By the time you read this, I will have been sheltering in place for a month, and maybe you have been, too. I had one doctor’s appointment, during which I decided that I would not have my hip replacement on March 30. I have been to the supermarket about six times and got dinner-to-go three times: Olio once, 2Wives once and Paul’s Pasta once.

Being home doesn’t seem to bother me much. Because I love to read and have been reading on my Kindle for 11 years, I still make sure that I have one to read and two more in Kindle’s hopper. I am watching much more television than I had ever before. I have HBO now and Hulu. I have had Amazon Prime and Netflix for years.

And my surviving cat watches television every night. She seems to enjoy Jeopardy and, because she sits on the sound bar right next in front of the television, I miss many of the “answers” on the screen. But she is a sweet little cat. She doesn’t want to see anyone but me, and it took me almost three years before I could pet her, so I never shoo her away.

The first week of the coronavirus, I lost about 9 pounds. Now that that one week is now four weeks, I have gained some of it back, I think. My neighbors asked me for Easter dinner, but because I may be immunosupressed, I keep my distance from everyone. Sue and Bob left me a plate on my bench with sweet corn, mashed potatoes and ham. It was delicious, and I’d forgotten about the sweet corn I froze last summer. So now I am making corn chowder. I don’t have salt pork but I do have some bacon in the fridge. I don’t have fresh tarragon either, but I do have some fairly newish dried tarragon. This is one of my favorites.

Corn Chowder

Adapted a lot from the 1964 edition of “Joy of Cooking”

One of the best things about this recipe is there is no butter or heavy cream in this recipe. Sure, some salt pork for flavoring, but this is pretty healthy after all.

Serves 6 to 8 as a main dish with a salad and maybe some good bread

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 to 8 ounces salt pork, diced

½ cup chopped onions

½ cup chopped celery

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped

1½ cups peeled diced raw potatoes (with Yukon Gold, you needn’t peel)

2 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon paprika

1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

6 to 8 ears of fresh corn, blanched for 2 minutes in boiling water, then drained in iced water

3 cups hot milk

chopped tarragon (fresh tarragon if you have it, dried if you don’t)

salt and pepper to taste

Pour oil into a heated heavy-bottomed stock pot, add salt pork and saute until browned. Add onions, celery and green pepper and saute until lightly brown, Add potatoes, water, salt, paprika and bay leaf and simmer until potatoes are soft, around 15 minutes. Add flour and 1 cup of milk and stir until mixture is thick.

Remove kernels from ears and add kernels to stock pot, along with hot milk. Toss fresh chopped tarragon into soup. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

On the Side

I'm not very interested in sweets these days, but I love ice cream. Over the past few months, good ice cream (read Talenti, Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry) have been on sale at most of our local supermarkets. I still have about five or six pints in the freezer, and each evening I have a small bowl with fresh fruit and chocolate syrup.

I still make chocolate syrup my grandparents made in their little grocery. They died when I was very young, but my mother's recipe for chocolate syrup came from them, then to me, and now to my daughter. It is so easy and so delicious.

Just remember 4 to 2 to 1. Four tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, 2 cups granulated sugar and 1 cup hot water. In a small pot on the cooktop, whisk those ingredients together and bring to a boil. Drop the heat and add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and a dash of salt. Simmer for five minutes. Once cool, pour it into a glass jar and refrigerate.

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.