Food Is Love

People have been stocking up and panic buying all sorts of food, mostly canned or freeze dried (although there was a run on bananas yesterday at our supermarket - bananas!). But, as Elizabeth Bear points out in this article from her Patreon, there are a lot of things you can use that you might already have around the house and haven't thought of. I would print this and keep a copy handy near your kitchen.

1) Throw away nothing unless it’s actually rotten. Chicken bones and squidgy bits? Stock. Into that same pot go the onion ends, the celery stumps, the carrot bits, those little hard bits you flick off the end of the garlic. Yesterday’s bay leaf can go in there, too. It still has a little love to give. Sautee all of this until it starts to color the bottom of the pan, then deglaze it with water and a little wine if you have some and simmer it overnight. Don’t eat meat? Same process, no chicken bones.

2) Those sketchy vegetables that aren’t actually bad but just kind of unappealing? Into the soup. Sautee, add that stock you made up top, cook them for a while and then, if that wizened carrot is still not looking too great, puree. Into the pot, wrinkly green beans. Into the pot, freezer-burned corn. INTO THE POT, MUSHY TOMATO.

This is how our grandparents (and maybe our parents) used to cook.

Update: I've fixed the link to point to the proper article. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Update 2: She's written a second, shorter article with more tips.