TO MOLLIFY LINGJACKSON OVERDRIVEBERT WHO IS THE SQUEAKY DESERT FIEND, POST ON THIS THREAD AND ONE OF YOUR FRIENDLY ITR MODS WILL TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE WICKED AWESOME, AND POSSIBLY OFFER AN EFFUSIVE ST

TOMBOT I WILL MAKE AN EXTRA SPECIAL SMURF CARNAGE PHOTO WITH FAKE BLOOD AND STUFF FOR YOU IF YOU LOCK ELECTION THREAD AND DELETE ILC

I can't actually delete boards guys. also if I lock the primary thread that will just create an unpleasant diaspora of primary thread refugees spreading their boring, short-sighted opinions and functional illiteracy all over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containment

yeah it's kind of a hamsterdam for politics discussion. instead of 15 threads about the party we all vote for sucking ass we just have one.

keep those opinionated hoppers off the corners and let the taxpayers be.

I'm aware of the primaries thread; I just didn't realize that I Love Cooking was so popular.

Probably because I hate cooking, usually.

I need my own sub-board entitled I Hate Cooking But I Want To Love It: Help Me

Ask Mark Bittman

I should read his cookbook from cover to cover. Something has to help me.

Probably because I hate cooking, usually.

What kind of freak are you.

Ask Mark Bittman

So very true.

Sara, try reading Harold McGee's 'On Food and Cooking' before Bittman

and Kaiser in CA is a real mixed-bag. Cheap, but long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long long lines / waits for service.

then again, i have not been able to buy insurance for 4 years

What kind of freak are you.

The kind that is tired of trying to figure out what even one other person in the house will eat, and also one who hates chopping things. (But I'm perpetually drooling over your food photos, Ned!)

remy - thanks for the tip!

What I want to do:

Take a VERY hot bath and sleep for 14 hours.

What I'm going to do:

Walk 5.5 miles on treadmill, take a shower and then work on this paper until late at night. At least I have ITR and Scrabulous breaks in my future...

Sara, try reading Harold McGee's 'On Food and Cooking' before Bittman

Ignore Remy. He's only a trained cook! Oh wait...

i love bittman & i always give credit to ned whenever i cook from it, i say a kind of grace about ned and his recommendations and then we eat.

Go in peace and eat some more.

ned h. raggett

so i should read these books then

just spent $95 on food that is all premade and in containers

You can do better. (I'm not saying that out of snark -- seriously, you can do better!)

everyone should try and make friends with cooking.

i hate cooking also xpost

guys 3D N1XON, Richard's brother, is at my work today. he looks just like him!!!

3 mile break cuz I CAN

Ned is right; premade food is more expensive, less good, and not as good for you. The trouble is that it's fast and it tastes good enough.

One hour later bump.

I'm getting afraid to read my email. Two friends have been laid off in the past week. MORE GOOD NEWS PLZ

Ugh. I think that during this coming year we're going to see a lot more in the way of layoffs. I have two interviews on Friday, my salary requirements are down by about 20% from last yaer.

I am applying for a nu job, I'm not terribly confident...

It just sucks for this guy, who is just so nice and sweet and competent. AND his brother just died a couple of weeks ago, so it is just... awful.

remy, I suppose you're right and I really don't want to see it happening. (Who does?) But good luck with your interviews!

Sara,

I actually want to amend what I recommended earlier: read the Bittman 'How To Cook Everything' with the McGee 'On Food and Cooking' and neither before or after.

I love Mark Bittman for the same reason Ned and others do: he is no-nonsense, he offers simplified preparations of global cuisine from available ingredients ('simplified' without condescension) and generally for a low cost. The food his recipes make is good, honest, plain, and lends itself to adaptation. And experimentation. It is definitely a biblical text for most good-to-great home cooks I know, and it fills a real niche, splitting the difference between Betty Crocker and Julia Child.

There is, however, one hesitation I have regarding it as 'the only cookbook you'll ever need' (this seems to be a popular line amongst amazon reviewers): it is pretty light on the science/history/theory behind the recipes.

I think a lot of home cooks assume they do not care about these omissions, that they are irrelevant to the process of making macaroni and cheese or almond macaroons. But Bittman tends to say, for instance, 'mix three cups of milk, four tablespoons of butter blended with four tablespoons of flour ... and spread it on bottom of the pan' instead of 'make a simple Bechamel'

This is useful and unintimidating, but at the same time it can be -- just a little bit -- of a cramp to the style of a learning cook, who might not ever learn (because HTCE doesn't say) that a béchamel is a roux in scalding milk, or that they have just learned how to make the base of a soubise or a veloute or, hell, cheddar fondue.

In other words: a new chef working only from Bittman might learn a step-by-step recipe, and well, and how to repeat it flawlessly, but there is a sense in which they will lose the adaptability and generalizability of the steps or components that comprise the procedure of the recipe.

I am in no way criticizing Bittman. He is actually sort of a hero of mine. But I recommend reading On Food and Cooking (or similar) alongside him.

(the bechamel example is totally made up, i have no idea whether it is actually accurate... i was more trying to make a point than be literal)

lol economy

I read alton brown's IJHFTF before I got into Bittman, it did a decent enough job of schooling me up on the principles, at least the principles I give a shit about. I consider it highly unlikely that I will ever desire to understand the art of sauces, though.

Sauces sound like a fun thing to learn to me, if only because I like to eat them.

If I have any motivation left after my classes end in mid-June, I will have to try to look at those books together.

Okay, I've added the McGee and the Alton Brown books to my Goodreads TO READ lists. That way I can't lose the titles. Thanks you guys!

Hooray!

Meantime, speaking of Bittman and the core cookbook of his, I've just made a batch of his kale soup with fish sauce and lime, on page 54.

And Remy's right, but I'd temper this -- Bittman implicitly encourages you to experiment where the uncreative mind reads his recipes as literal rules of behavior to follow every time. It really depends on the cook and what inspiration is to hand. For instance, in the case of the soup I made, I needed to use up some kale, thought a soup would be good, found a reasonable recipe in the book, switched out the soy for fish sauce (a step Bittman encourages, to be sure) and have noted that the end result needs more seasoning, but that's why the batch is in the fridge to be adjusted whenever I eat it later in the week.

Ned has just illustrated what freaks me out about cooking: it requires judgement that I don't have. I feel more comfortable with baking because it is so precise that it is hard to screw up. Secondary to that, if I do screw up a batch of cookies, no one is going to be going without dinner. It's just cookies.

Kale soup with fish sauce and lime sounds interesting to me, but I can about imagine the response I'd get from that guy I married. The kids are hopeless, but A. is also not so much for the vegetables. (And to be fair, vegetables in MN can be kind of meh)

I'm full of teh lame excuses, aren't I.

You must look to the advantages of a place like Minnesota. Think of the lovely mosquito harvest each summer.

my MN friends are among the most timid I've ever met w/r/t vegetables, so you may be on to something.

also the idea of Tom making sauce is sorta funny

replace "timid" with "violently opposed to" and i fit the remyographic

you are the bunnicula of people

(oh hey ned, i was supposed to call you, but it is all late now. i will try tomorrow)

That's it. Next year for John's birthday someone has to make him a mosquito cake.

Although I guess March is a little early in the season.

you can substitute gnats, ticks, chiggers and earthworms for up to half the weight of the mosquitos without any ill effect on the recipe

hmmmm, what about boxelder bugs? Now that it is warming up, I'm noticing them outside my house - and inside it, too. Or are they just too crunchy?