Food in the time of a pandemic

[gfweb]

1 minute ago, Porthos said:

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

I don't mind them if cooked.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Porthos said:

GBP'???

Green bell peppers. I see someone else already responded. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Anna N
To clarify that someone had already responded (log)

[Anna N]

 

1 hour ago, Tri2Cook said:

I've been preparing for this for years

Not to be flippant but indeed for we introverts— our time has come. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Anna N
To remove a quote that was not relevant. (log)

[gfweb]

8 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 

Not to be flippant but indeed for we introverts— our time has come. 

 

Funny, I have thought I was an introvert, and still do. But I do need contact. And I learned I'm nowhere near ready to retire.

[Tri2Cook]

Just now, Anna N said:

 

Not to be flippant but indeed for we introverts— our time has come. 

Yes it has. Who knew hermit chic would become fashionable?  I decided to take a break from just in case prep for a couple days, just didn't feel like shopping again. I'm not of the tinfoil hat variety but it seems a bit odd when the hospital suddenly brings in more beds and starts setting up an assessment area outside of the actual hospital building and people who work there say things like "we're expecting the virus to be here in two weeks" like they spoke with it's agent and there was room on it's schedule to stop here on it's way west or something. So I'll continue what prepping I plan to do next week just in case that isn't just pessimism and they know something the rest of us in town haven't been told yet.

[Anna N]

8 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Funny, I have thought I was an introvert, and still do. But I do need contact. And I learned I'm nowhere near ready to retire.

For certain we need contact. We are all social beings including we introverts. But I am noticing among my friends and my family that those who are party animals or even just very outgoing are finding the restrictions harder to bear then those of us who are accustomed to stretches of isolation. Before this virus changed things, I had direct contact with another human being  once a week (most of the time) and left my house once a week. So the isolation didn’t seem much of a change. But here’s the most surprising thing. Since the virus, I have more indirect contact with more people than ever before!  At least three hours of my day is taken up by texting, FaceTiming etc. I find it quite heartwarming on the one hand and disconcerting on the other. 😂

[liuzhou]

Hospital haute cuisine: the Michelin-star chef feeding doctors and nurses in Burgundy

 

 

 

[heidih]

Could have sworn I posted this but I can't find it. You know things are serious when WCK (Jose Andres) is delivering food to the nuns down the road.

[TicTac]

12 hours ago, KennethT said:

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

LOL

 

Full disclosure, we only have a set of 8 of our nice 'clean/white' plates and I really do not like the patterns on this one - the rest were in the dish washer, hence my attempt to avoid the eyesore that is that plate and create an EXTREME closeup!

 

[weinoo]

15 hours ago, Shelby said:

Wow.  That is sad.  

 

14 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

 

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.

 

Not sad for the lobsters, and to look on the bright side (something I've been known to do 🤣), maybe a little replenishment of the stock due to lack of harvesting will be a good thing for us all?

 

My buddy who fishes and harvests out of Wellfleet, MASS was still out there last week, but I don't know for how much longer...

 

 

 

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, TicTac said:

LOL

 

Full disclosure, we only have a set of 8 of our nice 'clean/white' plates and I really do not like the patterns on this one - the rest were in the dish washer, hence my attempt to avoid the eyesore that is that plate and create an EXTREME closeup!

 

I get it.  To be honest, if you look at a lot of my photos, the plates are chipped, and some photos have a lot of extraneous crap on the sides if I can't crop it out. Our everyday plates are over 20 years old - I got them from BB&B when I first moved into the city in 1999.  We have "nice" plates that are handmade celadon that we brought back from Thailand on our honeymoon but I'm afraid to put them in the dishwasher so we only wind up using them rarely.

[weinoo]

In the slow cooker for many hours...

 

 

Vegetables cooked for the last hour or so.  Corned beef (it was ok) and cabbage and potatoes, and carrots, and celery. Had I only had green bell pepper.

 

Begat, for lunch today...

 

 

 

Corned beef hash, with a few leftover red pepper strips added for color. Sunny side up egg for me. The reason for the egg looking like a half circle, you ask?  Significant Eater enjoys her eggs over medium, and this is the half the cook gets.

 

To be honest, I like this hash, with lots and lots of crispy bits and seasoned up, more than I liked the 1st run of corned beef for dinner.

Edited March 29, 2020 by weinoo (log)

[weinoo]

Oh, of course there was...

 

[Shelby]

I wasn't sure where to post this...gardening thread or the preserving thread or here.  Chose here.

 

All of the people that can and need jars and/or bands and lids might consider purchasing now.  I've noticed that on Amazon it's 3rd party sellers and not Amazon that have them and prices have gone WAY up.  

 

Edited to add...just like TP I'm afraid of a shortage in prime canning time.....I just want all of my EG friends to have enough supply to preserve their hard garden work.

 

Edited again to add that it looks like Walmart online has some at a decent price.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Shelby (log)

[rotuts]

Amazon , 

 

none the less 
 

wets its beak

 

for their required  %

 

for each sale

 

4 X  increase 

 

more or Amazon 

 

yes they claim to Police Gouging 

 

just not too soon.

 

and no  ,im not a hypocrite 

 

as Mr. Potato Head said 

 

in Toy Story I and II if not III

 

"" Money Money Money "

 

this is not a political statement

 

Amazon , of course , might not give these 3 d party sellers

 

their $$  or ban then forever 

 

but well   .....................

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

Had a call from a neighbor. 
 

Wondered if she could drop some PB cookies on my back steps.

 

I did not say no!

 

 

 

[Darienne]

1 minute ago, Kerry Beal said:

Had a call from a neighbor. 
 

Wondered if she could drop some PB cookies on my back steps.

 

I did not say no!

 

 

 

Oh my.  Those are beauties.

 

[Shelby]

That's so nice   Kerry, I think of you often and I hope you're taking care and have enough PPE (Covid19 has really upped my vocabulary game).  Thanks for all you do.

[Kerry Beal]

47 minutes ago, Shelby said:

That's so nice   Kerry, I think of you often and I hope you're taking care and have enough PPE (Covid19 has really upped my vocabulary game).  Thanks for all you do.

Fair bit of it in my car!

[Porthos]

@weinoo It's just the DW and me. I cooked about a 3 1/2 lb corned beef with potatoes, carrots and onions for St Patrick's Day. I vacuum sealed about half and put it into the freezer. Last night I put about 8 oz of Guinness and 8 oz of water with a teaspoon of bouillon simmering in a pan with onions and carrots, added potatoes a bit later, then added the warmed CB. It was very tasty for the second go-round. Still had about half of that left so it will be a CB hash breakfast Tuesday morning.

 

My DW, thanks to COVID 19, was laid off this past Monday. This makes thinking about meals quite different now.  Our general agreement is we'll each have breakfast and lunch as the mood strikes us, just having dinner together as usual. We're prepared for her having been laid off.

 

I've been out doing some form of grocery shopping every day this past week. My WinCo has a seniors/compromised individuals only time slot of 6:00 to 7:00 so I go then. It feels strange to not go out more often but rather shelter in place more, starting today, and be going out less.Except for fresh fruit and veggies, we're well set to have to reallyhhnker down.

[liamsaunt]

We got another grocery delivery today, probably our last from the store for some time as now the delivery windows are crazy backed up and it sounds like Instacart workers are going to strike next week. They had chicken!  I could not believe it. I also got all of the Kerrygold butter I asked for (we use a ton of butter).  The regular kind is being rationed, but my husband only likes Kerrygold. Things I asked for that were out of stock today: flour (all kinds), yeast (but I got a pound delivered from amazon at scalper prices today so am all set there), garlic, ginger, red cabbage (???), thyme, rosemary, Corn Chex (sad nephew), Annie's mac and cheese (very sad nephew), apples. I did not even try for TP as we are well stocked, or cleaning products, which I am going to need eventually but are hard to come by around here.

[ElsieD]

I have switched over to frozen vegetables as much as possible.  I don't want to eat something that has been touched by a bunch of other people.  I found frozen spinach as mentioned up thread and am happy about that.  I also have two kinds of mixed veggies, peas and corn.  Carrots I bought fresh but bagged. I need to buy a few things fresh such as herbs, on-screen peppers and green onions and also fruit but even with fruit i tend to buy the ones you have to peel.  Has anyone else converted to buying mostly frozen veg?  I should mention that I'm well aware that you can't always get what you want (to quote the Rolling Stones) but what you can't get one week is sometimes available the next.  I did try frozen beets, they were terrible which is a shame because i love them.

[BeeZee]

I have thought about the fresh fruit/veg situation since my dopey husband under normal circumstances eats grapes off the stem or cherry tomatoes out of the container without washing...I shrieked at him for that the other day when I saw him doing it again. You aren’t supposed to wash them until just before eating but I may need to intervene for his own good. I actually washed an apple with soap the other day. He said when he went shopping the produce guys were not wearing gloves. I have been thinking of going to all frozen veg except for bagged salad or things I can peel, like carrots and cukes.

Regarding beets, they sell a brand here called Love Beets that are vac packed, they keep them in the produce area under refrigeration, they are cooked and come in plain or some flavored variety, they are pretty good.

[blue_dolphin]

3 hours ago, Shelby said:

I wasn't sure where to post this...gardening thread or the preserving thread or here.  Chose here.

 

All of the people that can and need jars and/or bands and lids might consider purchasing now.  I've noticed that on Amazon it's 3rd party sellers and not Amazon that have them and prices have gone WAY up.  

 

Indeed.  I'm down to my last few lids (plenty of bands) and have been watching the prices go up and availability disappear over the last few weeks.  Like TP, I was sure it was just a blip that I should wait out but it seems to be continuing. 

 

3 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

I have switched over to frozen vegetables as much as possible.  I don't want to eat something that has been touched by a bunch of other people.  I found frozen spinach as mentioned up thread and am happy about that.  I also have two kinds of mixed veggies, peas and corn.  Carrots I bought fresh but bagged. I need to buy a few things fresh such as herbs, on-screen peppers and green onions and also fruit but even with fruit i tend to buy the ones you have to peel.  Has anyone else converted to buying mostly frozen veg?  I should mention that I'm well aware that you can't always get what you want (to quote the Rolling Stones) but what you can't get one week is sometimes available the next.  I did try frozen beets, they were terrible which is a shame because i love them.

 

There are a few frozen veg I keep handy - spinach, artichoke hearts, edamame, shelled fava beans,, TJ's fire roasted corn and sometimes a bag of peas for cold compresses.  Maybe a few others from time to time.  Mainly, I'm sticking to fresh and trying to support my local farmers and the markets they sell at.  I realize that's not an option for those in the colder climes where there's not much local produce now. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had not realized butter was one of the hoarded goods.  I just checked Whole Foods.  The least expensive* unsalted butter is $13 per pound.  Not that I can get a Whole Foods delivery anyhow.

 

 

*and only.