E6 MG EE THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020
one they want. Come up with
theme days to inject a sense of
fun. Breakfast for dinner — fritta-
tas are perfect for stretching in-
gredients in a healthful package
— is always on the table.
And do your best to comfort
them. many kids’ worlds are be-
ing turned upside down at the
moment, and it’s important to do
your best to maintain some sem-
blance of normalcy. Workman
recommends thinking about es-
sentials your children rely on and
seeing if you can stock up. Will
they only eat vegetables with a
certain type of ranch dressing?
meat with a specific barbecue
sauce? While “the whole idea of a
picky eater is going to have to be
shelved a little bit,” i f supplies run
low and we have to stick close to
home for a long time, it’s nice to
give comfort when you can. oh,
and if your little ones have a
favorite boxed brownie mix,
Workman endorses picking up a
few extra packages for designated
treat days.
Now is also not the time to
forget those who need help in the
community, a message worth
sharing with your kids. Donate
and volunteer where you can. As
Workman says, “the need is ex-
ploding.”
[email protected]This lets kids try something new
in a low-pressure environment
(try snack time instead of the
dreaded dinner battle) and allows
them to better express their likes
and dislikes.
Get the kids involved. many of
us will be spending extended,
even unprecedented, amounts of
time with our children. “It’s a
moment where we can start to
give our kids life skills that most
people are too busy to do, frankly,”
Workman says. “We know we
should teach our kids to cook.”
Kids who are involved in cooking
may be more engaged with their
food and, fingers crossed, more
likely to try new things.
Whether your children will be
participating in remote learning
or not, mcCabe sees many teach-
ing opportunities when families
cook together. While cooking,
talk about numbers, math and
colors. Children will pick things
up naturally; there’s no need to
drill them. one of the primary
goals, mcCabe says, is to make
positive memories in what will be
an otherwise emotionally fraught
time.
She emphasizes that it’s i mpor-
tant to give children control
where you can. Let them help you
meal plan. When vegetables are
part of dinner, let them pick thetheir family three times a day
during school and work closures.
Workman says most of us aren’t
used to doing that even in normal
times. Be prepared to use food in
a variety of ways. maybe pulled
pork is for sandwiches one day,
and then repurposed for burritos
or nachos. Cooking different
dishes and then stashing some in
the freezer means you’ll be able to
better incorporate variety rather
than being stuck eating the same
things for days on end.
mcCabe likes to take advantage
of ice cube trays for freezer stor-
age, which allows her to portion
out smaller amounts of, say, to-
mato sauce that can be thawed
and reheated as needed.
Make the most of your spic-
es. Workman suggests mixing up
how you season your food is a
great way to avoid palate fatigue.
The good news is that spices last a
long time, and you probably have
a decent supply in your pantry.
And if not, pick up a few new ones
to try, a s they’re a relatively cheap
investment — and unlikely to be
out of stock at the store.
At Cooking matters, mcCabe
likes to turn flavors into a sort of
interactive experiment. She sug-
gests prepping one ingredient,
such as steamed carrots, then
seasoning them in three ways.you want to do in a situation like
this is waste food, mcCabe says.
Even if you don’t plan to use
produce right away, roasting and
refrigerating or freezing it — or
putting it into something like
soup or chili — can extend its
useful life and save money.
Look for hidden gems. mcCa-
be recently went grocery shop-
ping and noticed how much was
out of stock, including a lot of
fresh produce and pasta. But
those aren’t the be-all, end-all for
feeding your family, especially on
a budget. It’s time to seek out
other ingredients that can help
you stretch your dollar and fill
you up. mcCabe espoused the
virtues of cabbage, which is versa-
tile and long-lasting (and maybe a
tougher sell for some kids?), as
well as sweet potatoes. Ta ke a
serious look at frozen and canned
fruits and vegetables. In general,
they’re cheaper and just as nutri-
tious as fresh. frozen vegetables
are particularly ideal for stir-fries
(fried rice) and soups.
rice is an obvious choice, but
food writer, blogger and cook-
book author Katie Workman says
not to overlook other grain op-
tions, such as bulgur, polenta or
cornmeal, farro and quinoa.
They’re inexpensive per serving,
versatile and can help bulk up a
meal, she says. Plus, they freeze
well.
much has been made about
beans, but mcCabe still advises
you to not overlook dried beans,
especially now that you will prob-
ably have more time to cook
them. Cooked or canned make
great kid-friendly dips and
spreads. They can also help
stretch a meal. mcCabe likes to
incorporate beans (whole or
mashed, depending on the kid)
into ground turkey for tacos.
Workman says lentils often get
left out of the bean discussion, so
be sure you consider them when
it comes to a hearty garnish or as
a starring ingredient.
Cook smartly for the short-
and long-term. No parent wants
to become a short-order cook for
KIds from E1
For kids, here’s a chance to find comfort in kitchen
ISTOCK
Take the opportunity to get your kids more involved in preparing meals.Each week, we field questions
about all things food at live.
w ashingtonpost.com. This
week’s guests included James
Beard Award-winning author
Crescent Dragonwagon. Here are
edited excerpts from that chat.Q: for anyone who can’t leave
their house, what would you mix
up as a “quarantini”?
A: Given that we’ll run out of
fresh citrus soon and may stop
going to the grocery stores for
more, use it while you have it!
After that, go to nice stirred
drinks like old fashioneds, man-
hattans, martinis, Vieux Carres.
Chartreuse is thought to be a
cure-all, but mostly it i s a cure for
sobriety, which I suppose is its
own reward in these troubled
times.
— M. Carrie AllanQ: Any tips for grating ginger so
that most of it doesn’t just stay
stuck to my box grater?
A: freeze i t and use a microplane
zester.
— Becky KrystalQ: I have two essentially identi-
cal recipes for soda bread: same
amounts of flour, baking soda,
salt, sugar, buttermilk, and egg.
But one of them also calls for a
half-stick of butter (as well ascurrants, but I figure that’s inci-
dental). How will the end results
differ? I’m really interested gen-
erally in how slight changes in
ingredients affect a recipe — but
I’ve also never made either reci-
pe before and don’t know how to
choose one.
A: The one with butter will be
more tender. And might rise a bit
more.
— B.K.Q: We have a volunteer patch of
asparagus by our garage (appar-
ently they like the lime in the
concrete foundation), but it pro-
duces very irregularly. I go out
every morning to b reak off one or
two but haven’t yet found a
method o f cooking t hem s atisfac-
torily. Getting out the steamer
for two spears is a lot of trouble,
nuking them doesn’t work be-
cause of the small volume, or at
least I can’t figure it out. What to
do? Chop and saute?
A: I would probably go with
slice-on-an-angle and saute.
When I lived in Vermont, I
started an asparagus patch. It
takes three or four years before
you get a major harvest. So I did
stir-fries at first, and I think once
did an omelet with morels,
ramps, my couple of measly as-
paragus spears and fiddleheads.
— Crescent DragonwagonFREE RANGE EXCERPTSIn search of a cocktail
that fits current events
BY BECKY KRYSTALWe’re constantly being re-
minded that one of the ways the
coronavirus can enter our bodies
is through our mouths. Natural-
ly, this raises the question of
food. Can food give us the respi-
ratory illness?
A ccording to the USDA, “We
are not aware of any reports at
this time of human illnesses that
suggest c ovid-19 can be t ransmit-
ted by food or food packaging.”
many of the assumptions and
extrapolations being made about
the coronavirus are based on
what experts have learned from
similar strains, such as SArS,
says francisco Diez-Gonzalez, di-
rector of the Center for food
Safety at the University of Geor-
gia. “We’re quickly trying to re-
spond.” He notes that a virologist
on staff is working on gathering
data specific to the coronavirus.
The good news is that all the
food hygiene advice you’ve heard
before applies here, too. If you
follow that a dvice, “there i s mini-
mal risk,” Diez-Gonzalez says.
Here’s what to keep in mind:
Wash your hands. The federal
government recommends wash-
ing your hands before, during
and after preparing food, as well
as before eating. The goal is to
eliminate the possibility of the
virus (or any other potential
illness) entering your body, in
this case through your mouth. It
has been said a lot recently, but it
bears repeating: Use soap and
water, and scrub for 20 seconds.
Wash your produce. much
remains unknown about how
long the virus could survive on
the surface of food, and even
then it may vary depending on
circumstances. Again, Diez-
G onzalez emphasizes, “There is a
very slim chance or almost none
that the virus is going to be
present in the food.” There is no
evidence it is transmitted
through fresh produce, he adds.Still, no matter what type of
illness you’re concerned about,
you should wash your produce.
Plain water is sufficient, Diez-
Gonzalez says, as soap and other
household cleaners are not safe
to ingest. Diluted bleach solu-
tions are effective in disinfecting
surfaces, but do not use them on
food. Poisoning from chlorine is
dangerous, too.
Diez-Gonzalez notes that oth-
er organisms, such as E. coli , are
much more resilient than the
coronavirus and not as easily
removed from food.
Keep your kitchen clean. reg-
ularly clean and disinfect the
surfaces of your kitchen, espe-
cially if s omeone has been cough-
ing or sneezing. This is as impor-
tant in the age of coronavirus as
it is to other foodborne illnesses
that may be caused by cross-
c ontamination, such as in the
presence of raw meat.
Cook food to the proper tem-
perature. “The virus is very
sensitive to cooking,” Diez-
G onzalez says. “Heat is going to
kill it very easily.” Use a digital
thermometer, and check against
the government’s safe minimum
cooking temperature chart. Even
putting the coronavirus aside,
cooking with a thermometer
“would save us a good number of
visits to the emergency
room,” Diez- G onzalez says.
Be responsible. According to
Diez-Gonzalez, “If somebody’s
sick, that person should not be
preparing food.”
for a complete list of food
safety tips, visit f oodsafety.gov.
Diez-Gonzalez sees a silver
lining from the increased atten-
tion. He says that even if only 10
percent of people wash their
hands better, it would make a
tremendous difference in the
nation’s health.
“I hope it will stick with
people after the pandemic runs
its course.”
[email protected]The key to food safety in
era of coronavirus is the
same as it’s always been
ISTOCK
Washing your produce has always been a good idea.- WHEATON, MD
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