Posted on 08/19/2019 6:00:04 PM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff
For some Americans, going out to dinner is a treat, planned and budgeted for. For others, it’s just another Tuesday night. And Wednesday. And Thursday.
And that second group of people is becoming the majority. The number of Americans who enjoy cooking is declining, while the prevalence of food delivery startups, and culinary-centric television shows grows.
In the Harvard Business Review, researcher Eddie Yoon shares data he’s gathered over two decades working as a consultant for consumer packaged goods companies. Early in Yoon’s career, he conducted a survey that determined that Americans fell into one of three groups:
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Surfing around, I saw a bar version. You could make it, cut it and then eat one piece at a time. Easier than 3-layers, too.
“I am proud to be in the 10% who do enjoy cooking.”
ditto. i love to cook. and now that i’m semi-retired, i’ve got plenty of time to do it.
“Gee, I don’t like to eat out, ever. I cook at home. I shop for the finest ingredients I can find.”
same here. and top quality ingredients is the foundation for all good food ...
Mario Calenders is
My Fav!
Anyone can follow a recipe - or the instructions in the box - but I don’t know a lot of people any more who can actually cook. It’s not because they have no cooking skills, it’s because they have no PLANNING skills.
I do most of my cooking on the weekend. If I fire up the grill for burgers, I might grill up some brats and chicken legs at the same time. What doesn’t go towards that night’s meal gets wrapped, labeled and frozen. If I make soup or a casserole, it goes in the crock pot and the leftovers get frozen. On any work night where I’m too tired to cook, there is a great, home made meal (or the components of one) ready in the freezer. I always have a variety of choices.
When my DH and I would go to a restaurant, we would always try to order enough for some leftovers which I would then repurpose the following night into another terrific meal. Sometimes those were better than the actual restaurant experience!
Planning. THAT is a dying skill.
Always eat before going grocery shopping. Never shop on an empty stomach. It will save you a lot of money.
The wife and I plan meals on Sunday for the next week. Make a list of what to buy. Stick to the plan all week. We eat well on about $125/week. We do go out about twice a month just to try new places. Also taught our kids to cook early on.
That’s a good idea. Am thinking about making a sheet cake version for a family picnic in a few weeks. Another idea is to make one at Christmas in place of the traditional fruit cake which is too dense. Could add some bourbon to the cake mixture to make it more festive.
Other than not eating, the great GSD gets along ok.
We’ve tried appetite stimulants from the vet and that has worked for a few days.
Getting her to eat has become very hard.
She even hesitated over a french fry and a tiny bit of hamburger.
Good point. I’m a Trader Joe’s fan, and used to say I couldn’t return to Texas from California until Trader Joe’s was in Texas. So they’re in Texas now and so am I!
freshness is the most important quality for beef, pork, vegetables, and fruits. ripeness is the other quality for fruit.
for everything else, read labels: the fewer ingredients the better: example: Haagen Daz ice cream (lowest in number of ingredients, highest in butter-fat content)
pay attention to expiration labels: the longer the use-by date the better
honey: local is better
real maple syrup vs fake
whole grains vs refined
raw sea salt vs refined
whole pepper corns, grind yourself as needed
butter vs. fake butter
avocado oil mayo
only avocado oil, olive oil and sesame seed (non-toasted) oils
eggs whose whites don’t run like water when you break them
nut butters without added ingredients
as far as cooking: time and temp (internal and external) are the main factors
braising, sauteing, baking, boiling, and broiling are the main cooking techniques ... slow cooking is your friend ... do NOT overcook seafood and shellfish ...
learning to season (salt and pepper) is the number one skill to learn
recipes are starting points only; after you get good at it, you make up your own.
lots to learn from cooking shows; Alton Brown’s are the best as he emphasizes the chemistry and physics of cooking as well as technique.
if you buy only one cookbook, buy Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything” as it covers technique, chemistry and physics of cooking as well as recipes ...
a few high quality utensils are better than a lot of cheap gadgets ... i buy much of my equipment from commercial kitchen “wholesalers” ... some stainless stockpots with aluminum clad bottoms are essential, as is a big, heavy non-stick skillet ... buy a set of good knives, learn to sharpen them and never put them in the dishwasher ... if you buy one fancy piece of gear, buy a Breville BFP800XL Sous Chef Food Processor and learn to use it ...
buy a good electronic oven meat temperature probe that has a remote sending unit and learn to use it ... that’s practically the only way an amateur can successfully cook really good beef properly, i.e., prime beef cooked perfectly pink rare/medium-rare edge-to-edge (hint: oven temperature is 250 degrees, final internal temp varies with the size of the piece of beef cooked due to thermal flywheel effect on the beef continuing to cook after it’s removed from the oven ... for individual steaks i cook to 131 and for bigger pieces i cook to 121 and let the meat continue to cook after it’s removed from the oven)
learn knife skills ... the different shapes and sizes of things you’ll need to cut up, and the effect that the internal grain of meat and veggies will affect what you end up with when you cut with, against, and across the grain
learn to cleanup as you go and learn to minimize the cleanup to start with by planning to minimize the number of things that you will need to clean
“mise en place” (setup): have all of your ingredients and utensils all ready to go before you get started
my best cooking is when i use the highest quality ingredients with simple seasoning and skilled cooking technique ...
“One of the best skills to learn...how to feed yourself. “
no kidding. feeding yourself is so fundamental to life it’s hard to imagine not being able to do it.
“double”?
one of my favorite things to do is to make giant batches of stews and spaghetti sauces and such and freeze several portions that last a day or two when thawed ... i love to cook but don’t necessarily feel like it everyday, so nothing better than to peruse a freezer full of amazing home-cooked meals to choose from ...
“Isn’t that supposed to be one of the benefits of FReedom and the resultant Capitalism - the ability to blow some spare cash on the smaller luxuries?”
indeed. but only if you blow it on really high quality restaurant food ... things you might not cook much at home, like excellent stir-fry, GOOD Indian, excellent seafood, really GOOD steak, and/or excellent quality sushi ...
I’m with you - I actually do really good steaks on the grill and the wife is always looking for new recipes for many things.
We have a good sushi place not far off and I’ve only ever found one GOOD Indian place and it’s a hundred miles, or so away.
There’s a couple really fine restaurants around and we occasionally toss some extra cash away for some superb food and the expensive “ambiance” the wife likes.
Sometimes the small convenience meals are thongs like Firehouse subs or some small diners/coffeehouses in the area...Starbucks has a lot of competition in my area with some “Mom and Pop” owned places where we enjoy not donating to Starbucks and knowing the owners/staff by first names as they also know us.
Rhetorical. No need to overwhelm someone just starting to batch cook.
However, I only make about a gallon of sauce/stew/soup*/chili at a time as that is the limit of my pot size/available freezer space/number of containers available at any one time.
Most of my frozen preparations are 4 servings. For us, that’s one dinner and a lunch.
*I keep all sorts of ingredients in the freezer: chicken and beef fat, rendered and otherwise; the base for a wonderful beef vegetable soup (1 qt base makes one gallon soup), beef and chicken drippings, leftover chicken and beef destined for soup bowls/chicken & turkey carcasses for soup/smaller portions of various sauces and a boiling bag. Add in raw meats/poultry/frozen veggies/various other items and my freezer space becomes crowded even when I use freezer bags to save space.
We regularly smoke ribs,butt and brisket, portion them in 1# bags to freeze. We do 3 racks of ribs at a time (available smoker space)along with a butt and a brisket, usually cut in half to start.
I have 2 chest freezers and one top refrigerator freezer. They are normally all full and I need to use items in order to have space for the batch cooking.
It is so hard :( My best wishes to you as you care for your dog as long as it’s possible. I miss my little Roxy very much, although I feel my decision was best. She was almost 17 and had so many problems going on. I decided to put her down before she felt defeated by them. Dreadful decision to have to make :(
I love cooking, when health started declining and teeth went bad from the meds, we went to more doctored up box meals. It got easier as there were just the 2 of us. Empty nesters.
Sounds like you make wings really well. I don’t have an air fryer and wings are pretty expensive cost-wise. For $5 to feed my husband and I, I’ll take the cheap wing night as a treat. No cleanup and free honey mustard and blue cheese on the side. I’m a cheap date. :)
Honestly going out to dinner can be cheaper if you go to Golden Corral or someplace reasonable. Food in grocery stores have skyrocketed. It’s insane what prices are.
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