Covid Cooking

Not really, we cooked most of the time at home before any of this and rarely ate out. We are doing more recipes during the week that we would generally reserve for a weekend due to having more time on our hands, but that's about it.

We're getting take out now about as much as we ate out before. We still have our regular pizza nights on Friday evenings and have been getting some other take out a couple times per month which fairly mimics our eating out before this.

moonangel12 wrote: »

I am trying new things based somewhat on what the local farm down the road has - a few weeks ago, it was Creasy Greens, last week was watercress, today I bought some pak choy... also got more creative in an effort to use up stuff before it went bad because my shopping habits are different than they were 3 months ago - buying more of things like broccoli that will keep longer in the fridge compared to lettuce so we have fresh veggies through the end of each 2ish week shopping trip. Made a tasty broccoli quiche that was a big hit with the whole family!

To the bolded...we're definitely doing this, too. I've replaced a lot of the more perishable veggies I used to buy with ones that last longer, like carrots, squash, and green beans. They are not "new" to us, but just not typically in our regular rotation. I am trying to limit trips to the store.

Last nights dinner - I get a box of misfit veggies every other week so it’s fun experimenting - this one had kale and butternut squash in it

springlering62 wrote: »

Anyone else trying a lot of new foods during lockdown?

We picked a whole bunch of mulberries this morning and I am going to try my hand at a mulberry pie this afternoon.

These look delicious! I wish they were growing in my backyard.

acpgee wrote: »

We have a bread machine and those bags of bread mix have been unavailable for a while. When we started making the bread from scratch we were struggling to buy yeast at first, so used yeast I bought years ago from when I houseguest wanted to make dutch doughnuts. The yeast was about 3 years past it's "best before" date. We needed to increase the amount of yeast by 50% to even get a fairly dense loaf. Have managed to score yeast since then so the hubby chucked the old yeast. Hopefully we won't run out and regret chucking it.

i don't know how the uk supply situation is, but yeast is in generally short supply here in the usa. i have a good supply, so i haven't attempted this, but you can try "harvesting" the ambient yeast by creating a sourdough mixture. lots of vids online on youtube. yeast is all around us. i had a culture in the 70s, but let it go once my career hit a ramp-up phase and i couldn't keep it going.

flour is also in spotty supply here in the usa. i'm the household "quartermaster" now and online procurement is a daily job of search-and-acquire.

I've been posting some things over in the "Recipes // What Was The Last Thing You Cooked?" thread. Here in NJ USA, we've been in strict lockdown (high-risk folks with underlying conditions), so resupply has been a challenge. We've done some throwback to the 50s/60s in that we're using canned things more. We got a fresh meats delivery today, our first in about six weeks, what a treasure! (there's truth in the old saying, "you can't eat money"). Fresh produce we get about every week-and-half/two weeks. Other groceries spotty. We haven't left the property since March. Generally speaking, we're eating "vegan" about half our dinners using classic legume-plus-grain combos.

Here's a couple of ideas from this past week or so (all meals using pantry stores [canned and dry goods items] supplemented by some fresh veg, such as cabbage, carrot, onion, potatoes). We're finding choosing ethnic-style dishes with higher levels of spices makes canned stuff more exciting than plain, fresh food would have been [we eat more "plain and simple" typically]:

1. Canned (plain) beef made into "sloppy joes" with homemade cheddar whole wheat buns. The "cheddar" turned out to be an extravagance: good and rich, but the cheese, in short supply, "disappeared" into the rolls.
2. Homemade tortillas to be used to wrap "taco-style-sauteed" plain canned chicken.
3. Homemade "keema" using canned plain beef.
4. 100% whole wheat bread (all ww flour), with molasses and whey. "All ww flour" is a challenge, as these loaves tend to bake into "bricks." I'm getting fluffier results now. This being MFP, I'm watching family protein consumption, and a couple of scoops of whey added into the bread boosts each slice's protein a bit.
5. "Pasta e ceci," canned chick peas rather than dried/rehydrated.
6. "Faux Moroccan" dinner of canned plain chicken and rehydrated lentils Ras al Hanut stew served with tahini-marinated roast veg (butternut squash and sweet potatoes).

Cooking is not my thing and since I am retired I don't do anything different or cook more or less than before, with the exception of eating out (pick up food) just once or twice a week, only.

I don't try new recipes and I don't bake either.

We've only been to get groceries three times in the last month and a half. I cook a lot under normal circumstances anyway although nothing fancy, so it's not been too dramatic a change. But I've been having to get a lot more creative with leftovers for sure since we're trying so hard to save money and avoid waste right now.

I checked out two skinnytaste cookbooks from the library right before quarantine and they don't want them returned until after all this so I've had a lot of time to check them out. There's a lot of stuff I wasn't able to get everything for and I'm not shopping as much so I'm trying to choose recipes from those I do happen to have most of the ingredients for. A couple nights ago I made the Giant Parmesan Turkey meatball. Luckily my farmer's market is putting together boxes of produce and selling them at a certain pick-up time at a stand so I've done that the last few weeks, it's great to have produce again. I have a bunch of fresh herbs so I add them to olive oil and top on things like potatoes and zucchini.