Well, I’m back with more cookies. We are living through a global pandemic – can you blame me?
I don’t think many people read blogs anymore. Does anyone still read blogs anymore? (I hear it’s too difficult to read wordswordswords before getting FREE recipes! Thoughts on this? Follow up question: is it really that hard to scroll?!) No matter. We need cookies and I need to get some things down.
I want to know how everyone is doing. How are you getting along? We are on day 22 of shelter-in-place at my house, and although we are all safe and healthy, we are grieving for the world, for our community, for healthcare workers, and we are grieving the loss of our old life. No school. No playgrounds. No lake walks, playdates, music class, mid-morning walks to the bakery. No Sunday dinner at Nana’s house. Absolutely no Spring Break trip to see my parents in Philadelphia. I’m actually not sure when I’ll get to see my east coast family again, a thought that absolutely terrifies me. A few months? A year from now? More? For now, all we get is a lot of Facetime-ing, brisk walks around the neighborhood (but don’t touch anything! Cross the street if you see anyone approaching!) and a once-a-week venture to the grocery store, alone – a quick, all-business affair quickly followed by a frenzy of highly regimented hand-washing and car/doorknob/grocery package disinfection. All while desperately trying to both keep up with and avoid the news.
And as weird and scary as it all is, I know that we are lucky. So lucky. We are young(ish), and so far healthy. We have a comfortable home, with a basement and yard where the boys can run and play. We have enough food to eat. We are not essential workers, so we’re shielded from the front lines of this virus. All we have to do is stay home. Ask neighbors if they need anything. Try and support local businesses and friends. It’s fine. We’re fine. The waves of fear and guilt and general unease come regularly, a tide coming and going each day. We’re fine. We watch more cartoons, draw more pictures, tidy up the same areas over and over and over again. We take comfort in baking – a batch of cookies, homemade granola, some bread. We’re clearly not the only ones – the baking aisle at the grocery store is gutted clean – so each kitchen project is chosen thoughtfully, with an eye towards our rations, to avoid the bottom of the flour bin, or package of yeast, cocoa powder, sugar, eggs.
The following recipe – from Shauna Sever’s lovely book, Midwest Made – doesn’t even touch the flour bin, so if you’re running low you needn’t worry! Soft, chewy, sugar-glittered, peanut-buttery cookies are in sight.
It’s bad, yes, but it’s not all bad. (See: cookies). Chin up, everyone.
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