What really sucks about cooking from scratch...

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Replies

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    I agree that cooking can definitely be a hobby.

    I just wish I had any kind of creativity when it comes to it... I just follow (easy) recipes, pretty much.

    Most anything can be a hobby. Growing food is a hobby for me. I've just never looked at cooking that way.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    beets4us wrote: »
    Lounmoun wrote: »
    What sucks about cooking is mountains of dirty dishes.
    The rest of it is fine with me.

    This is why I am looking forward to having children.

    My oldest, a 7 year old, is just gettin good a dishes (where I don't have to rewash most of them). Its fabulous to only have a few (usually sharp) things to wash! Especially since we don't have a dishwasher.

    I control the "sink full" of dishes by severely limiting the number of dishes, pots and pans that we own. We are a family of 6...we have a 6 piece table setting (6 plates, bowls, cups, silverware). I own one large skillet, one large 3" deep covered pan (saucier I think its called?) And one large pot with pasta insert. One 9x12 pyrex dish, one rimmed cookie sheet, one set of silicone muffin cups. One spatula, one large serving spoon, one wisk, one measuring cup, 1 bread knife, 1 paring knife, 1 chef knife, 1 peeler.

    Thats it. Even if every dish, pot, pan and utensil I own is dirty....its not that bad.
  • mkakids
    mkakids Posts: 1,913 Member
    EWJLang wrote: »
    beets4us wrote: »
    Lounmoun wrote: »
    What sucks about cooking is mountains of dirty dishes.
    The rest of it is fine with me.

    This is why I am looking forward to having children.

    I hope that you're only joking because I had to raise myself & my siblings & it wasn't supposed to be my responsibility.

    Dishwashing is a reasonable chore for a child.

    In my opinion, raising younger siblings is NOT a reasonable chore or expectation. Sorry that happened to you, it really sucks. (Just one of the 8000 reasons the Duggars can bite me) But, kids do need kid-appropriate chores. Folding laundry, washing dishes, helping with sweeping/vacuuming....normal. "You've been assigned your little brother?" Not so much.

    Agreed! Kids need to be given chores..but they still need to be kids!
  • Susieq_1994
    Susieq_1994 Posts: 5,361 Member
    jordistsm wrote: »
    Crushing garlic. I LOVE garlic - would add it to every single meal if I could. But garlic crushers are messy and annoying, and I haven't mastered the chef's way of using the flat side of the knife blade. It's a good thing I don't mind getting bigger chunks of the stuff every few mouthfuls!

    Oh, and cleaning up afterwards. Love planning, preparing, and cooking food. But loathe any form of housework, so the clean up is my most hated part of cooking. I do it. I just hate doing it.

    Maybe I'm crazy for this, but I use a finely-sized cheese grater and just grate my garlic. Super easy and no mincing or crushing OR large chunks of garlic in my finished product!
    How do you hold garlic cloves while you grate them?

    I smash garlic cloves with the heel of my hand over the flat end of a big knife, remove the paper then chop it more finely. It's not my favorite part but the pre-cut or even pre-peeled stuff just doesn't have the flavor of freshly chopped, to me.

    You know that ugly dried bit at the bottom of the garlic? I press my finger and thumb on it to hold the clove in place, then grate it from the top down. You don't even have to peel it that way, because the grater won't grate the peel... So once it's grated, you're holding the ugly dry bit attached to the peel... Voila! :)
  • cjcece
    cjcece Posts: 1 Member
    I absolutely LOVE my electric pressure cooker!
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    clean up and dishes
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    jordistsm wrote: »
    Crushing garlic. I LOVE garlic - would add it to every single meal if I could. But garlic crushers are messy and annoying, and I haven't mastered the chef's way of using the flat side of the knife blade. It's a good thing I don't mind getting bigger chunks of the stuff every few mouthfuls!

    Oh, and cleaning up afterwards. Love planning, preparing, and cooking food. But loathe any form of housework, so the clean up is my most hated part of cooking. I do it. I just hate doing it.

    Maybe I'm crazy for this, but I use a finely-sized cheese grater and just grate my garlic. Super easy and no mincing or crushing OR large chunks of garlic in my finished product!
    How do you hold garlic cloves while you grate them?

    I smash garlic cloves with the heel of my hand over the flat end of a big knife, remove the paper then chop it more finely. It's not my favorite part but the pre-cut or even pre-peeled stuff just doesn't have the flavor of freshly chopped, to me.

    You know that ugly dried bit at the bottom of the garlic? I press my finger and thumb on it to hold the clove in place, then grate it from the top down. You don't even have to peel it that way, because the grater won't grate the peel... So once it's grated, you're holding the ugly dry bit attached to the peel... Voila! :)

    thats brilliant!
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
    Meal timing is definitely the hardest thing to learn. I've been doing it for years so now everything comes out hot at the same time. You've had great advice: pre-prep your ingredients, start with the thing that takes the longest, and time everything backwards from when you want to serve. Once you get more experience you'll be able to multitask more and you'll actually know how long things take.

    The hardest part about cooking these days in my house is: I've asked my kids to feed the cats and set the table before 6:00 when I start to cook. But almost invariably, they forget (or they're not even home yet, because sports practice and stuff).

    So at 6:00, EVERYONE piles into the kitchen - two kids doing chores, two hungry cats yowling, and a husband dumping his work satchel on the counter and grabbing snacks out of the fridge ... all as I'm trying to chop 4 things at once and keep the stuff on the stove from burning. Utter chaos.

    (In advance: thank you for all the forthcoming "advice" about how if I beat my kids more or withheld the wifi password, they'd do their chores when they were supposed to. But we're good. If it was our biggest household problem, I could solve it, but on the actual scale of household problems "my family is around too much at dinner time" is like a 1 out of 10).
  • greenfirearm
    greenfirearm Posts: 120 Member
    Lounmoun wrote: »
    What sucks about cooking is mountains of dirty dishes.
    The rest of it is fine with me.

    Ha, this! I'm AWFUL at washing up, love cooking though. Best thing about eating is a good home cooked meal with a mountain of veggies. And until I started doing it, I didn't know what good food was imho. :stuck_out_tongue:
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