It’s déjà vu being homebound during the corona virus outbreak. During Super Storm Sandy, our town was without power for two weeks and everyone was homebound until power was restored.  Our current stay at home situation is better as you have lights, heat, internet and cable television.
 
But, there’s only so much sitting still I can do. I prefer to keep my hands busy, hence cooking and baking. I’ve gone through my recipe archive and found some recipes that work with what I have on hand. In one instance, I had half a head of cabbage leftover that I turned into two recipes. Part of the cabbage was made into Cole slaw (minus the green pepper) and the rest went into unstuffed cabbage roll casserole. The unstuffed cabbage needs just a pound of ground beef, 28 ounce can of chopped tomatoes and whole caraway seeds. This recipe is perfect as the cabbage stretches the protein for 6 servings. Add some crusty rye bread with caraway seeds and you’re set. Whole Foods carries delicious organic rye Jewish seeded bread from a local baker for $4.50 (1 lb. 4 oz.)
I also had some currants left in my pantry and with them I made a batch of British-Style currant scones. For the scones you’ll need flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, a stick of unsalted butter, dried currants, whole milk and two eggs. No currants, substitute raisins or craisins, or just leave out.
 
Trying to find chicken stock or broth has proven most difficult during this crisis. I was able to pick up a pack of split chicken breasts at Whole Food. I made my own stock the other day and then took the chicken and turned that into chicken salad using diced celery, chopped walnuts, craisins and Duke’s Mayonnaise.
 
I like to keep cookies on hand. My husband requested oatmeal chocolate chip raisin cookies (Amy Oh’s So Very Best Cookies!) I cut the chocolate chip amount to half a cup and it has the right balance of cookie to chocolate.
 
One other difficult item to find in any form is turkey. Early on, I was able to purchase a three pound package of Shady Brook Ground Turkey at ShopRite. I made Swedish Turkey Meatballs. I normally place them on top of egg noodles, but the shelves were empty. Today I found a boneless turkey breast at Whole Foods ($6.99/lb.) Usually I purchase this at Wegmans ($5.99/lb.), however, I had a Whole Foods gift card and they are also close to my home. I used Whole foods Buffalo-Style Dry Rub to flavor the meat. My husband will use our electric meat slicer to make deli thin slices.
 
We ordered out last Friday from our local seafood restaurant/fish market, Mr. Shrimp. I ordered the fish tacos and my husband had a yellowfin tuna wrap; both were delicious. If you are able to support your local restaurants, donut shops, bagel stores etc., please do so.