Do they EVER cook from scratch? or garden?

[Iokaste]

19 hours ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Honestly, I am positive they have the commercial kitchen because TLC gave it to them. I think the Duggars had some kind of idea of that serving area, but TLC decided it would be best to stock it with commercial grade equipment.

The commercial kitchen came from a restaurant/grocery store that went out of buisness. 
It was explained in "XX kids and moving in", as opposed to all the stuff that just magically appeared, I guess so that TLC would be sure to have decent backdrop and setting for the charade.
Couldn't let the world see the actual state of an ATI/IBLP-family's home, now could we...

[OnceUponATime]

16 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

And to agree with the comments upthread as well - would be a great home school project for the kids.  Learning about photosynthesis...or how roots work...heck, clearly they would quickly know more than me since I don't even know the stuff you learn from growing stuff.

 

There are also biblical analogies that can be made from growing stuff. About every two years we had all the sunday school kids grow their own Sunflowers. Then we would relate lessons learnt from the growth/death of their plants to biblical principles.

10 hours ago, SportsgalAnnie said:

It's a sad trend I have noticed, when I was in college I was one of the few that knew how to cook. I've been making my own dinners since I was 10 and decided I didn't want to eat beef anymore. 

Send one of the kids from Master chef Jr to the tth, then you'd have embarrassed duggars.

Two years a group of 20year olds had their first (or nearly first) home baked cake thanks to me. They were amazed that I could bake because they didn't know anyone who could at home. I didn't tell them it wasn't out of a package because I thought that might make them flip out.  I do think that cooking from scratch is starting to become trendy again though.

9 hours ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Anyways, back to the gardening thing: the Duggars don't actually have time for gardening. I know it sounds weird cause they homeschool and all, but they spend like 1/2 the growing season or more traveling all over the fucking place, dropping in on friends, going to speaking engagements, going to homeschool conferences, backing political people, taking pretend mission trips, etc. Unless they hired a team of people to come and do it for them, the garden would die. And, if they're hiring all those people they may as well just buy the food. 

are they still all traveling? For some reason I thought that might have stopped/reduced. They have enough adult kids who probably would jump at a chance to stay home for a week or two alone with the garden. Of course a garden may not be accountability buddy enough...

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

30 minutes ago, OnceUponATime said:

There are also biblical analogies that can be made from growing stuff. About every two years we had all the sunday school kids grow their own Sunflowers. Then we would relate lessons learnt from the growth/death of their plants to biblical principles.

Two years a group of 20year olds had their first (or nearly first) home baked cake thanks to me. They were amazed that I could bake because they didn't know anyone who could at home. I didn't tell them it wasn't out of a package because I thought that might make them flip out.  I do think that cooking from scratch is starting to become trendy again though.

are they still all traveling? For some reason I thought that might have stopped/reduced. They have enough adult kids who probably would jump at a chance to stay home for a week or two alone with the garden. Of course a garden may not be accountability buddy enough...

I'm fairly certain they're still going. I mean it's kind of hard to tell cause Joshgate 2.0 happened at the end of their normal travel season, but they still did a hell of a lot of traveling at the end of the summer. And, honestly, I get more of a feeling that most of the older kids (I say most cause I'm not sure about JD or Jana) seem to want to be as far away from TTH as they can be for as long as possible. I can't say I blame them. Time at TTH, even if it's completely alone, means a lot of work has to be done. There's hardly any work (in comparison) with traveling and going on adventures 

[Iokaste]

It's kind of funny, I didn't know there was such a concept as "cooking from scratch" until I was in my mid-late twenties. 
An American friend kept talking about how he "cooked from scratch" with great pride and I thought he ment left-over cooking, guess I heard it as "cooking from scraps", which ofcourse is commendable, but not to the level he seemed to believe. 
Then I figurd out that he was really just talking about cooking, and one day he explained, that there were 3 levels of cooking where he was from (Missouri):
1. Cooking: opening a box or can and heat
2. Homemade: opening a box or can and mix either with other boxes/cans and cook
3. From scratch: starting with actual raw products and end up with food, almost unheard of and a bit frowned upon as a hipster and/or health fanatic-thing.

 

[SoybeanQueen]

I'm from Kansas, and cooking from scratch is the default among people I know. Things may be different over toward the Ozarks, though! We live in a rural area. Nearest grocery store is 20 miles, and that's in a small town (around 3,000 population). We're able to get most types of fresh fruits/veggies there. I mean, if you want a specific type of Chinese cabbage, then yeah, you may have to go to the city, but I feel like if we can feed our family fresh stuff where we live, it should not be hard for the Duggars. The town with the grocery store also has a farmer's market weekly from late spring to early fall, so there's even greater variety then. In the summer you can't leave home without someone dropping off garden extras. Their location is not an excuse.

My 4 year old has better meal planning skills than some of them. He took a turn at choosing what we had last night. Chili dogs with cheese, tomatoes, zucchini, and chips. He sniffed the packages of hot dogs to see which ones he wanted to buy (I have no idea where he got the idea to do that), and then picked out the tomatoes he thought looked the best and the zucchini without dents and such. Not fancy, and the protein source is questionable, but at least the food groups are covered.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

38 minutes ago, Iokaste said:

It's kind of funny, I didn't know there was such a concept as "cooking from scratch" until I was in my mid-late twenties. 
An American friend kept talking about how he "cooked from scratch" with great pride and I thought he ment left-over cooking, guess I heard it as "cooking from scraps", which ofcourse is commendable, but not to the level he seemed to believe. 
Then I figurd out that he was really just talking about cooking, and one day he explained, that there were 3 levels of cooking where he was from (Missouri):
1. Cooking: opening a box or can and heat
2. Homemade: opening a box or can and mix either with other boxes/cans and cook
3. From scratch: starting with actual raw products and end up with food, almost unheard of and a bit frowned upon as a hipster and/or health fanatic-thing.

 

Your definition of homemade isn't the one I hear from anyone who isn't trying to oversell their abilities. Sure people used canned stuff in homemade recipes, but it's usually things like canned corn in a soup rather than mixing two canned soups. Your definition of homemade is along the lines of "semi-homemade," which is combining prepackaged stuff in new ways or adding to it (like making brownie cheesecake bars with homemade cheesecake and boxed brownies). 

Homemade is synonynous with "from scratch." You'll often hear things like "oh and the pie crust is homemade" which means that they didn't use a store bought crust. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

13 minutes ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Your definition of homemade isn't the one I hear from anyone who isn't trying to oversell their abilities. Sure people used canned stuff in homemade recipes, but it's usually things like canned corn in a soup rather than mixing two canned soups. Your definition of homemade is along the lines of "semi-homemade," which is combining prepackaged stuff in new ways or adding to it (like making brownie cheesecake bars with homemade cheesecake and boxed brownies). 

Homemade is synonynous with "from scratch." You'll often hear things like "oh and the pie crust is homemade" which means that they didn't use a store bought crust. 

That's my interpretation as well.  When I make chocolate eclairs from scratch I make my own pate choux, ganache, and creme de patisserie without using anything from a box (be very impressed - ha - one of my few skills.)  When I make the sugar free version it's not from scratch because I'm subbing out the homemade creme de patisserie with boxed sugar-free vanilla pudding folded with sugar free Cool Whip and using a pre-made sugar free frosting with a little tweaking - only the pate choux is from scratch.  

I've been binge watching the BBC series on life in previous eras (Victorian, Tudor, etc) and after watching those I don't feel like I've ever cooked anything from scratch!  Ruth Goodman took the wheat that they'd grown and milled it by hand, hauled the water from the creek, milked the cow and churned the butter, raised the chickens that laid the eggs, prepared the milled flour for use, heated up a stone oven until she knew it was the right temp by the color and movement of the flames, raked the burning coals out of the oven and put the bread in to bake, sealed the oven door with dough to keep the heat in, and knew when the bread was done by the warmth of the outer stones.

Not to mention if you wanted powdered sugar spending literally hours with a mortar and pestle grinding it.  

I think I'm so bad ass baking from scratch with my store bought ingredients, gas stove, and ovens with temperature controls and lights to see how things are progressing but to the people in Tudor times that's the equivalent of hitting a drive through!

I agree with you - semi-homemade is stuff like chickenetti where you're dumping cans, but there is some cooking involved.  I admit I have a couple of guilty comfort one pot meals which use tomato soup as a base.  Not high cuisine so I probably won't serve one if the Pope or Queen of England shows up for dinner...but like the chickenetti thing would always be revolting to me, but wouldn't be a symbol of their bad habits if it was an aberration and not what they consider cooking a proper meal.

 

[Arete]

Yeah, those definitions of both cooking and homemade are new to me as someone who grew up in the US northeast.  I have a brother in law from the West and I know those are not his definitions of cooking or homemade either.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

32 minutes ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Homemade is synonynous with "from scratch." You'll often hear things like "oh and the pie crust is homemade" which means that they didn't use a store bought crust. 

Oh - just in case anyone can use a tip in this area...I can make a hell of a pie crust, but if pressed for time Pillsbury's in the refrigerated section is really good.  My gramma - who could bake like a BOSS - taught me that trick.  She was famous for her pie crusts but once she got older and had a tough time standing to roll out the dough she went Pillsbury and out of our entire ginormous family only her sister could tell the difference without being told.

They pass the fork flake test.  

5 minutes ago, AreteJo said:

Yeah, those definitions of both cooking and homemade are new to me as someone who grew up in the US northeast.  I have a brother in law from the West and I know those are not his definitions of cooking or homemade either.

Speaking of food, after our discussion in the holiday food threads every time I see your name I crave baklava.  

I don't believe in ghosts, but if I'm wrong then when I die I'm going to show up at one of your holiday meals just for the food.  Just a little pre-haunting warning.  

[quiverofdoubt]

Most people I know cook from scratch a vast majority of the time.  Then again most of my friends are parents, and would be considered either granola, crunchy, or hippy, to some extent, by much of the country.  Most of our dinners are a grain/starch (rice/pasta/potato etc), with a meat i bought raw, and a veggie i also bought raw.  I do take short cuts. I buy dry beans, but never start them in time, so usually rely on canned beans. Or frozen corn, as I can only get decent fresh here when it's in season. And jarred tomato sauce.  I use dry pasta and don't make it from scratch (like, make pasta dough).

I rarely make baked goods. I have no one to share with, my husband doesn't like sweets, and apparently neither does my 3 year old. I can't afford to eat a whole tray of brownies or a pie alone.  My daughter loves to help mix cookie dough though, so we do that fairly often (from scratch/home made, no premade mixes).

Note: I live at 8,000 feet elevation. This drastically changes how you cook.  Water boils at a low temperature, so everything takes much much longer than you expect.  The last time i cooked artichokes i put them on the stove at 4 pm.  They weren't ready till almost 8 pm, and even then the middle was still crunchy.  The humidity is so low here, dry beans need about 24 hours to soak and cook, and that's with the fast prep methods. So i generally just spend a tad more and get the canned.  And don't talk to me about potatoes....I start potatoes hours before we want to eat them. Same story for brown rice. Dinner is at 6? start the rice cooker at 4.

[MoonFace]

14 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

 

a couple pigs and and hen house full of chickens could take care of the bulk of it.  Think of all the fresh eggs and pork (eventually) they could get, from their own trash. 

I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that they don't eat pork. 

Even if they didn't eat pork they could always sell the pigs. 

[Bad Wolf]

Not eating pork is just another weird Gothardism. Has nothing to do with Jewish law. Just another way to have control. I have no problem with people's dietary choices (except maybe ttc and chickenetti), but to do something with no explanation, drives me crazy.

I would make a terrible fundie.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

20 minutes ago, MoonFace said:

I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that they don't eat pork. 

Even if they didn't eat pork they could always sell the pigs. 

Even if that somehow fit within their beliefs, do you REALLY want the Duggars raising livestock?! They can't even figure out how to care for dogs and cats. 

[MoonFace]

15 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

 

a couple pigs and and hen house full of chickens could take care of the bulk of it.  Think of all the fresh eggs and pork (eventually) they could get, from their own trash. 

I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that they don't eat pork. 

Even if they didn't eat pork they could always sell the pigs. 

 

Yeah, I thought about that after I posted.   They'd not know enough to feed the pigs grain in addition to the scraps.   And if they put the pigs out of sight (downwind) they'd probably forget to feed and water them.     

Never mind.   LOL

[Shouldabeenacowboy]

28 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Not eating pork is just another weird Gothardism. Has nothing to do with Jewish law. Just another way to have control. I have no problem with people's dietary choices (except maybe ttc and chickenetti), but to do something with no explanation, drives me crazy.

I would make a terrible fundie.

Haha plus one, I'd make a terrible fundie as well. Growing up, my favorite question was "WHY???". I thank jeebus that I did not grow up in a fundie family, my questioning mind would have most likely been blanket trained out of me (or worse, sadly).

Regarding cooking - shortcuts are Ok

For example, pesto. Technically, you are supposed to put your ingredients in the mortar and go at it with the pestle until done. Frankly, I just put everything in the blender and call it a day. The shortcut takes nothing from the flavor and is much faster/much more efficient. Yay for electrical appliances!

[isarhenne]

they don't have time to cook from scratch, with that many kids and the show. But with their money they could hire a cook, but naaahhhh, let the girl slaves throw canned food on the plates...

[Chickenbutt]

When my youngest was about 2-3 years old, my sil fed him a scrambled egg (we are not egg eaters so he had never had one) and his lips swelled up and he started wheezing. After a visit to the ER, we were told not to give him eggs again for a few years. Fast forward to preschool. They were feeding them lunch one day and hard boiled eggs were on the table. My son was told to take one. He said "I CAN'T (not WON'T) eat that". The teacher put him in time out. He had to sit in time out until he ate the egg. Subsequently, he sat in time out all day. When I came to get him, it was explained to me that he refused to eat lunch. He, in his little 4 year old voice, told me that they were trying to make him eat something I had told him to never eat. Suffice to say that I lost my shit and cut loose on the teacher, demanded my money back, pulled him out of day care and figured out how to reschedule my life and husbands life and work schedules, so no day care was ever needed again.

People need to listen to parents regarding their kids. No parent chooses to make life difficult for themselves or others. Sometimes the "inconvenience" is a matter of life or death.

[OnceUponATime]

49 minutes ago, DuggarsTheEndIsNear said:

Even if that somehow fit within their beliefs, do you REALLY want the Duggars raising livestock?! They can't even figure out how to care for dogs and cats. 

I'm pretty sure on FB they mentioned having cows (i'm not sure if it's grazing someone else's or their own). I could be wrong and can't be bothered checking

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

10 minutes ago, OnceUponATime said:

I'm pretty sure on FB they mentioned having cows (i'm not sure if it's grazing someone else's or their own). I could be wrong and can't be bothered checking

I'm like 99.9999999% certain that they've never had cows or any way of housing cows. The closest they've come is that episode where they went to a dude ranch type place for an episode. 

[clueliss]

Michelle was too busy birthing babies, getting pregnant and homeskooling to bother with teaching the sister mom's to do anything other than open cans/packages and dump into a pan.  And I figure that by the time Jana & Jill could reach the counter she put them to work (I could scramble an egg unsupervised at age 7 or so).  

As for the gardening/livestock issue.  They are clearly not animal people.  And gardening would require attention to something for a length of time.  Which you cannot do when you are (were) traipsing around the country with the kids on a bus doing appearances.  

Cows?  I don't think so.  Cows on an episode.  With girls in flip flops.  

[OnceUponATime]

 

 if you read the comments the top comment says "we do have cows!"

 

[clueliss]

great, now I'm picturing girls in flip flops and cow dung feet.  

[quiverofdoubt]

Ok, i do have to put this here. I've only ever raised meat and egg chickens, and a couple of geese. But i have family, neighbors and close friends who have raised livestock as a family.  I was part of FFA as a kid, and my mother worked for the ag dept of the uc system.  It's really unwise to just jump into raising swine, poultry, cattle or fish without doing a lot of research first. SOME of the questions to ask:

how much will my initial investment be?

do i have the proper graze land? if not, will i need to reseed?

What will i need to supplement with (hay, alfalfa, oats, grains?) how much will that cost? how much more over the winter will i spend on it, when the grass dies?

will there be someone at the property every day, for the next 12-18 months, to check on the animal?

How will we supply them with enough water, especially when it's freezing out and the water troughs freeze?

do i have a secure and warm place for the animal come in-climate weather?

how much will adequate fencing cost? 

What medications/antibiotics, or special vet care will this animal need?

if it gets sick or dies or injured, can i eat that cost? how do we deal with that? even the best cared for livestock can have unpredicted health issues or injuries

Where can i get it butchered locally? how much does that butcher charge?

How do i get it to the butcher? do we have access to appropriate livestock trailers?

 

And so on, and so forth.

A friend of mine a few years back raised a cow for meat. When it came time to butcher, they had to load him up in the trailer and get him out of town. She so thought it would be easy peasy.  Turns out a young steer that's never been trailered is quite the beast. It took them 6 hours just to get it in the trailer, and 2 grown men were injured- one with a concussion. the cow wasn't even full grown yet. It probably close to 5 grand total, or more, once you included everything. For a years worth of meat for 2 families.

So i do think it is naive to say "why don't they just raise xyz for meat?"  

[Jucifer]

1 hour ago, OnceUponATime said:

I'm pretty sure on FB they mentioned having cows (i'm not sure if it's grazing someone else's or their own). I could be wrong and can't be bothered checking

I remember that too-  I can't be bothered to check either.

[Screamapillar]

40 minutes ago, quiverofdoubt said:

 

A friend of mine a few years back raised a cow for meat. When it came time to butcher, they had to load him up in the trailer and get him out of town. She so thought it would be easy peasy.  Turns out a young steer that's never been trailered is quite the beast. It took them 6 hours just to get it in the trailer, and 2 grown men were injured- one with a concussion. the cow wasn't even full grown yet. It probably close to 5 grand total, or more, once you included everything. For a years worth of meat for 2 families.

So i do think it is naive to say "why don't they just raise xyz for meat?"  

OK, so I have nothing really to contribute to this discussion except for this anecdote. When I was about 4 years old my Dad competed in a local golf tournament and he won a cow. Upon hearing this, I was super excited because, obviously, I was getting a pet cow! I was going to name him Mr. Moo. In reality what my Dad won was all of the primo cuts of meat of a butchered cow. This was when my parents had to explain to me where meat comes from.