Quarantine Fatigue, Costco, and Bone Broth

The shutdown of a couple meat packing plants and the interruption to the supply chain has the hubs a little freaked out. We went to Costco yesterday out of his concern of no meat. Patrick deposited eggs, milk, steaks, Flonase, Godiva chocolates, cereal, Ruffle potato chips and damnit why were they out of his chocolate chips? while I put Chardonnay, chocolate lava cakes, carnitas, mozzarella cheese, Aged Gouda, and avocados into our shopping cart. The stipulation of masks concerns me as it seems to give people the illusion of safety and permission to disregard the 6-foot distance rule despite the man on the megaphone asking customers to adhere to it. It was a bit of a shit show honestly, and I wished Costco had been limiting the number of people in the warehouse. We got the heck out of there as fast as we could as it almost felt like a bump and grind. My husband also picked up a rotisserie chicken over my objections. Why not? He asked. It's delicious, it's easy and cheap. I relented because I could finally make a bone and veggie broth.

Hubs also organized the refrigerator, instructing me where bottles and jars by category belonged and to not cook for a few days and instead grab leftovers like quiche and beans at the front for dinner. That's cool. No eye roll here. I decided to cook mashed potatoes to go with the roast chicken and also told not to buy any more potatoes because we'll be harvesting them from the garden in a couple weeks. Also fine with me. Patrick roasts potatoes deliciously with garlic and rosemary and red pepper flakes, and I like to use its leftovers for breakfast meals.

With the drippings from the roast chicken, I added butter and flour to make a roux to mix with chicken broth for gravy. The leftover gravy will probably be the base for chicken pot pie. I've also been know to make green chicken enchiladas from leftover roast chicken.

I had bought a package of Brussels sprouts on one of my walking treks to Trader Joe's. I cut the sprouts in half and coated them in olive oil and sprinkled salt and red pepper flakes. Half sides down  in a 425 degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the outer leaves are brown and caramelized and the interior is tender and delicious.

I made a Sidecar, and it's time to change up that cocktail. I may have to buy some dark rum and ginger beer and drink a Dark 'n Stormy instead. I mean we've seen this photo below before over and over in this blog. A Vesper would have been delicious too.  Darn it, why didn't I buy Grey Goose vodka yesterday at Costco? Oh that's right. Because I'm turning into an alcoholic, that's why. I need to dry out a bit and learn moderation. I also have Prosecco and fruit juice nectars and Campari to make Aperol Spritzes. A cocktail (or two) with a cutie is definitely my dessert of choice.

And then it was time to denude the chicken of its carcass and toss it into a pot with all the scraps of onions, carrots, and parsley that were in my freezer. It smelled so savory, overwhelmingly so that Patrick had to open the door and air out our tiny condo from smelling like a restaurant.

Voila! A large jar and a small jar of bone and vegetable broth, which I'll probably use in a red beans and rice as well as a West African peanut soup. And maybe I'll finally learn Patrick's organization system in the kitchen and refrigerator and put jars and bottles and containers of leftover where they belong. Insert eye roll here.