Items

• 
  2020-08-08

  Relearning to Cook

  I have loved to cook for as long as I can remember, but I had a few rough years and stopped cooking. With the onset of stay-at-home orders for the COVID-19 Pandemic, I went from 60-hour work weeks between my two jobs to nothing. My mind and hands were itching to do something, anything. As many of the grocery stores started to have supply shortages and I now had a much more limited budget; I had to get creative. So, I began to cook. I started slowly with fancy coffee drinks and eggs and moved to bread and pasta. Nationally people were baking bread so I thought well I’ve got the time I might as well try. What started as something I had learned to dread suddenly became my day’s highlight. I was cooking again! The dance of moving through my small kitchen. The clank of pots and pans and knives and wooden spoons in metal bowls playing in time to Otis Redding. The joy of tasting a recipe and nailing both the flavors and the serving size (many recipes serve 4-6, I live alone). It was truly a full-body experience. I soon realized that I hadn’t repeated any meals in about two weeks and decided to challenge myself to go as long as possible without repeating a recipe, if a meal required a repeat that portion simply didn’t count in my tally. I ended up making over 225 different recipes.
• 
  2020-11-26

  Thanksgiving 2020

  This was the homemade stuffing I made for Thanksgiving of 2020. Due to social distancing my family had in order to protect people, my extended family ate at two separate locations. For me, that meant going to my parent's place next door and dining with my aunt and uncle. My grandparents had their own celebration with other family members. One interesting twist to this was that we all ended up eating the same food between both houses because it was split up. This is why I ended up making a lot more stuffing than I normally would for Thanksgiving. In addition to this, I brought over some homemade cranberry sauce and homemade jam. I had learned to make canned jam during 2020, and I had some leftover to give. Everyone enjoyed the food I made and my aunt said it was some of the best stuffing she ever tasted, and she isn't really a big fan of stuffing. Sadly, the stuffing was not enough to ease tensions on the politics happening at the time. Other parts of the day included my family getting into a political discussion on the 2020 election. I had different views on it than my family did, so I left once that started. Later on in the evening, me and my husband went over to my in-laws. My sister-in-law was sick with COVID, so my father-in-law gave her food from the evening for her to take home. I was bummed about that, but people did not want to take their chances of getting others sick, which I understood. My father-in-law invited someone that year from Egypt for the occasion. It also turned into a political discussion there. I felt more comfortable voicing my opinions there than I did with my immediate family, but it was still draining. It made an otherwise okay evening into something that I don't want to think about. 2020 was a hard year for many people, and the election being so close to Thanksgiving made it very awkward. It has toned down since then, but I think people being locked down and exposed to constant social media and news coverage made it harder for people to actually discuss things. I think it's a good thing to be informed, but I do not believe the information overload many dealt with during 2020 was healthy. It even took a toll on me, as it made my mental health worse. Between the lockdowns, protests, and election, it was hard for me to take all at once. My only real solace was school and my husband, as both forced me to think of things not happening at the very moment. As a history major, I find it easier to think of events in the past than I do the present at times. It's why I really like the medieval period in Europe because it is far enough removed from the current era, so I am less likely to get heated about some of the topics brought up. With current events, I need to take a break at times. It was very obvious that the Thanksgiving from 2020 was not something that really made my mental health better. I enjoyed the food and the company, but I had a hard time wanting to discuss politics with people that I interact with regularly. It's one thing to discuss with strangers I might never see again, but completely another to talk about it with people that you need to interact with daily. Now that things are back to normal, for the most part, the tensions are not as high. I find myself being able to discuss politics again with some family members without it going badly. Overall, I would say that Thanksgiving 2020 was a good social experiment on how much overexposure to media and lockdowns can be detrimental to personal relationships. Seeing things behind a screen too often and being away from others takes a toll on humanity. This is why I was so glad when things started opening up again because people need to be out more and with others. As much as technology has helped us communicate, it still can't make up for the human interaction everyone needs. My own mental health has been much better since the ending of the restrictions and I don't want to go back to them again.
• 
  2020-04-24

  Gluten-Free Vegan Perogies

  My fiancé is vegan, so it's hard to find comfort foods that are also vegan and gluten-free. We spent a lot of quarantine days finding and messing around recipes that were gluten-free. We eventually ended up making the recipe, and even though the perogies were a little thick on the dough side (gluten-free dough can annoyingly do this sometimes). Many days were spent with my fiancé that I cherished, even though we never knew when I was going back to work. During this time, I'm sure most people felt like this. I think what was important was the reset we got when the stay-at-home orders were put into place. I think it made everyone realize the things we took for granted and the people that we saw every day.
• 2022-04-29

  It's The Little Things

  The pandemic was full of many things that turned the world upside down: the loss of jobs, death, and the decline in mental health for many students. I remember when the semester was transferred to fully online, many students like myself celebrated for the extended Spring Break and the ability to attend Zoom classes in pajamas. However, months passed and the daily lack of contact with acquaintances and friends, isolation, and lack of activities turned the days quite mundane quickly. The drastic change in an active lifestyle to such a slow paced one definitely had a negative impact on conditions such as depressive symptoms, health anxiety, and an overall learning curve of the lifestyle. Digging deeper, I know many families whose breadwinner of the family lost their job because many places were letting their staff go due to the lack of demand of labor. When dealing with a global pandemic, death was also a central topic to deal with. Many countries did not have access to medical equipment such as ventilators and thousands of people were dying in my motherland. I personally lost some family members and many people I know have as well. While the pandemic introduced our lives to a dark state, there was a slight silver lining, and that was spending time with the loved ones. Over the years before the pandemic, I feel like the world moved at an unbearably fast pace. My days consisted of going to class and work, possibly spending some time with friends, doing homework, and sleeping for the most part. As the world started to slow down because of the COVID pandemic, my father was finally able to work from home, my sister had online classes, and my mother didn’t have to rush to pick my sister up from school. Often, our meals during dinner would be inconsistent and spent near the TV as everyone had their own schedules. However, when the pandemic hit, it was advised to not eat at restaurants and take out fast food. Such restrictions led to trying out new recipes and laughing in the kitchen. Little moments such as conversations at the dinner table are still some of my favorite memories. In addition to cherished time with my family, I was able to finally rediscovered some hobbies that I used to enjoy years ago. Before the pandemic, my life had begun to revolve only around academics and I had forgotten what it felt like to spend the evening painting or trying out a new dance. However, spending months at a time at home forced me to redirect myself to other forms of entertainment when there was no use of travelling to other places. This really helped me define myself as someone who has so many other interests rather than just a student who studied 24/7. I still try to carry these hobbies into my schedule now that the world is slowly coming back to its fast pace.
• 
  2022-03-20

  Cooking During the Pandemic

  This is one recipe I learned to make during the pandemic. It is a chicken pot pie with a biscuit topping (that I luckily did't have to make myself). I've made many things over the course of this pandemic. Restaurants became too much of a hassle for a while in 2020, and many weren't even open. I used to go out to eat more often before the pandemic, but with me starting school again in the fall of 2020, in addition to masks being very annoying for me to want to wear, I would either order takeout, or make food myself. Between school and the pandemic, cooking has become one of my favorite hobbies, as I need to eat anyway, and I have been able to try types of food I didn't know I'd like. Prior to the pandemic, I would not eat pickled things as often, but now I seek it out with recipes to try. I also learned some new skills, like discovering I can make the non freezer variety of jam, and how to use cast iron the right way. I maybe would have learned these skills later on anyway because I enjoy cooking, but being at home more has made me want to try more recipes. Contrary to the stereotype, I did not learn how to make sourdough from scratch during the pandemic, but my dad did, and now he's on a kick with making sourdough bread weekly when he is home. Cooking has been one constant I have had, and I did it before the pandemic, but currently, I am doing it more often to save money and learn more skills. I intend to teach my kids in the future on how to cook things. It's more than a hobby for me though, as the better I can cook, the less likely I am to want to spend money on takeout. With rising prices of food in 2022, knowing how to cook has been a blessing.
• 
  2021-01-30

  A View from My Window

  During a difficult time in which we are separated from one another, it is important to make the most out of every small moment. We don't notice all the tiny things that pass us by each day. This is my view.
• 
  2020-04

  How Stuffed Peppers Kept Me From Killing My Roommates

  In March of 2020, I had just turned 22. I was prepping to graduate from Loyola University Chicago and searching for a job in journalism — a notoriously tough field to start out in, pandemic or not. The virus started spreading, and the jobs started disappearing. Chicago, my once-vibrant home where people scattered like ants as the CTA trains screeched into the station, was deserted. It was eerie. The internet was swarming with newly viral recipes: banana bread, sourdough starters, homemade pizzas. I wasn't interested in those, they didn't strike my fancy. In a time of severe isolation for most, I was stuck with roommates. Don't get me wrong, we had our issues. The dishes were almost never done, and we disagreed on whose responsibility they were. But in my boredom, I took up cooking, and for once I didn't mind cooking for them as well. I was one of many COVID-induced chefs who began as amateurs and blossomed into connoisseurs that rivaled the best of takeout menus. The only problem was, I'm a vegetarian, and my roommates are born-and-bred Midwesterners, set in their ways of eating and enjoying meat at nearly every meal. But by April, I had sprung head-first into a phase of cooking stuffed peppers several times a week, and they had followed me down the rabbit hole. There were no disagreements about whether to put meat in the filling or not — we didn't need it, there was enough flavor and protein regardless. And the dishes were always done, somehow without a single argument or passive-aggressive slam of a door. The peppers were fun and colorful, Instagram-worthy in a time that lacked almost anything visually intriguing. They became a source of collaboration instead of the division that had seeped in through our 100-year-old Chicago apartment's walls, a result of being trapped with no one but each other for weeks on end. It's superstitious, maybe, but I think these peppers may have saved us from severing our relationship forever. We mended our fracturing friendships and became a family once again, eating dinner together and making sure the kitchen was clean.
• 
  2021-02-04

  New tastes during lockdown

  During lockdown, like many others I came in need of something to pass the time, and also like many I turned to cooking. It was something I already enjoyed doing pre-Covid, but had much less time for it. But during lockdown, there was substantially more time to put into trying new things. Trying all these new recipes became a part of my everyday life, ranging from fresh pasta, to chicken parmesan, to birria tacos. Almost all of these were new recipes to me, and the experiences and sensations that came with making them became a core part of what got me through lockdown. The smells of braising meat and stock simmering became something to look forward to each week. The new tastes and smells were something that brought the family together as we were all home, and cooking in our house is not a solitary affair. And each new dish only pushed me further down the rabbit hole of what most would consider way too much effort for a weeknight dinner. The photos attached are final dishes of Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Parmesan, and Birria Tacos, along with an in progress photo of the birria taco meat after braising. For recipes, refer to Binging with Babish on YouTube.
• 
  04/01/2020

  DC Oral History, 2020/04/01

  C19OH
• 
  2021-12-17

  Cooking During Covid

  These photos are a couple of many foods I have created during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these times were depressing and lonely in ways it was a gift for me to be given the time to find my passion as a chef. Homemade pasta takes 2+ hours, and homemade bread takes 4+ I never would have had the time to do this before Covid. I think that during this time it is very important to find a little bit of light in a time of darkness, and that's what I did.
• 
  2020-03-29

  Cauliflower Fried Rice

  This cauliflower fried rice was the first of many recipes that my family cooked together during covid. It reminds me of the uncertainty we felt, cooking a new recipe during such a weird, unpredictable time. I still value the time that my family and I spent together during quarantine, and I sometimes wish that we could still cook together every night like we did during spring of 2020.
• 
  2021-10-17

  A taste of my motherland with a new twist - Rose Tteokbokki

  Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, my favorite pastime was watching various cooking and food story-time videos on YouTube. Yet, there was one video in particular that caught my full wide attention. I remember on May 6th, 2021, at around 10:45 pm PST, this video appeared on my YouTube recommendations. The video thumbnail showed one of my favorite Korean street foods, Tteokbokki (Korean spicy stir-fried rice cakes), but with a new twist! Growing up, I associated Tteokbokki with flavor notes such as the spiciness of the Gochujang and Gochugaru (Korean chili paste and chili powder), the sweetness of the Mulyeot (Korean corn syrup) in which also helps give the rice cakes its glossy shine, as well as using Sogogi dashida (Korean beef stock powder) to further enhance the umami tangy flavor. Of course, there are other variations of Tteokbokki such as Jjajang Tteokbokki (made with Black bean paste) and Gungjung Tteokbokki (made with both Soy sauce and beef) but the modern recipe with the Gochujang never failed to hit all my tastebuds. Well, that was until I discovered the video. The video used the modern Tteokbokki recipe, but also adding in a new twist with ingredients such as heavy cream and milk to give the Tteokbokki a pink color. Because the Tteokbokki resembled the pink colors of a Rose pasta sauce, it became “Rose Tteokbokki.” After watching the video and doing some research on Rose Tteokbokki (I ended up staying up till 3 am) I became convinced and made some for brunch. Making Rose Tteokbokki for brunch was the best decision I ever made because it still kept the delicious flavor notes of the modern recipe but with the extra creaminess and cheesiness thanks to the heavy cream and milk. Also, adding in meats such as sausages and bacon along with Korean wide glass noodles gave the Rose Tteokbokki a unique chewy texture combo. Once I finished up the Rose Tteokbokki, I posted a picture of the Rose Tteokbokki on my social media accounts, and one of my friends who live in Seoul replied with, “Jungeun! You’re also joining the Rose Tteokbokki bandwagon?! Everyone in Korea is rushing to make their own and/or ordering from the delivery apps because of Covid! Once Covid ends, come visit me and let’s eat Rose Tteokbokki together!” Reading my friend’s response left me with a big smile on my face, and it felt great to connect with the motherland even without physically being there through Rose Tteokbokki.
• 
  2021-09-12

  Oreoluwapo Omotayo-Benson and Christopher Combs Oral History, 2021/09/12

  This interview contains two personal accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The questions discussed cover multiple aspects of the pandemic, and how it has shaped our lives as high school/college students.
• 2020-06

  Learning to Cook

  Before Covid-19, I only knew the basics of cooking, and for the most part, I stayed away from the kitchen. However, once the lockdowns began, I started to force myself to cook more. I tried to learn new recipes (which my sister usually taught me) and gradually I began to improve my abilities. One of my favorite foods to make now (which I learned in the summer of 2020) was Chicken Tikka Masala.
• 
  2021-08-08

  Cooking with Canned and Frozen Foods

  The file that I have included is a description of how My wife and I were essentially forced to resort mostly on canned and frozen foods for our meals rather than using fresh ingredients.
• 
  2020-03

  Carla Dollar Oral History, 2020/03

  I was given the assignment to share a recipe I made during quarantine that started March 2020. However, the reality was that as an essential worker, I had no time to cook. And in my tiny, conservative town, we rallied together to support local business. We ordered more take-out foods during that time, to support our friends and family who owned restaurants, but also, just didn't have time to cook.
• 
  2021-08-07

  Diane Ramirez Oral History, 2021/08/07

  How one Hispanic female dealt with the cooking challenges that took place in the early months of the pandemic. In particular, one meal she prepared on September 26, 2020.
• 2021-08-03

  The Comfort of Carbonara

  Homemade recipe of Carbonara for my son's tenth birthday, with all the restaurants closed, we improvised.
• 
  2020-10-28

  Pierogis and Kielbasa: Sound and Smell During COVID-19

  Before the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns began, hearing or seeing a loved one seemed almost a certainty. Although I worried for the safety of all my friends and family, I was most concerned with the well-being of my aging, immunocompromised grandmother. As a daughter of Eastern European immigrants, she was accustomed to eating ethnic Polish food. Throughout my childhood, she would kindly make pierogis and kielbasa sausage for me and my sister. The savory aroma of pierogis and kielbasa sausage cooking in sauerkraut inundated the senses. With the onset of the pandemic, however, my life, as with so many others, changed. Unfortunately, my grandmother is not accustomed to using video-chat services; however, hearing her voice over the phone or social-distancing on her porch allowed me to maintain contact, hear her voice, and smell the wonderful aroma of the food she always made for me as a child. Although momentary, the loss of hearing my grandmother’s voice as well as her delicious food made me realize how important it is to cherish the connections you have with your loved ones. During a time of uncertainty, tragedy, and disconnection, a loved one’s voice (as well as the food they make) can provide an emotional uplift.
• 
  2021-06-20

  Comfort Food Redefined

  I spent the first few weeks of the pandemic and subsequent banishment to my home by my workplace eating bag after bag of potato chips. Something about crunching down on food was calming to me. I didn’t eat a lot of other food; when I am stressed, my digestive system is the first body part to put up a fuss, so besides the therapeutic potato chips, I didn’t feel much like eating. I don’t own a scale and didn’t feel that I was putting on weight, but one day I looked at my dog, who was the recipient of the chips I had dropped on the floor, and thought to myself that he if had gained weight. I made the leap in thought that if he had gained weight, perhaps I had too. I had to redefine my notion of comfort food from fatty food that crunched to food that truly comforted both my digestive system and my nervous system. This food was comprised of roasted veggies (to get that crunch!); veggie, protein powder, and fruit smoothies to give me the nutrients to deal with pandemic stress; and nuts and fish such as salmon for omega-3 fatty acids to counteract inflammation, fight depression, and nourish those brain cells so necessary to deal with all the changes required by the pandemic. All these changes in my daily food menu have had a massive and positive effect on me. I’m calmer, my intestines aren’t complaining, and I have more energy. And, I've maintained a health weight. I haven’t gained weight. Before the pandemic, I hated to cook and mostly just ate to survive without paying much attention to what I was putting in my body. The pandemic and its accompanying stress forced me to realize that the quality of one’s life is truly related to the quality of one’s food choices. Healthy food is truly comfort food.
• 
  2021-06-06

  Pandemic Thanksgiving

  Our first pandemic thanksgiving
• 
  2021-04-23

  Covid as a first responder

  How the pandemic effected me personally at home and at work
• 
  2021-04-22

  Life During COVID-19

  What has life been like for me during COVID-19? Well this photo pretty much sums it all. For this past year, I have spent the majority of my time on my computer which mainly consisted of it being completing work for my classes and watching TV shows during my spare time. The gyms were closed. I couldn’t eat at the restaurant my family and I go to every Thursday anymore. And seeing other family and friends became very limited as well, so I was alone by myself most of the time. The beginning of this pandemic was very difficult for me as my lifestyle changed drastically. I am a little bit of a procrastinator and when you have a nice comfy bed next to you 24/7, it makes it really hard to do things. But I understood that life goes on, so it is up to me to keep on moving forward. And that is exactly what I did. During this pandemic, I felt I was really able to focus and improve myself. I have become a more productive person and it has really helped me in finishing my classwork and doing other daily tasks. It has relieved some of that unnecessary stress that was on me that I had put on myself before this pandemic. At home, I didn’t have any weights to work out, so I decided to work on my flexibility/mobility. With the gyms beginning to open back up and going there just recently, I noticed the benefits of it in both my weight lifting and martial arts. In addition, I was able to gain new hobbies and one of them is cooking. Life during this pandemic has greatly helped me improve myself on many aspects. Life is unpredictable at times, so sometimes you just have to make the best out of it.
• 
  2020-08-08

  Positivity Throughout a Pandemic

  I submitted a story of my life during the pandemic and the positives that I have decided to focus on when looking back on this past year.
• 
  2020-06-29

  The Unpredictable Horrors of Pandemic

  The unpredictable horrors of pandemic “Corona Virus” the most lethal being on the earth that swept a mass population since its spread in December 2019. The Corona Virus had already started its attack and only a few cases had been reported in Wuhan, China until 2020, where it spread like a wildfire taking down millions of people. I belong to Nepal which is a neighboring country to China, so it surely was at higher risk which led to a countrywide lockdown in March 2020. It was then, people started to realize the seriousness of the situation. I would like to share my part of the pandemic experience in the first person “We” because I believe in this time I was with my family and we went through this experience- some bitter and some sweet but we were always together as a single unit. When the lockdown was imposed in Nepal, people were not aware of why it was being done. Why a mere viral disease was threatening nations? People took it as an excuse to vacation from work and school. We were told to stay inside the house, wear a mask and avoid gatherings by the national authorities. We could only go out for buying essentials (food, medicine) in the evening between 6-7 PM. Other times we were enjoying with our family because it is very rare to have this much free time in this busy life. We would cook new dishes, we also started gardening, growing vegetables in our backyard, and sometimes there was even “Movie Time” with the family. So, for the first few weeks, this lockdown was a perfect family time. Then the economy slowly started to tremble. People were left jobless, savings started to dry out. We were getting conscious and calculative on the grocery shopping. We own a garment factory (textiles and embroidery) so with no shops open during the time, we were also struggling with the money. My sister was currently stuck in Bangladesh because she had gone there for her educational studies and was stuck since both the countries were on lockdown. She finally arrived back home in June 2020 in an evacuation flight. She was then on self-isolation for 14 days. In these days of self-isolation, she showed no signs of COVID. Finally, on her last day of isolation, she went for a test and the horrors began. The reports came POSITIVE. This came as a shock to all of us because she had followed all the health protocols both in Bangladesh, during the flight, and after arriving in Nepal. We all were in disbelief and were taken aback. Unfortunately, the same day when the reports came out, there a news report regarding the lab where the reports were tested had cross-contamination, leading to inaccurate results in the hospital that day (the same day as my sister was tested). All of the samples were tested positive. Health authorities had to investigate that matter. But since she had no symptoms whatsoever, we wanted to re-check. Before we could even go to the other hospital, the members from the localities hurdled outside our house. They had been informed that an infected person was there in the area. My mom and dad went out to calm the crowd, trying to convince us that the results were doubtful and we were going for a re-check. The crowd was more like an angry mob and was dismissing all our claims, maybe also because this was the first case in our locality. They didn’t want to hear what we had to say. They forcefully started sealing the gates and the areas of our house, ordering all our neighbors to stay away from the area. They were told not to cross the gate and come in contact with us. Since the coronavirus is truly a big deal, though we had some doubts, we accepted that all our family members should go into isolation. But this was easier said than done. For those 14 days, we had no one around us to help. We couldn’t go out to get groceries or even other essentials. Our neighbors were threatened by the local authorities to not help us. They couldn’t send us the groceries or anything else. We were cast away from the whole society around that time. Luckily, we had an aunt living nearby. She used to leave us grocery items in our backdoors before the sunrise…. before anyone could even see. And we would run outside abiding by proper protocols, get those items and be back inside, panting, hoping no one saw us. At that time we had no money, limited food supply, and many mouths to feed. It was like we were living in an apocalyptic world. Baseless rumors had started to spread around the society stating we were seen partying and having gatherings a few days back. People would ring us up just to blame us as if we were the rotten ones. The most heartbreaking incident was when we were called by the local authority asking us to not come out on the balcony because according to them, somehow, we were exposing the virus in our area. Those 2 weeks became hell for our family. Finally, on the 14th day, all the members of our family members took a PCR test, and luckily, we were all tested negative. So in simple terms, we had recovered BUT society still didn’t accept us. Whenever we used to go to the shop, we were stared at and could hear whispers behind our back. People used to stay away from us and we were regarded (sort of) untouchables even after we had medical reports to prove them otherwise. Then a month later, even my maternal grandmother was infected with the virus. We could not go visit her as the hospital didn’t permit and she was under strict surveillance. She soon developed pneumonia as a complication of the COVID attack. Almost half of her lungs had been severely damaged and on 29th November 2020 she passed away. This pandemic left a great impact on us. We suffered great loss both emotionally and financially. From sneaking in groceries like smugglers to bidding goodbye to someone who loved us the most, it will always be an inerasable memory for us. Even as I write my experience, my words are not enough to emphasize the pain this pandemic has caused. But all I can say is we fought this as a FAMILY. One for All and All for One.
• 
  02/20/2021

  Peg Spangler Oral History, 2021/02/20

  I recorded a mini oral history with Peg about silver linings and positives during the pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-18

  Learning a passion

  During covid, like most people life was isolating for a reasonable amount of time. The people one did stay around managed to get on our nerves anyway. I am however luckier that most because we’re some 11 months in now and I have my health as does my family, and I have discovered a new passion. Since many restaurants were fully closed the only way to eat the food I was craving was to cook it. In this simple activity I found a passion that very quickly turned into something relevant to me as I found a job at a restaurant cooking, and getting paid for that passion.
• 2020-03-09

  My life in a pandemic

  The year 2020 feels like a never-ending nightmare. January and February of 2020, were just like any other ordinary month. I was getting my life together, planning my year out. I had gotten a new job as a patient care technician, I was going to Japan in the summer, and was hoping to be a resident assistant at one of the abroad programs in the summer as well. I remember being in the student union waiting for Josh Peck to arrive as a guest star at Duquesne. My friend asked me about my trip to Japan and if I was still going. Thinking back to it, I wish I weren’t so naïve. I told my friend how I was not worried and that it should all be fine. I was not expecting the impact it would have to how the world functioned. As Spring Break came along, I began training for my job as a PCT. I was ready to start work but that was when we started to get information about universities around us closing. I thought it would be any day now that Duquesne would also follow. A week after we got back from break is when Duquesne finally decided to close. Once I got home, it took a while for me to adjust to the new teaching style. While doing so however, I also took on some new interest and hobbies. First, my family and I worked on a renovating my room. We built a new bed frame, painted my room, and redid all my furniture. At the same time, I started to cook and bake every single day. In all the craziness of online school and renovations, I found comfort in the kitchen and working out in my basement. I would always find some new recipe to try out and because of my excitement, I would spend most of my time of the day in the kitchen. While doing so, I found time to workout so that I did not gain COVID weight. I was lucky enough that my classes for spring semester was comparably easier than my past semesters. This helped in being able to continue my hobbies and do online school. Starting back Fall semester was another challenge I faced. It was the start of my senior year and it felt depressing. It was supposed to be an exciting year and I was ready to get involved more around campus. However, with the new policies set, I do not get to see my friends often, or ever. Classes are more difficult to follow along because of the hybrid system and while I am supposed to be getting ready to be a nurse in a year, my experience in clinicals are being reduced. In all the darkness that COVID brought however, I am hoping with the new vaccine that we will start moving towards a normal life again. I cannot wait for the day I can be with people without the concern of COVID.
• 
  2021-01-24

  Almost a Year of Virtual Girl Scout Meetings

  When our Girl Scout troop transitioned online in the spring, we never foresaw the entire year being online. When my best friend/co-leader and I made the calendar in the summer, we originally made it through the end of 2020, thinking that by January we’d be back in person. I guess that shows how short sighted humans can be, a virus doesn’t run on a calendar, so it was silly to think things would be dramatically different without widespread access to a vaccine. So here we are in 2021, pushing through every other week. It has been really great to maintain the normalcy of meeting together, though. All the girls are either going to school on a hybrid (half the week in person, half at home) schedule or a full distance learning schedule, so it’s just nice to have the regular interaction with each other just like they did before quarantine. This also was a perfect opportunity to give the girls increased ownership of the troop. Now that they’re in fourth grade, we have made leadership roles, so the girls are responsible for different parts of the meeting. This takes the pressure off me for having to fill two hours on Zoom in a way that is fun and meaningful and doesn’t feel like school! I absolutely love seeing their creativity in making up games, activities, snacks, and issues/problems in our community they want to help fix. There also are some girls who used to be passive who have really loved this platform and have really stepped into being leaders. I am, however, running low on badges they want to earn that are easy to do over Zoom. The one shared here ended up pretty fun. To earn the “Simple Meals” badge, the girls worked in virtual groups to make different breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals. Then they basically did their own cooking show by walking the other girls through making whatever the dish was. Bonus - everyone was nice and full by the end! I miss my girls terribly, but we are so fortunate to be able to have the girls continue to meet, share, and support each other while we patiently wait for the cases to decrease.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Covid Baking Trial and Error

  One of the things that I have recently attempted during the end of the Covid 2020 year and into 2021 is to learn how to bake using healthier fats and alternatives. I love cookies and other baked goods, but I could certainly use less butter and unhealthy fats in my life. Instead, I have spent the past few months of the Covid plague year trying to learn how to substitute things like avocado and applesauce for butter. Sometimes this works really well, other times it comes out horribly. I am trying to use this crazy Covid year to become better in the kitchen with healthier and delicious cooking/baking, but it can certainly be a frustrating process. At least it is fun and a productive use of my time in a time when nothing is open.
• 
  2021-02-07

  Kitchen Organization during Covid

  During Covid, I started to cook a lot of different foods that I had never before. I was always cooking simple things with chicken and potatoes mostly, sometimes pasta and other easy dishes. During Covid, I started to experiment with new styles of cooking and cuisines. I quickly found that my small kitchen was filling up with items and ingredients which was causing chaos and disorganization. I bought a bunch of bins to get things organized. For all of the terrible things going on during the Covid year of 2020, I tried to take advantage of the time by upping my kitchen game as best as possible.
• 
  2019-04-05

  Pesach mutual aid, care packages for solitary seders!

  When we went into lockdown in Naarm (Melbourne), many Jewish people realised this meant doing their seders solo or over zoom. Restrictions on number of guests meant that a seder with the family wasn't possible. Whilst at most seders you would usually have multiple people who had divided the seder night responsibilities (someone on charoset, matzah ball soup, gefilte fish, kosher wine, boiled eggs and each item for the seder plate), this night was different from all other nights. Our seders suddenly felt bare with the looming responsibility to create an entire seder's worth of food, for one. For those of us who lived away from our families and the bagel belt, there were additional challenges. For the queer jews who left their south-eastern homes for the cramped share houses of the inner north, finding Kosher and seder specific ingredients was near impossible at our local Piedemontes. I called my closest Woolworths and asked if they had ingredients for passover, "You could try the international food aisle?" they suggested, I knew that wouldn't suffice. I was grieving the loss of my most important cultural holiday of the year and the foods that came with it, when I decided I would drive to Southside, and collect ingredients from there. Knowing it would be useless to cook for one (and that I still haven't learnt the skills to do so) I decided to buy enough that I could make up care packages for other Jewish people doing their seders alone. The buba of the northside, giving just enough of everything for a table of one. 3 matzah balls, a jar of broth, enough matzah to break, hide and dip in charoset, etc. Other Jewish people contributed ingredients or made gefilte fish to distribute too. I managed to distribute over 25 packages to people joining their seders via zoom. For me, it was such an important way for me to feel connected to community despite distance, and honour pesach at a challenging time.
• 
  2020-08-09

  First Potato Harvest

  I have been a home gardener for a few years now, and love to cook using the things from my garden. When Covid started to hit the US in late February/early March, the resulting panic resulted in widespread shortages in the grocery stores for many common items of American households. News reports consistently told us that food supply networks were in jeapordy. I had never grown potatoes before (though I have grown sweet potatoes), but I decided that for its nutritional value to space ratio, it would be worth growing potatoes this year. Thankfully, the media had seemingly overblown the shortage problem (at least in my area), but that didn't matter because I enjoyed growing potatoes and had a great harvest. My first dish I made with my homegrown potatoes (and homegrown carrots) was a delishous pot roast. I was able to include a glass of y homebrewed beer to complete the meal. Sitting down for this meal was certainly a bright spot during the pandemic and was the culmination of several months of labor and enjoyment.
• 
  2021-01-21

  Stomach Filled, Life Without Thrill

  With long school days and extracurriculars occupying my weekends, I spent the little time I had at home doing school work. I never truly felt I was at home enjoying time with myself or with my family because the rush of high school was not stopping anytime soon. Then, a virus wave put all our lives on pause. Some thought of quarantine as a jail cell, but I took it as a breather. Before, I was unable to see my family often or enjoy proper meals and during these past 10 months in quarantine, I have been able to make up for that lost time. I have been filled with delicious, home-cooked meals nearly 3 times a day made my mom, a passionate cook. It made me realize that providing us with whole-hearted meals was my parents' love language. Throughout quarantine, I have been living, eating, and spending time with my family in the comfort of my home. I often feel that I'm taking this precious time for granted because when things go back to normal, I won't be able to escape the rush of life. Even though my days seem static and monotonous right now, I think I will truly miss the this feeling of comfort in the future.
• 2021-01-17

  What are Some of My Pandemic Hacks?

  If I had to recommend some pandemic hacks for people 100 years in the future, I would say: -Stock up on sweatpants, hoodies, and fuzzy socks! Since you will more than likely be working from home, comfort is a must. -Set your Zoom video setting Touch Up Your Appearance to 100%. It will compensate for not wearing makeup on Zoom calls. -Stop watching the news. It will only stress you out. Your friends and family will definitely be updating you anyway on the latest stories. -Edit your social media to avoid the negative nellies, conspiracy theorists, and political debates. -Create a weekly dinner menu and schedule grocery deliveries once a week. So much better than going to the grocery store. -Go on regular walks to get out of the house and get some fresh air. -Read books with a cup of steaming hot tea next to you while bundling up in a soft blanket. -Forgive yourself for gaining quarantine weight! -Naps. Take a lot of naps!
• 
  2021-01-16

  Enjoying home life

  This is a brief entry describing some of my favorite personal things to come about from the pandemic. There were many difficulties faced, but still, experiences to enjoy and appreciate.
• 
  2021-01-12

  My favorite things

  This document contains several of my favorite things that have helped me get through the pandemic, such as video games, music, my banjo, cooking and my dog Dobbs! I submitted this from the ASU HST 580 internship course.
• 2020-12-25

  Christmas day in 2020

  My Christmas was very different this year because of this pandemic. Usually my family will do many other things on Christmas day like going to Chicago, ice skating, and also seeing some other family that weren't able to make it this year. Instead we had to change it up this year to make everything safe for our family. We mostly stayed inside of the house but when we did leave we went to the beach and went to go see cool Christmas lights. When we were in the house we were cooking, watching movies, and jumping on the trampoline. This year was pretty different for my family but we found different ways to have fun even if we weren't going any where.
• 2021-01-06

  Covid Christmas

  Usually, my family gathers and we have a big celebration at my aunt's house. In 2020, we had an awkward Zoom call! It was definitely not Christmas without my family, but I am still so grateful for my parents who I got to spend the holiday with. We opened gifts and cooked lots of yummy food together. Cooking is a big deal in my family. It's something I've grown up doing and have grown to love, so it was nice to be able to share that with my parents this Christmas. I'm hopeful that I can celebrate Christmas 2021 with my entire family!
• 
  2020-09-27

  How Canadian Food Buying and Cooking Habits Have Changed Due to Covid-19

  This article provides additional context to the Canadian baking experience during COVID-19 by examining food buying habits of families and how they shopped prior to the outbreak.
• 2020-11-26

  Less family

  Usually for thanksgiving my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandma come to our house. My grandma has lived by my house since I was born until about 4 years ago, when she moved back to Israel. She is an essential part of our thanksgiving, she helps out with the cooking a lot and is an important family member. This year, she was not able to come because COVID could not let her get a flight to our city. It was very sad because we would miss her and we had to do a lot more cooking, which was stressful. However, I know it is for good because we are keeping eachother safe.
• 2020-12-10

  Thanksgiving During COVID

  For Thanksgiving this year in 2020, my family stayed home and my mom made us Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. Restaurants had closed, preventing us from eating out on Thanksgiving like we’ve done every year previously as a tradition. For my mom’s first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, we ate turkey, stuffing, biscuits and gravy, and miscellaneous vegetables which all tasted great. It was a new experience for us and it didn’t feel the same as going out to a restaurant with outside family or occasionally family friends. The day of Thanksgiving was a normal day except for not having school and my parents being home instead of at work which made nice family time. Thanksgiving at home was different, but still plenty enjoyable and delicious.
• 
  2020-04-01

  "The Coronavirus Is Bringing Back a 1,000-Year-Old ‘Cheese’ in Japan" - Atlas Obscura

  Like other countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan is experiencing a rising interest in learning new cooking recipes, particularly local culinary traditions. In a short article for Atlas Obscura, Makiko Itoh looks at how the recent cooking craze has hit Japan through the lens of a particular dairy product, known as so. Recently, the Japanese dairy industry had a problem with being unable to sell its surplus milk supply overseas due to the transit disruptions created by the pandemic. In response, Japanese consumers were encouraged to purchase more milk to save the industry and to use them for local recipes. One recipe in particular, known as so, has gained increased interest from Japanese foodies. According to Itoh, so is a cheese-like dairy product that was first created during the Nara and Heian periods of Japanese history, when dairy farming was at its height. So was popular among aristocrats, and even the Japanese emperors of the time were avid consumers. However, according to Itoh, the rise of the Kamakura Shogunate and the samurai warrior class caused the popularity of so and other dairy products to decline markedly. So making was recently revived by foodies and history buffs, who have helped popularize the recipe again for new consumers and amateur cooks.
• 
  2020-11-12

  HISTW 300 Interview of Stephen Von Der Ahe

  This was an assignment that I did as part of a course on the global history of food. As a class, we interviewed each other to see how one's experience with covid was going. In particular, we asked questions about how one's experience with food has changed since the covid lockdown began.
• 
  2020-09-08

  Jewish Melbourne: Caulfield Bubs online cooking

  In the lead-up to Rosh Hashanah, Caulfield Bubs (a children's program run by Caulfield Shule) organised an online cooking class: "Don’t forget to book in for this free cooking zoom session with the incredible Mia Stub!!!! Perfect way to get kids involved and these cupcakes will make the perfect rosh hashana gifts for family and friends!!!"
• 
  2020-08-17

  Jewish Melbourne: online cooking

  A photo taken by Peter Haskin and shared on the Australian Jewish News's facebook page: "As part of The AJN’s “Our resilient community during COVID” series, we feature Melbourne’s Racheli Naparstek who shares with us a dish she just made in her private online cooking lesson with Nitza Marom, Access Inc.'s hospitality program manager. Cooking classes are one of a suite of online programs developed by Access in response to COVID-19. For many members of our community who have disabilities, the challenges of the current situation are magnified. Access Online was developed to support participants in keeping their independence, employment and personal development goals front of mind despite the pandemic, and despite the reintroduced restrictions."
• 
  2020-10

  Using downtime to cook

  I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but between working and going to school full time, I often find it very hard to find the time to try new recipes. When I was furloughed from my job for a few weeks, I used some of that downtime to try exciting new recipes. This picture is of my sister-in-law Elise’s pasta and sausage dish that she makes. Since it is my favorite meal, I made it myself a few weeks ago and it was fantastic!
• 
  2020-10

  Cooking in the Fire Pit

  Avoiding restaurants in an attempt to quarantine and social distance has led me to try new things. One of those new things is cooking over coals in my fire pit. I cut up a pineapple and seasoned it with Tajin, wrapped it up in foil and placed it in the hot coals for about 15 minutes. Took the pineapple out, let it cool for about 5. Delicious! Absolutely delicious!
• 2020-10-27

  The smells, sounds, and flavors of my house.

  On march 19 california issued the stay at home order. That was 222 days ago exactly and over that time me and my family have spent the majority of it in our homes. We have spent this time doing many things, I have spent quite a good amount on my guitar, which I have just recently been able to pluck out the right notes that don't sound too bad, my brother and I have filled our house with the constant aroma of tea through making it so much, and my dad has made some of the best food I've ever tasted in those last 200+ days, just recently he made a cauliflower soup that took 6 hours of work, However everyone including him agreed it was well worth the effort! Both my mom and dad have been fortunate enough to spent the quarantine working and during the days you can be sure to hear either of them on an important call.
• 
  2020-04-04

  Homemade Potstickers

  I woke up Saturday morning feeling drained after 12 hours of sleep. As a teenager in the middle of a pandemic, I had nothing to do except to fix a messed up sleep schedule. I got out of bed at 1 PM and decided I would not do anything that day. I was ready to be back in bed and binge Netflix. Suddenly my sister along with my mom and dad and cat burst in my room and told my tired self that we were going to make potstickers. UGH. I told them to go away and that I was busy. An hour later I could smell something coming from the kitchen, something delicious. I could hear my stomach rumbling and I was ready for some food in my belly. I went to the kitchen and saw that the first batch of potstickers were done cooking, they looked perfect! The dough after being pan-fried became crispy and golden brown, and the inside was warm and flavorful. I wanted to help make more (so I could eat more) and turns out, folding potstickers is not as easy as it looks. In comparison with the rest of my family’s, my folded potstickers looked like a total disaster. At least it still tasted good! I didn’t watch Netflix for the rest of the day and I’m glad I didn’t. The time I spent with my family that day will forever be part of me and I hope my family in the future will make even more memories together.