Coronavirus Good To The Last Bite

Monster cookies. I only had one and half cups of chocolate chips instead of two a recipe required. But I found the remnants of a bag of pecans and a tiny amount of coconut that had been sitting in the fridge for who knows how long and mixed them in. They were some of the most amazing cookies I have ever made.

  

This morning I read a New York Times article about how consumer's grocery habits had changed. Not only were consumers buying products in larger quantities, but they were also figuring out how to use all of their food down to the last drop.

I realized I fit right into that last category of change.

"Regrow your kitchen scraps," proclaimed the YouTube video I watched last week. They planted vegetable parts I would typically throw away, scallion ends, bell pepper seeds, and celery bottoms and showed how quick they grow. (The YouTube link is at the bottom of this post.) The simplest one was the green onions. You just cut off the bottoms - roots with 1-2 inches of its white stalk - plant them with the white tips above the dirt and in a week you will have new green onions. Just clip off the green ends and eat. Then a week later, that part you had cut off will have regrown into a new green stalk ready to cut and eat. Can I have an endless supply of green onions?

I have also been going through my cupboards and refrigerator finding obscure food that I haven't eaten because I didn't know what to do with them. The can of kidney beans became part of a turkey soup; the balsamic vinegar I bought months ago (hopefully not years ago) became balsamic chicken thighs, a new household favorite; and my claim to fame - the lentils that I turned into pie weights. I don't like lentils. I have no idea why they were there in the cupboard, but then I read that they make the perfect pie weights. And sure enough, they have worked great to blind bake 3 pie crusts so far.

My son just finished working on a merit badge for the Boy Scouts on sustainability which covered of all things, food waste.

"Are you going to eat that?" I asked my son who had one large untouched piece of rib roast on his plate. "No," he said. He had taken 2 large pieces and now one just sat there. I took his plate to the kitchen, into a baggie went the slice of meat, and then into the refrigerator.

When he complained that he didn't want to eat leftovers for lunch the next day, I said its because we are minimizing food waste as discussed in your merit badge book.

Surprisingly, he brightened and ate every single bite.

Take care and be safe.

Posts Tuesday and Saturday.

Regrow Your Kitchen Scraps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk2Z954prz4

Tacos With Toilet Paper

Buca Di Beppo

"Every order comes with a free roll of toilet paper," said the email from Los Gringos Locos mexican restaurant.

"Meals sealed for safety," said the email from Buca di Beppo.

"...grab your favrorite sauce, some penne, and a bottle of wine to relax tonight!" said Charlie's Trio on their Instagram page.

Thank goodness for technology and social media.

Can you imagine if the coronavirus hit prior to the year 2000? Before social media and online marketing were thing? Before Uber, Postmates, and Doordash?

How would these restaurants advertise they were still open - especially the independents?  Flyers? Buying radio and tv air time? Or relying on people blindly phoning numbers in the good old Yellow Pages to see if they were open?

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I think that all three social media messages were effective. The first one focused on levity, the second on safety, and the third on tranquility. I've purchased from two of these establishments based on the messages and I'm sure I will purchase from the third before the week is out.

I've been very concerned about how restaurants would survive under the stay-at-home restrictions. I have always heard that restaurant margins are thin. How are they paying rent with no dine-in customers? I read on Eater that restaurants are hoping for government assistance to help with rent and other costs*,  but  I imagine there will be fewer restaurants, especially independents, once the coronavirus blows over. And if the government institutes a full lockdown like in China and Italy? What then?

Unless that doomsday scenario happens, I am impressed by how effective restaurants are in using technology to advertise to their customers and to continue to remain open.

losgringoslocos.com

As we all scout for food for our tables, don't forget take out and delivery, not just to vary your diet and

avoid doing dishes, but to support your local restaurants so they are around once the stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Besides, who doesn't need a free roll of toilet paper nowadays.

Take care and be safe.

Posting schedule: Monday, Thursday, Saturday

  

*https://www.eater.com/2020/3/19/21185918/how-can-goverment-assistance-help-restaurants-actually-need-in-the-form-of-relief

To Give or Not to Give

“Excuse me, sir.”

I pulled my gaze away from the grocery store’s five shelves of popcorn to focus on a middle-aged African American man standing beside me in a gray t-shirt and sweats.

“Can you help me out?” Joe asked.

At first glance, Joe did not appear homeless. His clothes were clean, his hair fairly well-groomed and his speech clear. But his eyes were cloudy and there was something in the way he asked that question, a certain quiet, yet assertive way, that I knew he was going to ask for money.

As a typical rule, I don’t give money to beggars. In part because I’ve watched documentaries exposing some of them making a pretty fair living out of the kindness of others when there is nothing wrong with them, in part because I don’t want my money to possibly help them buy drugs, and in part because I don’t want to encourage them to keep asking for money.

"You see,” he said, “my wife and daughter are in a van outside and I’m trying to get them some food and…”

“Would you like me to buy you something?” I cut him off, because if I heard him ask for money, I’d have just turned away. However, I’ve always believed that if a person in need asks for food, I’d give it to them. So since we were in a grocery store, I figured I’d see if he would accept an offer of food or if he was only interested in money.

To my surprise, his face lit up and he said yes.

“What would you like?”

Joe thought for a moment, “A sandwich from the deli.”

We walked over to the deli and he asked for a meatball sandwich. When the young man behind the deli-counter asked what size, I said a large one. But before the clerk could start making it, Joe asked, “Are the meatballs made out of pork?”

The clerk looked confused then checked with two other clerks and they all said they didn’t know.

“My wife can’t eat pork,” Joe said. “Give me the chicken instead.”

While the clerk made the sandwich, Joe and I had a nice discussion. I was very impressed with how polite he was and how well he spoke. He explained that he and his family were just trying to make it to the weekend, when they would be good for awhile. When I asked why, he explained that’s when the food bank at a local church opened and his family would also receive a voucher to stay at a hotel for 18 days so they wouldn’t have to keep sleeping in their van. Joe used to work with marble for home remodels, but has been out of work for eight months. He was paid under the table and hadn’t filed a W4 in eight years and therefore was ineligible for unemployment.

A sad story. Real? Who knows? The story definitely seemed plausible and Joe appeared sincere, although those are probably the first two rules a con-artist learns: make the story plausible and appear sincere.

After the sandwich was made, we shook hands, wished each other well and parted our separate ways.

When I left the store, I scanned the parking lot for a van, but saw none.

Whether Joe had a family or not, was homeless or not, or just saw me as a sucker, I felt good knowing that whatever his motivations were, he and perhaps “his wife and teenage daughter” were going to eat well that night.

(The man's name has been changed to respect his privacy.)