Day 386, April 7, 2021
Let Him Eat Bread
Tonight's soundtrack: The Spirit Music feat. Me'shell Ndegeocello, 2014
At this late stage of the pandemic there are still things that can make a person a little irrational and cause unintentional lopsided purchases. Early on, there was the toilet paper, of which I still have a size-large bundle of off-brand rolls. I also have a box of instant miso soup because... well, maybe there will be a miso soup shortage. Or maybe I thought it would make a good sick meal. I also still have several packages of dried beans which never materialized into any soup, or beans and rice meals. There's also a half package of soy beans from my failed attempt to be a soy sprout farmer.
Most weeks, our only foray out of the house, except to walk Franklin, is the Sunday trip to the supermarket. We go around dinner time when the traffic in the store is lower, and when we get to the milk section, we call in an order for takeout from one of the Chinese, Korean/Japanese, or Mexican restaurants in town. This Sunday was Easter and I didn't consider that the grocery stores might be closed. We pulled up to Stop and Shop and the parking lot was nearly empty and the lights were dimmed. We crossed back over Rt. 9 and stopped at Big Y, and that was closed too. But we then discovered that Whole Foods was open.
Even in pre-pandemic times Whole Foods was an extravagant treat, mainly because of the tendency for one to overindulge in too many special treats, especially when there were samples tempting you with nibbles of wonderful cheeses or a toothpick speared garlic stuffed olive.
On this trip, I was overwhelmed by the bread options. I picked up a French loaf to go with the nice hard cheese I selected from the cheesemonger (untasted). And then in the bakery section I discovered they had loaves of my favorite cranberry and pecan bread, so I needed to pick up a loaf of that. This week was also a bagel week (every other week we pick up a dozen from the Rise bakery in Greenfield).
Needless to say, there is a lot of bread in the house all of a sudden. I have been doing my best to eat slices of French bread and cheese with every lunch, and for breakfast I have an extra serving of the cranberry pecan bread. After weeks, months of not indulging in bread, there is a sudden abundance that leaves one a little queasy, like being awash in off-brand toilet paper.
One of the things that has been challenging for me in the pandemic is getting sick of things. I'm a little sick of my favorite peanut butter. I'm a bit over my pandemic juice, cranberry-apple. I'm weary of my pandemic juice substitute, V-8. I don't think I can eat any more pita bread. Every tortilla chip seems too salty, or too crumbly, or too hard. Salsa is not fresh enough, too sour, too bland, too soft. You get the idea.
I am on the search for a new quick lunch meal. Today I had an Amazing Cheese Burger Burrito. I have to admit, the kale was nicely evident, but the rest was meh. I've had too much ramen, too many cans of soup, too many cans of beans, too many personal size chicken pot pies.
Still, it is nice to have bread in the house again, and I'm already looking forward to my breakfast toast tomorrow morning as I finish off the heel of the little loaf.
Take care and be well,
Leo
From Our Friends:
From the CCRC:
Veronica Minaya
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