MacGYVER COOKING SKILLS

We were on our fifth week of quarantine when I opened the refrigerator door and looked inside. Opening the meat drawer I pulled out a bag of defrosted beef cubes and put them on the counter-top.

My son Alex came into the kitchen and looked at the bag of beef. “What are you making for dinner?” he asked.

“Good question.” I sighed as I went back to the refrigerator and began rummaging around the shelves. “Okay, I’ve got a container of sour cream and beef cubes.” I reached for my phone. “I’ll just Google that and see what recipes pop up.” I began scrolling. “Oh, classic beef stroganoff!” I cried. “That sounds good!”

“Hey, you haven’t made that in a while.” Alex said as he leaned against the counter.

I clicked on the recipe. “Okay, prep time is twenty minutes.” I looked up at Alex and nodded. “I like that.” I kept scrolling reading the ingredients out loud. “1 ½ pounds of beef.” I held up the bag of beef cubes. “Check.” putting them back on the counter. “8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced.” I shook my head. “Nope, don’t have those.”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “That’s fine with me, I usually pick them out anyway.”

I looked back at the recipe. “2 medium onions, thinly sliced.” I shook my head again. “Nope, don’t have any of those either.”

“That’s okay.” Alex said trying to sound encouraging. “We don’t need that either.”

“Garlic clove, finely chopped.” I looked at Alex sadly.

Alex held his hands up. “Hey, it’s not just me! Dad gets heartburn with garlic too!”

“That’s one ingredient I really miss not being able to use.” I went back to looking at the recipe.

“You can still shake some on your dinner.” Alex reached up and pulled the container of garlic powder from the spice cabinet and put it on the counter next to the beef cubes and sour cream. “I’ll leave it out so you don’t forget to bring it to the dinner table.”

“It’s still not the same as cooking it in the sauce.” I looked up and smiled at him. “But thank you.” I looked back at the recipe. “1/4 cup of butter. Yeah! We’ve got butter! ”

I looked at Alex as he went to the refrigerator and took a stick of butter out. “Check!” he said as he placed it next to our other items.

“1 ½ cups beef flavored broth. Don’t have that but…” I went to the spice cabinet, moving items out of the way until I found a small glass container of beef bouillon cubes. “I guess I could use this instead.”

Alex looked at the container. “I’ve never seem that before. When was the last time you used beef bouillon?”

I shook my head. “Not a clue. I’m surprised I remembered it was still in the cabinet.”

Alex looked concerned. “Is there an expiration date on that?”

I looked at the lid. “We’re in luck! It doesn’t expire for another two weeks!” I placed it on the counter and went back to the recipe. “Okay, salt.” I laughed. “We can skip that. I’m pretty sure there’s plenty of it in the bouillon.” I went to the next ingredients. “Worcestershire sauce, flour, sour cream.” I called out as Alex went around the kitchen collecting the ingredients. “Got it.” he said as he brought them all to the counter-top.

“Okay, it says to pour the sauce over egg noodles.” I looked back at Alex. “We don’t have noodles either, but you can have a choice. Do you want it over pasta or rice?”

Alex thought for a moment. “I guess rice.”

“Great.” I pulled out a pan and put it on the stove. “Can you go to the pantry and get rice and a can of green beans?”

“Sure.” Alex stopped. “Did the recipe say to use green beans?”

“Nope, but my MacGyver cooking skills seem to be in overdrive right now, so why not?”