made a funny

"Hey, Ed Robinson, how long's it been since you left the house?"




(Okay. I didn't say it was *hilarious*)

I'm still hanging in there. I find that maybe forcing myself to cook from scratch more helps, because it provides a welcome distraction at the "dull" point of the day (~5 pm) when I'm tired from working but not quite ready to fold up and go to bed. Also it helps me to problem-solve and improvise, and that helps give me a sense of "agency" (as the psychologists say) in this whole thing. I improvised a batch of rice pudding tonight out of a couple cups of leftover rice, a can of slightly-past-its-best-by-date condensed milk, some raisins, and some apple pie spice. (No measurements, I tend to just throw things together and adjust for taste/texture for things like that. Heated it on the top of the stove to loosen up the condensed milk and plump the raisins)

Also, getting the delivery boxes will help, because there will be the slight puzzle of "okay what do I do with these particular ingredients" when I can't easily get out to the store to get add-ons or they might be sold out of things. (Heh. It's like those puzzle-toys they make for dogs and cats so they have to work for their food, only the task is more complicated for me because I'm basically a dexterous ape instead of a furry predator)

I'm also struck by how much I had fallen into relying on "convenience" foods of late rather than just buying a bunch of meat and produce and cooking up stuff.

Ironically, I will probably come out of this better-nourished, and I can tell I'm frustration-snacking less. (Not really....all that unlike post-WWII Great Britain, from what I've read - apparently rationing, while tiresome, led to more working-class people getting better diets than what they had had. And another thing I notice: my excitement about getting some very simple thing - at first, my "Imperfect Foods" choices looked very limited and I sadly chose a green cabbage and some oranges and a few tomatoes and then some other stuff, but later in the day more stuff was added....and I was able to get apples and lemons added to my order, and I was very excited by that, much more than I would have been in the before-times)

I think the cabbage will go half to some kind of sauteed dish similar to braised red cabbage, but made with green, and the other half might go to okonomiyaki (I *think* I have everything I need for that). They said they were "irregular size" so it might be extremely small....or extremely large. (I'm hoping it's on the small side, though I guess a part of a cabbage would keep in the fridge a while if I wrapped it well).

I think also I am being a lot more careful about not wasting food by letting it spoil, because of the "you might not be able to get any more of that" mindset.