Jana's future

[EmCatlyn]

2 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

I think the concept of semi-homemade is a good concept -- there's nothing wrong with doctoring up a jar sauce to cut down on prep time, using frozen veggies if it's hard to get out to the grocery store every week for fresh, or even (GASP) using a rotisserie chicken to make a casserole or something (believe it or not, I got this idea from Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time, a cooking show everyone should watch). It's a happy medium between processed convenience food (rarely good for you) and from-scratch homemade (which can be great, but also very time-consuming depending on the recipe). The problem is when you use crappy ingredients or make something that makes no gastronomic sense, or make something so fussy that it would have saved time and money to just do it from scratch.

Oh, I agree about "semi home made."  I am actually in the camp that sees some use to canned soup for some casserole/sauce dishes.   (Note that I said "some" dishes and that I favor the low-fat/salt soups and considerable adjusting of seasonings for success.). And when I have made desserts like Charlotte Russe, tiramisu or trifles, I would always use store-bought cake.

 Plus, I don't think using  canned tomato sauce, shredded cheese, frozen vegetables or fruit is any less "from scratch" than using chicken that has been killed, plucked, cleaned (and often de-boned) before I buy it.      

I do a lot of cooking "from scratch" in the sense that I tend to start with plain, unseasoned ingredients and mix them my way, but anything that shortens prep-time is good. And I don't look down on people who take other shortcuts.

But frozen lasagna is already mixed and prepared for you, so while it may be delicious, it is not ever "semi-homemade." 

[Jeebusismycopilot]

2 hours ago, EmCatlyn said:

And when I have made desserts like Charlotte Russe, tiramisu or trifles, I would always use store-bought cake.

Every year our family does a HUGE Burns Night Dinner (We care more about Burns night than Christmas - go figure!) When I was about 20 I decided to take on the role of making the tipsy laird. I made everything - the rataffia  biscuits, the sponge cake, the custard. I even used home made jam. That only took 2 days  I learned after that just buy jelly roll, lady fingers and tinned custard and it tastes the same (the drambuie is all that really matters) takes 10 minutes to throw together and costs 4 times less than the scratch recipe.  But I know I CAN do it if I want to. I just don't want to. I still consider both methods to be home made. just one is from scratch. 

[EmCatlyn]

39 minutes ago, Jeebusismycopilot said:

Every year our family does a HUGE Burns Night Dinner (We care more about Burns night than Christmas - go figure!) When I was about 20 I decided to take on the role of making the tipsy laird. I made everything - the rataffia  biscuits, the sponge cake, the custard. I even used home made jam. That only took 2 days  I learned after that just buy jelly roll, lady fingers and tinned custard and it tastes the same (the drambuie is all that really matters) takes 10 minutes to throw together and costs 4 times less than the scratch recipe.  But I know I CAN do it if I want to. I just don't want to. I still consider both methods to be home made. just one is from scratch. 

Well, I would probably make the custard from scratch--it is not that difficult, and much better in my view than tinned or packaged-- but otherwise I agree with you.  I have never had laird cake trifle, but from what I gather, the drambuie may be the most important thing indeed.   Must make it some time.  

[AlysonRR]

I've never heard of a tipsy laird or laird cake trifle, but if it has drambuie, I'll make it just so I can drink the rest of the drambuie!

[religiouslyconfused]

Sandra Lee also made a Hanukkah cake for those who want to make a frosted angel food cake with marshmallows in the middle, and a pearled star of david. 

Video of this monstrosity, though there is a parody video! 

[Lewy]

I'm an unashamed 'semi home made' cooker! You can actually get really good bottle pasta sauce and it makes a quick and easy meal. 

[EmCatlyn]

57 minutes ago, religiouslyconfused said:

Sandra Lee also made a Hanukkah cake for those who want to make a frosted angel food cake with marshmallows in the middle, and a pearled star of david.

Stop torturing us!  Why does anyone want to frost a poor harmless angel cake??

If you can't leave the angel cake alone try one of the following instead:

• Fill the center with lemon pudding and "frost" with strawberry jelly mixed with whipped cream. Top with candied lemon peel and sliced dried strawberries and toasted almonds.
• Drizzle chocolate ganache over the cake and top with bourbon sugar pecans.
• Split lengthwise and put a layer of peach jam between resulting layers of cake.  Frost with cream cheese frosting made from scratch by mixing 4 oz cream cheese with two or three cups of powdered sugar.  A little yellow food coloring won't hurt.  You can put slices of well-drained canned or fresh peaches in the center and along the top for decoration.
• Before unmolding  the cake, pour a quarter cup of your favorite flavored brandy (or Frangelico, or Kahlua, or TiaMaria or Drambuie, or Mint liquer) over the cake slowly so that it absorbs and spreads through the cake.  Let it sit for an hour then turn it over and frost with either Nutella (great with Frangelico and fruit brandies) or whipped cream (or both).  Top with toasted hazelnuts or pine nuts or whatever appeals to you.

There are at least a dozen more possibilities that don't involve canned frosting and which might actually taste good!

 

[religiouslyconfused]

yummy

[Jeebusismycopilot]

If you insist on frosting an Angel food cake, do it with whipped cream. Not Cool whip - Honest to goodness real whipped cream. and top it with fruit.

[HarryPotterFan]

2 hours ago, religiouslyconfused said:

Sandra Lee also made a Hanukkah cake for those who want to make a frosted angel food cake with marshmallows in the middle, and a pearled star of david. 

Video of this monstrosity, though there is a parody video! 

Sandra Lee should be embarrassed.

[lascuba]

I never saw the Hanukkah cake one! 

Sandra Lee is a national treasure. And nightmare. 

[religiouslyconfused]

I would agree on that! She does make some wacky food, of course nothing can top her tablescapes and cocktail time. 

[elliha]

If I were Jewish I would pray to god that I would find that that thing is not kosher...

[EmCatlyn]

4 hours ago, elliha said:

If I were Jewish I would pray to god that I would find that that thing is not kosher...

It probably isn't.  Many of the canned frostings and most marshmallows are not. You can probably make it with kosher ingredients but they may be harder to get hold of and I doubt Sandra Lee bothered.

[Jeebusismycopilot]

OK so I went to Sandra Lee's website, just for fun. I typed in Passover to see what abomination she had concocted (especially since boxed cake mix won't work at Passover :P) and the FIRST thing to pop up on the list is Honey Pomegranate Glazed Ham. Yep. Ham. For Passover. Because that is so definitely kosher. 

 

[justoneoftwo]

2 minutes ago, Jeebusismycopilot said:

OK so I went to Sandra Lee's website, just for fun. I typed in Passover to see what abomination she had concocted (especially since boxed cake mix won't work at Passover :P) and the FIRST thing to pop up on the list is Honey Pomegranate Glazed Ham. Yep. Ham. For Passover. Because that is so definitely kosher. 

 

I could understand if you didn't get all the passover rules, there are a lot of them, but HAM?

[missegeno]

Wow, ham? Really? I mean, I suppose it's good that they scrapped the bacon cake idea. Lol.

[Jeebusismycopilot]

I was thinking she would do latkes fried in bacon fat for a Chanukah treat! 

 

Actually.. I might make that. It could be delicious. Just not exactly kosher!

[SoybeanQueen]

On 12/3/2015, 1:15:52, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

 The Duggars don't allow their daughters to work outside the family businesses (unless you count fake midwifery and fake first responders) 

I haven't ever paid attention to their first responder work. What makes it fake? Do they not have training or certifications?

[HarryPotterFan]

2 hours ago, Jeebusismycopilot said:

OK so I went to Sandra Lee's website, just for fun. I typed in Passover to see what abomination she had concocted (especially since boxed cake mix won't work at Passover :P) and the FIRST thing to pop up on the list is Honey Pomegranate Glazed Ham. Yep. Ham. For Passover. Because that is so definitely kosher. 

 

*face palm* wow, just wow. Even people who know nothing about Judiasm know ham isn't kosher. If you are going to suggest a recipe to celebrate a holiday you are not familiar with the very least you can do is Google dietary laws of that culture. 

At least she didn't suggest a bacon cheeseburger?

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

27 minutes ago, SoybeanQueen said:

I haven't ever paid attention to their first responder work. What makes it fake? Do they not have training or certifications?

From what I know from other people on here and other people who left ATI, they can't fully train to be a first responder because of conflicts with their religion/modesty rules/gender roles. They're somewhere between CPR certified and a certified first responder. This is particularly true of the boys who aren't allowed to do any of the work or classes related to childbirth. 

[SoybeanQueen]

11 minutes ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

From what I know from other people on here and other people who left ATI, they can't fully train to be a first responder because of conflicts with their religion/modesty rules/gender roles. They're somewhere between CPR certified and a certified first responder. This is particularly true of the boys who aren't allowed to do any of the work or classes related to childbirth. 

Ugh. Here, they would not be allowed to respond unless they had the full EMT certification. There are several local first responders, men and women, who are from faiths with very conservative modesty rules/gender roles (German Baptist and Amish). Clearly they don't believe God says their rules should stand in the way of saving a life. Then again, I'm not convinced the Duggars have much insight into anything when it comes to God.

[Taters]

20 hours ago, religiouslyconfused said:

Sandra Lee also made a Hanukkah cake for those who want to make a frosted angel food cake with marshmallows in the middle, and a pearled star of david. 

Video of this monstrosity, though there is a parody video! 

That HAS to be a parody video. 

[thebestusername]

I think we have to remember they're not imprisoned they're indoctrinated. She may have things horrible but until she gets rid of some serious kool aid nothings going to happen

[OnceUponATime]

On 6/12/2015 at 6:57 PM, Jeebusismycopilot said:

I've never even thought that using frozen veg would be something other than home made. A bag of frozen peas is always in our freezer at the ready. I don't even want to know how much it would cost to make peas for dinner if I had to buy fresh and shell them.

i grow most of my own veggies so it is rare that I *need* to buy vegetables. I find it weird that frozen veggies or canned veggies aren't counted by some people as homemade. All the veggies in my freezer at the moment are homegrown. I even canned my own tomatoes this year (enough for one meal a week until May next year). There isn't much difference between what I freeze/can myself and what you can buy except that someone else did the labor. If you start getting to sauces then you're getting into prepared stuff. To be honest I would never buy peas in a pod. If they haven't been sprayed at the right time they can be full of insects and you can tell from the outside.

Sometimes I'm jealous of people who don't have a veggie garden. Seriously I appreciate canned veggies/buying fresh at the supermarket so much more now. Getting/having to harvest my own veggies before every meal takes up a lot of time. I frequently have to add an extra half hour of prep time onto recipes just to account for the homegrownness.

 

My pet peeve in relation to recipes is that now a lot of baking ones have ingredients like '1 box of xxx brand cake mix' - I never know how to replace them. I think they need a new word to distinguish 'from scratch' recipes from the 'buy semi-prepared' recipes.