Cooking and not going out

 Still in the depths of lockdown, presumably for most of 2021, maybe able to go out to eat in late summer or autumn, but not really expecting it.

The weather had improved, so starting on a few salads, but freezing again, so back to stews and curries.

Below, after a lovely slow roast lamb shoulder, we made kebabs.  Some OK wild garlic fettuccine with prawns, but I rolled the pasta too thin, so it went a bit claggy.

Great pork chops from Pat Whelans, a little lunch of sourdough croutons, anchovies, artichokes and basil

A couple of victoria sponges, for a change.  Terrible for my enormous belly, but what can one do in a lockdown but (cook and) eat shite?

Had another lovely take away from Mint Cottage in Malahide, still making bread, hopefully will not live to see another New Year, it's all too tiring

Plans

 Hmm 2 posts in a week, or even a month!

Weather has been slightly better the last couple of days, although forecast is a bit wet.  So with the deep slough of winter beginning to recede and the tiny chance there may be relaxation of lockdown in the second half of the year and even the very tiny possibility of travelling this year, I'm going to give myself some targets and see how I get on in this year.  Obviously the next couple of months are dead outside of the village, so I need to be realistic

Short term: cooking and eating in

Medium term: eating out

Long Term: travel

Cooking and eating in

From a cooking point of view I feel I need to do more different, the things I make I'm OK at, but I've a fairly short repertoire of maybe a few dozen dishes and their variants.  Gaps are only one Thai dish, little Chinese, almost no other SE Asian, Greek, BBQ, South American - obviously lots of this is dictated by what others will eat, but I still have lunches and I can try.

I've enjoyed the two "finish-at-home" meals we've bought, both high end and I'll probably get another one or two before, if ever, restaurants reopen - and I still don't really like takeaways, we've had about 6-10 in this lockdown year, as opposed to 1 or 2 a tear normally, a couple were good, one was really good, the rest forgettable.

Eating out

This, I think will be the biggest change, locally in the village, nowhere really worth going to, a couple of OKs.  Malahide has some and obviously Dublin in excellent.  However Dublin's high end is funded by business lunches, like many business cities and I doubt they will ever fully return.  Along with very high rents and business rates, the city centre eating landscape is bound to change a lot, possible unrecognisably.  But it's done so before and may do again.  There are always good cooks and always people looking for restaurants, so, while I think it will be very different, there will still be places.

There is an enormous build-up of Weddings, Christenings, Confirmations, Anniversaries, retirements, birthdays most with funds saved up, hopefully this will pour into the industry and sustain parts of it.

I think Michelin / Fine Dining will suffer without as much money from business and while I've had some great Fine Dining meals over the years, I'm probably missing this less than others.  After all I've chosen not to visit USA for the last 4 years and really like their pub food and plenty of other good stuff and it's not top of my list, so FD is not top of my list. 

Travel

This is the really hard bit, Dusseldorf, Madrid, Malaga, Nerja, Maputo, Palm Springs (after avoiding USA for 4 years), Rome, anywhere and everywhere else.  As the song says "Anywhere but here"

Very depressed about lack of travel, have money to spend and will be travelling up the front and eating and drinking good stuff if it ever happens.  One of the biggest lessons I will take from lockdown, if it ever ends, is you can't take it with you and we could get it taken away and curtailed over something real like a virus or imaginary, like brexit

Just made some cheese straws to try and fight in my losing battle against chocolate, they are lovely, so it's a thing :)

Another little gap :)

 So just haven't got around to updating anything in ages, done tons of cooking although nothing new.  The permanent lockdown will probably never really lift, so I'm resigned to never going abroad again, nor even going to a restaurant, if any still exist.

Apart from borderline alcoholism and a huge weight gain, lockdown has helped me hone my cooking skills, although there's no-one to eat it but us....

Sourdough bread and pizzas good, not even taking photos anymore, made batch today (Irish bread I don't like, but was asked to make it)

Had a couple of "finish at home" takeaway meals from Bon Appetit and Unos Mas, both great and would try some more

Uno Mas

Bon Appetit

Will keep cooking, will try and drink less and try to update this when I make something  new or in the unlikely event I go anywhere further than Lidl or Dunnes