Whenever I go to Trader Joe’s (not much, lately!) I make sure to get two things: Cheese and Wine. Their selections and prices are the best! I usually get the Toscano with Syrah cheese (my favorite!), some type of blue and a goat cheese, as cheese board gurus suggest a “hard, a soft and a blue” for a well-rounded spread. I go a little crazy on wines- Rose, Pinot Grigio, Prosecco- but here are some other suggestions to get you started.

Best 5 Wines from Trader Joe’s under $10 from Real Simple

Floriana Veltiner Gruner (white from Hungary)

Cecilia B Spumante Rose (Sparkling Rose)

Susumamiello Ruggero Di Bardo (Red)

Espiral Vinho Verde (White from Portugal) $5

Corvelia Zinfandel (Red from California)

The only one of these I can personally attest to is the Esprial Vinho Verde, which I usually buy every time I visit Trader Joe’s because it’s good and super cheap. My in-laws once bought this type of wine for a Fourth of July weekend at Ocean Reef; the wine guy suggested it as the type of wine to pour over ice, with a squeeze of lime, to enjoy while sitting by the pool. It’s also delicious just cold and straight from the bottle, if you like wines with a little fizz; the perfect summer wine.

Speaking of Trader Joe’s, they are reconsidering changing the names of their ethnic foods, as they had previously announced. So, for now, Trader Jose, Trader Ming and Trader Giotto are staying on the shelf. I always thought these names were tongue-in-cheek (you know- a joke) but apparently someone started a petition to eliminate the “racist packaging”, which got Trader Joe’s to rethink their branding choices. Is it possible to be too politically correct?

“The World is changed by your example, not by your opinion.” Pablo Coelho

Another thing I often get at Trader Joe’s is their Almond Butter, but it usually has a layer of oil on top when I go to use it, eventually leaving a solid layer of not-very-easy to spread gunk underneath. The solution? Store it upside down in your pantry. Also, if you buy cheeses, take them out of their plastic wrapping and rewrap them in parchment paper before putting them in the fridge. I guess they are kind of alive and the plastic suffocates them, so let your cheeses breathe, people!

If you buy herbs, such as parsley, cilantro or basil the best way to keep them fresh is to snip off the ends and stick them in a glass of water. And you know how those delicate raspberries you buy go bad, like right away? Soak them in a 1:10 mixture of vinegar to water to get rid of mold spores. Rinse them well and store in fridge. I got these tips from food52.com.

I just returned from Publix in the Keys and there was no 409, no Fantastick, not even the pricey Mrs. Meyers lurking on the shelves. What to do if you need a disinfectent spray? Make your own. You will need a spray bottle, easily recycled from an old 409 bottle or purchased at the dollar store. The nice thing about this recipe is you can customize the scent to whatever you like and it doesn’t have that heavy, artificial floral scent. It’s also considerably cheaper than the store-bought stuff. I can’t testify to the germ-killing quality of the this mixture but it will clean and smell good. From the thefrugalgirls.com.

Homemade 409

2 TBLS Distilled White Vinegar

1 tsp Borax

1/8 cup Dawn Dishwashing Liquid

1 cup Hot Water

8 drops of essential oil, your choice (I like lavender or lemongrass)

Pour vinegar, borax and hot water into a spray bottle. Continue to fill with cool water. Add Dawn last, gently tilting back and forth. Add essential oil, if desired.

Random Ramblings
Sexiest Foods ( a question Ellen asked Diane Keaton during a game of Burning Questions) She gave the answer of: “A Creamy Soup.” It got me thinking about My answer: Oysters on the half shell, sushi, lobster with melted butter, chocolate covered strawberries, champagne and caviar, heart-shaped creme brûlée.

Should you get a hankering to “get out of Dodge” and visit Key Largo (only an hour from Miami), here are some restaurants I feel comfortable dining at right now. All have outdoor seating.

Key Largo Restaurants

Sharkey’s Bar & Grill Great food and beer, fun atmosphere, on a canal.

Snooks A little touristy and pricey, but live music, good food, a killer Bloody Mary.

Lazy Lobster A big chickee hut out back, by the same people who own Lazy Days.

The Pilot House Started by two pilots, on the water, good happy hour, live music.

Skippers By the Holiday Inn, oceanside, live music. Get there early to get a seat outside.

Mrs. Macs II Reliably good food and service, like diner food with a Keys twist.

For Take Out, it’s all about the Thai, ’bout the Thai, no pizza… for me.

The Key Thai & Sushi for: Drunken Noodles, Tom Kar Soup, Thai Papaya Salad.

Num Thai for: Crispy Duck, Green Curry and Stuffed Tuna.

And since I’m being really random, this has nothing to do with food, but everything to do with how I spend my Friday and Saturday nights. This poem is dedicated to Zeke, my partner in crime watching.

Dateline

A baseball bat by the side of the road A knife ditched in a bush A gun tossed in an inky lake These are the instruments of death, But who committed the crime?

Bum, bum, bum.

First take a close look at the boyfriend or girlfriend Husband or wife, Significant other Disgruntled lover, then the Ex-husband or wife, always prime suspects Sometimes, it’s even a Random Stranger.

Bum, bum, bum.

Not very likely, though But I did see one the other night A guy pretending to buy a house strangled a perfect stranger to death and left her on her own bedroom floor.

Bum, bum, bum.

Now, in prison, he’s a Preacher Proclaiming his innocence, of course Despite insurmountable evidence to the contrary. Why is this the way I spend my Friday nights? Giddy at each bloody clue.

Bum, bum, bum.

But when I hear those opening notes… And that Baritone voice beginning “It was a perfectly sunny Colorado morning the day Shelly Wong accidentally fell off a cliff. Or did she?”

Bum, bum, Bum.

Up Next: Still, who knows?

The highlight of the week was seeing my grandson Wyatt for an early Easter egg Hunt on Friday. I hadn’t been able to see him, up close and personal, for a couple weeks but since he was leaving for North Carolina the next day, to see his other grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins, A.J. decided it was silly for me not to see him. He arrived in his Sunday best, saying “This is the best day ever!” He had a great time finding the 11 hardboiled dyed Easter eggs and 30 plastic eggs hidden around our backyard.

I changed his clothes (he said he was uncomfortable), fed him Spaghettios for lunch and Zeke and I took him down the trail to look at the stuffed animals neighbors have placed in the trees for children to find during their bike rides. The trail is a couple blocks away from our house and Wyatt kept asking “When am I going to see the animals?”

I said “Wyatt, you have to be patient. Do you know what that means? Sometimes we have to wait a little bit for things.”

This made me think of all of us in the pandemic. It’s been so hard to be at home, to not go out as we used to, to not be able see our friends and family and to self-isolate. But, we too, have to be patient. Of course, it’s not the same when what you’re waiting for is within sight and a couple blocks away. We have no idea how long the pandemic will last and if the world, as we knew it, will ever go back to normal.

The other exciting news our family had this week was that Lauren, my oldest stepdaughter, got into University of Florida’s LLM program for getting her Masters in Tax Law! Yipee! We cracked open the proscecco (although that’s not been that different than every other night the last month) and toasted her acceptance. Now we have to adjust to the fact that we’ll have a Gator in the house. Zeke noted she’s graduated as a Seminole, soon to be a UM Cane graduate, and now UF. Go Gators!?!

I finally got up the nerve and stepped on the scale. I was relieved to find I was the same weight before COVID-19! About five pounds (at least) from where I want to be, but still! I consider this a minor miracle, given the stress eating, boredom eating, take-out food and excessive wine drinking that’s been going on.

When I mentioned this fact to Zeke he said:

“Well, then we need to cut out this” and pointed to his wine glass.

“Are you crazy?” I said. “You are NOT taking away my wine!”

I told him I attributed not losing weight more to eating ribs, pizza and pasta than my wine drinking. I’ve been mixing up the Pinot Grigio with Sauvignon Blanc, Rose and Sparkling, with a little Albarino thrown in for good measure. I get bored drinking the same wine all the time.

Speaking of wine, Total Wine has a great method for getting your wine. You order and pay online. They send you an email when your order is ready to be picked up. You drive to Total Wine, park in one of the designated spots and text them the spot you are in. They will then bring out your wine, stick it in the trunk and you’re set to go. No contact whatsoever and you’ve got a week’s worth of wine that will probably last you three days.

The other new thing we tried was DIY pizza. I had a gift card for Farinelli 1937 in Coconut Grove that I wanted to use. I called up and ordered one pizza special (Truffle pizza $30) and one do-it-yourself pizza (prociutto with arugula $14). Zeke picked them up and brought them home. They give you everything you need to make your own pizza, including the flour. We had a pizza stone which we heated in the oven, while we held the Truffle pizza on low. Our do-it-yourself pizza turned out awesome! I liked it better than the twice-as-expensive Truffle pizza. This isn’t as easy as take-out, since you do have to cook and clean up yourself, but it’s worth trying.

Another big hit was ordering the Family Meal Deal from Sports Grille. For $50, you get a rack and half of ribs, pulled pork sliders, French fries, Cole slaw, macoroni and cheese and Texas toast. It fed six of us with leftovers, so it was a good deal. The Mac and cheese, however, was straight up Kraft from the box. Pick-up was curbside.

Other DIY Miami Restaurants:
Eating House has Pasta Kits. Pollo Tropical has Citrus Marinated chicken. Nave in Coconut Grove has $25 pizza kits. Coyo Taco in Coconut Grove has a Family Pack from $25 to $34. Chug’s Diner in Coconut Grove has Meal Kits for $60.

I’ve been cleaning religiously every morning, the countertops, knobs, light switches etc…

“You know I read this article on MSN,” Zeke told me, “You’re supposed to let the spray sit on the counter for at least 10 seconds before wiping it off. And, when you wipe with paper towels, you need to keep folding it over for every knob, so the germs aren’t transferred from one to the other.”

“So, do you want to start doing the cleaning?” I asked.

“No, I’m just letting you know what I read,” Zeke said.

Yeah, thanks. Likewise, when I’m cooking, he has a tendency to look over my shoulder and make recommendations. When I boiled salted water to put asparagus in for Easter dinner, he pulled out the steamer.

“Steaming is a better way of cooking asparagus,” he informed me.

“Do you want to cook then?” I asked.

No, he didn’t. He just wanted to tell me how to do it.

Easter was a small affair, with just Zeke, Lauren, Rachel, Emma and myself. We had a Publix spiral-cut ham, biscuits, asparagus with lemon sauce, sweet potato soufflé and fresh pineapple salad with raspberries. No one had room for dessert, but we have plenty of leftover ham.

My big outing this week was to CVS for my medicine. I know I should’ve had it delivered (since medicine is an essential need, CVS will deliver it) but I didn’t get my act together in time, so I just went to pick it up. There were signs posted at the entrance saying customers were required to wear masks. I had my mask on and surprise!, so did everyone inside, from customers to staff. In Miami, this kind of compliance is a minor miracle. After picking up my medicine, I ventured into the hair coloring section to look for a tip kit for my hair, which is getting darker by the day. None of the kits looked familiar to me, from when I used to do my hair, so I gave up and went to check out.

The cashier was situated behind a plexiglass window, with a narrow slot in which to slide items. This made it hard to scan some of the bigger items, like my Epsom salts. I had a question about a BOGO, so the manager came up to check on it. He had gloves on, but no mask and stood inches away from me. Likewise, a customer in the checkout lane next to me had no mask on.

“Aren’t people supposed to be wearing masks?” I asked my cashier.

She couldn’t understand me, because of my mask, but finally told me, yes they were.

They are calling these people covidiots and I’ve encountered more than my fair share, like the skateboarder who passed Zeke and I on the sidewalk when we were walking, then doubled back and passed us going the other way. We were near Epiphany Church and hopped up the hill to evade him. He almost seemed amused at this, like he was getting his jollies out of scaring these old people. Some millennials are calling the coronavirus the “boomer remover”. Thanks millennials.

I’ve been looking around my house and noticing things that need to be fixed up and organized, so I ordered a drawer organizer and rubbermaid storage containers for my kitchen and hangers for my closet. My housekeeper has a very specific way of folding my underwear, so I took out a pair to figure it out so I could replicate it. It may be a Marie Kwondo thing, I’m not sure.

Besides that, I REALLY miss my housekeeper Isa. Big, fluffy orange hairballs from our cat Eloise have started accumulating around my house. These, Isa normally took care of with her huge, industrial strength vacuum cleaner. I don’t even have a vacuum cleaner, so I’ve been trying to make due with my dust buster, which I recently ordered on Amazon.

Speaking of Marie Kwondo, I haven’t read her book but did read an article online that said to start with organizing your desk, specifically with your pens. She said, oftentimes, pens we have on our desk are just junky, give-aways, not pretty or fluid pens that “spark joy”. I looked at mine, and sure enough, my pen holder was filled to the brim with crummy pens I’d picked up from one place or the other. I went through each one, testing how it wrote. If it didn’t write easily or hold a good memory for me, I tossed it into a pile for the Vets of America.

They aren’t collecting items now, but I will have a big bag when this whole thing is over. One thing I was going to donate, but decided not to, was a white cotton tablecloth that belonged to my grandmother. It had a lot of rips and holes in it, but I decided I may as well sew it while I’m watching T.V. As I sat in my rocking chair watching The View, the lacy tablecloth draped over my lap, it reminded me of a doll of a little old lady sewing lace, my grandmother had brought me from Brussels.

Other projects I’ve been doing: I made applesauce out of apples that were getting wrinkled, made quick pickles out of a cucumber and made more homemade ricotta. I’ve also been saving the bottoms of Romaine lettuce, celery, scallions to grow in the kitchen and the top to a pineapple to plant. My garden’s looking good and I had a UF Journalism student (Carla) come over to film it for a student project. I talked about how it’s been comforting to have gardening as therapy in the pandemic, as well as a practical source of fresh food for my family.

Alcohol sales are up a lot, Tiger King has a new episode and people apparently are having weird dreams during the pandemic. I had a dream the other night that I went on a cruise with my sister Kelley and sister-in-law Becky. As we got on board our cruise, we were surprised by some friends that had come along for the trip unexpectedly. I’m not the Dream Doctor, but I have a feeling that means we’re all on this crazy ride together. We thought we were going for a three hour tour, but it turns out we’re all stranded on this desert island, for who knows how long? But it’s nice to be here among friends.

Up Next: What to do with Easter Leftovers and Foods to Fight Viruses

The line from the Jimmy Buffet song Margaritaville keeps ringing in my head. I haven’t been drunk for two weeks, but there’s definitely been some drinking going on at our house. Not that it helps. I wake up every day and it’s the same bad news- worse than the day before actually. First thing in the morning, I check my phone to see how many more people have died of coronavirus. You know things are bad, when you’re waiting for a peak of deaths, because at that point, it will go down. I keep waiting for someone to call “Olly, olly oxen free,” and tell me it’s all over and we can come out and play.

Sometimes when I’ve had too much to drink, I have an urge to run, to hide, to escape. I’ve had that urge since this whole thing started, but there’s nowhere to run to, no place to hide and nowhere to escape to. The coronavirus is EVERYWHERE. No place is sacred or exempt. I don’t think I ever took for granted my basic freedom of being able to get in the car and go wherever I wanted, or hop on a plane and fly somewhere new and exotic. Now- not happening .

I consider myself an introvert with a social streak;  I never knew how much I would miss people. Friends- to have lunch, drinks, dinner with, or just chat and hang out. I miss my Book Club, tennis team, yoga class, Cookbook Book Club, Happy Hour buddies. I think it’s why people kept going to the grocery store (and some still are) long after being advised not to. It was the last place you could see people (that you weren’t already stuck with), the last everyday task that felt remotely normal.

“Why are people still going to the grocery store?” my sister Kelley demanded to know.

“It’s the last thing we have,” I answered.

I even miss people on the street, total strangers, although now that doesn’t feel safe either. I’m staying far enough away that they can’t cough or sneeze on me, but what if the person walking in front of me JUST coughed or sneezed? The diabolical air droplets carrying dreaded coronavirus can linger in the air for HOURS.

Most of all, I miss my family. And Wyatt. It’s so hard to see him in the car and not be able to kiss and hug him. That’s what grandmothers are for. He would usually yell “Gigi!” and run into my arms for a big hug and a kiss. 

“I’m sorry I can’t be close to you,” he said yesterday, as he stood a safe distance away and looked at the radish sprouts we’d we planted in my garden.

It wasn’t lost on me that my four-year-old grandson has more common sense and understands the imminent danger of “the virus” as he calls it, better than a lot of adults I’ve encountered lately.

“Me too,” I told him. “When this is all over, I’m gonna give you a big old fat kiss and hug!”

It’s like what they would say when I used  to go to Mass: “when two or more are gathered in his name”. There’s something about the collective, the experience of a mass of people that is different than the individual. Netflix at home is not the same as going to the movies. Even though I often go to the movies by myself, there’s something about watching a movie in a movie theatre with other people. You feed off their energy, pick up on it, ride with it. You laugh with them at funny parts, cry together at the sad, applaud at the end. And now- gone.

I’d been watching Ellen reruns, for a cheerful thing to do at 3 p.m. Last Monday she started broadcasting from her home in L.A. Normally, of course, she has a studio audience. Now, she’s by herself. She interviewed JLo (who lives right down the street from me, by the way) and JLo said: “I miss people.”

Yep, JLo. Me too. 

And to quote another song, from The Boss, I can’t wait for someone to  “Meet me out in the street.” Sans mask. 

Good Friday to all and stay safe.

Up Next: How to Instacart (because you shouldn’t be going to the grocery store) and Foods to eat to fight Viruses!