Cooking through Quarantine

So like many in the United States, the Luck household has been under stay at home orders for most of April. Our schools have been teaching online since March 13 and navigating a new normal hasn't been easy.

For the girls and specifically Abbie, this has been hard. Abbie loves school and being with her friends and teachers. To have that artificially through online learning hasn't been easy. She is also an empath. She feels what is going on around her and internalizes it. It has left her unsettled at times and navigating that balance has been hard. Some of my tricks has been drawing her favorite thing each day, going on lots of walks and doing school in chunks throughout the day, to creating a pallet in my room that she can come in and sleep on if she needs to be with us at any point during the night. Ellie is more of a roll with it kind of girl and has been using her time to play dress up and annoying Abbie when possible. However, I think it is getting to her too, as she is way more cuddly than she was prior to this.

For myself, I have struggled with the multiple hats I now juggle all day long. As a teacher, trying to maintain an online presence and instruction has been difficult, each of my students have their own challenges to learning and figuring out how to support them isn't always easy. Then to also be a first grade support service, has been very challenging. (I honestly don't know how homeschool moms homeschool the younger kids, hats off to you.) Abbie has a wonderful teacher, who has gone far beyond what anyone would or could ask for, to help streamline this process and keep all material in a one stop location. Abbie isn't very fond of this knew way of learning as I said before, but she does love when she gets to have her lessons with Miss V.

Then I get to be a full time nanny with Ellie and that isn't as easy as you would think as she is a very active girl, with an independence streak a mile long. If you don't stay on her you may find that she decided she would give herself a bath or she may decide to change her outfit for the fourth time that day. Finally I am a chef and housekeeper. Picking up all day, even with help from the girls, is not a fun task. All of this is made easier by my mother-in-law who helps give me a little break most days by watching the girls for me. The other thing that helps is cooking.

Even before the quarantine I have always found peace, contentment and joy in my kitchen. It shouldn't surprise me, my mama is the same way. Just about all my significant memories involve someone's kitchen or food. When we would spend summer's with my grandparents it was in the kitchen we learned how to can vegetables with my nanny and great-grandmother. It was in that same kitchen my grandfather showed me how to make jambalaya and gumbo. It was also that same kitchen where we would play dominoes with my nanny or scrabble. When I go to my dad's and bonus mom‘s home it is around the kitchen table we talk, laugh and play games. So much of life happens in a kitchen. When we were looking to buy our first house together, the room that mattered the most to me was my kitchen. For me the kitchen is the heart of the house and family. So it's no surprise that it is where I have been spending a significant amount of my time over the last six weeks.

I thought I would share three of my favorite recipes I have tried over the last six weeks from Pinterest.

First up chocolate chip cookies! Can you think of a more basic comfort food that is good for all ages. I have tried many different recipes but this one is by far my favorite. It comes from the food blog JoyFoodShine.

I absolutely love these cookies. They aren't too soft or too hard. They also aren't really sweet. Just enough balance between sweet and savory for me. The other sign that these are good cookies, I caught both of the girls trying to sneak them when I wasn't look and they didn't last long.

Raise your hand if you love Thai food? Raise your hand if you have always been a little hesitant to make it at home? If you answered yes to both then the next recipe is just for you! I absolutely love pad thai. It is so funny because for years my sister tried and failed to get me to try it, but then when Ken and I started dating he took me to a Thai place and I have never looked back. I was bored one day and I decided to scroll through Pinterest looking for interesting recipes when I found this one that comes from the food blog: Half Baked Harvest. The reason I loved this recipe is first the ingredient list isn't extensive, second the steps are detailed and third there are only five steps in making this recipe. I had a fear that because it was so simple and straightforward, it wouldn't be very good but I was so wrong. The flavor was spot on and because the spice came from the pepper flakes I could make it to my preference. The other thing I liked is it wasn't bad as leftovers the next day. So if you are feeling adventurous you should try this recipe out.

Who doesn't love a good copycat recipe? I for one love when I stumble along a good copy cat recipe for a dish I really love. I love the soups from Olive Garden. My favorite has to be the Minestrone but I do also love the Pasta Fagioli. So again I was just scrolling along and stumbled upon this recipe. The thing that also caught my attention is that this could be made in an Instapot. For the record, when my husband bought our Instapot, I was not for it.... but now I can't imagine my kitchen without it. You can make anything in it, from boiling eggs to cooking ribs it really is a one pot wonder. This recipe comes from the food blog Creme da la Crumb. I really like the recipes that come from this food blogger. They are easy, straightforward and oh so tasty. This soup is everything. I do however do a couple of things different. She calls for tomato sauce but I actually use a jar of marinara sauce instead. I think it gives it more flavor. I also add oregano to it, but I happen to really love oregano. This recipe makes a lot and if you are a small family like we are you, you could take half and freeze it for a quick meal later.

When I made this recipe last week, my hubby had surprised me with JoAnna Gaines new cookbook Magnolia Table vol. II. So as I was looking at it I found a great garlic knot recipe from her. I thought this would be a perfect addition to my soup and it was! I have been learning how to work with dough and making breads in baby steps. This recipe was easy to follow but I do wish it had more images of the process as you went along, because at times I wasn't sure it was looking quite right. Tying the knots was interesting and some looked like knots and others like pretzels but the tasted good all the same. This was an easy first recipe of hers to try and I look forward to sharing a few more reviews on the recipes in her book over the next coming months.

I hope everyone reading this is healthy, safe and enjoying the change as best as they can. Please be sure to do something for yourself when you can. I personally am looking forward to safely re-emerging and catching up with family and friends.