802nd Friday Blog Roundup

I’ve entered the phase of sheltering at home where you try to recreate all of your favourite restaurant recipes. (Though we followed Da Mario’s recipes months ago when he posted them on YouTube.)

This week, we re-created Bueno y Sano in my kitchen. I even made the charred red peppers they used to have on the menu back in the late 1990s. And thinned the sour cream and put it in a squeeze bottle so it could be drizzled across the burrito. It would have been a more authentic experience if I had pretended that I didn’t notice all the people in the room and read People magazine while I ate. (That was my Thursday night routine in grad school. Bueno for dinner. People magazine on the table. Pretend I didn’t notice students trying to catch my eye so they could ask me a quick question.) But apparently that is anti-social, so I spoke to everyone as we ate.

I also re-created our favourite rice paper summer rolls from the Vietnamese restaurant at the beach. They were so close to accurate that the ChickieNob whole face changed as she chewed, and she looked like she wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. We’ve been making them every day for lunch.

It’s the stuff that we can’t reheat that I miss the most. The only takeaway we’ve gotten has been stuff that can be popped back into the oven and returned to high temperatures. That’s not recommendable with sour-cream-filled burritos. And it’s really not possible with the summer rolls or sushi.

I miss restaurants. This is a good second-best option until we can get back to restaurants again.

Have you recreated any restaurant recipes?

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Independence Day, Freedom, and Koshari” (A Half Baked Life)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a powerful post about the “it won’t happen to me” mentality, and how having it “happen to you” changes the way you approach the world. She writes: “Since infertility and loss, I’ve felt my mortality much more keenly, and feel very far from invincible. I’ve lost my default setting.” And maybe losing that default setting is a good thing if it reminds you that things won’t be okay so we need to do X, Y, and Z. Pass this one along to anyone who still believes they’re invulnerable.

By the Brooke is back with a life update. She managed to make me laugh many times, even while talking about the weight of the world. Like this nugget: “Zuzu also let Coco cut her hair recently. Longtime readers may recall that Coco has a long history of making poor choices when it comes to scissors and hair.” Fair warning: You’ll have the Hamilton soundtrack stuck in your head by the end of the post.

Kmina’s Blog has a heartbreaking post about her neighbour who died from COVID-19. She writes: “My kids remember how he would stop and tell them stories about butterflies. Until they won’t, it’ll be just a thing we retell but don’t remember exactly.” And finishes with this thought: “It is a very weird year to grow old. I’ve already aged 2 to 3 years by now, and it’s only July.” A very moving post.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix has a post about her current two week wait to move. The amount of time is not lost on her, but noticing it brings out a fantastic reaction: “I loved it. It made me smile. A concept/time period that used to always be on my mind has totally slipped from familiarity for me. It made me happy to realize that my thinking has naturally changed over time. I no longer feel controlled by a two week wait. I no longer even think about it.” Cheers to better.

The roundup to the Roundup: My kitchen restaurant. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between July 10 – July 17) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.