Posted on April 17, 2020 at 10:12 AM by Jason Macoviak
For reasons I do not understand, I was moved to reconnoiter our pantry. To my surprise, I found four pounds of dry pinto beans. How did that happen? I imagine Mike and me stopping at Safeway’s bean aisle and contemplating whether we have dried beans in the pantry.
Me, “I didn’t check.”
Mike, “Maybe we should get some.”
So yesterday I soaked a pound of pinto beans overnight. That’s a lot of beans and we still have three pounds more. Mike made rice and we added sausage and “voila” red beans and rice sort of. Before you object, I know that pinto beans are not red. But when you are socially isolated and you have four pounds of pinto beans you improvise. Did I mention we also have a pound of Great Northern Beans?
For the sake of transparency, a much-used word now, I was also able to use up some salsa and enchilada sauce that been mellowing in the frig for some time. Altogether, the meal was success.
Which brings me to bread. I used to be an avid bread maker but not so much lately. Whole wheat bread was what I was after. Alas, the pantry contained only a half cup of whole wheat flour. Not enough. None at Safeway and completely out of stock online. My tattered Mennonite cook book yielded up a recipe for oatmeal bread that uses one half cup whole wheat flour. It also requires ½ cup of brown sugar. Sequestered in a dark corner of the pantry, was a bag of brick-hard brown sugar. After applying a hammer for ten minutes, a half cup of brown sugar was freed. My yeast said that the use-by date is May first. I was pleased to be inspired to bake bread before the yeast expired.
The Mennonite cook book also has recipes using powdered milk and dehydrated mashed potato flakes. I have these items in our pantry. I don’t remember why. Regrettably, this cookbook does not have recipes for dried Shitake mushrooms, roasted sea weed, rice noodles and bean thread. Tapioca though is another matter. It might be good made with my almost but not quite expired almond-coconut milk.
The end of my pantry adventures.