But the funny thing is, we’ve been eating better than ever.  Scrounging (and a little supplementing) has had us eating like kings. I do a fair amount of cooking and so I have a lot of cool ingredients hidden in cabinets behind the usual suspects.  Fish sauce is hidden behind the Worcestershire sauce. An old knob of ginger is tucked behind a green bell pepper. A can of hominy is obscurd by a can of succotash. Succotash!

But it all worked out. For example,  I had always wanted to make pad thai noodles and finally did, after buying some rice noodles and tamarind while on lunch one day.  I worried about where to conveniently get the tamarind, but eventually bought it from a little mexican grocery store.  For some reason that still cracks me up.

While there I picked up a couple of sweet plantains to serve with roast chicken and beans and rice, like we have at Mr. Pollo’s on the north side.  It was excellent.

One day I wokked up some Chinese using  three red and orange bell peppers, broccoli, and boneless chicken thighs.

Another, I made salmon croquettes.  My wife decided that they were as good as her mother’s.  Many of the ingredients were in my “empty” cabinets.  And had been there, waiting.  Waiting until I was hungry enough to cook some of the best meals that I’ve had in a long time.