Do they EVER cook from scratch? or garden?

[SassyPants]

I like the E-readers for travel and ease of use. I can travel with 1 slim item, order and receive content at any time.

[Bad Wolf]

@PennySycamore you're right. It's not great without that, but very weird at first glance.

[nst]

i wonder now if people approach michelle and discuss what their kids did or if something happened to them - what does she say and do - does she talk about the molestation or would she just be quiet ?

[samira_catlover]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

On the subject of books, I always tell other people that I'm a reading addict  . I can read a book a day. Up until two years ago I was always firmly a "book of the paper kind" reader, evidenced by my thirteen bookcases chock full of books (sometimes three rows on a shelf). Then DH gifted me with an e-reader. It took some time getting used to swiping and not turning pages, but I have to admit, I have come to love that thing! I like the fact that it has it's own built in light, and I can read in the dark and I don't keep DH awake anymore when my insomnia is plaguing me. But better still, I have literally more than a thousand books with me at all times... so, yeah, when you're as addicted as I am, it's wonderful to always have your "fix" with you 

*whistling all casually*  If you have some dead-tree stuff that needs rehoming, think I can find a helper for you....

"We gave our books their own room: now they want their own house".  "Don't need a speed reading class--what's needed is a speed bookcase-building class". 

[church_of_dog]

12 hours ago, HarleyQuinn said:

I've been on the waitlist at my library for months for a book, and I was just informed the book is now missing so the list is void.

Fuuuccckkk you, book loser.

If a book is popular enough to have a months-long waitlist, then certainly the library will be replacing it, no?  

The more people asking about a specific book, the more likely they are to get a copy/copies in hand quickly.  At least I hope so!  I hope they don't really void their waitlist, just put it on hold until they have another copy.

I work for a VERY small county library system, and even we have multiple copies of the most popular books.  Also don't forget about options like inter-library loan.  

In California we have a program called Zip Books that helps rural libraries meet patron requests for items not in the collection -- it's more or less a substitute for inter-library loans, which became onerous due to the postage costs of mailing books back and forth.  Your library might have something similar?

[Bad Wolf]

I was on a train going from CT to VA and downloaded books from my local library in the west. My mother would have been flabbergasted.

[DuggarWatch]

1 hour ago, PennySycamore said:

There's a taller person with grey hair standing behind her and, at first, it rather looks like J'chelle is wearing this weird gray Bump-It.

Forget the grey hair.  Michelle's real hair is the shorter hair that can be seen all the way around the side of her head and her shoulder.  The stuff at the back that looks like a horse's tail is the hair fall, which extends below her waist. The phony hair is a different color.  This picture was taken at an ATI conference two years ago when Michelle just got off the family's bus.

[samira_catlover]

7 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Sorry, hon, but my desktop is being mean, and I don't need to quote you just now

 

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

Just now, samira_catlover said:

7 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Sorry, hon, but my desktop is being mean, and I don't need to quote you just now

 

My phone was doing that yesterday. Drove me nuts. I couldn't get rid of the quote box to save my life. 

[refugee]

On 1/25/2016 at 5:42 PM, Mrsaztx said:

I was always really surprised at the "pre wedding" episodes where they would "teach the girls to cook". What? Why? Why don't you people know how to cook? And they all look so awkward in the kitchen, like they've never done anything other than slop contents of a can in a pan.   If they are able to assemble food I can guarantee none of them can actually cook, at least not intuitively without following a very simple recipe (box cake mix) to the letter. 

Oh! Now my brain is imagining some weird crossover series... the Duggars on "World's Worst Cooks" on Food Network. Wonder which two would make it to the final cookoff?

[xlurker]

17 hours ago, Chickenbutt said:

I go onto Amazon and type in free books and download as many books as I want to my iPad. If I don't like them, then I just delete them. No loss since I didn't pay for them in the first place. I can find "good" books, educational books and trashy novels (some people call it mommy porn).

I do this too!  Also have the nook app, so download from there too....Book bub will also let you know what free/low cost e-books are out there.....I love to read!

[refugee]

On 1/25/2016 at 5:54 PM, AreteJo said:

It's not just the Duggars.  Most of fundies we follow are poor cooks, poor homemakers, and overall poor parents.  The Duggars had no excuse not to grow things even before the TTH.  They could have container gardened, they had at the very least a front yard.  Easily herbs and lettuces for the kids to have salads and seasonings.  They managed both their food budget and nutrition poorly by not buying bone in roasts on sale and getting good meat plus soup out of them.  Eggs could have been an excellent cheap protein for things like frittata for dinner.  Supposedly fundie women think of themselves as excellent homemakers.  Bullshit.  They raise children the way Big Food raises feed lot cattle.

The fundie crowd we hung out with were overachievers, then. Man, I still remember the potlucks. *sigh*

There were quite a few who were adequate-to-great cooks and good housekeepers. Some of them have beautiful blogs, with recipes and stunning photos. Their houses are kept up and beautifully decorated. I always felt like such a failure. What is that phrase? designated ugly fat friend? That was me. Ugly, cluttered house, dowdy thrift store clothes, no fancy hair or nails or makeup. 

I cook almost everything from scratch, myself -- was forced to it by food sensitivities in my kids, years ago. It's hard not to be a decent cook when you can't cook anything from a can or box without making your kids ill. You learn, or you don't eat. We also saved a lot after we weren't able to do fast food (because of same food sensitivities). 

I knew a lot of non-fundies, when our eldest was still in public school, who fit the description here (poor cooks, poor homemakers, poor parents). It feels like a lot of people of my generation (growing up in the 60s and 70s) were not taught life skills by their parents. I know I wasn't. My college roommate had to teach me how to use a washer and dryer. My sister taught me how to cook, during a semester when we shared an apartment to save on costs (we were both in school). I left home for college, knowing how to heat up canned soup, and make chocolate chip cookies. That was it! My parents weren't fundies, they were solidly middle class, but something went wrong somewhere.

12 hours ago, Kittikatz said:

Me so confused too...    But, we may be wise to just chalk it up to the Duggars half-assing yet another thing... I can't think of anything this family does, besides breed, with any level of skill, enthusiasm or knowledge.

I don't keep Kosher, but it just seems so crazy that some of these cults imagine they are somehow following the laws of Kashrut based on an odd interpretation of Leviticus rather than a full understanding of the bigger picture and all the practices involved. Worse, most of the Christians I've met who follow this version of Kashrut don't seem to have any idea beyond some of the limited food rules, and they have certainly never heard of the Talmud or any of the other ritual practices. The aversion to research and learning displayed by so many of the people in this sub-culture just makes me want to beat my head against the wall...

Seems to me (from families we know) that it's just another excuse for feeling superior to others.

[samira_catlover]

OK, can we assume that the DuggarHorde has really lousy land, and raised beds (and/or Square Foot Gardening) is a likely good thingie to make?

I'm remembering Louisa May Alcott and "Little Men", where the Professor's kids (blood-kin and student-boarders) all got a nice little garden plot, and were told to choose and plant something good--with the kids being all kinds of happy to grow Useful Stuff, from flowers to herbs to potatoes to beans to melons. TOTALLY way to go, IMNSHO, to tell the kids "we NEED the nice crops you can make"?

Can someone help me out and demonstrate where the DuggarHorde, with that huge range of kids of all ages, just CAN'T seem to manage carrots and/or green beans? Just for a little change of pace?

(Personal: my parents held a 75 x 125 foot plat of ground---with only part of it under crops. REAL home-grown snap beans, and apples and peaches from dwarf trees, and tomatoes and peppers from nurseries that could grow stuff from seeds--those were wonderful treats.. Honestly. It was WAYYYYY cool to be sent out with a plastic newspaper bag and being told "get green beans--lots!--for supper.)

(Full disclosure: my father, may his God rest him in the glory and joy of heaven, grew up in a farm family [in US Illinois] where the older kids did a LOT of the daily raising of younger kids. Despite having 13 liveborne-and-still-living kids, Grammaw (with the help of her daughters, my aunties) somehow managed to have homemade bread every day [it fills up the bellies!], plus put up over 1000 quarts of home-canned goods a year---on a stove that used wood/coal/corncobs. This was in addition to helping in the fields, managing a cow or two, feeding a pig or two, handling lots of chickens, and doing laundry---with an Irish Steinway and clotheslines.)

Basic Cooking does not need a degree in rocket science, but it helps if your taste buds were not shot off in a war. From here, *baking* is way more complicated: mess with basic balances between stuff, and your would-be cake is gonna feed the compost heap or the pigs.  It is SEVERELY difficult to dangerously screw up a soup or stew.

Can someone, ANYONE, please tell me just how freaking hard it is to grow a tough spinach and/or different lettuce greens? Even if you have a youngster on your heels? (NOT talking survival farming for months and months, just hobby stuff for a nice change of pace.)

[OnceUponATime]

4 minutes ago, samira_catlover said:

It is SEVERELY difficult to dangerously screw up a soup or stew.

I make a lot of soup even though I don't like eating it. BF thinks it is a staple food. While apparently I don't exactly screw up soup, according to him I never do make it as good as his mom/gran.

As for screwing up stew - it is possible. The last one I made boiled dry (in half an hour with the lid on and lots of liquid. weird) and I only just managed to salvage it.

Just gonna add that I can actually cook and bake without problem most of the time

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

4 minutes ago, samira_catlover said:

OK, can we assume that the DuggarHorde has really lousy land, and raised beds (and/or Square Foot Gardening) is a likely good thingie to make?

I'm remembering Louisa May Alcott and "Little Men", where the Professor's kids (blood-kin and student-boarders) all got a nice little garden plot, and were told to choose and plant something good--with the kids being all kinds of happy to grow Useful Stuff, from flowers to herbs to potatoes to beans to melons. TOTALLY way to go, IMNSHO, to tell the kids "we NEED the nice crops you can make"?

Can someone help me out and demonstrate where the DuggarHorde, with that huge range of kids of all ages, just CAN'T seem to manage carrots and/or green beans? Just for a little change of pace?

(Personal: my parents held a 75 x 125 foot plat of ground---with only part of it under crops. REAL home-grown snap beans, and apples and peaches from dwarf trees, and tomatoes and peppers from nurseries that could grow stuff from seeds--those were wonderful treats.. Honestly. It was WAYYYYY cool to be sent out with a plastic newspaper bag and being told "get green beans--lots!--for supper.)

(Full disclosure: my father, may his God rest him in the glory and joy of heaven, grew up in a farm family [in US Illinois] where the older kids did a LOT of the daily raising of younger kids. Despite having 13 liveborne-and-still-living kids, Grammaw (with the help of her daughters, my aunties) somehow managed to have homemade bread every day [it fills up the bellies!], plus put up over 1000 quarts of home-canned goods a year---on a stove that used wood/coal/corncobs. This was in addition to helping in the fields, managing a cow or two, feeding a pig or two, handling lots of chickens, and doing laundry---with an Irish Steinway and clotheslines.)

Basic Cooking does not need a degree in rocket science, but it helps if your taste buds were not shot off in a war. From here, *baking* is way more complicated: mess with basic balances between stuff, and your would-be cake is gonna feed the compost heap or the pigs.  It is SEVERELY difficult to dangerously screw up a soup or stew.

Can someone, ANYONE, please tell me just how freaking hard it is to grow a tough spinach and/or different lettuce greens? Even if you have a youngster on your heels? (NOT talking survival farming for months and months, just hobby stuff for a nice change of pace.)

As has been stated before, the Duggars are gone from home throughout the growing season. And, I should point out that there is also something to be said for the fact that Little Men is a work of fiction, not real life, and that the school was run by people who valued an actual education, not an ATI education. And your ancestors likely didn't just one day figure that all out. They had people who taught them how to do those things. Michelle doesn't know how to do much. She was married at 17 to a man who was 19. Her parents really don't seem like the kind of people who thought about her future much (especially if they were willing to let her marry at 17 so they didn't have to listen to her complain about having to move and leave her boyfriend behind). She also never had a good relationship with food (as evidenced by her eating disorder) which says, to me, that she wasn't really exposed to things like healthy meals and lifestyles in a way that would have followed her into adulthood. 4 years after she married, she began popping out kids. at some point after Caleb, JB and Michelle heard about how to live debt free (which to me says that they were likely struggling with debt, meaning healthy foods took a back seat to cheap and filling even then). The Duggars struggled with poverty for at least the first 16 years of Josh's life and were, therefore, stuck in their ways. 

With a lack of knowledge, a lack of a desire to learn, and a desire to be in the limelight, the Duggars aren't changing any time soon. 

3 minutes ago, OnceUponATime said:

I make a lot of soup even though I don't like eating it. BF thinks it is a staple food. While apparently I don't exactly screw up soup, according to him I never do make it as good as his mom/gran.

As for screwing up stew - it is possible. The last one I made boiled dry (in half an hour with the lid on and lots of liquid. weird) and I only just managed to salvage it.

Just gonna add that I can actually cook and bake without problem most of the time

I, myself, have met a lot of terrible stews and soups. I'm not sure why there was a claim that you can't mess those up. Any cooking can be messed up. 

[PennySycamore]

@samira_catlover,  what you wrote reminds me of the wonderful Carla Emery, author of the Old Fashioned Recipe Book: an Encyclopedia of Country Living.  The prelude to her book was the poem "The End of a Perfect Day" about all the work that a farm wife would do during the day and at the end of it, she could still have the time for music.  This version was Carla's own though.

[HarleyQuinn]

2 hours ago, church_of_dog said:

If a book is popular enough to have a months-long waitlist, then certainly the library will be replacing it, no?  

The more people asking about a specific book, the more likely they are to get a copy/copies in hand quickly.  At least I hope so!  I hope they don't really void their waitlist, just put it on hold until they have another copy.

I work for a VERY small county library system, and even we have multiple copies of the most popular books.  Also don't forget about options like inter-library loan.  

In California we have a program called Zip Books that helps rural libraries meet patron requests for items not in the collection -- it's more or less a substitute for inter-library loans, which became onerous due to the postage costs of mailing books back and forth.  Your library might have something similar?

I hope so, I actually was waitlisted for The Girl on the Train for nearly 2 months even though my library had a whopping 15 copies. Lots of people in my city that are slow readers, apparently.

[paulypepper]

4 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

There's a taller person with grey hair standing behind her and, at first, it rather looks like J'chelle is wearing this weird gray Bump-It.

That's what had me confused... I couldn't figure out why she had a possum on her head

[quiverofdoubt]

@PennySycamore Thank you for clearing up the confusion of the grey haired man. I was trying to figure out why she had on a bizarre shower cap for the longest time. Maybe I need to see the optometrist.  

[Fundie Bunny]

4 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

There's a taller person with grey hair standing behind her and, at first, it rather looks like J'chelle is wearing this weird gray Bump-It.

Holy shit, now it looks kinda better. I totally thought it was her hair!! 

[Hera]

I'm so relieved to have learned today that all or part of the atrocity placed on Michelle's head that is masquerading as "hair" is actually removable.  She should take as much of it off as possible, throw it into the nearest dumpster, and proceed to set the whole thing on fire.  Immediately.  

I don't think the younger girls wear extensions, though.  I remember seeing something like that about Jessa at one point, but I thought the pictures used to "prove" it just proved that she has long layers in her hair and usually pulls all of it over her shoulder, which makes it appear a lot longer than when only the shorter layers are in front.  My hair does the same thing.  

[SilverBeach]

3 hours ago, OnceUponATime said:

As for screwing up stew - it is possible. The last one I made boiled dry (in half an hour with the lid on and lots of liquid. weird) and I only just managed to salvage it.

Try using a slow cooker.

[Jingerbread]

On 1/25/2016 at 7:05 PM, EmCatlyn said:

I hate gardening (but love cooking) and I know a lot of people who are not fundies who live off convenience foods and/or otherwise eat poorly.  So I can't snark too much about what the Duggars and others do.

What I think is snarkable is how they seem to think they do everything well.  

I can snark then.  Housekeeping is the one job they think a woman can really do, but then they don't actually do it.  Don't tell me and you and everyone else that X is the right way to do something unless you're going to do X yourself.

[Valerie3kids]

7 minutes ago, Jingerbread said:

I can snark then.  Housekeeping is the one job they think a woman can really do, but then they don't actually do it.  Don't tell me and you and everyone else that X is the right way to do something unless you're going to do X yourself.

Every time they seem to be having one of their famous gender reveals or big parties and they need to clean up the house it is not pretty. What good are jurisdictions if no one gets anything done? Or the house looks and smells like a pig pen. I think the only person held accountable for their jurisdiction is the poor laundry person. Those kids/ adults need to sweep daily, pick up several times a day, stop using the furniture as a jungle gym and have a professional crew come sanitize the kitchen. They do not cook. They do not keep a clean house or even a nice house. So what do they do?

[catlady]

36 minutes ago, Valerie3kids said:

Every time they seem to be having one of their famous gender reveals or big parties and they need to clean up the house it is not pretty. What good are jurisdictions if no one gets anything done? Or the house looks and smells like a pig pen. I think the only person held accountable for their jurisdiction is the poor laundry person. Those kids/ adults need to sweep daily, pick up several times a day, stop using the furniture as a jungle gym and have a professional crew come sanitize the kitchen. They do not cook. They do not keep a clean house or even a nice house. So what do they do?

i always got the impression that they call them jurisdictions because it makes them look like their vocabulary is bigger than it is.  why can't they just say "J's job/chore/task is xyz"?  but no, they have to say jurisdiction because, "look what a good job we do with education."