TTC

[itsthatonegirl]

I was also confused by this, but then I realized PITA = Pain In The Ass.

Ohhhhh... haha, thanks.

[Jezebel]

I'm a bit curious as to the amount of snark the Duggar's tater tot casserole receives. Is it their specific recipe that disgusts everyone, or would it be anyone's TTC? And if it is their recipe only... what is precisely so bad about it? I have their recipe open on another tab- ground turkey? Why is that gross? The cream soups I understand, kind of... they're processed, etc. I personally don't use cream soups in recipes anymore but instead replace them with a mix of dry milk and spices. Evaporated milk... tater tots... they seem fairly innocent.

[...]

So my questions are, 1- What, specifically, about TTC turns your stomach? And 2- What types of eaters are you? Do you avoid fast food, chips, sodas, etc.?

Any dish that uses canned cream soups as a binder is going to turn my stomach. I already dislike canned soups as a rule; they all smell really nasty to me and taste worse. So the soup alone is enough to turn me off.

I used to eat tater tots a lot when I was younger, and I loved them (especially with chili sauce and Chinese hot mustard). I probably still would, even now. But during a period when I was in dire financial straits I looked at the price on the bag and thought, "I could just buy potatoes to make hash browns or potato pancakes, and they will taste better and cost less." So I quit buying them, along with all kinds of other convenience foods, and leaned how to cook for myself.

Years later, I still don't buy them. It's not that I can't afford them; it's that I now see them as ridiculously overpriced for what they are. To me, these foods just aren't a good value at all. And that's the case for the great majority of processed and prepared foods. I don't really enjoy cooking, but I still do it because I can always make more delicious, satisfying food than anything pre-made, for a lot less money.

There are a lot of foods I don't buy because I just don't think they're worth the money, given what they are. I don't like feeling ripped off, and since far too many things on grocery shelves strike me as an expensive joke at the public's expense, I don't buy them. So while I'll eat chips and crackers if I'm at a party, I never buy them to eat at home. I'll buy canned tuna and sardines, but never fish sticks; bacon and good-quality sausages, but no lunch meat or hot dogs. I can't remember the last time I bought breakfast cereal (I don't much like it, anyway). I do enjoy baking, so I don't bother with store-bought cookies, pies, cakes, muffins, etc. (I can taste the corn syrup and the cheap fats, and they're all monstrously oversweetened). I will buy bread, but I don't eat it very often, and it's got to be really amazing artisan bread. I don't drink sodas at all, or bottled iced teas, or juice drinks, or even juice--it's coffee, tea, or water for me.

While health concerns are definitely part of all this, it's mainly a combination of frugality, plus a strong aversion to the way most pre-made foodstuffs taste and smell--they really gross me the hell out. I can make my own delicious macaroni and cheese from basic ingredients (including multiple cheeses) in no time flat, so why buy a box of the nuclear-orange stuff, or pop open cans, or settle for shit like Velveeta (which, last time I checked, wasn't a whole lot less expensive than real cheese)?

Plus, I just plain like food. I respect food. I'm grateful for it. And for me, life is far too short to eat bland, ultra-processed crapfood when I have a choice to do otherwise.

[celestial]

Wow, what you just said sums me up rather well, too, Jezebel! I'm much more likely to buy "ingredients" than something already prepared. Partly it's because I'm cheap, partly because of health, but mostly because it tastes better. If I buy some prepared stuff, the whole time I'm eating it I won't be able to forget that if I'd been just a little less lazy and put a bit more work into processing the raw ingredients myself, I could have made something much better and healthier for less.

ETA: Not that I'm saying everyone who buys prepared food is totally lazy, of course. I just know that when I buy it for myself, that's usually the case.

[jenny_islander]

@AnnieC: Unfortunately, fresh veggies are way too expensive for many Americans. Now, the Duggars, if they really wanted to, could have all those boys do some manly manual labor and grow veggies. But most urban poor can't afford many or any and most rural poor these days are working two lousy jobs, with no time to look after a garden.

Tater Tots cost a lot more than fresh potatoes, that's for sure, and they contain a lot of stuff I sure don't want to eat very often. One brand I looked at is artificially flavored and colored. What are they doing to those potatoes that they don't look or taste like fried potatoes without artificial flavor and color?! But a relatively un-messed-with brand of Tater Tots is nice for a treat now and then. We tend to buy them on freezing cold winter days when we are sick and sorry for ourselves. As someone said, hangover food.

Now, if you have to get something hot on the table and it's cook with Tater Tots or spend a lot more eating out, I say go with the Tater Tots. But not the Duggars' recipe. Their diet in general reminds me of the days when I was unwittingly attempting to self-medicate for undiagnosed depression: lots of carbs, lots of fat, not much taste, easy to spoon up.

If I had to use Tater Tots to make a casserole, I would fry up the ground meat and then rinse the heck out of it to reduce the greasiness of the finished dish. I would season it highly, with lots of savory herbs or with some Season-All. Or I could use a bag of brown lentils or red beans cooked with savory herbs instead of the meat; they're cheap. If I had fresh onions, garlic, and/or sweet peppers, I would saute them in the pan right after the meat. Otherwise, chopped fresh or drained canned tomatoes, some sauteed chopped carrot, maybe a little celery or a can of green beans--basically whatever I could find in the house that would also taste all right in hamburger soup. The finished dish would be a real one-pot meal.

[Guest Anonymous]

@AnnieC: Unfortunately, fresh veggies are way too expensive for many Americans. Now, the Duggars, if they really wanted to, could have all those boys do some manly manual labor and grow veggies. But most urban poor can't afford many or any and most rural poor these days are working two lousy jobs, with no time to look after a garden.

Tater Tots cost a lot more than fresh potatoes, that's for sure, and they contain a lot of stuff I sure don't want to eat very often.

The thing is, I'd call potatoes "fresh vegetables" and if eaten with their skins on, they are tasty and very nutritious. I get that broccoli, sugar snap peas, etc are expensive, but can't you get carrots and onions cheaply enough? And tinned tomatoes are just as good as fresh for many recipes? Would basic fresh veggies be more expensive than tater tots and tinned soup?

[jenny_islander]

Believe it or not, for a lot of people, yes. Google "food desert USA" for a look at places where it's impossible to get fresh veg if you can't grow it yourself or "just" drive to the store.

[Guest Anonymous]

Believe it or not, for a lot of people, yes. Google "food desert USA" for a look at places where it's impossible to get fresh veg if you can't grow it yourself or "just" drive to the store.

But doesn't the same shop that sells tater tots, sell onions and carrots? They keep for ages in a pillowcase under the cupboard....

And also, I get that some people are poor, live in areas where it is hard to get fresh stuff, etc. But I'm not sure this applies to all the fundies who promote TTC as a staple food. It's not as if Smuggar would have trouble with 'just' driving to the store... he owns a F***ing car lot! ;)

[jenny_islander]

But doesn't the same shop that sells tater tots, sell onions and carrots? They keep for ages in a pillowcase under the cupboard....

And also, I get that some people are poor, live in areas where it is hard to get fresh stuff, etc. But I'm not sure this applies to all the fundies who promote TTC as a staple food. It's not as if Smuggar would have trouble with 'just' driving to the store... he owns a F***ing car lot! ;)

No, I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. It should, but it doesn't. If you live in a food desert, if you can get fresh food at all, it's expensive and/or in bad shape. In a food desert, an apple (probably bruised and mealy) costs a dollar. So does a McDouble at the fast food joint on the corner. Heck, so does the salad at that fast food joint on the corner. If all you have is a dollar, and you need to be full so that you can concentrate on the next thing you have to do to keep your head above water, you buy the McDouble. Or if you live in a really crappy food desert, you can't even get a freshly made hamburger, so you buy the can of Ensure that is sold near the door in the store that sells the bruised, mealy apples. It's bad for your guts and it's bad for your teeth and it's bad for your skin, but you're full.

Back on topic: TTC is held up to mockery partly because the Duggars don't have to eat like this. Also because they make a big deal out of how wholesome and old-timey they are, and what great homemakers their daughters will be, and yet they eat like this. Of course, the reality is that the Duggar parents are just play-acting about the old-timey countryfied thing and also about training their girls to be anything but unpaid unskilled labor. I will bet you cash money that the recipe for TTC came off the back of a package and they eat it because it's easy to make when you are tired from minding your little sister all night and don't know how to cook anyway.

[Renting with Raggles]

TTC seems emblematic of the wider Duggar hypocrisy.

1/ The Duggars and the Gothard cult claim to be adhering to a strictly biblical lifestyle: their values are taken from a text written for pre-industrial, semi-nomadic herders. They take advantage of technologies like first world medicine, processed foods, disposable plates and indoor plumbing while they disparage the scientific knowledge which allowed the development of such wonders.The Duggars also push their cultic customs on others through politics (see recent threads on Santorum) and other means. If they want to cherry-pick which bits of the OT they feel like, fine; just don't try to get rational people on board.

2/ Our diet isn't relevant to our criticism of the Duggars, unless we set ourselves up as experts as they have done. Michelle has assumed this Mother-of-theYear/ Domestic Goddess status and gives other people advice on how to manage their families. She has also recently made offensive public remarks strongly implying that most women in mainstream society do not love their children as much as she does. Meanwhile, her family's diet is neither nutritious nor economical, taking her time and money budgets into consideration.

I think the criticism of TTC is justified.

[debrand]

The thing is, I'd call potatoes "fresh vegetables" and if eaten with their skins on, they are tasty and very nutritious. I get that broccoli, sugar snap peas, etc are expensive, but can't you get carrots and onions cheaply enough? And tinned tomatoes are just as good as fresh for many recipes? Would basic fresh veggies be more expensive than tater tots and tinned soup?

One of the good things about living in the south is that there are a lot of roadside produce stands. I like to give my business to local farmers so I take advantage of the fresh food that they offer.

There are places in the US that do not have produce stands. In those areas, it is cheaper to buy processed crap than real food. Believe it or not, sometimes applesauce is cheaper than apples. I have nothing against applesauce but that makes no sense to me. How can food be cheaper that has more things done to it(like peeling, cooking and mashing apples) than the original form of the food?

[Daenerys]

One of the good things about living in the south is that there are a lot of roadside produce stands. I like to give my business to local farmers so I take advantage of the fresh food that they offer.

There are places in the US that do not have produce stands. In those areas, it is cheaper to buy processed crap than real food. Believe it or not, sometimes applesauce is cheaper than apples. I have nothing against applesauce but that makes no sense to me. How can food be cheaper that has more things done to it(like peeling, cooking and mashing apples) than the original form of the food?

Because American food laws are so dire that they can put loads of artificial crap in apple sauce and not much actual apple to the extent that it isn't really a portion of fruit. Thankfully it's much better here in England, and most of the really nasty additives are banned: you wouldn't recognise a UK McDonalds, it's so much healthier.

[apple1]

...Because American food laws are so dire that they can put loads of artificial crap in apple sauce and not much actual apple to the extent that it isn't really a portion of fruit. Thankfully it's much better here in England...

??

I rarely buy "applesauce", but I haven't seen applesauce that is not cooked apple. Still a "portion of fruit". (Yes, a whole fresh apple would be better in most cases...)

Also not sure that your dichotomy of UK=great and US=crap is a good one. I suspect there are people who eat well and people who eat crap in both places.

[formergothardite]

Yet another "Why do you snark" thread by itsthatonegirl. Why do you hang around here since you apparently believe we are all a bunch of meanies?

How many threads have you flounced from here? At least three that I can think of. And yes, when you post offensive crap, get called on it and then leave the thread, it is flouncing, even if you say it isn't. Free Jinger doesn't forget people like you.

[Daenerys]

??

I rarely buy "applesauce", but I haven't seen applesauce that is not cooked apple. Still a "portion of fruit". (Yes, a whole fresh apple would be better in most cases...)

Also not sure that your dichotomy of UK=great and US=crap is a good one. I suspect there are people who eat well and people who eat crap in both places.

Of course there are, but with the amount of stuff banned in the UK it is pretty difficult to eat worse than junk-food consumers in the USA. So many additives, colourings and chemicals are totally banned, and it's pretty unimaginable to think of junk as being cheaper overall. I could make a vegetable stir-fry for two hungry people for less than it would cost to get a subway or a mcdonalds burger and chips.

http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/7- ... he-us.html

http://phblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/ ... h-reasons/

[debrand]

??

I rarely buy "applesauce", but I haven't seen applesauce that is not cooked apple. Still a "portion of fruit". (Yes, a whole fresh apple would be better in most cases...)

Also not sure that your dichotomy of UK=great and US=crap is a good one. I suspect there are people who eat well and people who eat crap in both places.

I didn't mean to imply that applesauce is bad for you. Sorry about that. What I meant to say is that processed foods really shouldn't be less expensive than the food in it's original form. You actually do more work to get applesauce so why is it cheaper?

Aren't there more workers used in the creation of applesauce? Not only do the farmers pay someone to pick the crops but the companies have to pay workers to create the applesauce.

It makes no sense that processed foods should be cheaper.

As far as UK being good, America being bad. Is it easier to eat healthy in the UK? Of course, people choose how they eat but laws on food production probably play a part also.

[apple1]

It makes no sense that processed foods should be cheaper.

I agree.

[apple1]

I could make a vegetable stir-fry for two hungry people for less than it would cost to get a subway or a mcdonalds burger and chips.

Of course you can. So can I.

My main point was that I don't get your applesauce statement. Applesauce, to my knowledge, in the US, is still cooked, mushed up apple. Still "fruit", albeit less desirable than a fresh apple. Pretty much same as in the UK.

[shangrila]

To many people, thanks to the Duggars, the Tater tot casserol hase become a synonym for horrible eating habits and culinary challengedness. No matter how good the tater tot c. was or is supposed to be, we have seen them just toss it together and eat it every other week or more often. So the name of the TTC has been dragged down into the mud, thanks to the show. This is why just the mere word TTC cracks up people anymore, and they associate it with careless and distasteful eating habits.

[Conuly]

Of course, applesauce can be cheaper because it's thinned with (highly subsidized) corn syrup, or because that's the only way to sell the bruised, damaged apples.

[shangrila]

Of course, applesauce can be cheaper because it's thinned with (highly subsidized) corn syrup, or because that's the only way to sell the bruised, damaged apples.

Sillies. We gather them, let them rot in barrels then turn them into liquor. THAT'S yummy.

[snarkbillie]

Of course, applesauce can be cheaper because it's thinned with (highly subsidized) corn syrup, or because that's the only way to sell the bruised, damaged apples.

Exactly. I can get a gallon jar of applesauce for $2. I can get two apples for $2. If I had umpteen children I would probably go the applesauce route. The thing is though if you want some that is just apples (no HFCS) you're going to end up paying more, but it's still cheaper than apples.

I buy applesauce though. In my defense, I'm lazy. The applesauce in my fridge says "apples, water, vitamin C, ascorbic acid", I'm pretty sure it's not going to kill my kids when I put some on their plate at dinner.

[Conuly]

I can get two apples for $2.

I'm constantly relieved I live in NYC. People say we have a high cost of living, and we do, but we have decent public transportation and food is actually inexpensive compared to much of the country. (It has to do with being a port, apparently.)

Any weekend I please, I can head to Union Square and pick up a bag of local, not-quite-organic (it's apparently very difficult to grow organic apples in NYS, but they do their best) apples at 3 lb for $1.50. Whenever I hear the prices other people pay for fruit, even in summer, even in states like California (where, until I went grocery shopping there, I assumed produce was cheap!) I thank my lucky stars, individually and by name.

[snarkbillie]

I'm constantly relieved I live in NYC. People say we have a high cost of living, and we do, but we have decent public transportation and food is actually inexpensive compared to much of the country. (It has to do with being a port, apparently.)

Any weekend I please, I can head to Union Square and pick up a bag of local, not-quite-organic (it's apparently very difficult to grow organic apples in NYS, but they do their best) apples at 3 lb for $1.50. Whenever I hear the prices other people pay for fruit, even in summer, even in states like California (where, until I went grocery shopping there, I assumed produce was cheap!) I thank my lucky stars, individually and by name.

I've been lucky that my kids will eat things that are in season and that I have friends with fruit trees in their backyard. We were up to our eyeballs in peaches and plums last summer from a neighbor. She has the trees in her backyard and I can go get some whenever I want. She doesn't spray them with anything so I figure they're okay. I went back there and got gobs of them over and over.

I found an apricot tree but it's at a house that's been foreclosed and nobody is living there right now so I can't ethically collect. I hope someone moves there before they start growing again so I can make a new friend.

[Conuly]

I found an apricot tree but it's at a house that's been foreclosed and nobody is living there right now so I can't ethically collect.

Your ethics and mine are different, I'd be more comfortable taking from an empty home than making friends just to get at their fruit tree! It'd feel less dishonest, and it doesn't really seem like stealing if the fruit is otherwise rotting on the ground.

But that's why morals aren't black and white.

[snarkbillie]

Your ethics and mine are different, I'd be more comfortable taking from an empty home than making friends just to get at their fruit tree! It'd feel less dishonest, and it doesn't really seem like stealing if the fruit is otherwise rotting on the ground.

But that's why morals aren't black and white.

Oh, I just like being friends with my neighbors. I feel like "hey can I collect from your fruit tree?" is a good opening line. I have another neighbor with a pecan tree and I collect for both of us. She's elderly and can't do it but she enjoys the nuts. I just go over when she asks me to and get enough for both of us. I'm pretty sure that whoever moves in won't want to mess with the apricots anyway. They'll probably be thankful that I'm back there working the tree for them. Obviously they'll get some fruit out of it too.

Getting permission is more important to me than not looking like a freeloader. LMAO.