Although we are no longer under official quarantine, I’m still hunkering down in my hollow while coronavirus cases rise.
I take some risks: Going to the farmers market, grocery store pickups (and occasional run-ins for high-priority items) and other absolutely necessary errands. My self-quarantine comes from worry for my family and for community members who don’t have the luxury of working from home.
To effectively manage shopping and cooking and limit grocery runs or pickups to every few weeks, I’ve fallen into some comfortable habits. I get vegetables, eggs, fruit and cheese through my CSA subscription or at the farmers market weekly and fill in the gaps at the grocery store.
Before making my grocery list, I consider what new recipes I want to try, and if any special ingredients are needed, I add those to my order. As I wrote recently, I’ve gotten bored of my own cooking. I’ve been doing lots of it and want to push my own boundaries. At the same time, I have also been trying to perfect some repeat recipes.
The first week or so after getting groceries feels abundant in my kitchen. I focus on using up perishables first. Once those are gone, I’m usually left with basics until the next essential grocery run. At this point, things get fun.
In my fridge and pantry, basics are flour, eggs, milk, olive oil and butter, sourdough starter, some canned items, such as tomatoes and pickles, and seasonal produce. The challenge is to put them together in new and interesting ways.
Of course, the sourdough bread I wrote about last week is a go-to, which I could eat for every meal. Adding filling to bread can turn it into a lunch or main dinner course. Sourdough cinnamon rolls or other risen baked goods make treats as easy or complex as I am in the mood for.
The sourdough pancakes I mentioned are tasty for breakfast or as dinner by adding mushrooms or other veggies into the batter or as a savory topping. Fruit fresh or in sauce turns pancakes into dessert.
Flour, eggs and water combined yields a variety of results. I add dumplings to soups or fry them with veggies and herbs. When I want to take my time with the process, I enjoy making stuffed dumplings.
Filled with mushrooms, cabbage, squash, onions or basically any vegetable I don’t want to eat raw, stuffed dumplings are excellent boiled, fried as potstickers or steamed in the bamboo dumpling steamer I found at a thrift shop pre-pandemic.
These same ingredients make pasta. Lasagna noodles, linguini, bows and spaghetti all eventually work their way through my rotation.
Pasta salads, mac and cheese, one-pot dishes, traditional tomato sauce and parmesan, Alfredo and a million other ways to eat pasta make one simple dough versatile (and one of my favorite sauces will come into season in the fall: Pumpkin white sauce).
When my family tired of fried egg sandwiches, I made soufflé omelets: I separated the eggs, whipped the whites until stiff, reincorporated them into the yolks and cooked it in a skillet, adding cheddar and green onions to the fluffy omelet before serving.
While we are on the subject of eggs, let me mention egg salad, egg sandwiches, poached egg on top of veggies and noodles, veggie or fruit egg bakes and so many more options to vary a basic food.
Although I am ready for this pandemic to be in our past, I may emerge from it with a different perspective on making do with humble ingredients.
