Field Notes #17: COVID-19 edition
Hello, dear friends! It feels like every day now a new person we know has tested positive for COVID, like we are in the middle of enormous, invisible wave. Thankfully, the vaccinations seem to be keeping symptoms mostly in the mild to awful-but-not-ER-level range. Here are three things that have helped us cope in this uncertain time. Do you have any useful tips? Please share in the comments below for all of us. Thanks!
1} Free home test kits
This is not new, but it’s worth repeating just in case you haven’t taken advantage of it yet: Every household in America can request home COVID-19 test kits mailed to them for free. Each order has four test kits, and you can request an order twice.
I’ve ordered kits for our family. Both times, the tests came in the mail quickly and seemed to work well. It’s been a relief to have them on hand for the inevitable runny nose or momentary wisp of a sore throat, a bodily glitch we didn’t think twice about a few years ago. After all, if/when you do get COVID, the last thing you want to be doing is driving from store to store to find a test. (No one wants you doing that!)
Tip: Check the expiration dates, so you can prioritize which kits to use first, especially if you have kits from other stores. All tests should have an expiration date somewhere on the box.
Request your free COVID-19 home tests.
2} Soup from whatever is around
When someone is sick and a trip to the grocery is out, meals come down to what is in the pantry. I’ve found soup can almost always be rustled up. It is so soothing and filling.
If you have broth, great! If you don’t, no problem!
If you have carrots, celery, onions, great! If you don’t, no problem!
Soup is incredibly versatile.
When I go to make soup, I usually concoct a minestrone-ish soup. Basically, I am looking for canned tomatoes of some kind (a can of diced tomatoes, or whole tomatoes), broth if I have it (or water), vegetables (sweet potatoes, white potatoes, kale, spinach, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, etc.), canned beans, and any bonus items (grated parmesan cheese on the top at the end is nice, bread that could be toasted, little pasta shapes that could be boiled separately and added at the end).
Here’s what I did to make soup recently:
Heat a swirl or two of olive oil (or canola oil or a pat of butter) in a pot or Dutch oven on medium
Chop up half of a big onion and mince a few garlic cloves. Let them cook in the oil for a minute or two, but don’t let them burn
Meanwhile, peel white potatoes (we had 2) and sweet potato (1) and chop into bite-sized chunks. Add to the pot.
Sprinkle salt and pepper over everything
Add tomatoes. (I was looking for a can of diced tomatoes, but we didn’t have any, so I found a 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes and used that. I scooped each whole tomato out and cut it up into chunks and then returned it to the pot.)
Add broth or water. (We had most of a carton of chicken broth left. In it went.)
Add a can or two of beans. (I used two cans of cannellini beans.)
Bring the whole thing to a boil.
Add spices. (I picked dried oregano and basil for an Italian taste. Dried thyme or rosemary would have been nice, too. My second choice would have been paprika, turmeric, and cumin for a Middle Eastern flavor. Not too much cumin; maybe 1 tablespoon paprika, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric — but follow your tastebuds.)
Simmer the soup gently for 20 minutes. If it’s more stew-like than soup-like, and you’d like it thinner, add more water.
Taste and see. It might need more salt. It might need more pepper. It might be beckoning you to add chili flakes.
Check the potatoes or any other hard veggie (carrots, parsnips) to see if they are tender. If not, cook for another 5-10 minutes or until they are tender.
Scoop into a bowl and add anything you like on top. Grated parmesan really perks it up.
Two more wonderful things about soup: It makes a lot (i.e., leftovers) and can be frozen for later.
If you are thinking, Brianne, I really need a more exact recipe for soup, here are a few of my favorites from Smitten Kitchen. I’ve made all of them multiple times.
3} Air Doctor
This last Field Note is pricy, so I hesitated to share it. I want any notes here to be free or low cost as much as possible, so they are accessible to everyone. But there are a couple of health-related devices in our house that we use regularly and love, such as the Berkey Water Filter and my office desk treadmill. I think of these as investments in our health.
One device that runs 24/7 in our home is the AirDoctor purifier.
We bought these air filters when the pandemic started, but they seem to be helping during pollen season, too. One is upstairs; one is downstairs. Whenever I change a filter, I’m astonishing at how much dust and filth has been caught from the air and trapped. (I will spare you the photo.)
We have the AirDoctor 3000, which reportedly cleans the air in a 638-square-foot space four times an hour, or 1,274 square feet twice an hour. It senses when the air is more “polluted” — when I’m cooking dinner sometimes, the one near the kitchen will crank up to compensate for the extra particles in the air. It gets noisy and its little circle light at the front turns from blue to yellow to red.
In tests, AirDoctor has captured airborne particles as small as 0.003 microns in size, which is tinier than pet dander, smoke, pollen, mold, bacteria, and, yes, viruses. The company ordered independent tests after the pandemic began and reported: “In third-party laboratory testing conducted by MRIGlobal, AirDoctor 3000 removed 99.97% of the live SARS-CoV-2 virus from the air in a test chamber.” (You can view the test results.)
Air Doctor is having a sale right now, so a $629 AirDoctor 3000 is $349. (I’m not getting any cut or affiliate kick-back.) Here’s where to find more information. (If you are reading this later and the price is back up, wait a bit — they have frequent sales.)
That’s all for this week. I hope you have a sweet spring week ahead and avoid the COVID spikes.
To our journeys and healthier days ahead,
Brianne