A Day Off

7:45

It's 8:00 and darkness has given way to a light gray sky, with no evidence of the sun.  The shoreline of the lake has melted but beyond ten feet, it's still frozen.  It has cooled off some from the '60s to a crisp 30º this morning when I walked out to pick up the Post Journal.

I woke yesterday to find that yoga had been canceled, as Julie was ill (not the coronavirus).  So it was a strange morning for me, with nothing I had to do, actually, with nothing to do as I was at sixes and sevens, anxious to do something.  So after the blog, coffee, and breakfast, I started looking for a recipe for dinner and ended up settling on an easy stew, of Italian sausages, cabbage, and cannellini beans.  Evie checked and we had everything we needed for the stew, so we both got busy.  I cooked and Evie was my sous chef, chopping up the garlic and onions to saute after I browned the sausages.
Once both were done, Evie sliced a couple of pounds of cabbage and I added it to the sausage, garlic, and onions added a quart of chicken stock and let it simmer for forty minutes until the cabbage was done.  I then let it sit on the stove until dinner time, allow the flavors to marinate.

I probably could have had it for lunch but I decided to save it for dinner and heated up the leftover chicken curry with rice.  In fact, I have enough leftovers for today's lunch.  It was as good if not better than the night before.  I watched Narcos as Evie left for her physical therapy appointment in Jamestown. I then spent the rest of the afternoon, as usual, watching some TV, reading my new book, and taking a brief nap, waiting for Evie to return home.  After physical therapy, she stopped at Wegman's to take advantage of the 5% off and came home with three or four bags full.  I helped to bring the bags in as she put everything away.  We are more than set if we need to be homebound for a week or two, not that we hope it happens.  It is concerning, however, no matter where you live because we have no idea of how widespread the virus is because of a lack of testing, only 5800 so far. Compared to China and South Korea, who have tested hundreds of thousands of citizens, we are woefully in the dark as to the spread.  One alarming news story estimates that in Germany, 70% of the population will get the virus and life will be disrupted for months.  Scary.  Maybe we are not crazy for stockpiling some staples, preparing for the worst.

Around 5:30, we had our wine time as the stew warmed on the stove.  Once we were hungry, Evie ladled the stew in bowls, topped it with grated parmesan cheese, sliced the sourdough bread for dipping and we had a great dinner.  It was much better than I expected, more flavorful, a result of the Italian sausage, garlic, and addition of Marash pepper from Turkey.  We watched the election returns, as most of the pundits were excited about Biden's success, Bernie's demise.  We also watched a Colbert, his interview with John Krasinski from The Office. We ended the night with another episode of The Americans and ten minutes of Luka /Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.