CORON-19 Virus shutdown, day 1
A lot of things were shut down in the past few days, due to the CORON-19 virus. I don't have to tell you that, but what I do want to tell you is what that meant for me.
Being a hard-core extrovert, and having to give up nearly all my human interaction, is a little scary.
Rather than go crazy with my hubby and two teens, cat, dog, bearded dragon and geckos in the house for weeks, I decided to cope by doing a few things, including blogging what I make for meals.
You dont have to read it. But what I'm hoping this can do for you is to give you some humor, some validation (since you're likely going through something too right about now), and if you're forced to stay home and away from people, and you rarely cook, what are you going to do about meals? Maybe you can use some of my ideas.
Here is my situation. I've been working toward a pastry chef certificate. This means I had to take sanitation, cookery, and baking classes along with some fancy food decorating stuff like chocolate and sugar centerpieces.
So I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Here is what I generally have at the house, most of the time. And I do forget to buy things and have to substitute, which you will undoubtedly see. Hey no one is perfect. I also talk and write a lot so feel free to skip this part.
Near the stove:
Salt and pepper cellars. (This means tiny marble black and white bowls that I pour kosher salt, and ground pepper into) This is so I have the two spices that I use in nearly everything right by the stove.
Sugar in a little covered glass bowl. (I fling water around when I wash dishes. Sugar and water like to absorb together, hence the covered bowl) This is really for coffee, but on occasion i need a little bit of sugar for, say, spaghetti sauce.
Sugar/cinnamon in a covered glass bowl. Because cinnamon toast.
Olive oil in a glass container. This is for cooking.
Olive oil in a spray can. This is for greasing most baked goods, as well as for making an egg. I don't want too much oil on my fried eggs. Imagine.....ew.
Butter in a glass butter thingy. What are those called?
A plate with: Honey, garlic salt, himalayan salt, soy sauce
Lots of jars filled with random spatulas, mixing spoons, torches (old stove), scissors, and tongs.
Spaghetti and other noodles, rice.
In the fridge:
Eggs, salted butter, unsalted butter, cheeses, milks (everybody drinks a different kind), veggies and fruits from imperfect foods, mustards, jellies, mirin, mayo, and leftovers.
Top of fridge:
Cereals, chips
On the spice island:
Every spice known to man, including cilantro because I needed it for a recipe. (dont like it)
Extra brown sugar, flour, sugar, oats, and raisins. (When I was at the office i made baked goods and sold them for charity. Miss this already.)
In the pantry:
All kinds of specialty flours and sugars, more sugar, brown sugar, flour, raisins, whole wheat flour, molasses, shortening, and popcorn kernels. In a different pantry i have baking cocoa, leavenings like baking soda and powder, and corn starch. Next to my mixer I have chocolate chips and powdered sugar as well as fancy baking and decorating tools like pastry bags and food color gels, etc.
On the table:
Potatoes, onions, and citrus and apples from imperfect foods in bowls.Lemons and grapes too.
In the freezer:
Fish, meats, popsicles (we are all big fans), ice cream, more leftovers, and some random things like frozen pizza they gave us by mistake at kroger clicklist. No one really wanted it but its good for an emergency I guess?
Nuts.
In the bread drawer:
Honey wheat bread, whole wheat and regular tortillas, bagels, and some 15 grain bread that hubby eats.
In the cupboard:
Tomato paste, stocks, bread crumbs, spaghetti sauces, jarred peppers and artichokes, jellies, tuna fish, soups, coffee beans and filters, hot cocoa, tea.
I say all this to say -- if you're gonna cook you have to have some ingredients. If you dont have all this dont' worry. I've collected over the years and built my food empire as I go. You likely have a neighbor who cooks and can borrow from them. Chances are the extra tortillas you keep could be traded for the extra hamburger they keep. We gotta help each other out, right?
Don't know your neighbor? go walk your dog or kids at the park. I'm betting that most of us are going to get cabin fever in about a week. Get to know a neighbor, its fun.
Okay so what did I make for dinner?
In a nutshell:
Fish sandwiches
Potato salad
Creamed spinach
Butter / garlic noodles
Brownies for dessert
Let me explain:
Last night, in an effort to make sure we can be holed up for a couple weeks, hubby bought fish patties and sub buns. He asked if we could have fish sandwiches for dinner.
When your hubby does this, you just thank him and make fish sandwiches. Keeps the peace.
So with that, I had had a craving for potato salad the other day, so I had left over potato salad.
Spinach was an imperfect food that needed to be eaten nearly immediately and I had some leftover cream cheese.
Garlic noodles are a kid thing. They hate nearly all foods. Son actually also made himself chicken nuggets, so he could have cupcakes from the day before. (A rule in our house, since there are always desserts, is you have to eat a protein before you can say you ate dinner, and then you can have dessert. Otherwise he'd eat chips all day and then cookies!)
Daughter ate the fish sandwiches.
Brownies were a boxed mix that I got also from imperfect foods. Pretty good stuff, actually.
I mention Imperfect foods and Kroger clicklist for this reason: we are all busy and we all take shortcuts. I am probably busier than most people with my culinary classes, charity baking, baking for orders, martial arts classes, teaching martial arts classes, and full time job downtown.
This shortcut means I don't have to spend time in crowds of people who have no idea what they want, are dealing with kids whining for candy, and who cannot remove their noses from phones. I know my stressors and they all seem to be at crowded grocery stores. So i give myself permission not to become a raving lunatic and just order my food online, then either pick it up (kroger) or save some of the environment and have some of it delivered (imperfect foods).
You can do what you want of course, but I love the convenience. Love it.
Anyway, so how did I make these things?
The fish patties tell you to bake them at 450 F oven for about 16 mins. I just put them on a foil lined baking sheet so i had less clean up to do and i rotated them half way. They turned out really crunchy and its no wonder hubby bought them. Yum!
Potato salad:
I took about 5 of the imperfect foods potatoes and peeled them over a paper towel (easy cleanup) and then boiled them. Meantime I boiled 5 eggs for about 10 minutes (boil water first, then add eggs). I ran cold water over them then peeled them, so I got the right consistency for the yolks.
I chopped the cooked potatoes and cooked eggs and put them ina big bowl. Scooped in mayo, added salt, pepper, celery salt. Then I cut up a leftover chunk of onion, pretty small or it gets hot, and then a rib of celery. Mixed it all together and because it was hot, threw that in the freezer while I made the rest of dinner the other night.
Creamed spinach:
Whole leaves were boiled in a big pot of salted water. Drained. Add cream cheese and let it melt. Mix into the spinach, added salt to taste. Works better if you chop the spinach, it turns out. Maybe do this after its cooked (carefully) or its hard to get the spinach drained from the pot.
That's about it. Like I said the brownies were a boxed mix, very easy, and i used olive oil cooking spray in the pan. I would have added a bit of flour however to the oiled pan, because it kind of stuck.
We didnt care really, i mean brownies right out of the pan? Awesome.
Have a good day, everyone. Stay safe and healthy!
Vicky
Being a hard-core extrovert, and having to give up nearly all my human interaction, is a little scary.
Rather than go crazy with my hubby and two teens, cat, dog, bearded dragon and geckos in the house for weeks, I decided to cope by doing a few things, including blogging what I make for meals.
You dont have to read it. But what I'm hoping this can do for you is to give you some humor, some validation (since you're likely going through something too right about now), and if you're forced to stay home and away from people, and you rarely cook, what are you going to do about meals? Maybe you can use some of my ideas.
Here is my situation. I've been working toward a pastry chef certificate. This means I had to take sanitation, cookery, and baking classes along with some fancy food decorating stuff like chocolate and sugar centerpieces.
So I have a few tricks up my sleeve. Here is what I generally have at the house, most of the time. And I do forget to buy things and have to substitute, which you will undoubtedly see. Hey no one is perfect. I also talk and write a lot so feel free to skip this part.
Near the stove:
Salt and pepper cellars. (This means tiny marble black and white bowls that I pour kosher salt, and ground pepper into) This is so I have the two spices that I use in nearly everything right by the stove.
Sugar in a little covered glass bowl. (I fling water around when I wash dishes. Sugar and water like to absorb together, hence the covered bowl) This is really for coffee, but on occasion i need a little bit of sugar for, say, spaghetti sauce.
Sugar/cinnamon in a covered glass bowl. Because cinnamon toast.
Olive oil in a glass container. This is for cooking.
Olive oil in a spray can. This is for greasing most baked goods, as well as for making an egg. I don't want too much oil on my fried eggs. Imagine.....ew.
Butter in a glass butter thingy. What are those called?
A plate with: Honey, garlic salt, himalayan salt, soy sauce
Lots of jars filled with random spatulas, mixing spoons, torches (old stove), scissors, and tongs.
Spaghetti and other noodles, rice.
In the fridge:
Eggs, salted butter, unsalted butter, cheeses, milks (everybody drinks a different kind), veggies and fruits from imperfect foods, mustards, jellies, mirin, mayo, and leftovers.
Top of fridge:
Cereals, chips
On the spice island:
Every spice known to man, including cilantro because I needed it for a recipe. (dont like it)
Extra brown sugar, flour, sugar, oats, and raisins. (When I was at the office i made baked goods and sold them for charity. Miss this already.)
In the pantry:
All kinds of specialty flours and sugars, more sugar, brown sugar, flour, raisins, whole wheat flour, molasses, shortening, and popcorn kernels. In a different pantry i have baking cocoa, leavenings like baking soda and powder, and corn starch. Next to my mixer I have chocolate chips and powdered sugar as well as fancy baking and decorating tools like pastry bags and food color gels, etc.
On the table:
Potatoes, onions, and citrus and apples from imperfect foods in bowls.Lemons and grapes too.
In the freezer:
Fish, meats, popsicles (we are all big fans), ice cream, more leftovers, and some random things like frozen pizza they gave us by mistake at kroger clicklist. No one really wanted it but its good for an emergency I guess?
Nuts.
In the bread drawer:
Honey wheat bread, whole wheat and regular tortillas, bagels, and some 15 grain bread that hubby eats.
In the cupboard:
Tomato paste, stocks, bread crumbs, spaghetti sauces, jarred peppers and artichokes, jellies, tuna fish, soups, coffee beans and filters, hot cocoa, tea.
I say all this to say -- if you're gonna cook you have to have some ingredients. If you dont have all this dont' worry. I've collected over the years and built my food empire as I go. You likely have a neighbor who cooks and can borrow from them. Chances are the extra tortillas you keep could be traded for the extra hamburger they keep. We gotta help each other out, right?
Don't know your neighbor? go walk your dog or kids at the park. I'm betting that most of us are going to get cabin fever in about a week. Get to know a neighbor, its fun.
Okay so what did I make for dinner?
In a nutshell:
Fish sandwiches
Potato salad
Creamed spinach
Butter / garlic noodles
Brownies for dessert
Let me explain:
Last night, in an effort to make sure we can be holed up for a couple weeks, hubby bought fish patties and sub buns. He asked if we could have fish sandwiches for dinner.
When your hubby does this, you just thank him and make fish sandwiches. Keeps the peace.
So with that, I had had a craving for potato salad the other day, so I had left over potato salad.
Spinach was an imperfect food that needed to be eaten nearly immediately and I had some leftover cream cheese.
Garlic noodles are a kid thing. They hate nearly all foods. Son actually also made himself chicken nuggets, so he could have cupcakes from the day before. (A rule in our house, since there are always desserts, is you have to eat a protein before you can say you ate dinner, and then you can have dessert. Otherwise he'd eat chips all day and then cookies!)
Daughter ate the fish sandwiches.
Brownies were a boxed mix that I got also from imperfect foods. Pretty good stuff, actually.
I mention Imperfect foods and Kroger clicklist for this reason: we are all busy and we all take shortcuts. I am probably busier than most people with my culinary classes, charity baking, baking for orders, martial arts classes, teaching martial arts classes, and full time job downtown.
This shortcut means I don't have to spend time in crowds of people who have no idea what they want, are dealing with kids whining for candy, and who cannot remove their noses from phones. I know my stressors and they all seem to be at crowded grocery stores. So i give myself permission not to become a raving lunatic and just order my food online, then either pick it up (kroger) or save some of the environment and have some of it delivered (imperfect foods).
You can do what you want of course, but I love the convenience. Love it.
Anyway, so how did I make these things?
The fish patties tell you to bake them at 450 F oven for about 16 mins. I just put them on a foil lined baking sheet so i had less clean up to do and i rotated them half way. They turned out really crunchy and its no wonder hubby bought them. Yum!
Potato salad:
I took about 5 of the imperfect foods potatoes and peeled them over a paper towel (easy cleanup) and then boiled them. Meantime I boiled 5 eggs for about 10 minutes (boil water first, then add eggs). I ran cold water over them then peeled them, so I got the right consistency for the yolks.
I chopped the cooked potatoes and cooked eggs and put them ina big bowl. Scooped in mayo, added salt, pepper, celery salt. Then I cut up a leftover chunk of onion, pretty small or it gets hot, and then a rib of celery. Mixed it all together and because it was hot, threw that in the freezer while I made the rest of dinner the other night.
Creamed spinach:
Whole leaves were boiled in a big pot of salted water. Drained. Add cream cheese and let it melt. Mix into the spinach, added salt to taste. Works better if you chop the spinach, it turns out. Maybe do this after its cooked (carefully) or its hard to get the spinach drained from the pot.
That's about it. Like I said the brownies were a boxed mix, very easy, and i used olive oil cooking spray in the pan. I would have added a bit of flour however to the oiled pan, because it kind of stuck.
We didnt care really, i mean brownies right out of the pan? Awesome.
Have a good day, everyone. Stay safe and healthy!
Vicky
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