I can only imagine what this stay-home experience is like for my more social friends – the ones always on the go, the ones always networking and mingling, the ones always entertaining. I am, both by temperament and upbringing, much more suited to this severed-of-connection life. I am an introvert by nature, a pantry-stocker by upbringing, and a cook by choice.
I come from a long line of pantry-stockers. I grew up in the countryside of West Virginia on an acre parcel carved out of a hay field. Our house was a Sears Roebuck mail-order house. Really! We had a quarter-acre garden,that my daddy plowed and planted and my mother tended, with reluctant help from us offspring. (Picking tomato worms – ugh!)
My mother canned and preserved, blanched and froze, or fermented every blessed scrap. Both my parents grew up during the Great Depression and WWII, so were thrifty to the max. We still saved crushed aluminum foil and balls of string while I was growing up. The dog? He ate leftovers.
The steamy kitchen during canning season seemed torture to me – and I hated peeling tomatoes. Nonetheless, down in the cellar were rows and rows of gleaming glass jars, filled with all sorts of goodies to last us through the winter. In the pantry off the kitchen were cabinets filled with canned goods, cereals, peanut butter, sugar, flour. In the dining room was the big chest freezer, full of vegetables and meat. I learned to write there, diligently reproducing, although backwards, the words “HOME FREEZER” in crayon in one of my storybooks.
My mother didn’t drive until she was over 40. My father drove her to the grocery store every two weeks. She had to plan ahead to feed us – seven children,although the oldest left home before I remember much. So, picture eight (nine?) of us around the kitchen table. Whew! “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost –Who eats the fastest gets the most.” I don’t think I appreciated how hard she worked until much later in my life.
My heritage tells, as does my 30 years living 90 miles from anywhere, out in the Mojave Desert. I buy in bulk (paper goods, flour, cheese, certain meats, pasta and rice). I make my own stocks and broths, and these last few years have been doing some canning of my own. I am proud of my tomato sauces, salsas, tomato jam, chutneys, curry jelly, etc. My pantry is always full, as is my small freezer, as is my refrigerator.Sometimes it’s almost comical. A friend sent me a picture of her well-stocked (but unbelievably tidy) fridge with the memo, “I have a Paula refrigerator”. Ha!
Our gourmet group is a lovely cadre of friends who like to eat and drink and cook. One of them is running a Gourmet Group Shut-In Challenge for us. First week was soup, second week biscuits or scones, third week casseroles. We have quite a lively message thread,complete with spam jokes! The challenge for this week is meatballs or meatloaf. Shall I cheat with meatloaf from the freezer? (Yes, we make it in large quantity and freeze it – secret ingredients cooked rice and Mrs. Ball’s mango chutney).
Stay home, stay safe, take care of yourself. As King Arthur Flour says, “Love People. Feed Them Tasty Food.”
P.S. We had meatloaf from the freezer.
