Author Topic: Pandemic hoarding  (Read 262170 times)

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #950 on: October 07, 2021, 12:18:45 PM »
Another trip to the grocery store, another sense of sticker shock, although looking at my receipt I can see we did rather well considering almost everything is organic and/or grass-fed.  Organic and organic/grass-fed dairy really adds up and we needed milk, cheese, and butter.  I plan on ordering the cheese and butter from Azure next month, which will bring the cost down while improving the quality (they have lovely organic grass-fed Jersey butter and cheese).  Sprouts had organic winter squash at 98¢/# and I bought nearly 18# since they were well stocked with kabocha, red kuri, and honey nut and because we drove which made it easier to cart home so much squash!

Last time I got a whole chicken and had the butcher cut it I was surprised to find out the next day that they'd deleted the back from my package (I still paid for it by weight).  This time I made sure to specify that I also wanted the back, and was told most people don't.

Apparently most people don't make soup. The first time we did Thanksgiving with my in-laws,I was shocked when they just threw out the turkey carcass. My mom and grandma always splitours in half so they could each make a pot of stock.

Blasphemers!
And seriously, that is like the most return for effort of practically anything.

Right?! I even make stock from rotisserie chickens. I remove the meat and throw all of the stock ingredients in my pressure cooker. An hour later, I have 2 quarts of stock with very little effort.

Small amounts of stock/broth from leftover bones are so awesome!  Even leftover bones from lamb chops can be turned into a pint of stock perfect for cooking rice.

I realize now that growing up we ate very little meat that come with a bone -- not because we were rich, but because we were a bad combination of poor with parents who'd never learned to cook much other than convenience foods and burgers.  Chicken was expensive then, so my mom cooked it once a year and that was bone-in thighs, but she didn't keep the bones.  Other than that we had hot dogs, meals made with ground beef (burgers, tacos, burritos, Hamburger Helper), hot dogs, and the "meat" that would be in TV dinners.  We would eat a cheap beef roast at most once a month and steak once a summer.  Once every 3 or 4 years my mom would make liver and onions, or pork chops (to her making pork chops meant frying them in cast iron pans and then making a milk gravy, so it was far more work than she wanted most of the time).  They bought the "Sizzlean" processed bacon product (pork free variety) and never saved fat from cooking, either.

I can still remember the weekly menu, repeated for years. 1 Hamburger Helper meal, 1 hot dogs meal, 1 TV dinners meal, 1 boxed mac and cheese meal, 1 burgers meal, 1 other processed foods meal (examples being frozen pot pies, dehydrated potatoes with spam, frozen fish sticks with frozen fries, canned soup), and 1 Sunday supper which would rotate through tacos, burritos (exact same meal with different tortillas), a beef roast, and another "fancy dish" like canned corn beef hash wrapped in Bisquick dough or beef stew made with frozen vegetables.  And it was always the same.  Hot dogs or hamburgers were served with canned pork 'n beans and canned corn. Mac and cheese was served with canned peas.  Au gratin potatoes and Spam were served with green beans.  Canned soup was served with grilled cheese sandwiches made from Weber bread and Kraft cheese slices.  I could make any of our meals by the time I was 10 -- and by that point 95% of dinners were made by me or my 14YO brother because my mom became disabled.

TomTX

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5345
  • Location: Texas
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #951 on: October 07, 2021, 12:35:27 PM »
Honestly, I’m not crazy about homemade stock. I find the way it gels up kinda creepy.


The gel is from having actual protein in there. If you don't like the gel, just increase the amount of water. It melts when you make soup (or use it to cook rice) anyway.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #952 on: October 07, 2021, 01:04:52 PM »
I wish the butchers would sell bags of chicken bones! I would buy them often!

As far as the Azure pick up point, the coordinator emailed me and it is at a church. She told me the same thing that the trucks do not run on a specific schedule and are delayed often. She said the people come early in case the driver arrives early but the driver will keep in contact. Sound pretty good!  I didn't realize that Azure Standard was a trucking only thing. I thought the trucking was in conjunction with the store(s). Interesting concept.

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #953 on: October 07, 2021, 01:51:47 PM »
I wish the butchers would sell bags of chicken bones! I would buy them often!

As far as the Azure pick up point, the coordinator emailed me and it is at a church. She told me the same thing that the trucks do not run on a specific schedule and are delayed often. She said the people come early in case the driver arrives early but the driver will keep in contact. Sound pretty good!  I didn't realize that Azure Standard was a trucking only thing. I thought the trucking was in conjunction with the store(s). Interesting concept.

I try not to order every month from Azure.  It works best for me to order enough for a few months at a time.  I basically have to plan to be available all day of the drop day and potentially the next day.  There was one drop a couple of months before Covid hit that was delayed two days because of the weather.  It's understandable.  Most of the time if the driver is late they still come the usual day.  As for being early, the new coordinator for my drop is a little rigid and she gets mad if the truck is 15 minutes early and we aren't all there, even if she didn't notify us until it arrived.  For our last drop I planned to be 15 minutes early, got a text when we were driving that the truck was there, and when I arrived 8 minutes later she was huffing and puffing about us being late.  The pick up was supposed to be 9:45, I left home at 9:20 to arrive at 9:30.  The truck must have arrived at 9:20 without her expecting it to be early.  Our past coordinator was a little more understanding, both of the trucks irregularities and our inability to get there immediately if it was unexpectedly early.  She would just unload it with whoever was there and wait (a reasonable amount of time) until everyone arrived.  The new coordinator puts the stuff back on the truck if a person isn't there.  My ability to get there in 10 minutes is unusual -- a lot of our drop's customers come down from the mountains.  And I never huffed and puffed when I arrived 15 minutes early only to find out the truck is running late and I have an hour to kill.

My favorite things to order are organic grains and legumes -- I think this is where the best value lies.  I also like the organic grass-fed Jersey butter and the organic grass-fed cheese.  We also like the organic fair trade chocolate chips, Sucanat sugar, organic whole milk mozzarella, raw honey, etc.  If they have a sale on Bubbies pickles I'll order them, otherwise they are less expensive locally.  They have organic tomato paste in glass jars, which is nice if you don't use an entire can at once.  I usually buy the Equal Exchange mini chocolate bars this time of year (so Santa can put them in stockings).

Cranky

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3842
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #954 on: October 07, 2021, 03:52:02 PM »
Honestly, I’m not crazy about homemade stock. I find the way it gels up kinda creepy.

Do you like Jello?  Much the same.

Well, I also find aspic kinda creepy.

I’m not opposed to jello, but I probably haven’t eaten it in a decade.

Cranky

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3842
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #955 on: October 07, 2021, 03:55:31 PM »
Honestly, I’m not crazy about homemade stock. I find the way it gels up kinda creepy.


The gel is from having actual protein in there. If you don't like the gel, just increase the amount of water. It melts when you make soup (or use it to cook rice) anyway.

I actually know all of this - I’ve been cooking from scratch for 50 years. I’m not opposed to other people making stock, it just grosses me out.

I’m kind of grossed out by eggs now that we have chickens, too.

TomTX

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5345
  • Location: Texas
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #956 on: October 07, 2021, 04:44:26 PM »
I’m kind of grossed out by eggs now that we have chickens, too.

Cloaca.

SunnyDays

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3489
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #957 on: October 07, 2021, 09:18:47 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #958 on: October 08, 2021, 07:35:42 AM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.

SunnyDays

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3489
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #959 on: October 08, 2021, 10:29:10 AM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.

Funny how people take different paths.  I was a kid in the 60s, born to parents on the lower SES scale (my mom grew up very poor with 5 siblings), but everything was home-grown, made from scratch in her home of origin, because that's all they could afford.  There was no money for anything fancy or for any excess of food.  When she married my dad and suddenly there was breathing room in the budget, everything was still made from scratch, because that's what she knew.  The only thing I ever ate that was "fast food" was the occasional TV dinner and A&W burgers, maybe twice a year.  Although I did (and still) have a sweet tooth, so allowance went for penny candy.  Now, as an adult, I probably eat worse than I ever did, but still mostly home cooked food.  It just doesn't occur to me to get take out, except for the odd pizza and Chinese food.  Which reminds me, gotta take something out of the freezer for supper!

mm1970

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 10881
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #960 on: October 08, 2021, 12:15:07 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.
This was pretty fascinating to read, honestly.  I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, and that diet you described is probably about half of what we ate.  My mom cooked from scratch a lot but:
- Breakfast: cereal, and never the sugary kind.
- Lunches (packed) were bologna or PB&J sandwiches on cheap bread. I remember being MAD when she started baking (white) bread because it was obviously homemade and cheaper and we were poor.  Usually with an apple or orange.
- She cooked dinner - spaghetti with meat sauce, occasionally tacos.  Corned beef and cabbage.  Cabbage rolls (I barfed once after these, and that was the end).  Chicken and potatoes.  Sometimes salads.  Pork chops.  Canned corn, canned beans.  Cole slaw.  I hated that cole slaw with sweet mayo dressing.  I remember being pissed that in the summer we'd get wilted endive salads with bacon dressing. I'd kill for that now.  And home canned tomatoes.  Ugh.
- Pork and sauerkraut.
- Also pizza.  It was Chef Boy Ardee I think.  Pork chops with canned baked beans.  Fish on Fridays.  Tuna casserole.
- She grew a garden every year and we canned green beans, jam, pickles, spaghetti sauce, salsa.
WE NEVER ONCE ATE THE GREEN BEANS FRESH.  WE CANNED THEM ALL.  I was in my 20's before I had fresh green beans.

Typical midwestern food, I'd say.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #961 on: October 08, 2021, 12:23:53 PM »
Has anyone used powdered sour cream or powdered yogurt that you reconstitute? I was looking on Amazon and they have it but the reviews seem sketchy. Some people like it and some don't. Just wondering if anyone here has tried these, and if so, do you have a favorite brand?

jrhampt

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2016
  • Age: 46
  • Location: Connecticut
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #962 on: October 08, 2021, 12:44:57 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.
This was pretty fascinating to read, honestly.  I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, and that diet you described is probably about half of what we ate.  My mom cooked from scratch a lot but:
- Breakfast: cereal, and never the sugary kind.
- Lunches (packed) were bologna or PB&J sandwiches on cheap bread. I remember being MAD when she started baking (white) bread because it was obviously homemade and cheaper and we were poor.  Usually with an apple or orange.
- She cooked dinner - spaghetti with meat sauce, occasionally tacos.  Corned beef and cabbage.  Cabbage rolls (I barfed once after these, and that was the end).  Chicken and potatoes.  Sometimes salads.  Pork chops.  Canned corn, canned beans.  Cole slaw.  I hated that cole slaw with sweet mayo dressing.  I remember being pissed that in the summer we'd get wilted endive salads with bacon dressing. I'd kill for that now.  And home canned tomatoes.  Ugh.
- Pork and sauerkraut.
- Also pizza.  It was Chef Boy Ardee I think.  Pork chops with canned baked beans.  Fish on Fridays.  Tuna casserole.
- She grew a garden every year and we canned green beans, jam, pickles, spaghetti sauce, salsa.
WE NEVER ONCE ATE THE GREEN BEANS FRESH.  WE CANNED THEM ALL.  I was in my 20's before I had fresh green beans.

Typical midwestern food, I'd say.

Yeah, this seems pretty standard 70s/80s diet to me, pop tarts, fish sticks, and all. 

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #963 on: October 08, 2021, 01:55:35 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.

Funny how people take different paths.  I was a kid in the 60s, born to parents on the lower SES scale (my mom grew up very poor with 5 siblings), but everything was home-grown, made from scratch in her home of origin, because that's all they could afford.  There was no money for anything fancy or for any excess of food.  When she married my dad and suddenly there was breathing room in the budget, everything was still made from scratch, because that's what she knew.  The only thing I ever ate that was "fast food" was the occasional TV dinner and A&W burgers, maybe twice a year.  Although I did (and still) have a sweet tooth, so allowance went for penny candy.  Now, as an adult, I probably eat worse than I ever did, but still mostly home cooked food.  It just doesn't occur to me to get take out, except for the odd pizza and Chinese food.  Which reminds me, gotta take something out of the freezer for supper!

I think part of it comes from the fact that my grandmother eagerly embraced canned soup casserole culture, my mom not knowing how to cook when she got married, an abusive first marriage, and disability.  Add in not understanding a thing about nutrition.  Then factor in buying the least expensive proceessed foods they could get

- My mom describes my grandmother as making casseroles almost nightly, as she had worked hard with cooking when she was younger and saw comercially canned goods as major timesavers.  So there wasn't an example of a lot of homemade food.
- My mom didn't learn how to cook from my grandmother because she wasnt interested and my grandmother didn't like mess.
- My mom did learn to cook in her first marriage, learning from both my biological father and her mother-in-law.  Interestingly, this is where my mom learned to cook anything homemade or mostly homemade.  But this is also where she would get the crap beat out of her for breaking a fried egg when serving it.  Once we got out she decided cooking wasn't something she really wanted to do.
- Then she got cancer. And after that suffered multiple disabilities.  Cooking had to be delegated to us children.

These aren't excuses, they were just her reality.  My FIL grew up poorer than I did by far, and his reality was going hungry unless they could hunt, and not just big game, but his dad going out to shoot rabbits and squirrels.  They had a garden outside the trailer they lived in, and would also forage.  My MIL also grew up poorer than I did, but living near the Mexican border and being of Mexican descent they ate a traditional Mexican diet with lots of beans, rice, and vegetables.  So DH was raised by parents who knew how to cook out of necessity, plus his mother learned about nutrition.  He almost never at the kinds of food that I ate everyday.

My parents would have been less poor if they'd known how to shop for and cook with basic, inexpensive, healthy foods.  My dad was raised middle class and was the only son, so he had zero kitchen experience.  His mom could afford convenience foods and he had a taste for them.

My own kids may go 180 degrees and eat junk for awhile, but at least they'll have a background in preparing and eating healthy foods.

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #964 on: October 08, 2021, 02:06:26 PM »
This was pretty fascinating to read, honestly.  I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, and that diet you described is probably about half of what we ate.  My mom cooked from scratch a lot but:
- Breakfast: cereal, and never the sugary kind.
- Lunches (packed) were bologna or PB&J sandwiches on cheap bread. I remember being MAD when she started baking (white) bread because it was obviously homemade and cheaper and we were poor.  Usually with an apple or orange.
- She cooked dinner - spaghetti with meat sauce, occasionally tacos.  Corned beef and cabbage.  Cabbage rolls (I barfed once after these, and that was the end).  Chicken and potatoes.  Sometimes salads.  Pork chops.  Canned corn, canned beans.  Cole slaw.  I hated that cole slaw with sweet mayo dressing.  I remember being pissed that in the summer we'd get wilted endive salads with bacon dressing. I'd kill for that now.  And home canned tomatoes.  Ugh.
- Pork and sauerkraut.
- Also pizza.  It was Chef Boy Ardee I think.  Pork chops with canned baked beans.  Fish on Fridays.  Tuna casserole.
- She grew a garden every year and we canned green beans, jam, pickles, spaghetti sauce, salsa.
WE NEVER ONCE ATE THE GREEN BEANS FRESH.  WE CANNED THEM ALL.  I was in my 20's before I had fresh green beans.

Typical midwestern food, I'd say.

I do think my grandmother made more than casseroles, as there were some other meals my mom cooked occasionally that seem entirely midwestern to me: kielbasa and sauerkraut, creamed eggs on toast, tuna casserole (tetrazini), calves liver and onions with the liver soaked in milk.  She learned to cook them out here but was going off what she remembered eating and she probably asked her mom for recipes (via snail mail).

I never had a fresh green bean growing up, just canned (commerically), not even frozen green beans.  Same with peas and corn.

OtherJen

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5267
  • Location: Metro Detroit
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #965 on: October 08, 2021, 02:30:35 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.

I was born in 1978. I'm still amazed that my intestines aren't dyed red or day-glo green from all of the black cherry Koolaid, Hawaiian Punch, and Hi-C Ecto Cooler that I drank as a child. My breakfasts and lunches were exactly as you have described, with the occasional addition of frozen waffles (with as much syrup as would fit in the little indentations) or toaster strudel. Both of my parents have a sweet tooth, so we always had packaged cookies, cake mixes, Entenmann's coffee cakes or donuts, Little Debbie snacks, etc. Both parents have significant dental problems. I must have a recessive strong-tooth gene because I had my first cavity filled 2 years ago, and none since. Or maybe it's that once I moved out in my early 20s, I realized that I didn't actually have much of a sweet tooth and rarely bought the stuff.

Our dinners were a mix of homemade and packaged things: baked chicken breasts with a side of Rice-a-Roni and canned green beans, Prego spaghetti sauce with ground beef over pasta, pork chops with canned peas and boxed au gratin potatoes, etc. Sometimes on weekends, we'd have pot roast with vegetables, meatloaf with real mashed potatoes, beans and rice, or homemade soup.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #966 on: October 08, 2021, 02:48:20 PM »
I grew up on TV dinners, pot pies, spam but my Mom did make a lot of really good food too. She was amazing! She was a southern belle and married at the age of 18 and Dad was 28. She grew up on a farm that was like living in the 1800's and he grew up a city boy. She was the baby of the family and never cooked. After she married, she basically learned to cook foods my Dad was accustomed to. Prior to getting married, she never ate any Italian foods, no spaghetti, no pasta, no pizza. Her farm family never had beef but mostly chicken that they killed the same day and ham. Mom never really developed a taste for beef, but did like ground beef. She said the first time she ate pizza it was the freakiest food ever for her! Years later she loved it and Italian foods. She made the greatest lasagna, meatloaf, pot roast, turkey at Thanksgiving! We ate the tv dinners occasionally and that was when she worked. That was when tv dinners were somewhat newly introduced. As a kid, she and I made homemade pizza's from scratch and they were so good! We usually made them on Saturday nights and then would watch Elvira and Creature Feature movies! Those were the days! We were not rich but I never went hungry!

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #967 on: October 08, 2021, 03:29:59 PM »
Wow, @K_in_the_kitchen, that was a spectacularly bad diet you had.  It’s a wonder you weren’t malnourished.  You’ve obviously learned a few things in the kitchen since then!

I eat extremely well now, but my whole family has dental and health issues.

That was just the dinners.  Breakfast was sweetened cereal the vast majority of the time, with oatmeal and cream of wheat packets in winter (which we were allowed to add huge amounts of sugar to).  Pop Tarts too, later on, because my mom loved them -- she didn't like cereal much because the milk wasn't sweet, so if she ate cereal she added sugar.  I'm talking adding sugar to Frosted Flakes and Sugar Smacks.  Lunches were sandwiches made on Weber white bread, with choices of peanut butter, Kraft cheese slices, or bologna.  Lunch bags would also include a bag of chips, a Hostess type treat, and a piece of fruit, which was a mealy Red Delicious apple most of the time and got thrown out.  I think I finally stopped taking the apple in middle school.  Later as an adult I was amazed at the many varieties of apples and how much better they were than those small Red Delicious apples sold in a bag.  Our main beverage was Koolaid, with the occasional can of Hi-C.  My dad bought cookies and ice cream/popsicles on a regular basis.

I think being a child in the 70s and 80s was a nutritional crapshoot.  Many of us ate terrible processed foods because it was a period of time between when people had fewer convenience food options and when people realized how bad the processed foods were.  Even though processed foods are still with us, over time the ingredients have gotten somewhat better.

To be fair, I didn't make things much easier for myself in my early adult years.  DH and I became vegetarian and spent more than a decade eating processed fake meats.  But we did eat copious amounts of produce and improved our choices in bread, etc.  DH grew up eating fresh salads, homemade soups, and beans cooked from scratch, so we did that too.

I was born in 1978. I'm still amazed that my intestines aren't dyed red or day-glo green from all of the black cherry Koolaid, Hawaiian Punch, and Hi-C Ecto Cooler that I drank as a child. My breakfasts and lunches were exactly as you have described, with the occasional addition of frozen waffles (with as much syrup as would fit in the little indentations) or toaster strudel. Both of my parents have a sweet tooth, so we always had packaged cookies, cake mixes, Entenmann's coffee cakes or donuts, Little Debbie snacks, etc. Both parents have significant dental problems. I must have a recessive strong-tooth gene because I had my first cavity filled 2 years ago, and none since. Or maybe it's that once I moved out in my early 20s, I realized that I didn't actually have much of a sweet tooth and rarely bought the stuff.

Our dinners were a mix of homemade and packaged things: baked chicken breasts with a side of Rice-a-Roni and canned green beans, Prego spaghetti sauce with ground beef over pasta, pork chops with canned peas and boxed au gratin potatoes, etc. Sometimes on weekends, we'd have pot roast with vegetables, meatloaf with real mashed potatoes, beans and rice, or homemade soup.

We do seem to have been eating many of the same foods!  I was allowed to mix my Koolaid (they bought the presweetened kind to make it "easier" for us kids) in my cup and make it as strong as I wanted, so it was syrupy sweet.  I could also add as much sugar as I wanted to iced tea, oatmeal (already sweetened packets, lol), etc.  We did have frozen waffles now and then -- and yep, doused in syrup which was Golden Griddle, I think, and usually peanut butter.  We would also have HI-C and Hawaiian Punch (it came in a glass jar of conentrate and also the premixed cans like Hi-C).

My mom did make meat loaf about once a year!  Always with baked potatoes and canned corn.  She had to chop onion for it so she didn't make it often.  My mom hated to peel potatoes so we had mashed potatoes at Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and every few years with pork chops, which required mashed potatoes.  My poor dad grew up having mashed potatoes far more often and didn't like that my mom made baked potatoes with roast beef.  I remember her telling me if he wanted mashed potatoes he could make them and do the dishes.  But in my memory we kids always did the peeling at the holidays.

We loved the "Danish Rings" toaster pastries but they were probably discontinued before you were old enough to have them.  Mostly we didn't get to have them though, just my mom.

We could make Jello and Jello instant pudding, but my dad also had a thing for pudding cups so those were around often.  The freezer often had Big Sticks and Fudgcicles in addition to regular twin popsicles, along with creamsicles which we kids weren't supposed to eat.

Like I said, my parents wouldn't have been so bad off financially if they hadn't been buying this food.  I think it's just as true today -- people are busy and don't have the skills or knowledge to cook the healthy food that would cost less.  Of course, back then our parents were bombarded with advertising telling them breakfast cereals and Hi-C were nutritious.

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #968 on: October 08, 2021, 03:37:15 PM »
I grew up on TV dinners, pot pies, spam but my Mom did make a lot of really good food too. She was amazing! She was a southern belle and married at the age of 18 and Dad was 28. She grew up on a farm that was like living in the 1800's and he grew up a city boy. She was the baby of the family and never cooked. After she married, she basically learned to cook foods my Dad was accustomed to. Prior to getting married, she never ate any Italian foods, no spaghetti, no pasta, no pizza. Her farm family never had beef but mostly chicken that they killed the same day and ham. Mom never really developed a taste for beef, but did like ground beef. She said the first time she ate pizza it was the freakiest food ever for her! Years later she loved it and Italian foods. She made the greatest lasagna, meatloaf, pot roast, turkey at Thanksgiving! We ate the tv dinners occasionally and that was when she worked. That was when tv dinners were somewhat newly introduced. As a kid, she and I made homemade pizza's from scratch and they were so good! We usually made them on Saturday nights and then would watch Elvira and Creature Feature movies! Those were the days! We were not rich but I never went hungry!

That sounds so awesome!  I can tell you have wonderful memories surrounding your mom and food.

I grew up making and eating "gringo" Mexican food, where we used Rosarita refried beans for everything and cut our guacamole with mayo.  Marrying a man with a Mexican heritage, I learned to cook much more authentic Mexican food.

I think some of the frozen foods like TV dinners that people used to eat were eaten when people were busy, like your mom working, and now they just get takeout.  We ate them every week because a child could turn on the oven and put them in, and another child could clear the table and wash the few dishes.

I will say one thing about all the processed convenience food -- come a pandemic my parents would have been well stocked!

SunnyDays

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3489
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #969 on: October 08, 2021, 06:58:41 PM »
Has anyone ever seen the movie Julie & Julia?  I loved it, made me so hungry.  Now that woman knew how to cook!

Runrooster

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 493
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #970 on: October 08, 2021, 07:51:46 PM »
Reading these stories of terrible childhood diets from the 70-80's reminds me of my own.  My Mom is a decent cook, and made homemade dinners but I ate a lot of ramen, chef boy ar dee, cereal, and of course lentils. My Mom worked long hours and so we'd eat the same lentils, chickpeas, red beans every week.

I have an Indian coworker (lived in India to age 24 or so) who always says our tastes are formed by our childhood foods.  I'm like, what planet do you live on?  I do like lentils now, but I wouldn't eat them for years.  And I see them as boring, healthy, filler food rather than something I crave or think of as a treat dinner.  Of course I eat more meat now (Mom would make chicken every other week) and fish and variety of vegetables. My Mom made a lot of potatoes, like green beans were always half potatoes.  I remember calling home from college asking for the green peas recipe, a dish I haven't made in decades.

My older sister, too, said something about how she didn't particularly enjoy food so much as eat for sustenance, until after she left home.  I wouldn't go that far, I liked pizza, nachos, chips, lemonade, watermelon, apples all of which I eat only on occasion now.

Cranky

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3842
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #971 on: October 09, 2021, 06:01:15 AM »
Has anyone used powdered sour cream or powdered yogurt that you reconstitute? I was looking on Amazon and they have it but the reviews seem sketchy. Some people like it and some don't. Just wondering if anyone here has tried these, and if so, do you have a favorite brand?

No, but I’ve used powdered buttermilk for baking, and I guess it would be in the same range.

I have recently noticed the existence of giant cans of powdered butter.

PoutineLover

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #972 on: October 09, 2021, 06:37:03 AM »
Wow it's crazy to see the vast differences in how people ate growing up. My mom learned how to cook from her mom, who grew up making everything from scratch in Europe.

I grew up in the nineties and we pretty much always had homemade food for dinner. Sometimes it included a can of soup in a casserole but for the most part it was meat, fresh vegetables, salads, dairy, etc. We were allowed to have treats in our lunch only on Fridays.

My dad wasn't really good at cooking so when he was in charge of dinner we'd have kraft dinner and hot dogs.
Sugary cereal was an occasional treat.

At the time I was so jealous of the kids who got to eat junk food all the time but I'm so happy now that my family ate well and I was able to learn how to plan and cook balanced, healthy meals.

OtherJen

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5267
  • Location: Metro Detroit
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #973 on: October 09, 2021, 07:57:50 AM »
Wow it's crazy to see the vast differences in how people ate growing up. My mom learned how to cook from her mom, who grew up making everything from scratch in Europe.

I grew up in the nineties and we pretty much always had homemade food for dinner. Sometimes it included a can of soup in a casserole but for the most part it was meat, fresh vegetables, salads, dairy, etc. We were allowed to have treats in our lunch only on Fridays.

My dad wasn't really good at cooking so when he was in charge of dinner we'd have kraft dinner and hot dogs.
Sugary cereal was an occasional treat.

At the time I was so jealous of the kids who got to eat junk food all the time but I'm so happy now that my family ate well and I was able to learn how to plan and cook balanced, healthy meals.

It really is fascinating. My dad’s parents were Mexican immigrants and poor, so he grew up eating everything cooked from scratch and going to the farmers’ market with his parents because it was cheaper. His dad turned their entire back yard into a fruit and vegetable garden. Mom was the youngest of 5 girls (and kid 6 of 7) and was a teenager when her dad retired suddenly due to medical disability and my grandma had to work full time. At that point, Mom had to teach herself to cook and feed her dad and brothers. Grandma was a depression-era baby and daughter of a professional baker, and she cooked mostly from scratch. However, I don’t think she had much time to pass her cooking skills to my mom, who left home at 19 to marry my dad.

To be fair to my mom, she was a great baker when I was little and she was at home with me. She had learned a lot from her grandfather, and we used to bake bread and cookies every week. I’ve always been grateful to have those skills and experiences. She was also a decent cook when she had time (weekends and holidays).

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #974 on: October 09, 2021, 09:26:39 AM »
Has anyone ever seen the movie Julie & Julia?  I loved it, made me so hungry.  Now that woman knew how to cook!

I read Julie and Julia, read Julia Child's My Life in France, saw the movie, and then watched the movie again with my kids a couple of years ago.  And -- dare I admit it -- I even had the big red handbag Julie carries in the movie for awhile, although I bought it used and sold it for what I paid.

StarBright

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3270
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #975 on: October 09, 2021, 10:14:04 AM »
My Mom made a lot of potatoes, like green beans were always half potatoes. 

(canned) Green Beans, Potatoes, and leftover ham (or smoked sausage) all cooked in one pot was on our family menu at least once a month!

So good with Jiffy cornbread crumbled on top.

If someone says they are bringing green beans to a holiday meal in my family, then 9 times out of 10 they are bringing the above.

Also grew up 80/90s and the all prepped food as mentioned above made up 70% of our meals. My mom always made a big homecooked meal on Sundays though and we'd eat that interspersed w/ Hamburger Helper or Mac and Cheese w/ hot dogs throughout the week.

coppertop

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 458
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #976 on: October 10, 2021, 07:34:38 AM »
My Mom made a lot of potatoes, like green beans were always half potatoes. 

(canned) Green Beans, Potatoes, and leftover ham (or smoked sausage) all cooked in one pot was on our family menu at least once a month!

My mom was Pennsylvania German and that dish was a staple...she bought what she called "ham butt" (may be the shoulder???), sliced it and put it into a pot with green beans and potato chunks.  We loved it.

SunnyDays

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3489
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #977 on: October 10, 2021, 09:54:19 AM »
Canned green beans.  I just cannot.

OtherJen

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5267
  • Location: Metro Detroit
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #978 on: October 10, 2021, 10:41:21 AM »
Canned green beans.  I just cannot.

I cannot either. Most canned vegetables are a hard pass, now that I buy my own groceries.

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #979 on: October 10, 2021, 05:53:39 PM »
Canned green beans.  I just cannot.
Nope, I cannot either.  Not even canned corn.

MudPuppy

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1468
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #980 on: October 10, 2021, 06:00:39 PM »
My spouse hated green beans until they tried canned green beans cooked with ham hock until they were practically mush (the way my father’s wife makes them). Ironically, they grew up in a completely vegetarian home.

SunnyDays

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3489
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #981 on: October 10, 2021, 06:14:34 PM »
Canned green beans.  I just cannot.
Nope, I cannot either.  Not even canned corn.

I actually prefer canned corn to frozen and I’ll eat other veggies canned, even peas, which most people hate.  But beans?  Nooooo.  I do love garden beans though.

Runrooster

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 493
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #982 on: October 12, 2021, 05:08:38 PM »
My spouse hated green beans until they tried canned green beans cooked with ham hock until they were practically mush (the way my father’s wife makes them). Ironically, they grew up in a completely vegetarian home.

Aren't they practically mush fresh out of the can?

MudPuppy

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1468
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #983 on: October 12, 2021, 05:55:08 PM »
You would think, but you’ve not yet seen the mush.

hooplady

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 183
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #984 on: October 12, 2021, 07:03:43 PM »
I confess I've fallen victim to slight fits of hoarding, or at least ordering more than I need when I find something available. Recent examples are certain types of canned cat food, meat baby food, and nitrile exam gloves. At the same time I'm trying to cut down on deliveries to curb the excess of cardboard boxes accumulating, but I've had to get things delivered when that's the only alternative I can find. Frustrating.

couponvan

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8670
  • Location: VA
    • My journal
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #985 on: October 12, 2021, 07:17:15 PM »
I have been doing fly lady again the past few weeks. I really purged the kitchen and bathrooms. I was actually surprised we went through an entire 500 masks this year (5-7 people in the house at any time). So I bought 100 more for the 3 remaining people in the house.

My cupboards look amazing! Model home worthy almost-LOL. I hope we don’t starve because I cleaned up.

K_in_the_kitchen

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 674
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #986 on: October 13, 2021, 05:08:31 PM »
After thinking about how nearly bare my pantry shelves are (except for what's in food storage buckets), I'm now carefully and mindfully considering what I should purchase as we potentially go into another Covid winter and as food costs increase and food availability remains uncertain.  This is more of a seasonal stock up than something specifically related to the pandemic -- the pandemic showed me that I was going to various grocery stores far more often than I needed to.

I ordered a 1 gallon bucket of my preferred honey from Amazon, and ordered baking powder, some spices I was low on, and organic whole sugar (panela/rapadura/sucanat) from Essential Organics. We went to Costco and bought brown rice, maple syrup, kalamata olives, olive oil, and ghee (as well as some perishable items).  I checked my buckets and we are fine on wheat berries and legumes.

I'm not planning to buy canned goods this time around because we rarely eat canned foods.  We're still fully stocked on paper goods and cleaning products.

I figure I need to be able to bake bread and other baked items, make tortillas and pasta, cook grains and legumes, make pizza, etc.  I'm not going to stock up on any meat at all this time.  We have some from the Butcher Box I received (I tried it and ended up canceling).  But mostly we're going to cut the meat out of the budget since it's just the two of us now and we more naturally gravitate toward meatless meals.  We can get perishables as needed and just be flexible with what they have.

I cancelled my Instacart Express.  I was almost never happy with the produce chosen.  The plan is to order non-perishables/dog food from Costco as needed.  Then we'll shop at Sprouts early in the morning a couple of times a month.  Now that it's just the two of us I've given up Aldi because they don't have everything I want and we've decided it's easier to just go to one grocery store.  Without a doubt changing this up will cost us more in terms of how much the food costs since I won't be chasing loss leaders, but at least I won't be giving money away to Instacart anymore, in fees or markups.

Part of the change is spurred by sending the small car to university with our son, leaving us only our campervan.  We're committed to doing most of our errands on foot.  Sprouts is our closest grocery store.  Aldi has to be driven to; I'm no longer comfortable riding a bicycle.

I feel good this time, not like March and April 2020 when I panicked.  We easily donated more than $1000 worth of food to our local food pantry over the course of the first year or so of the pandemic, most of it things I overbought or thought were a good idea when they weren't.  I realize now there's no way to be 100% prepared, especially not with how we eat, which depends on fresh produce, eggs, and dairy.
« Last Edit: October 14, 2021, 10:40:17 AM by K_in_the_kitchen »

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #987 on: February 13, 2022, 05:43:00 AM »
How is everyone? I am still stocking up my food supply and it feels good to have so much in stock and like a grocery store, I can 'shop' for ingredients I want or need without the hassle of making a trip to the store.

Recently, I have taken advantage of Costco, Instacart. That has worked out fantastic! I can order early in the morning and set a time for delivery. Within a two-hour window, I am getting delivery! My Costco is about 15 miles away which isn't a long distance, but it saves me tons of time for the round trip and shopping. So worth it! Costco doesn't have everything the regular grocery store does but the regular grocery stores don't have what Costo offers either! The produce is awesome!

I have been watching a lot of Youtube videos on homesteading and self-sufficiency. This one young woman in particular, like me, hates to run out of anything! She makes sure her pantry is full of everyday things so when she is ready to make recipes, she has everything she needs. She has a large garden and cans everything she can get her hands on. She makes up at times, 21 freezer meals in one afternoon. The chickens she has provide lots of eggs. When possible, she buys organic meat and sometimes half a cow for the freezer. every so often she finds milk on sale and freezes the whole gallons without any issues.

Personally, I don't know how she does it all making dinners, breads, desserts from scratch, tending to a giant garden, chickens, making tutorial Youtube vids, and working a full time job outside the home.

Oh, and I learned a new resource that she uses and many other homestead people use too. It is called Azure Standard. It is a pretty amazing thing. You shop online for mostly organic food items and the items are trucked to a drop off point in your area on a certain date. You meet at the spot with others waiting for their delivery too. People buy just about everything from this place. You can buy flour in 50lb sacks, chicken food, dog food, jams, beans, veggies, fruits, cleaning products, meats (frozen), spices, sugar, baking soda. You name it they probably have it. I think most of the items are organic and the people who demonstrate their 'Azure Standard Hauls' on Youtube are extremely happy with the prices. No one seems to mind driving to the drop off spot. It seems very organized and is in a safe place. One mentioned a church parking lot. Not all items are in 50 lb sacks, you may have size choices and can buy a few items or a case at a time. I may buy some stuff from Azure but don't plan on getting carried away. I don't cook many bean meals so that is kind of out for me. There is so much offered though I could spend a lot!

Mr. Roadrunner is the inventory control manager when we stock up. He has done a great job organizing the freezers and the cabinets in the garage. Much better than me and is very aware of expiration dates. To the point that I have to remind him that stuff doesn't automatically rot the minute the expiration or best date occurs!

Oh, and one of my most recent purchases is a French fry maker! It is really a little beast and works great! It is metal and the size FF it makes is 1/4 inch. There is a smaller size cutter like fast food size but I prefer the size a little bigger. I can also buy an attachment for the machine to cut wedge style potatoes which I am thinking of buying. The machine with the 1/4" cutter was around $57 and to buy the wedge style cutter is around $30 and fits on the machine. The machine is all manual with a long lever to push the taters thru the cutter. It supposedly can be wall mounted but mine has suction cups for using on the counter. I guess the suction cups can be removed for wall mount usage. I am excited about this purchase because I can get super nice taters from Costco at a low price and make a boat load of FF in no time. The one drawback is that you have to blanch the cut taters for about 2 minutes in boiling water. So, it is a bit of a job to cut, blanch, dry the FF then freeze in freezer bags. But it really doesn't take a lot of time and is kind of fun! In no time I will make my money back on the machine by making my own FF and not buying store bought frozen ones. The only other thing that I can say negative about the FF machine is that I like crinkle cut FF and this machine doesn't have that capability. I will live with it!

32 oz bag of Frozen FF at the store is $4.19 (times 5 bags = 10 lbs) = $20.95
10 lb bag of Gold taters at Costco $6.19
$14.76 savings per 10 lbs using Costco Gold taters

FF Machine $57.99 (new) on ebay. Free shipping.

I thought maybe I could cut diced onions in the FF maker. That did not work out at all. Tried to push a whole onion thru and it kind of got stuck. Didn't want to ruin the cutter so stopped doing that. I may try carrots and celery sometime but also it seems sweet potatoes might not work either due to them being kind of hard. Someone mentioned microwaving them a little. Not sure if I will go there. I don't eat that many sweet taters anyway.

If anyone is interested in buying a FF machine, do your homework. There are some plastic ones out there and those people whom I saw demo some of them were not all that pleased. I kept going back and forth asking myself did I really need this machine. One day yes, the next day no. Well, I finally bought one and love it!

jnw

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2019
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #988 on: February 13, 2022, 05:51:37 AM »
At one point sometime last year, I can't remember when, there was some talk on the news about there being shortages of food at the stores, so we bought 40 (or was it 50) pound bags of dry pinto beans and white rice.   They weren't too expensive.  My BF has pecking away at the rice & beans here and there, and all of it will eventually get used.  Actually we will save money over time on beans on rice because they were discounted due to qty -- purchased from Sams.

Imma

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3193
  • Location: Europe
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #989 on: February 13, 2022, 06:18:06 AM »
@Roadrunner53 Have fun with your French fry maker! (never heard that word, I've only ever heard it being referred to as a potato chipper in English).  I inherited a metal one, but it doesn't get used much. We don't own a deep-fat fryer and I'm not really a fan of frying on the stovetop or oven-baked fries. Mr Imma is convinced that we'll only ever eat deep-fried food if we get a deep-fat fryer, but I don't think that would be the case at all. I'm still lobbying for one, since it's so much safer than stovetop frying and deep-fat fryers are so cheap. I remember when I was a kid we'd make them homemade from scratch almost every week and they're so extremely delicious.


Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #990 on: February 13, 2022, 06:43:27 AM »
What I do with the frozen french fries is coat them with a little peanut oil and put them in the air frier. They come out crispy without much oil and little to no mess.

Catbert

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3298
  • Location: Southern California
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #991 on: February 13, 2022, 10:19:12 AM »
I'm back to a normal level of food stock.  I never went too overboard bc it's just the two of us and we are relatively flexible with what we eat.  If we still had a cat I'd have hoarded cat food.

What I'm struggling with now is Covid supplies.  We have 8 Covid test kits (4 2-pks) which I guess seems like an ok number to have.  I bought 100 N95 hard shell masks at Costco when they were on sale and Omicron was heating up.  I actually sold 4 of the 5 20-pks because people were really frantic for them and I didn't think we really needed 100.  I sold them for cost and they were gone in a day.  I've since bought another 20-pk at a local store that sells a lot of Costco returns.  (Each pk of 20 was in a separate box and sealed in plastic).  We've now each picked up our 3 free-from-the-government N95 masks.  I guess we're good?  I don't want to hoard but also don't want to run out.  We're retired and don't need to wear a mask all day so a mask lasts awhile.   

slackmax

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1411
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #992 on: February 13, 2022, 11:01:07 AM »
I was into a chicken divan obsession (home made) during the beginning of the pandemic, and I have several cans of cream of chicken soup still in the cupboard, from 2020.

Also a few cans of beans for making chili from the same time.

Waiting for a renewed craving for chicken divan, or chili. Hasn't happened yet.

Not worried about them expiring. May have expired already, lol.

 

Cranky

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3842
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #993 on: February 13, 2022, 12:14:53 PM »
It’s a good time for make your own French fries, because goodness knows the frozen kind seem pretty scarce today.

I continue to maintain my pantry. I wish I could get the rest of my household to write what they use on the shopping list.

Our chickens are coming back on line, so we’re good for eggs.

And I’m enjoying planning this year’s giant garden! We’ve added raised beds and we’re also getting a plot at the community garden down the street.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #994 on: February 13, 2022, 01:41:05 PM »
Cranky, Nice to hear you are anticipating your garden. My garden is pretty small and I just plant 6 tomato plants but have been lucky that they have been very productive. They are grown in galvanized cattle troughs (raised beds) I got at tractor supply. I have bags of tomatoes from 2021 still in the freezer. This coming week I am making a mouthwatering tomato dish that I just love. It is a lot of cut up tomatoes, gobs of minced garlic with about 1 1/2 cups of olive oil then roasted in the oven. Later on, I add cooked spaghetti, gobs of fresh mozzarella, Italian spices and fresh basil. OMG, mouthwatering!

I also grow herbs, a few cucumber plants which I never have much luck at.

I have lots of other tomatoes in my freezer that need cooking and I will make a big pot of red sauce for spaghetti soon. Love my tomatoes! Just the two of us and we ate tomatoes every day from August till October!

Have had good luck growing green beans in a 5 gallon pail on my deck too. However, not sure if it is really worth it for the little amount of beans I get. I kind of decided to just buy fresh when they are in season.

My Mom had a green thumb and I swear could grow anything, anywhere!

As far as your family goes, can you put up a notepad on the refrigerator with a pen and tell your family members to write down what has been used. Maybe offer them a reward of some sort to encourage it. A special cake or dinner?


Cranky

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3842
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #995 on: February 13, 2022, 03:06:53 PM »
The notepad is in place! But we have multiple adult cooks in our house, and some of them are better planners than others.

We had pole beans this summer, and they were incredibly productive. I still have some in the freezer.

My dh is planning a plot with heirloom corn, beans, and squash, so I think we’ll have dried beans this year, too.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #996 on: February 13, 2022, 04:23:38 PM »
Cranky, I just went thru the missing in action ingredients I needed for tonight's dinner! Mr. Roadrunner has been good at telling me what we need but he goofed up and I was pretty irritated tonight! I needed one can of refried beans. I swear we had at least six in our grocery store. He couldn't find any! GRRRR, so I took a can of kidney beans and made refried beans out of them. They came out pretty good. Then, we always have had a big container of Taco seasoning. Well, all of a sudden, we have NONE! Mr. RR said it was old and he wasn't eating old stuff and had thrown it out! OMG! It is dried and isn't rotten and could have lasted till I got a new container. However, I had some packets of taco seasoning in the grocery store so that wasn't a real issue in the end. OMG! Seems any time I go to prepare something we rarely have; we are missing the ingredients I swear we have on hand. Not a disaster but a bit of irritation! He knows I go bat s_ _t when we run out of stuff! Guess he forgot! So, Mrs. Roadrunner, the purchasing agent, will be ordering some new taco seasoning!

SailingOnASmallSailboat

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 695
  • Location: Somewhere where the water is at least 5 feet deep.
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #997 on: February 13, 2022, 05:00:02 PM »
On refried beans:
If you want awesome tasting commercial ones, I've discovered Amy's and they are way better than other brands IMO.

But homemade are the best. Saute chopped onions and garlic (maybe a jalopeno or two), throw in a bunch of cumin. I use 2-3 TBS of olive oil for the sauteeing oil. Meanwhile, zip 2-3 cans of  drained/rinsed kidney or pinto or black beans (or a mix) in the food processor until smooth - you'll have to add in a half cup of water or so to get them smooth. Stir those into the skillet, then stir in chopped cilantro (if you like it) and the juice from a lime. Let it "simmer" (it more burps than simmers) stirring a bit until you get lacy bits around the edges of the skillet. Salt and pepper, tabasco to taste.

And the ultimate breakfast? A crisped up corn tortilla with a generous smear of these with a fried egg and salsa on top. OMG. We call it a mouth party, and it's why I usually don't make less than 4 cans worth of beans at a shot.

Roadrunner53

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3570
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #998 on: February 14, 2022, 03:01:10 AM »
SailingOnASmallSailboat, thanks for that recipe for refried beans! I am not well versed in making Mexican type foods. Never ate it as a kid and as an adult like different dishes but rarely try my hand at it. Have to remember Amy's too!

Another thing I bought 'to save money' is a 5 lb block of cheddar cheese. I have seen videos of frugal homemakers running hunks of it thru their food processor then freezing in individual bags. My food processor is rarely used but a really good one. I think it is up for the challenge!

Mr. Roadrunner and I made 20 breakfast sammies to put in the freezer as a grab and go. I bought a giant package of Canadian Bacon from Costco, cheese slices, eggs and English muffins. Very quick and easy to do. The Canadian Bacon is already cooked so, I just laid the CB on a sheet pan, put a cooked egg on top, laid a slice of cheese on the hot egg. Then on another sheet pan, toasted the English muffins under the broiler. Once cooled, assembled, bagged and froze. I have a giant nonstick electric skillet. That made cooking the eggs a breeze. They can be warmed up from frozen by wrapping in a paper towel and heating in microwave for a little over a minute.

I also wanted to mention, do any of you buy jumbo eggs? I do and always try to get them! One of my local stores sells them for about $1.49-$1.69 a dozen and large eggs are somewhere around $2.99 a dozen. Many times, the jumbo's have double yolks too! You get a bigger egg for less money! I have heard that jumbo eggs are not as popular, so they are sold for less! I can understand if you are baking and need a more standardized size egg but if you are buying them to make breakfast eggs, why not go for jumbo!




Moonwaves

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1943
  • Location: Germany
Re: Pandemic hoarding
« Reply #999 on: February 14, 2022, 03:34:06 AM »
@Roadrunner53 Have fun with your French fry maker! (never heard that word, I've only ever heard it being referred to as a potato chipper in English).  I inherited a metal one, but it doesn't get used much. We don't own a deep-fat fryer and I'm not really a fan of frying on the stovetop or oven-baked fries. Mr Imma is convinced that we'll only ever eat deep-fried food if we get a deep-fat fryer, but I don't think that would be the case at all. I'm still lobbying for one, since it's so much safer than stovetop frying and deep-fat fryers are so cheap. I remember when I was a kid we'd make them homemade from scratch almost every week and they're so extremely delicious.
You could try doing what one of my sisters does, which is to only use the deep-fat fryer outside. They don't like having the smell hanging around in the house, so on the days they want to deep-fry something, they set the deep-fat fryer up on an old picnic table outside the kitchen or sitting room window, and use an extension lead through the window to plug it in. If it's raining, they just put up the garden umbrella over it. I have no idea if this is a French thing or a this particular family thing (I suspect the latter), but it works for them. When the oil has cooled down the deep-fat fryer goes back into the cellar. They wouldn't have room in the kitchen to have it out all the time anyway. They treat it the same way they treat the raclette or fondue or toasted sandwich maker.

Of course the other alternative is to get an air-fryer rather than a deep-fat fryer. My younger sister got one a couple of months ago and says it is so versatile she has basically used it almost every day since she got it. And my oldest sister got inspired by that and decided to get the fancy version that's also an instant pot. I don't think I speak to either of them anymore without hearing about their air-fryers. LOL