Sequestration Meal #382 (Christmas Lunch)

 

I really wasn't feeling it for Thanksgiving, as you may remember. And I can't tell you I was feeling especially into Christmas, either. But I did want something special for lunch anyway, and I wasn't going to be spending Christmas physically with anyone (Skype and Zoom are a different story). So this was a very easy, and really good Christmas lunch for one, and furthermore, I managed to make it even though I haven't been to a grocery store in a month.

First, I had my first-ever experience with a Trader Joe's vegan stuffed roast, which I'd heard good things about but had never actually encountered until I was at Trader Joe's in early October. So I bought one. And now I need to make a note to myself to start trawling Trader Joe's in the fall every year, and buy multiples of this thing, because it is amazing. It has a great savory flavor that's a bit peppery and the texture is firm without being tough.

And I made a recipe for maple sea salt butternut squash with sage cashew cream from Nikki Vegan. I had somehow acquired some dried tart cherries by accident, so I already had them on hand (although they had aged a bit and got almost black, they still tasted good). (It happens, when your food is all delivered, that sometimes people deliver weird things you did not ask for.) I didn't have fresh parsley so I used dried. It certainly could have been prettier, but it didn't matter. I enjoyed it, and the sage cashew cream (which is the reason I didn't make gravy) was really the perfect accompaniment to the squash. It's a truly remarkable dish that seems super fancy but requires very little effort, and it tastes amazing.

Even though the roast had stuffing, you can't really ever have enough stuffing for my appetites, so I made some cranberry-apple stuffing. I mostly winged it, and it ended up considerably more moist than intended, but that may be because I baked it covered rather than uncovered, or my apple may have been extra juicy. In any case, I liked it, and that's what matters.

The broccoli is looking pretty sad now after all these weeks, so I prepped it in the most attractive way I knew--quickly blanched to bring out the green, then tossed with some margarine and salt. The broccoli was there primarily for color, so I eked out all the green I could from it.

This lunch more than made up for my sad Christmas breakfast. And somehow or other, I will be buying more produce soon. I will be likely to be prepared to go long periods between shopping trips given the state of the pandemic, but I've developed a lot of skills in that regard, and winter is perfect for that between getting to have the oven on and the sturdy veggies like winter squash being in season. So. I didn't want to still be adjusting most of my life to a global pandemic, but as a historian I know they usually last for years, so I will try not think of this as my whole life, forever, but just an ongoing interlude.