Our lives have changed drastically during the first part of 2020 with the spread of COVID-19 around the world. Events have been canceled or postponed to later in the year and sports, well, it’s non-existent as is tailgating. With this many people at home waiting to go back to their careers and to tailgating, insanity is beginning to seep in. Not the dangerous kind, but rather, the stir-crazy kind. At this point, most are more concerned with cabin-fever than COVID fever. While the CDC and the healthcare community work on prescriptions for the latter, here are a few things you can do to help ease the former.

1.            Create A New Recipe

Someone said, “If you don’t come out of this as a better cook, then you’ve wasted an opportunity.” With all the cookbooks out there, it would be hard to imagine there could be something new to create but there are. Everything you have eaten has a recipe someone has created. Play around with what has been family favorites or new takes on old staples. You’ll undoubtedly be surprised at what you come up with. In addition to that, you get to eat your mistakes.

2.            Cook Something New

A favorite movie of mine is, Julie & Julia which is about a writer, when blogging was brand new. Julie Powell decided to cook her way through Julia Child’s famed Mastering the Art of French Cooking then blog about it. What is fascinating about this is, each recipe (as old as they are) was something brand new for Julie. How many of us have cookbooks on our shelves which were bought with every intention of cooking something, but haven’t? Remember when churches did cookbooks from their parishioners. Yep I have a couple of those as do you. Try something from one of these.

3.            Choose a Cooking Theme

Living in Florida, we are Disney people but since it’s closed, we can’t attend like we did. Disney, to keep members engaged, they added to their app a section called, Now You’re Cooking allowing you to make some of their famous dishes. So, we had a Disney night where we watched a Disney movie and made their coveted Dole Whips. You can do this as well with whatever cuisine you think would be fun with a movie. Try a Moroccan dish while watching Casablanca or even something French harking back to the famous line, “We’ll always have Paris.” Spaghetti while watching The Godfather or just grill up some hotdogs while you enjoy, The Pride of the Yankees while wearing your favorite team’s jersey.

4.            Check Your Freezer for a Surprise

Recently the question was asked, “What’s for dinner?” Perhaps you’ve heard this or a similar question in your house. Some suggestions may include a pizza from your favorite place or someplace you’ve not visited in a while. However, during this time there are not as many options (although many places do still provide carry out and delivery). The answer beginning to be given more and more is, “We have lots here to eat.” This is not news to me since I have three side by side refrigerators and one deep freeze. So, we decided to go through each of these and make a check list on what’s inside. Much to my surprise was a lot of food we’d forgotten we had (mainly in the freezers). Sure, some of it had to be thrown out because it had been in there so long, but a great bit of stuff could be cooked and enjoyed. Surprise!

There are many more things you can do to occupy your time (please don’t say you can watch Tiger King…again) while you are home. However, use your time wisely and creatively while having some fun with your family while doing it. Maybe event do some tailgating at home, like I saw one person do for the NFL draft.