I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’ve learned from cooking during Quarantine. From mid-March to mid-June, my husband and I made every single meal at home. I use the term “make” loosely because sometimes that meant heating a frozen pizza or throwing together a sandwich… but other times it meant simmering a pot of bolognese on the stove all day or breaking out the cast iron pan. It has forced me to be more creative, resourceful and flexible in the kitchen.
Below are my top takeaways from this time:
1) Repetition & experimentation are both equally important in mastering certain dishes and making them feel like my own.
Roasted potatoes became a staple in my house and I played around with different herbs, spices and amounts of oil. In the past, I have been hesitant to change things around if I knew I loved a dish, but I realized I was missing out on potentially loving something more. I also like changing one factor at a time so I can better understand how just the one change affects the dish.
2) My freezer is the BFF I never knew I needed.
Pieces of ginger ready for stir fry, homemade cookies and brownies for when you just need 1 (okay, 3), spicy ground sausage, hamburger buns, party wings, scallops…. Pre-quarantine I was barely using my freezer for anything other than sliced bread and a few Trader Joe’s meals since I could always pop into the store. But having to shop for 7-10 days forced me to think more strategically about stocking up my fridge and freezer. Now I appreciate the crucial role a well-stocked freezer plays in being able to pull together a tasty meal.
3) I don’t need to plan meals for the week ahead if my kitchen has all of the essentials.
I much prefer to restock in general categories like vinegars, oils, herbs, mustards, greens, proteins, herbs – rather than shopping for meal-specific ingredients. Meal planning for a week has never seemed to work for me because I never stick with my plan.
What works better for me is planning one or two days in advance. Each night before I go to sleep, I decide what to thaw in the fridge overnight. If it requires marinating, I do that right after eating breakfast. For some recipes overnight really is best, but most of the time 8 hours is plenty and I prefer marinating in the morning because I’m a morning person.
4) I want to be more liberal with spices and herbs so that I can actually taste a difference between them.
This means anything from trying out different types of pepper – black pepper, freshly ground pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, chipotle pepper – to embracing dried herb blends. I have some like pizza seasoning, savory salt, herbes de provence, that I didn’t know the exact components of and therefore never used – but now I throw them into sauces, roasted potatoes, veggies, salad dressings, etc. Bottom line – they’re just herbs… it’s not that serious!
5) Learning the basics makes everything so much easier.
I started incorporating a recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything into the weekly rotation and it has made a huge difference in the way I think about meals.
Cooking during a time where endless free blogs and beautiful photos exist for free makes it tempting to find new, unrelated recipes all the time. The downside of that is that is that I always chose completely different recipes and therefore my repertoire of what I felt confident making was very piecemeal. Using basic recipes regularly has taught me the simple techniques that work in many recipes, such as making sauces, throwing together stir frys and cooking fish.
6) If I am winging it and not using an official recipe, or I am substituting heavily, I need to write down what I’m using in real time in case it’s a success and I want to replicate!
There have been too many times that I didn’t write down what I was doing and then became surprised when I couldn’t recreate it.
7) The key to being content with eating out less is creating restaurant-type food at home.
What this means to me is more fat, sugar, salt… and side dishes. When I think about what I miss most about dining at restaurants (besides the social component) is all of the details that signal it’s time to relax, enjoy and indulge a little.
These touches don’t have to be complicated or even homemade to make an impact. Buy the fresh loaves of bread! And the salted butter! And the one-serving portion of various desserts!
I think a common way people eat is “mostly healthy” at home when cooking, and then “splurging / indulging ” when going out to eat. My conclusion from eating in for 3 months is that if I want to continue making most of my own food, I need to make more “crave-worthy” food at home. I also need to allow for concessions like frozen pizzas and chicken tenders for when that sounds most appealing.
8) There are certain staples I love having that easily upgrade meals:
- Blocks of parmesan cheese – really no explanation needed
- Agave sugar – have this on hand for fancy cocktails but adds something extra to salad dressings that just taste too tart
- Sweet & spicy pickles to serve on your plate with sandwiches, burgers
- Jalapeno and serrano peppers
As we continue to learn how to live through COVID-19, cooking is something that continues to bring me joy. I am grateful to have the ability, resources and time to cook. While we have started getting food from restaurants delivered, I do intend to continue making the majority of our meals at home and I look forward to keeping my eyes open for more lessons during this time.