Maxwell 19: Life is Still Boring

[catlady]

1 hour ago, OhNoNike said:

How do you have leftover hot dogs??  It’s one of those things you do 1-2 per person for... and even if you did have leftovers, how are there so many it counts as a full meal?  

Maybe they cut them up into a casserole or something. 

Ok folks, what’s worse?  Maxwell four-day-old turd-colored pork casserole, or Bro Gary’s pink weens-n-gravy?

53 minutes ago, Kelsey said:

What are they doing to that salad?

I do believe that’s the infamous seven-layer salad!!

[Hane]

8 minutes ago, bluelady said:

Why is all of their food so brown?  The only veggies to be seen are hidden under a metric crap-ton of mayonnaise. 

And I'm by no means a food snob. Gimme some jarred pasta sauce all day. But how depressing would it be to sit down to brown/beige/white food every damned day?

I don’t mean to generalize about the Midwest, but could this possibly be a regional thing? I once had a colleague of Scandinavian-Midwestern background who often joked about her predilection for white (in color) foods. Then there was the time my then-husband and I went to a wedding in rural Pennsylvania, where he was from, and he pointed out how practically none of the locals ate their (perfectly good) vegetables at dinner.

[VVV]

This thread is making me realize how much I suck as a cook.

However, I don't claim to be an expert nor do I have a blog in which I teach other people how to suck at cooking.

(I do make some mean chocolate chip cookies though, so yay me.)

[Granwych]

7 hours ago, mydoggoskeeper said:

2 hours ago, OhNoNike said:

I somehow missed “leftover hot dogs” as a meal before.   And 4 days after hot dog meal, at that!

How do you have leftover hot dogs??  It’s one of those things you do 1-2 per person for... and even if you did have leftovers, how are there so many it counts as a full meal?  

 

Leftover hot dogs are sad, sad, shriveled remnants of a meal.  Unless you're Bro Gary, and then it's "Yee Haw!"

Sorry for the cross-threading. 

[catlady]

@VVV, I do better with baked goods than regular meals, too. I’m not a *bad* cook, but i’m definitely not all that good. My friend’s dad, a career chef for the Army, once said that cooking is essentially following instructions—the recipe. Some are more difficult than others, but if you start with something easy and follow the steps and pay attention, you’re cooking.  That perspective helped me a lot. 

[Granwych]

35 minutes ago, catlady said:

Maybe they cut them up into a casserole or something. 

Ok folks, what’s worse?  Maxwell four-day-old turd-colored pork casserole, or Bro Gary’s pink weens-n-gravy?

I do believe that’s the infamous seven-layer salad!!

The dish for that 7-layer salad is damned shallow for 7 layers of much.

[Lillybee]

Just what is Teri planning on doing with that cooked ground beef because it is not going into burrietos..

[VVV]

11 minutes ago, catlady said:

@VVV, I do better with baked goods than regular meals, too. I’m not a *bad* cook, but i’m definitely not all that good. My friend’s dad, a career chef for the Army, once said that cooking is essentially following instructions—the recipe. Some are more difficult than others, but if you start with something easy and follow the steps and pay attention, you’re cooking.  That perspective helped me a lot. 

I agree, and I can follow a recipe to come up with a reasonably tasty dish. I just don't think outside the box at all. All these posts about slicing and freezing peppers, or adding this or that to meatballs or stew...if it isn't written down in step by step instructions with an ingredient list and precise measurements and timings, it isn't coming out of my kitchen.

[Ivycoveredtower]

19 minutes ago, Lillybee said:

Just what is Teri planning on doing with that cooked ground beef because it is not going into burrietos..

she claims they have no plans for the meat it will just go into the freezer for a future meal. 

[catlady]

50 minutes ago, VVV said:

I agree, and I can follow a recipe to come up with a reasonably tasty dish. I just don't think outside the box at all. All these posts about slicing and freezing peppers, or adding this or that to meatballs or stew...if it isn't written down in step by step instructions with an ingredient list and precise measurements and timings, it isn't coming out of my kitchen.

That’s really all you need to do, though. As I got more confident with what I was doing, I started with subbing ingredients when I was out of something, and that led to things like throwing in a pepper that might otherwise go bad if I don’t use it now. I also have a somewhat short collection of go-to recipes that i’ve made many times, so I’m more comfortable with changing them up. 

[Melissa1977]

2 hours ago, catlady said:

3 hours ago, Kelsey said:

What are they doing to that salad?

I do believe that’s the infamous seven-layer salad

They prepare the salad. Then cover it with 10 pounds of mayonaise. Then put in the fridge for 1 day to rest, because everybody knows that lettuce is better the day after being cut & dressed 

[Kelsey]

1 hour ago, Melissa1977 said:

They prepare the salad. Then cover it with 10 pounds of mayonaise. Then put in the fridge for 1 day to rest, because everybody knows that lettuce is better the day after being cut & dressed 

I always thought that I was a bad cook. Now I see that I SEVERELY need to start a blog. 

[HermioneSparrow]

None of the Maxweirdos can cook. Their food is bland, mismatched and gross just like their personalities.

[bluelady]

4 hours ago, Hane said:

I don’t mean to generalize about the Midwest, but could this possibly be a regional thing? I once had a colleague of Scandinavian-Midwestern background who often joked about her predilection for white (in color) foods. Then there was the time my then-husband and I went to a wedding in rural Pennsylvania, where he was from, and he pointed out how practically none of the locals ate their (perfectly good) vegetables at dinner.

It must be. My dad very much believes in a colourful plate. He'd embarrass/anger my sister and I as teenagers by loudly pronouncing "Girls, look at those colours!" every night at dinner.  Even now he'll sometimes tag us in photos of his meal on Facebook to try and get a rise out of us. Bland looking food is not something I'm used to. 

[scoutsadie]

12 hours ago, mydoggoskeeper said:

High five, Steve -- you made me waste 3 minutes of my life reading the mundane for Jeebus.  

"Mundane for Jesus" - am suggesting this as post count title (will credit you!). 

**ETA: Did I just make up the term "post count title"? Cos I could only find a thread called "User Title" or some such, which is where I added this suggestion.**

Also: when I read someone's comment above about food in Maxhell being only beige or white, what immediately came to my mind was "mundane for Jesus!" ha ha!

[catlady]

1 hour ago, bluelady said:

It must be. My dad very much believes in a colourful plate. He'd embarrass/anger my sister and I as teenagers by loudly pronouncing "Girls, look at those colours!" every night at dinner.  Even now he'll sometimes tag us in photos of his meal on Facebook to try and get a rise out of us. Bland looking food is not something I'm used to. 

my mom does this!  she never serves corn with chicken because the yellow and tan are too similar; corn is ok with beef, and any green veggie is ok with chicken.

[danvillebelle]

I consider myself a pretty good cook now.  I never use a recipe for soup and it always turns out great.  I do use cookbooks, but I always add or subtract things.  

But 25 1/2 years ago when I got married - um, NO.  I could make my mom's homemade marinara sauce and tuna casserole.  That was IT.  I often wish I had the money we spent on meals out the first year we were married.  

But Teri's at 40+ years and she still sucks at it.  Time to stop beating that dead horse (and don't freeze it for later).

[Captain Obvious]

1 hour ago, HermioneSparrow said:

None of the Maxweirdos can cook. Their food is bland, mismatched and gross just like their personalities.

The weird thing is, they do bake, and I’ve seen them making pie crust pastry by hand, which is more than I normally do - and I’m a reasonable cook/baker. 

Then again, pies and bread are staple American foods, even in the blandest of diets.  It’s possible that they just don’t realise their cooking sucks, because they only eat white bread food (including actual white bread), so don’t know any better.

[SPHASH]

1 hour ago, catlady said:

my mom does this!  she never serves corn with chicken because the yellow and tan are too similar; corn is ok with beef, and any green veggie is ok with chicken.

You may think this is weird but I will grill a chicken breast, chop it up like fajita strips, then mix it  with corn and white rice, add some seasoning and VIOLA! my supper.  Looks bland but I like it.

[Ozlsn]

14 hours ago, singsingsing said:

I guess the only thing they've really been successful overall at is having their sons buy houses debt free. Big deal. Not all debt is bad debt. I'd love to ask Sarah whether she'd prefer to wait until she was 43 to get married to hold out for a man with no debt, or if she would've preferred to get married at 23 to a man with a mortgage.

Or possibly preferred her very own house with mortgage. Poor Sarah.

[mango_fandango]

I’m an OK cook, I just don’t do it very often. I also like baking, because cake.

[Melissa1977]

Count me in the colorful/ coordinate colour dishes. 

Yesterday: mushroms, green aspargus, artichokes and cod. So brown, green, white. 

I sometimes joke that I fell in love with my husband because his colorful, tasty salads.

Well, I think I'm making an idol of the food and I promise.... not to change

[freethemall]

I don't get the idea of freezing ground beef because usually I turn ground beef into meatballs, meatloaf, burger patties, or cutlets, which all involve shaping it raw and cooking it from scratch. So tell me Terri, what the hell are you planning on doing with that cooked beef because we know it's not going in the burritos!

[Granwych]

4 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

Count me in the colorful/ coordinate colour dishes. 

Yesterday: mushroms, green aspargus, artichokes and cod. So brown, green, white. 

I sometimes joke that I fell in love with my husband because his colorful, tasty salads.

Well, I think I'm making an idol of the food and I promise.... not to change

But was the lettuce in the salads sliced with a pizza cutter?  Inquiring minds wanna know---

 

[nomoxian]

The concept of "just following the recipe" is beyond some people (at least, some people who share my genes) It's helped me though.

Even if it's something as simple as "put chicken in bag of breading, shake, put on pan and put in preheated oven for 30 minutes" From there you can learn how to cook multiple things at once, like putting frozen fries in the oven. The instructions say it takes 15 minutes? So put them in half way through. Not crispy enough? Then add a few minutes (There. You learned how to alter recipes to meet your tastes!) From there you might substitute Shake N Bake with ground old bread sold for less money in breadcrumb bags at the bakers, and then add a blended spice mix. After reading the ingredients on the jar, you might try buying the spices separately for less cost and then try some other spices as well (It might not be much, but now you're cooking "real" food from "scratch")

Small steps, but as your knowledge grows and comfort increases, you can experiment more.I don't even measure when I make pizza (just sugar, and salt plus either yeast and water or just beer - which I found works well during a middle-of-the-night meal making when I couldn't find any yeast)

I'm far from the cook Mr Nomoxian is, or the baker my Uncle (no genetic relation!) is. But everyone can learn *something* at least. I wish my mom would feel better in the kitchen, but it just seems to make her anxious and upset.