Category: Food & Drink

My husband, Dale, a retired military logistician and foodie-in-residence, was always in charge of groceries, but he didn’t want to deal with online shopping, so we had a little change of command ceremony, and I took over the supply chain.

He’s going to want it back, damn it, and I guess I’ll be ready to hand it over, but I’ve actually enjoyed my new role. We’ve always taken different approaches to menu planning, and this arrangement gave me an advantage. Pre-pandemic, Dale wakes up and thinks, “What do I want to eat for dinner tonight?” Then after persuading me that I want it, too, he would go to the store to buy anything we were missing.

I’ve always treated the kitchen like a Chopped basket. I love digging things out of the freezer and using up whatever we have before it goes bad. Now that we’re shopping less frequently and guessing what we might want to eat weeks down the road, Dale is more amenable to my approach. Food is a precious commodity.

We were discussing options for tonight, and I said we have a ripe avocado, fresh cilantro that won’t last long and queso fresco. We also have chicken tortilla soup in the freezer. In the old days, he might have gone along with my idea but probably would have said something like, “Yeah, that sounds good, but I was thinking burgers.”

And then I would remind him we don’t have any buns, and he’d jump for joy at the prospect of going to the store to buy some. That time is gone. Now, it’s all about using what we have. I even convinced him to help me defrost and reorganize the chest freezer out in the garage so we can find stuff.

Dale uses a visual filing system, and his argument against the reorg was that he knew where everything was. But I didn’t! And now that I’m in charge of replenishing supplies, he went along with it. With all this new-found power, I took the opportunity to “bundle” like items. I don’t see this as neurotic COVID-19 tidying but maximizing the return on our biggest expense and our biggest interest – food.

Rather than miscellaneous pieces of pork scattered throughout, there’s now a large plastic bag for all the pork. There’s a bag for chicken thighs. A nut and spice bag. A special basket for leftovers. I think he was hyperventilating, and I thought if the virus doesn’t get him, this will.

Now that I am monitoring our stock, I have been astonished by how much cheese we consume. And you know what? This is not a reckoning of any kind. I will not be joining the legions of people who don’t eat dairy. It just means I need to buy more cheese.

We love and eat all kinds of cheese, but we hit the cheddar pretty hard. With our last online order, I accidentally selected an 8-ounce package instead of the usual pounder. We started calling it appetizer-size cheese. Seriously, you dip into that, and next thing you know it’s gone. Kind of like box wine.

Here’s another strange but true cheese story. We stopped using grated mozzarella cheese in the package a couple of years ago in favor of whole milk mozzarella in chunks. Somehow, we forgot about one package in the back of the cheese drawer. The “sell by” date was March 2018. It was unopened.

Dale gently and carefully opened it. I stood by for emergency assistance, should it be required. He did a sniff test and looked for mold or other unsightly additions. All looked and smelled good. Then he did a taste test, and declared the two-year-old cheese was great!

Yes, we ate it and bought another one to keep around in case of a pandemic.

We kept saying we should have a Bloody Mary, but we vetoed it every time. For some weird reason, it’s not a cocktail we enjoy before dinner. For us, it’s more of a breakfast or lunch thing.

I’ve been trying to make healthy choices for breakfast … fruit, yogurt and granola … and a Bloody just didn’t seem to line up. But Dale made rye bread yesterday, and I had a vision of buttered homemade rye toast, bacon and Bloodies. We executed my vision this morning!

The Budweiser pint glass is part of a set I got during some kind of a promotion during the mid-90s. I remember cutting off the UPC codes from case after case of Budweiser. I wonder where all those Buds went? My sister made the olive skewers.

I love special plates, glassware, serving dishes and hand-made kitchen accessories. Since we’ve been in self-isolation, I’ve made more of an effort to use them and will continue to do so after this is over.

The drinks are three parts Bloody Mary mix to one part vodka. Bloody Mary mix is a controversial subject. Everyone has a favorite! I made these with Lefty O’Doul’s, which I like, but we both prefer Big Daddy’s. Both are made in California.

Then I add copious amounts of Worcester sauce, fresh lime, Tabasco sauce and horseradish. I stir it all up in a large Mason jar. We like them spicy and lovingly adorned with fresh crisp celery and green olives.

That description reminds me of a scene from the Netflix series, Grace and Frankie. Grace (Jane Fonda) wants a Bloody Mary, but for some reason, she can’t get one. Instead, she orders a shrimp cocktail, hold the shrimp, and then she pulls a mini-bottle from her purse and makes a drink out of it.

Before I put the ice cubes in, I squeeze lime juice around the rim and dip it in a mixture of Kosher salt and Old Bay Seasoning. Yes, I lick it off. Toward the end, I like to run my celery around the rim to catch anything I missed.

As proper Californians, we should switch to reusable straws. Note to self.

Anyway, breakfast was delicious. As for pandemic juice, I highly recommend the Bloody Mary. We each get only one, so it’s not too big of a buzz, and we could definitely drive if we had to go somewhere.

Oh, but we aren’t going anywhere, are we?

I’ll be brief. Here’s the recipe for no-knead English muffins. Special stress baking edition. They were really easy and absolutely delicious. I simply followed the instructions, and they came out great!

You’ll need bread flour. The dough rises about five hours at room temperature. Then you’ll dollop out muffin-sized bits of dough onto a sheet tray, and your little treasures will spend the night in the refrigerator before you cook them, so plan accordingly.

We picked up an order from a different grocery store today. We couldn’t find the pick-up point, but one of the guys dragging carts around in the parking lot told us it was by the rear entrance to the store. Once we got there, everything went smoothly.

Among the goodies today were romaine lettuce and fresh spinach. My eyes got misty at the sight of romaine. Oh, how I long for the days when romaine was the most dangerous thing that came out of a grocery store.

As we speak, Dale is doing an online order from the liquor store. In my professional expertise, an early afternoon pick-up time is ideal. Late enough to linger around in the morning but not so late as to interfere with happy hour.

Still hanging tough. It’s pouring rain today. An absolute deluge. We need it, but really? It seems like pretty soon we’ll be boarding in twos.

We’re finally getting some rain today, hoping for the March Miracle, but so far, it doesn’t look as though we’ll get much. Still, I promised Dale I would make my mother’s stuffed cabbage rolls if it rained. I just can’t get into it if the weather is nice. I’m still hoping for a downpour.

My mother was not a good cook. She loved convenience foods, and some things were just too exotic for regular consumption. There was one tiny bottle of olive oil that lasted my entire childhood. We ate instant mashed potatoes from the box or little white ones from a can. I don’t think I tasted a fresh potato until high school, when my sister and I both started cooking.

One of the few things she made from scratch were stuffed cabbage rolls. An homage to my Slavic roots. Dale loves them, even though his ancestors are from England. I still use the recipe on the index card my mother gave me, but I have notes all over the back of it.

I should probably type up the recipe as I make it these days, but I like seeing my mother’s handwriting. And I love the ambiguous directions.

Half a small glass of white vinegar.

Cook until done.

I used to worry about it – too much? Too little? Now I take out what looks to be a small glass, and I fill it half-way up with vinegar. Then I cook them until done.

Mother knows best.

Her cabbage rolls were pretty bland, but that was by design. They were a side dish for special occasions, like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Dale and I eat it as a main dish. I use venison or bison instead of ground beef and lots of spices. Dale likes it with dark bread and butter, although the dark bread options here are slim. We’ll just make do with whatever he can find.

Beer is a nice accompaniment. We’re currently featuring Fresh Squeezed IPA from Deschutes Brewery in Oregon.