Food in the time of a pandemic

**Shelby** · May 13, 2020

1 minute ago, chileheadmike said:

So, as I typed that we could not get eggs, my daughter went to the Target on the University of Kentucky campus. Students have been out for moths. It was fully stocked with everything. TP, eggs, meat, sanitizer, all the shelves were full. Seems that's the place to get whatcha need.

NICE

heidih · May 13, 2020

Dad and wife hit Trader Joes and Ralphs (Kroger) this morning. Only thing they could not find was garlic. No lines outside either store. Everything wiped between customers and "masks on"

liamsaunt · May 14, 2020

Here is this week's CSA box. Pretty similar to last week's. Fiddleheads, beans, bread, so many potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, corn tortillas, ramps, green garlic, parsnips, apples, shiitake mushrooms, micro greens. I'm still doing the food share run by a local restaurant too. That box comes in an hour or so. I forgot to take a picture of last week's share. It is an incredible amount of food for the money. I've been sharing the contents with my parents and brother. I really hope I don't get any more potatoes....

kayb · May 14, 2020

Not really food, more "pre-food." I took my life in my hands and went to WalMart yesterday because I needed a bag of compost and four more bags of garden soil to finish up the asparagus bed. Soil bags are stacked out on the parking lot, and garden center has a separate entrance, so I figure, no problem.

Except -- you cannot go IN the garden center entrance. And they have an employee sitting there to tell you that. I ask her how to go about getting garden soil. Go inside, she says, tell them what you want, pay for it, bring me the receipt and i'll get someone to load it for you.

OK. Walk in, make my way to an uncrowded register, pay for the dirt, walk back to garden center, find same girl from the other side, and show her my receipt. She shanghais some kid to put dirt in my trunk.

At least I didn't have to make my way to the inner reaches of WalMart. And, thankfully, there were more people wearing masks than there had been two weeks ago, the last time I was in a big-box store.

Dr. Teeth · May 14, 2020

2 hours ago, liamsaunt said:

Here is this week's CSA box. Pretty similar to last week's. Fiddleheads, beans, bread, so many potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, corn tortillas, ramps, green garlic, parsnips, apples, shiitake mushrooms, micro greens. I'm still doing the food share run by a local restaurant too. That box comes in an hour or so. I forgot to take a picture of last week's share. It is an incredible amount of food for the money. I've been sharing the contents with my parents and brother. I really hope I don't get any more potatoes....

I am jealous every time I see your CSA. Mine has not risen to the occasion, I'm thinking or restarting my "I hate my CSA thread." Beans are Jacob's Cattle?

blue_dolphin · May 14, 2020

20 hours ago, Toliver said:

And where is the butter?

The last time I went to the Walmart grocery store, there butter section was completely empty...no butter, no margarine.

Maybe it's not the hoarders to blame but perhaps Walmart sucks when it comes to restocking and obtaining supplies.

I drove over to a local import shop and picked up a few very essential items:

The guy who was bagging this up held up the Mull of Kintyre Scottish Cheddar and asked if I was aware that it's NOT butter 🙃

Edited May 14, 2020 by blue_dolphin (log)

Kim Shook · May 14, 2020

Mr. Kim and I offered to do the shopping, packing, and delivering of the homeless shelter meals for our church again this month. No one is supposed to do any mixed group activities at church and it is so much easier to do this as a couple. We are the youngest couple involved in the project. The shopping is done at Sam's and Walmart. We went last night when Mr. Kim got home from work. He likes to go with me because then he can help me carry. We got everything but the bananas, which I will go on Friday and get. We were again unable to get bologna at Sam's. I got turkey instead. With the warm weather we would have switched over to PB&J if things were normal. But with only me making the sandwiches, I am not about to do spread PB and then jelly on 100 sandwiches!

We got right in both stores and people were being fairly observant of masks and distancing. But they were paying no attention to the directional signs on the floors. Most stores have a requirement of taking a cart and I like that - it creates a space at check out of a few feet, at least.

**ElsieD** · May 14, 2020

We went to Costco this afternoon. No line-ups, we were in and out in a flash. I'd say a good half of the people in there were not wearing a mask. Grrr. The only things they were out of that was on our list were fresh mozzarella and frozen corn. Could have been worse - I wanted those two ingredients for Korean Cheese Corn so if I can't get one thing, it's just as well I can't get the other. We also hit up Nicastro's, an Italian grocer, and Farm Boy, another grocer near us. Neither were very busy, so distancing was not a problem. Oh yes, and we went to Pet Value to get some dry cat food for His Nibs. For this you stand outside the store, phone in your order and they bring it to you. I think we are good for quite a while.

JoNorvelleWalker · May 14, 2020

I paused at Shoprite as I had a prescription to pick up at the nearby pharmacy. Stocking levels were almost close to normal. Nothing in the meat case struck my fancy but I don't recall seeing the formerly ubiquitous quota signs. I picked up four limes and two potatoes. The clerk commented she loved my nail color. Only later did I realize it is an exact match to the color of my backpack.

TicTac · May 14, 2020

When Mother Nature gives you ramps...you pickle them!

(At least some bulbs - which I do not harvest many of for various reasons!)

This jar was a simple pickle with some amazing dried Morita peppers and fresh bay leaves.

jasie · May 15, 2020

On 5/13/2020 at 2:29 PM, Shelby said:

(we have the worst luck trying to start cuke plants in the greenhouse...no idea why, but we will try again).

I have seen some people start seeds in the instant pot with the yogurt function successfully. Maybe that's worth a shot? Good luck!

liamsaunt · May 15, 2020

22 hours ago, Dr. Teeth said:

I am jealous every time I see your CSA. Mine has not risen to the occasion, I'm thinking or restarting my "I hate my CSA thread." Beans are Jacob's Cattle?

Yes, Jacob's Cattle beans.

Porthos · May 15, 2020

Our daughter came over Tuesday afternoon to color my wife's hair and have dinner with us. My wife will have to have a new driver's license photo taken and hair salons are non-essential so no hair cut but at least she could get her hair colored.

My daughter mentioned that when trying to order things from Costco through Instacart that Costco was out of butter. I've not seen any shortage of butter there and was surprised to hear that. My Sweetie and I went to Costco yesterday to pick up a prescription for me and do a little shopping. We found the quantities of butter I had been seeing so we picked up some for her. Picked up more sharp cheddar for us.

Before heading to Costco we went to the Claro's Italian Deli/store in Upland, part of a small chain. Tuesday I had thought of something I wanted from their store and told my Sweetie that, since we knew we had things we needed to do on Thursday, we should go on a "get out of the house" afternoon then. However, come yesterday morning I couldn't remember what it was I wanted. We still went, hoping that walking around the store I would remember. I never did. But I did pick up some envelopes of powdered saffron and we also bought some Italian Fig Cookies and some anise biscotti. I wanted to go to Cost Plus World Markets, not far from Claro's, for some Walkers shortbread for my FIL. I'm so used to the stores I normally go to being open during the "essential businesses only" shelter-in-place it never crossed my mind that they might be closed. They were. Oh well ...

**Smithy** · May 16, 2020

I've never tried a meal kit service before. Blue Apron and some of the others had interesting-looking recipes and offerings, but I never saw the point of generating that extra waste. Yesterday, I tried my first meal kit as part of our shelter-in-place-but-help-the-local-restaurants plan. The New Scenic Cafe, up the shore from Duluth, offers meal kits rather than take-out. I ordered two: Soup-and-Salad for last night, and Laab Moo for tonight. Here's the haul as it was loaded into my car:

I also requested sourdough starter, which is available for free, since I threw mine away in a fit of pique a year or so ago.

The soup and salad kit was quite generous.

I looked at those soups and that salad kit and thought, "we won't get through all this in one night!" We didn't. No worries! It was all good. I was especially impressed by the quality of the lettuce. We usually buy romaine hearts, and had just opened a package earlier in the day. This romaine was leagues better than our grocery store pick!

Instructions are included. Heating soup is not difficult, nor is making a salad. That was the point of last night's selections, since Friday night is our news-junkie TV watching night. I didn't do the bread any favors, alas, the Cuisinart Steam Oven's steam simply made good crusty bread tough. Flavor was good, though. I'll post the actual dinner in the Dinner topic.

Tonight: Laab Moo. Despite over a decade of reading about Laab here and deciding twice or thrice to try it, I never have. Tonight is the night.

lemniscate · May 16, 2020

19 hours ago, Porthos said:

I wanted to go to Cost Plus World Markets, not far from Claro's, for some Walkers shortbread for my FIL. I'm so used to the stores I normally go to being open during the "essential businesses only" shelter-in-place it never crossed my mind that they might be closed. They were. Oh well ..

I've been slightly shocked that CPWM is staying closed, because technically they are a grocery store. I'm sure it is a corporate liability indemnification issue. I did get an email that they will be re-opening in my state beyond the contactless pickup they have been offering throughout, I think this weekend if I'm not mistaken.

rotuts · May 16, 2020

@Smithy

Im pleased that some local restaurants are turning to

fresh meal kits , that you pick up locally.

I hope this works out well for them and their local customers.

blue_dolphin · May 16, 2020

28 minutes ago, lemniscate said:

I've been slightly shocked that CPWM is staying closed, because technically they are a grocery store. I'm sure it is a corporate liability indemnification issue. I did get an email that they will be re-opening in my state beyond the contactless pickup they have been offering throughout, I think this weekend if I'm not mistaken.

I suspect it depends on the differing local regulations. I checked the CPWM website and the stores in my area are still closed and not offering any curbside pick-up yet.

In my county, CPWM is considered a furniture/home decor retailer and that category of retail is not yet allowed to apply to reopen for curbside pick-up. Must be a nightmare for national chains to navigate all the local regs.

**Smithy** · May 17, 2020

Tonight's dinner came from the second of the meal kits I purchased yesterday: Laab Moo from the New Scenic Cafe, a delightful restaurant near where we live.

I had already started chopping the romaine lettuce into our typical bite-sized bits when I remembered that larb/laab/larp/lahp (according to what I've read) is intended to be scooped into lettuce leaves and eaten out of hand. Not going to happen in this household. I kept chopping, but I won't present this dinner as a typical laab.

Whatever. We liked it. The flavors were great!

blue_dolphin · May 17, 2020

Over in the Dinner topic, @TdeV has posted about several Zoom wine tasting events that she has hosted for friends. The other day, I read this account from a blogger describing a Zoom wine tasting dinner she participated in through their country club.

I'm not familiar with that particular club but I've attended similar dinners where the club hosts a winery, the chef prepares dishes to complement the wines and both the winemaker and chef introduce each course and its wine. There's generally an opportunity to purchase the wines at the club's wholesale prices.

Here, they adapted the model with a multi-course take-out meal, paired wines and a Zoom meeting for the winemaker and chef to introduce the courses.

I thought it was interesting to see how they translated that model into a remote activity. A lot of her photos are of the lovely table setting she arranged for her own family but I especially I liked seeing how they packaged each course and then how they looked when nicely plated.

It surely is an intensive use of packaging materials but that seems to be the nature of any sort of take-out.

In any case, I thought it was a fun way to celebrate a special occasion if the guests are in the same area.

**TdeV** · May 17, 2020

Very interesting. I'm going to turn this into a new topic because I'm very interested in what could be done. Would you repost your message to that new link please, @blue_dolphin ?

Edited May 17, 2020 by TdeV
Edited to add link. (log)

Anna N · May 17, 2020

Created by @Alleguede, delivered by @Kerry Beal and will be enjoyed by yours truly. Not shown is a lovely baguette. Wish I had tried for a better photo.

blue_dolphin · May 17, 2020

1 minute ago, Anna N said:

Created by @Alleguede, delivered by @Kerry Beal and will be enjoyed by yours truly. Not shown is a lovely baguette. Wish I had tried for a better photo.

Oh my, where to begin???

**ElsieD** · May 17, 2020

@Anna N Is that a Kouign Aman I spy in the top right hand corner?

JoNorvelleWalker · May 17, 2020

35 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

Oh my, where to begin???

Back middle.

JoNorvelleWalker · May 17, 2020

Amazon has shifted to something new: it had been that delivery windows opened a few times a day and immediately disappeared. Whether you got food depended on how fast you could click. Now delivery windows are available but customers are limited to one order per week. (Wish I had known that before I placed my order.)

My shopper has finished working on my order. Everything was available. Stuff should be here in a couple hours. Wish me luck. Now I may go over to Shoprite to see if I can find the things I didn't get.

It must break Jeff's heart to tell people they can't buy more than once a week.

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