Pandemic Food Ways :: Cooking for Six

photo: Ella Levy

Going into this quarantine period, I really didn’t think cooking would be so different. We eat all our meals at home, and I do most of the cooking. I love to cook. I love planning for food. I love shopping for ingredients. I watch Top Chef on repeat. I’ve been watching cooking shows for 15 years, starting with slow Saturday mornings nursing a newborn watching PBS — Jacque Pepin and Julia Child.

Cooking through the quarantine hasn’t been so easy though. I’ve tried diligently to space-out my market visits. We’ve gone almost 14 days between shopping trips, with a farmers market run once a week for seasonal, local produce. I haven’t had the mental bandwidth to plan a 2-week menu before heading to the store. Planning for 294 meals, while trying to be efficient and within a budget seems a bit impossible to me. Plus, I can plan all I like but if something isn’t available at the store, I have to wing-it anyways. The whole ‘cooking at home’ experience has changed — even for those of us very accustomed to cooking at home!

Meals these days often look like an episode of Chopped. I’m given a random collection of ingredients (and random because who has a lot of experience shopping for 2 weeks of food during a pandemic during which supply chains have been compromised. I mean seriously.) Random ingredients with full access to the Chopped pantry — which sometimes has limited items because paprika and garlic salt were both sold out 4 days ago at the grocery store.

If I can frame this experience into a cooking competition, I’m all the better for it. Here are a few meals with which I won!

Comfort food category:

Ina Garten’s Chicken Pot Pie recipe has been part of my repertoire for years. It’s delicious as written yet also allows for easy changes to accommodate most dietary needs. We’ve adjusted this recipe to accommodate gluten-free needs, dairy-free needs, I couldn’t get all the ingredients at the store needs. Just last week I had forgotten peas. I wasn’t going back to the store for a bag of peas. Thankfully, our neighbor had some leftover frozen peas — not the whole bag’s worth but it was fine. This meal is delicious. I’ve made a few adjustments over the years, including:

- blanching my carrots directly in the warmed chicken stock

- homemade biscuits instead of pastry topping — mainly because I love making biscuits and homemade pastry can be fickle

- using boneless chicken thighs or roasting off a whole chicken, picking the meat, and using this instead of the recipe’s chicken breasts

The biscuit recipe I use is this one:

This is an easy recipe and takes you through the laminating process which gives great biscuits their fluffy rise. I grate the butter from frozen and pop it back in the freezer while I’m getting the dry ingredients ready. Cold butter makes the best biscuits.

I’ve also indulged my internal baker. She really loves baking and bread-making. There is a science to baking that’s exciting and stimulating. And bread is so delicious when made well. We’ve made this Garlic Pull-Apart Bread as a side to lasagna and spaghetti. I like this recipe because it only requires one rise before you pop the loaves into the oven. And the butter & garlic is just delicious. Butter and garlic are always delicious together.

I didn’t have the fresh parsley but did have fresh oregano & thyme from my garden. If it’s growing in my yard, I’m using it! The recipe makes 2 loaves and we had no leftovers! Delicious.

Taco Tuesday category:

I’ve also learned we like variety. So every few taco nights, I throw into the mix this copycat recipe. It’s delicious and the peppers/adobo sauce are actually quite easy to find, even at your standard grocery store. The last time I looked, there were still plenty of cans of peppers in adobo sauce on the store shelves. It’s an easy & delicious addition to your standard taco spread.

*it does take some planning as the marinade needs to be on the chicken for at least 2-hours, longer is preferred.

Next time we have taco night, I’m going to try making my own tortilla wraps. This recipe seems a little time consuming but time is in abundance right now so I’m going for it!

Friday Night category:

Friday nights are historically our pizza night. I make the dough in the morning. Sauté the veg during the day — usually mushrooms and onion though this week it was mushroom & leeks because white onions aren’t available at the grocery store right now and leeks are coming in at the farmers market so….

This pizza dough recipe is my absolute favorite because I’ve learned I can do ALL the kneading with my stand-mixer. The recipe calls for hand-kneading but I’ve used the mixer, following the same time recommendations, and it’s been just fine.

This recipe also has you using a combo of 00 flour and all-purpose flour. I do use the 00 flour which is more finely ground than AP flour. You can find it at the store in the baking section…if your store has flour right now. And it’s also best if you weigh your ingredients — it allows for a more specific outcome, closest to the recipe.

Weighing ingredients is actually really fun and by doing so, you can assure a more consistent product.

This dough works well on the grill which is our preferred method! I roll it out on parchment. Season the grill grates with olive oil. Flip the rolled-out dough onto the grill. Let it cook for a few minutes before flipping, and then bring it inside for toppings. We pop it into a hot oven to finish it off.

Delicious.

Cooking during coronavirus has been surprising to me. Some days, it feels like Thanksgiving — as my sole purpose is to cook and everyone leaves me to it. I’d spend all my hours in the kitchen if I didn’t have other responsibilities. Thanksgiving cooking is like a gift. As is coronavirus cooking. However, on some days, I just don’t have the clarity, motivation, or energy to play the game. Sometimes, I’m given a really weird Chopped basket of ingredients, and the expectations are high because my people are hungry, sometimes emotional, and want the comfort and familiarity of our normal menus. On these days, I remember that cooking for pleasure is a privilege. Having tasty food that meets nutritional, emotional, & social needs is a privilege, not a right.

At the end of the day, food is sustenance. Sometimes we just need to eat what we have. Just eat the apple, please don’t expect it to be a fresh, from scratch apple pie. And eat it even with the bruise because, sisters & brothers, we aren’t going to the store for another 9 days.