As a friend of mine recently said, "We're all spoiled--very spoiled." We continually expect more and more convenience from the foods we buy. I've mentioned before that everybody feels so busy these days--working mothers, etc.—so no one feels they have the time to do much cooking. (And worse, look at the lines of cars in the drive-thru of the nearest fast-food place at dinner time: Call Hubby on the cell phone: "Pick up some KFC," or McDonald's, or Pizza Hut for dinner. Not good nutrition; that's one reason why Americans are so fat.)
When bagged salads first came out, I was practically outraged. You're paying up to $10 a pound for lettuce that should cost a fraction of that much—just to be saved the trouble of washing the lettuce and cutting (or tearing) it up. But I have to admit that now I buy it myself, probably 95% of the time. (I only eat organic lettuce, and I can more easily get organic bagged salad. But when I do see organic lettuce and it seems reasonably priced, I buy it and wash it, and save some money!)
Ditto for mashed potatoes. I've never bought the stuff that comes in a little tub in the supermarket. I'd have to agree that peeling potatoes, boiling them and then mashing them takes time and effort, and I've done it very few times in my life. So for potatoes, I'll use the instant, flake kind of mashed potatoes, or—better yet—I might just boil some little red potatoes: you don't even have to peel them. Takes 15 minutes.
You can get almost anything ready made these days, it seems, even things that are very easy to make yourself. Our grandmothers would be amazed, and probably horrified. You can get little pouches of tuna salad (you could just buy tuna and stir in a little mayonnaise, you really don't need much more than that). There are little packages of pasta dishes--just heat and eat. Even ready-made sandwiches in the food store, or peanut butter and crackers. Gad, we're too lazy to spread something on a slice of bread or a cracker!
I can make a lot of things from scratch, like brownies and pancakes—yet I buy a mix instead. (I buy a relatively healthy pancake mix and then doctor it by adding oat bran--adds fiber, cuts the sodium--and cinnamon, or blueberries if they're on hand.) I've never used the pancakes you get in the refrigerator counter or freezer of the supermarket. I buy frozen waffles, but my excuse there is that I don't own a waffle iron.
So I'm guilty, too. But we should all keep in mind that, when and if we have the time, it's better—more nutritious and typically a lot cheaper—if we make something from scratch or even a mix.
Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Monday, March 1, 2010
Hell-Louise's Helpful Household Hints
This posting represents a major departure for Mourning Dove Hill, an excursion into a very different subject area.
1. Ever notice that, when you put spaghetti sauce from a jar onto a plate of spaghetti, you get a pool of watery liquid, almost water, on the bottom? And you blame the sauce for being watery or not thick enough. (It's probably the same story with homemade sauce; and you wonder why your sauce just is never thick enough!)
Well, here's what to do about it (rather than unjustly blame that sauce): When your spaghetti is cooked, of course you pour it from the pot into a strainer or colander to drain it. If you use one of those sort of crescent-shaped pot strainers, what I say still holds.
Well, that doesn't drain your pasta well enough. From the strainer or colander, put that pasta on a plate or platter or in a bowl—and then put it in the microwave. Heat it in the microwave for maybe 20 or 30 seconds. You'll drive off all the extra moisture and, voila! – no more watery residue at the bottom.
2. Got a banana that you want to eat but it's not quite ripe enough yet? The microwave to the rescue—again! Just microwave it for 10 seconds before peeling.
3. Twist-off jar lids hard to open? There are so many jar openers out there to help you; but I've found absolutely the best and simplest, too. It's called JarKey. It's a very simple device that pries up the edge of the lid just enough to break the vacuum (the button in the middle of the lid will audibly pop up). Then, miraculously! it's easy to open the lid with your hand. You can find the JarKey on the Internet, and it's inexpensive. (I have no connection with the maker of this device and I don't gain anything if you buy it.)
Note added later: There is evidently a pretty much identical product called JarPop sold for $4 at
The Container Store.
4. Yet another use for the microwave: I cook an ear of corn in the microwave. The recipe calls for peeling back the husks, removing the silk, and then recovering the ear with the husks. But you don't need to do that. (I do take my kitchen shears and cut off the husks and silk at the top of the ear.) Also sometimes it's recommended that you soak the ear of corn in water first. When the husks are wet, then the ear will steam—so the theory goes. Well, you can do that, or you can hold the ear under running water in the sink for a little while; but I think both of these are unnecessary. If the narrow end of the ear is not covered well by the husks, wrap a little plastic wrap around it. Then microwave for 3 minutes 20 seconds (for one ear). Trust me, this works beautifully.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
1. Ever notice that, when you put spaghetti sauce from a jar onto a plate of spaghetti, you get a pool of watery liquid, almost water, on the bottom? And you blame the sauce for being watery or not thick enough. (It's probably the same story with homemade sauce; and you wonder why your sauce just is never thick enough!)
Well, here's what to do about it (rather than unjustly blame that sauce): When your spaghetti is cooked, of course you pour it from the pot into a strainer or colander to drain it. If you use one of those sort of crescent-shaped pot strainers, what I say still holds.
Well, that doesn't drain your pasta well enough. From the strainer or colander, put that pasta on a plate or platter or in a bowl—and then put it in the microwave. Heat it in the microwave for maybe 20 or 30 seconds. You'll drive off all the extra moisture and, voila! – no more watery residue at the bottom.
2. Got a banana that you want to eat but it's not quite ripe enough yet? The microwave to the rescue—again! Just microwave it for 10 seconds before peeling.
3. Twist-off jar lids hard to open? There are so many jar openers out there to help you; but I've found absolutely the best and simplest, too. It's called JarKey. It's a very simple device that pries up the edge of the lid just enough to break the vacuum (the button in the middle of the lid will audibly pop up). Then, miraculously! it's easy to open the lid with your hand. You can find the JarKey on the Internet, and it's inexpensive. (I have no connection with the maker of this device and I don't gain anything if you buy it.)
Note added later: There is evidently a pretty much identical product called JarPop sold for $4 at
The Container Store.
4. Yet another use for the microwave: I cook an ear of corn in the microwave. The recipe calls for peeling back the husks, removing the silk, and then recovering the ear with the husks. But you don't need to do that. (I do take my kitchen shears and cut off the husks and silk at the top of the ear.) Also sometimes it's recommended that you soak the ear of corn in water first. When the husks are wet, then the ear will steam—so the theory goes. Well, you can do that, or you can hold the ear under running water in the sink for a little while; but I think both of these are unnecessary. If the narrow end of the ear is not covered well by the husks, wrap a little plastic wrap around it. Then microwave for 3 minutes 20 seconds (for one ear). Trust me, this works beautifully.
Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein
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