas about 6.5 minutes.  Perfect for cooking for two! 

We are famous for interactive dinners, and a friend had given 

us a raclette machine years ago.  We fell in love, and our 

family fell in love, but again, a raclette machine for 8 

is just too big.  We had purchased a few of these for 

a dinner party, and the size is perfect.  Click here for a two 

person raclette machine.

I had purchased the steak from Costco 

when I used my rebate check and divided it into 

smaller packages to freeze.

I decided to make some hamburger buns.  I had done that 

several times in the past, but hadn't been thrilled.  

These Brioche Buns were amazing.  I didn't follow her 

recipe exactly - I did more of a standard rise, but next 

time I will try her quick rise.  I highly recommend 

these - so much better than store bought.

We made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough 

and baked two, and shaped the rest into balls to 

place in the freezer.  This is a pizzookie we made 

with one of the frozen ones. 

We had two sweet nieces pick up some groceries 

for us once each, but other than that we 

have stayed away from the stores. We truly 

want to help stop the spread.   

It's not all just comfort food around here - 

we are doing our protein shakes too!  

To balance out all of our comfort baking

we are making protein shakes with 

frozen fruit added.

My kids said I need to create our 

Quarantine Cookbook!!!

I decided to start a 21 Day Challenge doing  Pilates - Boho Beautiful on YouTube.  I am used to  cardio and weight lifting, and have loved weight  lifting for how it tones and shapes your body,  but I decided to try this out - wow, I am working  muscles that didn't know they needed to be worked.   This is kicking me, but I am writing it down, so  hopefully I will stick to it.
I have also been calendaring and journaling, as  everything is happening so fast as we see Covid-19  change what our normal lives were.  

I had wanted to sew masks to help out, but there 

was so much question about what would or wouldn't 

be used by professionals.  Then this week I was asked 

to participate in a pilot program to sew medical grade 

masks.  We received the fabric pre-cut with instructions 

on Wednesday and were to have them sewn by noon 

today.  They asked 150 people to sew 100 masks, so 

in two days we will have completed 15,000 masks.  

I wanted hubby to take a photo of me sewing them, so 

that I could add that to my journal.  What a satisfying 

project. I was reminded of photos of women 

working in factories during WWII.

 I am hoping we will be allowed to do this again. 

I have also been sewing 100% cotton masks 

for personal use.  

Our business associates in China are begging us to 

wear masks whenever we go out.  Now the CDC is 

finally admitting that people wearing masks will help.  

Find any mask instruction on YouTube, and make 

them for your family and for nursing homes and 

doctors' offices who are accepting homemade masks.  

many are placing the washable masks over their 

n95 masks, so the n95's can be used more than once.  

Hubby is able to work from home running his business 

over Zoom and FaceTime and also doing his Bishop 

work over Zoom and FaceTime.  

I have only seen the grandkids over FaceTime, but on 

Wednesday as I was delivering medical grade masks 

kits for others to help sew, I stopped by to see some of 

them.  I wore a mask and gloves and stayed way back off 

the porch.  My darling two year old wanted a hug and 

cried when I kept backing away and saying no.  

These will be days we will always remember.  We are 

trying to fill them with meaning and service and some 

homemade fun foods.  

Hope you are safe and well, and thanks for visiting. 

Let me know what you are up to.

I will be sharing this with 

Metamorphosis Monday

and

Love Your Creativity