Homebound Day #15: Tempers Flare

We are into the third week of shelter-in-place and we got the news from the Governor: the order to hunker down is extended through the end of April. At this point it is unlikely we will be able to avoid going to the store for that long. At least not as far as milk goes. Supplies are doing well. However, we have noticed that tempers are a little shorter than normal. Fortunately, we have lots of good food to keep our spirits up, or there'd probably be casualties by now. We've been having quite the exciting time with food. We decided to do a Thanksgiving in March.

The upshot is this Thanksgiving was relatively quiet due to the lack of visiting relatives.

We've also made sure to make a few kid friendly meals. You'd think any 4 year old would be happy to have cheesy pigs in a blanket and French fries!

You'd be wrong.

We've also been making sure to bake something fun at least once a week. Last week we made two loaves of colored bread. This week it was something sweet: chocolate chip peanut butter bars.

These should last about 18 minutes.

We had a fair amount of leftovers from our Thanksgiving. Not surprisingly, an 8-1/2 pound turkey breast was a bit too much for two adults and a four-year-old. I had a brilliant idea and made it into a tasty turkey pot pie that my daughter would not eat.

See her turn it down in HD!

So there we have it. We're at home for another month. Hilariously, we just got the coupon book for our local grocery. I figure we'll wait another week so anyone who has to get in there right at the first of the month can do so. Then I'll get in there, grab some necessities, and get the hell out before I catch something.

Stay Safe!

Homebound Day #8: Casualties of the Bar

As we head into our second week at home with no end in sight, we had our first casualty. I finished a bottle of Lawson's Super Spiced Scotch. This is a genuine problem as they do not make this particular libation any longer.

Which is why I bought a case and a half.

I have to hope that the 16 bottles I have left can hold. I also found a 1.75L bottle of Tito's Vodka that I had forgotten about, so the day wasn't a total loss. The find was bitter sweet as I realized we are almost out of white rum.  will have to make due with the handle of Admiral Nelson and the two fifths of premium rum I've stashed away. 

The pork loin has come and gone. It turned into carnitas and is now well on the way to turning into poop. Circle of life and all that. Tomorrow we're going to cook up some ground beef and make tacos. 

Spirits are medium-high. In a fit of boredom, I decided we would finally move a cabinet down a flight of stairs and convert it into a game cabinet for the Spud. This was accomplished with no discernible screaming.  That's it for now.

Stay safe! 

Mexican Style Slaw

As the self quarantine works into the second week, I realize I need to make sure we don't waste any produce. As I planned on making carnitas, it seemed reasonable to use up my cabbage to make a Mexican style slaw to serve with (or on) them. I got to use up some produce and ended up with a tasty slaw! This would also be a serviceable side salad. You can ramp the heat up or down with more or less jalapenos. Yes, I will be having this meal with margaritas. I'm not a total savage. As always, notes are in blue.

Mexican Style Slaw

Ingredients

• 1 medium head cabbage, cut into thin ribbons
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 3 radishes, finely chopped
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered (or 2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped)
• 1 can (14.5oz) black beans, rinsed
• 1 cup corn
• 2 tablespoons pickled jalapenos, chopped (feel free to use more to spice it up. Also, fresh is fine if that's what you have on hand)
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 teaspoons dried cilantro
• 1 teaspoon adobo seasoning

Directions

1. Throw the first 7 items in a big bowl
2. In a smaller bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and whisk to incorporate.
3. Pour the contents of the small bowl into the large bowl and toss to get the dressing mixed evenly among the slaw.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Good times!

Coffee Breakfast Smoothie

So a few weeks ago I found an Instant Pot Ace Blender from Walmart for the unspeakably low price of $49.99. We've been getting our money's worth. We've been making smoothies on a fairly regular basis. This particular recipe was modified from one I found on the intertubez. That called for cinnamon and I wasn't convinced that it was a good idea. I'm also not entirely sold on the oats in there, but I'm sure that's just me. I guess it's a nutritional addition. Either way, they're not bad for a quick and pretty filling breakfast. I threw the link to the YouTube video down at the bottom.

Coffee Breakfast Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup coffee
• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt (in retrospect, I'd bump this up to 1 full cup)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 banana, sliced
• 2 cups crushed ice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 ounce coffee liquor (optional)

Directions

1. Throw everything in a blender. Hit the "smoothie" button if you have it. Otherwise just blend until smooth. 

Stay Safe!

Homebound Day #6: I Get Productive

Days are already starting to blend together, so I have to make sure I have some time markers. One of my standard time markers was Sunday. Normally, it would be marked by weeping that I had to go to work the next day, but that doesn't look to be a real concern for some time. So I have to remember, Sundays Are For Baking. I figure I'll just keep up with my habit of baking something every Sunday.

The baking took the form of two loaves of sour cream bread. They hold well and are great for sandwiches. Plus, it's a very simple bread to make.

And if you let your daughter help, you get to add 25 drops of blue food coloring.

While the bread was rising, we through a couple of things in the slow cooker. We used the last of our smoked chicken for a Faux Pho. 

This was unbelievably good.

We also threw a pork loin, onion, and some cucumber-honeydew preserves in another cooker. No pictures, as there's not much to look at. It will likely become carnitas, or possibly a stir fry or soup. This is our multi-use food for the week.

 

Finally, The Wife reminded me that we had a single pie crust in the fridge, as well as a couple of containers of  strawberries that were not long for this world. 

So naturally we made a strawberry pie.
Not much to look at, but tasty.

And that's where we are right now. Food supplies are still good. We still have a couple of gallons of milk and plenty of toilet paper and napkins. Fairly likely we will make the two week mark without needing to go our for anything. Past that, we will run out of milk and possibly one or two other minor things. If I keep baking, flour may be a concern. 

Stay Safe!

Almost forgot, I made coffee smoothies for breakfast:

Slow Cooker Faux Pho

We are still attempting to make it through the imposed homebounding using only the supplies we have in the house (apart from eventually having to get milk for the Spud). This has forced me to be creative and ensure we use up all of one thing before we make the next. Two days ago we defrosted a whole smoked chicken that was in our fridge. The first night we had it as is. The next night it was chicken wraps. This time, since IT WAS FUCKING SNOWING AGAIN, I decided to use the last of the chicken to make soup. I thought it would be neat to try making Pho, but real pho is a Pain In The Ass. Lots of straining and demand for a perfectly clear broth. Screw that. It all went into a slow cooker. Was it authentic? No clue. I've never had authentic pho. I'm guessing it wasn't even close to authentic. Was it good? HELLS YES IT WAS.

Slow Cooker Faux Pho

Ingredients

• 5 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup water
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 3/4" ginger, grated
• 1/8 teaspoon ground clove
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• salt to taste
• 2 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 3 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 can 14.5 ounces, bean sprouts, drained
• 1 pound cooked, shredded chicken
• 8 ounces rice noodles
• Lime wedges and Sriracha sauce for garnish

Directions

1. In a 5-6 quart slow cooker, add all ingredients except for the last 4. Set on LOW for 5 hours.
2. Add the sprouts, chicken, and noodles. Recover the slow-cooker and cook an additional 30 minutes.
3. Serve with lime wedges and Sriracha.

Good Times!

Homebound Day #5: Made it to Saturday

The first week of homebound is drawing to a close and we are officially shelter in place. It looks like there will be no real possibility of returning to school before April 14. Naturally, the weather is still cold and gloomy, so getting out into the yard is still not an option. Today, I decided to make something special for breakfast: French Toast. Granted, this is not really all that special but for bread, I'm using something I normally do not use for anything under any circumstance.

Panettone. I fucking HATE Panettone.

I truly hate Panettones. I am extremely vocal about how much I hate these. Naturally, my mother-in-law insists of inflicting these on us every year. This particular one has sat up on top of the fridge for over two years.  This is a testament to how unnatural they are. This was still squishy. I'd trust a Twinkie more. Panettones are the cockroach of the baked goods. They last FOREVER. However, The Wife likes them. The only way I'll tolerate them is if I can convert them into French Toast and drench them in butter, jelly, and syrup.

And they still have the consistency of gas station fruit cake.

With breakfast out of the way, we all found things to do on our own. The wife started getting seeds prepared for our garden, the Spud rampaged around the house until she discovered mahjong on The Wife's tablet. The kid has a knack for the game. I amused myself by playing some games on my Steam account that I loaded back up after a seven year hiatus.

Dinner was a simple affair. We made chicken wraps with the leftover chicken from last night, and served them with some more corn on the cob and the last of the jar of dilly beans. We finished up with some ancient rice pudding for dessert. 

A little spicy brown mustard and garlic herb cheese spread seals the deal.

There was enough chicken left that I'm going to try my hand at Pho for dinner tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure I have all the ingredients. So far my plan of using up all of one main ingredient before starting another is working well. We'll get at least 3 days of meals from that chicken, depending how much Pho I end up with. We are also defrosting a pork loin for use in the slow cooker tomorrow.

Toilet paper and booze supplies still look good. 

Stay Safe!

Homebound Day #4: Shelter In Place

So as we enter into day 4 of homebound, we get the notice. The Governor will be ordering to "shelter in place" until further notice. Pretty much you can leave for food, medicine, or doctor visits. Other than that, don't go anywhere if you don't have to. We actually did have to go out, as our dog has Addison's and needs regular injections of a steroid or his kidneys eventually fail and he dies. Other than that, he's the picture of health. He's had Addison's for about 10 years

Look at that face. He's worth it.

We went into town, took care of it, then headed back home. Many places were empty, but the Sam's Club was absolutely jam-packed.

Breakfast was once again a simple affair of toast with butter and Vegemite and a fried egg. The Spud had a toaster strudel. We skipped lunch as we were getting ready to head out for the dog appointment. The daughter had another tray of lunchmeat, fruit and yogurt with a cookie. The Wife had to make a trip to her school for some supplies. While I waited, I got peckish and had a snack:

Sardines in mustard sauce and Ritz crackers. Don't judge me.

The Wife returned home and we had a pretty nice dinner. Corn on the cob, dill bread, pickled dilly beans, and a smoked chicken that one of my student's parents gave me as a gift for rehabilitating his son. This dad does BBQ competitions, so this chicken was crazy good. For dessert, we polished off the rest of the pineapple cake.

Who said teaching is without reward?

There was plenty of chicken left, so I stripped the carcass and stored the meat, and then did what any survivalist would do during the apocalypse: I boiled the carcass to make stock, which I will freeze for later use. 

Celery seed, onion salt, pepper were added.
Bear Grylls can bite me.

So now we head into the weekend and a serious lockdown. I'm looking to download Tabletop Simulator and finding some people willing to do the same, so I can play games with people. I'm also looking at setting up an RPG group to play online.

Stay safe!

Homebound Day #3: The First Cracks Appear

We are into the third full day of being stuck at home and the first cracks are appearing. It's been raining for the last 48 hours and we can't go outside. Today, everybody overslept and we immediately fell behind schedule. I actually had a fair amount of school stuff to do today, so the Spud wasn't supervised like she's been. Everybody was a bit on edge today.

Breakfast for everyone was a simple affair. The Spud had a bowl of Fruit Loops and a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon because what child doesn't wan't $15/lb. smoked fish on a daily basis. The Wife and I had toast with butter and Vegemite and a fried egg.  Coffee supply is solid.

Lunch/Snack for the Spud was a half bag of chips and some grapes. I had a leftover smoked sausage. The Wife had a bag of chips because she will die/kill everyone if she doesn't get enough sodium.

Dinner was a slow descent into madness. We served the rest of the shepherd's pie and realized it wasn't going to be enough. Then I realized we had corned beef left. That's when it happened. I suggested an atrocity and The Wife cheerfully said it was a great idea.  BEHOLD:

Reuben quesadillas. 
I am become death, destroyer of worlds.

We'll be outside gnawing on tree bark before you know it.

The Wife seemed to think these were absolutely wonderful, she finished hers with great gusto. I was less enthused and finished mine mostly out of spite and to finally be done with the corned beef and cabbage we were working on since the weekend. The Spud wisely avoided this entree and opted for yogurt, fruit, and some sliced turkey lunch meat. Everyone had another slice of the pineapple upside-down cake from yesterday.

Fortunately, the temperature is climbing into the high 60's. Once the Spud is in bed, we're retiring to the patio for Adult Beverages and  I will have a Big-Ass Cigar. 

Stay Safe!

Homebound Update #2

So, I'm on day two of being homebound. (It's day three for The Wife and Spud. I had to go into school Monday for a few hours to grab my resources to take home). So far, we have made it without screaming or throwing each other out windows. Basically, we have enforced a schedule upon ourselves. As The Wife and I are both basically running our classrooms from home, we have to make ourselves available from 9-2. This is also peak Spud Time. Here's the rules so far:

For Adults

1. You must get out of your pajamas and into actual clothes for the day. They don't necessarily have to be school appropriate, but they can't be what you woke up in.
2. You must maintain the same level of hygiene you would maintain during a normal work week.
3. No more than one snack bag of chips per day.
4. No drinking before 2pm. 
5. One room a day will be cleaned thoroughly
6. The last 1-2 hours before bed must be completely devoid of electronics except for music. That is quiet grown up time for games, reading, or "other."

For The Spud

1. Adult rules 1-3 apply to you.
2. You will follow a weekday schedule:
   9am-11am: Educational time (worksheets, reading, practicing numbers and letters, etc.)
   11am-12pm: Snack and free time
   12pm-1pm: nap or quiet activity time
   1pm-2pm: Educational time (flash cards, educational electronic toys, educational video like NatGeo or PBS)
   2pm-4pm: free time and helping with clean-up. Baths when appropriate.
   5pm-6pm: Utilize the free streaming from zoos and aquariums
   6pm-7pm: Garbage TV time (My Little Pony, Glitter Force, Voltron, She-Ra)
   7pm or so: Wrapping up and bed time.
3. The schedule is flexible when weather will allow us to go outside.

It seems to be working for everybody so far. As far as food, we have been working through the corned beef and cabbage I made on Sunday. It has been utilized for three meals as well as snacks:

Colcannon from Sunday became the mashed potato topping for a shepherd's pie yesterday!

The cabbage and potatoes became the side dish for smoked sausages tonight!

The corned beef became Reuben snack bites!

We are also trying to keep spirits up with snacks and desserts. I found a box of pineapple upside-down cake mix (with a can of real pineapple enclosed!) lurking in the back of a cabinet. The Spud helped me assemble it and it turned into a serviceable dessert!

Doesn't look like much but it works.

So that's where we are right now. Things look grim as far as returning to school. Looking more and more like the remainder of the year will be online learning. Stay safe and we will stay in touch!

Not Exactly Shakshuka

So here we sit, stuck at home for at least another 14 days due to global pandemic. What better time than to go through my notes and put up all the recipes I never got around to posting! This here is a spin on the classic shakshuka. However, I've left out the eggs, added chicken, spinach, paneer, and a bunch of Indian spices. So it's Not Exactly Shakshuka any more. However, it is warm and filling and pretty easy to make. It's also versatile. It is easily modified for vegetarian or vegan diets. As always, notes are in blue. There is a link to the YouTube video of this recipe at the bottom.

Shakshuka with Chicken and Paneer

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon brown mustard seed
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 quarts canned tomatoes (with liquid)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 dried cayenne peppers
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
• 10 ounces frozen spinach (no need to unthaw)
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (we used breast tenders, thighs would work well. Or leave it out if you want to go vegetarian)
• 1 pound paneer cheese (or other firm, white, cheese if you can't find paneer. Or leave out the cheese and chicken and now this is vegan!)

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat (we used our trusty 6 quart dutch oven)
2. Add mustard seed, heat until seeds begin to pop
3. Add ginger, garlic, and onion. Reduce heat to medium and sautee for 5-7 minutes or until onions start to brown.
4. Add tomatoes with liquid, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, garam masala, and cilantro. Stir a simmer for a couple minutes.
5. Add the spinach. (if you threw it in frozen, give it a few minutes to unfreeze and everything to come back up to a simmer. If the spinach is already thawed, go on to the next step.)
6. Add chicken. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
7. Add cheese. Simmer another 5-7 minutes. 

Good times!

First full day of staying home

As most of you are acutely aware, the Coronavirus has drastically changed how many of us have to live. My wife and I are both teachers, and both our schools are closed until March 30th. The prevailing notion is the closings will last far longer. It is possible that the schools could remain closed for the remainder of the year and students will work online from home.

That being said, we are stuck home for at least 15 days. We will do everything in our power to not go out, though this means being trapped at home with a feisty four year old. What I've got going for me is that I was raised in a house where you always bought way more than you'd need "just in case."  The Wife continually questioned why I insisted on keeping six jars of peanut butter and jellies, bags and bags of frozen potatoes and vegetables, cases of ramen noodles, matzoh, and assorted pastas. Why did I buy 48 packs of toilet paper every week or so?

Well, "just in case" has arrived. We have plenty of food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. We have a rack full of food we've canned in the last couple of years. We have toilet paper and paper towels. We get our prescriptions in 90 day supplies, so we're good there. There is no fear of running out of booze.

What this means is that we don't have to run out and grab stuff from the store; stuff that somebody might need more than we do. Our goal is to live on what we've got in the house for 15 days. At worst, we will have to go out for milk. That's it. I'll try to give regular updates of what we're eating and how it's going. I'll post videos when I can (there's one at the bottom!)

Today's Meals:
Breakfast: Egg and cheese on English muffins for me and The Wife. Fruit Loops for the Spud
whoops, we have already run out of English muffins!


Dinner: Shepherd's Pie (using up the leftover mashed potatoes from the weekend)

-Stay Safe!