**Mr. Stone Soup and I came down with Covid last week, so this will be a little different post and it will be in two parts because I frankly was not feeling well enough to work on it every day.** But first, let’s start with a little story:
Years ago, Mr. Stone Soup Cook and I vacationed in the Provence region of France. We made a visit to Avignon, a charming little city situated on the edge of the Rhone River and we rented a cottage on a tiny island in the middle of the river. It was quiet, peaceful and removed from city life. We intended to stay there for 2-3 days, but ended up staying longer than planned…
Throughout the area, we saw farm trucks with small hauls of produce on display for purchase–but not just any produce–the most gorgeous, fragrant and mouthwateringly ripe produce I’d ever seen. Each truck we passed had produce that looked better than the last and I longed to cook with it. Mr. Stone Soup was against the idea, but I begged, pointing out that we had a tiny kitchen in our cottage–and besides, it would be so, so peaceful and lovely to sit on the porch of our cottage and eat a meal I had made with love. He gave in and we bought some produce, olive oil, bread and, duh–wine. I made dinner that night and it was wonderful.
The next couple of evenings, we ate out, before Mr. Stone Soup got sick. He was running a fever of unknown temperature, had body aches, chills, you get it: he was miserable. We asked the proprietress if we could stay an extra couple of days while he recovered. She said “of course,” and then called the doctor to make a house call. We learned that Mr. Stone Soup had a flu bug and needed to stay in bed for a couple of days to recover.
Fortunately, we are very flexible travelers and rarely travel with any reservations or definite plans, so this blip in our itinerary was no problem for us. And–silver lining–I still had some produce left from my farmer’s truck haul, so we didn’t have to go anywhere for dinner that evening. I checked on my stash–I don’t remember exactly what I had, but I know I had tomatoes and greens, an onion, a carrot, and maybe a bell pepper or something. Plus, we still had some bread and…duh: wine. That evening, I remember that I put together the most delicious vegetable soup I have ever made–I just simmered the tomatoes and onion with some olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed in the rest of the cookable vegetables at the end. I made a nice salad with some olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. It was absolutely sublime. Mr. Stone Soup was well within a couple of days and we were back on our way. To this day, I still refer to that meal as the one I made using only stone knives and bear skins. But…I suppose I should start calling it the first time I made Stone Soup!
Fast forward a couple of decades and here we are, three years into this donkey Covid-19 pandemic, and Mr. Stone Soup Cook and I finally succumbed to it. It has been a mercifully mild case of the virus overall for both of us, but still–until we test negative, we’re not leaving the house.
At the beginning of the pandemic, I made sure I was prepared with plenty of “stock” to last us for 2-3 weeks of an unexpected quarantine. We joked about it as the “mini-mart” that I kept in the spare room. I stopped that kind of prep at least a year and a half ago.
Needless to say, once we tested positive, we suddenly couldn’t go to the supermarket; but what hurt the most was that I couldn’t go to the farmer’s market this last weekend. I pouted. I cursed. I kicked a couple of pieces of furniture and generally felt very sorry for myself.
And then I looked in the fridge to see what I actually had to work with for the week. To my delight, here’s what I found:
Suddenly, life didn’t look quite so bleak. I also found a big bag of okra that I had been planning to make Indian food with, along with some fennel, thyme, rosemary and, critically, some ginger:
Things started looking up. The lettuce was getting brown in places and the potatoes were starting to grow some little eyes, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I began thinking and planning:
The first thing I did was to make a fresh vinaigrette using the spring onions and green garlic. While we thankfully haven’t lost our senses of taste and smell, they are somewhat dulled due to the congestion, so I wanted to make a little spicier mixture for the salad I knew I needed to make right away with that diminishing lettuce. I used my spring garlic and onion vinaigrette recipe and chose celery vinegar from Tart Vinegar and okra oil from Oliver Farms. [Please note that I have received no compensation from these sources–I discovered them on my own and just love both of them for their quality and customer service.] The result was a lovely, slightly pungent and spicy vinaigrette, which was perfect with the spring greens and veggie salad I made:
I served the salad with some leftover ham and scalloped potatoes from our Easter day dinner.
The next day, I decided the best thing would be to use up the rest of the salad items. I rustled around in the freezer and in addition to a half pound of shrimp, I found the following proteins available for use this week:
Since I figured the best thing to do would be to use up the quickly diminishing salad ingredients, I made steaks, Keri’s Killer roast potatoes and salad, using the vinaigrette I had made the day before. To the salad this time, I added some of the asparagus:
Not a bad bounty for an evening meal during an unplanned quarantine.
Even though my symptoms were mild, I didn’t feel like cooking a feast every night. So, I was grateful that I had that pancetta available and was able to find some tomatoes I had roasted and frozen last summer during the height of their robust, sweet ripeness in my freezer:
I twirled them up in my little Cuisinart and made Keri’s Killer Red Pasta for dinner–easier, and far more comforting than thinking:
Please join me next week for the balance of the meals I prepared during our week of Stone Soup cooking in our week of discontented quarantine.
Until then–peace, love and good food,
Keri
