2025, animals, Family, Food, Government, Uncategorized

Cooking To Cope

29 Comments

I apologize for two food related posts in a row, but the current obscenely cold weather and the even more obscene political news have caused me and Husband to stay home, insulate ourselves, and cook.

We are typically very busy in the kitchen, but since December we have gone pretty wild. Two weekends ago we made a number entrees including Hungarian pot roast, baked salmon, sheet pan gnocchi with peppers and sausages, a baked risotto, and red beans and rice. The latter recipe came from a New Orleans native with the wonderful name of Pableaux Johnson. None of it has gone to waste, I should add.

We usually cook most things from scratch, and now that includes beans. I have ordered a number of dried beans from Rancho Gordo. Husband notes he is feeling better since we started with the beans, and misses it when we don’t have beans on the menu. We have also dived deep into traditional foods of northern Spain. Supper last night was leftover Fabada, a Spanish white bean stew with chorizo, ham hock, and blood sausage. It is delicious.

I realize that we turn to cooking like this to feel safe and to have some sense of control. I find the extreme cold to be terribly frightening. A couple of nights ago the wind chill was -43. Kyrill our terrier ran off the deck in pursuit of a bunny and didn’t come right back as he usually does. Husband went out to get him, and found him paralyzed with cold in the snow on the side of the house. He had only been out a minute or less. He got some left over pot roast in his kibble that night.

How are you coping with the weather and the political mess we are in? What are some of your favorite world cuisines? Thoughts on dried beans?

29 thoughts on “Cooking To Cope”

  2. I don’t fuss about the weather too much. When it gets really frigid my car wont start, so I’m stranded. I can’t walk very far, so I don’t go out much anyway. I tire too easily. I miss being able to see what’s available in the produce section at the Asian store. Husband shops from a list and pays no attention to what might be particularly attractive at the moment. It would never occur to him to pick up a fresh bunch of watercress or a celeriac root unless it was on the list. And heaven forbid that a parsnip or rutabaga should find it’s way into his basket.

    I, too, have a nice stash of various dried beans from Rancho Gordo. Unfortunately husband doesn’t appreciate them nearly as much as I do. Today I plan on making a big pot of Caldo Verde if I can get my hands on a bunch of kale.

    I try to stay informed about what’s going on from reliable sources. Right now that’s a pretty ambitious undertaking. It is also one that can easily overwhelm you if you don’t mix it up with lighter fare. I don’t recall a time when I have been as concerned about what’s going on, not only here, but in Gaza, Ukraine, and Europe as well. Not exactly uplifting, but being in the dark about what’s happening doesn’t seem like a viable option to me.

    I love all kinds of cuisines. Mediterranean foods from various cultures are high on my list of favorites, especially Greek and Italian.

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  3. Cold weather doesn’t bother me that much. I respect the deadliness of below-zero temps to think I can ignore them when I go outside. I just put on an extra layer when I go out and stay inside more. I’m glad we’re having a colder than normal stretch to average out last winter’s heat wave and drought.

    Fave cuisines are some of the traditionals: Italian, French, “real” Mexican (not Taco Bell), Chinese. We’re trying to eat more plant-based meals and are gradually getting into beans and other meatless entrees.

    I don’t mind using dried beans in cooking but still use canned beans because of the convenience. What I never quite understand is why most recipes suggest rinsing canned beans before using. I’ve heard it’s to rinse off the salt, or rinse off the impurities, or to not mess up the amount of liquid already in the pot. But I think the bean juice adds flavor, and helps thicken the soup or stew I’m making. And eating canned beans hasn’t killed me yet, so no harm, no foul.

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. I agree with you about the beans. I like the convenience of canned beans too, but I also use dried beans. I drain some of the liquid from canned beans, but I don’t rinse the beans if they’re going into a soup. If they’re for a salad or something, I do drain and rinse them.

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  4. About 4:30 each afternoon, I ask Robin what she feels like having for dinner. She usually responds by asking if I have any suggestions, to which I generally offer a couple of alternatives, triangulating between what we have in the pantry, what needs to be used before it gets too old and what is a contrast from the dinners we have recently had.

    To label it a cuisine would be probably overreaching. The recipes I follow are closer to their native origins than the foods I was given as a child but few of them are so authentic as to require ingredients that are not easily available.

    We make a fair amount of Asian-inspired dishes and the Japanese recipes are likely the closest to actual cuisine.
    Otherwise I tend to favor Italian and Mexican influenced recipes, as well as ones that don’t really attach to a nationality, like salmon or chicken with rice or potatoes and some green vegetable. In cold weather especially we tend toward a hearty soup and a salad.

    Dried beans require advance planning we seldom do. I can make them impromptu in the InstaPot, but that’s kind of a lot of fol-de-rol for a portion of beans, so I tend to rely on canned ones.

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  5. Per my preventive cardiologist’s advice I just went on a plant based die that allows fish twice weekly and skinless chicken once to facilitate adequate protein intake. Fortunately I love and tolerate beans and lentils. But now I have to get used to occasionally using tofu or tempeh (like the latter better).Its hard to get the required protein intake as so many vegan or vegetarian recipes don’t have adequate protein. So cooking and menu planning have been beneficial, distracting from news.

    Mediterranean diet is my preference. Avoiding Asian condiments that have lots of sodium. But I love adding star anise and cinnamon to savory dishes and soup. Also I unfortunately cannot tolerate much hot spice (wish I could) which can add another flavor. Dried beans are not hard to cook and I freeze individual portions to add to dinners. Sometimes I add cumin and herbs near the end of cooking for flavor.

    I really don’t want to go out any more when it’s below zero, despite the sun. I am trying to do strength and aerobic exercise more to lose weight and get my LDL to 50 so any soft arterial plaque can regress.

    It seems to take longer to do meal prep. I still want to try water colors, and lots of reading but healthy habits seem to take more time.

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  7. Afternoon –

    I really dropped off FB after what’s his name took office. I don’t like all the speculation, and yeah, one can’t live on a constant diet of him and that. Yeah, find RELIABLE news outlets… Which, of course, varies by what you WANT the news to be.

    The weather is just the weather. Doesn’t bother me too much.

    Dried beans??? I didn’t know that was thing, either. 🙂

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  9. Better Late than Never, Baboons,

    I have never been satisfied with the preparation of dried beans. Many people seem to want to make short cuts, and the beans are hard and crunchy which I dislike. Husband was a terrific bean soup maker. He did not encounter this, but he spent a day and a half soaking and cooking the beans, which is what I think it takes to get soft, palatable beans.

    Coping with the weather and the political soup:

    1. No audio or visual news. I check the news feed several times a day then move on quickly.
    2. I joined BlueSky, a social media program that I like. There are liberal hysterical people on there that I do not follow, but some others, especially news sources, are reliable. But I have to take care to not be pulled into hysteria about this. The dog and cat feeds, as well as knitting and gardening feeds are enjoyable.
    3. I am listening to really dumb audio books a lot while I knit.
    It is almost as bad as it was during COVID. I am also watching streaming TV so I do not sit and ruminate which gets me nowhere.
    4. I went to my first Indivisible meetings over the past weeks. There are many people organizing and getting ready to protest in various ways.

    I just finished my taxes.

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  10. Maybe I’ve seen too many WW2 movies but I cannot escape the feeling of being in an enemy occupied country.
    Enemy At The Door.
    Occupied Channel Islands.

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  11. Mediterranean food is my favorite. I love the veggies and the seasonings. It’s so easy to cook, and if for some reason you don’t like the flavor, just add some more garlic and red wine! I also really like Indian foods. I really love curries, but I like them in traditional Indian restaurants better than my own. I do try, but I’m not a gourmet cook. Mexican food is good too.

    I’ve been learning knitting over the past year now, and trying to be more social. I can easily become reclusive and it’s not healthy. I’ve joined the Cannon Valley Makerspace in Dundas and a Fiber Friends group meets on Monday evenings. I’ve been going to music events at Imminent Brewing. Tomorrow night there is a great bluegrass band, Tony Rook.

    I’ve thought of winter as a time to hibernate. It’s a time to rest, do taxes and review expenditures from the past year, and make any financial changes and plans. I usually try to tackle larger craft projects in the winter, and I read more.

    I had been staying off facebook too, but it grabbed my attention again. I get sucked in, and then I find myself feeling stressed out about everything I read. I’m better if I stay away.

    I want to hike and walk more but it’s not that much fun when it’s cold. I spend more time at FiftyNorth.

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  12. One of the things that I just realized this morning about this cold and any cold is that it feels less cold to me if the sun is shining. Even though it was colder today than yesterday, it didn’t seem as cold to me. I assume that this is just some weird switch of my brain. In terms of keeping myself sane, I’m not sure I am sane. However, today I downloaded DuckDuckGo and I’m going to delete my Google account. And I will never, ever call it the Gulf of A.

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