My kitchen has become my social distancing strategy

At first, I didn't think that "social distancing" would be difficult. After all, I'm retired. I don't really have any place I have to go. I've had a few meetings and events get cancelled. I thought it wouldn't be much different than daily life for me.

It's only been three days since the CDC recommended that Americans practice social distancing for eight weeks. The goal is to slow down (and perhaps reduce) the spread of the coronavirus, also called COVID-19. But I'm already sensing this isn't going to be as easy as it sounds. Maybe it's the psychology of it. Knowing that I can't or shouldn't get in the car and drive to a store or to a bar or to a restaurant makes me feel restless.

So far, my daily routine hasn't changed too much. Get up. Take a walk. Have breakfast and read the paper. Read some more. Have lunch. Read some more and/or work on my computer. Take an afternoon walk. Read some more. Make dinner. Watch TV.

I'm going to run out of things to read pretty soon.

Resuming my blog will be part of my strategy for resisting the urge to get out and mingle with the masses.

Fortunately, spring is approaching. And also fortunately, at least in Minnesota, outdoor activities are still allowed. I guess even under a "shelter in place" order (as has been issued in northern California and is contemplated for New York), outdoor recreation is permitted as long as social distancing guidelines are followed. So I'm looking forward to biking and gardening and yard work as soon as the weather permits.

Meanwhile, I've been cooking. On Monday, the first day of the CDC's social distancing recommendation, I made this soup recipe - Winter Vegetable and Barley Soup from the Washington Post. You can try the link, but the Post generally has a paywall and I'm not sure if the link will work after the coronavirus pandemic subsides. If that doesn't work, try this link to the recipe.

Making this soup was a little bit of a process. First of all, I needed to work with ingredients that I already had at home. My wife had gone to the grocery store, and she reported that many items on our weekly shopping list were gone off the shelves. I wasn't going to send her back looking for any specialty ingredients.

I always make my own stock, either a vegetable stock or a turkey stock. Whenever we make turkey, I grill it on my Weber grill. After it's carved, I break down the carcass and freeze it (usually in two batches) to use for making soup stock. So I took out a frozen turkey carcass from the freezer and made the stock. (I use this recipe for Turkey Broth from Epicurious.)

I had two turnips in my refrigerator, left from another recipe that I made this winter. So I was looking for ways to use them. I found the soup recipe from the Washington Post, which also calls for barley. I didn't have barley, but I substituted farro. The farro added a nice, chewy texture, but it doesn't thicken the soup like barley does. The recipe calls for a variety of root vegetables. All I had were the turnips and some carrots. So that's what I used. But some parsnips would have been a nice addition.

The soup really turned out very nicely. My wife and I have been eating it for lunches. The recipe calls for ham. We don't have ham in the house, and personally, I don't particularly like chunks of meat in my soup. But when the turkey broth is done, there's usually some scraps of meat left on the carcass. I pick that off before throwing away the bones. I usually use the turkey scraps for a sandwich or a salad. But my wife put some of the shredded turkey meat in her soup. Because the turkey had been roasted on a grill, the carcass and the turkey scraps had a smokey flavor, so it sort of was like ham.