Well, seems like we’ve managed to get through our 14-day quarantine after returning from London without dying or having any symptoms, so that’s a success! Now it’s time to look back at the quarantine times and see what we’ve been up to and maybe what the future holds. We’ve decided to stay at Lake Balaton for the foreseeable future and honestly our days will remain fairly similar, so this will be the end of the daily blogging. But if you’ve enjoyed these, continue following along as I have a lot more interesting content coming, but instead of documenting yet another chainsaw/gardening/DIY/grass cutting/cooking project, I will discuss topics that I think are interesting and relevant these days.
Quarantine Evaluation
Honestly, I feel so lucky that we managed to come home when we did, without too much hassle and went down to Balaton. This place is amazing, it is so far removed from civilization that unless you open the news, you wouldn’t even realize that the whole world has gone to shit. But an idyllic place like this is actually a ton of work. After the winter everything needs to be worked on: grass cut, hedges trimmed, wood chopped, the house cleaned and a million little things. Great fun if you ask me, I really got to live out my redneck dreams lately.
It has also been great to have our own space where we can continue our lives with some semblance of normalcy, with Aisling working a bit on her university stuff and me going down the deep-end with trail running. We’ve started doing yoga and meditation on an almost daily basis and the peaceful natural environment is already super relaxing.
So, What Now?
As I mentioned earlier, the world is going to shit, and things don’t exactly seem to be improving just yet. Even if the virus doesn’t directly affect you, the impeding economic crisis sure will. I’m a cheerful optimist as always (with a healthy dose of cynicism), but I really have no clue what is happening. What I do know is that we will spend a little more time at Balaton, I will still keep writing blogposts, I will still go running, but beyond that? Getting a job, sorting out my life and such? Hell knows…
The Last Day In Quarantine
Our last “official” (well, semi-official, since it was a self-imposed quarantine) day looked very much like all the other ones. Aisling continuing with the rock garden and her essays, me riding around the tractor cutting grass, editing photos and writing the blog. There was one thing that sticks out that I would like to share though: some awesome food that we made. We’ve made not one, but two of our favorite dishes that day and I thought you might enjoy if we shared the recipes for it.
Tomato Soup
This is a super easy tomato soup I learned from my Mom.
Ingredients:
1L tomato juice
1 onion
2 celery sticks
½ cup rice
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp paprika
Salt, pepper, oil, water
Optional:
Basil
Grated cheese
The recipe itself is dead simple: take a good sized pot, put on medium heat, pop in about 3 tbsp oil, throw in the flour and the paprika, and keep mixing until it starts to foam. Already have the tomato juice open and ready and be very careful not to burn the paprika, because it will taste really bad if it burns. Once the foam starts forming or you feel like it might burn, dump in the tomato juice and about 200ml of water. Throw in your celery and onion, and season with salt, pepper and maybe a pinch of basil. Bring to boil and add the rice. Cook for as long as the rice packaging says + 2-3 minutes extra. Serve with grated cheese or fresh basil for that extra fancy twist.
Proper Nachos
When most people think about nachos, they imagine this slightly lame pub food that you order as a snack. While that can be nice, this is a whole different ballgame, we are talking about a proper meal here. Don’t believe me, right? I hear you say “nachos is not a meal,” but let me tell you, this version is! Credits to Aisling, as she is the master chef who developed this awesome recipe.
Ingredients:
1.5 bags tortilla chips
Salsa sauce
2 cans red kidney beans, drained
½ onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups of grated cheese
1 avocado, chopped into cubes
Bunch of fresh coriander, chopped (can be substituted with parsley)
2 cups sour cream
2-3 tomatoes, chopped into cubes
1-2 red peppers, chopped into cubes
Jalapeños
Salt, pepper, ground cumin, oil
Put a small pot on the stove with a little oil. Throw in the garlic with a few pinches of cumin and some salt & pepper. Once it is slightly cooked, add the beans and mash while cooking. Once it is heated through, put aside. Set the oven to 180 Celsius. Put about half the chips in a deep baking tray, then spread the bean mash on top of it. Add the second half of the chips on top and cover with the cheese. Put the tray in the oven until the cheese melts. Spread the rest of the ingredients on top in the following order: onion, pepper, tomato, avocado, sour cream, jalapeños and the coriander. Wohoo, all done!
Conclusion
So basically, we have no idea what we’ll be doing in the near future, but we had a great time in quarantine here. We will probably remain here for a little while longer, but the blogposts will be a little less frequent. I hope you enjoyed following along so far, and more importantly, I hope you are also staying safe, keeping sane and having a good time!