conuly | We made play dough today.

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We made play dough today.

I couldn't find the boughten play-doh, so we made our own. Scented it with a little bit of rose water. There's something viscerally good about seeing children playing with undyed play dough, and knowing that you did that yourself. It smells so... wholesome, it really does. Like the store bought kind, but moreso.

Play dough is really easy - just about two parts flour to one part water, and as much salt as you think it needs. I always have it too sticky like that, so I keep adding flour until it's right. Takes about five minutes of my life - less if I make the kids do it, and they think it's fun.

It's like cakes all over again. So many things we buy as a matter of course, we assume make our lives easier. And I guess they do, sorta - but it turns out that the homemade replacements aren't actually that difficult to make, or even that time-consuming.

I was reading a review on Amazon.com about a cookbook, and somebody commented that parts of it were "too time-consuming" because she's a mother of a pre-schooler, so she substitutes (this is her example) canned beans for dried. I didn't get it. From where I'm sitting, soaking the beans is the easiest part of cooking! Sure, it takes several hours, but you don't need to be there. You don't even need to be awake. Just put some water over the beans and go to bed, and by tomorrow they'll be ready to cook. They're healthier that way, and cheaper, too, and it's so easy. I suppose if you start cooking every day by looking in the fridge and seeing what you haven't run out of yet, it makes sense, but that costs more money and time to do, and stress as well.

I was inspired, after the play dough, to look up some recipes for glue, for paint. Why, it's easy to make glue, and not that hard to make paint that'll stand up to the needs of a very young child. (It's not like your very young child is Picasso and needs good quality art supplies just to make a mess on the table, right?)

I read just the other day an excerpt from an old cookbook, preaching frugality. It is the height of waste, I was told, to buy vinegar. One should buy some vinegar once, and then just keep topping it off with this and that - old cider, sour beer, whatever. It sounds so simple, but who makes their own vinegar now? Or stock - why do we buy stocks? What could be easier than dumping your vegetable garbage and bones in a pot and watching TV for a few hours?

Our garden last year was so simple, we didn't touch it, and we had fresh veggies all summer and into fall.

What else is there that's really just so easy to do, that people generally don't do? And why don't we? I appreciate that people don't know how, but why don't people know how, or think of it?

Edit: To be clear, since I don't think I was, I don't mean "This way is better than that way" except for tangible things - these things are easier than they're portrayed (even if they're not totally easy), and they do save money.

I mean, more along the lines of "Why don't people see these as options? Why don't they know these options exist?" It's one thing to know your choices and make an informed choice to do this or that because it's easier for you. It's totally different to make your choice because you think something is impossible for you when it's not, or to not even make your choice because you don't realize you have one.

So like, to be specific, planning meals in advance *is* cheaper. But if it can't work for you, or if it's not a priority, that's your business. This is me, totally not caring (except if you're my mom, in which case, I really wish you'd stop buying food that looks good now, but that never gets made and goes bad in the fridge or freezer) because it's not my concern at all.

*deep breath*

I'm running off now.

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You're not typical in that respect though, are you? I can honestly say that your situation would never have occurred to me as a possibility, and I'm guessing that most people don't have that problem.

Though I can imagine it makes life harder for you, as I said.

which somewhat defeats the savings part of it.

At least it's still yummy?

Can you make your stock in your crockpot, saving a burner?

And this family regularly makes beans. Without rinsing, and with a minimum of checking for foreign particles. Nobody has died yet, though I live most days with my fingers crossed (admittedly, because we're working on letters still, and I spend a lot of time asking people to "make an r with their fingers").

You are just a veritable font of knowledge, you know. I'm not even saying useless like I normally would in that phrase, because I'm not thinking it.

Ever had a picky-eater child? Or adult? It's a lot more common than it seems.

Yes, I can make it in the crockpot, then it just takes up counter space. And it is yummy. But not yummier than some of the store bought soups. So, it's a fair bit of work, buying of stuff, washing of stuff, chopping of stuff, for not much benefit.

*shrugs*

I've never had trouble making stock, as long as I remember that most people don't like things as seasoned as I do. And if I'm cooking upstairs, it's on an electric stove, and I certainly am too lazy to get up and check it very often.

I don't do it that much, but that's because we don't *use* stock that much, and don't really have a good storage system for it, unless I really boil it down and freeze it.

As for beer - why don't we make our own beers, then? Seriously - why not? Or buy from local brewers who don't have to use a zillion preservatives? What happened to these local options? It's all the same problem together, it seems.

That's true. I usually can plan ahead, but it's not uncommon for me to have a day where a particular type of food just turns my stomach or my body seems to need a particular food. So, speed can be of use.

I agree with you totaly on the superiority of homebrew. My appartment lacks the space to make it, but it is undeniably infinately superior to 99% of what you ight buy in a bottleo, although living as I do in australia there are some pritty decent beers available.

Not usually picky where something's okay one day, and then terrible the next, not that I know in person, adult or child.

Though, as a kid, I had the worst time with bananas. I'd either gorge myself on them, or (usually right after my parents caved and bought a ton just for me) be totally sickened by the though of them... probably because they were most of what I'd eaten for the past few weeks.

But it was only bananas.

I'm not criticizing you for the problems you've got. You've got to work around it however it works for you. But I don't think most people *do* have that problem in that severity. (Now I want to go out and poll some several billion people to prove my point. I'm thinking that's a bad idea, though, and very impractical, and not very mature, and I'm sorry.)

Oh, I always mean to learn to darn socks. But usually, I'm so happy to *find* socks, I don't worry about the holes. If they're that bad, I switch them to the other feet so my toes don't poke through anymore.

I have homebrewed, although i don't at the moment, due to lack of space.
I've also made plum wine with nothing more than a strainer, a pot, a funnel, and a couple of old gallon jugs. Powerfull enough to knock the socks off a person the next state over that was.
These days when I drink, it's usualy mountin goat, which is brewed 10 blocks away from where I live. There is no dregs, cause I drain the bottle ;) Yum!
In Australia, local beer varieties are plentiful, cheap, and good. Typical of a nation of total pissheads.

heheh. Sock darning. You win super kudos points for that.

Ahh, now i see what you were tryign to get to.
I suspect that the reason peopel dont even relaise the option exists any more is because they have not real been exposed to it. Todays 30 year olds probably grew up in households where traditional (read time expensive) cooking was already dying due to the ever increasing number of dual income families. All I have to do is compare myself to my mother and my grandmother. My grandmother baked every week. My mother baked once a month. I bake once a year if im lucky, and I've had the professional cooking experinece, unlike most of my friends my age or younger.
Every one of my grandmothers friends could bake
about 75% of my mothers friends can
Only myself and one other person I know my age can bake, and most of our friends have expressed no interest in it at all.
As a society we are narrowing our options, our food diversity, and our diets, and I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

But you know what? It still doesn't make sense. My sister and my brother-in-law both get home rather late - and they both make real meals from scratch most days. Mostly him, sometimes her, once a week me. And they have canned beans, but when my sister cooks (and she gets home later than he does) she is sure to soak her own. I'm finding these things don't take quite as long as they're perceived to, which is - surprising. They take more time than just buying food, yeah, but they aren't the agonies of time that people would have you believe they are!

I guess our perceptions are messed up, again, because we don't *know*. We say "Well, I know my mom didn't do such-and-fuch because she was busy working, so therefore it really takes so-and-so many hours" - and maybe it only takes half as long as we think, but we don't know, because our mom and dad and whoever never did whatever it is when we were young!

But you know, yeah?

I'm getting all tangenty, and I don't mean to. My point is just - so many people don't even think they really have the option to make stock at all, because they think it's harder than it is, and figure they don't know how to do it, and it's too hard to learn. So they can't make the choice "Do I buy stock or make it or work around?" because they don't know they have the option to make stock if they want. They can't do a cost-benefit analysis because they don't even really know what the costs are.

At any rate, this isn't actually the topic I meant to be on, and I didn't mean to offend you (or anybody) or even judge anybody. I just meant to ask why many people don't know about their choices, not why anybody deliberately makes a choice they do.

People have built up activities like washing cloth pads, or soaking beans, or baking cake, or (I'm trying to think of things I've done recently, you understand, so I can compare them properly to my pre-existing conceptions) making play-dough into tasks of Sisyphean proportions! So they aren't making a fair decision because they don't really understand how hard this or that is - they just think they do, without even trying it. Or they don't know how to do it at all, so they assume it must be difficult - if it wasn't, everybody would know how!

And you can't make a choice if you don't know you have a choice, right?

You choose to use canned beans because you know planning meals in advance enough to soak beans isn't going to work for you. People without that problem, however, might choose to use canned beans because "Wow, soaking beans is hard" (which I've actually seen written, though usually in more words), and it's really a minimum of effort. Their choice is based on a misconception, instead of something they know about themselves.

And I like people to have choices. Choices are good things, even if you ultimately choose something just the opposite of what I would choose.

Though if they choose not to make meals, again, that's their business. At least they've done it often enough to know what it actually entails, instead of thinking "Wow, another night, I have to slave over a hot stove..." all the time, when maybe it's not that hard.

It makes no sence? i agree with you. I love cooking for my family. I like to cook (as 5 years doing it profesisonaly shold show.. i gave up because of my health)
But sence or not, most people my age seem to have been indoctrinated into a Its hard work mentality.
NO it;s hard work to pound out 250 plated meals in 3 hours. one is pritty easy, and hwen i cook, i cook large batches of stuff that results in simple 5 minute leftover re heats for days afterwards.
NO i dont know why the perception of dificutly exists. but theres a bunch of people making a hooge profit off it

It's probably due to our culture of consumerism. We're just accustomed to purchasing things.

I think I ought to come up with a list of 15 ingredients, and then come up with an array of recipes I can make with those ingredients. Hmmm. Do you have any suggestions of what those 15 ingredients should be?

Rice. Rice is a staple part of our diet over here (and they always make too much - I should talk to Jenn and 'dul about that). We have chicken and rice; beans and rice; chicken, beans, and rice; fish and rice; fish, beans, and rice; rice and rice; rice, rice, beans, and rice; chicken, rice, beans, rice, rice, and rice... you get my drift. And if we had spam, I'm sure it'd find its way into my litany somehow :)

Beans - canned or dried. Dried beans are a heck of a lot cheaper, but you *do* need to plan to use them.

My sister always has a ton of canned tomatoes, and they find their way into most things - pasta sauce (really easy to make, and I bet you didn't know that), beans, whatever.

Potatoes. They're not the most healthful of root veggies, but they keep, and they can be added to anything to bulk it out. Sweet potatoes are better for your health, but they take longer to cook, I find.

Onions and garlic. EVERYTHING ultimately is improved with onions and garlic.

I'll think on it some more, if you like. You'll note I'm only listing things that keep. Things that get used up, unless you love them, you don't really want to just keep on hand. Buy them as you need them, and only as much as you'll use, you know that.

Rice. I second this motion.\
Eggs. Incredibly versitle, nutrious &C.
Pick a green vegitable I like peas, becasue of hte versitility. My favorite sort is snowpeas, which is a cop out since you shouldnt cook em, just wash em and use for garnish, greens, &C
Cheese. there are 10 zillion types of real chese out there. I recomend a good vintage chedder for learning with, it has a nice sharp taste and a firm texture. might be to strong for kids tho Mozzeralla is also wonderfull to work with, not jsu shreadedo n pizza
Beef. In different places in the world, different cuts of beef have different popularities. so prices, cuts, and similar vary wildly. there are inumerable specalities you can look up. Beef is one of the more universaly available meats, and so is worth learning.
A fish. If oyu live in a costal area, it;s a crime not to know how to prepare fish. I hate most salt water fish, but i still know quite a few very solid recipies.
Chili. IMNSHO the absolutely most fantastic spice on the planet. dried and groud, fresh, pickeld, preserved, seeded or unseeded, salted, roasted, and in several hundred varieties (although only expect to be able to find 2 or three unless you live in a country where it is worshiped)
Salt and pepper. Classics for a reason. learn their secreats. master tasty food.
An oil. Butter, peanut oil, oliveoil, or similar. make your choice and learn to use it. pay for something good, not the random "vegitable oil" crap. Once you perfect one source of greasey goodness, you will be able to use lots of others. Even a teaspoon in the rightplace can have an amazing effect on foods.
Something unique to where you live. For obvious reasons
Something awesome from far away. Something i like to use in stews is south african Biltong (dried, spiced beef). I have to buy it from an import delictessian, and it costs, but is it worth it? yes. by trying out ingredients form other culturs than your own, you expose yourself to otherstyles, and broaden your understanding of food.
Pork, or another pig product. Unless you have religeous reagons agisnt it, it;s even more common than beef, and usualy a bit cheaper. learn to use it both with an without fat. a lot of people who "dont like pork" actualy dont like the traditional euro high fat cuts. Butterfly medelions.
Chicken. Versitle food. Try to use freerange, tougher, but it has flavour.
beans. Boil em, fry em, roast em, refry em, soup em. Hundreds of varieties. cheap as hell.
Noodles. So many varieties, each wiht their individual uses.
Boquet garni. A combination of eurpoen spices. an excelent starting point for beginners.
this is the sort of thing i use in my kitchen all the time.

Yes, I was thinking random meats and vegetables wouldn't be on the list of 15. That would be the part where I stop at the store to pick up a random meat and vegetable(s) to be cooked in the 15 ingredients.

It's probably not that hard. Like stir fry. You can stir fry just about anything together. Toss in some oyster sauce, some soy sauce and sesame oil with a bit of cornstarch, and you're good to go.

Good list!

I'll point out that I probably have less space than you do (I live in a 25x7 trailer, with a real paucity of storage areas), and my brewing equipment on my last batch consisted literally of a stockpot, the strainer, a glass gallon jar (widemouthed), the racking cane/siphon hose assembly, and the bottles/caps to put it all in once it was done. (The bottles age behind my shoes in the closet, next to my homemade wines.)

BTW, I'm doing malt-extract brews, because I seriously do NOT have the space to do full-grain mashing.

I have digestive problems with pork, which is distressing, since I love ham, sausage & bacon. (A nicely prepared pork chop is lovely as well, but while I may like it, it doesn't like me.)

I agree with much of your list. (Where do you live, anyway? There's a high enough Hispanic population around here that I can choose from a dozen different varieties of chilies just at Safeway, with five or six fresh, three or four dried and many more packaged preground.)

And I adore peas, especially cooked with butter & green onions.

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We made play dough today.

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