keep calm and bake on
Last week I wrote a piece about how cooking and baking have become a coronavirus anxiety outlet. Many of us, if we’re lucky, are spending a lot of time in our homes right now, and we have time to kill — and that can easily turn into time spent going down an anxiety spiral about the state of the world and the coronavirus pandemic. I try to keep perspective: if you are stuck at home right now, you are incredibly fortunate. We are the lucky ones. How fortunate we are, to be stuck in our homes, with books, and the internet, and Netflix, with food to eat and wine to drink.
So I try to keep in mind every day: I am so privileged and lucky to be stuck in my apartment right now. I’m also the type of person who isn’t very good at staying idle when I’m worried: the best way for me to keep my anxiety at bay is to keep busy. That may not be for everyone — everyone copes differently and there’s no rule that says you have to be productive right now. This is a very hard time for a lot of people, and it’s also perfectly fine to just stay on the couch all day and binge watch TV — if all you’re doing is just getting by, that’s perfectly fine, too.
My preferred method has been cooking and baking a lot, doing barre class videos at home, cleaning every random thing in my apartment, trying to take care of random tasks I’ve been putting off and drinking probably too much wine. And I’ve found it to be a good way to take my mind off things, to focus on a task using my hands, to force myself to stop looking at Twitter and stop reading the news for a while.
You can read my full piece here!
What I’m quarantine cooking & baking
Since I didn’t send the newsletter last week, here’s a roundup of things I’ve made in the past two weeks that I’d recommend:
Lemon poppyseed poundcake (pictured above!). Slow cooker chicken tikka masala. Cauliflower bolognese. Ramen carbonara. Smashed and loaded crispy potatoes. A dutch baby pancake. A very easy focaccia. Pizza beans. Miso salmon. And a whole lot of ad-hoc grain bowls using rice or farro, with an assortment of whatever’s around: storebought meatballs, kimchi, spicy chili crisp, a fried egg, scallions, cucumbers, peanuts.
What I’m drinking
Right now I am drinking a sparkling chenin blanc from Jauma Wines, one of my favorite producers. Plus I just ordered some wines from my friends at La Compagnie wine bar — if you are in NYC, they deliver!
What I’m reading
If I wrote a coronavirus episode, Vulture. Your favorite TV writers on what your favorite TV characters would have done if the coronavirus happened on their show.
This pandemic is not your vacation, Buzzfeed News. Residents of rural areas and resort towns talk about what happens when rich city dwellers decide to escape the city — and bring the virus to their town.
Homes actually need to be practical right now, The Atlantic. Suddenly our homes are not just homes, but also our offices, gyms, and everything else.
Celebrity culture is burning, New York Times. No one wants to see celebrities sheltering in place in their 22-bedroom mansions.
My cousin Jack survived the unimaginable. Here’s his advice for right now, The Cut. An interview with a man who survived the Holocaust.
Why we want to buy so much stuff during a quarantine, Vox.
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