Food in the time of a pandemic

[suzilightning]

2 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Ruffed grouse can be one of the most difficult small game to bag.

You rarely notice them when they're at rest — when they take flight, the loud noise startles you so much that they're gone before you can recompose yourself. LOL 

They're tasty though, when you do get lucky.

I had to laugh....

we are currently documenting a very, VERY friendly ruffed grouse.  Like this bird will walk up to you and want to have a conversation.  He's too sweet to dispatch.

[Porthos]

2 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

... root beer floats with coffee ice cream ...

Now I've got to add root beer and coffee ice cream to my shopping list.

[heidih]

Too many 'taters Warden , Washington on May 1

Edited May 3, 2020 by heidih (log)

[Tri2Cook]

5 hours ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

Ruffed grouse can be one of the most difficult small game to bag.

Where I live, bush chickens aren't all that difficult. When I used to go out to the bush with my wife so she could pick blueberries, they'd often stand there and look at me until I could almost grab them before they'd take off. If I'd been interested in shooting them instead of seeing how close I could get, it would have been an easy job. I don't know how many times I've had one stroll into the road when I'm out biking and just stop in my path and watch me get closer. I always assumed they weren't very bright, maybe the small amount of people living here just hasn't given them reason to learn to be nervous. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

5 hours ago, KennethT said:

Many years ago, I had grouse in a scandinavian restaurant in NYC.  I loved it. But finding it in a supermarket? Fuhgedaboudit... maybe you could find it in a meat market that specializes in game  - like Ottomanelli in Manhattan, but I haven't been there in a really long time.

 

Three or four miles from here Griggstown Quail Farm raises and sells pheasant, quail, and partridge.  But without grouse I'm sure the recipe wouldn't be the same.

 

And unfortunately six to eight miles round trip is more than I can do.

 

[weinoo]

3 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

@weinoo, old school linguini and clams for me means specifically babysitting my younger brother. Whenever our parents went out we made linguini with white clam sauce  and paired it with a nice bottle of coke over ice. So canned clams are a nostalgia food for me, and pandemic cooking is all about nostalgia. The "why" of that eludes me. Perhaps sheltering in place gives me permission to buy and eat things that are usually not on my radar. In my case that means date nut bread with cream cheese, root beer floats with coffee ice cream, and, in my dreams, Papaya King. 

 

I seem to be susceptible to all kinds of suggestions lately. I've spent years whining (to myself naturally, as no one else wants to hear it as much as I do apparently) about the lack of hard shell clam varieties on the west coast, so perhaps this is the therapy I need. What brand of canned clams do you like best? I haven't bought them in a million years.

 

I might confess to even having made the old Progresso canned white or red clam sauce(there was one, right?) ; heat and serve!  But when it's from "scratch," I always liked the Snow's clams...I was surprised when purchasing the pandemic clams to see that Snow's is now...

!

a Bumble Bee brand!  There's also a brand I like from Maine...Bar Harbour.

 

3 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

One day a sleeve of Ritz crackers and then there’s this — straight out of the jar. 

 

You're not that far away from a Gibson, @Anna N!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

15 minutes ago, weinoo said:

You're not that far away from a Gibson, @Anna N!

 

Or from Momofuku.

 

[Anna N]

15 minutes ago, weinoo said:

You're not that far away from a Gibson, @Anna N!

I will take that under advisement. 

[Katie Meadow]

35 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

I might confess to even having made the old Progresso canned white or red clam sauce(there was one, right?) ; heat and serve!  But when it's from "scratch," I always liked the Snow's clams...I was surprised when purchasing the pandemic clams to see that Snow's is now...

!

a Bumble Bee brand!  There's also a brand I like from Maine...Bar Harbour.

 

 

 

Yep, I remember the Progresso canned white clam sauce very well. I don't remember the red one. I think my mom would buy the white in a pinch. 

[heidih]

1 hour ago, weinoo said:

 

But when it's from "scratch," I always liked the Snow's clams...I was surprised when purchasing the pandemic clams to see that Snow's is now...

!

a Bumble Bee brand!  There's also a brand I like from Maine...Bar Harbour.

 

It is a tough industry. I grew up when everybody had friends whose father was "at sea" on a tuna boat for extended periods, or whose female relatives worked in a cannery.  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-07-me-1290-story.html

[weinoo]

17 hours ago, heidih said:

It is a tough industry. I grew up when everybody had friends whose father was "at sea" on a tuna boat for extended periods, or whose female relatives worked in a cannery.  https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-02-07-me-1290-story.html

 

As someone who has visited, and loves visiting places such as Gloucester, MA (home of the NON-FICTIONAL Andrea Gail), and who has some acquaintances who fish as a job, I can attest to the fact that the life of a commercial fisherman or fisherwoman is tough...squared.

Edited May 4, 2020 by weinoo
Because I called the Andrea Gail fictional when it is real (log)

[chromedome]

20 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

As someone who has visited, and loves visiting places such as Gloucester, MA (home of the fictional Andrea Gail), and who has some acquaintances who fish as a job, I can attest to the fact that the life of a commercial fisherman or fisherwoman is tough...squared.

Yup. That's why my father left Newfoundland and joined the navy.

[weinoo]

Good move. Plus a pension, most likely.

[chromedome]

Just now, weinoo said:

Good move. Plus a pension, most likely.

Yes. Without it my now-widowed mother would be in rather straitened circumstances.

[weinoo]

Anyone in public service certainly deserves to live without straitened (sic) circumstances.  And we thank you for his service!

[suzilightning]

Go over the drawbridge from Diamond Beach into Cape May across Mud Hen Gut and there is the Snow's /Doxsee processing plant.   

I have opened more than my share of scallops growing up as well as clams and oysters.....

[weinoo]

Hope those scallops didn't go into cans!

[Nyleve Baar]

Driving to the dump one day a couple of years ago a grouse committed suicide by flying into my pickup truck. I continued to the dump, unloaded my crap, and then decided to pick the dead grouse up off the side of the road. I took it directly over to a friend who knows how to deal with these things. He did a magic trick that somehow amazingly left me with two lovely, boneless breasts by standing on the wings and pulling up on, I dunno, the feet? Can't remember. Anyway - a few hours later they were wrapped in bacon and cooked. Delicious roadkill dinner. I am very proud of that moment, actually.

 

[Smithy]

3 minutes ago, Nyleve Baar said:

Driving to the dump one day a couple of years ago a grouse committed suicide by flying into my pickup truck. I continued to the dump, unloaded my crap, and then decided to pick the dead grouse up off the side of the road. I took it directly over to a friend who knows how to deal with these things. He did a magic trick that somehow amazingly left me with two lovely, boneless breasts by standing on the wings and pulling up on, I dunno, the feet? Can't remember. Anyway - a few hours later they were wrapped in bacon and cooked. Delicious roadkill dinner. I am very proud of that moment, actually.

 

 

I know of hunters who ONLY eat the breast, and they do the trick that you describe. I think that's a great way to use the roadkilled grouse.

[liuzhou]

Road kill grouse were a staple in my family when I was a kid. There were a lot of suicidal grouse where I grew up in Scotland.

[heidih]

I'd read about the whole grouse hunting culture in romantic novels about the Scottish countryside. but who knew-  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/19/scottish-grouse-moor-owners-face-licensing-within-five-years

 

Roadkill harvest of larger critters like deer is a thing right? Free food. 

 

My college bestie cruised the roads in her Texas hometown in the early hours to collect dissection specimens. She is now a wonderful ,medical doctor.

[KennethT]

I wish I could run into some grouse around here!  By me, the best I could ask for is some pigeon - but not the tasty pigeon... Just the air-rats...

[gfweb]

On 4/30/2020 at 2:32 PM, liamsaunt said:

 

I cooked them wrong--not long enough.  They tasted delicious but we were both terribly ill later that evening.  I am thinking of pickling them.  Or I might make a recipe I found on Food 52 for a miso sesame fiddlehead.

 

So, the food share arrived.  It is a ton of food!  I could not fit it all in one picture. I am using the haddock tonight to make moqueca.  My nephew does not eat fish unless it is fried so he is having a couple of the burgers.  All the other meats are in the freezer for later on.  I gave my mother the cauliflower (because I already have one), the carrots (again, because I have lots already), the potatoes, half of the clementines, and the evil green bell pepper you see lurking in the back.  None of us eat deli meat, but my brother in law does, so that's in the freezer to give him when I see him next. 

 

 

Banana or plantains

[Kim Shook]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Banana or plantains

@Shelby, get Ronnie on this please.

[Martin Fisher]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

Roadkill harvest of larger critters like deer is a thing right? Free food. 

 

Yes, but best if they're only hit in the head and it's a fresh kill.

I wasted time on a MESS other than that one time and I'll never do it again.

I'll spare y'all the gory details.

 

Any roadkill is best when very fresh (obviously) and only hit in the head.

 

ETA: We've devoured deer, turkey, grouse, pheasant, etc. that were roadkill — only (or mostly) hit in the head.

Edited May 4, 2020 by DiggingDogFarm (log)