Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Pumpkin Lady <pumpkingal@clearwire.net>]

Tradingpost wrote:
> Cooking from scratch doesn't need to take more time 
> and effort than the drivethru line at McDooDoos. 

Particularly if you live 10 miles from the nearest fast food 
joint. ;-) We had an addiction to mocha java chillers from 
Sonic and I used to love their yogurt whip thingies. I 
learned to make both at home from scratch. Much cheaper, 
faster - since I live 15 miles from the nearest Sonic now 
(used to live less than a mile from one), and probably 
better for me since I control what goes into it.

But, cooking DOES take time to acquire a knowledge of what 
and how to cook easy stuff fast. Also there are rules that 
you have to learn as you go along. People bemoan the time it 
takes to learn. There is no spirit of play left. People want 
to be experts from the first time, they don't seem to feel 
like they can "fail". Honestly, I may not like what I cook 
sometimes, but it's rarely completely inedible.

I recommend once a month cooking type things, but I don't 
necessarily recommend their recipes and menus. What >I< mean 
is to take a weekend and cook a bundle of stuff that freezes 
or cans THAT YOU LIKE and do up a bunch of food you like to 
eat so you have it. I'll take a weekend and bake bread all 
one day and make soup all the next and freeze the bread and 
can the soup and we'll have "instant" meals that are healthy 
and fast for when we need them.

> The kitchen skills need to be learned, best by working 
> with someone who's done it, who knows how to make good 
> meals from whatever's in the garden, the  pantry or icebox  

HAH! My mother died when I was 11, and she almost never let 
me in the kitchen before she died. My father didn't exactly 
make me cook, but if I didn't want to eat what he cooked I 
had to cook for myself - and he wouldn't buy me "special 
stuff" (you know, like cheddar cheese - if what's in the 
house isn't good enough for you, lump it!).

The assumption that you need someone to teach you is a big 
limiter. All you need is the ability to read and willingness 
to muff up regularly until you figure it out. Start simple 
and work up.

In order to use up what's on hand that you have a plethora 
of I recommend going to Google and typing in the ingredients 
and "recipe". Google will send you tons of lovely links and 
you can run through the recipes and pick out ones for things 
you have on hand that sound good to you.

I ended up with a gallon of buttermilk (long story). The 
only thing I used to use buttermilk in was scones. I didn't 
want to make quite tat many scones, even with a big freezer 
like I have. ;-) I Googled and found a number of nice things 
 we liked and I have more recipes for using buttermilk now. 
Good thing, too, since I make the stuff rather than buy it 
these days.

> But yes, it's not an uncommon problem. People at the 
> markets keep asking her how you fix squash or whatever. 

And I always wonder why people SELL stuff they don't know 
how to cook. Our "market" is staffed by people who don't 
grow food nor do they cook it. It's one reason I don't shop 
there. They can't tell me what pesticides went on it or 
anything else I want to know.

One year I was weak and bought some red kuri because I 
wanted to use it as a bowl for some custards (one dessert, 
one breakfast). The guy asked me what I was going to do with 
them because he had no idea how one cooked them. My husband 
told him I was going to lop it open and pour egg based stuff 
inside and cook it. That answer left the guy completely 
puzzled so I explained in detail, but I could see he still 
didn't get it. He asked me WHY I'd want to do that and I 
told him that the particular squash had a taste that lent 
itself to those things very well and he STILL didn't get it, 
so we gave up and left. That was the last time I went to the 
"local" market.

I hear we have another one now, but they are all the way the 
other side of town from where I live so I haven't made it 
over that way yet.

I think people need to be less afraid to experiment with food.

Morgan