Seasonal Sundays (Week 9) Late February

It's a week for recipes – Friday fish, anyone? and do grab a rotisserie chicken, so many good ways to turn five bucks into a quick dinner. Plus the twinned occasions of the pandemic's one-year mark and this week's catastrophes in Texas have me thinking about family emergency plans.

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

Hello, Texas ... are you there? are you warm and watered? So so many of you, what a week you've endured and may well still be enduring and may well continue to endure. Burst pipes? OMG the damage they can cause. For all the regular followers from Texas, you have so been on my mind. All the very best ... may the worst of it all pass quickly.

So it was a year ago this week that a NYT podcast sent me to the kitchen table, pen and paper in hand, to work my mind through a "pandemic preparation" list.

Did anyone else have the same moment? In retrospect, we knew so little that last week in February of 2020, only that a virus with some unfamiliar name was going ... um ... viral.

I did the math that day, calculating big scary numbers based on infection and fatality rates from China, the only real data we had at the time.

My plan assumed one or both of us would contract the virus and if it were just one of us, we'd have to protect the other from getting infected too.

My first to-do? Ordering what turned out to be 160 pounds of dog food.

Now four giant boxes of kibble might sound like a strange even impractical response. But it did have purpose.

Who knew if we'd be healthy enough to order/bring in dog food? What if there were shortages?

But most importantly, the enormous boxes would serve as a temporary wall to cleave our house into two, the dog unable to understand and needing to stay on one side or the other depending on who was sick.

An upside was that the dog food would get eaten, one way or another. No, no, no, not by us! By Luka, the dog!

It wasn't my first emergency plan, no, that dates back to Y2K when I stocked emergency supplies for 10 days. Vestiges still live on in the basement, tucked into big plastic cat-litter tubs. And yes, those supplies included both dog food and cat food!

Now most of us have become pretty comfortable with what the covid pandemic requires of us, even if too many of us are unwilling to acknowledge let accept the simple facts that masks and social distancing are all that it requires of us. Arrgh, sorry. #SoapBox

We don't need a plan anymore. So far, we've got this.

Or do we?

This week's catastrophic power and water failures in Texas got me to rethinking family emergency plans.

Up until now, my plans were built around the cause of emergencies and disasters: tornado, fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, etc.

But maybe there's something more elemental and that's the consequences of a disaster, the fall-out, the ramifications, the possible outcomes.

So this afternoon, I'm hitting the kitchen table with pencil and paper in hand again, rethinking our household emergency plans.

I'm not talking about becoming an off-the-grid "survivalist" with a family compound or a "prepper" anticipating catastrophic changes to the underpinnings of society.

But.

What would it take to sustain us for a week, even a couple of weeks, if need be? And what would it take to support not only us but others? Not the entire world. Not the city. Not even the whole neighborhood. But others, some others ...

There's so much to think about and yeah, a year ago "pandemic" and "statewide power failure" might not have even crossed my mind.

But they sure do loom now, don't they?

Join me at the kitchen table?

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: St. Louis had snow and cold this week too, just a few inches and no power failures even if the birds still demolished pounds of bird seed. At the far side of the yard, the "bronze children" ignored it all, studying the book of ABCs on their laps in snowy studious silence.

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PICK ONE

Pick One is for those of us overwhelmed by life's unending choices. If that resonates, then check out this one recipe and then call it a day. It's one that I think could make the most difference, the one I hope will become a regular in your kitchen, as it is in mine.

• THE RECIPE Salmon Chowder Flavorful fish and vegetables in a creamy broth.

Public Service Announcement

People are still getting infected with the covid virus. This week, Dr. David Kessler, the Chief Science Officer for U.S. vaccine efforts, shared this information about important actions for treatment of high-risk individuals.

The treatment is the monoclonal antibody and it's making a huge difference in both the severity of disease and the likelihood of death. You may remember, President Trump received this treatment back in the fall.

There are not unlimited supplies of this treatment but it's making a huge difference for those of us classified as high risk by virtue of age, medical conditions, obesity, etc.

So here is the advice if you are high risk or know someone who is.

• If you are high risk and you're experiencing symptoms, even mild symptoms, get tested, asap. This treatment must be administered early.
• If you test positive, contact your physician and ASK for the the monoclonal antibody treatment.

I work really hard to share only very credible information from official sources. So if you check this out and also find it credible, please do circulate it with others who might benefit.

MORE INFORMATION from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Compliments!

• "... they are a triumph! These were the best. There is the exact flavor there that I have been missing in restaurant versions, maybe the smoked paprika? I used a very good and very meaty ham bone and it made for a hearty meal. This was great for a very chilly night. " ~ Carolyn (from Texas ... who yes, later lost power)
• THE RECIPE Red Beans & Rice Slow cooked Creole comfort food.

• "Made this last night. I cut back on the corn a bit to help lower potassium. The coconut milk is high potassium but I love it. It is so good, so flavorful. I'll be making this often. Thinking about adding pineapple and pineapple juice next time. I love pineapple in curries so think it would be a nice addition." ~ Linda
• THE RECIPE Quick Corn Soup with Coconut Milk Fast and flexible, all pantry ingredients.

Friday Fish

• THE RECIPE Shrimp with Tomatoes, Spinach & Feta Shrimp cooked in a nest of tomatoes, spinach and feta cheese.
  
• ANOTHER TAKE Summer Seafood Chowder Shrimp and scallops in a milky broth, with barely cooked tomato, corn and my favorite vegetable this summer, okra.

• THE RECIPE Maple Glazed Salmon, a Quick Supper, sweet & peppery marinated salmon.
• ANOTHER TAKE Roasted Salmon & Asparagus The original sheetpan supper.

• THE RECIPE Easy Baked Fish with Red Pepper & Cucumber Salad, a Quick Supper, made with pantry ingredients.
• ANOTHER TAKE Herb-Coated Broiled Fish Fish filets coated in fresh herbs, then broiled. So simple, yet seductive.

The Dinner Bell
Step One: Grab a Rotisserie Chicken

Seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, the dinner bell rings. If we're gonna eat, somebody's gotta cook. Let's make it good, a welcome end to our days.

• THE RECIPE Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Quick way to get a green chile fix.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy Green Chile Egg Casserole No bread! Just eggs, green chiles, bits of cheese and a surprising ingredient, cottage cheese.

• THE RECIPE My Chicken Noodle Soup The way I make it, meaty and noodle-y with just a few noodles.
  
• ANOTHER TAKE Hamburger Soup A hearty soup with chunks of meat and a cornucopia of bright-colored vegetables.

• THE RECIPE Chicken Salad for Sandwiches Makes up in minutes with pantry ingredients.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy Ham Salad Use up leftover ham from the freezer.

Recipes That Stand the Test of Time

To mark A Veggie Venture's 15th anniversary in 2020, I took a hard look at the first 365 vegetable recipes from the first year to select just 15 which, all these many years and recipes later, remain ever so useful. The result is a fascinating collection of recipes, 15 Favorite Vegetable Recipes, Still Useful After 15 Years. Here's just one.

• THE RECIPE Cook’s Illustrated Foolproof Oven-Baked Brown Rice Moist and nuttry, thanks to a special but easy technique.
• ANOTHER TAKE Perfect Stovetop Brown Rice Water volume and timing make all the difference.

PS Who's noticed? I'm big on "usefulness". See? Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes 2002 – Present, just one recipe per year from Kitchen Parade.

Timehop

Who else loves seeing old photos pop up, quick memories from years past? Welcome to a recipe timehop ...

• THE RECIPE Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce
• ANOTHER TAKE Chard & Chickpeas with Feta

Trending

My Top 10 Recipes are predictable, hello How To Keep Green Onions Fresh for Weeks and Vegetables 101: What Are Bitter Greens?. But every week, seasonal recipes catch the internet's attention and start to trend.

• THE TRADITION How to Plant Lenten Grass (Easter Grass) An old Finnish tradition, good to mark the season of Lent with children.
• AND ANOTHER A Birthday Cake for Jesus: A Story My sister's gentle way of keeping the spirit of Christmas.

• THE RECIPE Baba Ganoush (Middle Eastern Eggplant Spread)
• ANOTHER TAKE Roasted Eggplant “Hummus" (Eggplant & Chickpea Dip & Spread)

Just Updated!

• VEGETABLE RECIPES sorted by current Weight Watchers points from A Veggie Venture.
• ALL RECIPES sorted by current Weight Watchers points from Kitchen Parade.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com, dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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