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Old 10-20-2006, 10:04 AM
 
Location: Springfield, Missouri
2,815 posts, read 12,961,236 times
Reputation: 2000001497

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Ladies ladies ladies... GET A CROCKPOT! I'm a single male who never cooked..ever...until 2006. I had Grey Goose Vodka and Bluebell ice cream in my freezer, sixpacks of beer, Cherry coke, classic coke, and vanilla coke, along with maybe a carton quart of milk, usually a dozen eggs and jars of strawberry and/or grape jelly/preserves in the refrigerator...oh, and a loaf of bread usually. That was my food stock for the refrigerator. I usually had poptarts (brown sugar cinnamon of course) in the cupboard and a few bags of pasta for emergencies. While I'd occasionally do spaghetti for special guests (and that was good stuff), that could be a year inbetween. My mom bought me a crockpot, along with a baby crockpot. I never used it. Well, instead of visting Taco Bell, Burger King, Chinese takeout, or the Mexican place down the road with cheap goodies, I now live where if I want fast food, it takes me twenty minutes to drive to it and depending on the weather... I do or don't. So this year I've learned to cook! I can make fantastic meatloaf (and it's EZ!), I do the spaghetti thing still (all in the sauce), and I've learned that my mom is right...the crockpot is great! My first attempts were bombs..I was so proud that my house smelled like I knew what I was doing, then I tasted what crocked eight hours later..bland bland with no flavor---ticked me off. I didn't realize that you have to season differently for a crockpot or whatever you put in there gets washed out and blah. Then I tried, on a wild hair, sticking a large roast in it and putting two cups of bbq sauce mixed with ketchup, black pepper, minced garlic, diced onions, some Worcestershire sauce, and a tablespoon of dijon mustard, blended it all together with another cup of water, then poured it over the frozen roast, set the crockpot on low about 11pm, and woke up the next morning to the smell of bbq beef all through the house..it was fantastic! I pulled some of it apart with two forks and made shredded bbq beef sandwiches, and the other parts I used as the meat dish for dinner and lunch. Lasted three days. Egg salad is also super easy and fast to whip up if you're lost for time and ideas. And most people love it. Tacos are also another one I've gotten good at. You can buy the taco seasoning for the hamburger, do it up, then get the corn tortillas and lightly brown them in olive oil in a frying pan, stack them with papertowels inbetween in a glass covered dish, and shredd cheddar cheese, lettuce, dice up a bowl of tomatoes, onions, have sour cream on hand and whatever salsas you like and get to eating! The stiff taco forms people use suck. I like to do my own, and they stay softer if you leave them in super hot olive oil only for about thirty seconds or so. Good eatin'
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Old 10-20-2006, 10:42 AM
 
164 posts, read 352,196 times
Reputation: 84
I love, love, love to cook, but I can't work with these people (my family). Cooking classes at William Sonoma, shopping trips to Whole Foods, subscriptions to Bon Appetit, Saturdays spent making a gourmet meal - I'm there. I should be living in a fabulous Manhattan loft with a great kitchen, where I can host parties and have my boyfriend over for romantic meals.

Instead, I'm stuck with 4 kids and a husband who are relentless in their need to have dinner prepared every night. "Didn't I just make dinner for you people yesterday?" is what I'm thinking when they ask me what's for dinner. I've got about 8 dinners that I just prepare over and over because I get too busy to make a grocery list or a menu. I despise grocery shopping and so I usually go about once every six weeks and stock up (except for milk, produce etc). I have no problem making things that my kids don't like, since they need to learn etc., but it's disheartening to regularly spend money and time on meals that won't be eaten. And it's not like the dinner conversation is always witty and intellectually stimulating. While we sit down together every night as a family for dinner, and have a great time talking about our day, there certainly is a fair amount of time spent telling kids to sit down, eat properly etc. The kids also patrol the bread basket with the ruthlessness of a prison guard. "How many rolls have you had?" "You already got your two rolls!" etc. A 30 minute dinner where the main conversation was about bread products. Aargh!!!
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Old 10-20-2006, 10:47 AM
 
1,104 posts, read 3,327,240 times
Reputation: 641
Quote:
"Didn't I just make dinner for you people yesterday?" is what I'm thinking when they ask me what's for dinner.
Love it! I know how you feel!
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Old 10-20-2006, 10:57 AM
 
Location: ♥State of the heart♥
1,118 posts, read 4,746,466 times
Reputation: 865
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoMark View Post
Ladies ladies ladies... GET A CROCKPOT!
Love the crockpot! What a great invention.
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Old 10-20-2006, 11:43 AM
 
Location: New Jersey
986 posts, read 2,802,469 times
Reputation: 849
You are all to funny!! MoMark I need to get my crockpot out more often. I always have a good meal when I do. Connie your funny. I was raised in a big family (8 all together) and dinner time was always a wild time!!!
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Old 10-20-2006, 12:48 PM
 
Location: in the southwest
13,396 posts, read 44,908,300 times
Reputation: 13599
heehee
I am a stickler for nutritious foods but I *adore* brown sugar cinnamon pop tarts.

Crockpots are indeed important and worthy but I can't do that sort of thing night after night. And I love Mexican food but my husband won't eat it as often as I will. I just buy the spices and season the chicken or beef myself.

Connie you sound so much like me several years ago! Believe me it does get better with feeding your kids and later they will not only thank you for broadening their epicurean horizons, but even help in the kitchen. When they go to work in there themselves, I think they really appreciate what good food is.
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Old 10-20-2006, 12:54 PM
 
Location: Colorado
9,986 posts, read 18,627,357 times
Reputation: 2178
Quote:
Originally Posted by connie View Post
I love, love, love to cook, but I can't work with these people (my family). Cooking classes at William Sonoma, shopping trips to Whole Foods, subscriptions to Bon Appetit, Saturdays spent making a gourmet meal - I'm there. I should be living in a fabulous Manhattan loft with a great kitchen, where I can host parties and have my boyfriend over for romantic meals.

Instead, I'm stuck with 4 kids and a husband who are relentless in their need to have dinner prepared every night. "Didn't I just make dinner for you people yesterday?" is what I'm thinking when they ask me what's for dinner. I've got about 8 dinners that I just prepare over and over because I get too busy to make a grocery list or a menu. I despise grocery shopping and so I usually go about once every six weeks and stock up (except for milk, produce etc). I have no problem making things that my kids don't like, since they need to learn etc., but it's disheartening to regularly spend money and time on meals that won't be eaten. And it's not like the dinner conversation is always witty and intellectually stimulating. While we sit down together every night as a family for dinner, and have a great time talking about our day, there certainly is a fair amount of time spent telling kids to sit down, eat properly etc. The kids also patrol the bread basket with the ruthlessness of a prison guard. "How many rolls have you had?" "You already got your two rolls!" etc. A 30 minute dinner where the main conversation was about bread products. Aargh!!!


I feel ya, love to cook great italian dinners, big and time consuming only to have my kids look at me and say " wheres the mac and cheese?"
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Old 10-20-2006, 12:59 PM
 
5,469 posts, read 7,047,443 times
Reputation: 9552
I want to take cooking classes. They ought to have some type of adult-ed courses in cooking. There are a lot of people, including myself who can't cook simple things like omelets, steaks, meatloaf, chicken. I usually grill all the time, but to bake, fry, broil? I'm clueless. I can't even saute onions.
There are plenty of single men and women who would benefit from a course like this. Who know's maybe they will even find a mate.
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Old 10-20-2006, 01:10 PM
 
Location: Jersey
2,098 posts, read 6,316,321 times
Reputation: 998
They should have courses like that....why don't you check the local high school in your town, sometimes they have night courses for adults...maybe they'll have a cooking course. Also, check with shoprite (or your local grocery store). I know that my local Shoprite offers a cooking class. I'm not sure if it's all year or just around the holidays, but they put these little magazines out near the deli and it will tell you when the class is, what shoprite it's at, the cost of it and what you will be learning to cook that week. Lastly, just to boost your confidence a bit, I did hear somewhere (don't remember where) that when a man enjoys cooking, he is actually a better cook than a woman (and women have always been the "cookers" in the family....interesting tidbit, I think). Good luck!
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Old 10-20-2006, 01:33 PM
 
Location: The Big D
14,862 posts, read 42,710,702 times
Reputation: 5787
LOL!!! Connie, so true, so true. And having to decide WHAT they are all going to eat for EVERY STINKIN MEAL. I mean really, you have to decide what to buy for them to eat for breakfast. Pack in their lunches. Then to fix for dinner. URGH!!!!!! Enough decisions already. I so hear ya on the whole fixing something then no one wants it. Then if hubby works late, I'm NOT cooking an entire meal for my kids to see it and say, "what is it?" and "I don't like that". I swear at times I feel like I work as a short order cook. I should get a job at waffle house or something, at least there I would get paid for it.

I love my crockpot but I do not cook in the summer. It's too hot to eat then. And all the kids want to do is swim in the summer. So it's useless even trying to cook. I keep flour tortillas on hand along w/ the already cooked chicken strips (grilled and different seasonings available), lettuce, ranch dressing, etc and we will have wraps and such for dinner. Easy and good for you at least.

Then the days of soccer games, practices, band, drill, etc. Forgot about cooking. On the days I know that we have a lot going on as far as after school when I pick the kids up from school I will go straight to get them something to eat then. We have a Chick-Fil-A real close and they offer the fruit instead of fries and other pretty decent things. So at least they got a decent "meal" or "snack" beforehand after school. Then if they are hungry when we get home from whatever was going on that night they can get shower and have a sandwich, cup of soup, etc.
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