37. Homebound

COVID-19 is fortunately now behind us. Mostly. It is surely no longer a dominant part of our daily lives. We endured years of social distancing, mask-wearing and being confined to our homes, watching infections spike and settle and businesses open and close. It was a terrible epidemic, exceeding 1.2 million deaths in the U.S. alone. The pandemic and its lockdowns were financially devastating for millions of people and many businesses. The isolation created hardships for many, especially the elderly (who already had restricted lives), but also the young, who had their education compromised by remote learning from institutions that were not equipped for it. And yet, people can be resilient. Many embraced gallows humor, saying that the isolation would result in a spike in both birthrates and divorces. Others jokingly referred to the “Quarantine 15”, which is the number of pounds that each of us were gaining during isolation due to lack of exercise and using food as a substitute for… well, for lots of things. Some people even found ways to appreciate a quieter life in being homebound.

Eric and I were fortunate in many ways during that period. He had a job that was not affected by the shutdown and was able to work from home, and I had a planned retirement that turned out to coincide exactly with the outbreak. I was already prepared for a big change, just not for that exact scenario. Eric left London quickly to wait out with me in Minneapolis what we hoped would be a short pandemic, and we converted our guest room into an office for him. He arrived home to an empty larder, however, as I depended entirely on restaurants for my meals when he was away and so had almost nothing but expired condiments in the kitchen. Eric immediately focused on rectifying that. Fully convinced that we should have food that creates both stability and reassurance during that period, as well as good health, he sprang into action. In those early days, there was a run on groceries as people prepared for the worst. We weren’t so different. Eric created shopping lists for me to build a fully stocked kitchen. Grocery shopping had fallen onto my shoulders as I (being over 60) had access to “senior hours” at grocery stores, which meant that I could shop at 7:00 a.m. with my fellow elders when the stores first opened, and right after they had been re-stocked and sanitized. Being eight plus years older than Eric brought measurable value to our relationship. Finally!

I don’t usually go into grocery stores except for emergencies, or to buy very select items like toilet paper, milk, juice, and granola. I am fully capable of assembling a breakfast, though I actually prefer to skip it or grab coffee at one of my favorite coffee shops. Grocery stores have their own unique organizational logic and I feel as though I have dementia when I go into them. I don’t know where anything is and I have no memories to guide me. But during the pandemic I made weekly visits to our local grocery store and came to know everyone who works there, as is my way. I was the guy who asked where everything was, and what the words “ramps”, “shallots” and “scallions” meant on my grocery list. Who knew that there were so many kinds of onions? Slowly, and with the help of stockers who all came to know my name, I became familiar with the layout of my grocery store, which also included awareness of those impulse or featured items located on end caps and completely out of their food categories. Over time I came to look forward to my shopping trips as opportunities to see familiar faces who would ask me what I was cooking that week. I never let on that I had a live-in chef and that I was just the errand boy. With restaurants closed, more and more people were discovering grocery stores and home cooking, and I was just one of those new converts.

Our menus started with familiar dishes, as Eric pulled from a freshly stocked kitchen and grounded us with comfort food. It was March, and soups became a theme. We had lentil soup and cabbage soup and potato leek soup and red pepper bisque. His rule was to cook four times as much as we needed for one meal so we could serve it once for dinner, once as leftovers for lunch the following day, and then freeze the remainder for two more meals at a later date. Our freezer began to fill up quickly. As Eric gave me a longer leash my shopping lists started to include “one vegetable” and “one fruit” of my choice. He challenged me to find the freshest produce. Fortunately, I am a gardener: I know fresh. Eric would take any vegetable that I brought home and use it in a soup or create a side dish with it. Occasional forays into the meat and seafood departments started as Eric expanded his shopping lists into new territory. Eric normally prefers to shop at a neighborhood butcher (Clancey’s) and a local seafood store (Coastal Seafoods), but sadly these were in lockdown in the early days of the virus.

Nearly every week Eric created a Louisiana meal and his sister Deanne in Houston started to supplement those meals by shipping frozen shrimp and crawfish pies as well as andouille sausage from a newly discovered outlet. Our freezer quickly became packed with home cooked and gifted foods. Food became the focus of our conversations. What would we have for lunch and dinner that day? What might we look forward to later in the week? Was there a plan for a special weekend meal? With opportunities for socialization and entertainment all but eliminated, food became our entertainment, our outlet for artistic expression, and what we looked forward to each day. We were quickly launched on our way to our Quarantine 15 weight gain so I started intermittent fasting and limited my eating between noon and 8:00 p.m., reserving sweets for weekends only. Still, I more than made up for it with volume during my eight hours of eating each day. Food gave us joy and meaning and hope. It gave us happiness in days that were grim as we received daily updates on infections and deaths by city, state and country.

From familiar foods we moved into new territory, as Eric looked for untested recipes in favorite cookbooks, especially the southern cookbooks, and then recipes started to arrive from his mother in California. We would plan our meals for the week, with Eric coming up with choices from multiple cookbooks, either new dishes that captured his imagination or old ones that he had always wanted to try. He would give me final say as to which of the semi-finalists would ultimately make it to our table. I found myself becoming more engaged in meal planning, more aware of ingredients and, slowly, started to imagine the tastes as I reviewed the preparations described in the recipes. Eric was still firmly in charge of the kitchen, and I was still responsible for table-setting and cleanup. But in addition to my new shopping skills, I started to experiment with baking. My first attempt was scones with golden raisins to accompany afternoon tea. With isolation still in place, why not add another meal to our schedule? The scones were a success, and soon experimentation with cornbread followed.

We had a chicken theme during lockdown, first with standard dishes such as Smothered Chicken (a Butler family favorite) but also new dishes such as a baked chicken dish with rice and shrimp (which we dubbed “COVID Fiesta Chicken” due to its south-o-the-border spices) and my new favorite, Chicken in Gin with Juniper, a recipe we found in Lucia Watson’s Cooking with the Seasons cookbook. More chicken recipes were discovered in two of Eric’s southern cookbooks, The Gift of Southern Cooking and The Lee Brothers Southern Cooking. Of course, chicken is not limited by season so as COVID extended into the summer our recipe selections changed too, and outdoor grilling further expanded the chicken possibilities.

COVID-19 changed our lives, and tragically ended the lives of far too many. It is too soon to know fully how symptoms may continue for those suffering from Long Covid, and the financial implications of business closures will likely continue for years. Generations before us have suffered through epidemics, wars and recessions and their lives were forever changed by them. We are now a part of that history. We know that we were fortunate to have had the resources to enjoy food during that time and didn’t take that for granted. It was a privilege for us to celebrate food as we turned inward and homeward, and sought solace as well as meaning from it. We found it in sharing meals with each other, as well as by delivering food to friends and family. We rediscovered that one of the greatest gifts is to give and receive food, and that sharing a meal with another nourishes the soul, as well as the body.

Chicken in Gin with Juniper

Adapted from Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland by Beth Dooley and Lucia Watson

During the dark uncertainty of the initial Covid 19 lockdown, Chris and I really did find enjoyment in recreating the comfort foods of our youth. As the resident cook, it was no surprise that I tended to make a few more dishes from my own family traditions. But as Chris described above, we moved beyond comfort food and created some adventure for ourselves by seeking out new tastes. When I asked Chris to select new recipes for us to try from a few favorite cookbooks, I never expected him to select the one below.

Though we both love the taste of juniper, and though gin is a spirit flavored with juniper, I still found it odd he picked a recipe with gin so prominent, even in its name. This recipe isn’t Chicken with Juniper (and gin), but rather Chicken in Gin (with juniper). Once it was selected by Chris, however, I eagerly set about to make it, out of curiosity. I confess I expected it to be merely a novelty dish, one that Chris would likely crinkle his nose at with displeasure from the alcohol residue, but I was wrong. Chris loved it. My recipe notes read that Chris said “Better than Smothered Chicken. Delicious and Delightful!” I’m still stunned by that.

It is this dish that made me realize just how far Chris’ palate had evolved from when I first met him. ~Eric

1 cut up whole chicken or 4 leg quarters
3 tbsps vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsps all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsps gin
1 cup homemade chicken stock
6 juniper berries, crushed
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh chives or parsley

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet and brown the chicken pieces on all sides. Remove and set aside.

2. Add the onions and garlic to the skillet and cook over moderate heat, tossing for about 8 minutes, or until soft and just browned.

3. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir it in thoroughly to absorb the fat. Lucia doesn’t suggest browning the floured onions a bit, but I think doing so adds some nice earthy flavor.

4. Add 1/2 cup of the gin and all the chicken stock, stirring until the flour is absorbed.

5. Add the remaining ingredients, except the 2 tablespoons of gin and stir.

6. If you are using a cut-up chicken, add the dark-meat pieces of chicken, cover the skillet, reduce the heat to a low simmer, and cook for about 20 minutes. Then add the white-meat pieces, cover, and cook an additional 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.

7. If you are using four leg quarters, add them all, cover the skillet, reduce the heat to a low simmer, and cook for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.

8. Pull out all of the chicken and cook the liquid for 3-5 minutes, or until it thickens slightly.

9. Turn off the heat and adjust the salt and pepper to taste.

10. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons gin. Lucia suggests you serve it straight away, but I preferred to stir another 3 minutes to cook the alcohol out, so it didn’t taste like a martini.

11. Plate the chicken on 4 pre-heated plates or a large platter, garnishing with the chopped fresh herbs.

Serves 4