deangold

True. I read recently that one of the issues with COVID hospitalizations, and especially intubations, is some patients stop getting worse but don't get better and recover fully. Don't know if that is part of it.

I have heard this allegation but I have no experimental evidence in support of the hypothesis. The hypothesis that they are good in soups has not been supported either.

Deceased is a trailing indicator. Lancet has a study giving 25 days at the median time from infection to death. From infection to seeking medical care is more like 10 days, don't really recall exactly. But the point is, deaths trail cases by someting on the order of 15 days. FWIW.

Frozen daiquiri: Cotton & Reed dry spiced rum 5oz or so. 3-1/2 oz fresh lime juice, simple, about 1 oz. Put all in blender w/ about cup and a quarter of ice. Blended in our Blend-Tec. A Vita mix or other very high speed blender would do. Serves 2. * For Hemingway, this would have been half a serving out of 4 or 5 drinks.

Given the difficulty and effort going shopping these days, I am really being diligent about using things before they go bad and eating leftovers in a timely fashion no matter how good that tri tip thawing and marinating in the fridge is looking. SO I went into today's dinner thinking about a simple pasta using the left over water buffalo short rib sauce. We got spinach in our spring valley box this week so I decided to saute that with a lot of garlic. Then I noticed the hand dipped Calabro ricotta and thought spinach & ricotta sounded good on a pasta. Then it struck me that the leftover soup would be great as well. I cut into the ricotta to find that depsite it beig in code, it was the slightest bit fizzy. Not fizzy enough to toss but I put it in a pan and cooked it with some cream. It broke into a cottage cheese like consistency which I added some spice rub, salt, pepper, san-j tamari and pomodoro doppio {Italian tomato concentrate sold in toothpaste tubes. This tasted fantastic so I decided to make a pasticcio inspired casserole. I cooked some really good penne until just barely close to al dente. Mixed it with the meat sauce and the soup which after reheating was more like a veggie stew. This covered the base of the baking dish. On top went a mix of the spinach, the ricotta, indulgent amount of Gruyere and herbs. Topping that was more Gruyere and Parm. Into the oven at 400 for 30 minutes and it was bubbly and delicious smelling. While waiting for the pasticcio to bake, we enjoyed a Caesar with chopped romaine and more of the creamy Caesar I made a few days ago. The paticcio was tremendous. Quite decadent as well. The cheese on top was that perfect edge of melted and brown to almost burnt at the edges. The pasta finished cooking to a toothy niceness in the combined sauces so it was so full of flavor you really couldn't tell where the pasta ended and where the sauce began. Did I mention the melted and on edge of burnt cheese? We enjoyed a spiced rum daiquiri, blended with fresh squeezed lime, Cotton & Reed dry spiced rum & simple sirup blended in the Blend-Tec with ice. Freaking great. When asked if she wanted her daiquiri blended or rocks or up, she answered "Strong." She is in emergency response so her days are stressful and who was I to disagree. With dinner we had a glass each of Jorche Primitivo. There is a saying Fat, Dumb and Happy. Put drunk in there somewhere and we will cop to it describing us tonight. And being drunk with the people in charge of the COVID-19 response, well it is fitting. Now we have 6 normal-sized servings of leftovers based on leftovers. Or I tell myself it is 6 servings. It may be a side dish tomorrow with the aforementioned steak and dinner or lunch the following day.

The Farm at Sunnyside is doing some good looking box that they deliver through No.1 Sons in DC. Go to the No.1 Sons website for order info. Casey is good people and one of the better farmers in the area.

Our usual farmer's market routine is to cut a big jar of crudite for snacking rom the fridge. This weeks batch, about a gallon jar filled of veggies, included some turnips and carrots that were a little long in the tooth and were not holding up well. The jicama, kohlrabi, celery and radish were all in great shape, but rather than going thru and separating, I took the easy way out and made soup. First, I used about half a cup of garlic cloves, smashed and then lightly chopped, a couple of tablespoons of fresh chopped herbs {thyme, sage & rosemary,} Aleppo pepper, spice rub, salt & pepper. I sauteed all the garlic and half the herbs & seasonings over high heat till on the edge but just short of burnt. Then I added the veggies and let them steam in the clinging water while turning them in the hot oil for 5 minutes. Next I added a #10 can of canned peeled plum tomato and some water plus the remianing herbs & seasonings. I adjusted for umami & salt with San-J Tamari. Simmered for over an hour then served with grated parm. Very filling & hearty. Made enough for three more meals in the fridge, one more frozen plus tonight's dinner. Way better than the crudite would have wound up! Note: San-J Tamari gets reamed on the test shows and in tamari rankings online. But a lot of restaurants have a halg gallon on hand. It is super salty, but it adds umami like crazy. So adding a spalsh adds a lot without making the dish taste of tamari. I use in it salsas, dressings, soups and sauces. I have 2 other Tamari on hand in addition to the San J and they are simply used for different purposes.

Garner Produce. You can preorder from them for pickup at Dupont Farmer's Market or their farm stand. I am not certain of the status of other markets. Click on the what we grow button to see and then you order by email. They have superb greens and usually great veggies. Right now, their turnips and carrots are a little tire as they are from storage. Their beets are good and they have some with greens. Their asparagus stat this wek and they are one of the best asparagus growers at the farmer's markets.

Baby greens from garner. Half an avocado. Balsamico & oil dressing. S&P. Simple and really good, especially after last nights rich dinner.

Last Sunday at Dupont, I cam across a stand with water buffalo. I picked up a pack of shortribs. Yesterday I sauteed some Spring Valley onion wedged until deeply brown then browned the ribs. Last I added herbs and king mushrooms. Since i was cooking in carbon steel, I deglazed the pan with water and added everything to a baking dish. We had opened a bottle of corked white wine the night before and I boiled it in a stainless steel pot, made sure there was no funk detectable, and added it to the baking dish. Some glace di vollaile and water finished the prep. I brought it to a simmer stove top then put it in the oven at 275 for a total of 3 hours cooking and 45 minutes cooking of time. I separated the meat and the sauce & veggies and pureed the latter in the food processor with just a few pulses ,resulting in a saucy mushroom & onion relish which I poured back over the meat and set aside. When we got close to dinner time, I added water tot he pot and brought the ribs to a bare simmer. We served it with the last of some Whole Foods sourdough. The sauce was SO good. The shortribs were fatty on the large pieces, and tsty, but I am not sure they were worth the bother over regular short ribs. Glad I got them on the whole. Homemade saffron gelato for dessert. Cocktails: Gibson: Plymouth 4 to 3 with Dolin dry, Bitter Truth lemon bitters & olive bitters, Paychaud's aromatic bitters, cocktial onions. Corpse Reviver #2 variation: 1 oz Broker's gin, 1 oz lemon juice {probably more, I wasn't wearing my glasses and the jigger was hard to read} 1 oz Cocchi Americano, 1 oz Dimmi. Not th ebest variation I have made, the Dimmi did not round off the lemon as well as other spirits. Kay had a Negroni: Broker's gin, Don Ciccio Luna, Capitoline white, Bitterman's hopped grapefruit bitters & Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas bitters.

Chicken legs w/herbs and leeks from the freezer. Caesar salad. Bread and cheese; robiolina and Bayley Hazen Blue. Rum Negroni: Neisson agricole white, Don Ciccio Luna, capotoline white, Paychaud's barrel aged, Bitterman's grapefruit hopped bitters.

The last of our most recent tofu/Japanese inspired soup. A can of Portofino brand albacore tuna, veganaise, red onions pickled in balsamico, crudite

The constitution says that only the congress can set or move election dates. Then the president leaves office noon January 20. If there is no elected president at that time, the succession act would be followed and the speaker would be president. If there were no election, this would be Nancy Pelosi. I am on the side that the Joint Chiefs would enfocre this rather than let a dictatorship take over. They certainly are no fan of POTUS. Thee military has a much more robust pandemic response than does the administration, they have been loathe to enforce the anti LGBTQIA* edicts of POTUS. Any order given by POTUS after January 20 at noon wold be an unconstitutional order. At least that is my hope. On the other hand if we are in a second wave with hundreds of thousands dead, I think the election will go on by working out a pardon for POTUS agreement. I would be tickled pink to give POTUS a full pardon and then let the new administration institute a truth and reconciliation process to find out what really happened. POTUS could not refuse to testify via the 5th and failing to testify to congress is a jailable offence under contempt statutes.

There are several different veggies that go by the name and I can't make a blanket recomendation. But here is an old Marcella Hazan recipe for mustard greens that I have adapted to Kohlrabi and various greens. Or it might be a Kohlrabi recipe I adapted to greens. Take a pound of greens. Pull the leafy part off the stems. reserving both. Trim the stems of any tough parts. Slice the stems very thinly at the botton and a little wider as you move up the stem. Slice the leaves into 1 to 2" wide strips. {if using Kohlrabi or turnips, slive the bulbs into 3/8" slices, cut in half if too larrge}. Chop some garlic, ginger would be optional. Dice half an onion. Measure out 1/2 cup arborio rice, preferably carnaroli. Saute the onions until translucent in hot olive oil. Add the stems and season with salt, pepper and red chili flakes. As they soften, add the garlic and ginger if using. When the garlic is aromatic and just a tiny bit brown, add the root veggies if using and let sautee for 5 minutes. Otherwise add the leaves which should be rinsed and with water clinging to them. Cook the greens until they wilt, and add 1/2 cup water and cover. Turn heat to low and cook until the greens are just getting tender. Add water to cover and when it is simmering, add the rice. Cover and cook very slowly until the rice is al dente. The veggies should be fully cooked and soft so they provide the flavor to the soup, there is no stock or broth used. If you like crunchier veggies, plan on using some stock or broth. Adjust the flavors of the soup w/garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil. Lemon works too. When it is to your liking, add 1/2 cup reggiano and stir well to melt and then spoon into 4 bowls. Serve with more parm on the side.

Go fund me is a relatively low cost way to contribute but be careful about the rewards you select. The same caveats apply. I think in many go fund mes you can choose no reward. You could also give the reward to an affected employee. Buy buying to go and tiipping generously is best. Our going out budget is slim and we are supporting small local businesses when we do order pick up. We call directly so they incur no fees. I think a lot of people forget about calling. If the restaurant directs you to online, do so. But most of these ordering systems involve a fee. On the other hand, picking up a phone and taking an order on the line incurs a cost. Let the restaurant pick the tradeoff they prefer.

I do not want to minimize how important gift cards can be in helping restaurants survive in the short run. The same with delivery and to go ordering. A gift card is a loan that is paid back by a free meal at the backend. Restaurants selling a lot of cards might be around afterwards, but then face a liability in the outstanding gift cards that can be redeemed. So plan on using your gift cards slowly or gift them to people you know have never been to the restaurant in question to help them build a post shutdown clientele. Also, consider usig the gift card only for 10% or 20% of the bill and never use the gift card for tips or tax. These are real cash flow items the restaurant owed $ for $. Using a gift card for these means $ out the door with nothing coming in. These are ways a restaurant can cover its costs when you redeem. I know a lot of restaurants are lobbying for delivery of alcohol on a longterm basis and I hesitate to support this except during the shutdown and a short time during the recovery. Helping restaurants and bars at the expense of wine & liquor stores in not a grat answer. On the opther hand, liquor laws being what they ar in VA and MOCO, let those restaurants and bars sell delivery or retail in those jurisdictions {booze in both VA and MOCO.} and end the country monopoly on distribution immediately in MOCO. But let's face it: most restaurants will be devastated and are not going to reopen after a prolonged lockdown, or even 2 as Dr. Fauci is now predicting a second wave in September and there are now models that tell you when to lockdown based on the density of cases. The only possible solution is governmental assistance via grants for small businesses, loans for larger ones, rent relief, wage replacement and long term help for equipment and repairs needed post shutdown. To get this, we must lobby our senators, house reps and local governments. This is the best help you can offer. Independent restaurants are forming lobbying groups and so are the local restaurant associations. But consumer/taxpayer support will help greatly.

Quesadillas w/Gruyere cheese. Hamburger steak from Smith Meadow Farms. Nice beef. Just formed loose patties, seasoned with salt, pepper & spice rub. Pan fried in carbon steel pan for a total of abut 12 minutes for 1-1/2" patties. Cooked mine to 130 and Kay's closer to 140. Juicy but not as good a burger as the dry aged stuff I got from Huntsman they source from Shenandoah Beef Coop. We are going to get a 10# bag, form it into burgers and into 1# cooking pouches. and freeze. Will seal them in our vacuum bags before freezing.

Bulgoggi Gim Bap from H mart. $4.99 for enough for 2 people. Bread and Amish blue.

Sashimi from H Mart: Flounder & Norwegian salmon. Bread and robiolina. Left over soup. Bananas. Drink: Negroni: Brokers, Don Ciccio Luna, Capitoline white, Bitterman's hopped grapefruit bitters, Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Bitters on the first round, Angostura orange bitters and Jerry Thomas on the second.

Spaghetti w/garlic, lemon & parsley. The vegetable was the garlic. I used almost a full cup of garlic cloves. Baked Beans ~ Goyas pink, black & garbanzos beans, lots of farmer's market veggies cut up {carrot & celery not from the farmers market} turnips from Garner's {half went into a huge jar of crudite, these were the soft textured ones, red onion, toasted black cumin, dried oregano, lots of garlic, a #10 can of California grown san marzaano style tomatoes from Restaurant Depot which were truly killer! Baked for 3 hours. The rest is in a super low oven for overnight baking. Trail mix Lyon's rum old fashioned & Lyon's rum ti punch. The Lyon's inventory took a huge hit tonight.

Left over soup.

I am adicted to the cooking videos from Chef Wang in Sichuan. He is a professional chef and I believe the shows are geared for home & aspiring professional chefs alike. He cooks in his restaurant kitchen. Tonight he made a Chonquing dish and there were some words of wisdom we can all live by. "If you don't like duck blood, you can always use pork blood" "When you use pork aorta, you need to remove the dirty bits after scraping" & "Friends, this is not pork oesophegus or trachea, it is the largest artery and it is attached tot he heart. "The purpose of this step {parboiling the swamp eel} is to get rid of the muddy, fishy taste" How can one argue with any of that! I jest but it is fascinating seeing these dishes prepared authentically. Do watch it but be sure to turn on the CC.

I forgot we got he apples and beets as well. Large beets that roast up great based on our last purchase. Spring Valley will be pre order only next week. I would check their facebook page for info. Spring Valley Facebook

Spring Valley had both open tables and boxes. Our box had a lot of stuff: ramps cucumbers beets {no greens} spinach Baby salad greens sweet potatoes The stuff from Garner was good, Beets with greens look super. Kalettes and flowering kale both are going to be good too. They only have pickup. You can order a box or order items. We tried their cornmeal and they also have grits.

Made a quick pickle of loose leaf nappa {spotted w/purple flacks} Korean radish, carrot & Korean cuke flavored w/soy, fish sauce, lemon juice & mirin. Soup: slight variation to our usual: hon dashi stock, dried shiitake {used the soaking liquid in the stock} black fungus, green onion, yellow onion, seafood mushroom & tofu flavored with white shoyu, mirin, persimmon vinegar Rice {we got a big bag of heritage rice from California at HMart as our usual rice w/the germ left on was out of stock. We used a rice cooker and added a little tamari and sesame oil to the water. Gibson: Plymouth & dolin dry, 4 to 3. Peychaud's aromatic bitters, Bitter Truth olive bitters, cocktail onions. RAR IPA our first brew from this brewery and they good we have heard about them is seemingly justified. Big, bold, bracing style of IPA, not citrus, more floral. Really good.