mirrorrim's Profile

Wipes*

I read an interesting article about this very topic a while ago. It mentions everything has been brought up in the comments, and believes that the reason lard is so frowned upon is due to media attacks against it in the '50s when animal fat was linked to coronary heart disease:

"But shortening really vanquished lard in the 1950s when researchers first connected animal fat in the diet to coronary heart disease. By the '90s, Americans had been indoctrinated to mainline olive oil, but shortening was still the go-to solid fat over lard or even butter in far too many cookbooks. "

and:

"Only one thing may put lard back on the slippery slope: Google the word as news, and it might as well be lard-fearing 1969 all over again. Newspaper food pages still routinely advise using olive or canola oils rather than "fattening" or "artery-clogging" lard. Or they print idiotic utterances like "you get all the lard you need at McDonald's" (a chain that actually abandoned beef tallow for frying its fries only to be saddled with a trans-fatty substitute)."

Full article: http://www.slate.com/id/2219314/

Mmm, casseroles. My absolute favorite is what we call "Your Mom's Chicken." No, it's not an insult, but when my husband and I moved in together we combined recipes and we both had chicken casserole recipes from our moms.
So I just started calling his mother's recipe "Your Mom's Chicken."

It has a layer of rice, then a tasty chicken, cheese, sour cream, bechamel sauce is poured on followed by crumbled butter-soaked Ritz crackers, then stick the whole thing in the oven.

Omg, the soup in the picture looks amazing! I would love recipes on anything with the following main ingredients: cheese, potates, sour cream...mmm reading everyone's comments on Cheddar Ale, cheesy potato soup, yummm! (I always get baked potato soup at Claim Jumper, I can't deny my love for cheese + sour cream! )

This post is so relevant to my life right now--I enjoy cooking and have always been good at following recipes to the T, but up until a couple years ago if I was missing 1 ingredient, I wouldnt make the meal. I hated that and it took me reading recipe sites where people leave comments about what they did that I finally started to learn how to substitute and replace ingredients. Popular recipes with 350+ comments is a little overwhelming, but usually there is a common string of suggestions.

However, I agree with other posters about knowing "what goes with what to make this flavor" when it comes to herbs and spices. I'm still pretty lost in this concept. Just last night my husband brought home a jar of Adobo. The cooking directions: simple. But then it said "Flavor with seasonings to taste." WHAT! Totally lost. What are common Mexican Spices?? A google search helped, but overall I failed in seasoning the Adobo and dumped it down the drain.

Defrosting meat!!! I hate it. My husband calls me a "vegetarian by convenience" because I loathe preparing meals where I have to dethaw meat. (Poor guy is a meat n potatoes man, too...so we've worked out a deal where I'll make a meat-type of dinner as long as he dethaws and preps it)

For this one reason I keep trying to make myself plan weekly meals but I'm just not that organized. When I shop for groceries I get the basics for meals, but I when it comes to dinner that day I make whatever I feel like eating. Since I never know when I feel like making a meal with meat in it I cant leave it in the fridge.

Everything else goes by fast for me--chopping, rice, boiling, dishes (I never do these right after dinner, so it doesnt seem as bad) and I'm pretty good at multitasking, just hate dethawing the MEAT! Ugh!!

I never took home ec in middle school or high school. Instead, middle school focused on sex ed and high school...I didnt have the option to take any fun electives because my schedule was filled with AP classes/sports. The only required elective in high school was a driver's ed/personal finance/family planning course for 1 year. Learning to drive was helpful, but all the other 2 courses taught me was that adult life is expensive (depressing lesson as a teenager anxious to become an adult!).

I dont understand how some people need home ec to learn how to cook. Since most commenters have said they made basic things like cakes/mac n cheese, all that is required is knowing how to read. I understand not having a family member to teach you slightly more advanced cooking skills, but all I had in guidance was a recipe card my mom gave me, and I can cook. I suspect that some of the people in their 30s who "dont know how" are really "too lazy/uninspired to try." Especially with all the guidance available on the internet/books.

Some family friends asked if I would help make gnocchi for a dinner with our families. I had studied in Italy for 4 months and attended a cooking class where we made gnocchi, so I felt pretty confident. It was so simple when we made it with the teacher...but our potato dumplings were not cooking quite right in the water. We ended up having gnocchi lumpy mashed potatoes instead. Still tasted good, though!

If I could, I would have picked both Best Foods and Miracle Whip. I grew up with both. We use Best Foods for any recipe asking for mayo, and we use Miracle Whip for sandwiches.

Mayo is quite a taboo word around my circle of family and friends. It's either "How can you eat a dry sandwich?" or "That stuff shouldnt be considered edible!" I have a sneaking suspicion that the stigma attached to it has become so widespread that some people (note: most of my friends) just assume it's gross without trying it.

One of my friends had a funny revelation over her hatred of mayo. She loves sushi rolls. After years of going to this one place, somehow the topic of mayo came up. She declared how disgusting it was and how it makes her sick to her stomach every time she eats it...then took a big bite out of a roll. We then stared at her and gently (okay, incessantly) teased her about the mayo that was in it. She still cant give up the sushi rolls, but ever since then, after a big meal she always feels sick to her stomach. I cant help but laugh on the inside (sorry D!).

I have yet to tell my husband that the ranch dressing he loves has mayo in it.

Most of my food is checked in 3 steps:

1. What the first 3 ingredients are
2. Scan the list for anything hydrogenated. Is it weird I get a sense of satisfaction when I catch a product claiming it has no trans fat but then find some in the ingredient list? That less than .5 g FDA rule really irks me.
3. Try to avoid food that has "enriched" come before one of its ingredients.

~4. Not really a rule I always follow (cant live without some of my snacks every so often) is how much sugar/salt is in a serving.

One thing I never check is calories. I have some friends where that's all they live by. I've never paid attention to them. I think by following my rules it pretty much eliminates all the bad stuff anyway.