Deborama’s Kitchen — Catching up after an embarrassingly long silence

Part 1 Reverse Chronology Jan. 2023 to Nov. 2022

Katerina toast made with heirloom tomatoes, Stilton cheese, and homemade basil pesto (L) and a pear-Stilton-pecan salad with fig balsamic dressing (R)

It has been about a year since I did a Deborama’s Kitchen post. So much has happened. Including me turning 70 on November 5 and having a big party the night before, then a fancy dinner in St. Paul on my actual birthday.

Meritage in St. Paul, where I had my 70th birthday dinner, and also the last restaurant review I did before I got sick and had to skip my column, The Dish, for January

Also including me getting COVID for the first time. I tested positive and first had actual COVID symptoms on December 22, so you can imagine what kind of Christmas I had. I had no appetite, loss of smell and taste (not great when you’re a restaurant critic! Oh, didn’t you know that? Yeah I write a restaurant review column for a local paper) loss of appetite, weakness, fever, fatigue, and inability to sleep right when I most needed sleep.

On the plus side, my two adult kids, who live on opposite sides of the country (and I live in the upper midwest) were very caring and good to me, calling or texting daily while I was ill, which was about four days for the acute phase and a slow 7–8 days of recovery. My son sent me a wodge of money for my birthday / Christmas which I had received just before getting sick, and which was very welcome because I went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving and got slightly into debt. I don’t have enough income to live in debt, so I am very eager to climb back out of it, and his gift helped a lot.

While I was sick, my daughter sent me care packages of food and supplies. I upped the immunity boosters in my daily supplements and relied on delivered groceries, the stuff my daughter sent me, and eating my pantry for almost a month, from early December to early January.

Just one of the care packages my daughter sent me while I was sick with COVID. Our family is great believers in the healing powers of Indian foods, kimchi, hot and sour soup and other spicy things,

My son also sent me a couple of gifts for Christmas even though I wasn’t expecting any more. One is a photo-sharing digital picture frame, so I can get instant photos of my youngest granddaughter, his and his spouse’s only kid. Another was something I had been meaning to get myself — the Breather…