Hello from the kitchens of Food and Friendship Santa Barbara, quarantine edition!

We are back — sort of.

With all that’s been going on in the world, so many of us have retreated to our kitchens, both out of necessity or for comfort.  At first we were okay with curbside pickup of restaurant takeout orders until a couple of local places closed because their chefs had tested positive for covid-19. We were okay with door to door delivery from local grocery stores for a while until we thought about the drivers who didn’t necessarily use the same precautions as we would have liked.  So we put on our masks and gloves and headed to the markets during off-peak hours.  Back we went to our kitchens, and we started cooking again. In fact we’ve been getting so many requests for recipes that we decided to restart the blog, but this time, as a temporary “pop-up” in order to share what we’ve been up to.

In Rhona’s family, there’s a new baby living nearby and his busy, sleepy parents were in need of occasional sustenance! Friends dropped off amazing meals for the new mom and dad, and of course we grandparents were very happy to step in too. Whatever we made at home, we doubled and brought over to the new parents.  They themselves found time to cook also; they barbequed flank steak, roasted chicken, and made stock for the freezer — oh yes, even with a little bundle of joy,  there was still delicious food coming out of the kitchen over there!  When we grandparents “catered,” we tried to stick to basic comfort foods (some of which we actually mentioned in a previous post about food for new parents) [type in “mamma needs food” in the search bar to view]. So there were several deliveries of sweet and savory turkey meatloaf, easy grilled marinated chicken, tender tri-tip with roasted potatoes and broccoli florets, delicious pot roast in our new InstaPot, glamorous fettucini with mushrooms, classic Italian pasta Bolognese, and many many others.. Of course, there were desserts too, and we continue to take advantage of the summer bounty, making countless strawberry rhubarb crisps and crostatas, tangy key lime bars, luscious apple crumbles, juicy marinated peaches with homemade vanilla ice cream, tart raspberry sorbet… you get the idea.

Joan has been busy with pre-election work, organizing volunteers to do the important job of making sure people are registered to vote and most importantly, inspired to exercise their right in the remaining primaries and come November. She too has been cooking up a storm, trying to replace the diversity of flavors we all took for granted when we could enjoy sushi at our favorite Japanese restaurant, try out the latest Asian fusion place down by the beach, savor the best paella in town, and rely on the inspired taco and quesadilla combinations at our local Mexican bodegas. (Imagine peaches and short ribs, octopus and shrimp, or pork belly and Oaxaca cheese, all with novel condiments.)  These exotic tastes that others prepare so beautifully are missed. So she’s tried to replicate those flavors, with varying degrees of success, she says. And of course, she can always be counted on to make her family’s Italian standbys when those dark times that come to us all demand the soothing comfort of the familiar.

As long as we’re still in quarantine mode, we will continue to share what we’ve been cooking and hope you’ll let us know what you’ve been doing too. Send a recipe and a photo if you can to our email address (www.foodandfriendshipsantabarbara@gmail.com); we’d love to hear from you.

To start off our quarantine edition, here’s a recipe for the easiest and most tasty grilled chicken.  It’s the best marinade we’ve come across, and it cooks up beautifully either on the outdoor bbq or the stovetop grill pan.