The $6 (ish) Dinner

I have a lovely little cookbook that I treasure called The New Cookbook for Poor Poets & Others; by Ann Rogers that talks about what she calls “the nickel dinner.” The nickel dinner is no longer really possible what with inflation and all, and wasn’t possible at the time “The New” was printed. (supposedly it was possible when the original cookbook was published) I love the idea of super cheap or free, but good, meals so sometimes I’ll figure out how much it costs me to make a meal for my family just to see how it compares to, say, the last time we ordered in or something.

Last night’s dinner was thrown together in a fog of humidity induced mental dullness. It was an evening I had nothing much left to give so I thought “pasta.” We had a bunch of zucchini from our farmshare so I decided to make the sauce I think I saw on Emmymade that was put out by Meghan Markle. It is a good, basic sauce but she clearly forgot the garlic so I fixed that for her. I also added a bit of cream and little shredded cheese to take it up a notch. Her recipe calls for cooking it down for 4-5 hours but I didn’t have that kind of time so i got out my immersion blender and it worked great. Next time I think I will add a little Green Dragon hot sauce to the mix. As I was cooking the nickel dinner idea wandered through my head and I stated adding things up:

16 ounce box of linguini: .99 cents
3 large Farmshare zucchini: $3.25
1 farmshare onion: .50 cents
Splash of cream: .50 cents
1 ounce shredded cheddar: .50 cents
2 cups broth made from chicken bones, veggie ends etc: free
random herbs and spices: maybe .25 cents?

Which comes to $5.99. Not bad! I had a little bit of nice bread left from a previous dinner to have on the side and I picked a bunch of mint from the yard to make mint iced tea. It was a successful dinner that everyone enjoyed and it was inexpensive so a big win in my book. Yesterday I also had enough purposely grown and wild berries to make a couple of smoothies too so, despite the heat & humidity, it was a good day. ^_^ Most of our dinners are a lot more expensive than this but still much cheaper than take out. Even my fancy meals, where I go all out, are a lot cheaper than meals out.

For anyone interested in the idea of making broth for free: it is really simple! I save any bones left from dinner, veggie stems or other unused bits, tiny amounts of leftover anything too small to save, wilted herbs and so on, sealed in bags or say an old yogurt tub, in the freezer. I try to cluster these items together so I can monitor how much of it I’ve saved. When I have what looks like enough for a batch of broth I dump it all into my crockpot and cover with water. I set the crockpot to low and let it cook for a few days, stirring once in a while, until I think all the goodness and flavor has made it from the food into the broth. Then I scoop out all the spent bits and discard them, strain the broth, and store it in jars in the fridge using it as needed for recipes over the next week or two or freezing it for later use. The other day I had some leftover veggie/bean thing that I added some broth to, turning it into soup, and served for lunch.

Experimental Cooking Exploits

So, I’ve been having a very fun week cooking and such. I have learned to make muffins, which I now like, apparently. I made chocolate chip coffee cake muffins and peanut butter muffins with peanut butter chips, both delicious. I made mint chocolate chip ice cream yesterday, came out pretty good and I know what I’ll do differently next time so, I’m counting it a win. This morning I got up and made donuts for the first time. I made cinnamon & sugar, vanilla glazed, and chocolate glazed. All good! My husband has declared them preferable to commercial donuts.

After eating some fresh, warm donuts this morning he said; “Wow, it will be so much easier to stock up for the next shut down. You’ll just need a bunch of basic supplies and you can make whatever you want from them.” He then compared me to the astronauts on the space station somehow, which I think is something of an exaggeration….

I am attempting to propagate my peppermint plants into more peppermint plants. My goal is a vast, unstoppable supply of fresh mint. Normal people could just toss a mint leaf in their yard and it would be overrun with mint in a month. For me this is not so. I must work at it, try, fail, try again. Eventually I got 2 types of mint to take hold in my yard. It took me 3 years. I could still easily wipe it out making tea so I’m trying to get some real, strong patches of it developed. We’ll see.

Peppermint on the left, spearmint on the right.

There exists a real chance that we demolished the mint ice cream without getting proper pics, something I will remedy with batch 2, coming soon to a goofy blog near you!

Making Ice Cream

I found a recipe online for mint chocolate chip ice cream that uses fresh mint and does not require an ice cream maker! (I don’t have one and I prefer gadgets that are multi-purpose) So this morning I went out and harvested a bunch of peppermint from the yard and attempted the recipe for the first time. I was so excited I forgot to take many pics but here’s what I’ve got:

Mint fresh from the garden, ice cream step 1, & mint froth!

Now the ice cream is all put together but I rather suspect the chocolate chips all sank to the bottom. I think I will try mini-chocolate chips, if I can get any, and whipping the cream a little stiffer next time. I will post tomorrow and let you know if this worked and how it came out. So Exciting!

If I can make ice cream… I have the Power! The means of production are in my hands! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

What am I doing w/ Roses?

I keep mentioning drying roses for tea and it probably sounds a little weird. Flowers aren’t much used for food around these parts but many are edible. Roses, all types that I know of, are safe to eat or make tea with. That doesn’t mean you want to use the ones from the florist though, those are likely to have been sprayed with pesticide. But if you have roses growing in your yard and you don’t use poison on your lawn or other plants, those are probably fine. I have a mad, rambling little rosebush/vine that is producing like crazy and it is looking like I will have more roses than I need this year. *happy dance*

Say you want to gather some roses for tea and you have access in your yard, or through a lovely friend with some in their yard, what do you do? What is the process? It’s simple!

Pluck as many nice, full blossoms as you need. (open flowers, leave all partly open blossoms and all buds)
Gently rise each blossom under cool water.
Shake the water off each blossom and place in a bowl.
Line a baking tray w/parchment paper.
Set the oven to 170F. (or lower, that’s as low as mine goes.)
Again, shake each blossom and place face down on the lined baking tray.
Place tray in oven and gently dry for 20 minutes.
Check every 15-20 minutes until they are thoroughly dried out. This can take a while depending on humidity and other factors. Mine have been taking up to 90 minutes with the humidity we’ve had lately.
Alternatively, you can dry them on bamboo trays in the sun. (if it isn’t humid or rainy) Do everything the same but place the flowers face down directly on the bamboo trays, cover loosely and lightly with cheese cloth, and place in direct sunlight. (I dry mine on our deck when I can.) It might take a couple of days depending on your climate, bring them in at night and put them back out in the morning.
When roses are dry, gently remove them from the paper or tray, they may stick a little, and pop the dried blossoms into dry, air-tight bags or jars.

They are now ready to use to make your own tea blends. I make a blend of roses, mint, dried apple, and a bit of dried citrus peel, usually orange or clementine. Delicious, but you can play around and try other flavors. I’m allergic, but I know a lot of people like roses with dried strawberries and a bit of black tea. You can make your hot teas into iced teas for hot weather too. I like to make an iced blend of peppermint and spearmint, (1/2 & 1/2) by making a really strong pot of it hot, steeping at least 20 minutes, and then pouring it into a 2 quart pitcher filled to the brim with ice. It is utterly refreshing on a hot day. Maybe this year I’ll add some roses.

I also crumble the petals of some of the dried blossoms and run them through my coffee grinder to make rose powder. You can use it to color and flavor breads and cookies and things. I haven’t used it yet but I plan to experiment with it as soon as I can. I am expecting great things! ^_^

Dream of a Colorful Life

Cooler weather means baking and more cooking in general. I made chocolate chip coffee cake muffins for breakfast this morning. Muffins for motivation! The boy needs to start getting the computers processed for his dad this morning. My poor husband, he just cannot do it all, there is too much. Thankfully the school agreed to pay our lad to clean them up and process them through. Gives the boy something to do, some structure for his days for a while , and gives him the boost of earning some money. I think I will make the weird bean soup for lunch again. I made it last week and it was a hit so maybe it will be again.

Yesterday I got a fair bit accomplished despite spending the day waiting for the doctor to call which they never did. I did a ton of cooking and prep, did laundry, dishes, got the groceries and such, cleaned the yard and told the lad that I am bloody tired of cleaning up dog droppings in all the places I have repeatedly told him Not to walk her. Basically, anywhere we are likely to walk is not a great spot, especially as we walk in our own yard in the dark sometimes. I picked and dried a ton of roses, made rose powder which is basically dry, pink food coloring with a sweet, floral flavor. I’m hoping for a big crop of mint too, but we’ll see.

Been trying to bolster my husband’s morale. Trying to get him to see that, in my opinion, he doesn’t have to be trapped by his job. He can embrace the idea of “fuck it” and go for what he wants. I know he’s right that we need insurance and that we wouldn’t last long without him having a steady income, I know, it’s 100% practical. But, he shouldn’t hate his life, you know? I’m not saying he just yell; “I QUIT!” and storm off, fun as that would be, I’m saying work on a real escape plan. He’s applying to places and that’s awesome, but if we drop one of our games he could use that time to work on a creative project that could be an outlet for him, that might or might not become anything in the future… but it might, and he will never know if he doesn’t try. What if he kept this job and was able to make a little money on a side project? What if that side project lead to another and another? Even if completely breaking free of regular work doesn’t happen, being able to make some money at fulfilling, creative work would shift the dynamic for him. He might feel freer to pursue a job with less hours, for less pay, maybe we could still get employer insurance until the broken health system gets fixed.

Even though it’s probably a silly dream, I think about us living a smaller, more flexible life. What if we could get our expenses down and our savings up to the point where we could live on a very small income? What if I could sell paintings and handicrafts, work at the library part time. Maybe he could work part time sell some of his creative projects? What if we could grow a lot of our own food? I know there would be a lot to think about, I get how impractical I am. But if we just stay on the well-worn path… where the hell does that get us? I’m tired of being fenced in, stifled, trapped on a crazy hamster wheel of boredom and frustration. I think my husband is WAY more tired of it than I am, I think I’m more tired of watching him deal with it. The craziness of modern life, the hurry, hurry, hurry, the full to bursting schedules, the lack of community, it’s all awful and soul-deadening. There is a way, or there are a million ways, to break free and I am going to find one that works for us.

Reality bites, so I will create a new one. It will be more beautiful and creative and fulfilling. A life worth living, where we make memories and have experiences worth talking about. I want us to both have the time and freedom to learn new skills as we want and need to. I want my sweet, hardworking husband to have enough free time that he isn’t paralyzed by choice anymore. He was working full-time (40-60 hours/week) while going to school 1/2-time (10-20 hours of work/week) for over 6 years. During that time he lost the ability to … know what he wants to do at any given time. He had so little time to call his own, he never made a choice, he’d end up scrolling FB, staring at TV or spending hours on a video game only to regret it later. I think any of those things has their place but he was falling into them by default and feeling like he wasted what little time he had. When school ended he was unable to figure out what to do with his free time for quite a while. We eventually settled into tabletop gaming, a little reading and such, but these are sort of default settings for us. With the extra workload the pandemic has forced on him he’s overwhelmed again. I just want him to have the ability to relax, unwind, let go of the stress and do something that makes him happy. I’d love it if he could be rewarded, get that insane morale boost of having his creativity valued by others.

Random items of progress and frustration

It’s been a big day so far. We had to take trash and recycling to the transfer station and buy more bags from them. Our town sells town branded trash bags for $2 a piece instead of a flat fee for the year. I like it because it motivates me to produce less trash. Then, because the tree by the driveway has been going just crazy and the car has barely moved, we took the car to no-human-interaction car wash to clean it off, then realized we needed gas too so we took care of that too. That is as big an outing as we’ve had in a month. Crazy. While we were out about 90% of the people we saw out walking and doing things (seen from the relative safety of our sealed car) did not have masks on.

I’ve continued to work on my shed, using things we already own, junk I chucked in the basement and things like that. I’ve got more lights out there now, and I brought out loads of art supplies and a string of purple lights. I found a bunch of teas in metal tins at the back of the tea cupboard and brought them out there, it’s nice to have a variety and these teas haven’t been seeing any use. They are also distinct from the teas I use in the house so it creates more of a feeling of getting away. Most of them are blends I created myself too, makes me feel good to consume things I had a hand in creating, or to use things I created, I love that feeling.

This far into the day and I have no idea what dinner will be. Bad mommy. LOL. At this point I am so burned out on cooking it is just crazy. I don’t know what to make! I am so sick of having to decide, having to come up with stuff, it’s so relentless. I mean, not ALL the time. Some times, especially right after we get a delivery of groceries, I feel inspired and excited to cook again, for a night or 2, sometimes for a breakfast and lunch or 2. I look at what we have and I want to make stuff again. A few days later and here I am… uninspired, cranky, and ready for anyone else in the world to do the cooking. I forget to thaw things on time, I forget to order key ingredients or they just aren’t available… what is that? My whole life has been lived with the potential to just go and get anything, maybe I couldn’t afford to do that, but the foods were all there. I wanted a couple of cans of lentils the other week and the store was out of them, lentils. Nothing in my life prepared me for how utterly weird that is. That’s the kind of story my parents used to tell us kids about Russia. Like supposedly Russian people would wait in a line forever and ever and just get whatever the hell they were selling or giving out or something, because communism. (hold on, I need to add lentils to my order again, see if I can get any)

In 24 hours, or thereabouts, I have cut back on web surfing, TV and so forth. Proving nothing, anybody can do anything for a day. We’ll see how I get on. I think our savings are about to dip again, we had to have the septic system cleaned out, omg so expensive, and we need to pay all our bills again. One of our bills actually went up $10/month for no reason, the jerks just want to charge us more so we’re stuck with it. WTF? I thought we weren’t supposed to have monopolies in this country. To keep not spending money, as I want to do, I need to plan some kind of dinner tonight. Ummmmmmmmm…. I suppose that’s a question better answered or pondered in front of the open pantry.

Ancient Wonder

My husband reads the news a lot more than I do. I find it disheartening to read much of it, it’s pretty much all slanted toward scaring us, upsetting us, a lot of it makes me angry so I avoid it. This morning he told me something that, while it could be construed as concerning, actually makes me feel oddly happy. People are baking so much that there is what amounts to a worldwide run on flour. Supposedly you can’t get it anywhere at the moment. I have no idea, I haven’t entered a store in weeks and weeks and I haven’t tried to order any, because I always keep a fair bit on hand. I buy it on sale and keep in the freezer until I have room in my airtight containers. I think I may be getting low by now but I haven’t been checking. Hmm, I probably should… not that I can remedy the situation apparently.

Anyway, there is plenty, PLENTY of wheat, there is NO SHORTAGE. According to the article my husband read it just needs to be milled and processed and that, so, somewhere in the U.K. they are reopening a One Thousand year old mill to help meet demand. This is where I need a large pool of silence where I sit absorbing this information and my imagination goes zipping down rabbit holes picturing what a 1,000 year old mill could look like, how it’s still standing and existing, just the sheer amazing awesomeness of it being reopened in the modern world. Honestly, it brings tears to my eyes, I LOVE this. I want to order flour specifically from this mill. I looked it up and the one in the U.K. probably looked(s) something like this:

Ok, maybe it looked like this, I don’t know I haven’t been there, but this is an old form of mill. It could be turned by river power, there are versions that were driven by animals or people power as well.

I love it because it’s so simple and pure. I’m sure this early tech had problems but if it can be pressed into service 1,000 years after it was built I am humbled by the genius of its enduring design. I watch a woman on Youtube who lives on a farm in rural China who grows, processes and cooks food using very old methods. One of the things that intrigues me most is the mill she uses to grind things like corn & soybeans and so on. It’s built something like this one but more rustic:

Hers has a base to it so it’s at about waist height or so. She slips a wooden bar into a hole in the top and walks around and around adding water and beans as she goes.

So, what I love, what makes me happy about all this is that we’re all baking. Lots of people who never had time to bake before are baking. Houses are full of the smells of banana bread, cookies, muffins and sourdough bread. There are kids crowding their parent’s elbows to watch the mysterious process that only became so mysterious pretty recently. I love the activity, I love the wholesomeness, I love the continuity of doing this thing that our ancestors did for so many generations. I am so happy people are gaining this skill. That some are finding the satisfaction of making bread with their own hands, delighting in the alchemy of yeast and sugar, glowing with pride as their family eats and loves the delicious taste of fresh, homemade bread. I love the old mill, or hopefully mills that will or might be pressed into service after a long and quiet time in stillness. There is much to love about the modern world, some of it very good indeed, we have the means to travel far, far, far and return home again, we have the miracle of vaccines that have all but eradicated certain dangerous diseases, we have the means to see storms coming days in advance in many cases, global communication, the list goes on. But we left behind some valuable things in our rush to adopt new ways of doing things, and I love to see us returning to some of the things that are simpler, more wholesome, that give people satisfaction, that require skill, labor, & time.

I haven’t been baking bread but I’ve been making cookies and scones more than usual. Have you been baking? Is it a new skill, a renewed skill, or a long habit for you? Have you picked up any other types of skills during lockdown? I’ve heard buzz that knitting, sewing, and crafting of all kinds are having a moment. Let me know what you’re up to in the comments! It’s nice to know if I’m not talking to myself. ~_^ I like biscuits, maybe I’ll make some tonight.

Day 45: the lottery of leftovers

Before the pandemic hit, I had been working on ending food waste in my home, and I was doing it alone. I’d mentioned to everyone that it seemed to be a pretty sizable problem and that I wanted to fix it but no one else had really bought-in. I’d let them know that the dinner they were eating was made with leftover rice or pasta, or a bunch of veggies that had been in excess of a previous dinner’s requirements, and everyone would nod and say “Cool.” That’s not nothing. I have a few very picky eaters and they were doing their best.

Now everyone is more invested in my project. They’ve watched the fridge empty out and listened when I let them know that even though I’d ordered groceries we didn’t have a blind idea when they’d arrive, if they’d arrive, or if the things we needed would all be included. The Instacart shoppers are doing their very best but if the grocery store is out of something there isn’t a lot they can do. The young man who seems to pick up our groceries most often has been really great. He texts us and asks if he can substitute something else, lets us know options and prices, informs us of store policies, and even sends pics of the empty shelves sometimes. He really doesn’t need to show us the bare milk cooler or whatever, we believe him, but it shows us the situation in a way that has an impact, this is real. What we’re all going through is real.

Anyway, leftovers get eaten now and almost nothing is going to waste. I still find little things that were hidden, behind or under other things, that have gone bad or grown mold and those things are wasted. I’m talking about leftover casserole in amounts of about 1/8^th of a cup, or fresh herbs that hid under a bag of carrots. (cries a little, I love fresh herbs and it is tragic when I let them go to waste) Before the pandemic I would often end up tossing up to ¼ of an entire casserole or pan of lasagna, the kids would actually let ½ a pan of brownies get stale. (!!!) In the current dystopia the huge lasagna I made lasted less than 24 hours and we’ve had not a single brownie, cupcake or cookie wasted. My son said; “Now that I’m actively trying not to waste any food I realize how much food I used to waste. It was not a small amount.” Said with all the thoughtful gravity a 17-year-old boy could muster. He was always my super picky eater. He had massive issues with texture that were pretty savage. It is a BIG deal that when dinner is not good this kid now lies and says “That was good, thanks Mom.” My daughters, who have been relatively uncomplaining and accepting of whatever was put in front of them are now the ones most likely to make special requests and insist that they need certain foods. I could not have predicted this switch.

At this point I am cooking what I’m calling “original meals” about 70% of the time, maybe? By that I mean meals that I decide I’m going to make, get the ingredients, maybe make a substitution or 2 and make pretty much according to the recipe. The rest of the time I’m making meals backward by starting from “What have I got on hand? What in the fridge needs to be used up right away?” Often those questions lead to some kind of fried rice dish made from; the leftover halves of veggies chopped for previous dinners, leftover rice, and a purposely-leftover bit of chicken, pork or beef, all dressed up with a fresh palette of spices and some soy sauce. Or I might find that I have a bunch of left over baked potatoes and decide to mash them up and use leftover veggies and some ground beef to throw together a shepherd’s pie. I think of this as Leftover Lottery I spin the wheel and dinner is what it is. Soup is a good place for some kinds of leftovers too. Sometimes some leftover meat gets cut up and thrown into a casserole dish with some pasta and a condensed soup and that’s dinner.

We’ve been able to get some groceries delivered and I am very grateful for that. This whole thing would be so much worse without getting milk, cheese, fruit and veg delivered. The thing about groceries being so uncertain is that everyone appreciates it so much when “Hey! There’s lettuce and OJ! Oooo, apples and bagels!” The years of being spoiled by convenience are melting away.

Has anyone else felt the need to get creative to conserve food? Got any cool tips you want to share? Any funky ideas that came out really good? Let me know! Comment and share your genius. I really love hearing from you all. This isolation is tough.

Day 43 of Isolation

Blogging to try to stay sane here. I’ve got this creeping feeling of despair that threatens to overwhelm me. I’m swimming in stress and I have to think that’s what’s aggravating my acid reflux. I haven’t been drinking almost at all, I think I have somehow managed to lose my taste for beer, but last night we played Remote Insensitivity with some friends and I drank more wine than is good for me. I don’t think that helped my acid reflux either.

We’re gaming a lot. Today we will be playing Pathfinder again. A good game. We’re currently exploring an abandoned Hell Knight Citadel and it’s been a lot of fun, challenging, and I’m collecting pets. I’m trying to convince the party that I should get to raise the warg pups we found because CUTE, and keep the kobolds because they are hilarious. They are already sold on allowing the goblins to be part of our lives so there’s that!

I’m trying to ART but I can’t because I require some solitude for that and there isn’t really any solitude right now. I could make some but that would involve carting all my art stuff around and it’s a lot of work. I’ll probably be desperate enough to do that soon. The only craft I’ve been working on is slowly knitting rows so I can be done with the HP washcloth and move one to something more interesting. I can’t wait to be knitting something else.

I’m cooking a lot, of course, and I get super sick of it. I always have to cook enough for all 5 of us and it sucks sometimes. If anyone else were to cook something, or make a sandwich even, they could make it for themselves and no one else and no one would think anything of it. If I want to make myself a sandwich I very much feel like I have to offer to make one for everyone else. Tiring. But, hey, we have food and I’m deeply grateful for that. Food is a very good thing. I’ve got another delivery floating out there somewhere and this time I actually remembered to add the baking powder so that will improve my baking and keep me from having to muck about with substitutions. That will be awesome. Lately I’ve made lasagna, scones, a really bad shepherd’s pie, (ground chicken does not cut it) kielbasa and rice… and a lot of noodles. So many noodles. I’m going to make this crazy butternut squash mac & cheese tomorrow before my squash gets icky.

I’m reading A Serpent of Venice; by Christopher Moore very slowly. I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on reading for very long these days. Stress? How are you all doing? Able to read? Tell me your stories, what are you doing to stay sane in this isolation? Is anyone still out there or have I gotten to the point of screaming in the void?

we’re lucky but some combinations are not for the timid.

I don’t know why I’m finding so much to say about this quarantine. Maybe I’m just venting. When I link to my FB I generally tag it with “Blogging for Sanity.” Talking into the void so I don’t lose my mind as my beleaguered brain overloads with stress is my new normal, I guess.

Today I want to talk about food. For background, I spent many years of my adult life living in poverty, I had WIC and Food Stamps for awhile before we managed to get our feet under us, but I have never seen my fridge so bareas it is now, not since my early 20s when finances were extremely bad and I wasn’t getting any help. My cupboards are better than the fridge, of course, the fridge is perishable stuff so we eat it or it goes bad in short order. We had a few grocery deliveries, about 1 every 2ish weeks, so we still have some milk and cheese and that sort of thing. I think the only fresh veg we have right now is a bag of carrots I forgot was in the drawer or I would have served them already. Oh, I think there are a few onions and potatoes in the cupboards too actually, but most fruit and veg is now frozen or canned and the fridge looks empty to me.

More Background: Years back, we had a weird Fall snowstorm sweep through and it took out power everywhere. Ours was out for 4 days, which wasn’t bad compared to some places nearby that took weeks to get power back. Everything in our house was electric so we couldn’t cook anything and had no heat. All the grocery stores were closed because they couldn’t use their registers so we had to make due with what we had. We tried to eat through the fridge and managed to save some stuff in a cooler by packing it in the snow, but it was PB&J for days. I tried to use a fondue pot to heat some things up, didn’t go so well. We BBQed a bit which was perilous as the trees above melted and dumped snow over us while we tried to cook.

Anyway… after that incident, I have made sure to have a good stock of TP, toothpaste, flashlights & batteries, etc. on hand. I also keep a supply of canned tuna, instant soups, cooked reheatable foods like canned pasta and soups etc. and insisted on moving into a house with a woodstove. 4 days without heat and cooking scarred me a bit. If an outage happens in summer we have the outdoor grill. I also keep a supply of pasta and sauce on hand, ramen noodles, teas, canned and frozen veg. etc. because I shop sales and buy most things only when they hit a price I like, then stock up and don’t buy that item again till another excellent sale, I keep my cupboards and freezer very full under normal circumstances. So now that we’ve been working our way through all my stores I find I have no tolerance for thinning reserves. They are thinning for sure. There is room in the chest freezer, I can see to the backs of my cupboards. It makes me feel insecure even while I know I am lucky. I have been able to keep things pretty ok without leaving my house. I wish everyone could be so lucky.

We’re lucky, but we’re at a point where food is getting a little weird. We’re having to look at what we’ve got and figure out what we can make to eat and it’s becoming clear that my preparations have some pretty big holes in them. I have several containers of mayonnaise but didn’t think to try and freeze cold cuts or maybe buy ham and freeze it to be cut for sandwiches later. Tuna fish gets old fast when it’s the only choice. I have pasta and marinara sauce but that gets old pretty quick too, plus I’m allergic to tomatoes so I’m eating buttered noodles when my family has spaghetti. I’ve cooked everything we especially liked already, we’re down to things like tuna casserole, spaghetti, I made a chicken casserole, pancakes, I’ve gone through most of the stuff I could make soup from and I’m seriously running out of ideas.

We’re supposed to get a delivery of groceries today. I ordered things that will bring us back toward normal but who knows what we’ll actually get? The stores are constantly running out of stuff so it’s been very hit or miss. Depending on what we end up getting I might have to start making cooking videos with my son. He had the idea and we keep joking about doing it; making a video series of the weird stuff we have to cook and eat because we are out of everything else. I’ll let you know if things get that bad. I hope you are all doing well, staying sane and have plenty to eat. We’ve all lost weight trying to conserve what we’ve got. Not a bad thing really but we are looking forward to a time when we aren’t feeling so insecure. Hopefully, the insanity of this virus will cause more people to really look at how insane and inequitable the system we’ve crafted really is and maybe we can fix it at last. Everyone needs a living wage, health care and housing. PERIOD.