A child of the 1980s and 1990s, I was a huge Laura Ingalls Wilder fan. I read all the “Little House” books and caught every episode of the simple life of living on the prairie in the late 1800’s. The idea of working in the kitchen or fields during the day and singing by the fireplace at night warmed my heart. By no means, can I now compare a pioneer life without electricity to our techno-centric world with “social distancing” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, somehow I’ve found a calm in preparing simple foods in the kitchen, like the Ingalls’, for our family dinner around the table. We don’t have a garden and we’re hibernating due to my compromised immunity, so our grocery deliveries are minimal. I’ve had to focus on a few simple foods and ingredients that I have in bulk and here is how I’m doing it.