Publisher’s message: Making do

(Publisher’s note: In addition to my 7-day-a-week real news, this is my attempt No. 3 in my quest to lighten your day with a little humor. Please enjoy.)

Before COVID-19, I did as little cooking as possible for the most possible meals.

That’s one thing that hasn’t changed.

As a family of one, cooking a whole bunch of different food every day wasn’t high on my priority list, and guess what, it’s still not.  

Now don’t get me wrong. I love to eat.

But cooking for one … kinda boring. I pick a protein, cook it, and I’m good. Numerous side dishes have never been all that important to me.

(Now cooking for friends is a whole other story. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter – you’ll find my friends here having a feast with lots of side dishes. Well, not Easter this year, but you get the point.)  

So, as I enter week No. 4 of self-isolation while working 10-12 hours a day to bring you the news, my cook once, eat for as many times as possible plan – has served me well.

And because of these habits, I’ve always tended to buy meat or poultry – not Doritos or beans or canned soup – each time I go to the grocery store. I bring them home and freeze them for a future day.

This past practice has also left me well stocked for our current situation. And because of it, I’ve been able to stay home knowing that although I wanted some really strange types of food, like Jello or a Mounds bar, I didn’t really need them.

Therefore, I haven’t been to a grocery store in weeks and weeks. Plus, for the few things I wanted like yams and bananas and chicken for Ryan, I am extremely fortunate to have two friends who have picked them up for me and delivered to my doorstep.

That said, I do have two essential employees who also need to eat. One of whom is also in the old dog category (Ryan) and because of his multitude of health issues, he is only supposed to eat cooked chicken or turkey or white fish.

So, since I had a turkey in the freezer, I defrosted it last week, and cooked it. Then ate variations of it for six days. And yes, this meal extended to my “essential staff,” too. Ryan and Buzz love turkey. 

And although I used to really like baked chicken, for the last two years, poultry and white fish are all that Ryan can eat for protein, so I’ve been cooking two chickens a week for Ryan’s meals. And for the most part, chicken has pretty much been classified in the “dog food” category for me.

Every once in a while I’ll eat some of “Ryan’s food” but not that often.

And then ,just before New Year’s Day, I was going through magazines to make something fun to start what I thought was going to be a great New Year, I found one for chicken nuggets, which involved marinating the cut up pieces of chicken in buttermilk before rolling them in bread crumbs and baking them.

Well, I made them once as a New Year’s Day treat and really enjoyed them. Except, I thought the original recipe had a little too much garlic for my taste.

So, since I had buttermilk left over, I bought more chicken and tried again. A little less garlic this time. Bingo. Perfection.

And to convince myself that chicken was good … and since I still had buttermilk left over from the first batch, I probably made four or five batches of these tidbits.

I also tend to go into cycles of favorite foods and these little chicken bites suddenly qualified.

And then they didn’t — because I’d moved onto other proteins.  

Until Saturday.

Since I am trying to eat what’s here, I noticed that I still had buttermilk and chicken breasts thanks to a friend who delivered more chicken for Ryan.

I had Mrs. Dash and garlic and Ritz crackers to smash up as breading and Olive oil … plus sour cream for dipping.

Boom.

Another multi-meal plan complete.

Don’t worry, since I only “stole” portions of a few chicken breasts, there’s still plenty of chicken left over for Ryan.

Until next time, stay well, and stay positive.