Erin and Alex’s Tortillas and Wine

In June of 2020, the unemployment rate of recent graduates in the U.S. skyrocketed to an unbelievable 13.3%. The height of the COVID-19 pandemic left thousands without jobs and looking for employment during a global crisis. Alex was one of these thousands. Erin and Alex were both working in Washington DC when Alex was laid off and desperately searching for work, unable to secure an offer due to the volatility of the times. He was unemployed from June 2020 until July of 2021. “I applied to over 400 jobs before I landed at my current organization. The overall feeling was just frustration, but I couldn't just stop. I had to keep figuring out new avenues and new industries to apply to.” 

Erin’s work meanwhile was more stressful than ever. “I work in international peace and conflict. The last few years there's been a lot of conflicts that I've had to work on.” There was suddenly an imbalance in their dynamic. Leaving Alex in job application limbo and Erin in the most stressful and chaotic moment of her career so far. “During those times where I would have to work. Alex was like, just vibing. He was obviously applying to jobs, but you don't apply to jobs like an eight-hour workday. You apply to them sporadically. So in the in-between, he would play Call of Duty. There were times where I would feel a little bit resentful towards him because I was working really hard and wasn't able to relax and enjoy time with him.”

Food and travel are two things that are central to Erin and Alex’s relationship. They both have a deep love of seeing new places and trying new things. “We're both big food people, both independently and together.” Alex says that he and Erin’s “food upbringings were very different. I grew up in Chicago. My diet was very Midwestern, I grew up in a very midwestern middle to upper-middle-class family. Where there were lots of meat and potatoes every night.” Erin is from Washington state, “I grew up with the quintessential rice and beans because I'm half Mexican. My childhood was definitely shaped by my parents' preference towards affordable meals that also reflected the culture of my dad's family.” 

One of Erin’s favorite things to make is homemade tortillas. Her grandmother’s recipe is a combination of flour, water, crisco, and salt. Something seemingly so simple, homemade tortillas can elevate any Mexican dinner to something much more than ordinary. “Erin makes really good Enchiladas. They're really top tier. They're baked perfectly. The filling is super good.” Erin says it takes her about two hours to make the tortillas from scratch, and another two for the enchilada sauce. But it’s worth it for the number of leftovers it produces. Something they found particularly important when being shrunk to one income. 

Alex’s style is much more European, his favourite thing to cook is a nicely seared steak with potatoes and green beans. But what Alex loves more than anything is a good wine pairing to complete their dinners. “We took a wine class our final year of college [university]. Since then, I've developed a wine hobby, it's something that I love to learn about. I love to think of food as what I would pair it with.”

Erin and Alex typically try to split the cooking 50/50. “Whoever cooks doesn't do dishes, whoever doesn't cook does the dishes. We decide on the recipes that we're gonna make each week ahead of time. So when he's at work, I'll text him and let him know which recipe we're making and if that sounds good for the evening, and sometimes he'll bring like wine or something home to like, pair with whatever I'm making for the night, and vice versa.”

However, when Alex was unemployed, the thing that brought them back to equilibrium was Alex taking the opportunity to cook for Erin most nights. “Alex wasn't able to pay the full amount of rent. So basically my bargain was that he would do most of our cooking. So he was kind of earning his keep in a different way. That kind of balanced out the power in our relationship, in a way that was, I think, better for both of us. Having him there to cook after I was done with work was really, really helpful to not only our relationship but also to me personally.” 

According to a 2014 study, partnerships are often more successful when the two partners have similar expectations for what equality means in their relationships, particularly pertaining to the division of labour within the home. More so than an actual supposed ‘equal’ division of tasks. As long as the two partners believe that each is contributing their fair share, whatever that may be, the success of their partnership increases. Erin and Alex seem to exemplify this, with expectations of labour and tasks shifting and accomodating their lives, not remaining stagnant. “I had to support her and support our relationship in different ways. I'm fortunate that Erin was very cool with that, and was appreciative of that. I think millions of people, billions of people worldwide had to do something similar. Our resilience was definitely tested, but we're through the worst of it. We’re now both employed gainfully, we made it through the worst.”

Dinner time during the pandemic also helped Erin and Alex reconnect and find joy within difficult circumstances. On top of their standard ‘styles’ of cooking, they have been finding ways to integrate some ideas of travel and food into their new daily routine that the couple has been greatly missing from their lives. “There were a few times during the pandemic where we tried different things related to just what we were eating every night, instead of going out to eat because we weren't able to afford it. We decided to pick a country and try food inspired by their cuisine. The one that we fully executed was Peruvian cuisine. So Alex made Peruvian Chicken with a green sauce. We bought Peruvian beer from a local retailer and played some Peruvian music. It was like travelling in a way that was accessible and affordable.” 

Now with Erin and Alex having the booster vaccine, they are excited to finally experience food from outside their own kitchen. The pair plans to go out and experience the food scene in Washington D.C. and are also making plans to travel internationally in the coming months. “I'm just so stoked. There are so many new things to try in DC. And there are so many things to try abroad,” says Alex. Erin says that she’s “excited to make connections again. And thankful for the utmost privilege of having access to not only the vaccine, but also the booster shot means for our ability to travel and not only reconnect with friends internationally but also reconnect with novel experiences and cultures.”