Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Woes of Supper

"What's for supper?"
"Not that agaaaain!!"
"I have no idea what to make for supper."
"That's gross!"
"I'm bored with this meal."
"Why can't you cook like a restaurant does?"
"I want something else!"
"I hate something new."
"Ewww, what's this green stuff?"
"Why can't you make this like Brian's, or Matt's, or John's or .... mom?"
"It's OK, just don't ever make it again."
"It's too hot to eat anything hot."
"I'm not hungry"

Any of this sound familiar?
It's all too familiar to me.
Have Pity on me.
Please.

What can you do to help?
Thought you'd never ask.

I'm looking to do something drastic, unheard of yet all too commonsensical.

I want to make my own cookbook by meat product and then veggies.
I have 25 books that I pour through to find things to make.
Talk about a waste of time!
What would it be like to buy, say, a pork tenderloin and in ONE place, find tons of recipes listed for that one cut of meat? Even stuff to do with the leftovers?

Look in a cookbook. Go ahead. Check out your favorite or other best selling book. What do you see?
A few, sometimes as little as ONE example of what to do with a particular piece of meat. They have the BIG title: Beef, Pork,Chicken, Fish, never mind cut. They try to cover all the basics yet only give you a fraction of the tip of the iceburg that are recipes for food items.

I would enjoy creating a blog, now that we have labels which make it easier to track down old posts, that deal with this subject.

Am I crazy? Biting off more than I can chew?
Probably, maybe. Yep.
But I'm desperate and fed up with the above commentaries.

I am not the kind of person to plan meals in advance. Its the ADD thing. I have the best of intentions but "poof"! the idea comes and goes. Distractibility thy name is me.

Take chicken... there's chicken whole, chicken parts, skinless and boneless. You can't use the same recipe for all of them, they'd each need their own spot. No book would be profitable to put them all in that way. And there is more than one way to cook a whole chicken; spices and method.

I subscribe to quite a few monthly email Ezines and even they only do a tap dance around certain things. And they are a bear to navigate. With dial-up, it's even worse.

As for me, Yeah, I can post some ... but I find that I never follow a recipe exactly. I add this or take away that. It's said that when you adjust a recipe, you make it your own. I've made some great stews using three different books, yet can't remember a thing of what I did. Even worse, I even when I do, I can't give anyone measurements, tsp, TBL, or 1/4 cups... I just throw it in and taste the results.

I'm a danger to my own best laid plans.
But I'm back to what started this whole post.

"WHAT DO I MAKE FOR SUPPER ON A HOT DAY?"

10 comments:

Brandy said...

Well, for starters you don't fire up the oven! *G* On a truly hot day we grill burgers (Chris likes hot dogs) or we do kabobs, or grilled chicken breasts. We eat salads on hot days and sandwiches (to make even better sandwiches I use croissants). I wish I could be of better help. Son eats differently from the rest of us half the time.
GOOD LUCK!

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle, it's Katrina the unbalanced Libran from myspace. Make a cold Pasta dish. You can cook the pasta from the night before (not spaghetti) the fancy shaped ones I normally mix up the different types and add sweet peppers, cucumber, zuchinni, sliced finely (the kids don't have to know), if you are a mad scientist (all the odd bits you chuck into recipes)like I am you should have a good spice rack, then just add different spices in. Give it a try and let me know. When you cook the pasta do it al dente and then rinse it in cold water.

Dru said...

Sandwiches, cold salad dishes (macaroni/potato), vegetable salad, grilled food, but never turn on the oven during the summer months.

eMMa said...

Haha! You sound like me!

That same exact problem is why I started this blog:
http://teachemmatocook.blogspot.com/

Michele said...

Brandy, I've never made a Kabob in my life!
Really. I wouldn't know where to start. Go pull off a thin tree branch, strip it of bark and poke things on it?
We've been doing sandwhiches..but you get sick of them after awhile...especially with very limited/picky palates.
Oh the quandry!

******************
Katrina! *giggle* You're funny.
I like the sound of the pasta dish so I have to ask..WHAT do you use as the sauce that brings it all together? Mayo? Salad Dressing? What do you use that still tastes and has the right texture the next day? I'm still searching for the sauce that still creamy the next day and not absorbed into the pasta ... it's a strange thing mine does.
I LOVE tips.Thanks!
And I am tickled you stopped by here. Thanks for that too!

****************************

OK,Dru... no oven. I think that is coming across as Rule #1 of Summer Survival. I do a mean potato salad but I can't get the hang of macaroni.
It seems like it should be so simple too.
*sigh*
Thanks for the advice!
**********************
Emma! Oh wow, you too?
I'm in good company then.
I'm going to check out your survival blog...why invent the wheel if you've already done it, right? *grin*
Thanks, Emma
Hugs!

Brandy said...

As a "sauce" for pasta salad, you can use a half mayo half sour cream and add spices. (At least that's how my pasta and potato salads are!)
For kabobs you can by wooden skewers from WW, they are usually over by the asian foods (the isle with the other salad dressings and teryaki sauce). We have metal ones, but dang! they get hot! *G*

Best of luck finding some recipes, when you do, share them!

Mailyn said...

My mom stopped cooking for me when she figured out she never knew what I wanted. LOL.

Anonymous said...

It's Katrina again, on my diet you are not supposed to use fancy pasta sauces so you have to improvise, try chopped tomatoes, passata and stuff like that. You are only allowed one teaspoon of olive oil as a healthy option so you have to be very creative. That is why the spice rack is so good. All vinegar is free, am trying palm vinegar at the moment. The only bit of advice I will give you in regards to seasoning and spices DO NOT MIX ITALIAN AND MEXICAN SEASONINGS TOGETHER. They just end up BLAH.

Michele said...

Brandy! You really want me to share them?
Hmmm, I might. But I don't want to step in any copyright poop, you know?
Have to think about that.
But Sour Cream? Wow, that sounds rich...I've only used mayo..time to expand my horizons!
*grin*

***************
Mailyn! No way!! What did you eat then?? Please tell me you were a teenager when that happened!
At least I know at that point you'd know your way around a stove. Your story is amazing!

************
Katrina! LOL... I saw your note on MySpace and replied!
No Prego? only ONE tsp of Olive Oil? Good gravy, my kids would be going on strike! But I gave you my spice Rack list, I MUST have something good to work with, right?

ROTFL!!! I guess the Italian/Mexican experiment was a bust, eh?
You're fun!

Brandy said...

Michele, time for a weird confesstion. I've been usig fat free and 'light' products for years, so it's not as rich as you'd think. *g*

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