Cookbooks To Carry You Through

One of the most trying things about this confinement is coming up with meal ideas and plans.what do you make? Is your family getting tired of all the bean dishes they've been eating? Are you tired of making the same three or four recipes every week? Not to fear. There are some good cookbooks to get you through these tough times.

The New York Times Food section devoted most of today's issue to some of the best cookbooks and included recipes too. The staff made the selections , keeping the quarantine in mind along with the reason why some people read other literature. Even cookbooks offer learning, exploration and escape.Everybody weighed in  from Julia Moskin to Melissa Clark and Tejal Rao. The books can take you to Russia, the South and Korea. One of the most interesting is Beyond The North Wind: Russia In Recipes And Lore  (Ten Speed Press) by Darra Goldstein. Hers isn't the usual borscht pickled herring dishes. Vodka is spiked with birch buds and crisp mushroom hand pies spiced with caraway. There are also stories and traditions explained.  New contributor Vaughn Vreeland reviewed Bitter Honey Recipes and Stories from the Isle of Sardinia (Hardie Grant) written by London chef Letitia Clark. The recipes rely on high quality ingredients and the leisurely lifestyle Sardinia is known for. Another travel destination cookbook is My Korea: Traditional Flavors, Modern Recipes (W.W. Norton & Company) written by chef Hooni KIm. Chef Kims gives us everyday noodles in meaty black bean sauce along with  homemade (!) tofu with perilla leaf soy sauce.

Then there are the comfort food books. Check out Procrastibaking :100 Recipes For Getting Nothing Done In The Most Delicious Way Possible (Atria Books) written by Erin Gardner. Kids and adults will get a kick out of the recipes ranging from baked Alaska ice cream cones to mall pretzels along with chocolate pudding pie. Opera singer and chef Alexander Smalls gives us Meals, Music and Meals:Recipes From My African American Kitchen (Flatiron Books) are grouped by not surprisingly musical genre.Yet's it's also comfort food, from devilled eggs to Gullah dirty rice to chess pie. His potato salad made with pickled sweet relish made a fan out of reviewer Krysten Chambrot. Vegans also get their due with the cookbook Vegan JapanEasy : Classic and Modern Vegan Japanese Recipes to Cook At Home (Hardie Grant) by Tim Anderson.It's an easy read with the writing being conversational. Chef Anderson urges readers to cook holistically  with rehydrating shiitake mushrooms and curing them in soy sauce. There's also a simple vegan stock recipe that probably can be repurposed into a dozen dishes.Other cookbooks are Chicano Eats:Recipes From My Mexican-American Kitchen (Harper Design) by food writer Esteban Castillo that features a mac and cheese fundido with mushrooms along with Dime Times ( Karma Press) written by the famed cafe's owners Alissa Wagner and  Sabrina De Sousa and Yasmin's Fahr's Keeping It Simple : Easy Weeknight One Pot Recipes ( Hardie Grant), These last two are both comfort food recipes along with being easy ones.

It's a time of both reading and cooking. Why not order one or a few of these cookbooks to get you through this quarantine. You'll enjoy learning and cooking new dishes.

Improvise

Thanks to shortages and limited trips to the grocery store, home chefs may come into some problems. The big one is what happens when you run out or don't have a specific ingredient? One word: improvise. Get creative and smart with recipes and you may come up with a tasty new version.

Two dishes that can be creatively altered are chili and tomato sauce. The basic ingredients never vary , tomato sauce and tomato paste. After that you can be innovative. If you don't have enough chili powder then give it a mole vibe by grating 85 to 95 extra dark chocolate into it early on. You could also add a tiny pinch of cocoa powder too for more or less the same flavor. As for beans you don't have to stick with kidney or pinto ones.Try any white bean like a white pinto or pigeon peas for a milder, sweeter flavor. Also if you don't have any chili or red pepper, a double grind of black pepper will give it the bite needed. As for tomato sauce, again you can get innovative as you want. If there's no beef or chicken, then think fish. Tuna can easily be subbed in. You can use the water based or ones in oil. The last may be better because the oil adds a smoothness to the sauce's texture. Just cut back on adding olive oil to it. As for spices , thyme can replace oregano , while minced scallions can fill in for chopped onions.

Cow's milk is flying off the shelves right now. However you can easily switch to any of the plant based ones, from soy to oat, and cashew to almond.If you're using the milks for baking use the same amount you would for regular milk. For ice cream lovers with a milk and/or cream shortage - not to worry. Again almond milk comes to the rescue. You can even make ice cream with it and create a variety from chocolate mint to peanut butter to pure vanilla. Make this and have the kids toss in some of their favorite salty and sweet snacks from pretzels to chopped Easter candy. As for the chocolate sauce for those scoops or any scoops, melt chocolate in the microwave. You can even melt candy bars down for an addictive sauce that has bits of caramel and nougat. Melt down Nestle Crunch bars for a tasty topping for ice cream and fruit. Out of chocolate sprinkles? Use your grater on chocolate  bars to create fancy patterns on sundaes, cupcakes and cakes. You can do the same with crushed nuts too and cookies crumbs.

Improvise. That's what will keep you going during this difficult time. Use your mind , use your creativity to keep cooking tasty dishes.

Vegetarian In A Time Of Shortages

Getting food nowadays is akin to our ancestors foraging and hunting for food. The store shelves are scant with good food and nutritious choices. Is it worse for vegetarians? Maybe not.

If there is ever a time to go meatless now is the time. The meat section may be bereft of chicken cutlets and ground beef but there is still Beyond Meat burgers and their version of chopped meat.These taste like the real thing and are just as versatile as their meaty counterparts. You can make anything from your own version of Beef-A-Roni or patty melts, both would be hits with the kids. The company also has sausage patties and sausage links. The first  can be used to make a breakfast sandwich with vegan eggs and vegan cheese. Another faux meat brand is Gardein. The company has a wide array of different types. For a nice family meal try their turkey cutlets with gravy. These kind of are like a  turkey schnitzel  that tastes like the bird itself along with the gravy which has a homemade taste. Pair it with Stovetop  Stuffing or the homemade kind along with yams and green beans. They have excellent chicken strips , perfect with barbecue sauce and a side of fries. The family will love their Friday night fish fry with Gardein's crunchy filets which taste like Gorton's and Mrs. Paul's. Add fries for a real fish and chips experience. The company also produces  faux crab cakes which would be perfect for at home  mocktail parties with the kids.

Butter and eggs are also in short supply right now. Not to worry. You can easily find substitutes on line and in the stores. I've recently discovered Vegg egg substitute and was quite pleased with it. I  bought their egg yolk mix.It's just adding water and microwaving it for a couple of seconds. It produces a yolk-y sauce that you can dip toast into, but I found it makes a wonderful base for Hollandaise sauce. One of their other products is power scramble which creates a curd like scrambled sub in when water is added. It's cooked for a few minutes in the microwave. It's perfect with  Morningstar's Farms soy bacon strips.  Throw in some chopped bell peppers, onions and tomatoes for a Spanish style vegan omelet. The company also sells a French toast mix and cake mixes with the egg substitute already added in. Try the Vegg eggs with some melted faux butter  on toast. Real butter seems to be flying off the shelves too right now. The plant base butters , however, are still there and they're great for cooking and baking. Country Crock has them made out of olive oil. For a real buttery taste go for Miyoko's European Style Cultured Vegan Butter made out of cashews! This is perfect for cooking and just for slathering on  any homemade bread.

Yes, there are shortages right now. Yet if you go vegetarian or vegan, you'll be OK. There are many meatless and plant derived foods right now that can see you through these tough times.

Dad Cooking

Thanks to this pandemic, dads all over the world are participating in the daily cooking chores. Usually relegated to the kitchen , fathers are now coming into their own as home chefs. They're cooking and peeling and even baking!! Are they even better than the mom cooks?? Maybe!!!

One of the most loved and often made dad recipes is the one for pancakes.It's the easiest recipe and the one that probably impressed mom when they were dating. It's a mix of just all purpose flour, baking powder and sugar mixed with two eggs a tablespoon of oil along with two cups of milk. Of course dads like to add extras like chocolate chips or bacon. Sometimes it's a mix of both, much to the delight of the little ones. The recipe can be ramped up a bit by turning the pancakes into cups. The ingredients are the same, with the addition of vanilla, It's then dividing the batter equally into the muffin cups about one third filled, and baking them in a 400 degree F oven thirteen to fifteen minutes. The kids can fill them with whatever they want - eggs, bacon, ham, or go sweet with a puddle of butter infused maple syrup or healthy bits of berries and melons. Waffles are another Dad specialty. They're a great way to greet the morning or a fun lunch when paired with fried chicken. Again, it's sort of the same recipe for pancakes, but dry yeast is added for rise. For a different spin add such fruit as strawberries or blueberries. These would make a great dessert with ice cream too.

Lunch and dinner can now be dad domains too. Where is any man the most comfortable? Behind the grill. This is the time to get out the barbecue, clean it off and fire it up. Let the man of the house have free reign with what's going to be placed over the coals. Odds are he'll come up with some tasty recipes and renditions of backyard classics. Think bacon cheeseburgers, with thick hand made burgers and topped with pepperjack cheese. Dads usually layer on extras so expect burgers to have extra slices of tomatoes, pickles and even special sauce.Of course there has to be hot dogs, A dad recipe would be splitting them open on the grill for crisp edges and then filling them with melted cheddar or chili or both.Vegan and vegetarian dads can also do their meatless versions by using Beyond Meat burgers and Morningstar Farms Veggie dogs. You can even do bacon burgers by adding Morningstar Farms, soy bacon strips and cheese dogs filled with Chao's vegan cheese slices. End the meal with the ultimate cookout dessert - s'mores. Change it up a bit by adding bacon or by using chocolate graham crackers.

Let dad cook for this time together. It'll be a fun meal, loaded with everyone's favorite ingredients. Father knows best when it is time to make breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Per Michele Garguilo. Hai dato a tuoi figlie le migliore colazione di sempre.

Can Do Can Don't

Our diets now consist mostly of canned food. It's convenient during these times and for the most part tasty. Can we live on canned food? Will it be just as good as fresh? Can it last us through this self containment period or will it go bad after a few weeks?

This is a big question many of us are going through. Let's face it food shopping today is not the leisurely trip it once was.It's a quick grab for whatever's left on the shelf and then a quick scoot out. Some of what we'll buy now can last us well after this pandemic is over. This was the subject of an article in Wednesday's New York Times. It was written by famed chef and food writer J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. He explored a variety of shelf lives for different foods, from spices (which can literally last forever) to flour ( which lasts long too) and foods that never have an expiration date. These are vinegar, honey vanilla, molasses and corn syrup. Salt and pepper never expire either. What about those cans? As a rule metal lasts longer than glass which lasts longer than plastic. There are some tinned foods left from century old Antarctic expeditions that are still edible. The only food that has to be opened by the expiration date is baby food. Canned food can last for years so what you buy now will still be good two to three years for now. The same is true for canned soda which will still keep its' fizz for twelve months or more.

 Do check, however on the can's appearance when you go food shopping. Don't buy if the can is bulging or rusting. Those are two very sure signs of spoilage. Even canned meats like deviled ham and chicken will last for years along with canned tuna , salmon and crab. Tuna in oil will also last long too so you can stock up now and use it for salad Nicoise over the summer. As for jarred foods,you can see if the product is spoiled if the lid's  center pops up in the middle. This definitely means spoilage.Canned foods are also as versatile as their fresh counterparts. Canned corn can be tasty side dish served hot with a butter sauce but it can also work well in a salad too. Use fresh chopped peppers to turn it into fiesta corn. Green beans can be graced with an almondine sauce or flavoring minestrone soup. Keep in mind that canned meats can be made into a variety of different dishes. It may garner smirks and giggles but Spam is transformable into anything.Turn it into a breakfast omelet with some eggs and cheese. Spam burgers can be fun and you can even create Spam fingers in your air fryer. Serve with a barbecue sauce for a different kind of dinner. As for canned fruit, buy the healthier choice  which is fruit packed in water instead of syrup. Mostly this is peaches -versatile for desserts and snacking and fruit salad. Think canned peaches and vanilla ice cream on waffles for dessert.

Canned food is a staple in our lives these days. We need it and will need it for months to come. Choose cans wisely and turn them into delicious meals.

Community Gardens A Must Have

if anything this dark period in world history has taught us that we are , indeed a village, We reach out to others as they have reached out to help us. People are taking it further by creating communal gardens - with social distancing. It means produce for all in the community - a blessing in these times. It is definitely an inspiration .

C,J, Chivers, a Pulitzer Prize winning writer and staff writer for The New York Times Magazine wrote this interesting and inspiring article in yesterday's New York Times Food section,. The subject is dear to Mr. Chivers heart because he and his family are practicing this with their neighbors in their Rhode Island neighborhood. Their Wakefield neighborhood, a mill town, located on the state's southern coast. now has vegetable gardens, not unlike the many Victory Gardens that were planted during World War II.Mr. Chivers and his neighbors discussed planting plans at a safe distance of three to six feet apart. His neighbors' kids , the Ackroyd family,turned over the soil while he and his sons seeded potatoes in their yard. All this comes naturally to him. His father was an expert garden and fruit tree tender in upstate New York. The Chivers had abundant bounties of tomatoes and beans along with thick bouquets of dill and basil. He raised seedlings in  their kitchen then transferred them to cold frames, bottomless boxes that are set over plants to protect them from adverse weather.His plants were fertilized with still warm horse manure , brought in garbage cans in the family's Volkwagon squareback.  He even grew lush cantaloupes which  attracted a local melon thief.

This  gardening is not new to Mr. Chivers and his family. Since they 've returned from Moscow and settled in the US, they too have followed the elder Chivers' example. They have not only coaxed food from the ground but also raised and hunted turkeys sea bass,porgies and even ducks and goats. They even butchered them on butcher's table set up in their basement. They now can also harvest clams on their riverside home (they're not far from the Atlantic) along with eggs from the hens they have.Anyone can be like the Chivers family. They started with ordering seeds from catalogs, beginning with arugula and spinach, hardy greens that can withstand cool New England Springs.They also bought cilantro,parsley , turnips , radishes and peas. Neighbors bought  seed potatoes, peas and greens, Yards were sectioned off and dirt turned over.The topsoil and compost was added. Their neighborhood even had their own nurse, Dena Ackroyd, a physician's assistant who tended to kids cuts and scrapes along with worrying about her father who had the Covid 19 virus. Any neighborhood can have community gardens. Just do it with distanced coordination and Zoom meetings between the neighbors. Don't plant double crops. Have variety so there can be a healthy cornucopia of  veggies and fruits.Remember to share with your food pantry if there's overage.

This is the time for sharing. What better way than to start a garden with their neighbors. It's a sense of giving and growing, much needed in these times.

The Indigenous Food Supply

Long before the Europeans cam, the indigenous tribes of the Americas survived and even thrived. They relied on local flora and fauna for centuries. Now thanks, to the pandemic, they are relying on ancient farming and hunting techniques to survive.  These methods will hopefully sustain into better times.

 Regular contributor Priya Krishna wrote this interesting article for today's New York Times Food section.  She interviewed several members from different tribes and how they're coping through this challenge. The Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe , a vast two million acre area in South Dakota have to rely on food stamps or the Food Distribution Program On Indian Reservations.. This provides boxes of food, usually unhealthy to the native Americans. However, their web site states that they can deliver such healthy and native foods as bison, cornmeal, wild rice, wild salmon and catfish. Hopefully this is true because diabetes rates are high on reservations thanks to most meals containing too much sugar and processed foods . Unfortunately, acquiring nutritious foodstuffs is a hard task due to the spread of the virus and shelves are quickly emptying out. It also doesn't help that the nearest grocery is a two hour drive. Then there are government regulations and environmental conditions that prohibit hunting and fishing in the Continental United States.

What is saving the Oglala Sioux and other tribes across the nation are the time honored practices of seed saving, canning and dehydrating. Their forebears developed these to survive harsh conditions with limited supplies. Milo Yellow Hair of the Pine Ridge Reservation is busy preparing 8,000 seedlings of local varieties of squash and corn - hearty crops with a short growing time to plant in people's yards. Since many have no electricity for refrigerators and freezers, he encourages them to dry the produce. Corn, for example, can be cooked and dried to be used as a base for soups and stews. it can also be dried to make wagmiza wasna, a traditional snack in which the corn is pounded with berries and tallow.There is also a great sense of community especially in the Navajo community. as others make their gardens available to others. They're also assembling care packages for their elders  which include ingredients for fry bread, a Navajo tradition that has a complicated history as it was made from rations from the federal government. The Chippewa tribe has a long history of canning and they're canning beets cucumbers and carrots, with many donating to other tribe members.In Alaska, the Athbaskan tribe can hunt and fish. One, local grocery store owner Cynthia Erikson has a freezer full of caribou, moose and whitefish. This will definitely come in handy in the months to come.

We can learn from the indigenous Americans during these hard times. They rely on ancient practices for sustaining their food stores and supplies. They are getting good nutrition and copious bounties thanks to their traditional farming practices.