Self-Isolation and Hungry!

Bored? (Sometimes) Tired of staying at home? (Definitely!) Trying to find interesting things to do? (Yes!) Still getting along with your significant other? (So far, so good!) Lots of questions and issues during the Covid-19 pandemic.  One thing for sure, eating at home in self-isolation can become tedious and a bit boring…or we can completely go ‘off the rails’ snacking, baking or via gourmet cooking endeavors.

For us, in general we’ve avoided snacking, minimized baking and we’ve only experimented with fancier cooking a couple of times.  In general, we aren’t that creative, but we all do have to keep eating.  Here are a couple of menu items from our recent self-isolation past…

No great imagination at work here!  I started out with some buttered and toasted English muffin bread then I placed a slice of extra sharp cheddar cheese on each slice.  Then I spiced up some Hormel sausage bits and heated them in a frying pan…and spread them over the top of the cheesy bread.  Of course, the final step was to fry up a couple of easy over eggs and place them on top of my ‘creation’.  It was a satisfying breakfast.

Hey, I had to find some way to use up part of the crumbled sausage.  I can’t remember what I bought it for in the first place, but I couldn’t let it go to waste.  I’ll use the rest in an omelet... 

Time for some take-out food!  During the pandemic we have noticed that when we order take-out or go to the grocery store, we always order or buy more food than we need.  I guess that it makes us feel better about the situation…  In this case we ordered four (4) appetizers along with our dinners!

Our take-out order was from Thai Bistro at Tellico Lake.  We started out with an order of Fresh Rolls. ($4.00) These are made with thin rice paper wrapped around lettuce, carrots, cilantro and basil.  They come with homemade ginger sauce topped with chopped peanuts and fresh ginger.  We really like these vegetable rolls as they are so refreshing and simple.

For our next appetizer, we shared an order of Thai Bistro’s Chicken Wings. ($6.00) The wings are deep fried and they came with sweet chili sauce.  They weren’t very ‘Thai’ but they were tasty.

Appetizer number 3 were these Winter Shrimp. ($8.00) In this case, whole shrimp are marinated with Thai herbs, wrapped in rice paper and then deep fried to a golden brown.  They’re served with plum sauce, which Laurie liked but I used a spicy Thai sauce that I had on hand here at home.  We both enjoyed this offering…

I’ve featured our fourth appetizer previously so I didn’t include a photo this time.  It was Laurie’s favorite, the Crab Rangoon. ($6.00)

For my entrée, this time I didn’t go “Thai”.  Instead I decided to order from the Chinese side of the menu.  This was my order of General Tso’s Chicken. ($11.00) Basically, this is stir-fried breaded chicken that’s sautéed in a spicy sauce.  It’s served with steamed broccoli and carrot slices.  I ordered it “Firehouse” hot and, as usual, I was very happy with this choice.

Unlike stodgy old me, Laurie likes to venture out there and try something new, something that she hasn’t ordered before.  In this case, it was from the ‘noodle’ portion of the menu.  This was her generous order of Drunken Noodle. ($11.00) This entrée includes a choice of chicken, pork, beef, tofu or vegetables.  That comes with wide rice noodles stir fried with egg, bell pepper, onions, basil, carrots and spicy house sauce.  Laurie went for ‘heat level 3’.  With her order, she had them leave out the bell pepper…

As we both knew, there was no way Laurie could finish her entrée.  That’s why she left out the bell peppers.  So…for breakfast a couple of days later, I just mixed up the leftovers from her Drunken Noodle with some spicy Thai sauce.  It was a great start for yet another day in self-isolation!

Thai Bistro at Tellico Village is located at 222 Lakeside Plaza in Loudon Tennessee.  Phone: 865-657-6440.  They are open for limited inside dining now but we aren’t ready to risk eating in a restaurant for a while yet.  Website: https://www.thaibistrotellico.net/.

Back to the basics.  In my mind there isn’t anything much better than a good sandwich!  In this instant, I toasted a couple small slices of English muffin bread from Ingles, buttering both slices and then liberally applying some horseradish sauce from Robert Rothschild Farm as well.  Then I added 3 slices of deli style roast beef from Costco and I was ready to enjoy my lunch!

 

For Robert Rothschild Farm’s wide variety of reasonably priced products, just go to https://www.robertrothschild.com/products/horseradish-sauce.

Speaking of hunger... Apparently my regular and increased donations to the local food bank don't help wildlife in the neighborhood.  Just yesterday, about 2 blocks from here, a bear was seen raiding some folk's bird feeders.  We had our cameras at the ready all day long...to no avail!

That’s all for now… I’m cogitating and straining my limited imagination to come up with other ‘non-home cooking’ topics but it is a challenge.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave