Strong and Free

I am prouder of my country than ever, since the Covid19 attack. Every corner I turn in this tragic event seems to reflect a unique trait of Canada, that of  kindness and consideration of  others. That kindness is reflected in countless ways as our land, one that is utterly beautiful in every way, meets the challenges of this pandemic. It is not a political opportunity and shouldn't be, and only a few unthinking sorts have tried to make it so. It didn't work. We are stronger than trivia. The media makes a fine effort, too. It is the media who ensures that the information our government health keepers expend, reaches everyone in a way that makes it easy for the public to understand. Naysayers are mere "noise" as one health official put it. In my small sphere, I have found the government responses  fast and quite adequate.  Blame hunters are always out there, and again, they are but "noise" because no one on earth can predict the depth and scope of such a sudden event. Personally, having made and paid for an extensive trip across Canada, one that went with practical at the time, non-refundable fares, turned out with the pandemic, to be fully refunded. It was a surprise. Not only that, but those returning them, apologised for not being able to make the trips possible. Other businesses that one deals with in the commercial world here in this united country of ours, have been doing the same. They try to meet every need, even when they are losing their businesses and service companies at a sad rate. It shows that they really do care for their customers and what their businesses offer. How refreshing it is to know that it isn't all about money. The politicians of all colours, who admittedly take a lot of flack from us because it's easy to criticise those in public service, continue to do the best for their constituents. They put partisanism aside. Their  high purposes put their own family lives second while they do their work. Their callings require that they listen to everyone even the nasty people who seem to enjoy blaming, often with no plausible reason. The medical, educational, social and transit drivers, the servers, the factory folk and all other workers who come from all places and are Canadians of all backgrounds are affected by this tiny virus that has become our lethal enemy. They, even with this life-threatening danger, are out there helping. Our elders, the ones who put their lives into what we are now, perhaps those who are weak and ill and not able to help themselves, depend on us to care for them and sadly we have let some of them down. Some died alone and with no family to comfort them. Some of the medical teams lost their lives serving others. And while it is a huge abyss suddenly we have been thrown into, we are coming out strong. "Strong and free" is in our blood and our Canadian song and we sing it loudly. While some other countries brag about being "united", we are united and have proven it in this fight. Canada, my country, has my respect and my heart.

Pizza In Minutes

Right! Who doesn't love pizza and why spend money on ordering in, when it's so easy, you can do it yourself in minutes and spend less than a loonie on it. Not to mention the wonderful smells wafting throughout the house. I kid you not. I just made one after seeing how to online! What lies ahead is your very own creation on a crust  that will give you a pizza that kids can learn to make without a parental hand in sight. After a little training.  Call it Pizza 101. Use a mixing bowl with a dough hook if you want to be fancy but using your hands like the Italians do is easier and more fun. Into a biggish bowl, put a lukewarm cup of water, a package of or 1 tablespoon of yeast and a teaspoon of sugar. Let it rest and work for about five minutes. Get out the bread flour bag you all have these Covid19 stay in and DIY days, and scoop out two and a half cups of flour to dump into the bowl when your yeasting five minutes are up. Onto your pile of flour, add I teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of olive oil, maybe a  snick more if the dough isn't soft enough. Mix the dough or use your dough hook until you get a nice softish, but held-together dough and then let it rest for another five minutes. Smooth and roll or press out to fit your pie or pizza baking dish. If you are like me, who prefers the Florentine style, a rectangular pizza, shape it your way. Next not too thickly, slather on some tomato sauce herbed the way you like it or take it out of a bottle of spaghetti sauce and add any other of your favorite toppings and seasonings. Put the part sauce bottle into the freezer for next time. Don't forget shredded cheeses. Dried or flaked Parmesan cheese and garlic fresh minced or ground, adds an aroma that is irresistible. If you are very Italian, you might prefer merely to brush on nice olive oil and garlic with herbs and leave it at that. Or if you are a meat eater or a hungry man person, you decide how to load it on with ground meat, fish, sausage rounds or any left over meats. Some like  ham and pineapple or go tofu style with fresh veggies on top - whatever veg and protein is your fave. I love cheeses of various kinds and then my very favorite onto the tomato sauce is spinach and feta cheese but you know what you love on a pizza. It can become a meal in itself. The oven needs to be very hot and for those who go by degrees, make it 400 or a little above. Time? Watch it bake and send out delicious warnings of what's ahead. The old fashioned folks will know what oven temperature they like when they hold their hand in the oven for a short time. It's not for kids but when I was a kid, my grandmother taught me on her big black wood stove, the difference between a medium oven and a hot one this way, but she also taught we grandchildren how not to be burned. If you have a bundle of kids, let each one make their own pizza from scratch and fill it the way they like. What happens? Hey, you are having a stay home pizza party right in your own kitchen!

Why Not Not

After reading about how good our staying inside is making the outside a healthier place, I have something to add to the Why Not list. Why not make one day a week into a stay home day,keeping away from work and school to ensure that we recognize a place to live can be a home, not just a place for comings and goings. Apparently, those now at home are learning how to get along in close quarters. Parents are learning that teaching is not an easy job and that home chores can be shared and not just left up to the one go-to person in it. Kids are learning to do for themselves, something they knew always, but found it much easier to let a parent do it for them. Couples are finding out that they have things in common they didn't take the time to discover previously. None of it is easy but when you must do something, it becomes, for positive people, a learning opportunity and not a drag. If we made Wednesday, for example, a stay home day, perhaps that niggling matter that you didn't have time for might become an actual possibility. When you have two days off work and then a midweek break and then two more days of work, perhaps longer to make up for the Wednesday, you would have a time to look forward to. Your Wednesday would be a day of peace and planning, of comfort and ease, of sleeping in or doing something creative, might be talking to your home mates and generally going about in a more relaxed mood. When you are not stressed out knowing that there is always the Wednesday break to get your head together again, you may find that you are a better employee and better lover, mate, friend and companion and shopper. There would be a time to meditate or read or game or loll or sleep or zoom or facetime or write. Wednesday would be a time to think. Thinking is something that is done majorly by older, retired folk who have nothing but time to think on their own schedule, to remember why they were born and reflect on what they did with their lives. Sadly workers don't do much of it. Work gets in the way of being able to luxuriate in thought. It crowds out your personal brain time  and puts in its own demands on your body. When you must stay within your walls or yard or building, you can't or shouldn't allow any "bad stuff" to enter. You look around to see what's outside your window, learn how the people inside your life actually look and feel, how what goes in in those four walls makes your life, not work but the true reality. Your four walls are you. The Wednesdays could be planned.  You wouldn't  have to date, it would be true  time.  Dating is an artificial idea. Being at home, in home is natural and a grand opportunity. The Stay Home Day could be done. The hard part is finding a way to do it. But we are resourceful human beings and have proven the benefits, even when a tiny virus has forced us to endure something we never dreamed of. Endurance is what we humans do well and hopefully, we have taken its lesson and tried to make us think in terms of Why Not.

Later Alligator

Today we say "take care" or "be seeing you", and times ago,  it was "later alligator" with a response  "after 'while crocodile". Applying this to food, is finding ways of not wasting, but using leftovers wisely. In the coming months, there could be food shortages and this issue has real meaning. Ways of not throwing out perfectly good foods means finding ways of preserving them without a lot of fuss. I am not willing to get into complicated recipes and fiddling around with miniscule  mommy-worry details. I like simple, good nutrition without the goofy unimportant food fad bits. Something easy to make up and use are bulk mixes that you can do yourself. My faves are biscuit mix that I mentioned in the blog before this one, and the pie crust mix that follows. Neither would find approval with the I-am-a-gourmet-cooks.  Both mixes require airtight containers and need to be used up in a couple of months. All foods whether in this kind of container or your freezer or  dried, have a lifetime. It's for safety as well as flavour. Nothing escapes the ravages of time. The pie crust mix is 6 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder and a pound of lard. Whiz these up to a coarse consistency and store. To make a pie, use 2 and 1/2 cups of the mix and 5 tbsp plus or minus, of water. When fruit and berry picking season rolls around, you'll be ready. Just prior to our present isolation situation, I bought a small upright freezer/ no auto defrost and it is becoming a good investment. The small chest models take up little space, power or purchasing dollars and in the long run, will make your life easier and thriftier. If you are a forager or someone who loves bargains, the freezer will be full of your finds. The secret is to use up what you put in them. My cousin Denny, who owns two huge chest freezers down in his basement, are both filled to the top with things he will never get around to using. I know because I asked him once, if I could put a fish I caught, into his freezer. He opened the door of one and closed it. No room. The next was slightly less a challenge, and he juggled around some ancient indecipherable items to lay my fish on top. One small appliance would have been wise enough. So there is the possibility of waste even with freezers. I like mine for larger pieces of protein and market veggies such as cobs of corn bought in season. When that stalk of broccoli reports being in danger of turning golden, it will be steamed and combined with pieces of carrot dripped with butter and salt. In small bundles, it's ready for the freezer. Next time I make soup or a stew, out the little helpers come, and are added to the pot or re-heated and placed on a plate as a side dish. When summer comes and you are off to the farms, it's an opportunity to fresh freeze your buys.  Now that we are baking our own breads the freezer works very well at keeping loaves fresh and ready for use. I don't can, but do jams and marmalades for the freezer. It's easy and works well, also using up those recycled jars. Later alligator.

Had The Biscuit?

For the make-bread-in-desperation folk out there, how about doing biscuits for a change? I use a boxed mix, but you can make your own mix way too easily. Get a big bowl, toss in 8 cups of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup baking powder and almost 2 tablespoons of salt. Mix it all up and store in a sealed container. That's it. When you have an urge for something hot from the oven along with a pat of butter and jam, find that sealed container and take from it a couple of cups, add about a quarter cup of oil or melted butter and enough milk to form a dough. Flatten to one inch, cut into rounds or squares and bake at 400 degrees F until the tops are light golden. You can be fancy and drop into the batter, a little measure of chopped raisins or apples or cheese. If you cut the plain ones in half and serve the rounds as a tea goodie with a slather of cream cheese topped with a prawn and sea sauce, fresh fruit and ham, sliced beef and sweet onion, cucumber and salmon butter you'll be loved. Think up your own combinations. Speaking of butter, it's a natural product that even keto freakos can eat. Make a bunch of butters to entertain yourself. Let the butter soften standing out on the counter. I keep mine out always but covered so that it is ready at any moment and for recipes. I gave up hard butter years ago and do what Europeans do, leaving it on a marble slab covered with a glass dome. In the summer you have to watch that it doesn't go odd in the heat. Either put out only a small quantity or use it up soon or, if you must, keep it in the fridge. Make your butters any way your taste dictates and they're always ready to put on those biscuits that you love to snack on. Butters I like are garlic, sardine and lemon, bacon and green onion, herb, spinach and feta cheese, fruit butters of all kinds. Use the fresh fruit butters soon but using fruit jams, jellies and marmalades makes the product easier and last longer. Mixed butters need to be kept in the fridge, not on the counter as your regular pure butter brick. Biscuits make a nice change from bread. Some like biscuits with gravies but you can open a biscuit on a plate and drizzle on any sort of creamed or sauced food such as peas, stews, fish or meats. Try making ice-cream filled biscuits with choices of added banana, chocolate chips, peanut butter or marshmallow. Let the kids loose on this one and see what they can create as  a sweet treat. Or, see the biscuit as a mini sloppy burger with  savory cooked ground beef loaded with chopped peppers, onions and celery. Adding a crisp lettuce leaf or sprouts, makes it even more a super healthy lunch or dinner. Your biscuit mix is there for the kids to stir up and make their own biscuit men, dinosaurs or bunnies or whatever shape they wish to mould. An adult must be present for baking because biscuits are better done in very hot ovens. If you've had the biscuit with staying in, biscuits might help.

The Bra

Normally, bras are a socially impolite subject, but bras are a fact of life and everyone who wears them, knows it.  There have been versions of the bra since ancient times, but with forms unlike the nineteen thirties that gave us today's precursor. Bras of yore, came in the form of bands or corsets and were designed for various purposes. They were made to help, but as women of the day discovered, few did. Fashion had bosoms flattened or projected as purposes dictated and apparently still does. Just ask the jesting Madonnas or the Lady Ga Gas. As today, bras enhance, expose, detract, replace, uphold  or simply look pretty for whatever purpose one desires. Most wearers, however, seek first, comfort, a bra that feels invisible while doing whatever job is needed. Unfortunately, and I wish bra makers were listening, there are few women who can find the perfect bra. What women want ultimately, is fit that works for them alone. And bra makers don't appear to be listening. Finding something in one's size is complex. The bosom is not hip, waist or hem measurement that can be easily adjusted. Bra size is static. When  you purchase this small piece of fabric, often with bits of plastic or metal installed,  you want something personally designed to your specific self. It's very complicated and insists on global measurements that even producers, designers, engineers and physicists try desperately to fathom. We the seekers of the perfect bra, are ecstatic when we  find exactly the right size. "Dream on" are my words for it. If you've been lucky and found your ideal size, you are  unlikely to find it again. Sorry.  Perhaps you have taken notes on The One that fits, and months later, notepaper in hand, you are off smugly thinking that you will find, "your" bra. The new "improved" ones have emerged. Seldom does "new and improved" do what it says. Often, the fabric is different, the size updated, the price hiked, the colours refreshed or the company unavailable. Once again, you prowl the aisles of the underwear department with its tons of dangling lacy things, only to find that you are defeated. The old tried and true is not there. Even online. After hours of searching, you just might find something acceptable, but it's a struggle. Bras are expensive especially if you are particular about fit and fabric. Finding a good fit often involves a lady bra fitter who will astound you after a fitting akin to medical parameters, with a size you never dreamed of and will dislike the sound of.  In my experience, I wouldn't wear what the lady recommends mostly because it looks like a space suit, and secondly it costs a fortune. I end up once again plying the aisles of my favorite department store. And then comes the insanity of a modern bra. Why does it fasten in the back? This piece  of misogyny must have originated with the makers of the Iron Maiden. Another feature that mystifies me is the  strap that falls. Why not cross the back straps over like a bathing suit? And let's not even begin on the strapless bra that can turn a very nice women into a raging torment in the club women's bathroom, as she tugs the thing skyward only to know it is going south as soon as she leaves. Ah, bra!

Stay Home: Kids

This directive is painful especially for children. For kids who are in the vital and perhaps, life crucial stage of socializing, the stay home order, no longer a suggestion, is the worst. Most children who have yet to harness their emotions entirely will explode or something akin to it, when made to stay home. Teens are peer conscious to a maximum amount and this pandemic will never quite mend their histories. Feeling sorry for the young is not the answer and parents are feeling the pinch. The attention spans from ages about twoish are limited to far less than ten minutes and the time frame for what can keep a little adult interested will take years to expand to the luxury of hours in an adult. Telling them to sit down and shut up doesn't fix it. Thirty years of a career in the education field is from whence I speak, but parenting is not as simple as being in front of a class in an institution. Homes are places where it's okay to be yourself, or should be. Each home is a "country" of its own and hopefully it is a peaceful, encouraging one that doesn't have killer guidelines that don't allow a back and forth negotiation sphere within its walls. Even the worst prisons allow for, or should, access to parley. In other words, know that even kids have the right to speak and if you have a house that doesn't, you might regret it when the kids grow up. What goes on under your roof is not forgettable. Not only talk to your kids, but let them speak openly about their feelings. Okay, their ways might not make sense to your adult head but still, they have a right to express them. Everyone wants mostly just to be heard and without judgement. An example of this in adult terms is when you are at work and not at the top of the heap, and you have a beef that has been bothering you for a long time, that keeps you awake at night, all you want to do is tell someone about it. You want to think that somebody at work, gets it. In my work, we had a perfect example of how important this is. The principal of the school was an untouchable but the vice-principal was a great person. The reason it was like this, is pretty common. Top execs usually go about with their own complaints, but they have no one to complain to. They are the bitter-end so to speak. No matter what their pay, it's they who will be lopped off, not the many under their command. Second in command wants to be first in command and is in the learning position, but is far safer where he/she is. My favorite vice-principal carried in his pocket, a little black book. You knew he would listen and then write your issue into his shirt pocket book. Whether or not anything was ever done about it wasn't the point. Someone listened to you and actually thought what you said mattered enough to record. It  defused you. Same with your kids. You could even have a family book where the child-spoken situation was written down for future reference and the child knew that what he or she spoke of, had importance and that the matter written in it, could be rested for the time being. Too bad we can't do that in marriages, friendships and relationships of every kind. One beautiful thing about children is their capacity for love: giving and especially receiving it. They need lots of listening and loving  these days.

Tissue Issue

For some odd reason, toilet paper has become the most wanted on grocery store hit lists. There is no reason why this should happen in a country where there are ample paper mills gobbling up trees and massively spitting out papers of all kinds. Grabbing toilet paper and hoarding it, is going to be a joke when this Covid19 disaster is all over. At present, it isn't a joke because those rolls we take for granted, are becoming hard to get. Anywhere.  Tissue paper or toilet paper is one of the things we never discuss socially, and yet no one doesn't use it every single day. What no one suggests is how to economize on the unspeakables used in bathrooms all day, daily. It's time we did, but tastefully, although that adverb's use doesn't quite fit on the subject. We on this continent are somewhat bashful when it comes to what goes on in the little rooms in our homes. In Europe, where they're quite used to talking more openly about natural functions, they have not merely three or four pieces of plumbing, but an extra one in bathrooms. France especially, but many other ancient lands also sport a bidet that is often called the "lady appliance". North American tourists who are unused to continental habits, find this addition in foreign bathrooms puzzling and amusing.  If they spend more than a day or two, say in France, they come to understand and learn and finally, to use and admire the additional piece. Europeans are not as shy as North Americans about natural functions and see nothing amiss in cleansing bodily areas properly, ones that we swish and forget rapidly as possible. The extra appliance, the bidet, sends a directed volley of water, usually warmed, at the dispensing target after it has done its work.   Beside the bidet there is a small rack with towelettes that look like table napkins, but aren't. In our bathrooms that cry out for rolls of paper, not having the benefits of bidets, we can if driven, use the idea creatively. It is possible with some adjustment to our pristine habits, to take up the use of towelettes after using the toilet. To be perfectly direct, it is possible to use a minimal number of tissue sheets supplemented by a farewell of towelette with soap and water even if  not having the benefit of a bidet. One drops the rinsed towelette, into into a special hamper for future laundering. We do this for babies or used to, when society wasn't too lazy or too busy or too squeamish, to deal with such human matters in the old fashioned way.  In these times when most of us are stuck inside, we could scour the linen cupboard for old sheets, old towels and cloth table napkins no longer in a set, and get busy putting together and/or cutting up a supply of towelettes. I feel that some who read, will have faces of disgust, but honestly, why not? This natural function of elimination, that we treat as the leper of subjects, is completely normal, and is with toilet paper shortages lurking, time we got realistic about how to stretch our minds and habits as we increase our innovative gifts and reduce our environmental footprints.

Get A Grip

Okay, we're mostly all staying inside or, if you're lucky to have a yard there, too. I'm not a backyarder any longer, out of choice, but if you are, you have a great place to rid yourself of cabin fever. Out in the east, I guess you call it "cottage fever". Today I tried to get my usual, for years and years, grocery delivery order and lo and behold, there are absolutely no reservations that go even up to ten PM, available. What? Yes, and when I tried to call the store I like, the line is constantly busy. The latter is because they have it "off-the-hook" due to the overload, they say, of multi calls for phone orders. They don't, and shouldn't care, that I have been a grocery delivery customer for many years and my orders are never the fearful, fearsome kind that some people are making foolishly out of panic. What is the panic? It is those who are piling up all sorts of things that if they didn't, would be available the same as usual. We are not experiencing a famine. I notice a lot of weird things about my last fortunate order that could be delivered. Flour is unavailable unless you buy those tiny sacks of it that someone created for the folks who must have the unique, most fashionable kinds to brag about. I passed that stage long ago since too many of my former friends who persisted in this odd behaviour, didn't live any longer than, or better than, those who just ate the ordinary stuff. But fads are fads. Rice is a better choice than some carbohydrates for storage. It keeps far longer than the flour you can't find on the shelf these days. Flour can go bad and noticeably. It will smell and taste ugly even if the old bags of it, don't have those little flies. Ugh. This toilet paper idiocy is the one that makes me laugh. Why? We have paper mills in Canada. Remember? Because we heard that certain other countries that may not be able to boast as many trees to slaughter, have caused some continents to begin loading up on bathroom tissue. Again, there is no actual reason to do this here. Furthermore, only a small percentage of people will develop the Covid19 virus and of those, relatively few will die. Check the stats and do it with a level head. What we are all doing these days, by being at home as asked, and as is the respectful thing to do for the sake of all, is so not to give the dangerous virus a garden, us, to grow on, and that it will hopefully, die of "starvation". So what to do? Stay in and consider it a time to catch up on more rest, more time to do the games and hobbies and all the matters you have been moaning about not having time to do. Here it is, the time to play. So the kids are at home. How good is that? You finally have time to give your kids a listen without your phone in hand. It's an opportunity to tell them about  your background, the family history, and for them to tell you their feelings and hopes and plans for the future. Time to build family in a time to really listen, and have dialogue about what you are actually working for in your life. Some people are using their at-home time to tidy the basement, garage or back shed or the many too-full drawers, to bag up the giveaways for later and to make plans for whatever future home improvements or additions they dream of.  It is a time to ponder your personal environment.  Lots of people haven't kept in touch with their far-off relatives and friends for decades. You know, the pals and cousins you used to play ball with down the street or swing with in the park and all of you are old now? Pick up the phone and give them a chat. It will brighten your day and your life. And theirs,too. It's a time to be with those who count with more distancing than a mere two metres.