JimTheBeerGuy wrote:Pretty proud of today's cooking experiment

Rightly so!

Here's my Sunday Social Distancing Cooking.

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:If you have reason to go in the direction of Midway Airport, I saw toilet paper, paper towels and bleach at Continental Sales. They limited two items in the paper category, so bring someone with you.

That's the spirit! If stores put in rules to prevent hoarding and try to spread items in limited supply as widely as possible, try to find a way around them.

Good news for the rest of us: the paper product shortage is temporary.

At this location, you could take two toilet paper rolls (not bags of rolls) or two paper towels (not bags of paper towels).

Yesterday in a different internet format, there was a family who did not buy any tp. They are now at one roll and wondered where to go for more.

I did not buy any tp, because I bought the big bag at Costco before all this happened.

Thank you for putting a generous slant on my information.

Regards,
Cathy2

Hi,

In another location on the internet, a closed up school collected supplies in high demand and in shortage, then brought it to the county health department to redistribute.

If you want to track what's going on, then check out this dynamic map Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

Regards,
Cathy2

I've found that liquor/corner stores in the city more reliably have supplies that larger retailers have run out of. At least in the last two weeks.

The temporary paper shortage is a good excuse for folks to switch from toilet paper and paper towels to readily available, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly bidets and extra dishtowels/washcloths.

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:The temporary paper shortage is a good excuse for folks to switch from toilet paper and paper towels to readily available, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly bidets and extra dishtowels/washcloths.

Totally agreed. Earlier this year, we' started using dishtowels/tea towels in lieu of paper towels (which we do keep in the kitchen but try not use).

If you're looking for a decent, low-cost bidet, I'd recommend Intelliseat.

I was at the Jewel on Chicago Avenue in Evanston this morning, and they actually had toilet paper. They probably had 20 packages of it, and so I don't know how long it will last, but they had a limit of one package. They were still out of skimmed and 1% milk, and so I had to get 2%. They were out of wipes and Dawn, and they were out of yeast and they only had one five pound bag of flour there. I decided that I better get some toilet paper while they have it. There were not tons of customers there today. They had a limit of 2 gallons of milk and 2 dozen eggs. I hope they are going to be able to keep the shelves stocked soon. They still had cabbage for $.29 a pound, but I bought one last week, and so I passed on it.

Fun tips: The wife sent me on an English muffin wild goose chase yesterday but I learned a few things: plenty of eggs/milk and other staples at Costco. Aldi's gets toilet paper every day and people wait in line first thing (overheard the checkout person).

Still not getting the toilet paper hoarding. We still have about 20 rolls from our pre-corona-mania purchase at Costco and unless my wife is planning a high school prank on the neighbors' I can't imagine needing to buy more for at least a couple of months. And don't get me started on bottled water. It's been long-banned from our house for environmental reasons but really, why?

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:The temporary paper shortage is a good excuse for folks to switch from toilet paper and paper towels to readily available, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly bidets and extra dishtowels/washcloths.

Dishtowels, side-towels, rags for house cleaning, agree, have been trying to wean off paper towels for a while. Not entirely successful, but our Bounty use is noticeably down over 3-years ago.

Bidet, hah, what are you? French? Kidding aside sort-of I have about as much chance of switching to Three Seashells* as a bidet.

*Demolition Man reference.

G Wiv wrote:Bidet, hah, what are you? French? Kidding aside sort-of I have about as much chance of switching to Three Seashells* as a bidet.

*Demolition Man reference.

It's not just a bidet, it's an entertainment system. All that's missing is a beer tap:

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/01/08/k ... lt-in.html

Living the life indoors means cooking to distract, to scent and to have something to look forward to.

In our current situation, no plans are solid and most live on hope.

After St. Patrick's Day, I had some cabbage available to make Bess Feigenbaum’s Cabbage Soup from the NYT and inspired by EatChicago's wife Cookie.

I made some spaetzle and sauerkraut using smoked sausages from Busch Garden purchased at Usingers. The sausage choice was tolerated, largely because it was a different texture. I have more sausage, though I will probably use it in another type of dish.

I baked two loaves of Japanese Milk Bread, which can be sliced thin and still hold their shape. I've made Toad in the Hole for breakfast, toast with butter or jam, grilled cheese and today: cream cheese olive spread.

For whatever reason, I tend to stockpile olives and mustards. Eating down our olive collection will make room on the shelf. I had two ounces of cream cheese, so this was a prototype salad. If we did not like it, it was a small amount to eat. This was cream cheese, some mayonnaise, garlic powder, olive brine and chopped olives.

Here in Villa Park we haven't been hit as hard as some areas, it seems. Short on certain items sure, but I've been able to find most of what I need, if maybe not the precise brand I'd normally get. That's at Whole Foods, Jewel, and Pete's Fresh Market.

I was even able to find a 4-pack of Charmin toilet paper at Jewel Sunday. And they had a pretty good supply of Bounty paper towels. A bounty of Bounty, as it were.

I've never been more grateful to be a half-decent, fairly experienced home cook, meal planner and pantry stocker. Based on what I've seen in some grocery stores over the past 10 days or so, having some level of cooking knowledge can leave a person in a pretty workable position. It appears that runs on certain items have not only been irrational and panic-induced but are also based on a dependency on convenience foods. Many items have been scooped up, hoarded, etc. But still, with first, second and even third choices sometimes gone (ok, finding chicken has been a problem), I -- and many of us here, I'm guessing -- am left with nothing more challenging than some culinary roadblocks, but no real dead ends.

Of course, it depends on the store, the day of the week, the time of day, etc. But I've not yet walked through a store at which I couldn't put together a week's worth of meals without too much difficulty. It seems we're just at the beginning of this ordeal and yes, things can, and likely will, change. But for now, relying on my training, as it were (much of it accrued here), seems to be enough to keep my family well fed.

=R=

Buzz Dean, a fellow BBQ guy, posted delicious looking beer bread from the King Arthur web site on Facebook. I did not want to make a whole loaf so went half batch in muffin form. Turned out well, but I might not be a fan of beer bread in general.

At least it gave me an excuse to have a mid-afternoon Baltimore Spaghetti (Miller High Life, Aperol, lemon juice)

I think part of it is that people don't cook from scratch, and part of it is the fact that people are worried that they won't be able to go to the store, and especially if they come down with the virus, and they they tend to purchase nonperishable stuff such as tuna fish, peanut butter, frozen veggies, frozen dinners and canned stuff such as soup and chili. They also load up on milk, eggs and bread because they are afraid they are not going to be able to go to the store soon. The last two times I have been at Jewel they have been out of skimmed and 1% milk. They were even out of it when I went there at 9:00 this morning. They did have plenty of eggs although they had a limit of 2 dozen. I was also finally able to get some toilet paper, although they only had about 20 packages left on the shelf, and so I am sure the shelves are empty again right now.

My Dad definitely is a non-cook.

When our family was young, our family went through four gallons of milk a week. My Dad was a big consumer, especially if he added Nestle Quik to it. Milk was a beverage as much as an addition to cereal in the morning.

Flash forward to our smaller, older household. We go through a gallon a week. It can periodically increase if I make yogurt or ricotta for a meal.

When it was unknown what the powers that be interpreted our home confinement to mean. I made a point of keeping an heir and a spare of milk: two gallons rather than just one. At the very least, we could go two weeks without needing milk.

The other day, Dad comments why I am concerned about our milk supply. We have water and other beverages in the house. I reminded him milk is not just a beverage, it is also an ingredient. It was in his pancakes just this morning and waffles yesterday. It may be used for macaroni and cheese or for making your oatmeal taste better or in cake. He just never thought beyond milk as a drink.

I tend toward scratch cooking for the flexibility. Clearly that is not everybody, especially from checking other carts in the grocery store.

Regards,
Cathy2

My friend was at Mariano's in Vernon Hills today. Ghost town, and fully stocked with food.

I've been doing a low-carb diet since Feb 25th, so I have very little in the way of processed food. Fortunately the diet is working (lost 20 pounds in less than a month - shooting for 50 total) and I have been eating well every day (no calorie counting). Since the virus outbreak, I haven't changed a thing other than I stocked up on more of what I've been eating - lots of eggs, bacon, steaks, burger meat, chicken, tuna plus different veggies, nuts and some cheese.

Last night was a typical meal: 12oz NY strip au poivre (brandy peppercorn sauce with heavy cream) and a Caesar salad with homemade parm crisps. My vacuum sealer and my sous vide circulator have been my life savers. In the old days I would just freeze stuff in Ziploc type bags and defrost the meat before cooking over high heat. Now I can seal the bags (keeping them fresher much longer) and freeze them (I can buy in bulk and keep more on hand all year), cook them in the same bag sous vide (where I know the meat is cooked perfectly 100% of the time) and then I finish as I wish. Lately it's been in the frying pan with some oil and butter for the red meat and it's been awesome. My air fryer has also been great as I use it to roast vegetables quickly, make parmesan crisps for a salad in a few minutes, cook burgers and chicken when fresh (and I don't want to use the stove - which I don't every single time). I am starting to look for more recipes.

I haven't been temped by my favorite things like pizza, bread, or potatoes at all - which I am shocked by to be honest. I've never contemplated being on a low-carb diet more than 2 weeks (in the past that was the longest I lasted), but actually wanting to stay on it? I'm in disbelief that's it's me. I used to wish for this to happen as some sort of epiphany so I could focus on getting to a healthy weight. Well, it's happened and I'm locked in. I'm 6'2" currently 225 pounds going down to 195. Been walking 2-3 miles a day too. I'll be back eating things I love as well in the future, but I finally get the big picture and know what is needed for lifetime maintenance. My cousin was in the same boat last year, but he didn't heed the warning signs. His weight was going higher and higher, his blood sugar was getting too high and he finally went over the cliff. He now has diabetes and high blood pressure. No way that is happening to me; I will not give either of those things to myself.

G Wiv wrote:Matzo Ball Soup = Dinner

Nice, Gary. Very nice. Not quite as traditional a Jewish dish as yours, I did manage to incorporate a little corned beef into my dinner. It's basically a Cubano but I subbed in the corned beef for the ham. I present . . .


The Juan Epstein

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ronnie_suburban wrote:The Juan Epstein

Fantastic! I'd happily power down juan or two of those sandwiches. Nice knife in the background!

ronnie_suburban wrote:The Juan Epstein

Oh man, I'm a little slow. Just got the Welcome Back, Kotter reference. Nice, very nice, almost as nice as the sandwich.

KevinM wrote:I've found that liquor/corner stores in the city more reliably have supplies that larger retailers have run out of. At least in the last two weeks.

I found that to be the case, as well. I had to run out yesterday to pick up some white bread for the kids, so I decided to run over to the local corner store (figuring the fewer people I come in contact with, the better) that just opened up about a month ago. Plenty of Scott toilet paper there, and they were stocked up on paper towels, too. I was also able to finally find a box of Lucky Charms for the kids, as well (when I stocked up a week and a half ago, both Target and Pete's were out of it.)

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:The temporary paper shortage is a good excuse for folks to switch from toilet paper and paper towels to readily available, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly bidets and extra dishtowels/washcloths.

Yep. We've had a spray bidet attachment (known as a "bum gun" to folks across the pond) for six years now, and it's great. Something like $40 and pretty easy to attach. A seat attachment is more convenient for just cleaning up your nether regions, but we also bought it to rinse out our cloth diapers, and you can even use it to rinse off stuff in your bathroom. It has reduced my toilet paper use to about as near to zero as you can get. Just enough TP to dry off. And you feel so much cleaner!

Binko wrote:(known as a "bum gun" to folks across the pond)

I'm an American, below is the only gun I want! Go back to France you pasta eating commie!

G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:The Juan Epstein

Oh man, I'm a little slow. Just got the Welcome Back, Kotter reference. Nice, very nice, almost as nice as the sandwich.

Yes, exactly. Iirc, Juan Epstein was a Puerto Rican Jew but since the sandwich I made was already a goofy mash-up, I didn't think it mattered too much . . .



=R=

Binko wrote:

MarlaCollins'Husband wrote:The temporary paper shortage is a good excuse for folks to switch from toilet paper and paper towels to readily available, more cost effective, and more environmentally friendly bidets and extra dishtowels/washcloths.

Yep. We've had a spray bidet attachment (known as a "bum gun" to folks across the pond) for six years now, and it's great. Something like $40 and pretty easy to attach. A seat attachment is more convenient for just cleaning up your nether regions, but we also bought it to rinse out our cloth diapers, and you can even use it to rinse off stuff in your bathroom. It has reduced my toilet paper use to about as near to zero as you can get. Just enough TP to dry off. And you feel so much cleaner!

I am frequently astonished by what I learn here. I remember your mentioning this sprayer, I did not realize it was now part of your toilet routine. Do you run the water to warm it first? I cannot imagine doing this cold.

Sapp's truck stop on 80 (or is it 88?) in western Illinois has the Japanese bidet toilets in the Women's room. They are not in the men's room.

Regards,
Cathy2

The one I have uses just the water right out of the toilet waterline, so it's cold. I got used to it pretty quickly. Doesn't bother me in the least. I'm pretty sure there must be versions out there that connect to a warm water line or have a method of heating the water. This appears to be one solution. I've never explored what options there are, but there do appear to be a few if the cold water is uncomfortable. And looking at the types that go under your toilet seat, many of those seem to also come in varieties that allow temperature control.

I think we may have even gotten it before the kids and the cloth diapers. My wife and I had just taken a three-week work-and-leisure trip to India where these were not uncommon and I just found them so much more hygienic and less wasteful than toilet paper.

Excellent insight for us fressers
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/grocery-store-employee-covid-19_n_5e78c99ac5b6f5b7c54839ae

Today's lunch was an effort of eating-out when eating-in.

Gwiv highlighted Oklahoma hamburger style with lots of onions. For the 4th of July last year, I made the Oklahoma Onion Burger following Kenji's method.

It is currently my Dad's favorite burger. I chopped up green olives for my Mom to enjoy on her burger. It never occurred to do this before today, but I will going into the future.

Today's lunch was Oklahoma Onion Burgers using 2.5 ounces of ground beef each. I made Broccoli Salad using what I had on hand: craisins instead of raisins and roasted edamame instead of sunflower seeds.

Two buns are left, so Sloppy Joe or Sloppy Gumbo may be coming up soon.

Regards,
Cathy2

Ram4 wrote:I've been doing a low-carb diet since Feb 25th, so I have very little in the way of processed food. .

Same here, as a matter of fact. And I agree with you on the effects of the diet. It's a marvelous appetite suppressant when it comes to junk food and portion control.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I've never been more grateful to be a half-decent, fairly experienced home cook, meal planner and pantry stocker. Based on what I've seen in some grocery stores over the past 10 days or so, having some level of cooking knowledge can leave a person in a pretty workable position. It appears that runs on certain items have not only been irrational and panic-induced but are also based on a dependency on convenience foods.

Yep, frozen pizzas, canned soups and deli meats are cleaned out in my area. Jarred spaghetti sauces gone, but right next to them, plentiful canned tomatoes?! Don't people know how to cook marinara?

Figured we are all stuck inside anyway, might as well get to know the neighbors in my condo building, and made a pot of chili to share: