I have not been reading. I have not been writing. But I have been doing enough research for a new book: Coping with Costco.
My daughter-in-law has been making weekly runs to Costco and to Loblaw, to keep Matt and me isolated and provided with food. Matt, of course, has doubled my food requirements and cooking but Costco offers (insists) on more than that. I am receiving an overage that is difficult for two people to consume. I find myself looking up zucchini, for heaven’s sake, to find out more ways to deal with it.
First, I have to convince my search engine that I really want zucchini and not some remote town in Italy or some sort of bowling game. This didn’t happen but when I looked up salmon I was offered a city in California and when I specified salmon with dill I was given salmon with molasses. One has to be adamant and persistent. so…zucchini:
Our favourite, most recently, has been zoodles. I have a manual spiralizer (cheaper) and Matt has been my very patient motor.We like zoodles with shrimp and pesto with lots of basil and garlic—no hardship to use the large economy size of pesto that Costco sells.But the problem was with the zucchini. We normally use two large or three medium size zucchini (and 4-6 large shrimp each) but that left us with a large bag of the vegetable still to use. That’s when I began googling for more cooking ideas. Years ago I had a Z cookbook and I have made pancakes and bread and muffins but I don’t want that many carbs or calories. I found patties without sugar and a minimum of Panko and made a side dish to accompany sliders. Then I made a large frittata that gave us brunch and leftover lunch a day or so later. You could make a quiche but again, it’s more carbs and cals.
Erma Romberg defined eternity as “two people and a ham.” I have applied her definition to cauliflower and cabbage, each often with a head bigger than mine. Costco excels in large heads. Cauliflower is easy now with ricing for stir-fry and mashing for the topping of Shepherd’s Pie,, plus roasting whole or in flowerets. You think you know all about cabbage because there’s the boarding house special, cabbage soup, also a Weight Watchers favourite, with zero calories, points or guilt. Oh, and then there’s holopochis (Ukrainian cabbage rolls). I didn’t make any of those. I made a dinner - yes- - with steamed cabbage and poached eggs, inspired by a long-ago diet. I love eggs and the egg yolk oozing over cabbage was to me delightful, served with roasted parsnips. Then I remembered coleslaw, the Jewish recipe with vinegar not mayo and it came in handy because I was out of romaine or spinach for a fresh salad. I still have some slaw left and I’m going to add grated apple (chopped in my mini-Cuisinart) and pecans, maybe a bit of honey, for a dessert salad because I’m also out of fruit.
All this is very time-consuming, and you know that it is anathema for me to throw out food. But I’m not ready to write a new cookbook.