COVID-19 and my love//hate relationship with cooking

by Susan Debronsky, ASO Principal Cellist

I love to cook.  I have always loved to cook.  From the time I was little, standing on a chair, helping my mom mix the meatloaf with my hands, to baking Hamantaschen to bring to the staff at my Temple, to making ends meet as a new college graduate with a degree in music performance, by cooking and baking in a local gourmet food store. 

Then I had kids.  Four of them.  First one, then another, and then twins.  Life was a whirlwind and cooking was a necessity.  Occasionally I baked something special for a holiday or birthday. 

The kids grew up.  Two declared themselves vegetarian and one became a vegan.  I started learning what those terms really meant, and how to create meals and desserts embracing the new cooking protocols.  I learned to really like a lot of vegetarian dishes and enjoyed hunting for new recipes to try out.  My husband was a good sport about trying all of the new meals. 

My eldest son interested me in gardening a few summers ago.  I have had the same garden plot at the Elm Avenue Park community garden (run by Capital Roots) for three years now.  The first year, Max planted a bed of onions and gave me some starts of other plants.  I watered, I weeded, I watched things grow.  I enjoyed the solitude of being at the garden in the early morning or just before the sun went down.  I harvested, I learned to use what I grew.  The next year, one of my twins gave me zinnia seeds.  I planted them, watched them beautify my garden, and observed the bees enjoying the flowers and pollinating my vegetable plants.  At the end of the season, my son and I planted a bed of garlic, which we harvested this summer.  This past winter, I pored over seed catalogues.  I planted starts, transforming my family room into a plant nursery.  My husband and bonus-son helped me prepare the garden beds in April.  My son warned me not to plant too many viney things, but of course, I didn’t listen.  My delicata squash vines took over much of the garden!   I am hooked on gardening and can’t wait for this winter’s seed catalogs to come out!

When the COVID-19 stay-at-home began, in the middle of March, I started working my two jobs from home.  It was stressful.  I started baking.  I baked cookies and cakes, always having a very willing taster in my husband, and whoever else was in the house (well, it was COVID-time, so there were not a lot of people coming and going!).  I enjoyed experimenting with new recipes and exotic combinations of things to put in my cookies.  I was a new Instagram follower, and people were posting food pictures.  Lots of bread.  I tried no-knead bread, but you needed (no pun intended!) yeast – which was in very short supply.  Then, on Mother’s Day, my son gave me a jar of sourdough starter.  I had always been terrified of sourdough!  He sent me a link to a good YouTube video of a baker he liked, and then created a series of short, step-by-step videos on how to bake bread with the sourdough starter.  I mastered feeding the starter.  I cooked with the videos at my side.  I found new recipes and techniques.  I started getting comfortable with sourdough and baked breads, cinnamon rolls, chocolate cake, granola – all using sourdough starter.  I was learning new skills like nobody’s business! 

In June, Hubz and I went on a COVID-19 road trip.  The Glimmerglass Festival, my normal summer work of 10 weeks, wasn’t happening.  We drove with bleach spray, paper towels, masks and hand sanitizer, through Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and then back home.   The highlights of our trip?  Well, there were MANY.  But one was definitely ice cream.  We sampled different flavors at several Graeter’s Ice Cream stores and Mitchell’s – both in Ohio.

So, when September rolled around, and I saw something on Instagram for a Zoom cooking class on ice cream making by Richard Graeter, I couldn’t resist.  I signed up, but I needed an ice cream maker.  After doing a little research, I bought one.  Zoom day, I was ready.  I had shopped, prepped my ingredients, frozen my ice cream bowl, and was good to go. Hubz “attended” the class with me, and we made vanilla ice cream together.  I only used up half the mixture that day, and my mind was already churning (OMG – again, no pun intended!) with what else I could make.  I turned the rest of the vanilla into Maple Walnut, with maple syrup from a local farm in Cobleskill - Maple Hill Farms.  A couple of days later, I had some strawberries that needed to be used up, so I found a recipe for strawberry ice cream.  Yum.  Then the Jewish Holidays were approaching.  I have always hated Honey Cake – it’s too dry for me.  So I searched on the internet and found a new recipe to try.  I made it, and it was delicious.  A keeper.  But I also made CINNAMON ICE CREAM to go with it.  Yes, that was a really good combination. 

So, back to the Jewish Holidays.  That was last week, which became my turning point of the love / hate relationship with food.  Tuesday, my son and his girlfriend came over for dinner, a rare treat.  I went into Mommy mode (he is 27 years old) and made meatloaf (see how I went full circle here?), and I don’t even remember what else (thought I believe blistered shishito peppers from my garden were on the menu).  I never make meatloaf anymore, and it was delicious.  I made home-made brownies in an 8-way triangular scone pan, and served them with the strawberry, maple and vanilla ice cream.  Friday was the start of the Jewish New Year, and the start of my twins’ birthday weekend.  Rosh Hashanah dinner was a multi-day cooking affair.  We had the requisite apples and honey for a sweet new year, homemade challah, Brisket with Orange-Burgundy sauce, Roasted Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Broccoli/Cauliflower/Carrots, Delicata Squash/Sage biscuits and the aforementioned Honey Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream for dessert. 

But – the week wasn’t over!  Saturday came, and I started feeling weary, yet I had to keep going.  Sunday was BIRTHDAY BRUNCH.  Before that, however, our family from Seattle was visiting, and we needed to feed them!  Luckily, they enjoyed brisket, mashed potatoes (sound familiar?) and the stalk of Brussel Sprouts that we picked up at a farm stand. 

Finally, Sunday arrived.  I think I can, I think I can…

I had a date with one of the twins at 8 AM to bake Raspberry Lemon Scones.  My neighbors had gone on their own road trip this summer and left us their garden to glean.  I collected enough raspberries to freeze for this special occasion; the request for said scones had already been placed weeks ahead of time.  The scones in the oven, I brought out the leftover dough for the delicata / sage biscuits and started rolling it out.  Once the scones came out of the oven, the biscuits went in.  I created a yummy stir fry to go along with the scrambled eggs that Hubz was going to make:  2 cakes of tempeh, cubed, a couple of portobello mushrooms, a couple of poblano peppers from my neighbors garden, an onion (from my garden), some salt, pepper, turmeric.  Oh, and one serrano pepper.  Finally, the food was laid out, buffet style.  Bonus-son had the fire pit going out in the backyard, the camp chairs spread out around it.  Everyone came in, heaped food on their plates, filled up their coffee cups, and headed out to sit by the fire.  It was great.  So relaxing.  So “Aaahhh.” 

We cleaned up; the kids left.  Then, a little while later, it was, “what’s for dinner tonight?”  “NOOOOOO,” my insides screamed.  I don’t want to….

We had pizza.  From a pizzeria.  It was so good.  I didn’t have to cook it.  And a switch flipped.  I don’t want to cook or bake this week.  No bread.  No cakes or cookies.  No creative dinners.  I feel spent.  I’ll come back, but I need a break. 

However, I have another Zoom cooking class this week, with Alice Waters and her daughter, Fanny Singer.  How exciting!  We’ll be making Cannellini Beans and Broccoli Rabe with Garlic and Hot Peppers.  I’ve already started soaking the beans….