Fri-yay

ei34

Finally.  What a week.  Wishing everyone a weekend with restful moments!

ei34

The PTO does an annual staff luncheon for us, it's today and it already smells incredible. They do a wonderful job of making sure there's plenty of variety for those of us who can't eat meat bc it's Friday.  And don't get me started on the dessert table.  Woohoo!

Tonight is the kids' County Championship Swim meet.  I'm happy for the season to be over.  I have a 7am blood draw tomorrow, ahead of my annual next week.  Then piano lessons for the kids, a birthday party from 12-2, and swim team "fun" practice (the kids are allowed to bring tubes, pool noodles, colorfully patterned swim suits instead of their uniform suits are encouraged) from 3-5.  
Sunday the kids are altar serving, then we're joining our family at this tree my parents recently discovered that's over 350 years old and is one of the oldest living things in NYC.  Then back to sister #2's for Palm Sunday brunch- I'm on veggie crudite and carrot cake duty.  It'll be a busy weekend, but all nice things at least.

CharmedPam

Fun and packed weekend @ei34!

Soooo busy at work! I may even be bringing it to the weekend because I have to leave at 4:30 today for my Friday night plans. I thought people were giving up at this company because no one knows if we’ll even be around next year….. but some people didn’t get that memo! Lol

question. Cooking from scratch. What does that mean to you?
I ask because my friend goes “my daughter want me to teach her how to cook” and I said “oh get her those meal kits” (she’s in college and they have the $.. plus, not too far off from groceries these days anyway!).
”no. It has to be from scratch”
ok, so the “oven ready” and “express” have some pre chopped and cooked items. Those give homechef a bad rap. The meal kits you ARE cutting, chopping, using fresh veggies, cooking rice and pasta…. It’s cooking to me! Scratch is like.. ok, say you’re making soup for dinner. And your broth base is boiled chicken carcass or say you’re making pasta so you’re doing it from flour/egg/water and pressing it and drying it out…. Lol. Does anyone do that anymore? Or are we using bullion cubes and barilla boxed? Homechef wont give you chicken to boil, they’ll give you a soup base… but your still chopping and throwing fresh produce and meat in it. They just make it convenient for you!  

banana468

I agree with you @CharmedPam.  Is it great to learn HOW to make some of the base ingredients?  Yes.  But is it not from scratch when you're using an ingredient that Ina Garten may say, "Store bought is fine."? 

I can make a stock from scratch.  On a weeknight I get it from a box.  I look up the better quality ones.  When we're having split pea soup, I cook everything but the stock base.

The kits are a great starter.  I think they can be expensive but they're a fantastic way to see seasonings and portions especially if you didn't have an idea in the first place.  I don't have cable but also recommend watching cooking videos like America's Test Kitchen and Good Eats.  There's science and backstory behind the ingredients and where you'll learn where a store shortcut can be good (like a stock) and where taking your time may be better (like grating your own cheese for some dishes vs. using pre-shredded.)

And I'll be honest - sometimes the level of scratch depends on my mood and who it's for. 

levioosa

Gnocchi aren’t really hard to make, but they are time consuming. A week night dinner with me and H? I thaw my homemade (from scratch) sauce and I mix it with Trader Joe’s mozzarella stuffed gnocchi. That’s a home cooked meal to me. Total dinner cook to table time is about 10 minutes. But when I am feeling nostalgic? I go all out and make a giant batch with fresh sauce, all from scratch. Very few people in life (in the US especially) make things completely from scratch. Are you butchering the chicken and growing all the spices, making the broth, milking the cow, and grinding wheat for flour? That’s what I thought, calm down, it’s just a meal kit. 

ILoveBeachMusic

I agree with all of the above. I haven't made a stock in a really long time. The meal kits are a good idea for someone learning to cook. We did one for a while just to get some new recipes. H would figure out how to cook the recipes using store bought ingredients if we liked the recipe.  We added several dishes to our rotation. I also agree it can be expensive but on the other hand you aren't buying a bunch of spices and stuff you might end up throwing out. One of our favorite recipes was a panko encrusted salmon. Do I buy panko bread crumbs? Yep! But that salmon encrusted dish is still from scratch IMO.