This is tonight’s personal coronavirus pan(dem)ic story. No, the sky isn’t falling, even if there isn’t any chicken. But people are acting like it is, and making random panic hoarding buys. The photos here are from earlier today at our local MalWart.
[The staff were very nice. Apparently they have very little to do once everything is sold out, so they’re bored and speaking with customers instead. They verified to me that their bosses would give them a very difficult time, though, if they needed to call in sick!]
At any rate, some of what I found (or didn’t find) at the store made sense:
Some of what I found (or didn’t find) made no sense at all:
Some were sort of half and half:
Then there was food and drink (or lack thereof):
What else is available?
And so, with healthy choices in my cart, I checked out and headed home.
Note and Suggestion: I have heard from multiple people that they found supplies at their local convenience stores, but at a higher price. If you can afford to do so, why not shop at your convenience store and save time? And save the low-price stores for those who cannot afford to pay more?
By the time I left MalWart, it was after 4 PM, usually traffic has already picked up and is bumper to bumper on this highway.
And just to give you examples of how to put stuff together in a pinch:
The frozen salmon was in nice pieces of about 6 ounces each, so I didn’t worry about thawing, just sauteed them over a low flame (I had already stocked up on butter, one of my must-haves; but any margarine or oil will do, and salmon as a fatty fish doesn’t need much to prevent sticking):
The bourbon sauce turned out great! The recipe: A little this, a little that! Started with bourbon and turbinado sugar, when it started to taste too sweet added lemon, decided it needed lots of lemon since it was going on fish, then rebalanced with more sugar so it wasn’t sour. Then added garlic to spice it up a bit, a little at a time, then a little more. About 5 minutes on the stove. Perfect!
The fish browned nicely and was flaky throughout:
Experts say eat nutritiously. The easiest way I find is to add veggies to things and have fruits for desserts!
I have various rices in the kitchen cabinet, so made basmati rice. If we didn’t have any starches, we could have had a big salad. I always have frozen veggies in the freezer, so added some spinach toward the end of cooking the rice, after the rice was soft enough but there was still some liquid to help cook the spinach. Colorful and tasty!
I plated the fish, then melted more butter in the same pan and browned it whilst serving everything else. Took maybe 1-2 minutes on medium high. Put Mom’s food in a bowl because she eats slowly and doesn’t like her food to get cold, which it does very quickly on a flat plate. Brown butter over fish and rice, bourbon sauce on the side in its own little bowl. Voila! A tray of goodness!
I, unfortunately, have to eat puree, so I had the same dinner run through the blender. Fortunately, however, I like black pepper, which Mom doesn’t, and so garnished with a bit of that. It still tasted good!
And for dessert, well, I’m trying to get rid of a bunch of old apples, and I had the above ingredients already out on the counter; so I cut up a couple apples, threw the bad parts out to the squirrels, arranged the good parts on a plate, sprinkled them with a bit of the bourbon and turbinado sugar, topped with cinnamon, and put in the oven for the 10-15 minutes we ate dinner. Voila! They’re not really baking apples and Mom said they hadn’t changed much in the baking, were still crispy and juicy, but hot, sweet and cinnamony with a little bite.
I, basically, had extra-flavorful applesauce. Oh well! We got another fruit in our diets for today.
And that is how you deal with whatever you can find. Keep calm, carry on, and put things together any way it occurs to you! As noted above, the sky is not falling. Even though so far, there is chicken little.