We went without from 2005-2009 and 2012-2017. It was painful. Part of apartment life.
2 Likes
We, (even me now -yay) are cooking much more. Those cooking projects for “someday” are or will be done now. So that is good! Due to being at a higher than normal risk, I’m not comfortable with take-out, delivery, or anything pre-prepared, unless it’s frozen or needs to be cooked. I would be ok with a take n bake pizza, but our house pizza is much better anyway. Sooo, lots of home cooking. For us, the best part of going out is the social aspect, and just leaving our four walls behind. As well as the excuse to have a cocktail or two. We have a good stash of wine, and cocktail basics at home now. A little more than usual comforts. Also feel more than the occasional craving for desserts. I’m tasked to make banana bread today, but that’s easy peasy. Also very lucky due to extensive pantries, and full freezers, including an entire lamb. Lots of other proteins too. We may be dropping some dinners off to a couple elderly friends soon. Let them know it’s coming and leave it on their step. We’ll all get through this exile somehow, and have to be thankful, that for most of us, it’s spring, and we can at least get out to garden, walk, or take drives to see the blossoms. On a funny note, I’ve heard the cocktail du jour is a Dirty Quarantini! Stay well all & happy cooking!
1 Like
My cooking has changed because I’m doing a lot more of it. I’m doubling recipes and filling the freezer for when I don’t feel like cooking. Menu is more comfort and simple foods than usual because I don’t want to go to a market for special ingredients if they aren’t already on hand. In fact, I’m avoiding markets for the time being.
The freezer, fridge and pantry are filled but, boy, do I miss fresh fish.
2 Likes
Well, when we both went to the office to do our work, we ate lunch out daily during laboral days except Mondays.
As always, we in Spain, we eat our main meal for lunch at home (3 courses), appetiser, then entrrée and our fresh seasonal fruit and for dinner, is always extremely light …
Sometimes we just have a bottle of wine and a cheese board with grissini or crackers and assorted breads.
We both are using the fixed gym bicycle as part of our routine.
I do run over to the Market for fresh hot baked bread.
We have a dishwasher of course …
I just hope this shall be over and done with … It is truly frustrating to spend so many hours at home, and we miss our tapas and wine out and travelling … and our parents … Has been a bit difficult.
However, this is an epidemic – not some normal flu.
4 Likes
I guess the first thing to be different was shopping. We did some major shopping (but not hoarding!) last weekend, with the idea that we would not do it again for a good long time, as the incidence of virus per population would just be increasing. Got a number of staples that can be made into things that either go bad quickly (bought flour vs bread) or take up less space (dried beans instead of canned). Salt, sugar, spices, things that would be needed for lots of home cooking. We got deli meat and veg that ranged from semi-hardy to pretty hardy, with the intent of eating the more perishable stuff first and moving on to the heartier stuff. There were a few items that we will run out of and that is just that, unless we feel comfortable with shopping again. Canned tomatoes, milk, tofu. Things we couldn’t find already last week, or milk due to somewhat short shelf life. The rest of the changes will be cooking - first off, more of it. Second off, trying to have one or two things prepped each day that can be meals, instead of having a fridge full of leftovers, because we keep cooking even though there is older food. That used to be good for when 3 people were packing a lunch each day. But now, not so good because less popular prepped stuff gets neglected unless there aren’t choices. I’m also baking more, but trying to only have one starchy thing in the house at a time. Again, so it gets consumed. I.e., I made banana bread yesterday, so I won’t make a sandwich loaf until it’s gone - tomorrow or the next day. I also took a bunch of produce, chopped it and froze it, for later on things like soups and stir fries, things I’d typically make with fresh produce.
3 Likes
We reflected recently, on how fortunate we are to have secure housing, in a space which is quite pleasant with outdoor space (balcony); we have the means and space to have a robust pantry and filled freezer; we know how to cook; our bar is WELL STOCKED; and we have access to credit, which means we can order items on-line.
I really miss my 2x weekly lunches out (I work from home, so external contact seems important). We are not accustomed to having all our meals at home together. But DH life has also changed significantly in the past 4 weeks. So he is now home much more, as well.
Our pantry would sustain us for a month, if not more… other than boredom, we would remain well fed. My Thai and Vietnamese skills could use some practice, but without visiting several shops, I lack the ingredients.
Guess I could practice all the techniques I know. And make the occasional video for others. But I also lack motivation.
4 Likes
Starting to miss eating in restaurants or rather, different cuisines. But this is an accumulation since the beginning of the year due to the strikes and limited transport… Now the challenge is to try to make it oneself with the limited ingredients. Future meal plans include tempura (need to check the pantry for the batter) and something Peruvian… I’ve also got myself a few ebooks on Scandinavian cooking… this will be for next week…
Need some adventures, rather than comfort food for me.
3 Likes
We are fine on foodstuffs but I’m used to company.
1 Like
I have a huge pile of dinner party napkins to iron but keep thinking, “Why?” Will eventually get around to them. It’s kind of comforting to have a pleasant project out there. (I actually like ironing.)
2 Likes
Frozen onions do brown eventually but it’s best to thaw and drain them first. Even then, they need to cook a long time. You can’t squeeze the thawed dice like you would spinach, unless you’re okay with sauteed onion mush.
1 Like
14 months ago, my old fridge died and I lost about half its contents. I resolved not to overstock the freezer, but we all know the dicey fate of resolutions! I just thawed and cooked a package of ground beef from last May, and that was in the FRONT of the freezer compartment of the replacement refrigerator. So I’m looking forward to discovering what other forgotten ingredients it contains, and hoping they are still edible.
3 Likes
I can help you a bit there. Lots of cheese. Lütefisk is not for people - it’s nondescript white fish (often cod) marinated in gasoline on someone’s back porch for the winter. The majority of Norwegians and Swedes won’t even eat it. In my experience Norwegians and Swedes end up with quite different products from similar ingredients. Reindeer (“Rudolph”) is quite good but not distinctly different from venison. Norwegians seem to do better with mussels than Swedes while Swedes do better with chicken. That’s all I remember, about food anyway.
2 Likes
Haha! Not a plate that you want to cook? I like marinated herring in vinegar in Stockholm. Cheeses i’ve tasted were alright.
There’s a Norwegian one that is very sweet, almost like caramel. It’s not only odd but really unpleasant.
Yes! I bought that once, think it was made from goat’s milk. I didn’t much like it either, so made a large batch of Scandinavian meatballs, and put the cheese in there. It was diluted by the other ingredients, and was pretty good, although quite rich. Hate throwing stuff out.
Two types of that cheese are discussed in detail in this episode of a podcast that’s normally about knitting. Not sure if this is the same as gjetost, which I once tried, but disliked. This was filmed a few months ago. Carlos was diagnosed with COVID-19 twelve days ago and is still very ill.
My cooking has changed in the sense that I’m feeling less flexible because I know that “borrowing” ingredients for an ad hoc meal will mean we’ve run out when it comes time to cook another that I purposely shopped for. So I’ve planned out our meals much further in advance (although not sequenced them yet) to make use of what we have and avoid returning to the store unnecessarily. My list:
We already had the farro meal yesterday and an unplanned meal of chicken thighs, couscous, and salad tonight - so only one more chicken thigh meal can be made. Next up is salmon, since it’s perishable. All the other proteins except the ham are frozen. I guess I need to prioritize according to which veggies are likely to go bad first? We also have the X factor of weekly CSA veg, which aren’t identified in advance.
Best laid plans…
2 Likes
Using veggies that need to be used first is my go-to move, which is a habit I had to develop as a result of being a CSA member.
Because you get what you get and then need to adapt, CSAs aren’t a good fit for everyone.
The main new thing for me: I’m leaning hard on the grains and beans in the pantry because our fridge and freezer storage is smaller than normal. (Our kitchen has a pretty yet impractical fridge installed by a previous home owner.) We couldn’t otherwise do 2 weeks of varied meals. I’d have to go to the store weekly.
Also I’ve had to re-embrace flour-based carbs more, like bread, tortillas, and pasta, to help me knit meals together. Without those items, I find it impractical to extend time between shopping trips and still enjoy appealing food.
Finally, it doesn’t hurt that I convinced my husband to try intermittent fasting with me starting earlier this year.
What this means in our case is that we eat two meals: lunch and dinner. It’s been fortunate because my husband has been glued to his desk for extra long hours since he began working from home, with less opportunity to get out and move around than before.
My hat’s off to those who have kids in their households. I have to imagine it is much more challenging to keep everybody fed.
Exactly! Well put. I tried not to guffaw when my husband suggested we low carb right now.
It’s tricky. I’ve had to explain some tricky new concepts, like we don’t snack on cheese slices - they need to be in bread or part of a meal. And fresh fruit is always in short supply. I try to rotate with freeze-dried, frozen, and dried.
1 Like
I’ve been buying larger amounts of fewer items, which means I have to use, say, spinach more frequently, so it doesn’t go bad. On the one hand, that’s made me strive for a lot of variety in my spinach preparations. On the other hand, now I’m sick of spinach. So I need to get used to buying a wider variety of smaller amounts of stuff.
4 Likes
