My favorite appetizer at my favorite restaurant “Tavern” is a salad called “Little Gems.” It is a mélange of spring lettuces with green goddess dressing, avocado, and marcona almonds. The gustatory experience is light and surprising, a harbinger of deliciously crafted entrées to come, as well as a Snickers candy bar pie to sweetly seal the deal!
Will we ever get to go out to dine again? Will there be an occasion to celebrate and look forward to when we have so much despair and uncertainty on our collective plate? Where is the goddess hiding or is she on sabbatical with no termination date, no end in sight?
They say don’t sweat the small stuff, but it is the small stuff that lets us make it through these long days and restless Ativan nights. We have lost our sparkle.
We need to find our own little gems in this dangerous world that keep us going while one day bleeds into another and we never get to wear the Rothy’s leopard loafer that we ordered from Nordstrom, delivered to my door, one week shy of this mandated quarantine.
My freezer is jam-packed with Trader Joe’s chicken tikka masala, hamburger patties, ice cream, and frozen strawberries. We are living from one Ralph’s delivery to the next. I had never conserved (we are rationing!) food in my whole life, always giving table scraps to the dog and throwing the extra chicken tender into the compactor or recycling bin. Now I was trying to make a bag of frozen cauliflower last for three meals.
Something dropped on my left foot as I was staring hungrily into the emergency-packed freezer. Like manna from heaven, in step with the Passover holiday, was an unaccounted for bag of brussels sprouts, a surprise vegetable. My green goddess.
Thank you Robyn, for your story! “Inside Our Time” digital series:
