Feast Season

This is the time for church feast and city fesiivals. Yet can we enjoy ordering and eating favorite  these days?Is it safe to get a bag of zeppoli or funnel cakes in this Covid era? You can.Just be careful.

One the biggest, New York's San Gennaro is back on this weekend. THis is where food stalls line blocks of city streets All sorts of Southern Italian specialties are offered as they have been for over a century. Are they safe? How do you weave around the crowds and where do you eat? One solution is eating in the surrounding area, Little Italy and even Chinatown. You can easily get a plate of spaghetti or dim sum and go for a dessert at a less crowded dessert stand. You can also stick to one block and avoid any crowd. As far as finding a place to eat, there are small parks there as well as the original St Patrick's which has benches located in front of its stone fencesAs for the suburban festival, get what you want tp eat and head back to your car.There have utensils, along with wet naps and bottles of water. Some areas like The Deutch Club in Clark, New Jersey have a field that can be used for picnics during their Steuben Day festival.Many churches have this as well. Take advantage of it.

What do you eat at these festivals? The food is safe Many workers have to wear plastic gloves to handle food so you don't have to worry about catching anything.You can get a slice of pizza or a kabob without any worries. These are usually made fresh and haven't been handled a lot. The same applies to other festival foods. Workers are also required to wear masks and gloves so cooking and serving are safe. Some items come wrapped already like candy apples and  cotton candy. Italian feasts like the St. Joseph's in Lodi, New Jersey have a stand where bags of salted and dried chichi (chickpeas) and sugared hazelsnuts are sold. No one has touched them or breathed on them. This is the way to go as far as take home treats.Sodas and beers are also OK. Just ask for a straw for the sodas (Or you could bring your own drinks if you still have qualms)

It's festival season after a long two year drought of not having them. Enjoy the sights and sounds of them/ Relish the different flavors and tastes of festivals.

Parties Separate But Apart

There are parties and gathering but they're different. We are celebrating but six feet apart. Does it work?  Sort of, for now anyway.

I recently went to a neighbor's twin granddaughters twelfth birthday party. An ice cream truck provided the treats and that was it. Everyone had the choice of whatever ice or ice cream along with going back for seconds. It was only one hundred dollars for their mom to rent plus the price of all the ice cream eaten. Neighbors were invited which was sweet and nice. There was a covered gazebo in the backyard where there was enough room for social distancing and eating. The girls had pizza earlier for their friends and saved the ice cream as the "cake. There was no Happy Birthday's sung, no games to win prizes. There were, however,  loosely clustered groups, all with masks and respecting social distancing. It seems this is common from what I heard from others.Many of their kids went to various ice cream or other food truck parties in the last months. Kids ate fun and tasty food while enjoying sorely missed company.  As for the twins' get together, neighbors caught up on gossip, masking up after they had their ice cream or ices. It worked. We all kept our distance and respected each other's new personal spaces.

Friends are also talking about socially distanced parties and get togethers. Of course, they'll be nothing grand. No one will be sharing salads and we definitely won't all be digging into one plate of dessert. We may just even bring our own prepared dishes , a kind of brown bag party. This wouldn't be a bad idea. Guests could bring their own sandwiches  and refreshments. After all it's the company not the food that matters.It's just a chance of being together and having some semblance of our former lives. If any host wants to supply food, then maybe brown bagging is the way to go. Subway and many grocery stores such as Acme have already made heroes, Serve these with individual bags of chips or sandwich bags of cherry tomatoes , broccoli and cauliflower florets and individual dip cups. Mini ice buckets filled with water and soda can be placed by chairs that are set six to seven feet apart. There should also be mini hand sanitizers and wipes too. As for dessert let people make their own s'mores. Have a little bag full of chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmallows.

Parties are meant to be fun. In this new era, they still can be with guidelines and respect. There is still a time and a place for good food and good company,

The State Of Shopping Today

The way we shop has changed overnight. It's become a foraging expedition to be sure. Yet you can be savvy about what to buy. It's just knowing how to do it in without spending too much time in the store.

Know your store inside and out .It helps to map out your plan before you go (and hopefully you're only making shopping trips one or twice a week with a three day distance between). This will get you through quicker and out to your car faster. Figure out what you'll be making for four to five days in advance. If it's chili, then get plenty of red beans and tomato paste and stewed tomatoes. You should have pasta already  but if you don't get that and the ingredients to make sauce. Also include more staples such as milk, cheese , juice, and cold cuts along with frozen dinners too. Of course stock on the other essentials that make life somewhat easier. Get everything in one fell shop. Don't feel so bad if you have to buy some products in multiples. This reduces any additional trips back. It may seem hoggish but not so much if  you buy say two or three packs of teabags or three boxes of spaghetti. If you see it , basically buy it. Of course always have a pair of latex gloves ready to put on, and a mask if you feel more comfortable.

Keep in mind that there will be shortages for the basics. Chicken and beef have been going fast and it's almost impossible for the stores to keep up with the demand. Go for the vegan kind instead. Gardein has some very good chicken strips and tenders that the kids will love. The last is good with barbecue sauce and tastes like the real thing. Beyond Burgers does have great burgers and they can be turned into Whopper and Big Mac look and taste alikes. Don't fret if there's no more pizza. There seems to always be Green Giant's Cauliflower crust pizzas. I usually buy the plain ones and then load them up with favorite toppings.The crusts are a bit labor intensive. meaning you have to bake them for sixteen to eighteen minutes before you put the toppings on. The end result is good though. A tasty pizza with a super thin crust. Oatmeal is another item that seems to be scooped up in a second. Don't be alarmed if your favorite brand isn't there Sub in with the store brands or those little cups which do the trick quite nicely. Also get steel cut oats which can be used in such recipes as oat bread and oatmeal cookies.

The grocery store now is a lesson in quick foraging. Know what you want , buy enough to last a few weeks and leave. It's an aggressive kind of shopping for a new era.