Day 62 of Sheltering-in-Place here in Panama City Beach, Florida. This morning’s statistics for COVID-19 for Bay County are 77 confirmed cases and 3 deaths and for Florida are 42,402 cases and 1827 deaths. I am hoping that the decreased amount of cases and deaths in Florida remain declining, especially since the effects of loosing restriction has not been seen yet.

I made it to the studio today. First I tryed to find homes for the last of the tools, etc. that I have been bringing into the studio and putting in a pile. I still have the workbench to bring in, but progress was made. I am trying to make it look presentable when I begin my free webinars on metalsmithing for my Mixed Media Maniacs group, which consists of past students who just wanted to continue the fun outside of the class room. A lot of my students started to take my enameling classes and do not have much of a background in metalsmithing. I was suppose to teach a metalsmithing and enameling class in April that got postponed to June, and who knows when it might happen. I hope to morph these freebies into some online classes that cost.

Then I finished up decoupaging the shelf I started a few weeks ago. Next I will put some Miniwax Polycrylic on it to protect the surface.

Today’s lunch was the leftover sirloin tips that I made on Monday over an air fryer bake potato and accompanied by saute onion, yellow bell pepper, spinach and a dollop of cream cheese. Just as yummy as it was on Monday.

During lunch I watched episode three of Somewhere South with chef and author Vivian Howard on PBS, which was about dumplings. I enjoyed A Chef’s Life and am so glad that she is continuing her story with this program. My parents were both Southerners and at times we lived in the south and now I am in Lower Alabama, as many like to call Northwest Florida which is very Southern. My mother’s cooking was Southern. My cooking is more southwestern, as I like Mexican, Tex-Mex, New Mexican cuisine, though I think I make a great cornbread, I guess I have been influenced by living in California and Texas for over 20 years. At the beginning of the program, she talked about cornmeal dumplings. I had never heard of them, so I looked it up and found a gluten free recipe I want to try. In her version, she cooked them in collard greens, but I want to cook them in chili.

After lunch I put together a cucumber, onion and tomato salad with the produce my daughter Mary left me on Mother’s Day. I tried a recipe that uses olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and some herbs for the dressing. I am always drawn to dressings that have mustard in them, I think it just gives it a little tang. The salad will be part of my dinner. I usually have my big meal at lunch and just have a small plate for dinner.

Moonie, the cat, is approaching 9 years old and spends most of her time sleeping. After her episode on top of a 20 foot palm tree I have kept her in and she doesn’t seem to mind, as she was mostly an indoor cat anyway. With me being home all the time now, she is getting even more spoiled.
Stay Safe, Stay Healthy