This Was A LOT of Work - Pad Thai

fly said:
They are called aromatics and help to impart flavor into thy bird.
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It was pretty cool, my mom had never done oranges before. She normally does the onion and some other things but I think this was the first year using oranges. I have never cooked a turkey so I guess it wasn't common knowledge for me.
 
kiwi said:
Why is that lame? Dinnertime goes like this. Cook while trying to keep screaming kids out of the kitchen, get everyone set up at the table, get food on kids plates, try to bribe them to eat it (Knyte's done at this point), pick food up off the floor, get up to refill drinks, sit back down, put food on your plate, get up for some other completely random object that someone needs, pick up more food off of the floor, try to get the kids to eat 3 more bites, take a bite of your food, get frustrated, kick kids out of the kitchen, sit back down, finally eat your cold meal by yourself while listening to kids run around and scream, clear the table and do the dishes. That activity hardly warrants spending quality time preparing.
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I was commenting more on the enthusiam of the comment than the sentiment. I can understand not liking some task or chore. I like some better than others. However harbouring such hatred for cooking is absurd.

But now that you've started, I must say I think you're doing it wrong. At my house, if you acted like that before dinner, you went hungry. If you were really bad, you got a taste of "home discipline". If you refused to eat, you went hungry. Later on, if you refused to help clean the dishes, you weren't eating the next night. Highly effective.

Cooking for yourself is the one thing that has the biggest single daily impact on you mental and physical health.

Cooking can easily be a social activity. Get people to help out. Turn on some music or strike up a conversation. Oddly enough, I can't keep people out of the kitchen when I cook. You'd be surprised how much fun you can have.

Teaching your children how to cook is part of teaching them how to take care of themselves and how to eat right.

Those are all reasons you should not hate cooking.
 
Saturday I did a post-Thanksgiving dinner for the parts of our family we didn't get to see on Thursday.

I got up at 7 and began cooking. I made a panetonne bread pudding with a cinnamon syrup (all made from scratch) for starters, then I did the turkey... stuffing, mashed taters, candied sweet potatoes (one with marshmallows one without) green bean caserole (used 2 pounds of green beans), I made a giblet gravy, and I'm blanking on the rest... I had invited 13 people and cooked for that number. Only 6 were seated at dinner, which was finished at 2:30, and everyone was out of the door by 6pm.

7.5 hours of cooking to have half my guests blow me off and the other half only stay for about half the time it took to cook. :lol:

I can understand why some folks think it's a bother. Personally, I'd rather spend the 8 hours in the kitchen cooking food I love to eat than having to spend that time at someone else's house watching them mess it up and then having to eat something that came out totally gross. :fly:
 
zengoat said:
Saturday I did a post-Thanksgiving dinner for the parts of our family we didn't get to see on Thursday.

I got up at 7 and began cooking. I made a panetonne bread pudding with a cinnamon syrup (all made from scratch) for starters, then I did the turkey... stuffing, mashed taters, candied sweet potatoes (one with marshmallows one without) green bean caserole (used 2 pounds of green beans), I made a giblet gravy, and I'm blanking on the rest... I had invited 13 people and cooked for that number. Only 6 were seated at dinner, which was finished at 2:30, and everyone was out of the door by 6pm.

7.5 hours of cooking to have half my guests blow me off and the other half only stay for about half the time it took to cook. :lol:

I can understand why some folks think it's a bother. Personally, I'd rather spend the 8 hours in the kitchen cooking food I love to eat than having to spend that time at someone else's house watching them mess it up and then having to eat something that came out totally gross. :fly:
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Next year invite 30 people and go to KFC :p
 
kiwi said:
Why is that lame? Dinnertime goes like this. Cook while trying to keep screaming kids out of the kitchen, get everyone set up at the table, get food on kids plates, try to bribe them to eat it (Knyte's done at this point), pick food up off the floor, get up to refill drinks, sit back down, put food on your plate, get up for some other completely random object that someone needs, pick up more food off of the floor, try to get the kids to eat 3 more bites, take a bite of your food, get frustrated, kick kids out of the kitchen, sit back down, finally eat your cold meal by yourself while listening to kids run around and scream, clear the table and do the dishes. That activity hardly warrants spending quality time preparing.
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How old are the kids? Old enough to help?
Can you bring a pitcher of drinks for refills to save at least one trip?
Plate everything in the kitchen and bring it all out at once?
Pick stuff up off the floor only after dinner?

I know it's frustrating, but maybe find some patterns, and try to minimize getting up where possible.
 
BeerAd said:
Next year invite 30 people and go to KFC :p
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Tuesday night my Dad and grandparents had driven in from St. Louis. Well they were supposed to call me when they were an hour away (I was at work) but signals crossed and I ended up getting home an hour after they got to my house... and then I had to make dinner.

So I made cheater chicken soup (I call it cheater chicken soup :fly: ) basically, I buy a bag of pre-cut carrots, onions, celery, toss it in a pot and let it aromate for a minute, dump in some chicken broth, salt pepper and dried basil, then I shred up one of those already made rotisserie chickens from the supermarket, drop in a half a bag of frozen peas and a half a bad of frozen corn, let it come to a boil and drop in dumplins.

It's quick but it's rather intense I suppose so my Grandpa looks at me and goes, "You know you could have just gotten KFC and it would have suited me just fine"

...

:lol: Next time I will!!!
 
zengoat said:
Tuesday night my Dad and grandparents had driven in from St. Louis. Well they were supposed to call me when they were an hour away (I was at work) but signals crossed and I ended up getting home an hour after they got to my house... and then I had to make dinner.

So I made cheater chicken soup (I call it cheater chicken soup :fly: ) basically, I buy a bag of pre-cut carrots, onions, celery, toss it in a pot and let it aromate for a minute, dump in some chicken broth, salt pepper and dried basil, then I shred up one of those already made rotisserie chickens from the supermarket, drop in a half a bag of frozen peas and a half a bad of frozen corn, let it come to a boil and drop in dumplins.

It's quick but it's rather intense I suppose so my Grandpa looks at me and goes, "You know you could have just gotten KFC and it would have suited me just fine"

...

:lol: Next time I will!!!
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hahahaha... that cheater soup actually sounds great! I just got done eating my progresso(??) chicken noodle, it sucked :(
 
tre said:
How old are the kids? Old enough to help?
Can you bring a pitcher of drinks for refills to save at least one trip?
Plate everything in the kitchen and bring it all out at once?
Pick stuff up off the floor only after dinner?

I know it's frustrating, but maybe find some patterns, and try to minimize getting up where possible.
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Well, the fact that I don't really enjoy planning, shopping, or preparing the food in the first place doesn't help. I'll certainly teach my kids to cook as they get older (they are 4, 2, and 1, when they are teenagers they will each be responsible to plan, help shop, and cook one meal a week) so they have the skills necessary, but I simply don't enjoy it. I like making goodies, cookies, candies, cakes (mostly cause then I get to be artistic and decorate the cakes), but as far as dinner every day, blah, I can always think of a thousand things I'd rather be doing. With one kid it was much easier to get everything set up and get through dinner, but with 3, I just get through it and then I get to move on to something that's less stressful. I'm sure as they get older and are more independent it will be better again.

My mom is a great cook and taught all of us how to cook growing up, but she agrees with me, the whole process is just a pain.

On another note, if anyone has really good slow cooker recipes I'll take them. I have much more energy at 1-2pm and it's much easier to throw stuff in a crockpot then and then have it all nice and ready at 6:30 so I'm not stressed over preparing as the kids are all hungry and grumpy.
 
kiwi said:
On another note, if anyone has really good slow cooker recipes I'll take them. I have much more energy at 1-2pm and it's much easier to throw stuff in a crockpot then and then have it all nice and ready at 6:30 so I'm not stressed over preparing as the kids are all hungry and grumpy.
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Do you have the "Crockery Cookery" or the "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook? Those rock for crock pot fud.
 
kiwi said:
I've never heard of Crockery cookery but I keep looking at the fix it and forget it, I may have to give in and buy it.
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I have Fix It and Forget It and can't get a handle on how it's organized, so I have to read the thing like a regular book to find recipes which are doable.
 
kiwi said:
My mom is a great cook and taught all of us how to cook growing up, but she agrees with me, the whole process is just a pain.

On another note, if anyone has really good slow cooker recipes I'll take them. I have much more energy at 1-2pm and it's much easier to throw stuff in a crockpot then and then have it all nice and ready at 6:30 so I'm not stressed over preparing as the kids are all hungry and grumpy.
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http://www.crock-pot.com/recipescat.aspx?catid=6
 
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