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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food

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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: Pumpkin Lady <pumpkingal@clearwire.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food
  • Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:29:08 -0600

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




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