“If you can’t find anything to eat in that cupboard, then you’re not really hungry,” many parents have said. As a teenager, I can remember looking at unappetizing cans of vegetables or uncooked package foods and wondering, “This is edible?”

In the current virus crisis, many are likely exploring the back of their cupboard shelves or the depths of their freezer. I propose taking a creative approach. How can we make this delicious? Take it as a challenge.

I recently found ten pounds of frozen catfish and some onions. Ever wonder why you don’t see slabs of giant catfish displayed in the seafood counter? That’s because the bigger catfish–that is over five pounds–are rubbery and taste fishy. The catfish I had found was from ten-to-twenty pound monsters pulled from our lake last summer.

But I had plenty to experiment with, plus onions. Although everything I tried was edible, the simplest turned out the best. Just dice up some onions–the cheapest yellow ones are fine–and add hunks of the least desirable catfish fillets. Season it to your taste–think black pepper–and throw the mixture in a crock pot for about five hours. The delicious soup is mild and sweet with only a hint of fish. For some zest, dash in a bit of vinegar. Served with some old fashioned southern cornbread, you have a healthy feast worthy of a pioneer. Seriously, it’s not bad.

The isolation and inactivity we are all enduring is a chance to try new things. Let’s make the best of it.

Drew Coons