Covid Quarantine, Day 26: The Cook Comes Out

I’m on day 26 already? This is why I want to chronicle this time, because I’ve clearly lost track ages ago.

One improvement I’ve made in quarantine is reducing food waste, partially because I no longer go to restaurants. As much as I’d like to support the local food scene, the susceptible people in my household prefer I limit my exposure to the outside as much as possible. Out of respect, I abstain.

This forced me to finally finish the cans of beer in the back of the fridge, and be creative with the stuff laying around in the pantry. Our current goal is to only go to the grocery store every other week (as opposed to weekly).

That task is surprisingly challenging for me. 1.25 weeks in, I’m out of fresh foods. (Perhaps I underestimated my quantities here because I have a track record of forgetting about perishables.) It’s not as simple as doubling what I normally get; I don’t like to eat the same food over and over. I’m used to planning for 3-4 meals ahead, at most.

What’s Cookin’ In Quarantine

I don’t have the luxury of picking up a new hobby at this time because #MomLife. But I do have some freedom in the kitchen, which leads me to trying a lot of new recipes from various sources. Not all of them were hits, so I’m only going to share the ones I had success with.

I will say – the one ingredient that I re-discovered is bacon!

What caused my bacon renaissance? During the first few days of my county’s stay-at-home order, my local grocery store sold out of most fresh meats. Bacon was one of the few meats in stock.

As y’all now know, I’m not a breakfast person. Instead, bacon makes an appearance in my pastas and side dishes. Here are my favorite recipes that I recently made:

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon: I tried 2 different Brussels sprouts recipes and this was the better one. I like it because the ingredients are easy to find and it doesn’t require a lot of steps.

Creamy Tomato Pasta: I had some leftover tomato puree and this recipe called for the exact amount that I had. While the original doesn’t include bacon, it’s mentioned as one of the add-in suggestions. Bacon definitely makes this dish better, though it does become heavier.

Spaghetti alla Carbonara: I haven’t made a carbonara in ages, so this was a fun one to indulge in this week. I ran out of fresh parsley but I did find some leftover frozen peas, so that helped add some much needed color.