Lockdown Journal: Day 17 (Happy Easter)
If you’re new to this blog series and don’t know what’s happening with South Africa’s 21-day (now 35-day) lockdown, my first post has all the details. Or read all my lockdown posts.
Welcome to Lockdown Day 17: Easter Sunday.
I really put a lot of heart and soul into yesterday’s post, and today I seem to be suffering from an emotional hangover. So I’ll keep this one short.
It’s Easter! Easter hasn’t really been a significant holiday in my life since I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny, and many years recently I’ve let it come and go like any other day.
However, thanks to Friday’s Munching Mongoose delivery, I had a surplus of artisan bread, eggs, and milk in my house this morning. I also found a large, unopened bottle of Vermont maple syrup in the back of my pantry. So I decided to make French toast.
This breakfast was delicious and put me in a good mood. Also, I gathered a bunch of non-perishable food items and a packet of Woolworth’s hot cross buns, and put them outside on the sidewalk with a “Happy Easter!” sign. I figured someone hungry would come by and take the food. I checked back an hour or two later and the food was gone. It made me feel good to do a good deed.
Then the emotional hangover hit. (Maybe I also ate too many carbs.) I got sucked into a podcast vortex, listened to too much news about COVID-19, and spent too much time on my phone responding to comments on yesterday’s post. I had planned to work on my taxes (ha!) but that obviously did not happen. I cried for a first time in a few days.
In a fit of desperation, I went to iTunes and downloaded a few songs by Bill Withers. Bill Withers was an R&B legend who died a week or two ago (not from coronavirus). I recently heard a great interview with him on the Death Sex and Money podcast, which motivated me to download the songs.
Note to self: Bill Withers is great medicine for an emotional hangover. So was the pair of electric blue sunbirds (kind of like hummingbirds but bigger and slower) that I saw flitting around in my garden.
Now I have an elaborate plan to make ostrich mince meatballs (with homemade breadcrumbs, made from actual stale bread), creamed spinach, and roasted potatoes for dinner. I am really not much of a cook normally but I think I’ve officially been infected with the lockdown show-off-home-chef bug. Next on my list is homemade macaroni and cheese. I’ll report back tomorrow.
Today’s Worthy Cause
Today’s worthy cause is SA Harvest. This one is a no-brainer. SA Harvest rescues unused food from big retailers and other sources – food that is perfectly good but would go to waste otherwise – and distributes it to people in need. I can’t imagine any cause that is more worthy right now.
SA Harvest has a Payfast link that you can use to donate. You can also donate via EFT or SnapScan – instructions are on their homepage.
Happy Easter, people. Eat all the chocolate because you deserve it.
We had French toast, too! There’s no bread anywhere, so Andy made his own Portuguese sweetbread (think King’s Hawaiian if you aren’t familiar) and turned it into French toast this morning.
I’m sure he’s trying to surpass my baking skills.
Geez, no bread?!
No bread!
So glad you had a ’lekker’ breakfast, including Vermont maple syrup!! I also toyed with the idea of French toast as I’m tired of toasting frozen bread… And after all it’s Sunday. Alas, no syrup :-( So I made American-style biscuits for the first time in years :-)
Yum! I wish it were possible to give you some of my syrup.
In return for a plate of biscuits, of course!
I hope your show-off-home-chef bug will mean that we’re going to see a photo of the ostrich mince balls! Your French toast looks delicious. I love Bill Withers, but strangely, his music makes me a bit more tearful instead of the opposite.
Yeah, it’s almost like Bill’s sad music made me feel weirdly happy. Hard to explain. Unfortunately the meatballs weren’t terribly photogenic although they tasted pretty good.