The shortages at the grocery stores have abated. And to be honest I’ve gotten lazy at stocking the pantry since I’ve been able to find and buy pretty much most of the items on my list on shopping days. But with more supply chain disruptions to come in the future, shortages from sporadic bouts of hoarding behavior and more stress baking I continue to stock my pantry. And I’ve come to realize I haven’t updated my pantry list in nearly two months. The tipping point? I ran out of coffee, a monumental threat to my continued existence. So I started an add on list of forgotten items. Added together this comprises the first update to my Pandemic Pantry list in weeks.
One byproduct of sheltering in place I’ve noticed on my shopping trip was the literal disappearance of social skills in some individuals. Some people have forgotten how to behave in group social settings. Here’s a short list of my encounters today:
- Woman in the produce section stopping right in front of me in the middle of the aisle blocking passage while responding to something on her phone.
- Another woman stopping in the middle of an aisle leaving her cart on one side while she blocked passage standing on the other side of the aisle.
- Husband and wife having a discussion at the beginning of an aisle blocking access or passage to the aisle completely and…(wait for it)
- The jackass who squeezed right in front of me as I was reaching for an item to pick something off the shelf for himself.
None of these rude, selfish and inconsiderate people were wearing masks. None of these shoppers respected social (physical) distancing. I’m now considering buying a set of scrubs to wear along with my mask when food shopping. (I’ve heard stories that others will avoid you completely if you’re wearing scrubs.) It looks like I’ll probably be resorting to shopping during the Old People Hour because I know the oldies will be mask wearers and keep their distance.
Sorry for the mini-rant. But when you have a family member on the healthcare front line all of this matters a lot to me. Some people understand the pandemic isn’t over. The good news for the folks I tried not to get too close to today is we have plenty of ICU bed space available in our state.
Anyway, back to food and preparing the pantry for the next lock down. By now y’all have probably figured out that I’m using this blog to maintain my personal pandemic pantry list and is not intended to be The List to follow. At least I won’t forget where I put my pantry list.
Pandemic Pantry Items – Last Updated 04.18.20
- Canned tomatoes in 14.5 and 28 ounce cans. Diced, crushed, diced with green chilies and stewed
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Brown and white sugar
- Dried oregano, basil, and parsley
- Onion and garlic powders
- Bay leaves
- Parmesan cheese
- Dried pastas
- Dried beans such as brown and green lentils, pinto, black, adzuki, mayocabo, yellow and green split peas, black eye peas and cranberry
- Canned beans such as garbanzos, black, black eye peas, pinto, great northern, navy
- Broth, vegetable, beef, chicken
- Rice – multiple varieties like basmati, brown, Texmati, arborio and plain long grain white
- Flour and corn tortillas
The Forgotten Ones
- COFFEE !!! (consider a small jar of freeze dried also in case of emergency)
- Tea
- Nuts
- All purpose and whole wheat flours (or alternative flours if you’re into that sort of thing)
- Canned tuna
- Canned green chiles
- Oats
- Cornmeal
- Dried fruits
- Whole grain and fruit/nut bars
- Dry cereals and granola
- Vinegar (red wine, white wine,Balsamic, white Balsamic, apple cider, etc.)
- Oil (besides EVO, vegetable, avocado, corn, etc.)
- Peanut butter
- Jelly and/or fruit spread
Americans may wish the virus to be gone, but it is not. While the outbreak has eased in the Northeast, driving down the overall national numbers, cases have only plateaued in the rest of the country, and they appear to be on the rise in recent days in COVID Tracking Project data. Twenty-two states reported 400 or more new cases Friday, and 14 other states and Puerto Rico reported cases in the triple digits. Several states—including Arizona, North Carolina, and California—are now seeing their highest numbers of known cases.
garyskitchen.net 