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18.

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Deborah Duong, Senior IB Student and how she keeps busy:

"I spent a lot of these past two months painting, and the reason why I really started is that I had this dream about painting some cows, and I thought I might as well do it in real life. I had some old paints around the house, and I began to paint things that I had in my phone's photo album and things I wished I could see, but couldn't because of quarantine. Besides painting, I also baked quite a few times because someone in my family is always in a search of snacks, and since we can't just walk to a Wawa anymore, I made snacks at home.

It isn't that hard to do the same hobbies I did while in quarantine. Painting may seem excessive to people that don't already have access to paints at home, but it is a great way to spend the day away from technology, and paints can be easily delivered to your doorstep. I personally had a set of gouache paints sent to my home, and I only had to pay about $20 for about 18 different colors. Furthermore, I was already an active baker pre-quarantine so it was not hard for me to continue. However, for those that don't bake, you can always start off with really simple recipes that require only a few ingredients. One of my favorite at the moment is this recipe by Alton Brown for peanut butter cookies (1 cup pb, 1/2 packed brown sugar, 1/2 white sugar, 1 egg, splash of vanilla extract, and a teaspoon of baking soda. Bake for 10 min @ 350 degrees). If baking or sweets are not your thing, you can always start cooking. Cooking is a great life skill to have, and it is a great time to learn since everyone has a lot of time on their hands now."

Maria Jimenez, Senior IB Student and how she enjoys quarantine with her family:

"My dad loves to cook, and since my siblings and I don't have much to do over quarantine, dinner with the family is the time we look forward to the most. On Saturday nights, favorite thing to do is to order out and enjoy a good movie. One Saturday in particular, my dad decided to make his own pizzas for us to enjoy. As he was making them, he talked about his job at a bakery when he was younger, and how he always loved to bake. Now that we're together as a family more often now, we get to take time to enjoy the small things, like a family meal.

For my family, having dinner together is a very important thing. It is the one part of the day that we all really come together to enjoy food and each other. Some people might have the same ingredients or materials at home, but the supplies aren't too difficult to obtain. Plus, you can add whatever you want on the. pizza, like pineapples or ham, personally, I love a really cheesy pizza. My dad refuses to share the secret recipe for his pizza, but I found a great recipe online that was Dad approved."

Maria Jimenez, Senior IB Student Pizza Recipe:

• 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) warm water (105°F-115°F)

• 1 package (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry yeast

• 3 3/4 cups (490 g) bread flour

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (omit if cooking pizza in a wood-fired pizza oven)

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon sugar

Pizza Ingredients

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Cornmeal (to help slide the pizza onto the pizza stone)

• Tomato sauce (smooth, or puréed)

• Firm mozzarella cheese, grated

• Fresh soft mozzarella cheese, separated into small clumps

• And whatever selection of other cheeses you would like to add.

• For toppings, be creative! There's ham, pineapple, green peppers, onion, extra cheese, mushrooms, olives, ricotta cheese! or tomatoes.

Dough: Place the warm water in the large bowl of a heavy duty stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast is dissolved. After 5 minutes stir if the yeast hasn't dissolved completely. The yeast should begin to foam or bloom, indicating that the yeast is still active and alive.

(Note that if you are using "instant yeast" instead of "active yeast", no proofing is required. Just add to the flour in the next step.)

Knead the Dough: Mix in the flour, salt, sugar, and olive oil on low speed for a minute. Then replace the mixing paddle with the dough hook attachment. Knead the pizza dough on low to medium speed using the dough hook about 7-10 minutes. If you don't have a mixer, you can just mix the ingredients together and knead them by hand.

The dough should be a little sticky, or tacky to the touch. If it's too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour.

Dough rise: Spread a thin layer of olive oil over the inside of a large bowl. Place the pizza dough in the bowl and turn it around so that it gets coated with the oil.

At this point you can choose how long you want the dough to ferment and rise. A slow fermentation (24 hours in the fridge) will result in more complex flavors in the dough. A quick fermentation (1 1/2 hours in a warm place) will allow the dough to rise sufficiently to work with. Then cover the dough with plastic wrap.

For a quick rise, place the dough in a warm place (75°F to 85°F) for 1 1/2 hours.

For a medium rise, place the dough in a regular room temperature place (your kitchen counter will do fine) for 8 hours. For a longer rise, chill the dough in the refrigerator for 24 hours (no more than 48 hours).

The longer the rise (to a point) the better the flavor the crust will have.

Preheating the baking pan: Place pan or baking sheet and preheat the oven to 475°F (245°C) for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. Make sure to use something that will not warp at high temperatures.

Divide the dough: Remove the plastic cover from the dough. Dust your hands with flour and push the dough down so it deflates a bit. Divide the dough in half. Form two round balls of dough. Place each in its own bowl, cover with plastic and let sit for 15 minutes (or up to 2 hours).

Toppings!: Prepare your toppings. But do not load up each pizza with a lot of toppings because the crust will end up not crisp that way. And about a third a cup each of tomato sauce and cheese would be sufficient for one pizza. One to two mushrooms thinly sliced will cover a pizza.

Spread the dough: Working one ball of dough at a time, take one ball of dough and flatten it with your hands on a lightly floured work surface. You can "dough" your best to round the dough into circles but you can always just let the shape be square! Then, let the dough relax 5 minutes and then continue to stretch it until it reaches the desired diameter - 10 to 12 inches.

Olive Oil: Use your fingertips to press down and make dents along the surface of the dough to prevent bubbling. Brush the top of the dough with olive oil (to prevent it from getting soggy from the toppings). Let rest another 10-15 minutes.

Repeat with the second ball of dough.

Optional, cornmeal: Lightly sprinkle your flat baking sheet with cornmeal. This will help move the pizza from the pizza pan into the oven.

Tomato sauce & Toppings: Spoon on the tomato sauce, sprinkle with cheese, and place your desired toppings on the pizza.

Slide the pizza onto the sheet!

Bake Time!: Bake pizza in the 475°F (245°C) oven, one at a time, until the crust is browned and the cheese is golden, about 10-15 minutes. If you want, toward the end of the cooking time you can sprinkle on a little more cheese.

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