What’s Cookin’?

[Jeepers]

Lazy sounds yummy!

[Littlesister]

euphrasyne, that sounds great even if it was a lazy meal to make. I like doing lazy meals. Quick and easy right of the freezer or jar. 

[Jeepers]

I'm a lazy on the best of days that's why I can food and freeze meals ahead. 

[Littlesister]

I'm with you there Jeepers.   But today I cooked. Had some ham that I had ordered a while back from a farm. The ham is straight from the pig that they culled. I wanted to try truly fresh ham and that it was.  Nothing like what they sell in the stores. No additives no added nothing.  So, dinner tonight was ham steak, new potatoes and green beans. 

 

 

[Jeepers]

[Midnightmom]

On 4/24/2024 at 7:21 PM, Littlesister said:

euphrasyne, can you teach my grandson that dumping food in trash because you really didn't want that so dump it and get something else like door dash. I have all but given up on his wasteful habits. His grandfather used to tell him if you fix it or order it you eat it. Times like that I really miss him. GS remembers those days and when DH spoke, he did as he was told. He ate it all. But now that he is grown. he doesn't care what I say. I'm only the grandmother, when I say that it doesn't count.

Take away kitchen privelages and make him purchase anything he wants to eat. Pretty soon he might get the idea that he's throwing away money when he throws food away. Also, I remember reading - quite a while ago - that if YOU cook it and present it as a meal but HE doesn't eat it, it gets put back in the fridge and served to him again at the next meal and the next, etc, until he does eat it. Don't know if it will work at his age or your situation, but it is an alternative to consider.

[Littlesister]

MidnightMom, I have tried that. Even made up the individual meals for him but he will just heat it up, take a bite and order pizza or something by way of door dash. Now I just cook up enough for me and don't cook for him anymore.  That seems to be working better. It's his money, so if he wants to waste it on door dash which cost a fortune that's his choice. When he's short on money he wants me to do the door dash and I refuse to do it. I sat him down and told him the only way he will order fast food will be to go get it. It's cheaper even with the gas prices. I refuse to do that. 

[Midnightmom]

2 hours ago, Littlesister said:

MidnightMom, I have tried that. Even made up the individual meals for him but he will just heat it up, take a bite and order pizza or something by way of door dash. Now I just cook up enough for me and don't cook for him anymore.  That seems to be working better. It's his money, so if he wants to waste it on door dash which cost a fortune that's his choice. When he's short on money he wants me to do the door dash and I refuse to do it. I sat him down and told him the only way he will order fast food will be to go get it. It's cheaper even with the gas prices. I refuse to do that. 

You can only do what you can do  so stay strong with your decision.  

When (IF) he ever gets to USCG Basic Training (or any branch for that matter) they will not stand for this behavior. You can take as much as you want, but, you'd better eat all that you take! (and they might make him take some foods he doesn't like to make sure he is getting a balanced diet)

[Littlesister]

A balanced diet would be good for him.  It will be eat it or starve.  I just hope that when he takes the test for the 3ed time it will be the charm that is needed to get him on his way. I am so tired of cleaning up behind him and not being able to fix my house up like I want because he is so nasty and puts his dirty feet on all the furniture. So, I refuse to buy new furniture till he is out of here. If I say anything to his mom about it all I get is boys are just nasty. So why didn't she teach him to keep his dirty feet off the furniture, wash his hands instead of using the bar stools for a napkin and it gets worse. He is one rough kid on furniture. 

[Midnightmom]

1 hour ago, Littlesister said:

A balanced diet would be good for him.  It will be eat it or starve.  I just hope that when he takes the test for the 3ed time it will be the charm that is needed to get him on his way. I am so tired of cleaning up behind him and not being able to fix my house up like I want because he is so nasty and puts his dirty feet on all the furniture. So, I refuse to buy new furniture till he is out of here. If I say anything to his mom about it all I get is boys are just nasty. So why didn't she teach him to keep his dirty feet off the furniture, wash his hands instead of using the bar stools for a napkin and it gets worse. He is one rough kid on furniture. 

 

His bunk mates will cure that behavior very quickly!

[Jeepers]

As a preteen I had to fix my own plate at the table. I could choose anything on the table that I wanted. BUT if I took it on my plate. I had to eat it. ALL. I don't ever remember it being a problem. I was told to try something new but just a bite. But to be fair. My mom cooked the same thing often. I remember a lot of fried chops, cubed stake, and some chicken. With lots of bread and gravy. We were poor and our table wasn't loaded down with a lot of choices to begin with. 

 

I think my DIL loads her son's plate up too much so it's wasted. I blame her for that. I'm going to have to teach him the way I was taught to keep from wasting food. Not load up a plate like you are at a buffet. And if you eat it all you can still have more.

 

Some day we might wish we had that discarded food. 

[euphrasyne]

Cook big, freeze or can and eat later.  I like lazy meals.  I also like remaking things like pork chili verde into pork pozolze.  Imagine leftovers into new stuff.  

[Littlesister]

Euphrasyne, I love the way you do leftovers. And the different things you cook. You cook way different than I do. I am just an old country cook. Never knew any other way but do sometimes come up with new ideas. 

 

One thing I forgot was that my GS gets food stamps. So, he uses it to buy his lunch at work and heats it up in the break room as he can't buy hot food on food stamps. Once in a while he will buy food for the house. He has a couple of things in freezer he bought and decided he didn't like them, and I asked him what he was going to do with them. He said dump them and when I told him that is wasteful, he said it's not his money he's wasting but the government food stamps.  How do you get around that type of thinking?  I really can't win with this kid.

[euphrasyne]

I really like reading old recipe books. I don't care where it originated.  It gives me ideas and then I adjust them.  I tell my kids that cooking is more than following a recipe.  It is about adjusting spices and ingredients to your tastes.  Anyone can 'follow a recipe'   A real cook can adjust the recipe to what they want.  Also...garlic in everything.  

[Jeepers]

I cook like Littlesister. It's the way I grew up too. All the women in my family were plain cooks. I think part of the reason was we were all so poor that we didn't chance cooking food that no one would eat. My grandma raised her kids up during the depression so it was probably a carry over from that. 

 

No one and I do mean no one in my family ever cooked...that thing that swims in the water. Maybe they were afraid if them too.  

 

Small farm town in nowhere Indiana in the 40's 50's 60's didn't offer much in the way of spices. It was a huge deal when we finally got a Marsh Foodliner. It had air conditioning and an automatic door. We had arrived. We didn't call it the store or grocery store or Marsh. It was the Foodliner. We shopped at the Foodliner. And they gave green stamps. 

[euphrasyne]

Not going to lie, I have more spices than your regular spice isle.  We season everything.  Its my hobby.  I could never be a professional chef, but I can make family dinner or potluck like no one's business.  Not a whole lot of other skills going on, but I do know how to cook.  In the apocalypse I'd make someone happy.  I vividly remember green stamps and have done WIC/food stamps as a child.  I remember the white bags of macaroni and the fake Velveeta growing up.  My mom did not cook at all.  It was all freezer queen.  I think that is the reason I learned. 

Edited May 16 by euphrasyne

[Littlesister]

I learned from my grandmother and aunts. They all lived on farms and ate from garden to table. Some of them did fish and hunt and that put meat on the table. I vagally remember the cow but remember them having one. I was really small when they had that. And the bee hives for honey.  They had a huge smoke house also. I guess having 10 kids and living through a depression makes you see things back then much clearer.  My mom though was no cook. Best thing that happened for us kids was when the TV dinners became a thing. Mom could cook somethings good for the most part run for your life she's cooking again. It seems that granddaddy had a horse or a borrowed one because I do remember him plowing the garden using a horse but that is all I remember about that. I think a tractor came later. 

Could be why I am so on to my GS about wasting food. That never happened at my grandmother's house.  She was a very good cook. And one of my aunts could make some of the best scratch cakes ever.  I loved the coconut ones. 

[Jeepers]

I think I have about every spice/herb GFS sells. Yep there they are. Sitting on the shelf. Just in case. 

[Dee]

I like lazy meals too euphrasyne.  One big afternoon of cooking and food to eat when I'm too lazy to cook.  This is what I've done today 5 lbs. of hamburger patties and 6 pounds of browned ground beef.  I'm also in the process of frying 20 tenderized tenderloins before washing up my electric skillet.  It will be enough for a lot of lazy day meals!

 

 

[Mother]

I cooked a similar but smaller batch of ground Turkey yesterday. Some burgers and some loose cooked.  Today I took the left over pan drippings, added some of the ground meat and a package of frozen peas, a few seasonings, and mixed in some cooked gluten free pasta. I divided it into two casserole dishes and topped them with a layer of shredded cheese. I froze one and baked the other for lunch.   Plain ordinary but filling food made for lazy days! 

[blessedhomemaker71]

I haven't been in much of a cooking mood lately. I enjoy baking though. This weekend I'll probably make: Frosted sugar cookies( Pillsbury)

Sweet and tangy mustard for summer sausage and pretzels

Tapioca pudding 

And chocolate chip banana bread

Our church makes and sells hoagies one day a month so I had that for supper tonight.

[Littlesister]

Dee, I did the same thing a few weeks ago. made 5lbs of meatballs and canned them and 15 lbs. of ground beef and canned them. 

The canned ground beef makes for some fast meals. and with the meatballs I just through some in spaghetti. 

 

Blessedhomemaker, my daughter loves to bake but hates cooking a meal. She would rather order food out than cook. Or it will be sandwiches or something quick. 

[blessedhomemaker71]

Little Sister, 

I try not to get takeout often. The quality is so poor these days that we usually end up disappointed.  The costs are outrageous, too. Although, there is  local tavern's food that we like and their prices are fair. If I'm tired, I usually make something like sloppy joes or tacos. 

[Littlesister]

blessedhomemaker, I rarely eat out. I have always cooked at home. My DD just hates to cook a meal but loves to bake. She needs to stop with ordering food and then going to pick it up to eat and learn to eat at home. It's much better for you when you also have your own garden.  Though we did all go out to a Mexican restaurant for lunch today. DD is in town, and she treated all of us to lunch. The baby loved the Mexican food. 

[Ambergris]

Air fried plantain, farm cheese, and local bread baked with cheese in it for breakfast.  With local coffee--lots of coffee, after the night we had (earthquakes).