A home-cooked meal lifts the spirits of those diagnosed with Covid. Your friends are worth it.
When you have a band rehearsal on the books, and your lead guitarist gets diagnosed with Covid, you damn well better do something about it.
Lead guitarists are hard to come by – good ones that is – since there are so many hacks who think they can play guitar. My bandmate, who contracted Covid, canceled our rehearsal the day prior in December.
Here’s a taste of his chops… our cover of Corduroy by Pearl Jam:
What did I do? I cooked my mother’s famous chili for him and his family. You can find the recipe here (which I shared last year). This dish is sublime, comforting, healthy, and nourishing—the perfect blend to beat away the Covid blues.
The process of cooking and delivering home-cooked meals for friends and loved ones is very rewarding for the cook. Yes, dropping off a take-out meal is good… home cooking is better.
When I served this dish to my guitarist, he spoke to me from his second-floor window. I remained on his first-floor stoop—a healthy 30-foot distance. What happened next was, ‘pure Jersey.’ A neighbor of his walked by, saw us talking, and blurted out, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”
Ballbusting someone when they are quarantining is so Jersey. Anywhere else in the country, that guy would’ve gotten a black eye or a verbal thrashing at a minimum. But it was funny… because we live in Jersey… and you have to have a sense of humor to live here.
I served up the same dish to a family with a one-week-old infant in their house several days ago. It’s more rewarding for the cook—they showered me in appreciation. They are now on the mend which is all that matters. Sacrificing three hours of my day to cook for them was nothing in the grand scheme of things… because as I noted, they have a one-week-old infant in the house! How could I not?
And this experience has proven once again – my mother’s Chili cures all ills.
When a friend gets Covid, a good friend cooks for them.
The Rookie Father 
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