Note: Before I introduce our new video series, I must tell you the story of how a surprise lobster birthday dinner turned into a creative quarantine project worth exploring. Videos are at the bottom of the article.
My dog, Phelix and I were lucky enough to escape downtown Denver right as the pandemic wave hit the United States in early March. We quarantined with my girlfriend Jeanette, her sister Jessica and her husband Jason, along with their two great danes, Ina and Roy. A full household but incredibly fortunate, mainly for two reasons…
Reason one… when going into a lockdown for an un-seeable amount of time, it’s really helpful to have people around you. Yes, being trapped in a house with four adults and three dogs can be challenging, but it beats being by yourself. Zoom and Facetime can only go so far.
Reason two… Jeanette and Jessica have a passion for cooking and baking.
“Both cooking and baking have been a part of my life, as long as I can remember. I grew up watching my dad cook and my aunt bake. My earliest memory of independent baking was in high school. I baked cupcakes and cookies and brought them to school to share with everyone. Once I got into college, I got more into cooking. I watched cooking shows religiously, and that’s where I picked up a lot of my knowledge.” – Jessica Hartman
My birthday was about a week into the lockdown and I unequivocally left my birthday dinner up to them. The day before the dinner, Jeanette came home from work and rushed me into the garage to reveal two industrial Styrofoam boxes by the garage door. One filled with two pounds of mussels, the other five live lobsters. LIVE LOBSTERS. I looked at her – how?
“I work for a distribution company called, Synergy and I sell wine and spirits. One of my accounts knew a restaurant owner of place in downtown Denver and when the restaurants had to close in March, they had a bunch of “product” they needed to sell or else it would go to waste and lose money. Through my account, I was able to purchase some lobsters and mussels from the restaurant for a VERY good price.” - Jeanette Cox on acquiring the seafood score
Now I always have a camera with me and if I don’t, my phone comes in handy. Music playing, sun bouncing into the kitchen, the smell of garlic and seafood in the air, I began taking pictures.
I am not entirely sure when the idea of filming the meals came into play, but it gave us something to look forward to. It just sort of, happened. Kind of like this pandemic. Everyone in the house seemed to embrace it. Even Jason jumped on board and began manning the camera.
“At first I thought, ‘You can watch what I’m doing but stay out of my space or I’ll drop your ass.’ But then I found it fun to be able to demonstrate how to do certain things.” – Jessica Hartman
You can say we did it to kill boredom, you can call it a mutual creative outlet, or a way to share our quarantine days, but we at Comino call it, Making/Baking, a no frills videos series showing the process of making home cooked meals.
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