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Food in the time of a pandemic


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54 minutes ago, MokaPot said:

Thanks, @liuzhou for the tip about the powdered milk (for a more custardy yogurt). Do you have any particular brand that you can recommend? TIA.

 

Good luck on finding powdered milk.  Possibly some stores have restocked.  King Arthur Flour filled my back order of powdered milk a couple days ago.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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11 hours ago, MokaPot said:

Hi @Smithy Thanks! Yes, I made it in that Ball jar. Recipe (I have no food thermometer):

 

1/4 cup Mountain High whole milk yogurt

3 cups whole milk

 

Heat milk on stove until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat. Let milk cool until it's "baby bath" temperature. Mix yogurt & milk together. Pour into Ball jar. When you put on the jar lid, flip the flat piece upside-down so it's not air-tight. Put in oven, no heat except for the oven light. 5-6 hours.

 

Did you strain it?

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I placed an online order for delivery from a third local grocery, which was supposed to arrive on Wednesday.  For whatever reason, they delivered it yesterday.  Luckily it was primarily shelf stable staples so not a problem.  Many, many substitutions.  I ordered some DeCecco pasta for my nephew, and they delivered a brand I have never heard of instead.  I hope it is good because now I have six pounds of it.  

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14 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Dinner preparations tonight are almost funny.  Sad, but almost funny.  To go with the candele that I made last night, the plan is a recipe of sugo alla Bolognese from The Romagnolis' Table (p50ff).  Things started off OK.  I double ground the beef chuck and prepared the battuto.  But the first onion I grabbed was rotten.  The second onion was half rotten, maybe three quarters.  In normal times I would have pitched them both.  These aren't normal times.

 

The onion was unbelievably gross so I decided to take out the trash.  However when I went to the hall closet to get a fresh grocery bag for the trashcan I saw a cockroach.  This is one of only two closets in my apartment which does not contain foodstuffs.  I freaked out.  It took a while but I gave the beast the happy dispatch.

 

Then -- why is there always a then? -- a shelf of my refrigerator fell out.  Everything on the floor.  Remarkably nothing broke.  I had to do some metal work to get the shelf reseated.  Then, since one of the kitchen drawers was overfull, I decided to relocate my Matfer chocolate spatula in with the other chocolate making stuff.  My skin is friable, as I may have mentioned, and I tore my arm open on a piece of cardboard.  I stood bleeding on the kitchen floor.  Mostly in front of the refrigerator.  I hope not in the ragu.

 

It's still a good two hours before dinner.  My lovely candele have now dried and cracked.  I understand candele are traditionally broken before cooking though I had hoped to leave these candele whole.  Is that too much to ask?

 

This qualifies for the caption "And then that happened".

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eGullet member #80.

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I blame @Ann_T for my halibut lunacy. Her images had me craving so I plunked down $24.99/lb. for Northern halibut (fresh) Didn't indulge in any junk food. Had to pull my pants up several times. The new "weight loss plan" CV-19 eating,

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20 hours ago, TicTac said:

edit - @Anna N - I was at Ambrosia's the other day and they had plenty of frozen organic veg - if you need, I can pick some up and we can figure out a transport method to get them over to you...

That is so very kind of you but please don’t worry about it I can live without frozen veg for quite some time. I have other vegetables and I managed to get some canned corn. I am positive the shelves will be restocked very shortly. But again I do thank you for your kind offer. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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20 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@TicTac  Where ever did you find lobster for $9 a pound?

I nearly drove my daughter to distraction when I mentioned this at 11 o’clock last night! She was threatening to go on break in the supermarkets looking for lobster.

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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In the interest of using up leftovers, I made three small shepherd's pies today, using leftover meat loaf. I figure shepherd's pie uses browned ground beef, so why shouldn't I use crumbled meat loaf, no matter it's half beef and half pork? I stirred in some leftover English peas, diced and boiled two or three carrots, and stirred that all together with (forgive me, cooking gods) a can of cream of mushroom soup. In all fairness, if I had had beef stock, I'd have made a beef gravy. On next week's agenda: beef stock. 

 

Mashed the potatoes, stirred in a cup or so of grated cheese (I know it's not traditional, but I like it), and assembled three small six-inch pies. One is in the freezer; one will be dinner tonight; the third I'll deliver to my elderly lady I'm checking on regularly.

 

Tomorrow I'm using leftover ham to make a quiche. 

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Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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5 minutes ago, Shelby said:

You can bet @liuzhou won't be breaking into your house.   Throw in the GBP's and you'll rule out a whole bunch more.

Yeeeww.  Those things are not coming into my house. 

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Just now, Shelby said:

Think of them as a deterrent.  Like mothballs. 🤷‍♀️

But but but…… Who am I trying to keep out?

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Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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40 minutes ago, Anna N said:

That is so very kind of you but please don’t worry about it I can live without frozen veg for quite some time. I have other vegetables and I managed to get some canned corn. I am positive the shelves will be restocked very shortly. But again I do thank you for your kind offer. 

 

Don't hesitate - happy to help if I can.

 

39 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I nearly drove my daughter to distraction when I mentioned this at 11 o’clock last night! She was threatening to go on break in the supermarkets looking for lobster.

 

From what I hear many of the Chinese supermarkets are offering great pricing on live lobsters - Heard T&T had them for $1 less than what I paid!

 

Also ended up getting some live BC little neck clams, cooked up and frozen for future pasta.

 

 

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26 minutes ago, TicTac said:

From what I hear many of the Chinese supermarkets are offering great pricing on live lobsters - Heard T&T had them for $1 less than what I paid!

 

Ditto that.  99 Ranch has them in their advert for this weekend @ $7.99/lb.   

Very sad for the fishing industry since their shipments to Asia diminished to almost nothing some time ago and now restaurant sales are pretty much zero as well. 

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7 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

Ditto that.  99 Ranch has them in their advert for this weekend @ $7.99/lb.   

Very sad for the fishing industry since their shipments to Asia diminished to almost nothing some time ago and now restaurant sales are pretty much zero as well. 

Wow.  That is sad.  

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11 minutes ago, Shelby said:

Wow.  That is sad.  

 

Indeed.  A couple of weeks ago, prior to all our current distancing stuff, a neighbor on my Nextdoor site posted that he had wrapped up his season for spiny lobsters early and offered a very low price on his last catch to folks who were willing to pick up from his garage because there was no market for them.  I understand that a lot of the other fisherman also stopped, preferring to let the creatures grow for another year rather than harvesting something they would have to sell at a loss.

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51 minutes ago, TicTac said:

8F1DFBE8-98BF-47FD-8372-591AA4AF4ABF.thumb.jpeg.992c3bc35840cb4408a831980bd86262.jpeg

Lobster reduction poutine - cabbage and enoki mushroom - big wok hay flavours (not pictured - but then again who wants to see veggies when you can look at this!) 

 

That is an extreme closeup!!!  Whooooooaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!

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It's been getting above freezing during the day every day for over a week now so I worked to get the last of the ice and snow off of the back deck and tossed some burgers on the grill for me and the kid tonight. Still not isolating but, since my normal lifestyle is largely go to work, go to the store when necessary, go home, I've been preparing for this for years. :P Plus, my closest neighbor's house can't even be seen from my house once the leaves are on the trees so maintaining distance doesn't require any special effort from anywhere on the property. So really, the only difference to my lifestyle if they were to go to full lockdown is I wouldn't be going to work. :D

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It's kinda like wrestling a gorilla... you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is tired.

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23 minutes ago, gfweb said:

The despised green bell pepper

Not by all. I cut them up raw and use them like chips to eat salsa.

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Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

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