Vienna local Sydney Lehrman quit her job a week before the coronavirus pandemic shut things down, and then couldn’t find work. So with free time on her hands, she turned to one of her favorite pastimes — cooking. 

When Lehrman decided to compile the recipes she’d made over the course of the pandemic into a basic Google document, she hadn’t anticipated the overwhelming, positive community feedback she received. The collection of recipes turned into a 49-page document, the Quarantine Cookbook, with recipes for dishes such as jambalaya, salted caramel pretzel snickerdoodles and sausage tortellini soup. 

“I love the desserts because I have such a sweet tooth,” said Lehrman. 

Back in March, Lehrman was quarantining with her boyfriend’s family in Maine and was unable to find a new job because of the coronavirus. Lehrman and the family turned to cooking many nights, so she decided to commemorate their favorite recipes. 

“I put all of them together in a way that I could keep them and remember, and have something positive to look back on,” said Lehrman.

 In the middle of August, Lehrman posted in the Vienna VA Foodies Facebook group asking if anyone was interested in a copy of the cookbook, and if so, she would direct message it to them. After receiving more than 200 messages of interest, she shared the link to the cookbook to the entire Facebook group. 

 “I still got a ton of messages from people thanking me,” said Lehrman. “I’m really happy that other people like it. Life is too short not to enjoy good food.”

Lehrman is contemplating publishing a recipe book in the future as a gift. In the meantime, readers can view the Quarantine Cookbook via the public Google document.

Photo by Sydney Lehrman