Vegetarian here so it’s easy to put all those vegetables in a bowl. I sprinkle some fruit in (like tomato and raisins).
When I’m done mixing, I call it a salad and eat it.
Scratch. Tho if I bake its usually from a mix. I’m an excellent cook but a horrible baker, with the notable exception of my flourless bourbon and chocolate cake. Even that isn’t terribly pretty most of the time but it tastes yummy. Oh also I buy my beef and pork from a very local farmer (>15 miles away) and honestly I’ve had better beef but only at 4+ times the price. My last half cow cost me 1250 bucks and provided 300+ lbs of beef. I usually end up selling to friends about half the ground beef and use the rest all myself. The half will last me a year.
with the notable exception of my flourless bourbon and chocolate cake
I’m not much of a cook nor a baker. But I can “make” a pretty tasty flourless, chocolateless, cakeless bourbon. Only requires one ingredient unless you insist it be on the rocks.
Here’s a famous recipe from F Scott Firzgerald. Only two ingredients!
Turkey with Whiskey Sauce
Turkey with Whiskey Sauce:
This recipe is for a party of four.
Obtain a gallon of whiskey, and allow it to age for several hours.
Then serve, allowing one quart for each guest.
The next day the turkey should be added, little by little, constantly stirring and basting.
@hac alright. its really easy.
ingredients
12 oz bittersweet choc chips or bars… break bars into small pieces
2 sticks plus 3 tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp bourbon or rum (optional)
set up double boiler (pot of water with metal mixing bowl on top) over medium low heat
grease 9 in springform pan and cover bottom with greased parchment paper
put 8oz of the choc and 2 sticks of butter in the double boiler mixing frequently
when fully melted and blended remove from heat and mix in eggs 1 at a time
add 2 tbsp of bourbon if using
sift cocoa powder in until just mixed (do by hand not stand mixer)
pour into springform pan and bake 35ish minutes
when cake is baked remove from oven let cool and release from springform. turn over onto a plate to cool (I spritz the cake with another tbsp of bourbon at this point)
for the glaze reset double boiler
add the rest of choc (4oz) and the remaining 3 tbsp of butter
when fully melted add the honey vanilla and remaining bourbon pour over cake and use a spatula to fully cover.
if you feel like it top with raspberries
Scratch most of the time. And that’s too broad a question. I could fill a book with tips or tricks. My mom started teaching me cooking when I was 6 and that was a long, long, time ago.
@CaptAmehrican Roll your pie crust out on a short nap, floured, kitchen towel. It won’t stick and you can fold it into quarters, easily place it in the pie dish and unfold it. Then crimp the edges. I fought pie crusts for years 'til I figured that one out.
We buy groceries and then cook them. We rarely eat anything that is prepped already (freezer foods, etc). We do eat a lot of canned vegetables, but we eat an equal amount of fresh veggies.
If you are just trying to learn, honestly go to a used bookstore and pickup a copy of the Americas test kitchen cookbook. The more recent the better but even if it’s ten years old its a gem. Clear concise instruction on how to make some really great recipes.
Simply the best tip i could ever give is to learn how to “miss en place”. Having everything where you need it when you need it is key to timing and control. Not having to go digging thru the fridge or a cupboard when its time to add something will make everything happier and way more fun.
@pfarro1 Android autocorrect is detestable, even though it has become a bit less aggressively nasty with each OS update. It seems to have inherited its parent’s penchant for bossiness.
@pfarro1 I would also recommend Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything as a rare example of a useful cookbook. More of a guide along the lines of ‘this is what this is and how you might use it, here’s a basic blueprint for a recipe, here are a few ways to jazz that up.’
@pfarro1 My husband had a set of Playboy’s Gourmet cooking for men. When we were dating, he fixed up some pretty nice dinners. One of the reasons I married him. He ‘bothered’.
@sgrazi I just can’t do cookbooks that aren’t physical. Even when I go looking for a recipe online I end up typing it up and printing it so I have a physical copy. Must be my grandma coming thru.
@pfarro1 If you want the books, it is possible to print one or more pages from a PDF file. And there is are easier ways to print a recipe you find online than by re-typing it.
@sgrazi i know there is… But I print it on some pretty firm paper and if I like the recipe it goes in my binder. Plus my retyping it means I can add my own notes. Like possible future additions or if I think time of temp needs to be adjusted. I have horrible handwriting so if I did this by hand i wouldn’t be able to read my notes the next time
@pfarro1 …cut-n-paste is your friend.
I highlight the text, copy it, then paste it into a wordpad or other word processing program. This allows me to make notes, as well as change things like list numbers etc. without having to type in all the stuff myself. I generally keep the website address as well at the bottom of the document so I can return to the “scene of the crime” if something goes wrong.
@pfarro1 Just finished doing exactly this process for a Campari Tomato Gallatte recipe that looked interesting (found on the back of the label from the top of a box tom Campari tomatoes from Sam’s) find recipe here. I cut-n-pasted, then took out the unnecessary extra spaces between lines. Saved ti to my recipe folder, and voila… an idea for a future item to try.
BTW interesting aside… Campari tomatoes seem to be really prone to making volunteers from seeds in my compost… I get a bunch of plants each spring when I move my compost into the garden… Bonus!
I either eat out or cook from scratch. Can’t stand the uniformity of flavor and lack of texture of canned and frozen foods. A couple of my useful tips and short cuts in cooking: 1. Go to Souper Salad or a salad place and fill a takeout box with precut veggies. Use them to make soup, pasta sauce, rice dishes. Unless produce is really cheap where you live, it’s going to be cheaper to get a box full of bell peppers, red onions, mushrooms, olives, broccoli and cauliflower florets, artichoke hearts, etc than buying those things at the market. 2. When I am cooking things, I add them in the order of how long they take to cook. For example, potatoes go in first, peppers go in last. When I cook in the crock pot, I only cook the main ingredients overnight, for example the beans, meat, bone and broth for a bean dish. I add soft veggies like onions, garlic and chile in the morning, and fresh or dry seasoning and bell peppers shortly before serving. This causes the dish to have layered flavors and textures rather than all tasting the same. 3. Make food you enjoy, how you enjoy it. Learn to make it “right”, but then make it your way. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t feel constrained by recipes.
Check and see if your community has any cooking classes or groups. Not because you need lessons, but because learning as a group is fun, and it’s always instructive observing different people’s approach to the same task.
Since I do most of the cooking chez nous (DON’T ask how this happened) I do a mix of scratch, semi-scratch, and prepared; delivery is infrequent but not exactly rare.
We keep a variety of Aldi/Trader Joe’s frozen stuff in the freezer (had to sacrifice the batteries, sorry) and I hit Produce Junction once every other week or so. We used to get some specialty items, esp rice and nuts, through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save but the prices kept going up so it’s mostly TJ’s for specialty rice, goodies, dog food, and dairy; Acme for pasta, ice cream, and seafood; and Wegman’s for meat, snacks, and block cheese (this sounds complicated, but it’s like a monthly trip for each.)
So now there’re different options for various conditions. If I’m on top of things I planned a menu and did some prep work the night before, maybe just taking a couple frozen filets out of the bag and putting 'em in the fridge to defrost for tomorrow or maybe chopping some veggies and herbs and putting my water bottle in the crockpot so I remember to start it before I leave in the morning (I will only remember if it’s the water bottle; I can somehow always overlook the Contigo.) If I’m NOT on top of things I can pull, say, a bag of frozen TJs Kung Pao Chicken, chop up some additional veggies, and start a pot of basmati rice @ 5:00, then fry up the entree and voila, dinner’s ready in about 20 minutes. Or there’s always ordering takeout!
Tips and tricks, hmmm. Something physical placed where you can’t miss it as a reminder. Lettuce as a head lasts far longer than chopped salad in a bag; TJ’s chopped bag salad lasts longer than ACME; mushrooms don’t last long but whole last longer than cut; you can freeze SOME fruits and veggies but not really mushrooms; frozen shrimp rolls are NEVER as good as takeout ones; frozen food is fattening; CHECK the cord AND on/off switch of any appliance you’re relying on; Ove Gloves are more cut resistant than your flesh; kitchen knives do NOT have to be razor sharp; keep notes and date freezer bags before you put them in. I may think of more later, it’s still early.
My wife and I love cooking. That said, the pace of every day life dictates that we do different things depending on what our schedule looks like. Sometimes it’s a complicated, fancy, multi-course meal entirely from scratch using ingredients we went out to a farmer’s market to purchase for that meal. Sometimes it’s microwave burritos or fast food. Sometimes it’s an easy casserole or slow-cooker meal, and even occasionally it’s Blue Apron or a similar delivery grocery service. Really just depends how the day is going, how tired we are, how happy/fussy the baby is.
Couple of other things I thought of… I’m not a crazy weekly planner, but I do like to have a couple meal ideas in place. I live alone so a significant portion of the time I’m cooking for 1 (tho I regularly feed my bartenders and an alarming amount of other people). So if I make a roast, there’s a good chance that beef barley or veggie beef soup will get made the next day. Leftovers done differently are better than leftovers.
Also I love to make soups in quantity and freeze. There are probably 20 quarts of soup in my chest freezer right now. If you have friends that cook a soup exchange is a great thing. We have 8 of us… Everybody makes 6 pints and we all go home with 6 new ones. We tried doing everybody gets one pint of all the soups but it was limiting. For example i have a shellfish allergy… So nobody would make clam chowder. Now that I go home with just 6 there’s no worries.
And if you happen to live in a state in restaurant depots foot print and own a biz or know someone who does become a member(or have said friend become a member and give you a card). Wholesale prices and some really good stuff. I smoke cheese and you can’t beat their prices. Also some nice cooking products (not necessarily fancy but built to take a beating)
And last but not least, if you do cook for groups (I throw a couple big parties every year… Like 35 ppl) buy a chef jacket. It’s super easy to throw on so you don’t make a mess of yourself. I don’t have time to be changing clothes when I’ve got 35lbs of meat coming out of the smoker 6 side dishes going and the guests are starting to show up.
I cook from scratch. When I was living with someone, I used to go all out pretty much nightly, but nowadays being single and not terribly picky, I keep things pretty simple. Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things, so I’ve never entertained the idea of a meal service thingy.
I don’t have much time (I get home around 8.30pm and make dinner as well as breakfast and/or lunch for the next day) or space, so any tips I might have would generally relate to those constraints. I think I mentioned in an earlier thread using containers of a known size to store things has been a big help to me. If I store all of my pasta and grains in half-pint mason jars, I essentially pre-measure everything after shopping (when I have time) and can easily eyeball approximate half- or even quarter-cup increments.
I save all the unpleasant bits of vegetables to make stock with. I use the same strategy for this - freeze it in silicone 1-cup portion control thingies so it’s premeasured when I need it.
using containers of a known size to store things has been a big help to me. If I store all of my pasta and grains in half-pint mason jars, I essentially pre-measure everything after shopping (when I have time) and can easily eyeball approximate half- or even quarter-cup increments.
Whatever you said somewhere else about this, I either missed it or have forgotten it.
Any of you cooks who use storage containers as measuring containers also?
If you have the time and energy: Please elaborate on how you do it; and what range of ingredients and pepped foods you handle that way.
@f00l If I did actually post that, it was a forgettable amount of time ago, no worries! I don’t really have too much more to add. I use Ball jars for a few reasons:
Affordable & readily available
In fact, I occasionally buy jellies or nut butters already in compatible jars, which doesn’t hurt
One standard for lids across all jars (actually two, I do have some wide-mouth for immersion blending in, and one of them with a charcoal filter acts as my short-term compost bin)
Pint-based sizes are essentially cup measures
Domestic manufacture (not including plastic lids).
I would not use them as pre-measured measures for baking, but then if I cared about baking I’d be weighing things anyway. My primary use is grains and pasta - things that I want to measure in cup-based amounts. I do use the same jars for things like cocoa powder and chia seeds, but obviously I don’t use large amounts of those in one go… it’s just that standardization of containers thing. Oh, standardizing containers also makes eyeballing a lot easier - I almost always have overnight ‘oats’ for breakfast, and knowing my containers means I easily eyeball all of my measurements and get consistently delicious results.
I use the silicone portion control doodads for stock simply so I can easily pop out an ‘ice cube’. My mother makes stock much like I do, but she measures out cups (or, probably half-cups, knowing her) into sandwich bags, ties them off, and throws those in the freezer. Maybe that’s an additional helpful hint?
I wish I had more insight. I am always looking for things that save me time and space, as I mentioned, but I honestly don’t have a lot of tips, I’m still figuring out how to manage a lot of things.
@f00l i use my storage containers as measuring jars as well. At some point a couple years ago I got annoyed at all the different plastic containers and just said screw it and bought a bunch of sets of glass bowls with sealing lids. Now all the containers are uniform and I know that just sticking my hand in the cabinet will pull out a lid and bowl that match. And conveniently the small ones hold exactly a cup and a half… And the line where the glass gets wider at the top is a cup. The bigger ones are 2 when full, 1.5 to the line. Plus glass can go in the oven or toaster oven, meaning less dishes. And glass cleans better and no warping. I don’t really measure that much because eyeball is sufficient unless you are baking but it’s still nice to know.
@f00l we use Ball jars for dry good storage, but have switched over to “deli containers” for fridge and freezer. Same volume as Ball jars but more stackable, easier to label, and if you lose the chipotle peppers to mold you can toss the whole container with nary a tear. Like the Ball jars, one lid fits the various sizes. And they’ll take a stick blender too! But not if you’re stick-blending icy concoctions, as the ice tends to split the plastic.
(We cook from scratch. These days, on a propane camping stove and sawhorses, as we are STILL remodeling the kitchen…)
I have been cooking most of my life. Learned by watching the best cook, my mom.
I lived at home and went to college, did all the cooking, cleaning, mom worked to send me to college. She sure hated when her cook and maid left home!
Made my first from scratch cake when I was ten, mom was at work.
I mostly cook from scratch. I hate processed foods.
I like fresh meat and produce, yesterday I cooked some cabbage, cornbread, baked chicken with cut lemons on pan and rice cooked in broth, low sodium.
We have a country grocery out here, they will cut your meat if you need it. They have the best, fresh meat. I do not freeze meat, personal preference.
I have used Blue Apron, liked some of the food. But not when I forgot to order what I wanted. I liked the different foods it introduced, some I had not heard of. Took me a lot of time though. Prices are good, you would spend that much on groceries.
Have a lot of cookbooks I do not use. The internet is my friend when looking for new recipes.
We really have just a couple restaurants open here at night, so I cook if I want good food.
I threatened to go on strike if I throw anymore good food out!
I have taught my son to cook many things, especially when I was working. He still cooks when I ask him to.
At least he will make good husband material! Lol.
One woman told me I was messing him up, if he ever gets married, he will be the cook. No, I said, everyone should learn, it is not women’s work, she is my age, so old fashioned. When both work, it is disrespectful to expect only one to cook and clean up. Speaking from experience.
My dad made a hot breakfast, every school day. Mom did dinner.
When I did not want to cook, she asked, why did I have to? I told her coz she was married to Morris. He was a foodie!
Leftovers tonight, but meat fresh cooked, more baked chicken, or grilled. I grill year round. Except last week in that damn snow!
Apparently “the” thing these days is cooking sous vide, basically boil in a bag cooking. I can’t get into it, because… well… it reminds me of boil in a bag cooking. I do mostly scratch - especially baking - mostly because I didn’t grow up in a household of much scratch cooking. My tips:
I like to buy some veggies and cut them straight away when I get home, stick them in freezer bags and use as needed. Living alone, I often go to the evening egg scramble or single serving saute/stir fry and it’s way easier to just grab a handful of pre-chopped veggies than having to go through it every time. Cheaper than buying the pre-cut veggies in the store too.
Get a good knife, that’s comfy for YOU. Everyone has a different grip, so while the delightful sets sold online (looking at you, meh.com) are great deals, I find if you don’t try it out first and then get it home and it’s too big/small/weird fit for your weird hands, you won’t use them. Respect your knives, if you plan on cutting anything.
Keep some basic sauces and seasonings on hand all the time but also make sure you turnover stuff that goes off. Spices have a shelf life, so that paprika you got in college as a joke is probably no good after 4 moves, 6 roommates and 2 cities. Just saying.
@hac I bought my brother and I sous vide Supremes when he graduated from culinary school. (Way before it was cool). If you have never had a steak prepared that way try it. It’s amazing. Also… The 60 minute egg. And I do liquor infusions in hours rather than weeks. I bartend and my regulars get Xmas gifts of my homemade lemoncello and Kailua and cherry infused bourbon and a few other things. I vary up what I do each year but people rave about it every year. It’s a simple gift that goes a long way. I buy some neat little bottles from a winemaking shop and one afternoon make prob 2 gallons of various concoctions.
I’m curious about the sous vide but the idea of cooking in plastic bags doesn’t tempt me. I am not a fan of baking in silicone… high temperatures cause things to break down, so I’m suspicious of a lot of stuff and try to use stainless steel and cast iron on my stove top.
Recently though, my life has been revolutionized by the Instant Pot. I love it ever so much. I use it almost every day, but definitely every other day. I’m trying to be mostly gluten free, so if I don’t have much time, I can throw a whole spaghetti squash in it, and in 30 mins I’m eating it with some nice vegetarian sauce. So delicious.
The Instant Pot is great because it comes with a stainless steel liner and I have used its sauté function many times and like that I’m not wasting any nutrients or flavors. It does take some practice and patience but definitely worth it.
The amount of recipes out there are also inspiring. Even if the exact same thing you want to make isn’t out there, it’s very simple to modify the recipes for your own tastes.
It’s helping me save money by not eating out and I’m eating more delicious and nutritious food because of the way I cook with fresh ingredients, lots of vegetables, and low sodium.
If I’m going to cook it it better cook in 20 min or less. I hate to cook. I don’t eat out so I am forced to cook. I mostly wing it. On the other hand I have no problem eating someone else’s cooking
Big fan of one pot meals. I usually start with some kind of box, jar or can and enhance the intended preparation. For example Knorr flavoured pasta packets, add chicken or beef, possibly frozen diced onions, maybe some cream cheese or frozen broccoli, possibly a can of corn… depending on the original pasta flavour and the kind of meat I’ll select additional ingredients which I’ve learned will improve my dining experience and stretch the quantity.
It’s the art of combining off the shelf ingredients into something more palatable. And I’ve become pretty skilled at it. Sometimes I make poor choices, but generally I churn out something tasty. And once in a while, downright fantastic.
I cook from scratch mostly, use lots of spices, lots of heat, and usually cook enough food so I have leftovers for a week. If I want something else during that week, I usually end up eating ramen or boxed mac & cheese or cheap frozen burritos. I 100% unironically love that shit.
This week’s meal is my bastardized version of an egg roll filling/stir-fry for eating on top of fried egg roll wrappers. I’m calling it deconstructed egg rolls. It was originally supposed to be egg roll tacos, but then I found out the “shells” don’t hold up nearly as well as fried tortillas do. Now it’s more like nachos I guess.
Last week was some sort of Franken-lasagna casserole with spaghetti, eggplant, sausage, and assloads of spaghetti sauce and various cheeses, with a nice, crispy browned mozzarella and parmesan shell on top. I’m not big on food being “proper” or pretty, as long as it tastes good.
I don’t eat out very often because it’s cheaper to cook for myself and food just tastes bland at most restaurants after what I eat at home. The exceptions are Thai and Indian places, and the occasional Chinese buffet, to feed my debilitating potsticker addiction.
@Dweezle - If you’re anywhere near a Trader Joe’s, they have a selection of pretty decent frozen potstickers. Obviously try some before you stock but my wife is the potsticker fan and swears these, with a bowl of Hoisin sauce with some chopped (frozen) scallion, are just as good as restaurant ones.
@aetris There’s an Asian supermarket about 20 minutes from me that has about 40 different kinds of potstickers I’m still trying to work my way through. I’ll keep that in mind though!
I worked as a prep cook when I was 15 and picked up invaluable kitchen skills that I still use today. Mostly about efficiency, cleaning as you go, and organization. That helps me a lot.
I am the cook of the house, and like most in this situation, I have to come home from work, and get it done for a family of 4 (well 3, now that one is in college). I lean towards fast meals (fresh, but minimal prep). Lots of chicken variations and ground turkey as staples.
In a pinch I use pre-packaged sauces from fresh market just to add some new flavors. And most comes out of a cast iron skillet - my favorite kitchen implement.
Well, here is my block of text on cooking (everyone else was doing it):
I love cooking, but the necessity of it has turned it into a numbers game. I get home at 6PM and I have to cook dinner for my family of 3, 7 days a week:
2-3 Days are from a big meal cooked on the weekends: goulash, roast, pulled port, etc. The slow cooker is king here. The remaining left overs become lunches.
2-3 days are from a meal service called Plated. Similar to Blue Apron or Home Fresh, they deliver pre-sized portions of ingredients for meals I would probably never cook otherwise. The last one was khachapuri.
2-3 days are quick meals. Either frozen food or ‘dinner-for-breakfast’. Eggs are key. Omelets, eggs and bacon, or French Toast.
twice a month we eat out or order take-out. Chinese take-out is nice because it lasts 3 days.
All lunches and dinners must have a side of raw veggies (even if the meal includes cooked veggies). Even if my daughter hates the meal, she will always eat a lot of the veggies. To keep things varied, I stock my fridge with as many different vegetables as I can find at the grocery store (or farmer’s market in the summer)
Weekend breakfast is my favorite
Groceries: I don’t have a car, so I carry everything home from the store. I can only carry so much, so I end up going to the store 3 times a week. The meal service helps with this. So does ordering bulky items online (TP, paper towels, cat litter, etc).
tl;dr: A little of everything. Got to get that food on the table.
Some friends of mine had a song whose lyrics included a line, “Never Retreat. Trust Your Skill.” (Sons of Poseidon “Pil Sung”) & though they were writing about the martial art of Taekwondo, I’ve adapted the phrase to my cooking style. I’ll try ANYTHING once. If I like it, it stays in my repertoire. If I didn’t like it, I’ll either try to modify to fit my tastes or just “Deep 6” the recipe/technique/food. “Fear No Food” fits me to a T!! If you don’t have that level of confidence, I can strongly recommend an Instant Pot pressure cooker. Thousands of free recipes, most of which are really dynamite. I received one of these for Christmas, so am a new convert to the style. I mean who wouldn’t like Pulled Pork in under an hour?!?!?
We cook virtually everything from scratch.
I married a ‘Farm Girl’ who was the cook for her family of 11 siblings starting at age 13. They raised & cooked everything they could.
So… We raised our kids to be able to do this also. We had two huge chest freezers, one for the meat animals we raised & the other for the veggies & fruit we grew. Our kids grew up & we’ve reduced what we need to grow.
We now have 1/3 the garden we used to have, but still grow & freeze many things like corn, tomatoes, green beans, chilies, etc… We also freeze blueberries (we have 17 huge bushes), raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, pie cherries and peaches. We also make our own sauerkraut.
We stopped raising animals for meat (though we have hens for eggs) and we buy meat on sale for the freezer.
As for cooking, my wife is amazing. She can somehow have a meal finished from scratch in no time. She never measures or reads a recipe.
We did buy pre-made meatballs once because a grandkid said he loved them. They were not very good…
Anything from pot roast, pie crust, the best damn biscuits, turkey casserole, jagerschnitzel, spatzel, Southern fried chicken, lasagna, the list goes on. All from scratch and often using our own produce.
My specialties to cook are: Texan Chili and Sonoran stack enchiladas. I make the enchilada sauce from scratch.
I’ve been cooking for almost 50 years, since my mother got me started when I was 4 or 5. At this point I rarely follow a recipe very closely, except when baking.
Maybe 1/2 of the time I cook from scratch or close to it (eg. I’ll use boxed chicken stock, tho I’ll make chicken and turkey stock from carcasses when I have them).
For lunch at work, I generally have a “salt supplement” (Lean Cuisine, WW, Devour) since they cost ~$3 or less (and my Blood pressure medicine makes me feel faint when I don’t get enough salt).
When I cook for breakfast it is from scratch with the exception of sausage and bacon (I’ve made those from scratch, which is better, but a PITA). Many breakfasts are a double protein shake or a cheese sandwich. Coffee is always from scratch (fresh ground beans and a french press). I won’t buy frozen waffles (from scratch is not hard and so much better). I stopped eating breakfast cereals (other than steel cut oats, farina, grits and the like) over five years ago.
Dinner on the weekends varies but is frequently from scratch or close to it. When cooking from scratch, I tend to make extra for later in the week or the month or the year (have a chest freezer and vacuum sealer).
I used to bake, but @miraclewhispers (daughter unit 2) is much better at it than me, so I don’t bother much any more.
I can (mostly strawberry and other jams) and make my own pickles (usually jalapenos) and extracts (cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, etc.). I am getting back into making things like beef jerky and the like, mostly because I started rewatching Alton Brown’s Good Eats.
Asparagus and most fresh herbs will last longer if you trim off the bottom, stand it in a glass (or something) with about an inch of water and just loosely put the thin produce bag over the top (don’t secure it) and place in fridge.
Mostly cook from scratch (French heritage), e.g.:
Lunch today was 2 types of quiche (OK… I did cheat on the crusts and bought the pre-made ones in the fridge section)
Fresh green salad
Bread and cheese (love my bread maker machine!)
Blueberry cobbler (using up frozen blueberries given to us by a friend last year
Bottle of Chardonnay
Coffee
Have no aversion to eating out, but when I do I want to get stuff I don’t cook at home, or can’t make as easily. I am a frequent user of Restaurant.com and have found lots of cool restaurants through their offers, especially when we travel.
Basically I’m too cheap (and lazy) to go the 35 miles into Montgomery to eat out, since choices in this small town are very limited with the only independent restaurants being 2 Mexican, 1 Chinese and a sandwich shop sort of ala Panerra’s. The others are all chain restaurants like McD, Hardee’s, DQ, Pizza Hut, etc,
Vegetarian here so it’s easy to put all those vegetables in a bowl. I sprinkle some fruit in (like tomato and raisins).
When I’m done mixing, I call it a salad and eat it.
@cengland0 I knew there was a raisin why you were so special
/giphy smirk
Scratch. Tho if I bake its usually from a mix. I’m an excellent cook but a horrible baker, with the notable exception of my flourless bourbon and chocolate cake. Even that isn’t terribly pretty most of the time but it tastes yummy. Oh also I buy my beef and pork from a very local farmer (>15 miles away) and honestly I’ve had better beef but only at 4+ times the price. My last half cow cost me 1250 bucks and provided 300+ lbs of beef. I usually end up selling to friends about half the ground beef and use the rest all myself. The half will last me a year.
@pfarro1
I’m not much of a cook nor a baker. But I can “make” a pretty tasty flourless, chocolateless, cakeless bourbon. Only requires one ingredient unless you insist it be on the rocks.
@RedOak
Here’s a famous recipe from F Scott Firzgerald. Only two ingredients!
Turkey with Whiskey Sauce
@pfarro1 please please please share the flourless chocolate bourbon cake recipe. please?
@hac alright. its really easy.
ingredients
12 oz bittersweet choc chips or bars… break bars into small pieces
2 sticks plus 3 tbsp butter
6 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
tbsp honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp bourbon or rum (optional)
set up double boiler (pot of water with metal mixing bowl on top) over medium low heat
grease 9 in springform pan and cover bottom with greased parchment paper
put 8oz of the choc and 2 sticks of butter in the double boiler mixing frequently
when fully melted and blended remove from heat and mix in eggs 1 at a time
add 2 tbsp of bourbon if using
sift cocoa powder in until just mixed (do by hand not stand mixer)
pour into springform pan and bake 35ish minutes
when cake is baked remove from oven let cool and release from springform. turn over onto a plate to cool (I spritz the cake with another tbsp of bourbon at this point)
for the glaze reset double boiler
add the rest of choc (4oz) and the remaining 3 tbsp of butter
when fully melted add the honey vanilla and remaining bourbon pour over cake and use a spatula to fully cover.
if you feel like it top with raspberries
@pfarro1 what temperature do you bake it at?
@zrschaef lol sorry 350-375. Lower end of the range if your oven has convection.
Scratch for breakfast. A lot of glorified snacks for lunch and dinner.
Scratch most of the time. And that’s too broad a question. I could fill a book with tips or tricks. My mom started teaching me cooking when I was 6 and that was a long, long, time ago.
@lseeber What is your favorite trick
@CaptAmehrican I like the one where they saw the lady in half
@capguncowboy did they show how she got separated into two parts?
@RedOak They can’t give away all their tricks!
@capguncowboy Because Trix are for kids!
@CaptAmehrican Roll your pie crust out on a short nap, floured, kitchen towel. It won’t stick and you can fold it into quarters, easily place it in the pie dish and unfold it. Then crimp the edges. I fought pie crusts for years 'til I figured that one out.
We buy groceries and then cook them. We rarely eat anything that is prepped already (freezer foods, etc). We do eat a lot of canned vegetables, but we eat an equal amount of fresh veggies.
If you are just trying to learn, honestly go to a used bookstore and pickup a copy of the Americas test kitchen cookbook. The more recent the better but even if it’s ten years old its a gem. Clear concise instruction on how to make some really great recipes.
Simply the best tip i could ever give is to learn how to “miss en place”. Having everything where you need it when you need it is key to timing and control. Not having to go digging thru the fridge or a cupboard when its time to add something will make everything happier and way more fun.
@pfarro1 I got their Cooking For Two cookbook and I love it. It’s the only cookbook I have ever actually used.
@pfarro1
So true.
@pfarro1 sorry stupid auto correct on fire tablet… The term is mise en place. Just in case you were looking to Google it.
@pfarro1 Android autocorrect is detestable, even though it has become a bit less aggressively nasty with each OS update. It seems to have inherited its parent’s penchant for bossiness.
@pfarro1 I would also recommend Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything as a rare example of a useful cookbook. More of a guide along the lines of ‘this is what this is and how you might use it, here’s a basic blueprint for a recipe, here are a few ways to jazz that up.’
@pfarro1
If you decide on getting cookbooks, I just got this in email yesterday -
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/sous-geek-cookbooks?linkID=&mcID=102:5a68d1698dc3607025878c43:ot:57c6f1640dca63f1bdbf0086:1&utm_source=Humble+Bundle+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018_01_24_sousgeekcookbooks_bookbundle&linkID=&utm_content=cta_button.
A variety of about 20 books for 15.00 (if you want them all). FYI, all the books I have gotten from them are PDFs.
P.S.
The do contribute part of the proceeds to charity. As I recall you can adjust which percentages go to them, the authors(?) and the charity.
@pfarro1 My husband had a set of Playboy’s Gourmet cooking for men. When we were dating, he fixed up some pretty nice dinners. One of the reasons I married him.
He ‘bothered’.
@sgrazi I just can’t do cookbooks that aren’t physical. Even when I go looking for a recipe online I end up typing it up and printing it so I have a physical copy. Must be my grandma coming thru.
@pfarro1 If you want the books, it is possible to print one or more pages from a PDF file. And there is are easier ways to print a recipe you find online than by re-typing it.
@sgrazi i know there is… But I print it on some pretty firm paper and if I like the recipe it goes in my binder. Plus my retyping it means I can add my own notes. Like possible future additions or if I think time of temp needs to be adjusted. I have horrible handwriting so if I did this by hand i wouldn’t be able to read my notes the next time
@pfarro1 …cut-n-paste is your friend.
I highlight the text, copy it, then paste it into a wordpad or other word processing program. This allows me to make notes, as well as change things like list numbers etc. without having to type in all the stuff myself. I generally keep the website address as well at the bottom of the document so I can return to the “scene of the crime” if something goes wrong.
@pfarro1 same way
@pfarro1 Just finished doing exactly this process for a Campari Tomato Gallatte recipe that looked interesting (found on the back of the label from the top of a box tom Campari tomatoes from Sam’s) find recipe here. I cut-n-pasted, then took out the unnecessary extra spaces between lines. Saved ti to my recipe folder, and voila… an idea for a future item to try.
BTW interesting aside… Campari tomatoes seem to be really prone to making volunteers from seeds in my compost… I get a bunch of plants each spring when I move my compost into the garden… Bonus!
I either eat out or cook from scratch. Can’t stand the uniformity of flavor and lack of texture of canned and frozen foods. A couple of my useful tips and short cuts in cooking: 1. Go to Souper Salad or a salad place and fill a takeout box with precut veggies. Use them to make soup, pasta sauce, rice dishes. Unless produce is really cheap where you live, it’s going to be cheaper to get a box full of bell peppers, red onions, mushrooms, olives, broccoli and cauliflower florets, artichoke hearts, etc than buying those things at the market. 2. When I am cooking things, I add them in the order of how long they take to cook. For example, potatoes go in first, peppers go in last. When I cook in the crock pot, I only cook the main ingredients overnight, for example the beans, meat, bone and broth for a bean dish. I add soft veggies like onions, garlic and chile in the morning, and fresh or dry seasoning and bell peppers shortly before serving. This causes the dish to have layered flavors and textures rather than all tasting the same. 3. Make food you enjoy, how you enjoy it. Learn to make it “right”, but then make it your way. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and don’t feel constrained by recipes.
Check and see if your community has any cooking classes or groups. Not because you need lessons, but because learning as a group is fun, and it’s always instructive observing different people’s approach to the same task.
Since I do most of the cooking chez nous (DON’T ask how this happened) I do a mix of scratch, semi-scratch, and prepared; delivery is infrequent but not exactly rare.
We keep a variety of Aldi/Trader Joe’s frozen stuff in the freezer (had to sacrifice the batteries, sorry) and I hit Produce Junction once every other week or so. We used to get some specialty items, esp rice and nuts, through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save but the prices kept going up so it’s mostly TJ’s for specialty rice, goodies, dog food, and dairy; Acme for pasta, ice cream, and seafood; and Wegman’s for meat, snacks, and block cheese (this sounds complicated, but it’s like a monthly trip for each.)
So now there’re different options for various conditions. If I’m on top of things I planned a menu and did some prep work the night before, maybe just taking a couple frozen filets out of the bag and putting 'em in the fridge to defrost for tomorrow or maybe chopping some veggies and herbs and putting my water bottle in the crockpot so I remember to start it before I leave in the morning (I will only remember if it’s the water bottle; I can somehow always overlook the Contigo.) If I’m NOT on top of things I can pull, say, a bag of frozen TJs Kung Pao Chicken, chop up some additional veggies, and start a pot of basmati rice @ 5:00, then fry up the entree and voila, dinner’s ready in about 20 minutes. Or there’s always ordering takeout!
Tips and tricks, hmmm. Something physical placed where you can’t miss it as a reminder. Lettuce as a head lasts far longer than chopped salad in a bag; TJ’s chopped bag salad lasts longer than ACME; mushrooms don’t last long but whole last longer than cut; you can freeze SOME fruits and veggies but not really mushrooms; frozen shrimp rolls are NEVER as good as takeout ones; frozen food is fattening; CHECK the cord AND on/off switch of any appliance you’re relying on; Ove Gloves are more cut resistant than your flesh; kitchen knives do NOT have to be razor sharp; keep notes and date freezer bags before you put them in. I may think of more later, it’s still early.
Mise on place is VERY good advice!
@aetris we miss getting to visit Wegmans when our daughter attended an up state NY university.
My wife and I love cooking. That said, the pace of every day life dictates that we do different things depending on what our schedule looks like. Sometimes it’s a complicated, fancy, multi-course meal entirely from scratch using ingredients we went out to a farmer’s market to purchase for that meal. Sometimes it’s microwave burritos or fast food. Sometimes it’s an easy casserole or slow-cooker meal, and even occasionally it’s Blue Apron or a similar delivery grocery service. Really just depends how the day is going, how tired we are, how happy/fussy the baby is.
@theragu40 but a meh vacuum sealer and make those frozen burritos
Couple of other things I thought of… I’m not a crazy weekly planner, but I do like to have a couple meal ideas in place. I live alone so a significant portion of the time I’m cooking for 1 (tho I regularly feed my bartenders and an alarming amount of other people). So if I make a roast, there’s a good chance that beef barley or veggie beef soup will get made the next day. Leftovers done differently are better than leftovers.
Also I love to make soups in quantity and freeze. There are probably 20 quarts of soup in my chest freezer right now. If you have friends that cook a soup exchange is a great thing. We have 8 of us… Everybody makes 6 pints and we all go home with 6 new ones. We tried doing everybody gets one pint of all the soups but it was limiting. For example i have a shellfish allergy… So nobody would make clam chowder. Now that I go home with just 6 there’s no worries.
And if you happen to live in a state in restaurant depots foot print and own a biz or know someone who does become a member(or have said friend become a member and give you a card). Wholesale prices and some really good stuff. I smoke cheese and you can’t beat their prices. Also some nice cooking products (not necessarily fancy but built to take a beating)
And last but not least, if you do cook for groups (I throw a couple big parties every year… Like 35 ppl) buy a chef jacket. It’s super easy to throw on so you don’t make a mess of yourself. I don’t have time to be changing clothes when I’ve got 35lbs of meat coming out of the smoker 6 side dishes going and the guests are starting to show up.
The above food behavior is impressive!
We virtually never eat fast food but our from scratch mix is far too low to be ideally healthy.
I cook from scratch. When I was living with someone, I used to go all out pretty much nightly, but nowadays being single and not terribly picky, I keep things pretty simple. Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things, so I’ve never entertained the idea of a meal service thingy.
I don’t have much time (I get home around 8.30pm and make dinner as well as breakfast and/or lunch for the next day) or space, so any tips I might have would generally relate to those constraints. I think I mentioned in an earlier thread using containers of a known size to store things has been a big help to me. If I store all of my pasta and grains in half-pint mason jars, I essentially pre-measure everything after shopping (when I have time) and can easily eyeball approximate half- or even quarter-cup increments.
I save all the unpleasant bits of vegetables to make stock with. I use the same strategy for this - freeze it in silicone 1-cup portion control thingies so it’s premeasured when I need it.
@brhfl
Whatever you said somewhere else about this, I either missed it or have forgotten it.
Any of you cooks who use storage containers as measuring containers also?
If you have the time and energy: Please elaborate on how you do it; and what range of ingredients and pepped foods you handle that way.
Thanks.
@f00l If I did actually post that, it was a forgettable amount of time ago, no worries! I don’t really have too much more to add. I use Ball jars for a few reasons:
I would not use them as pre-measured measures for baking, but then if I cared about baking I’d be weighing things anyway. My primary use is grains and pasta - things that I want to measure in cup-based amounts. I do use the same jars for things like cocoa powder and chia seeds, but obviously I don’t use large amounts of those in one go… it’s just that standardization of containers thing. Oh, standardizing containers also makes eyeballing a lot easier - I almost always have overnight ‘oats’ for breakfast, and knowing my containers means I easily eyeball all of my measurements and get consistently delicious results.
I use the silicone portion control doodads for stock simply so I can easily pop out an ‘ice cube’. My mother makes stock much like I do, but she measures out cups (or, probably half-cups, knowing her) into sandwich bags, ties them off, and throws those in the freezer. Maybe that’s an additional helpful hint?
I wish I had more insight. I am always looking for things that save me time and space, as I mentioned, but I honestly don’t have a lot of tips, I’m still figuring out how to manage a lot of things.
@f00l i use my storage containers as measuring jars as well. At some point a couple years ago I got annoyed at all the different plastic containers and just said screw it and bought a bunch of sets of glass bowls with sealing lids. Now all the containers are uniform and I know that just sticking my hand in the cabinet will pull out a lid and bowl that match. And conveniently the small ones hold exactly a cup and a half… And the line where the glass gets wider at the top is a cup. The bigger ones are 2 when full, 1.5 to the line. Plus glass can go in the oven or toaster oven, meaning less dishes. And glass cleans better and no warping. I don’t really measure that much because eyeball is sufficient unless you are baking but it’s still nice to know.
@f00l we use Ball jars for dry good storage, but have switched over to “deli containers” for fridge and freezer. Same volume as Ball jars but more stackable, easier to label, and if you lose the chipotle peppers to mold you can toss the whole container with nary a tear. Like the Ball jars, one lid fits the various sizes. And they’ll take a stick blender too! But not if you’re stick-blending icy concoctions, as the ice tends to split the plastic.
(We cook from scratch. These days, on a propane camping stove and sawhorses, as we are STILL remodeling the kitchen…)
I have been cooking most of my life. Learned by watching the best cook, my mom.
I lived at home and went to college, did all the cooking, cleaning, mom worked to send me to college. She sure hated when her cook and maid left home!
Made my first from scratch cake when I was ten, mom was at work.
I mostly cook from scratch. I hate processed foods.
I like fresh meat and produce, yesterday I cooked some cabbage, cornbread, baked chicken with cut lemons on pan and rice cooked in broth, low sodium.
We have a country grocery out here, they will cut your meat if you need it. They have the best, fresh meat. I do not freeze meat, personal preference.
I have used Blue Apron, liked some of the food. But not when I forgot to order what I wanted. I liked the different foods it introduced, some I had not heard of. Took me a lot of time though. Prices are good, you would spend that much on groceries.
Have a lot of cookbooks I do not use. The internet is my friend when looking for new recipes.
We really have just a couple restaurants open here at night, so I cook if I want good food.
I threatened to go on strike if I throw anymore good food out!
I have taught my son to cook many things, especially when I was working. He still cooks when I ask him to.
At least he will make good husband material! Lol.
One woman told me I was messing him up, if he ever gets married, he will be the cook. No, I said, everyone should learn, it is not women’s work, she is my age, so old fashioned. When both work, it is disrespectful to expect only one to cook and clean up. Speaking from experience.
My dad made a hot breakfast, every school day. Mom did dinner.
When I did not want to cook, she asked, why did I have to? I told her coz she was married to Morris. He was a foodie!
Leftovers tonight, but meat fresh cooked, more baked chicken, or grilled. I grill year round. Except last week in that damn snow!
If you lay a wooden spoon across a pot with boiling water it won’t over boil. This is probably my favorite trick in the kitchen.
Apparently “the” thing these days is cooking sous vide, basically boil in a bag cooking. I can’t get into it, because… well… it reminds me of boil in a bag cooking. I do mostly scratch - especially baking - mostly because I didn’t grow up in a household of much scratch cooking. My tips:
@hac I bought my brother and I sous vide Supremes when he graduated from culinary school. (Way before it was cool). If you have never had a steak prepared that way try it. It’s amazing. Also… The 60 minute egg. And I do liquor infusions in hours rather than weeks. I bartend and my regulars get Xmas gifts of my homemade lemoncello and Kailua and cherry infused bourbon and a few other things. I vary up what I do each year but people rave about it every year. It’s a simple gift that goes a long way. I buy some neat little bottles from a winemaking shop and one afternoon make prob 2 gallons of various concoctions.
what’ever the mood strikes
I’m curious about the sous vide but the idea of cooking in plastic bags doesn’t tempt me. I am not a fan of baking in silicone… high temperatures cause things to break down, so I’m suspicious of a lot of stuff and try to use stainless steel and cast iron on my stove top.
Recently though, my life has been revolutionized by the Instant Pot. I love it ever so much. I use it almost every day, but definitely every other day. I’m trying to be mostly gluten free, so if I don’t have much time, I can throw a whole spaghetti squash in it, and in 30 mins I’m eating it with some nice vegetarian sauce. So delicious.
The Instant Pot is great because it comes with a stainless steel liner and I have used its sauté function many times and like that I’m not wasting any nutrients or flavors. It does take some practice and patience but definitely worth it.
The amount of recipes out there are also inspiring. Even if the exact same thing you want to make isn’t out there, it’s very simple to modify the recipes for your own tastes.
It’s helping me save money by not eating out and I’m eating more delicious and nutritious food because of the way I cook with fresh ingredients, lots of vegetables, and low sodium.
Anyone else use the Instant Pot?
@shells there’s definitely a lot of Instant Pot users here. I’m sure someone will dig up the threads.
@RiotDemon You mean like this, this, or perhaps even this?
Speaking of cooking, Humble Bundle has a geek cooking ebook bundle going on right now. Some interesting looking books in there.
@metaphore Money (well) spent. Humble Bundle has a great conversion rate on my visits, thankfully I don’t go there that often.
Time to look at some cookbooks!
If I’m going to cook it it better cook in 20 min or less. I hate to cook. I don’t eat out so I am forced to cook. I mostly wing it. On the other hand I have no problem eating someone else’s cooking
Big fan of one pot meals. I usually start with some kind of box, jar or can and enhance the intended preparation. For example Knorr flavoured pasta packets, add chicken or beef, possibly frozen diced onions, maybe some cream cheese or frozen broccoli, possibly a can of corn… depending on the original pasta flavour and the kind of meat I’ll select additional ingredients which I’ve learned will improve my dining experience and stretch the quantity.
It’s the art of combining off the shelf ingredients into something more palatable. And I’ve become pretty skilled at it. Sometimes I make poor choices, but generally I churn out something tasty. And once in a while, downright fantastic.
I cook from scratch mostly, use lots of spices, lots of heat, and usually cook enough food so I have leftovers for a week. If I want something else during that week, I usually end up eating ramen or boxed mac & cheese or cheap frozen burritos. I 100% unironically love that shit.
This week’s meal is my bastardized version of an egg roll filling/stir-fry for eating on top of fried egg roll wrappers. I’m calling it deconstructed egg rolls. It was originally supposed to be egg roll tacos, but then I found out the “shells” don’t hold up nearly as well as fried tortillas do. Now it’s more like nachos I guess.
Last week was some sort of Franken-lasagna casserole with spaghetti, eggplant, sausage, and assloads of spaghetti sauce and various cheeses, with a nice, crispy browned mozzarella and parmesan shell on top. I’m not big on food being “proper” or pretty, as long as it tastes good.
I don’t eat out very often because it’s cheaper to cook for myself and food just tastes bland at most restaurants after what I eat at home. The exceptions are Thai and Indian places, and the occasional Chinese buffet, to feed my debilitating potsticker addiction.
@Dweezle Oh the potstickers.
When they’re good I can easily topple a dozen or more. Love to bask them in sichuan sauce. Mmmmm
@Dweezle - If you’re anywhere near a Trader Joe’s, they have a selection of pretty decent frozen potstickers. Obviously try some before you stock but my wife is the potsticker fan and swears these, with a bowl of Hoisin sauce with some chopped (frozen) scallion, are just as good as restaurant ones.
@aetris There’s an Asian supermarket about 20 minutes from me that has about 40 different kinds of potstickers I’m still trying to work my way through. I’ll keep that in mind though!
I worked as a prep cook when I was 15 and picked up invaluable kitchen skills that I still use today. Mostly about efficiency, cleaning as you go, and organization. That helps me a lot.
I am the cook of the house, and like most in this situation, I have to come home from work, and get it done for a family of 4 (well 3, now that one is in college). I lean towards fast meals (fresh, but minimal prep). Lots of chicken variations and ground turkey as staples.
In a pinch I use pre-packaged sauces from fresh market just to add some new flavors. And most comes out of a cast iron skillet - my favorite kitchen implement.
In the warmer months I grill almost every meal.
@ACraigL Cleaning as you go… definitely!
Well, here is my block of text on cooking (everyone else was doing it):
I love cooking, but the necessity of it has turned it into a numbers game. I get home at 6PM and I have to cook dinner for my family of 3, 7 days a week:
All lunches and dinners must have a side of raw veggies (even if the meal includes cooked veggies). Even if my daughter hates the meal, she will always eat a lot of the veggies. To keep things varied, I stock my fridge with as many different vegetables as I can find at the grocery store (or farmer’s market in the summer)
Weekend breakfast is my favorite
Groceries: I don’t have a car, so I carry everything home from the store. I can only carry so much, so I end up going to the store 3 times a week. The meal service helps with this. So does ordering bulky items online (TP, paper towels, cat litter, etc).
tl;dr: A little of everything. Got to get that food on the table.
Some friends of mine had a song whose lyrics included a line, “Never Retreat. Trust Your Skill.” (Sons of Poseidon “Pil Sung”) & though they were writing about the martial art of Taekwondo, I’ve adapted the phrase to my cooking style. I’ll try ANYTHING once. If I like it, it stays in my repertoire. If I didn’t like it, I’ll either try to modify to fit my tastes or just “Deep 6” the recipe/technique/food. “Fear No Food” fits me to a T!! If you don’t have that level of confidence, I can strongly recommend an Instant Pot pressure cooker. Thousands of free recipes, most of which are really dynamite. I received one of these for Christmas, so am a new convert to the style. I mean who wouldn’t like Pulled Pork in under an hour?!?!?
We cook virtually everything from scratch.
I married a ‘Farm Girl’ who was the cook for her family of 11 siblings starting at age 13. They raised & cooked everything they could.
So… We raised our kids to be able to do this also. We had two huge chest freezers, one for the meat animals we raised & the other for the veggies & fruit we grew. Our kids grew up & we’ve reduced what we need to grow.
We now have 1/3 the garden we used to have, but still grow & freeze many things like corn, tomatoes, green beans, chilies, etc… We also freeze blueberries (we have 17 huge bushes), raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, pie cherries and peaches. We also make our own sauerkraut.
We stopped raising animals for meat (though we have hens for eggs) and we buy meat on sale for the freezer.
As for cooking, my wife is amazing. She can somehow have a meal finished from scratch in no time. She never measures or reads a recipe.
We did buy pre-made meatballs once because a grandkid said he loved them. They were not very good…
Anything from pot roast, pie crust, the best damn biscuits, turkey casserole, jagerschnitzel, spatzel, Southern fried chicken, lasagna, the list goes on. All from scratch and often using our own produce.
My specialties to cook are: Texan Chili and Sonoran stack enchiladas. I make the enchilada sauce from scratch.
@daveinwarsh i’m jelly
@Yoda_Daenerys
He makes me so mad when he talks about pie! It sounds so damn good!
/image banquet frozen meal
@spitfire6006006 mah man!
I’ve been cooking for almost 50 years, since my mother got me started when I was 4 or 5. At this point I rarely follow a recipe very closely, except when baking.
Maybe 1/2 of the time I cook from scratch or close to it (eg. I’ll use boxed chicken stock, tho I’ll make chicken and turkey stock from carcasses when I have them).
For lunch at work, I generally have a “salt supplement” (Lean Cuisine, WW, Devour) since they cost ~$3 or less (and my Blood pressure medicine makes me feel faint when I don’t get enough salt).
When I cook for breakfast it is from scratch with the exception of sausage and bacon (I’ve made those from scratch, which is better, but a PITA). Many breakfasts are a double protein shake or a cheese sandwich. Coffee is always from scratch (fresh ground beans and a french press). I won’t buy frozen waffles (from scratch is not hard and so much better). I stopped eating breakfast cereals (other than steel cut oats, farina, grits and the like) over five years ago.
Dinner on the weekends varies but is frequently from scratch or close to it. When cooking from scratch, I tend to make extra for later in the week or the month or the year (have a chest freezer and vacuum sealer).
I used to bake, but @miraclewhispers (daughter unit 2) is much better at it than me, so I don’t bother much any more.
I can (mostly strawberry and other jams) and make my own pickles (usually jalapenos) and extracts (cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, etc.). I am getting back into making things like beef jerky and the like, mostly because I started rewatching Alton Brown’s Good Eats.
@baqui63 well done (except the frozen dinners)
/image accept the frozen dinners
/youtube except the frozen dinners
/8ball frozen dinners?
Concentrate and ask again
Asparagus and most fresh herbs will last longer if you trim off the bottom, stand it in a glass (or something) with about an inch of water and just loosely put the thin produce bag over the top (don’t secure it) and place in fridge.
I buy frozen vegetables because they are easy to portion out and steam easily in the microwave.
Rice I toss in the Zojirushi and it’s ready when I want it.
I buy chicken breasts and stuff like that in bulk and use my Meh Food Saver to freeze. Then I can just drop a pouch in the sous vide cooker.
Weekday breakfast is either yogurt or steel cut oats in the Zojirushi if I remember to put them in the night before.
Lunch, when I eat it, is from a restaurant.
That’s normal every day stuff, minimal effort. Weekends I get more ambitious.
It was Alton Brown that got me interested in scratch cooking fifteen years ago. Seriously.
Mostly cook from scratch (French heritage), e.g.:
Lunch today was 2 types of quiche (OK… I did cheat on the crusts and bought the pre-made ones in the fridge section)
Fresh green salad
Bread and cheese (love my bread maker machine!)
Blueberry cobbler (using up frozen blueberries given to us by a friend last year
Bottle of Chardonnay
Coffee
Have no aversion to eating out, but when I do I want to get stuff I don’t cook at home, or can’t make as easily. I am a frequent user of Restaurant.com and have found lots of cool restaurants through their offers, especially when we travel.
Basically I’m too cheap (and lazy) to go the 35 miles into Montgomery to eat out, since choices in this small town are very limited with the only independent restaurants being 2 Mexican, 1 Chinese and a sandwich shop sort of ala Panerra’s. The others are all chain restaurants like McD, Hardee’s, DQ, Pizza Hut, etc,