Porthos

I did find 2 nice bulbs of garlic at Stater Bros. 😀 They only had one 12-pack of caffeine-free Diet Coke. I needed to buy 3 to get the sale price. Since Diet Coke/caffeine-free Diet Coke is the only thing my wife drinks (yeah, no water, etc) I may have to go back out sooner than next Wednesday.

I'm doing better but I still have trouble making meatless dinners. I made a few business trips to Alberta in the late 80s/early 90s. I would have moved there in an instant.

My Sweetie and I had reason to be in Orange County Thursday afternoon. We were near enough to the Westminster Costco Business Center to make a brief trip there. They have a few items there that we can't get anywhere else. *While I was spending one weekday night at my FIL's house in Anaheim going to the CBC was just a quick trip. Not so now. We are fond of popchips, and can't get the 30-pack of snack size bags anywhere else. Got those. I keep the 1 oz bags of Planter's Peanuts around. Besides being a snack food for my DW and me, my 6 y/o grandson likes them. It's a treat for him. The very best price to be found is there. Got those. Tillamok cheese makes a snack size cheese out of their medium cheddar. Got a fresh bag of those. We were able to get vinyl exam gloves. Our preference, nitrile, have been impossible to find. Besides masks, we glove up when shopping. This morning, I did my semi-weekly shopping during the seniors hours and got everything on my list except plain white rice. I don't want a 10 pound bag. I've been restocking our disaster food supplies and want rice for that. Our disaster food is based upon not being able to get into our house and having to camp outside for 3 days. Because California's shelter-in-place order allows for grocery shopping, food being one of the 16 essential services, our meals do not reflect being in the pandemic. If our supermarket didn't offer the seniors hour, I would probably rethink how often I shopped; My Sweetie and I both have multiple additional-risk factors. She's mostly staying in, enjoying the major change in her life after being laid off last month due to the pandemic. As I've stated up-thread, this is most likely the start of her retirement. After the initial "hoarding" buying our supermarket was able to get the produce department stocked back up within a couple of weeks. The big surprise for me is that lack of fresh garlic. I was forced to buy jarred garlic this week because I really wanted to try a new recipe, Spaghetti with olive oil and garlic. I made it last night and added a 1/2 pound of shrimp. That and a green salad made for a tasty dinner. I need to edit the recipe to remind me to use EVOO next time, just to lift it up a bit more. After my trip later this morning to Stater Bros I'm going to shoot to not shop for at least 5 days this time. * My FIL went into a care facility 3 1/2 years ago. We had been spending Saturday nights there. I also spent one weekday night there. We agreed to do this so that he would go into the care facility. He was needing 24-hour care. His prognosis when he went in had him passing away from his cancer in the next 20 months or so. Late last summer, at my prodding, the decision was made to sell his house. As of the end of January we no longer needed to stay in the house. He's very frail, 100% bedridden, but he's still alive, and his mind is still there.

@MetsFan5 😂😂😂😂 Thank you.

@chromedome Both of mine were older. I was pleased when the last one failed, giving me an excuse to buy something else.

I've owned 2 foodSavers. I didn't use them that much because: 1) they weighed a lot for what they were, and 2) they were way too fiddly for my tastes. I bought this vacuum sealer some months ago and have been very happy with it. Much lighter and not fiddly. For me fiddly was having to carefully get the nozzle into the bag and not have it shift while closing the machine. This doesn't have a nozzle, just the channel you put the bag top into. That's a great tip. Thank you.

I salt my pasta water, but I vary how much depending on the pasta and what it's being paired with. I add the salt after the water has come to a boil. Scandal: I put in a splash of olive oil to help prevent boil over.

When I was still coking in my ren faire kitchens I used the towel trick for 15" x 20" board when I was breaking down larger cuts of meat before cooking. I used a bath towel that had the added advantage of soaking up the blood runoff.

Poly. RE slipping: Poly boards have varying degrees of texturing. Not related to dough slippage, I only buy poly boards with built-in anti-slip features so they won't move around on the counter.

My Sweetie and I are re-watching the seasons available on Netflix. Even though I'm not really a baker I've learned something from egullet that applies to watching the show. Bakers don't understand how their practice bakes at home worked but now their dough is too slack or too dry. I figure that that's because of the variance of hydration of the flours they're using. I like Prue Leith way better than Mary Berry.

@heidih I think our proximity to both Baja and the Mexican mainland, and the overall makeup of our population influence the availability and cost of Mexican produce. ETA I still remember an acquaintance of mine who was raised in Orange County, then made her home in Virginia telling about going into a Mexican restaurant in Virginia. She ordered Chile Rellenos. The rellanos they served her were made with green bell peppers. She was horrified and became hesitant to order ethic foods in places she didn't know after that.

No cast iron pieces for ren faire kitchens. We cook backstage and use stainless steel pots, non-stick skillets and such.

The discussion up-thread about no-knead bread got me interested. I don't normally bake but it sounded interesting and I was able to buy yeast. Then I read through the recipe and discovered that I don't have a vessel I can bake it in. Since California is doing the shelter-in-place thing, I can't really try to find anything. (Please don't suggest buying something on-line; no funds for something new). So I will have to file making this bread under "something for the future."

Thanks. Unfortunately there's no CSO in our home.

Since long before COVID-19, every time I think about trying to order groceries I have the same negative reaction. I don't want selecting my produce. For those of you who ordered food before this pandemic, has the quality of produce changed. Were you happy with the produce before this pandemic.

Yesterday San Bernardino County, the largest in the contiguous 48 states, made wearing masks that cover your nose and mouth mandatory. So when I venture out for groceries tomorrow during the seniors hour (my DW asked me to picked up some asparagus for our daughter who lives locally) I'll be wearing the latest fashion "craze." We have a few masks left, and a friend is sewing my DW and me fabric masks. My Sweetie has already looked up how to keep the fabric masks disinfected. My first attempt at a quiche was overall successful. Needed a touch more salt.

We were able to do our Costco shopping this afternoon so we're set until sometime next week. The parts of the quiche have been cooked/baked and I'll start assembling it in about 5 minutes. I'm 66, been cooking for over 50 years, and yet this is my first quiche ever. I'm using Julia Child's basic recipe from her book The Way To Cook.

Regular grocery shopping done. Everything either disinfected or put into quarantine until Friday. I picked up a pound of asparagus. I'm thinking a bacon-asparagus-cheddar quiche for dinner, pending my Sweetie's approval. I'll use a frozen ready-to-bake pie shell. It was for a blueberry pie that never happened. I found hand sanitizer so I picked up a bottle. I have to go to Vons (Safeway) for some 12-packs of C/F Diet Coke in a few minutes. If I can shop at Costco this afternoon I'll be able to stay out of the stores until sometime next week.

Having lots of time to think about dinner gave me time to try a new-to-me recipe, Lentils and Barley with Cumin. It will accompany a NY steak souv vide at 133F then seared, and some carrots. I'm trying to do better about the whole shelter in place thing. I've stayed in since Saturday morning. I'm retired but I usually get out of the house at least once a day so staying in multiple days is hard, even when it's necessary. Tomorrow morning will find me grocery shopping during the seniors hour. Later I have to go to Costco pharmacy to pick up a prescription. If there's a line to get into the store I'll just get escorted to the pharmacy, otherwise I'll do the little bit of shopping I need to do as well. I'll be adding wearing a mask. Non-food comment. We found out yesterday that our vacation plans, booked last July, have been scuttled by COVID-19. I can deal with a bit of disappointment. I'm not fighting for my life, just not going fishing.

Something that I've noticed while shopping for groceries has to do with keeping your social distance. There seems to be a basic correlation between age and keeping your distance. People that have lived several decades appear to take it much more seriously, whereas say 30 year olds and younger are a lot more likely to be ignoring it. It makes me appreciate the seniors time slots all the more.

@weinoo I may have obscured my basic question of sanitizing versus disinfecting packaged goods I'm bringing into my home.

One thing that is confusing me is how the terms sanitize and disinfect are seeming to be tossed around* as if they were on and the same. I have been going to the level of disinfecting everything I bring home from the grocery store save fresh produce. I'm washing that with Dawn. The warnings I've seen against that seem to ignore the fact that, just like doing the dishes, it will be rinsed off of the produce. Can anyone tell me if sanitizing is enough? * in various articles on line that are related to the pandemic.

Her work ID identified her as an RN. It's possible it's work-related.