And Now for Something Completely Different (cooking…)

It’s been months and months of the virus and even if the news around the vaccine is good, it’s not like we’ll be partying shoulder to shoulder in our favorite pizza joint anytime soon.

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. The pandemic blues are finally getting to me. I’ve been relatively okay until now. I’m exhausted by so much: by the constant fear, the deep grief; the stress of business and work (or lack of work); family worries; mortgage and rent distress; hunger, illness and just an overall low buzz of anxiety about the state of the world and the future.

Like everyone I have taken comfort and pleasure in friends and family on our various screens or together distantly, in outdoor workouts in our gym parking lot, in books and music, in foreign film and television (God bless the streaming service, MHZ). I have taken great comfort in the incredible kindness of my neighbors and of total strangers.

I also know that it’s going to take a lot more effort and resilience to bring us back to anything that remotely resembles life as we knew it. These are hard times and they aren’t over yet.

I know it and yet here I am…again…to tell you that cooking helps. It has been my mantra from the beginning of the pandemic. Cooking not only diverts your attention from the grim reality of the news of the day, but it empowers you to create your personal wellness. And that’s something during a pandemic. The nourishment you provide goes well beyond the calories and flavors to creating strong immunity and making your body metabolically fit to fight disease.

That’s what I have always believed and continue to believe. I hold to the idea that my husband and I getting through this pandemic so far unscathed (please God…) is because of the food we have prepared in our home kitchen.

Cook what, you ask? After all this time, what is left to cook? Stock your pantry with whole grains and beans, simple condiments to season and fresh, seasonal produce so you can prepare simple, satisfying, immune boosting meals.

It’s that simple. So cook; continue to cook. Continue to strengthen your body’s ability to fight infection and together we will find our way through this long, dark tunnel to the other side and back to life.