A different perspective
Lynley Jones
PANDEMIC
By Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
Today a friend who works at a hotel lost her job due to the outbreak. Although it pains me to say it out loud, I know this will be the first of many. Who needs travel, fine dining, fancy clothes, jewelry right now? What we need is good health. Wise leadership. Steadfast friendship. Love. These things make all the difference. But they don’t pay the bills.
Sending all the steadfast friendship and love I can muster to everyone who doesn’t have enough right now. From a distance, but I’m reaching out with my heart. For better or for worse. As long as we all shall live.
I bought these pretty golden beets as part of my stock-up shopping. I used 3 of them, plus all the greens, to make Spicy Beet Curry for dinner. I doubled the recipe and had plenty for the 4 of us, who were all very hungry. Had a little left over - maybe enough for an egg toast on another morning.
Dinner on Day 2: Spicy Beet Curry
I got these pretty golden beets on my stockup shopping trip to Whole Foods on Sunday. I doubled the recipe and used 3 of the beets, with the greens from all 6 beets. I had 3 extra whole beets, plus more diced beets and beet stems than I could use in the recipe. Not sure what I’ll do with those - maybe make it again, without the greens (or sub different greens…).
There was no naan bread left on the empty store shelves the night I shopped, but I did find a couple packages of pita bread so we used that. We also had some leftover chicken thighs my husband roasted (following this recipe) a couple nights earlier so we had those too. All super tasty.
We had a little of the finished beet curry left over, so I stuck it in a container in the fridge to use another time. Maybe as the veggie layer for egg toasts some morning soon…
(PS - If you’re new around here, welcome! Adventure Kitchen is a local, small-batch maker of original spice blends and prepared foods, and I’m the founder and chief creator. Separately, I send a weekly email with recipes and cooking suggestions. If you’d like to follow along with that, you can sign up on this page. And if you’d like to support my small business, you can buy our spices online. We ship everywhere of course, and we deliver locally for free!)
A spicy Indian-style curry that uses the whole beet plant from root to leaf. Caramelized beet cubes sauteed along with their stems and leaves in a mixture of onions, garlic, ginger, chiles and Indian spices, and served over spiced yogurt.