Stocking up on what??

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  • LoveyChar
    LoveyChar Posts: 4,336 Member
    @PrimaryAdjunctOfUnimatrix1010 Never even thought of pizza dough, thank you!
  • PrimaryAdjunctOfUnimatrix1010
    PrimaryAdjunctOfUnimatrix1010 Posts: 64 Member
    I think I'll be trying these myself now. :smiley:
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,221 Member
    LoveyChar wrote: »

    <snip>
    I went to Walmart down the road and there was no yeast, not one pack. But I did get two bags of flour, a bottle of honey and some sugar and baking soda. As soon as opportunity knocks and there is yeast in stock, I'm picking up quite a bit of yeast to avoid being "bread less" in the future.
    </snip>

    You can "make your own" yeast. Aside from making sourdough starter (slower bread), you can cultivate yeast and make a starter from beer if it's unfiltered. There's yeast in there, especially if it's bottle conditioned. Sometimes they pasteurize the bottles when they're done, but I think it's not very often. You could also almost certainly culture from a bottle of sparkling wine if it was carbonated with the methode champenoise (bottle carbonated rather than the charmat method of bulk carbonating). They often use a different strain of yeast to bottle condition than to ferment, but they are all Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This is the same species you use for baking, although bread yeast ~tends~ to be faster acting. You could probably actually make a starter from any unfiltered wine.

    Boil some water and just a little sugar, and let it cool to body temperature. Add the sediment from the bottom of a decanted bottle of bottle-conditioned beer (or other source). Make a sponge with some water, flour, and a little sugar. When the original liquid starter starts to bubble, add it to the sponge, then let it sit for a little while before using it for bread. You can keep your starter going in the fridge; you can pull a little off each time and make some new starter.

    Likely you will still end up with a sour starter, but that makes great bread.

    Good luck!
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,945 Member
    My experience in E London is that the ethnic grocers are still stocked. Went to the Japanese grocer yesterday which was fully stocked. Also the Bangladeshi supermarket was fully stocked and even still had facial tissues and potatoes. The Italian grocer was running low in the refrigerated section but still had pasta, tinned tomatoes and tinned beans.
  • cupcakesandproteinshakes
    cupcakesandproteinshakes Posts: 1,127 Member
    Tesco in Woolwich in London was a truly depressing experience. I’m not going there again any time soon. Local shops for me. I’m just buying things as I run out of them. It’s what I usually do anyway. It’s hard not to get caught up I. The panic buying mentality
  • amtyrell
    amtyrell Posts: 1,447 Member
    If you have beer and need yeast you can use a warm beer for the water and yeast in bread.
  • Chef_Barbell
    Chef_Barbell Posts: 6,644 Member
    acpgee wrote: »
    My experience in E London is that the ethnic grocers are still stocked. Went to the Japanese grocer yesterday which was fully stocked. Also the Bangladeshi supermarket was fully stocked and even still had facial tissues and potatoes. The Italian grocer was running low in the refrigerated section but still had pasta, tinned tomatoes and tinned beans.

    The ethnic supermarkets here in NYC are just as bare as the other ones.
  • DevonKaroline
    DevonKaroline Posts: 19 Member
    For food, I stocked up on canned chicken/tuna, eggs, egg whites, a wide variety of frozen veg, Tyson frozen chicken breasts, fruit, rice, rice cakes, cereal, chocolate...I think that's it.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,396 Member
    I have a three week supply of cottage cheese and a couple of weeks of yogurt. I know I’ll run out of fresh fruit and veg soon, and can (unhappily) manage without, but I’d be devastated to run out of those two.

    The old me would have stocked up on sacks and sacks of chocolate, Oreos, Pepperidge farm cookies, salt & vinegar chips, cheez-its and ice cream. And a big old cake from the bakery, with a side of cinnamon twist donuts and several boxes of Entemmans chocolate frosted chocolate donuts. And it would have all have been gobbled up in three or four days, and I’d have been literally climbing the walls to get more.

    Thank the good lord I got that under control in time.

  • JRsLateInLifeMom
    JRsLateInLifeMom Posts: 2,275 Member
    Stocking up on easy recipes with least ingredients to stretch what I find
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
    I bought a 10 pound bag of Basmati from Amazon. I can eat any protein with rice and sesame oil and crushed red pepper.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    LoveyChar wrote: »
    LoveyChar wrote: »
    I did it! I baked my first ever loaf of bread from scratch! I did cut my × too deep, but trial and error first time and I won't do it again so deep. It has a nice flavor and I am very pleased.

    @BarbaraHelen2013 I used apple cider vinegar in milk. Thank you for all suggestions!

    @PrimaryAdjunctOfUnimatrix1010 Thank you for the recipe, which is what I used.

    @vollkornbloedchen Pancakes are a definite, thank you!

    @just_Tomek Thank you!
    5dhmtseam8t2.jpg

    And I made homemade pasta today, and it was shockingly easy and fun! rmzrunvzcvj7.jpg

    Thanks for the clothes hangar idea. I've only made pasta from scratch a couple of times, and I've just put a clean towel over a chair back. And your hand-cut pasta looks just like mine!
  • mockchoc
    mockchoc Posts: 6,573 Member
    LoveyChar wrote: »
    Husband brought home 2 loaves of bread and yeast packets today.

    @PrimaryAdjunctOfUnimatrix1010 Thank you for this. I love buttermilk biscuits. Next attempt is pancakes tomorrow evening, so easy and one of my favorites.

    LoveyChar, if you come across a larger amount of yeast sometime and want to keep making bread please remember this tip and that is that I always keep my instant yeast in the freezer. It keeps for a very very long time. Just use it straight out of the freezer and put it straight back in ASAP. It's handy to have around.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,089 Member
    Didn't stock up on anything for covid Stay#Home -- just eating what's in the house, and doing some carryout to support local businesses, which also helps stave off the yen to go grocery shopping. I did have quite a bit of nonperishables and frozen stuff on hand, as I like to be prepared for bad winter weather, of which we had none this winter. Tonight I had the last of the tofu (sadness) pan-fried with some fresh spinach which has held up amazingly well for being in the house 13 days already, and I tossed in some dry-roasted peanuts (I buy them dry-roasted for stir fries and the like because if I'm not as tempted to snack on them as I am with cocktail peanuts). Running low on rice vinegar, but cider vinegar will make a reasonable substitute when it's gone.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,066 Member
    Since we're stocking up on similar stuff I thought you could commiserate on this, my microwave broke last week and can opener broke today when making breakfast. You don't realize how much you use things like diced tomatoes in the soup I was planning to make or the can of beans I was trying to open (have a ton of dried on hand but wanted something faster). Thank goodness I have an Instant Pot but it's still a pain to reheat my batches of oatmeal, beans, leftovers, and heat water in a teapot on the stove when the microwave's so much faster!
  • ReenieHJ
    ReenieHJ Posts: 9,724 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    I'm not stocking up. It's unfair, and quite honestly a *kitten* move towards people who are less mobile than me and can't just go to several shops, or need to order online. I just try to plan a bit more ahead, thus instead of doing groceries twice per week and a few more supermarket stops for things that I forgot or suddenly urge I try to go there not more than once.

    That's what I've basically done too. Planning ahead a bit in case things get worse or we get sick. :( I did buy some extra soups because I figure if we do become ill, we're not going to be feeling like regular food anyways. I haven't been able to buy chicken breasts and have just pulled the last bag out of the freezer to use, so will have to adapt. I used to buy it all the time on sale so had quite a supply on hand. No more.

    A lot of this whole virus thing makes me rethink how selfish I am, and others too. It's making me realize there is a major difference between needs and wants. Most of us are so used to getting what we want, we're shocked when we can't. I think we have a difficult time adjusting our minds to buying what we absolutely need instead.

    My 87 yo neighbor shared with me yesterday, when he was almost in high school, they used the pages of a Sears catalog out in their 3-hole outhouse. Just think how good most of us have it in modern times? How in heaven's name would we survive having to grow up back then?
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,928 Member
    Oh great, @ReenieHJ WE think it's a good idea to not stockpile and to not be selfish *kitten*, and someone apparently thinks being selfish is the way to go here. There's always someone :(
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,928 Member
    And not daring to say why? Come on: you can click 'disagree', now stand up to your opinion and say why you think so.
  • beulah81
    beulah81 Posts: 168 Member
    wilson10102018 wrote: »
    I bought a 10 pound bag of Basmati from Amazon. I can eat any protein with rice and sesame oil and crushed red pepper.

    Along the same lines...sticky rice with tahini, splash of soy sauce and crushed red pepper flakes.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    I have been more adventurous with fresh produce to make sure we use it up... a local farmer gave me a bag of creasy greens because I commented on never trying them before. Not sure I would have taken the time with them had it happened a week or two prior. Ended up being a hit with the whole family! The kids joked about feeling bad for the chickens since they aren’t getting as many food scraps :D last night was mangoes past their prime that I forgot about... trimmed off the not so good parts and salvaged what I could rather than dumping the whole thing in the scrap bucket (it was well on it’s way out... dark spots and weird holes/webbing in the fibers that I trimmed off, but lesson learned, every one declared it the best mango they have ever had!).
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited March 2020
    yirara wrote: »
    Chef_Barbell wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    And not daring to say why? Come on: you can click 'disagree', now stand up to your opinion and say why you think so.

    Why does it matter that one person disagreed with you? It could have been pressed accidentally or what not.

    I personally don't think it's selfish to want to have a few extra things that you want to get through these tough mental times. Everyone is different. Calling people selfish is not really needed now. 🤷🏼‍♀️

    Yes, you are right. A few extra things are fine. Stocking up big time though? The UK is currently seeing about 30% more garbage, most of this accounting for food thrown out because some people panic emptied shops and then found they could not eat it all in time. It's just so terrible to throw away produce that would have benefited other people who stood in front of empty shelves.

    I didn't hit disagree, but I think many of us are thinking about this with different levels of "stocking up" in mind. For me, "stocking up" would equate to having enough on hand to avoid going to the grocery store for at least 2 weeks, including stuff that's easy for a sick person to prepare, as that's what was recommended should one actually be quarantined. Also, at the moment the grocery stores around me have plenty of food (and are getting better with TP due to limitations they've instituted). Being in a city I normally don't buy a large amount at a time of anything (and haven't had to so far, as I do impulse-buy non perishables that look good to try and then forget about them (and I have a nice pantry that I already had plenty of canned tomatoes, pasta, and canned and dried beans in, among other things), so even though I normally don't buy all that much and instead shop more frequently at a variety of stores, I still managed to have what seemed like a lot accumulated already. I "stocked up" by buying about a week's worth of additional easy to prepare stuff since mostly what I have are ingredients and I suspect if I get sick I would need no effort things like "add water and stir" or the like.

    I also tend to assume "stocking up" means non-perishables, so even if one were going well above what I have, it shouldn't cause waste. I'm sure there are exceptions given panic and related illogical thinking, but more likely short-term shortages are due to many, many people buying just a small amount more.

    It also seems that delivery services around here (for groceries, not just meals) are functioning okay at the moment after being initially overwhelmed, and for those of us with cars there are pick-up options. Someone on my NextDoor reported that in that no one (compared to usual) is going downtown currently (it's true, I was there last week and it was already a ghost town even before the stay at home order), that there's plenty of stuff (including plenty of TP) at the drugstores down there. Should my local stores get more overwhelmed than they currently seem to be (the worst was right before the stay at home order when people didn't know what to expect and it's more normal this week from what I have seen reported on NextDoor) I'd certainly volunteer to drive there and pick up stuff for people (neighborhood-wise, we are having a virtual ward meeting about ways to help and also volunteering on NextDoor to help out neighbors).
  • LoveyChar
    LoveyChar Posts: 4,336 Member
    pancakerunner wrote: »
    m3hnl5phwkqi.jpg

    when in doubt: desperation nachos.

    Oh my goodness on a baking sheet...

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