Cooking...A lost art? [Archive]

Squiggy

1/13/03, 04:18pm

BlurOfSerenity

1/13/03, 04:31pm

i never unserstood "from scratch".
does that mean no canned items, no soups or artificial flavorings? everythign real and natural? i dont understand.

i do enjoy cooking, when i do it.
i like to make tacos. im a pro at browning ground beef.
i also once made this really kickass turkey tetrazini, that was a lot of fun, and the most complex, involved thing i've made yet.
i'm just 16, and i only got over my fear of ovens and stoves (cos them's hot!) just two or 3 years ago, so i'm pretty much starting out.

Squiggy

1/13/03, 04:39pm

Hmmm...good point ash r..."from scratch" I guess would mean starting with raw (unprepared) food as the main ingredients. I understand using premixxed seasonings,etc...but can you cook a beef roast. or bake homemade bread, or a pizza (including the dough). Can you make a spaghetti sauce from a bunch of fresh tomatoes and seasoning...Things like that...

AlladinSane

1/13/03, 05:11pm

If it's a lost art I never found it! :D

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 05:37pm

It really is amazing how many people wouldn't know what to do with a pot roast...

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 05:38pm

It really is amazing how many people wouldn't know what to do with a pot roast...

Funny you should say that...

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 05:43pm

Aarrgh!! Double post... could a sweet and gentle mod please delete that first one for me?

And here's a pic of the butterbeans I'm cooking to go with it. That red thing in the middle is the bone from Jan's birthday ham. :)

Squiggy

1/13/03, 05:49pm

:D Thats what I'm talkin about! Cookin! Good job Ards....:headbang:

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 05:57pm

:headbang:

Got some spinach and cornbread to go with it. I feel like Grandpa Jones. :P

Shadowfax

1/13/03, 06:28pm

In this Shake'n'Bake, Microwaveable world, I was wondering how many of you actually know how to cook...I'm talking "from scratch" and not just eggs and bacon. I've been cooking since forever. I candied my first ham at 10 and can even make fudge....It really is amazing how many people wouldn't know what to do with a pot roast...Where do you fall in all of this?

i've been working in a kitchen for 3 yrs now, as a weekend job... i learned a lot over there. learned me appreciate cooking as well, at least the more 'special' stuff.
i hate making ordinary, standard meals, but making special meals is always a pleasure :)

i too like to make from scratch. nothing more worse than pre-fab food.
even though i eat that most of the time, due a lack of time. no matter how you like things, i'm still a student :D so i have an excuse :D

plus cooking for just yourself is horrible.

greenfreak

1/13/03, 06:30pm

I know nothing about cooking.

I know enough about baking to take a recipe and make it correctly, adding a little changes here and there. But in this house, Rusty is the cook. God love him. :)

Professur

1/13/03, 06:36pm

Steak and an open fire are about my limits. Rub salt and pepper into the steak, then beat it on a rock until you can't see either anymore. Chuck it onto the coals. Then run around looking for a stick to pull it back out with. By the time you find it, it should be ready to turn. Turn it already. Since the stick will usually catch fire, now would be a good time to go get another one. Since the second side will cook quicker, it's a good thing that you've already looked around and know where to get the second stick.
Haul that summabitch outta there and onto a plate. Crack open a brewski and thump your chest coz you're a certified caveman.

Squiggy

1/13/03, 06:38pm

:rofl: You have to write a book Prof...:D

dan

1/13/03, 06:40pm

i want to learn how to cook better.

i quite like doing it, but have problems during term time coz there's only one saucepan and a couple of really cheap and nasty knives in the kitchen i've got... funding a decent kitchen is no mean feat!

Squiggy

1/13/03, 06:44pm

Even more so when your sons throw out the cookwear instead of cleaning it....:rolleyes:

greenfreak

1/13/03, 06:46pm

We burned my mother's 5 quart Farberware pot and then threw it away while they were on vacation and we couldn't understand why she was so upset about it. Now I do. :)

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 06:50pm

Even more so when your sons throw out the cookwear instead of cleaning it....:rolleyes:

That's what you get for making them watch Green Acres reruns. :P

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 06:52pm

PS. Gawd, I'm stuffed. :)

Gonz

1/13/03, 08:17pm

I was wondering how many of you actually know how to cook

*Proudly raises hand* it's better than eating out & a whole lot cheaper. Of course, my specialty is light fire, wait for ash to turn grey, kill, gut & skin dinner while waiting & throwing that sucker on the pit...cook 'til done mooing & chow

Gonz

1/13/03, 08:20pm

:( damn, didn't see Profs better description :(

1/13/03, 08:48pm

I love to cook. Tonight was roast beef, mashed potatoes and carrots.yummmmmm

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 09:02pm

Mmmm... that sounds good. I love mashed potatoes and carrots.

Spirit

1/13/03, 09:09pm

I made Curry Chicken.... man was it GOOD! It was a hit here.

*licking lips*

Squiggy

1/13/03, 09:14pm

Now I'm getting hungry....

Ardsgaine

1/13/03, 09:35pm

Oooh! Jan makes a Burmese Chicken Curry... she hasn't made it in a long time though. :licklips:

unclehobart

1/13/03, 11:30pm

I cook everything from scratch as a matter of sheer survival. I remember being able to do full dishes from the age of 6. My dad made me cook dinner for some of his business partners a few times at that age. I remember making lots of veal based dishes for them. They were also impressed with my grasp of dirty jokes.

Squiggy

1/13/03, 11:35pm

I was cooking a lot at that age too...and it was for survival...I didn't know about the term dysfunctional family yet, but we had to be the poster children...:D

1/13/03, 11:54pm

PS. Gawd, I'm stuffed. :)

You, my friend, are an asshole.

Damn I'm hungry now.

1/13/03, 11:56pm

I love to cook, but don't have the time to do much good cooking except on weekends, then it's usually a roast, fried chicken, or something else suitable for feeding a football team. Sometimes, when it's just the wife and I, I go more to the gourmet side, Chicken Parmesan, Filet Mignon, but the kids just don't appreciate that stuff.

unclehobart

1/13/03, 11:59pm

My skills were derived from being fairly parentless up to the age of 9. Dad was winding out his military service, working full time with 2 weeks in country, weeks out, finishing masters #2 on the military dole at Harvard. Mom was working full time and getting her doctorate. They were gone when I woke up in the morning and 80% of the time they weren't home by the time I went to bed. Can you say 'latchkey kid'?

1/14/03, 12:04am

They gave you a key?!?!?!?!?

Now I'm jealous. I didn't even get a fucking key.

unclehobart

1/14/03, 12:08am

I had to get in and get out somehow :). .. and look after my helpless older brother. We gave up on babysitters after 6 months because half were arrested for selling drugs out of the house or having orgies/drug parties ... stealing moms clothes... that kind of stuff.

Squiggy

1/14/03, 12:10am

My dad worked nights cause he didn't like being around us. If he was home when I got up he was already passed out drunk...Mom was either still asleep or already working on her drunken stupor for the day....We didn't have a latch that worked.

1/14/03, 12:11am

I just didn't have a door that locked either. Dad was gone by the time I was 3. Mom worked two jobs most of my childhood, so I started cooking to feed my older brothers, who would pay me to cook. :thumbup:

Squiggy

1/14/03, 12:14am

:D Sweet deal...

friggin illiterate keyboard...:D

unclehobart

1/14/03, 12:15am

*stands* Gentlemen .. A TOAST! ... A toast to twisted effing families forcing us to become chefs at a brutally young age. Necessity breeds invention is not dead with us this day.

Squiggy

1/14/03, 12:16am

Cheers! :beerbang:

1/14/03, 12:23am

Cheers! :beerbang:

1/14/03, 12:24am

Sweet deal...
It'd be even sweeter if I had kept all those damn IOU's.

HomeLAN

1/14/03, 10:42am

I can, but most meals are a mix of fresh and sorta prefab, because I simply don't have the time most nights.

I was taught as a kid, but only because my folks thought it just might be something I'd need to know later.

Ardsgaine

1/14/03, 12:15pm

Dang. I just thought my family was bad.

Mom stayed at home cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc, until I was in my late teens. The house was always clean. Dinner was standard country cooking, featuring lots of beans and green veggies that were cooked down to pulp and seasoned with pork fat. I can't say she taught me any of those skills, though. I was a guy, and guys didn't do that stuff.

The dysfunctional part was my dad, who worked his ass off all day but then medicated himself with whiskey as soon as he got off work. Alcohol enhanced his worst qualities: anger, jealousy, pettiness, violence, etc. If he had lived somewhere else and simply mailed us the check, it could have been an idyllic childhood.

Mom probably should have left him, but her mom went through five different husbands and she didn't want to follow in her footsteps. I used to think she was being a doormat, but now I realize that she was just stubborn.

greenfreak

1/14/03, 12:38pm

I hear ya Ards, and can relate. :)

I'm the youngest of four, my mom never really taught any of us how to cook and by the time I was of an age to do things myself, meals came out of a box more often than being cooked from scratch. Later on, she started working and I would just fend for myself when I got home. My favorite was macaroni and cheese. :D

As an adult, anyone can learn to cook so the fault is really my own. I don't mind though! :)

Ardsgaine

1/14/03, 01:08pm

We have a Fanny Farmer cookbook that I pull out when I don't know how to cook something. That's where I got the recipe for the glaze I used on that ham. Jan's much better about getting recipes out of books and following them than I am, though. Usually I just wing it. The kind of things I typically cook it's easy to get away with that. :)

AlladinSane

1/14/03, 01:25pm

As an adult, anyone can learn to cook so the fault is really my own. I don't mind though!
That can be applied to me too. i'm just too fucking lazy to start :eh:

kuulani

1/14/03, 03:40pm

I love cooking ... its the cleaning up after thats a bitch. The only frozen food I can handle is eggos. TV dinners and the like are very no.

I can also bake from scratch too :D

Nixy

1/14/03, 04:32pm

My roommate is gonna make us peanit butter cookies from scratch when she gets better!!!:D

Squiggy

1/14/03, 04:48pm

When she gets better at cookies?.....:confuse3:

Squiggy

1/14/03, 04:50pm

ku'u, just throw out the mess...thats what they do at my house....:(

Nixy

1/14/03, 04:51pm

When she gets better at cookies?.....:confuse3:

NO, she is sick. When she gets better from her sickness.

kuulani

1/14/03, 04:53pm

ku'u, just throw out the mess...thats what they do at my house....:(

I just get the little sister to do the dishes :headbang:

1/14/03, 05:47pm

Tonight I'm making chicken salad with walnuts, pineapple and dill weed, accompanied by a tossed salad with balsamic vinegrette and homemade croutons. Yum. :)

Professur

1/15/03, 07:24am

:( damn, didn't see Profs better description :(

Amachoooor.:bgtup:

Glad to see I'm not the only caveman here.

Ardsgaine

1/20/03, 06:42pm

Tonight's menu....

Mexi-corn casserole (with yellow rice)
Black-eyed peas
Fresh, steamed spinach with butter
Jiffy cornbread

Ooooooooooffff..... I think I hurt myself. :crap:

Squiggy

1/20/03, 06:46pm

I'm grilling a dozen Brats with onions and peppers. It was for yesterday but I never got around to it.....

1/20/03, 07:02pm

I had a NY Strip with homefries today.:)

...a dozen brats?? thatsa lotta brats:eek:

Squiggy

1/20/03, 07:03pm

Not for here...They'll be gone in no time....:D

1/20/03, 07:11pm

Hey, do they throw out the silverware too? or just the pots and pans?

Cuz, if they throw out the silverware, I think you should hide some for you and buy them a whole buncha chopsticks! The cheep-o kind like the restaurants use.

Squiggy

1/20/03, 07:14pm

I spent over $100 on silverware 4 months ago and I'm down to a makeshift service for three.....It never ends.....They throw out new dish towels after one use...Strange children, these.......:crying3: