Cooking when you’re Staying home

@Bromfield2 - no link available. It was hosted by my local University Arts and Lectures series for people who had bought tickets to see Samin and Ottolengli. One had to register for the video. I think she is doing something similar for other speaking engagements she had to cancel.
If you haven’t watched the Netflix series I highly recommend it. It is wonderful.

@Bromfield2 assuming you watched Samin’s series on Netflix?

My D loves her and I was able to snag tickets for her appearance at D’s local library system last fall. I would have loved to have gone myself!

My pork chops have defrosted so tonight we’ll have braised pork chops in sauerkraut (no one but my husband likes the sauerkraut), mashed potatoes and sautéed zucchini and squash.

I did a Sams Club pickup order Tuesday night and the first slot was for 7-8am Friday morning. I only needed about 7 things, most importantly charcoal and salt for our water conditioning system. I got a text at 7am this morning that my pickup order was ready. Huh? It’s only Thursday! I jumped in the shower and got up there around 8:15. There were a couple of things it wouldn’t let me order that I know they usually have, so I asked when I got there of I could look for a couple of extras (senior hour was almost over). Hurray, I got my frozen strawberries! Then as I passed the meat dept I noticed they were fairly well stocked. I ended up getting 6.5 lbs of ground beef so tomorrow we will have hamburgers on the grill. I’ll use the leftover meat to make meatballs and freeze them.

In my quick trip down a few aisles looking for my extra items, I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the things that have been hard to find are now stocked again. Even the meat department, while not fully stocked, had a good selection of beef products.

Forgot to add, my husband made sourdough pretzels yesterday using his starter. They were delicious!

@abasket Yes, I watched her Netflix series. Loved it.

My daughter and boyfriend made scallion pancakes tonight. Excellent, but a whole lot of cleanup. (We take turns–people who don’t cook, clean up.) They served the pancakes with miso soup. They used a packaged soup mix (Sushi Chef). This is the scallion pancake recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/scallion-pancakes-2

We did a pick up from a restaurant, farm collaborative agreement that prepares some food and has others raw. Everything is sealed and ready to eat. We had the roast pork with lilikoi bbq sauce, fresh baked bread, fluffy cinnamon mashed sweet potatoes, tomato soup. It also came with food for several more meals.

@Bromfield2 I would love to try those scallion pancakes. Did you have chicken fat on hand? That’s something I don’t keep/have!

My brother has been making scallion pancakes from his sourdough discard.

@abasket We used duck fat (commercial) that H bought a while ago. It’s called Fatworks Duckfat and you can purchase it online. I don’t think it affected the taste of the scallion pancakes.

I’ll be making @DeeCee36 creamy garlic parm pasta tonight, with a salad and crusty Italian bread. Will open one of the bottles of wine S brought us back from Paris.

We had the garlic parm pasta last night with some steamed broccoli and a bit of pesto tossed in. I also steamed some shrimp to put on top of mine (DH is allergic). It was delicious. Tonight is Turkish lentil soup with crusty sourdough.

Has anyone else been following the PBS series “Somewhere South”? The host (chef Vivian Howard) takes one type of food (like dumplings) and travels around the Southern states exploring its variations and origins. It sounds boring but is really interesting.

Makes me want to cook whatever dish is featured!

Took a break for take-out last night but back to it today. Made two challah and will grill some soy/ginger/garlic marinated chicken to go along with some TJ potstickers and roasted Brussels sprouts.

I love this thread - you all inspire me!

On the menu for tonight - lemon chicken and Greek quinoa salad. Feels like summer here ?

Iamsosickof_cooking. So tonight had frozen margarita pizza. Last night I counted Day 62 of cooking. I’m just agitated. I’m sick of this. Walls closing in.

I have Absolutely no idea and am stunned as to why this country passed prohibition after the 1918 -1919 Spanish Flu pandemic. They better not even try when this is over…

@DeeCee36

We loved the pasta dish so much there was no leftovers. This one going into my rotation. It’s a keeper!

am stunned as to why this country passed prohibition after the 1918 -1919 Spanish Flu pandemic<<<<<<<

The Ken Burns doc on prohibition is a real education if you have any time.

It’s cocktail hour. We’re having ice cold martinis and crab stacks:

https://i.nordstromimage.com/images/Store/blog/thethread/2014/Whats-Cooking/holiday-entertaining-recipes/salad_course/Nordstrom%20Bistro%20Crab%20Stack%20Salad%20Appetizer%20Recipe%20for%20Holiday%20Parties.pdf

This is a favorite, simple to make with a stunning presentation—compliments of some 3-inch PVC pipe cut into 4-inch sections.

ETA: We add a layer of roasted corn to the stack.

Tonight is Friday night “out” - carryout from fav restaurant. Got a Costco delivery today so tomorrow is chicken tacos and salad from rotisserie chicken and Sunday is ribs in instapot.

Someone please make me some crab stacks! Beautiful and looks delicious!

@conmama, do you think you are cooking more than pre-Covid? In other words would you normally eat out more? Or is it you are cooking more because your S is home???

I was working out in the yard so needed a fast dinner but a satisfying dinner. I put some local flavored brats (Hawaiian!) in the oven, roasted broccoli and cauliflower and then warmed up a Bob Evans mashed potatoes container. Easy but good.

@abasket, both! On the weekends we typically went out one or two nights. On the weekdays, I cooked about 2 to 3 meals. H would drink protein shakes after working out and I’d find something easy.

So I cooked 3 to 4 times a week on average.

. So good, right? I have become a convert of the one-pot pasta method. I don’t know why it never occurred to me how much better it tastes when it absorbs all the flavor of stock instead of boiled in water.

Here’s another good one: https://www.marthastewart.com/978784/one-pan-pasta