BY BECKY KRYSTALschool closures due to the novel coro-
navirus outbreak mean millions of chil-
dren are spending a lot more time at
home. That’s challenging on any number
of levels, and food is at the top of the list.
What will you cook for your kids? Will
your budget h old up under the increasing
economic strain many families are fac-
ing? How can you keep children occupied
for days on end?
We turned to a few experts for their
advice. Here are their tips:
Inventory and prioritize your
food. Alicia McCabe, the Massachusetts
director of share our strength’s child-fo-
cused Cooking Matters campaign, says
that before you run to the grocery store
and fill your cart, take a look at what you
already have in your refrigerator, freezer
and pantry. If your kids are old enough,
involve them in the inventory process.
start meal planning and thinking about
what you can make with your current
supplies and be prepared to substitute,
improvise or try new recipes.
Be sure to use any fresh, perishable
food in a timely manner. The last thing
see KIdS on E6How to cook
if c ooped up
with the kids
BY ANN MALONEYThe cashier at the safeway in George-
town said he has “ never seen a nything like
it.” By “it” he meant the long lines of
people bringing overstuffed grocery carts
to his register. We’ve been advised to put
some “distance” between ourselves and
large crowds due to the coronavirus, but
first we all had t o stock up.
Gathering food for home cooking is a
big part of most people’s prepara-
tion. Here at The Washington Post,
we pulled together our best advice
and recipes and then turned to our Vora-
ciously readers for more tips on how to
stock our pantries and freezers as every-
one settles in to work and just be at home
during the pandemic.
And our readers came through, post-
ing useful comments online i n response
to our c all. Maybe everyone h ad such g ood
ideas because all this preparation is giv-
ing us a sense of deja vu. We’re drawing on
other experiences that have caused us to
shop and plan.
I grew up in new orleans, so for
me stocking up for possible quaran-
tine c alls to mind h urricane season prepa-
ration. Many readers say the shopping
trips for food and supplies make them
think of snow days, when they are stuck a t
home.
And then there are readers like the one
who uses the screen name kielhwl,
who says, “I sort of looked at this like
see PANTrY on E8Readers deliver advice for pantry- and freezer-friendly cooking
many bartenders would consider modern classics,
most had achieved little m arket p enetration
beyond the industry b ubble.
For those of you who like arguing over nonscientific
surveys — o r are simply inclined to track down drinks
you haven’t tried yet — t he top 15 were the Paper
Plane, Penicillin, oaxaca old Fashioned, Trinidad
sour, Aperol spritz, Cosmopolitan, C hartreuse
swizzle, Final Ward, old C uban, B arrel-Aged negroni,
To mmy’s Margarita, Gin Gin Mule, Bramble, seelbach
and the e spresso Martini. We s elected s ix standouts
from a mong t hat bunch, all terrific drinks that
showcase a range of styles a nd spirits a nd t hat we felt
captured s omething about the c raft c ocktail
renaissance as a whole.
For every bartender grinning with pleasure, two
regular drinkers are likely reacting a s a friend did
on Facebook: “I’m convinced that you made up like
half those names b y drawing random words out of
a hat,” h e complained.
Countless people who know nothing about
cocktails can tell y ou how James Bond liked his
martinis, and here the Cosmo is perhaps the
closest modern equivalent. It b ecame a cultural
icon as well as a bibulous one, elevated into quasi-
celebrity by appearances on “sex and the City,” a nd
see SPIrITS on E4Depending on where you mark its
start, we’ve had 15 to 25 years of the
rebirth of the cocktail. even five
years a go, I still occasionally h ad to
explain t o servers what a negroni
was; now i t’s hard to think of a town
where y ou can’t get a good drink o r find a creative,
thoughtful cocktail menu. Booze n erds h ave
started to suggest t hat the cocktail revolution is
won and done.
Ye t despite t hese decades of creativity, w hen I
wrote in 2017 a bout the cocktails every drinker
should know how to make, I was struck by how
long in the tooth they were. Among the m artini,
Manhattan, gin and t onic, negroni, daiquiri,
margarita and the old Fashioned, there’s n ot a
drink m uch younger than 80, and that’s if you’re
allowing Margarita to slather on some oil o f olay
and claim she only showed up in the 1 940s.
What are the contemporary classics, the d rinks
invented in the past few decades that have gone
global? or do we need t o start with a more basic
question: Are there such drinks?
A deeply nonscientific survey of More Than 150
People I Interact with on social Media suggested ...
maybe. I know l ot of people who like a good tipple,
but when I threw out a list of 30 or so drinks thatSpirits
M. CARRIE
ALLANstacy ZarIn goldberg for tHe WasHIngton Post; food stylIng by lIsa cHerKasKy for tHe WasHIngton PostreCIPes oN e8
spanish eggs and Potatoes l roasted carrot and cashew soup l curried
chickpea salad sandwiches, pictured above l bread crumb spaghettiThere’s a
new crop
of cocktail
classics
reCIPes oN e4
Pictured from left to right:
l oaxaca old fashioned l trinidad sour
l chartreuse swizzle l Penicillin
l Paper Plane l gin gin Mulestacy ZarIn goldberg for tHe WasHIngton Post; food stylIng by lIsa cHerKasKy for tHe WasHIngton PostwINe
bordeaux sounds like a place
fancy wines come from, but
there’s a range of options. e7
CooKING CLeAN
looking for advice about
kitchen safety? coronavirus
hasn’t changed the rules. e6
more AT wAsHINGToNPosT.Com
souvlaki-style chicken With tangy yogurt
dip e2
greek lentil and spinach soup with
lemon e3
creamy spinach soup With goat cheese e3
Za’atar salmon With charred broccoli
online
no-Knead english Muffins online
Chat at noon: l ive.washingtonpost.com
KLMNO
Food
WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18, 2020. SECTION E eZ ee