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Seewalds 30: No new baby, but with more recipe thread-drift


samurai_sarah

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I think to cook I just rely on a lot of appliances. Like my go to for dinner for example is a baby spinach salad with grilled chicken so I use my foreman grill. Or like today for the superbowl I'm making slow cooker tacos. I get into coking when I'm craving something, such as this weekend I just really needed tacos and here they come!

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15 minutes ago, Bugaboo said:

I have been living with my boyfriend for 8 months now and neither of us knew how to cook! We survived on a lot of burnt meals, and frozen foods. We are both now trying to work at it and we are actually getting pretty good at cooking! I still don't enjoy doing it at all, but at least the food isn't awful anymore lol. I credit Pinterest for all the recipes and inspiration for different dishes. 

I have a huge collection of recipe books but Nigella Lawson’s ‘Kitchen’ is our go-to book for everyday recipes and more exotic stuff. If I could only have five recipe books, it would be right up there. It was published in about 2010 so there are probably good deals around if you’re interested

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I want to preface this by saying that I'm not judging. I'm genuinely curious. I was never really taught to cook, I kind of just started doing it on my own, and I do enjoy cooking but the stuff I make is very basic. What I'm curious about is how an independent adult couldn't/wouldn't cook at all. I understand if it's a situation where two or more adults are living together, and one of them hates cooking and the other one doesn't mind it, but surely someone has to do the cooking?
What really perplexes me is hearing from people my age who are single and live on their own and say they can't/don't cook at all. How? What do you eat? It seems like a necessary chore that just has to get done, even if you hate it, like doing the dishes or vacuuming. I understand that there's takeout and ready made meals from the grocery store and so on, but is that really feasible/affordable for every single meal? (Like I said, I'm genuinely asking. I'm really curious as to how not cooking at all actually works on a day-to-day basis.)

Until the last few years, I literally had no time to cook. And I’m not very good at it. I did protein shakes for breakfast, sandwiches or takeout for lunch and frozen dinners or takeout for dinner.

Now I usually cook once a week and eat it all week.
If you hate cooking, here is a simple recipe:  Buy a whole chicken.  Remove the innards and dispose of them.  Rinse the chicken with water, pat dry. Chop up a small onion and 2 celery stalks and put inside the chicken.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.  Bake at 250 for 5 hours if you have the time.  Comes out tender, falling off the bone.  Super basic, but super easy.

Easy except for that whole clean out the innards thing. [emoji23]
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Hello Snarkettes--

Not contributing to the recipe/cooking thread just yet..... 

But my burning question is:::

Who is going to snark-watch Seeking Sister Wife with me tonight? I'm sorry to say that it's THREE.freakin.hours of this show. (Starting at 7:00 in central time zone.)

Unless there are some knock em out girl fights (looking at you April & Auralee and Ashley & new girl Joycelyn), not sure if I can stay awake and alert for 180 minutes.

1. Who will join me in watching?

2. Who is willing to recap? (It's always better than the show itself.)

3. Who wants to send me a bucket of candy + a gallon of monitor?

4. What is our drinking game?

5. Who else could not care less about the supper bowel?

Gratefully in snark,

Sis Chickenetti 

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1 hour ago, kacarlton said:

Easy except for that whole clean out the innards thing. emoji23.png

If you're buying a whole chicken at the grocery store that has it's innards, they're usually in a little bag (I've never bought a chicken where they weren't). Sometimes the neck will be hanging out in there too, but it's literally 2 things to grab and throw in the garbage. (Or if my father in law is coming for dinner, you wrap the neck in foil and cook it with the chicken cause the man's a weirdo and it's his favorite part of the dang bird)

It's also really delicious if you rub some softened butter or a little olive oil on the skin, and add a little ground poultry seasoning to the salt and pepper on the outside of the bird.

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OK, folks, I'll have a try at it. @JillyO, I believe, asked me why, if I hated cooking, I still did it. Yes, I live in a house of adults now. Mr. Four does cook or take us out on weekends. Four will cook on her days off from school if she's in the mood, and I recently depended on her a great deal for a great deal more than just cooking, as I had knee surgery a few months ago.. she's back in school now and her time is taken up with studying and ferrying me to PT and back.One and Two dont' live with us full time, so no help there, and Three only  comes out of his den to eat up all our junk food or snacks at night.

I did teach all of my children how to get meals on the table and to clean up from their preparations. They have a wide variety of things they can make, and have explored recipes on Pinterest and other places.

but, because they are "the kids" and I am "the mom" and "the wife" I am expected to love to prepare food at any given moment. Just don't like it. Never did, didn't when I lived alone, but did it because I had to eat and was too cheap to eat out all the time.

Someone else said she hadn't gotten the sewing gene. Girl, I've made everything from slipcovers to a Squidward Halloween costume, to a screenhouse cover, to clothing and costumes. I'll sew for you if you feed me. Let's meet!

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6 hours ago, SassyPants said:

Perhaps you could have suggested that beans and rice are cheaper than pizza, and time for an unemployed person is not as big a constraint as for those who need to work 40 hrs/week-

He had access to our full kitchen - we encouraged him to use it. He is also 20 years older than us and has a kid...some people just can't be helped. We learned that lessen the hard way...he still owes us rent and moved out over a year ago. 

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   I realized eating take out or ordering a pizza all the time wasn't going to work not long after I moved out. Once all the bills were paid there really wasn't a lot of money left over for that. I turned to cooking and was really surprised that I didn't mind it. I could make tacos or spaghetti and eat it for two or three days. It was fun trying different recipes.  Figuring out how to make omelets, meatloaf, and how to flavor chicken.   

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Now that I'm adulting regularly, and have a hubby and a mortgage, I'm all about my crockpot.  Black beans, salsa chicken, shredded beef, pulled pork.  

I got myself a few crockpot freezer meal recipe e-books, so now a couple times a year I'll throw together 16-20 meals to have waiting in the freezer.

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I also used to make a lot of tuna casserole because I like it, and it's cheap and easy.  Cook up your noodles, open and drain a can of tuna, toss with noodles and a can of cream of mushroom soup.  Add a cup of thawed frozen peas and carrots.  Bingo, you have dinner.  This was my college years and into my 20's.  

I really enjoyed Lucinda Scala Quinn's recipes too.  Since being diagnosed with diabetes,  my eating choices had to change.

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I grew up in a church with a whole bunch of sweet and wonderful older women, and I have to say my love of cooking stemmed from them taking the time to teach me their secrets. I learned the art of casseroles and the magic of church lady cookies.  When I was 14 one of my Grandma's friends took the time to teach me how to can everything from salsa to pickles to peaches. My Mom taught me the art of homemade perogies and sausage buns. 

When I married my husband (who also loves to cook) those same church ladies threw a massive bridal shower and filled my kitchen with every appliance and utensil known to man. And passed on a whole bunch of handwritten recipes to boot. I know all the casserole secrets now. 

Mr. Lamb and I tend to share the cooking. We cook together as much as we can, and whoever gets home from work first usually takes care of dinner. This is great in two aspects: we have a blast and eat a lot of delicious homecooked meals, and it thoroughly annoys my mother in law that I am not solely responsible for "womanly duties". 

Tonight I'm cooking. I've got three pounds of fresh clams that I'm turning into a New England Clam Chowder. I'm doing some fresh focaccia bread on the side with a really light salad to counter all the creamy goodness that will be contained in that soup! 

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1 hour ago, ChickenettiLuvr said:

Hello Snarkettes--

Not contributing to the recipe/cooking thread just yet..... 

But my burning question is:::

Who is going to snark-watch Seeking Sister Wife with me tonight? I'm sorry to say that it's THREE.freakin.hours of this show. (Starting at 7:00 in central time zone.)

Unless there are some knock em out girl fights (looking at you April & Auralee and Ashley & new girl Joycelyn), not sure if I can stay awake and alert for 180 minutes.

1. Who will join me in watching?

2. Who is willing to recap? (It's always better than the show itself.)

3. Who wants to send me a bucket of candy + a gallon of monitor?

4. What is our drinking game?

5. Who else could not care less about the supper bowel?

Gratefully in snark,

Sis Chickenetti 

There's no new episode tonight, FYI.

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I love to cook. Thing is, our current place has a shitty kitchen and it's too hard to really put a meal together. I'll wait until we move (#1 on the list is an appropriate kitchen). My go-to cookbook has been https://www.amazon.com/Betty-Crocker-Cookbook-12th-Everything/dp/0544648927/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517793108&sr=8-1&keywords=betty+crocker+cookbook+2017 it's excellent! I really don't use the recipes in there much anymore but it's a great reference. I mostly cook by the seat of my pants now. 

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Dear @withaj --

Wha  Wha  Wha  Wha what??????

Please say it ain't so!!!

(Although the first 13 minutes is an exact replay of episode 1.)

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8 hours ago, singsingsing said:

I understand if it's a situation where two or more adults are living together, and one of them hates cooking and the other one doesn't mind it, but surely someone has to do the cooking?

My brother's wife hates cooking. Won't do it at all. When she was single, she used to cook her eggs in the microwave, and basically, that was all she ate.

My brother and I are good cooks, and he doesn't mind cooking...which was fine, before he worked 12-hour days in a demanding, fairly dangerous job. I'm not sure now what their kids eat (I live across the country). I suspect it's a lot of prepackaged crap. It makes me sad. She just hates cooking so much, she won't even try. Probably, she is afraid she'll be bad at it. She's also picky about what she'll eat.

I give kudos to Jessa for branching out, and anyone else who gives it a shot, too. I know that cooking doesn't necessarily come easy to a lot of people.

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2 hours ago, ChickenettiLuvr said:

Who else could not care less about the supper bowel?

Ooh! Me! Me!

Supper Bowel. Lol. Oh, Bro Gary :my_heart:

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First, I think it would be sensible for us to adopt the dessert night thing. Lately every night has been dessert night (Just a couple of oreos or some ice cream type deal, but having a better treat like a 1/2 pint of ice cream might be better for us). 

Anyway, I like to cook. This thread drift actually reminded me that I've been meaning all day to prep an oatmeal bake for my 14mo to see if I can get him excited about more than his banana for breakfast. I hopped up and did that and then came back to finish reading. I made a rough work of this recipe as I didn't have any shredded coconut (I used tropical trail mix instead) and used real eggs and milk. Fingers crossed that he'll enjoy it.   

I do 90% percent of the cooking, meal planning, & grocery lists here because I'm a SAHM. My love language or my happy place is feeding people. I don't agree that a good cook should not have to use recipes. I love trying new things. Holidays or family gatherings are my thing when it comes to cooking.

Even so, day by day cooking can be mundane and I get tired of that. We don't eat out much at all and have been making a point to do so even less this new year. I let Mr. Darcy do the cooking sometimes just because I don't feel like it. Sometimes he does it on his own and sometimes I dictate what to do to him. 

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I don’t mind cooking. For me the hardest part is meal planning. I don’t know what I’ll be in the mood for tomorrow, and grocery shopping more than once a week isn’t going to happen. (Because it’s too peopley!)  Today I made cheeseburger rice and put together a few days worth of overnight oats. I had dh pick up the ingredients for chicken chili so I can make that sometime this week. He also picked up pork butt so I’ll throw that in the crock pot this week too. I also hard boiled some eggs for chef salad this week.

I’m lucky because dh doesn’t expect me to cook for him. He’s perfectly willing and capable of fixing salmon or stirfry for both of us. Our daughter is so picky she doesn’t eat hardly anything we make. We make extra broccoli if we’re having it, and mashed potatoes because she’ll usually eat some. 

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Hello @nst --

1. Oh yay. I guess. (Never had a tasty kale salad, but YMMV).  BUT unless you made a BIG healthy salad according to Lori + plus used her gunge-y salmonella dressing, does it really count?

2. Absolutely NO clue. I'd suspect my ornery son snuck into your house and changed the default language setting on everything. But since he's more than 500 miles away from the closest part of the Canadian border, I'd suggest you look for other suspects. 

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13 minutes ago, ChickenettiLuvr said:

Hello @nst --

1. Oh yay. I guess. (Never had a tasty kale salad, but YMMV).  BUT unless you made a BIG healthy salad according to Lori + plus used her gunge-y salmonella dressing, does it really count?

 

take some kale tear it apart and put it in a salad spinner with no water and then spin, then make the sauce 

a touch of salt, cranberries, sunflower seeds aka Mulder, a touch of apple cider vinegar, a touch of maple syrup, olive oil, a tble spoon of mustard is the sauce

cut the cabbage and mix everything together. 

healthy as it gets. 

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7 hours ago, HermioneSparrow said:

I love cooking! Always do.. Used to cooked for my family and now that I live alone I cook simple stuff.. Last night I put chicken breasts in the oven with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, green onions, garlic, parsley, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper.. Two hours roasting and it came out really yummy!!

Can you share the recipe for this? Sounds good!

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I have never in all my 51 years cut up a whole chicken. Nope. You couldn't pay me enough to do that. That's why they sell PIECES in the store.

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This is one of my favorite recipes right now. I prefer to use boneless chicken thighs but otherwise I follow this recipe pretty much verbatim. I serve it with a side of green vegetable (like steamed broccoli) and with lemon pasta (Trader Joe's has a lemon pepper pappardelle that goes very nicely with this). The balsamic juice at the bottom of the pan is all the pasta sauce you need. 

https://cafedelites.com/balsamic-glazed-caprese-chicken-recipe/

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This recipe is my husband's favorite recipe that I've ever made.  It calls for a cut up fryer chicken, but I just use whatever kind of chicken we have in our freezer at the time (usually bone in chicken thighs (6 of em).  I also never have apple cider for it, so I use a single apple juice box and add a dash of cinnamon. I also use half and half in the broth and the dumplings because it's easier to buy a 496mL carton of half and half and use the entire thing rather than end up with 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/2 cup h&h leftover.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/chicken-and-dumplings/

She has a newer version of the recipe on the food network website, but I like this one better.

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