u/ModConMom

I don't know if anyone has said something similar, but get a good kitchen scale and learn your own measurements.

It helped me a lot to know that my three finger pinch is a about a gram, my two finger pinch is about half a gram.. And also understanding the difference between weight and volume.

For example, knowing that my teaspoon pinch is me grabbing the ingredient by volume, and knowing that it feels light (crystallized salt weighs less) is variable. An eight ounce block of cheese, once shredded, is going to be a lot more by volume. You can practice some of these things by simply grabbing what you think a quarter cup or half cup is, then putting it into a measuring cup or on a scale to test yourself.

Put it back on your cutting board or work surface and try it a few times until you think you've gotten better or have a feel for it. Eventually, you'll have more understanding of your personal measurements that you can use to compare. That way, when someone says 'a pinch', you can watch it, determine whether their hands are similarly sized, fingers are holding it similarly, or not, and decide whether to error on the side of caution or it's safe to venture onward without concern.

Rick Bayless is very good at giving both approximations and measurements. I'm sure there are other chefs who do the same. He's never steered me wrong, despite his 3-finger pinch being half a tablespoon. I just acknowledge I'm a person with small hands, and am grateful he mentions that his pinch is approx x. That can give you a baseline to adjust.

Good luck!

What kinds of things are you buying?

If you're buying pre-formed burger patties, you're paying a convenience cost compared to ground beef. If you're buying ground beef, you don't need to make all of it into burgers, and can do a variety of things with it, or freeze it in portions for later.

I suspect you're new to cooking, or possibly just to the style of planning and prepping?

If you could let us know what you're trying to do, what is going bad before you get to it, that might help.

For example, if I were making burgers, I'd just get ground/mince, and make however many burgers for that day. If there's extra, use it for bolognese, hash, tacos, whatever floats your boat.

Are you cooking for yourself? Sometimes there's an up-front cost on cooking from home, especially if you're cooking for one or buying in bulk. And that cost is not just the 'bulk' price, but also know-how in terms of efficiency and you're own capacity for space, time and variety.

Someone gifted us an instant pot when I was pregnant, along with a baby food cookbook. We'd been resisting the IP trend at the time, but it was so great and easy.

Many models can sanitize, too. It was such a lifesaver to throw breastpump parts and nipples in there, since we didn't have a dishwasher, and even if she has a dishwasher, it's small enough that I never felt bad running it for 5 minutes to sanitize rather than waiting for a full load of dishes.

You can also use masa harina or masa flour to make fresh tortillas, sopes, papusas, tamales,etc. It works as a thickener for soups, too.

If these dumplings aren't your favorite, there's lots of other uses.

Do you like different proteins? Those are usually b cooked to order. They have what they need for the day in the fridge. If you run out, hopefully someone noticed in time to pull more from the freezer, or if it's a never frozen ingredient, you're just out of that item.

A lot of entrees are just x protein plus sauce or garnish, so your sauces are also prepped in batches.

Anything that can't be made quickly, you have to know how much you have, so you can make more if you're running low.

For entrees that take extra time, like braised or smoked items, you just have to know your area and volume and know what you'll need. It takes time and constant adjustment to get that right. Or it gets par-cooked or prepped and frozen.

For prepped stuff, it goes into multiple things. So think about a giant tub of cut bell peppers. The freshest nicest looking ones go on salads, anything that isn't perfect rings when it comes out of the machine, so end pieces and such get diced for garnish or pasta salad or salsa, or sautéed for sauces, soups, etc. Everything has multiple purposes.

You generally know what you need for a day, though that may vary depending on whether it's a weekday or weekend. It's sometimes a careful balance. And always first in, first out. There's still a significant amount of waste. Some of that gets tossed, some goes home with employees. I've worked in several restaurants and at a lot of locations. Very few are as good at cutting waste as they claim to be.

I read your comment on the other thread. Maybe you could look into a clipboard system? There are clip in file folders and padfolio storage folders that might help with the privacy issues.

I'm thinking something like this

They're thin enough to put into an expandable file folder or portfolio to keep things separate, and I've seen some with pockets or shorter clips on the side.

It seems like you have a somewhat unique set of needs.

I think what you're talking about is a coil binding machine? They also make spiral hole punches, but depending on the coil you're using, the right size spacing and pitch (angle the wire or coil goes through) can vary. Coil binding machines are a bit more expensive, as they're usually for businesses or printers.

But they do exist, if that's a system you like and you're good with investing in the materials.

With the right coils, you can lay them flat. You could use thinner paper than a disc bound, but you'd lose some flexibility in rearranging pages compared to discs or rings. And unless you went with a more expensive machine, you might be limited to cardstock for any dividers or dashboards, as that kind of setup would be difficult to find pre-made stuff.

Good luck!

It's pretty difficult. If you walk more than a few feet from it, your phone beeps at you and pops up a message saying "do you have your SPen?"

Pretty sure. Just think of it as cinnamon rice pudding.

Try searching for no waste or zero waste meal plans.

My method is to have a couple meal options that are purely "leftover night" meals. Stir fry is good for that, or just adding a bunch of extra veg to Mac & cheese or soup when it makes sense.

Oregano, onion, and garlic are pretty standard. Thyme and rosemary are common.

It's pretty versatile, so there's a lot of variation, but it's always beef or a beef and pork mixture unless otherwise specified.

Here's a pretty standard recipe to give you an idea:

https://www.spendwithpennies.com/best-meatloaf-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-140708

If you were boiling for a "quick soak", some people would dump it. (That's where, if you forget to soak them, you boil them for 45 minutes instead.)

You did a traditional long soak by letting them sit overnight. So continue cooking via usual methods, in this case in your crock pot. It'll be fine.

Since I'm not sure if this recipe is a chatGPT madlib, check it in about 4 hours. If you're on low in the slow cooker, it'll probably take 8 hours. On high, 6. Maybe taste the broth earlier, so you can adjust as needed. Beans take a long time to cook, and it might vary depending on your slow cooker.

sometimes his favorite food is floor cheese.

I feel ya. About a week ago, grandpa dropped a slice of cheese on the floor and asked my son (age 6) to help pick it up.

He dutifully did so, shuffled toward the garbage bin, then longingly looked up at me, whispered "mommy?" and pantomimed hiding the cheese then putting it in his mouth.

They become less feral, but floor cheese remains a favorite.

Popcorn.

The quarter pounder uses 'fresh' diced onions, and most other McDonald's burgers have those dehydrated minced onions.

At least that's the case in most of the US. Might be different in other countries depending on regulations.

Everybody's idea of a "backseat cook" is different. Also, everybody thinks they know what it means, because they've either seen it or experienced it in their own lives.

If people around you are being hyper-aggressive about it, that's not good.

Are they people with allergies, food restrictions or other health issues? Are there family recipes or traditions involved with the dish being made? Those are perhaps legitimate reasons for someone to be worried about or critical of cooking methods.

I read it to mean generational as opposed to strictly medical. I have some relatives like this, and it's not because they're suddenly at the age where they've been told to limit their diet. They were always like that.

It depends on the food habits you grew up with. Similar to the way some people cook all meat well done, even though we're past the point of trichinosis being pervasive. Generational knowledge that gets ingrained.

Warning, AI test underway.

I had the same thought, but there's also an association to the puritans and that religious missionary style of thought of interview intercourse being for reproduction.

Sort of weird that they wouldn't have called it that at the time, but that's language for you.

What the rail road tracks have to do with it?

This made me wonder if maybe there was a reason. After a few moments sifting through the random possibilities, I just had to look it up.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/bbq/article/How-the-west-was-won-with-railroad-barbecue-8337283.php

It does, indeed. I'd find it interesting to know more about it, too, especially the cooking method(s) used and whatnot. They are pretty clear that it doesn't change the hardness, regardless of type of rice. I'm not surprised, assuming the cooking time and method were part of a controlled comparison.

I think the key clue is in the section snippet about 'the effect of washing procedure on the texture of cooked rice'. It mentions the medium and jasmine rice especially varied. Then below that in 'analysis of surface/leeched materials) it mentions it varies based on w0, w3, w10.

I could certainly be misunderstanding, since I'm just reading the same general summary and have no more knowledge on the study than anyone else, but that seems to me they're saying washing 3 times made minimal/non significant difference from not washing, but washing 10 times made a difference in the medium grain and jasmine.

I wish we could see those tables/charts. I'd be interested to see what they consider significant, how they measured stickiness, and at exactly how many washes it became somewhat significant in the varieties where that happened.

It probably won't change the way I cook my rice, but it's fascinating when they do experiments like this related to things we 'know' by experience. (Jasmine rice is softer/stickier than other long grain rice? Ya don't say!) But it gives us a chance to understand how that looks in a scientific situation, how the experiment was done, and gives us lay people a better understanding of science overall.

They're likely being down voted, because they are misrepresenting their own linked study. They only quoted the first half of this sentence:

Statistical analysis indicated that the washing procedure does not significantly affect either hardness or stickiness of cooked rice, but the interaction between rice variety and washing times on stickiness is significant.

Yes, it's good to learn. Also, quoting only half a sentence, the part that supports your view, and leaving off the second half that refutes it (or at least indicates it's more complex than a simple one or the other) is a bit disingenuous.

It really varies. I live in a village of less than 1000, the nearest chain grocer is in town 10+ miles away. But we have a local butcher.

In my experience, most food deserts are on the edge of metro areas just passed where the busses/trains stop running. Too far from the city to make it to the grocer, too far from real rural to know a farmer.

Don't let people get you down. Keep trying, and keep enjoying the process of learning a new skill.

Sometimes it's difficult to step back and realize how much we learn through being around the process. If all the cooking was done outside and/or you weren't allowed in the kitchen or to be a casual observer from the time of childhood, then you missed out on all that repetition.

I cook together with my son (age 5), and I think people forget that even the simplest things are a learning process.

Don't panic, keep an extra box of baking soda and band-aids around, and when you're about to have a meltdown, because so many things went sideways, it's okay to lick the spoon. Lick the spoon and laugh like a crazy person.

Merry Christmas, Bellarose.