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If a recipe calls for a box of cake mix, it is not a recipe. (Salty Seattle)
Why you should pay too much for stuff. (Allen Tucker)
How soft drink makers are "gently" fighting NYC's Big Beverage Ban. Readers: I haven't addressed this ban yet here at CK. What's your take on this debate? (USA Today)
Five tips to best protect your garden from drought conditions. (Grow. Cook. Eat.)
Recipe Links:
An unusual and easy Quick Broiled Salsa. (Cafe Johnsonia)
Make your own Homemade Yogurt for half the cost of store-bought stuff. (Budget Bytes)
A proper host should always have frozen margaritas at the ready. Canning Jar Margaritas. (Dad Cooks Dinner)
Off-Topic Links:
Keep your identity small and you'll have more and better ideas. (Paul Graham)
Be a creditor, not a debtor. (Brave New Life)
Is it morally wrong to attempt to become wealthy? Your response may unlock some intriguing limiting beliefs about money. (Steve Pavlina)
19 striking thoughts about finding your purpose. (In Over Your Head)
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10 comments:
Wow, do I disagree with Salty Seattle. That is food snobbery right there. That's like saying if you can't make your own clothes by hand, you shouldn't even try to replace a button.
The post goes pretty far beyond saying that "semi-homemade" is not cooking. A recipe is simply an algorithm. It's "do this + this + this and your results should = this." It's not a flawless, ceremonial liturgy handed down from the god of the kitchen and unchanged from the beginning of time.
Going back to the cake example, because it annoys me in its preciousness: Combining eggs, oil, and a prepackaged mixture of flour, sugar, and leavening is no less viable as "cooking" than combining eggs, oil, and flour, sugar and leavening measured separately out of your own stocks.
Attitudes like that are why a lot of people (including me in a previous incarnation) blew off the whole idea of becoming a good home cook. Because it cuts the legs right out from under you by saying you have to do everything from scratch, the hard way, or it's not worth doing at all and moreover you are a dilettante and a cheater. There's too much judgement there.
Phooey anyway.
Great comment Chacha, just exceptional. I had my own mixed feelings too on that post--which is my usual sign that it's a good candidate for Friday Links.
On the one hand I've gotta hand it to her for being surprisingly self-aware in her food snobbery, and also for putting her view out there in a way that elicits comment. There could be a great debate on that site if her commenters were a little less sycophantic.
DK
I love that article about paying too much for stuff since that is totally me and Steve. We pay more money for truly good quality things that last us so much longer and work so much more reliably. There are some things that are worth it!
Funny note about older things being of higher quality: I have an alarm clock in my bedroom that we cannot bring ourselves to replace (even though it's a tad ugly) because I've had it since I was 11 or 12 and it still works perfectly. They really don't make things like they used to, I'm tellin' ya...
"There could be a great debate on that site if her commenters were a little less sycophantic."
Oh Dan. I'm smirking way too broadly right now. I tried to avoid even commenting on that link because I, um, kind of loathe that particular blogger and that post is just another nail in the proverbial coffin.
I hated her originally for using the Japan tragedy to her own (nude and gross) fame grab and wanted to kick her in the face even more after this:
http://www.saltyseattle.com/2012/05/win-it-the-biggest-giveaway-a-food-blogger-has-ever-given-away/
You don't know sycophantic until you read the comments on THAT one. UGH. And where does she get off??! She's insulting so many people I love with that post. Not even gonna start...
and what's more, I'll put my made-with-the-aid-of-a-mix Bundt cakes up against her 100% scratch cakes any old day. Phooey.
:-)
<3 you Dan!
Thanks, Dan!
Perfect timing - I made another batch of the canning jar margaritas last night. I'm springing them on my family tonight when I meet them at our summer cottage.
On Salty:
I have gone from processed food queen, to home cooked with lots of local ingedients, to a combination of the two.
As much as I'd love to go back to my all home-cooked, with a brand new infant and a 6 year old (and soon, back to my FT job), it just isn't happening. I was able to cook more on mat leave with the first baby, but now there are 2 kids to keep track of.
I just made myself a home cooked lunch (rice, fried eggs, sauteed zucchini and onion), but it took 45 minutes. I am lucky the baby was napping. Otherwise, a 2 min microwave meal from Trader Joe's would have been on the menu.
Mike, you are welcome! That post has irrevocably changed my life by the way. It's also been pretty darn popular on Twitter, judging by the number of RTs my initial tweet got.
Marcia, I hear you, and I bet most mothers get where you're coming from too. You have to do what you can, when you can. Food snobbery is a luxury, certainly not an obligation.
PS: I've been meaning to congratulate you on your latest addition to your family! Great work. :)
DK
Right, it's not either/or for most people. Sure, some people NEVER cook from scratch, and fewer people always do. But lord knows I get plenty of good fresh food just by prepping my CSA veggies every week. So I can be forgiven the occasional frozen pizza.
Thanks for the congrats. No sleep, but the new baby is adorable.
Man, that frozen margarita idea is awesome. Although I will be snobby about the limeade. Not because using limeade instead of lime juice and simple syrup is wrong. But... who puts simple syrup in a margarita? Blasphemy.
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