Day 8, Saturday March 21:
I’d like to start out on a somber note today. Please first take a moment to honor and recognize those who are seriously ill and those who are putting their lives a risk to take care of patients and communities. I urge you all to treat this as serious, if you haven’t already. For much of the country, the precautions have felt like overkill because it’s been mostly invisible. But just look to Washington, California, or New York if you want to see what can happen (and is happening). Or worse, Italy and Spain who are 1-2 weeks ahead of us in this pandemic. Those of us in the center of the country should take heed to what is happening on the coasts and realize that extreme measures are needed to minimize the impact. California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts all ordered its residents to stay at home, and New Jersey ordered the same just minutes ago. Please, listen to these directives. That’s the only way to combat this virus. Take a look at the guidelines from the White House: 15 Days to Slow the Spread. If you’re under 60, please also know that 40% of those sick enough to be in the hospital for coronavirus are between 20-54 years of age; younger folks are not immune to the dangers of this virus.
Here are a few links to interesting news pieces, including graphs comparing US with Italy, and best-case/worst-case modeling for what to expect. Let’s all hope for the best-case but plan for the worst-case.
Vox article with chart comparing US vs. Italy Coronavirus
New York Times a logarithmic graph of the same data
New York Times Opinion piece providing best case/worst case per various experts
Now for the fun stuff! It’s Saturday, so something fitting for the weekend: Homemade pizza? I used some of my sourdough to make a crust. Even without sourdough, crust is pretty easy, especially with a food processor. Here’s one from William Sonoma: Pizza Crust Using Food Processor. Or, here’s a recipe that doesn’t call for yeast: Pizza dough without yeast. Send me your pizza pics!
I have an old recipe for pizza crust that came from you. On my list of things to do (while I’m home for who knows how long) is to go through my recipes and organize them. Remember when you helped me with that at least 4-5 Christmas’ ago? Well it’s time to do it again, particularly now that I collect vegan recipes. I know your pizza is delicious! If your recipes look like mine, why don’t you put that on your project list? It’s way more fun than cleaning out the bathroom cabinets!!