Marilyn Haggerty's amazing Olive Garden review and the subsequent viral shitstorm

lex, I'd double-check the sodium content on those soups; pre-packaged soups in general are NOTORIOUSLY sodium-heavy, which isn't very good for your blood pressure

his $20 meal should be able to feed 4 ppl at least

well the economies of scale change pile up fairly quickly. which is why a single person eating takeout is the most justifiable. home-cooking can feed an enormous amount of people for not much more than it can feed two people.

I live alone and buy chicken thighs often: six to a pack usually run you about $5 max. Include tomato paste, tomato sauce, sweet onions, green peppers, cooking wine and rice on the side and the whole meal runs you $15 tops.

i don't know how much E15 is, that's like $25 american? you can eat out here for like, $18 (not garbage, either)

'change pile up' = 'can pile up' xp

I loathe cooking so much, and would eat takeout all time time if it weren't for my girlfriend's good sense, but the people arguing that home cooking is not cost effective are actually insane. I never have a meal as cheap as when we just pick up whatever vegetables look reasonably decent and cheap that day and cook something out of them. Saute some peppers, make some couscous, steam some kale, whatever, it's so cheap it's almost free. And then it lasts for a couple days or so.

wisconsin apparently has the highest COL in the united states

if you have a big thing of rice at home and spices you are basically looking at buying a protein and a veggie or two and you are done. as far as one simple meal goes. if you eat meat, buy some chicken, throw it in a pan with some vegetables cook some rice...voila...food. for what? under ten bucks easy.

pasta + peppers + some veggies on the side, toss some sardines in, have some cheap red wine = cheap and my idea of a good dinner.

iatee you have to factor in the daily 12 of old mil

it's perfectly possible to eat healthily and well without a) cooking b) eating out c) ordering take-out.

lex i'm super confused if you don't cook....or eat out...or get take out....

how do you actually eat? like MREs from the army or spaceman food?

when we do an all-out burrito night then things are more expensive and expire more quickly but this is why life is not an endless series of all-out burrito nights.

Tonight I'm making spaghetti bolognese. I need to get an onion and a carrot on the way home, which will be about 40p for the pair. I have a tin of (Taste the Difference! we usually use value) tomatoes and pasta in the cupboard at all times, and a cupboard literally stuffed with spices and dried herbs, plus vege mince in the freezer. If I'm feeling fruity I may buy some cheese to grate on top, as we're out.

1/4 of a pack of spaghetti = 25p
Onion and carrot = 40p
Tin of tomatoes = 80p
1/4 of a pack of vege mince = 50p
Olive oil, dried herbs, spices, etc = 50p (that's a generous guess)
Bit of grated cheese (optional) = 50p

That's less than £3.

I mostly hate cooked vegetables. Salads and raw carrots and the like are OK, tho.

if you eat meat, buy some chicken, throw it in a pan with some vegetables cook some rice...voila...food.

And if you don't eat meat, a can of black beans or a package of firm tofu does the same trick.

a top-of-the-range ready meal spag bol costs £3 and involves significantly less stress

(i would imagine that the panic and stress i experience in the kitchen is way worse for my blood pressure than any sodium)

I will probably buy a bodega sandwich tonight for $3.50 because I'm lazy, but I def. recognize that it will be more expensive and less healthy than just making some food at home.

basically having some rice or a bag of potatoes at home = you are halfway to dinner. if you are me. it ain't brain surgery.

LEX we get it you are as helpless as a newborn kitten. i would eat out every night too if i was single and lived in london.

lex i'm super confused if you don't cook....or eat out...or get take out....

how do you actually eat? like MREs from the army or spaceman food?

typical day:

breakfast = muesli
lunch = often i'll scavenge throughout the day. crackers w/cheese, apples or other fruit, yoghurts, nuts, seeds
dinner = soup from a nice, healthy pre-packaged range w/a bit of bread. maybe pasta with peas and pesto if i feel like pushing the boat out. maybe fishcakes if i just want a light meal. very occasionally a ready meal.

I find cooking relieves a lot of the stress of the working day. I love to cook when i get home. Put some music or the TV on, chop some stuff, fry it up, lovely.

I wonder if Marilyn Haggerty cooks.

i love the idea of a helicopter dropping MREs into lex's apartment

if i'm popping out i might pick up a salad or a pastry from the supermarket some days.

I think frying onions is, literally, one of the greatest fuicking achievements of human civilisation. It's extraordinary.

I find cooking relieves a lot of the stress of the working day

the EXACT opposite

no working day could ever reduce me to near-breakdowns the way attempting to cook does, every time, without fail

mmm...now i really want some pasta with peas and pesto. i am definitely getting hungry...

xxpost OTM

The smell of onions frying in butter is probably the supreme culinary scent.

i am definitely incapable of frying onions. chopping always goes wrong and then...i just HATE frying stuff. it makes me nervous. and frying pans are particularly grim to wash up.

this thread got amazing

Don't use a frying pan; use a high-sided saucepan. Stops splatter.

i choose using neither

wisconsin apparently has the highest COL in the united states

well typically when I'm doing the cooking, things are much cheaper. and yes I do admit that we do waste a lot of things by letting them go bad or not using the entire ingredient. just saying a lot of stuff cooked in our house really does involve like, over a dozen things

. E.g. we always keep some kind of fish on hand, with a few fillets in the freezer and maybe one in the fridge -- you have to remember to throw one into the fridge to defrost and then eat it within a couple days.

just defrost in the sink or a bowl of water! it'll take half an hour, prob less for a fish filet

this one time when i was pulling an all-nighter and there was no food in the house i did go slightly loopy and GIS pictures of food in the hope that i would somehow be able to download them into my mouth

i loved this

yeah you can defrost fish in the sink in like 10 mins

I do admit that we do waste a lot of things by letting them go bad or not using the entire ingredient.

this is seriously terrible and would make me dislike you in person

On Sunday I slowly roasted a shoulder of pork on top of a pair of fat bramley apples and some water, so the apples collapsed and the water steamed the meat moist. I used the collapsed apple mush to help make an apple and onion gravy. I also roasted parsnips, carrots, and potatoes, and make a sage and onion stuffing from scratch. An awesome afternoon. We had a guest so i was cookign for 3 people. I had enough roasted veg and stuffing leftover to do me a big pot for lunch on Monday.

A decent frying pan with a good surface takes about five (5) seconds to get clean. A cast-iron pan, marginally longer.

Salmon is a little more expensive than cod, right?

sorry to hear about your apples collapsing

Ha!

this is seriously terrible and would make me dislike you in person

good for you! i'm glad your life is so neat and organized that you can efficiently plan ahead and not waste anything. thank god I don't have to worry about meeting you in person!

einsturzende neuapfel

Faded - collapsing new apples
Watch them - collapsing
Jaded - collapsing new apples
Watch them - collapsing

On Sunday I slowly roasted a shoulder of pork on top of a pair of fat bramley apples and some water, so the apples collapsed and the water steamed the meat moist. I used the collapsed apple mush to help make an apple and onion gravy. I also roasted parsnips, carrots, and potatoes, and make a sage and onion stuffing from scratch.

i don't know what any of this means or how to do it, you may as well have written "on sunday i slowly roasted fairy dust on top of a cloud"

hahaha

doesn't it make you curious to learn what it means?? it sounds awesome!!

i feel guilty enough when i buy fruit and don't eat it in time before it rots, this would only happen on a larger scale if i bought other ingredients and therefore i don't

I'm not expecting you to know how to do it from that description, but I'm pretty sure I could write a step-by-step guide that you could follow. I won't though, unless you really want me to.