Hibernating? Snowed-in? Got that not-so-social inclination? I feel ya.

It’s snowing. Again. Still. Relentlessly even! My Stratton neighborhood seems more like a rabbit warren of shoveled paths and plow piles. I’m hardly motivated to brush my hair, much less get dolled up for an evening out, find a parking space, trudge through snow banks (in boots that don’t work with my outfit anyway) and pay an expensive dinner tab.

So I’m not reviewing a local restaurant this month. I’m staying in. Who’s with me?! OK, OK, I might brush my hair. For you.

And for me, so I’m not caught in some prestorm french-toast-fixins frenzy at the supermarket, I lay in supplies ahead of time.

Here are some incredibly simple (because I know you are worn to a nub from all that shoveling) One-Pot-Wonders and Snowed-In Suppers that I’ve come up with over the years that use a lot of pantry items or stuff you can keep in the freezer.

These are not just comfort foods; they are wrap-their-arms-around-you-and stroke-your-furrowed-brow-and-say, “There, there. Spring will come again,” easy ideas. Even if you don’t like to cook.

I realize I’m late to this snowmageddon. But my warm wish to you, fellow Arlingtonian, is that you might take this little ditty to the market next week to prepare for the next onslaught. Then brush your hair and invite the neighbors over for something delicious.

Turkey Chili Verde

Brown 1 lb frozen ground turkey, seasoned with less salt and pepper than you would normally use, in a big pot.
Add 1 medium onion diced and 1 poblano or other mild pepper diced
Add ½ bottle of beer and bring to barely a boil just to cook off alcohol (chicken Stock can be substituted)
Turn heat to low, add the remaining ingredients and cook until heated through.
1 jar salsa verde (fairly salty, thus the reduced seasoning)
2 cans Great Northern or pinto beans
Serve with Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, sour cream or shredded pepper jack cheese, fresh lime wedges, and jalapeno hot sauce.

MakeYourOwnDangPizza

Buy fresh pizza dough from Trader Joe’s or Capri. Throw it in the freezer when you get home. On the morning of Pizza Nite, take it out and put it on the counter. Open the plastic bag and pour in a T or two of olive oil and squish the bag around a bit. Leave it there all day. At dinner time preheat the oven to 500. The dough will be swollen. Add a bit more oil to the bag to make sure you can pull it out without sticking. Cut into two or four pieces depending on the desired size of your pizzas and let each pizza chef stretch their own disc. Scatter cornmeal on a cookie sheet if you have it. If not, don’t sweat it. Place each stretched pizza dough disc on the pan (you will probably need two) and swirl a glaze of your favorite jarred marinara sauce on top, almost to the edge. Sprinkle mozzarella, parmesan, pepperoni, onion, cooked sausage, mushrooms, olives…. Drizzle with more olive oil (good for all that chapped skin!) Cook until the outside edges of the dough begin to brown. Serve with a smile.

Faux Foodie Jambalaya

(So named because even your foodie friends will be impressed)

Heat a cast iron or enameled Dutch oven on high. Add 2T of your oil of choice. I’m rocking coconut oil of late. Add bite-sized sliced Andouille or chorizo sausage. Trader Joe’s sells a very spicy chicken Andouille that works well, but only if you like it *hot*. While the sausage is browning, Dice 1 large onion, 3 stalks of celery, and 1 large green bell pepper. Add to the pot with either 1 t Cajon seasoning or a shake of salt, pepper, granulated garlic, dried thyme, and Cayenne pepper. Stir in for a minute and add 1 jar of mild chunky salsa, 1 c water, 1 C dry white wine (or 2 c water + a splash of white vinegar), and ¾ c Basmati Rice. Then stir in 1 bag of frozen uncooked shrimp. Put the lid on and turn down to simmer for 25 minutes.
Serve with chopped scallions and an array of hot sauces.

Lazy Gal’s Pulled Pork

Put a 3 to 5 pound Pork Shoulder/Butt in the crock pot covered with chili powder or similar Seasoning of your choice. Add 1 and ½ c Orange Juice. Cook on high all day. Serve with soft rolls, Cole slaw and pickles.

Roast Chicken Pot Pie

Yep, this is a twofer; apropos to multiple snow days. First, roast a chicken. I like using a small oval Dutch oven that rather conforms to the shape of a medium sized bird and taking the self-basting lid off for the last half hour to brown. Salt, pepper, lemon and garlic will do the trick and make the whole house smell delicious. Bake some potatoes while you’re at it, then whisk a little flour into the pan drippings and add some milk—voila, gravy for the potatoes and the base for Phase two.
After supper put the whole pot with leftover chicken in the fridge. The next day, take ready-made pie crust or puff pastry out of the freezer to thaw on the counter for an hour or two. Then pull off any remaining chicken meat and chop into bite sized dice. Add frozen peas, carrots, even pearl onions to the pot. Top the chicken, veg, gravy mixture with pastry crust (cutting decorative shapes out of the trimmings is a fun snow-day activity for the kids, too—put those on top for your own signature pie) and bake until brown.

Baked Spinach and Artichoke Dip

It’s practically a meal and can be made with vegan mayo if you are so inclined.
Combine 1 can drained artichokes chopped, about 10 oz frozen spinach thawed, 1 c shredded Parmesan cheese, 1 cup mayonnaise. I also like to add a little Cayenne or crushed red pepper, but this is entirely optional. Bake in a crock or small baking dish until brown and bubbly. Chances are you don’t have fresh bread in the house so serve with pita chips or toast up slices of some old bagels brushed with olive oil on a cookie sheet.

Frittata

Eggs keep for a good long time, and I always have them. Frittatas are the answer to transforming workaday leftovers into something snow-day wonderful. Last night’s pasta, roasted potatoes or rice upgrade a same-old omelet into a substantial frittata with just the flip of a spatula. The trick is to combine the starch with the eggs before adding to the frying pan (remember--hot pan, cold oil, food won’t stick) and don’t use a non-stick pan because the whole thing goes under the broiler after you’ve added virtually any sort of leftover veggies and cheese. So let’s review: Heat pan. Add oil or butter. Dump scrambled egg combined with leftover starch in pan. Distribute cooked veggies and shredded or sliced cheese on top. Finish cooking under the broiler. Serve in wedges with a Romaine (also keeps for over a week) Salad tossed with lemon and good olive 0il.

Happy hunkering! See you with the thaw.

This series of recipes was published pon a snow-filled Monday, Feb. 9, 2015. When she’s not reviewing restaurants or cooking. Lori Uhland of Arlington styles homes and events at www.stagerightlori.com. She specializes in big-bang-for-your-buck functional design and loves all things delicious.

Torta de Milanesa at La Victoria Taqueria

UPDATED, Nov. 4: It snowed in Arlington on Sunday, Nov. 2, and my mind is floating away on the balmy breezes of a beach town in Mexico. Veracruz, Mexico is on the Gulf Coast, north of Oaxaca and west of Tabasco. Street food there is a tradition and an art.

Alex Barrientos, Arlington resident and owner of La Victoria Taqueria, the Mexican street-food restaurant across from the Regent Theater, at 12 Medford St., is from Veracruz,and he’s brought us his memories. I had a nice chat with him, and these are some of them.

Alex combines dishes the Barrientos family shared over the Sunday supper table with the grab-and-go favorites that locals and tourists clamber for in his home town. His first La Victoria Taqueria is the beloved Beverly spot with a dedicated following. Alex’s North Shore customers are always recalling, misty-eyed, their favorite taco trucks in Southern California or torta stands in Puerto Vallarta. He knew a food-loving town like Arlington would be a perfect choice for his next location.

La Victoria’s tacos and tortas represent Mexico’s first- and second-most popular street foods. And these are not the tacos you grew up on with shells out of a cardboard box. Fresh tortillas, never-frozen veggies and meats, salsas and moles that are the product of generations of recipes are the stuff these tacos are made of. These are going to give a whole new meaning to Taco Tuesday at my house.

A torta is the sandwich you didn’t even know you’ve been dreaming about. La Victoria uses the special telera bun, the only choice for tortas in Mexico. It’s sliced, filled and pressed into the crusty-on-the-outside-gooey-on-the-inside piece of heaven that you find in only a perfect Roma panino or Havana Cubano. When it comes to choosing your filling, there is a range that spans from vegetarian options to a daily special lingua (beef tongue).

Owner provides primer

I asked Alex for a primer on some of the staples of his menu. Carnitas is a slow-braised pork that is first marinated overnight and then roasted for several hours in the oven, then shredded and added to a dish. Barbacoa is the beef version of carnitas.

Pastor is the street food that calls to you from down the block because the smoky sweet and spicy fragrance is epic. Pork is first marinated in ancho and guajillo peppers, onion and pineapple and then stacked on a vertical rotisserie in a trompo, or funnel shape, similar to the Greek gyros and Middle Eastern shawarma. Then as the meat chars and caramelizes on the outer edges, it’s carved off and piled on your taco or torta. Um, is it hot in here?

Then I asked about elotes, the street food I had heard famed restaurateur, cookbook author and TV personality Rick Bayless waxing poetic about. Elotes is an ear of corn skewered with a stick and rolled in first mayonnaise and then fresh cheese, dried chili, lime and salt. Alex explained that it is everyone’s favorite summer snack, and La Victoria serves it when corn is in season.

This was music to my ears, you see -- I’m a corn snob. Growing up on the Jersey shore, my mom would serve only corn that had been picked that day, preferably that hour. I love the sensibility that says, it’s worth the wait for the freshest, tastiest produce. It seems Barrientos feels the same way.

So I’m willing to wait for August to sink my teeth into this fabled treat. Alex says it’s always on his summer catering menus, and it’s like a party on a stick. Hmm, party you say? Heck, my birthday is in August and let’s see … I can mix my killer fresh fruit 100 percent agave margaritas, get the pastor carver humming along to the mariachi tunes, light some lanterns and … ahem, I suppose I do digress. But it’s daydreams like this that’ll keep me going while I’m scraping ice off my windshield in a few weeks.

So in the meantime, I will practically be pacing the sidewalk out front of La Victoria Taqueria for its opening. After the last inspection Tuesday, Nov. 4, Alex and his staff opened the same day.

And while we are all suffering through another long, cold snowy winter, we Arlingtonians will have the true tropical flavors of a sunny cobblestone square in Mexico to keep us warm.

This story was published Monday, Nov. 3, 2014, and updated the next day. When she is not writing, the author, Lori Uhland of Arlington, styles homes and events at www.stagerightlori.com. She specializes in big-bang-for-your-buck functional design and loves all things delicious. She plans to review the food at La Victoria Taqueria.