The View from the Hermitage, Day 404

My thoughts go out to my friends in Perth, Western Australia. Covid-19 has once again reared its ugly head and a serious three-day lockdown has been ordered. Yes, it will help the battle against the coronavirus. But why did it have to happen this weekend? Sunday is Anzac Day. The first time The Professor and I visited Australia, we were in Perth on Anzac Day. I will never forget the reverence of the sunrise service. And the silence, the deafening silence. You can read about it in the blog post I wrote afterwards. I am sure the services this year would not have been nearly as large as the one we attended, but the lockdown may well prohibit even two families from marking the day together. 

Japan continues to struggle against its latest covid surge. Officials insist that the Olympics will be held despite nearly three-fourths of Japanese wanting them cancelled or postponed. It's worth noting that the Tokyo Motor Show scheduled for several weeks after the Olympics has been cancelled for the first time in history (the show is held every other year, which is why it was not cancelled in 2020), citing covid concerns. An event after the Games is cancelled due to covid, but the Games themselves are not. I don't buy that an auto show would be more crowded than the spectator-less Games that will still have coaches, officials, judges, not to mention athletes.

The pandemic is accelerating in South America, including Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. This could be due to the Brazil variant, otherwise known as P1. P1 is more contagious but also increases levels of re-infection, which can reduce the efficacy of vaccines. India remains the world's hot spot, reporting 332,348 new cases on Friday. The national total now exceeds 16 million cases. Hospitals are running out of oxygen. Trucks transporting it to hospitals now go with police escorts. 

The first covid cases have been discovered at Everest base camp. A Norwegian climber thought to be suffering from pulmonary edema was evacuated by helicopter to Kathmandu where he tested positive for covid. A sherpa in the Norwegian's party also tested positive. The climber tested negative before leaving Norway and again while in arrival quarantine in Kathmandu. He said he headed quickly to base camp from quarantine to reduce the chances of catching covid. Nepal has issued 377 Everest permits so far and expects to exceed the 381 issued in 2019, meaning there could be lots more cases. Evacuation from base camp is one thing. Higher might be open to question. It would be impossible to evacuate people by helicopter above 8,000 meters. 

Scientists in the UK have found evidence of human-to-cat covid transmission. Fortunately, no evidence of cat-to-human transmission has been found; however, animals could act as "viral reservoirs" allowing continued transmission even with vaccinations. 

Stepping totally away from coronavirus, I executed my April Instant Pot and pie resolutions. I mayde Thai Cashew Chicken in the Instant Pot Wednesday. It was very tasty; I'll be eating the leftovers after I publish this. I am not really sure, though, how much faster using the Instant Pot was compared to doing it on the stove. This morning I made miniature apple pies. 

Next time I make these, I will do a better job of rolling the crust out as a rectangle and cut better squares that would be neater to seal. I will also add cinnamon and possibly nutmeg to the apple filling. The recipe only included ginger, and cinnamon was noticeably lacking. I have two pies scheduled for May 1--a roasted corn and pepper pie and a coconut cream one as we celebrate the belated birthdays of The Professor and Son #2.

 

The View from the Hermitage, Day 362

So I don't forget to mention it, the blog's going black tomorrow. The Professor and I are going to Son #2's cabin so that he and Son #1 can run 50 miles around the property. They were registered to do a 50-miler tomorrow, the one that was their last ultra, pre-pandemic. They were worried about the safety factors and are doing it virtually. When they're done, they'll submit their times, and their shirts and other swag will be mailed to them. The Professor is in dire need of a day away from the internet and cell service. If he doesn't relax a bit, I may have to kill him. Not really, but he is in desperate need of some down time. We'll be leaving at 4:30 am for the 90-minute drive. The Sons will start running around 6:30 and hope to finish in 12 hours about the time it will be getting dark. By the time we get back here, bed will be calling all too loudly.

Note to others: Never click the box at the top of the file list and delete them all in one fell swoop. Had I done that to my gmail Promotions files this morning, I would have missed the email that my name came up in the vaccination list, and here's what I needed to do to register. Had I been awake last night when the message was set, I possibly could have gotten a shot today. Alas, it will be next Thursday morning for the Pfizer vaccine which means a second shot three weeks later followed by waiting two weeks for everything to have started working. I am not touching my list of appointments to make until those two weeks have passed. Anyway, In about six weeks, I'll be able to rejoin the world should I want to.

The March pie is in progress. The peanut butter filling is chilling in the refrigerator, awaiting the chocolate ganache. (That's a pretty cool word, if you ask me.)

We'll be taking it with us tomorrow, since food like this will be called for after a 50-mile run. We're only halfway through March, so I may even get energetic and make another of some sort. 

POTUS gave a little talk last night. He wants every state to have covid vaccines available to all as of May 1. I have no idea if that is doable. I think the registration and scheduling system they're using here might get overloaded, though there is only one more priority group to do here. If they get that group don by sometime in April, they should be doing the general population by May. The key then will be getting enough doses at the right times. 

Of course, the supply issues here pale in comparison to those in poorer countries. Developed countries have relatively easy access to vaccines, while developing ones may be left on their own. The UN Secretary-General says that there are many examples of vaccine nationalism and vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries. He then noted something we developed countries should remember: "The global vaccination campaign represents the greatest moral test of our times." I really hope we get  a passing grade better than a C. 

POTUS also said he hoped we might start to return to normalcy by July 4. By that he meant that small groups of friends or family might be able to celebrate together outdoors. Fireworks, anyone? I think July 4 may be too soon. Enough people have to have been vaccinated so there is not a post-Memorial Day surge or a post-graduation one. The local university has already cancelled graduation as it usually is. If they do a semi-in-person one, it will be for the graduates only, no family or friends. There will atill be parties, though.  

The new wave of cases continues in Europe. Italy is expected to announce closure of schools, restaurants, and shops. They recorded 26,000 new cases yesterday along with 373 deaths. They are in a clear third wave, one higher than the first in spring 2020 but lower than the second at the end of 2020. Will there be enough people vaccinated here to avert another surge? Son #1 and I were discussing vaccine hesitancy this morning. No one I know has expressed any vaccine hesitancy to me, but then my contact with people has been somewhat limits these last 362 days. I worry that there will be enough people declining vaccinations that herd immunity will be just out of reach. 

Of course, I also read that when asked about when the pandemic would end, public health experts say never. The coronavirus will always be part of our environment. If it's another yearly shot, such as the flu shot, I can live with that.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 329

Day 329 ... Week 47 ... Year 1? While I fully expect not to have been vaccinated once let alone twice by the one-year mark for this blog, I hope like hell I'm not still going strong this far into a second year. I do know that I won't be jumping right back out into the world even after a second dose of vaccine. I cannot, for example, envision eating out in a restaurant. I can envision going back to working as an officer of election if enough time has passed after the second shot that I feel it's had its full effect. 

Mother Nature, however, may have other ideas. South Africa has halted the rollout of the AstraZeneca covid vaccine because it has shown minimal efficacy against what's here being called the South Africa variant. Fortunately, the vaccines in use here in the US appear to work against what is called the British variant--the more contagious possibly more deadly variant--because the prevalence of that variant appears to be doubling every week and a half. 

I have been told that since The Professor and I have registered with the State Health Department as well as the regional health district folks, we'll get an email telling us when it's our turn to get vaccinated and how to make an appointment. This obviously varies from state to state and, possibly, locality to locality. I read this morning how some other countries are notifying people that it's their turn for the vaccine. Britain is apparently using a letter or phone call, while Israel is relying on text messaging. Notification in Germany varies from state to state, while India is using neighborhood lists. 

As schools locally move to increase in-person K-12 instruction, there may be a new controversy brewing. Some districts appear to be hiring "classroom monitors," to, what else, monitor classrooms in which students will sit at desks for the same virtual instruction they would get at home. They would not be going to school to be in a classroom with a teacher present and teaching. They would just be following on a screen in a classroom rather than on a screen at home.

The Super Bowl, the climax of the season, is this evening. Noteworthy is that the game was scheduled for February 7, 2021, before the pandemic happened. The National Football League, unlike the other professional sports leagues, had no games canceled due to covid. Some were delayed, but all were played. Perhaps more noteworthy is that the season did not happen in a bubble. There may have been a couple of games that were not played in the stadium they had been scheduled for due to local regulations, but only a couple. What the NFL did that other sports leagues did not do or did not do as well was to stress the public health side of the pandemic: distancing, testing, contact tracing, isolation. and so forth. League officials expected there to be cases of covid; the goal was to minimize the spread of those cases. 

The surprise to me was that there was never a case of the virus being transmitted across the line of scrimmage despite large, sweaty, huffing and puffing men crouching nose to nose. There was no transmission even in cases in which players tested positive for covid after having played in a game. The league used genetic sequencing to verify that such a player did not transmit whatever viral strain he had to someone else on the field at the same time. 

Moving on to the Capitol insurrection, researchers at the University of Chicago have been analyzing the backgrounds of the people arrested so far. The average age of arrestees is 40. Almost 90 percent have no known links to militant groups. Forty percent own their own business or work in white-collar jobs. They have one common denominator. They all support Xpot. He is the reason they were where they were on January 6. Having watched video of Xpot's remarks to the crowd that day, I view those remarks as incendiary when delivered to one's supporters. Will enough Republican Senators agree with me? Not bloody likely.

We had snow again today. I left my phone at home when we walked The Family Dog, but I took a shot of the dogwood tree out back through the dining room window.

When we reached the other cul-de-sac, the flakes were large and fluffy. Standing still, looking straight up at them as they fell was magical. I had not realized how much I missed a good snowfall. Now, eight or so hours later, most of the snow has melted. It was wonderful while it lasted, but it didn't last long enough.

I found a recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Pie in the book Son #2 gave me for Christmas, Pie Academy. It seemed like something that might go with the Instant Pot chili I'll be trying to make after I post this. The Professor's favorite cookies are oatmeal raisin, and the description of his pie was that the top was like a huge cookie. The Flaky Cream Cheese Pie Dough used for the crust was a bitch to make since I don't have a food processor. I made two batches, one using my stand mixer and the other using an immersion blender. I ended up using the immersion  blender dough. I don't know how it tastes yet, but I do know I'd never enter a pie using it in a county fair because getting it to look as good as it doesn't in the picture below was not easy.

Here's hoping I don't struggle as much with the Instant Pot chili as I did with the Flake Cream Cheese Pie Dough crust. And here's hoping both the chili and the pie are tasty.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 254

Let the official transition begin! Even as The Lame Duck continues to say that the results of the election will not stand, he is at least permitting formal transition to start to take place. I wonder if it was the sheer number of Republican officials saying he should step back or some particular Republican who has The Lame Duck's ear. It doesn't matter. Uncle Joe's transition is up and running; the official website is buildbackbetter.gov. No subtlety there at all, not one little bit. 

Word is that the Secret Service is looking for agents who don't mind moving to Florida. The trick is that with the sunshine and beaches will come protection for The Lame Duck and First Duckess (the best I could do without stopping typing). Renovations are supposedly in progress on living quarters for the Ducks at Mar-a-Lago. Back when The Lame Duck was not lame and transferred his residency from New York to Florida, I read an article that stated the agreement with local government to create Mar-a-Lago out of whoever's mansion it was before that included as one of the terms that no one would use it as a residence. I wonder if someone found a loophole or work-around or if The Lame Duck is doing as he usually does, looking out for number one and not giving a rip about law or decency. I did hear yesterday that to maintain residency in Florida, one must live there at least six months of the year. 

New York City is likely cheering silently or not that The Lame Duck appears not to be moving back to The Lame Duck Tower for good. Evidently the security required for it to be used as a principal residence would really louse up some of the streets around it. The Sons never argued for different or bigger bedrooms, plus they never had to share one, but they probably would have been jealous of Barron's having not a bedroom but a floor of the tower to call his. A floor! I cannot wrap my head around a tween then teen essentially having his own apartment. 

Typing that last statement reminded me of recent reading about Will and Jada Pinkettt Smith's kids and how they were raised. The parents did some real loose oversight, tending to let the kids do whatever and then learn from the consequences. Son Jaden told them when he was 15 that he was going to move out, and they let him. I assume that he had his own money in the bank from acting; I can't imagine they would fund that sort of choice. So maybe Barron isn't the only teenager who essentially has his own residence. 

On the coronavirus front, a third vaccine candidate has shown great promise just as I read that the speed with which the Stage 1-3 trials has been done means that it will not be clear right away whether the vaccine is blocking the actual infection or merely preventing the onset of the disease. Under the latter, vaccinated people could still contract the virus and pass it on to others but would not develop any aspect of the disease. Sounds kinda like a vaccine to make you have asymptomatic covid-19. And it's not clear any of this will matter if, as one poll showed, 40 percent of people refuse to be vaccinated. If you don't believe the disease exists, why worry about preventing it?

And Dolly Parton helped kick-start vaccine research at Vanderbilt University by making a million dollar donation on April 1, before it was clear just how bad things might get. Recovering in the Vanderbilt University Hospital from a car accident, she struck up a friendship with a doctor from Lebanon who immigrated to the US at the age of seven. As the virus was beginning to take up speed, she asked him if a donation would help. It would, and did, helping to get some of the foundational research done. Not bad, Dolly, not bad at all.

Pi Day may be March 14, but today was a pie day of sorts here. When Son #1 was looking for a realtor to help him look for a house, he asked around for suggestions. Several people recommended a specific realtor noting that he gave clients past and present pies right before Thanksgiving. The choice is between apple, pecan, or pumpkin; they're made by an excellent local bakery. Son #1 does not eat pie unless he is running or has just run an ultra-marathon, so we get the pie each year. The Professor loves apple, so apple pie it is. Son #1 brought it with him this morning, and The Professor and I had apple pie for breakfast. Interestingly, Son #2 says that the realtor they used in purchasing their land and cabin also gives an annual pie. Might be worth checking the next time you need to hire a real estate agent. 

We spoke with Son #2 and Daughter-in-law Equivalent last night and set everything up for Thursday. In the past, they come down and we're all in the kitchen chatting as we cook. Not gonna happen this year. They'll bring side dishes already cooked and let the dinner rolls rise in the car on the drive here. I'll do the bird and it's vegan cousin plus mashed potatoes and dressing. Tomorrow I'll make a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake with berry sauce with which we shall mark birthdays not celebrated in person this past year. Dinner will either be outside or with The Professor, Son #1, and I in the dining room with our two guests at a table in the living room. We'll set up fans and open windows so that the flow of air is from us to them then out the window rather than the reverse. Not as safe as a Zoom dinner, but as safe as we can make it.

Another Nutrition Challenge Recipe

I already posted a recipe for whole-wheat pie crust. If I make another pie (if? bah! when!), I will use white whole wheat flour rather than "plain" whole wheat flour. The crust then would not look quite as strange as this one does.

As for the filling, this is a modification of the Land O' Lakes butter company's Blue Ribbon Apple Pie. The husband (who is not doing the Nutrition Challenge) gave it rave reviews and said he actually preferred this non-refined-sugar version because the taste of the apples was not overwhelmed by the sweetness. There are obviously a number of ways this could be tweaked; feel free to experiment. Here's the pie filling recipe:

1/2 cup honey (this replaces the 1/2 cup granulated sugar)
1/4 cup coconut sugar (this replaces the 1/4 cup brown sugar)
1/4 cup white whole wheat flower (this replaces the 1/4 cup all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 cups tart cooking apples, peeled, sliced 1/4-inch (I used half Granny Smith and half golden delicious)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine all filling ingredients; toss lightly to coat. Spoon apple mixture into prepared crust. Add a top crust over the filling. Trim, seal, or flute edge. Cut 5 or 6 large slits in crust. Cover edge of crust with 2-inch strip of aluminum foil or a pie shield. Bake 35 minutes. Remove aluminum foil or pie shield. Continue baking 10 to 20 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust. Cool pie 30 minutes; serve warm. Store refrigerated.

And it's also darn good served cool or cold.

Is it Pronounced "pica-key" or "pie-cakey"?

Younger son has, for the last several years requested a pie baked inside of a cake for his birthday. He asked for it again this year, but I decided to mix things up and see if I could bake a cake inside a pie. Indeed, I could, and younger son thought it actually turned out better than the various capiekes (pronounced cah-pikes) have. The photos below are from the pilot piecakee that I did two weeks before the real one, which did not look too much different from the one shown here.

That's just a pie, you might be thinking, but not if you look at its inside. 

If you want to make one of these, it does help to have a (very) deep dish pie pan. Step one is, obviously, making a pastry crust and placing it in that (very) deep dish pie pan. I could show you a photo of that, but (1) you probably already know what that would look like and (2) I forgot to take any photos until I got to the step of adding the upper pie filling.

That's a lower pie crust topped with cherry pie filling, chocolate cake batter, and a second layer of cherry pie filling. Next is adding the top crust. I made this easy on myself and used a cake mix and canned pie filling. For the pilot, I only used one can of cherry filling, which meant that I didn't have enough for the whole area. I remedied that in the final, birthday version.

Note that the top of the unbaked crust seems a bit lower than the top crust in the above photo showing it post-baking. Cake batter always rises--the finished cake is higher in the pan than the batter alone was--and that's what happens here as well. In terms of temperature and time, I baked it much as I would a pie. The first 15 minutes were done at 425 F; the last 30 to 40 minutes was done at 350 F. If you're still thinking that it might not work, here's a close-up of a slice.

Nice browned, flaky pie crust, cherry filling, and normal looking chocolate cake. Now if I could only find a way to work the icing in.