Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    One good method is to use a crock-pot.  With one, you can make the
    dinner ahead of time, and have it be ready when you get home.  And
    it ensures that you have a nice hot meal (especially in the winter).
    
    There is almost no end to what you can make this way - you are limited
    only by your imagination.  The best way to do it is to prepare all
    of the ingredients (except the liquids) during the weekend and 
    refrigerate them without cooking.  Then on the day, you simply put it 
    all in the crock pot add the liquid, and forget it.
    
    There are a couple of real advantages in addition.  First, the crock
    pot uses less energy to cook a meal than any other form of cooking.
    Secondly, there is only 1 pot to wash up.
    
    Good luck.
    
    Dirk

    If cooking on the weekend is not an issue (lots of better stuff
    to do), then a freezer and a microwave help.
    
    SM
    
    

    Usually when I am cooking Sunday's dinner, I will cook Monday's
    as well.  Then Monday when I reheat, I will cook Tuesday's, etc...
    
    This way, if I really don't feel like doing anything too creative
    when I first get home, I have time to sit and relax a little first.
    Also, it gives me all evening to prepare the next nights meal, and
    I don't have people breathing down my neck for "tonight's" dinner.
    
    M-L

    1) we have a few "instant" meals that we make
    2) we have a recipe book that is centered on fast vegetarian meals
    3) we often make leftovers on purpose. some get frozen. others
       get eaten as is. still others are reincarnated into something
       completely different.
    
    this gives us energy to do some "real" cooking on other nights
    liz

    We both pitch in to get hot meals on the table on busy week nights
    (I got mad at someone once who was trying to tell me that I didn't
    understand normal living because "you eat out all the time".  We
    out one night a week, the night we buy groceries, do the laundry,
    and go folk dancing; otherwise we usually weren't making it to dancing,
    and, during Passover when we can't eat out, we usually do end up not
    making it to dancing.  He thought we were eating out because we
    always have leftovers for lunch at work!  I don't like sandwiches.)
    If we are having people over for dinner on a week night (usually a bad
    idea, but we do it sometimes, like before a concert, or when
    out-of-town friends are in town for a day), we prepare everything the
    evening before, after dinner.  We both love food but have many
    allergies (especially to smoke, but to a lot of foods as well), so
    learning to cook good food quickly was necessary to our sanity.

    We do anumber of things depending on the night.
    1. Quick meals - like eggs or chipped beef or "hamburger scramble"
    (the later can be made in less than 45 minutes starting with frozen
    hamburger.)
    2. The crock pot - when we remember to thaw or prepare in advance.
    3. The old fashioned pressure cooker. You can process a frozen chicken
    into supper in about an hour using a pressure cooker.
    4. Standard suppers when we have meat thawed.
    5. Frozen "fried chicken" or tv dinners - not too often, usually
    when one of the older kids has to cook.
    
    We tend to eat between 7:30 and 8:00 most nights. ........sigh
    
    Bonnie

    I stir-fry a lot. With a rice cooker (another of "our" toys...)
    either of us can whip up dinner in about 30 minutes. Kung-Pao chicken
    takes more like 45, most (like around two-thirds) of the time in
    stir-fry is cutting up. The actual cooking is lightning quick. If
    you are willing to serve from the wok, and eat out of a single bowl
    with chopsticks, there's minimal cleanup too.
    
    I do most of the stir-fry around our house, but Janice does a lot
    of the cutting up. With a little experience, black-bean sauce, hot
    garlic sauce, oyster sauce, all lose their ability to intimidate
    and become easy.
    
    When we don't feel like even that much work, we have a stash of
    frozen stuff in our big chest freezer (one of "her" toys...) I've
    lived for days on frozen burritos and home made frozen enchiladas.
    With a microwave oven, heating up leftovers takes less than 15 minutes.
    The microwave is great for thawing frozen meat too. If you aren't
    too picky about the chicken getting a little "cooked" you can defrost
    a whole chicken in about 10 minutes to the point where it can be
    boned. Boning the legs and thighs and wings while the breasts finish
    thawing speeds thing up even more.
    
    The previous suggestion about making big batches of things and freezing
    them is really good. We have a stock of things like chicken curry,
    lentils and ham-hocks, some soups, things like that in tupperware
    in the freezer too.
    
    I really love to cook, but doing a dinner "right" takes hours. Too
    much time for most nights. I do end up going "out" for dinner twice
    a week or so, usually pizza or burgers, though we have a really
    good selections of restaurants around (see THEBAY::SAN_FRANSISCO).
    
    	-- Charles
    
    P.S. We usually eat between 9 and 10 most nights, but then we don't
    usually get in to work till noon!

    First, make sure that you aren't responsible for all of the work
    yourself.  Make sure that your husband and kids help out.  Often,
    women don't delegate enough in their own homes.  If they're not
    accustomed to the kitchen, just make sure that you're willing to
    put up with a few mistakes before they get the knack of things!
    
    Second, if you don't have one, get a microwave oven.
    
    	-Ellen

Delegate, who to???  Husband and KIDS???  Yeah right  :-)

Cooking as a single person who doesn't like to bother cooking for one can be 
interesting: I eat strange quick meals usually, but then the other night I
was  cooking  a  sweet  potato,  managed  to burn my thumb and middle finger
(forgot  to  watch  out  for  hot  scewers (sp?)), which made quilting later
slightly painful.

OK, so I'm not being too helpful!

                        -< Delegate... Let me at it... >-

    It's all very well going on about delegating the cooking but my
    wife doesn't like me to cook and keeps banning me from the kitchen
    except when we have friends coming.
    
    I like to cook and have always taken a share of cooking since I
    was twelve (my mother is a disaster in the kitchen) but my wife
    finds me sharing with the cooking slightly threatening, particularly
    my successes. I have only recently been allowed back in the kitchen
    having been banned for about six months. She lost her temper when
    I offered to cook and threw a pound of frozen sausages at me "see
    what you an do with those!". I still cross cooked them in orange
    juice and white wine. Perhaps I should have been more sensitive
    but we were having a row at the time.
    
    How do other women feel about having a husband who cooks at least
    as well as they do and what can we do to bring harmony in the kitchen.
    We have tried cooking together, which sometimes works well but sometimes
    becomes very competitive.
    
    Peter.
    

    I think that women hate men in "their" kitchens
    
    cause we tend to laff at their efforts 
    
    that end up burnt offerings
    

    I LOVE living with a man who can (and WILL) cook!  I'm a
    reasonably good cook, but don't always enjoy it, so it's
    nice to have someone else take care of it.  Even nicer when
    he's good at it!  (Roast Duck is his specialty and one of
    my favorites).  
    
    P.S.  I'm usually doing laundry while he's in the kitchen,
          although I have been known to conk out on the couch
          while he fixes dinner for himself and my son.
    
    P.S.S.On of the nicest (recent) experiences I've had was 
          coming home late from an appointment and finding 
          dinner ready to go AND freshly-baked chocolate chip
          cookies! 

    well one of my worst experiences was living with a woman that
    couldn't cook to save her life and she wouldn't let me in "her"
    kitchen
    
    cept to do the dishes
    
    never found any women that won't "let" you do that pleasant task
    
    :(
    

        I nearly always do the cooking... I'm a bit of a gourmet (how
        much of a "bit" depends largely on your point of view). My wife
        is competant in the kitchen (surprizing, considering how her
        mother mangles most anything), but not "inspired".  She often
        feels helpless & rather guilty 'cause I "do everything", so I
        let her help when it's practical (& when there's a more or less
        independent task I can delegate), and there are a few dishes she
        likes to prepare herself.   She always gets to hang around and
        provide "support", however... :-) 
        
        Actually, Barbara often likes to claim that she married me
        for my cooking... she was a college student when we met,
        living mostly on hamburger (mostly, ahem, raw and frozen)
        and Kraft "macaroni & cheese-like substance".
        
        	/dave

>   I think that women hate men in "their" kitchens
        
        You'd do better saying that cooks generally dislike sharing
        their kitchens with "interlopers".  In a household with two
        cooks, neither are interlopers.  With one cook, it seems
        to be generally true that the cook prefers the other to stay
        clear of at least the work area, if not the entire kitchen.
        
        	/dave

    re: .11
    Like most women I know with jobs (or careers) they feel good about,
    Joe's great cooking in OK by me. We own the house, and we own the
    kitchen. But then, my self esteem isn't wrapped up in my cooking,
    and, doing theater in college, I've learned to take notes and hints
    well. If you're really interested in helping in the kitchen, maybe
    you should talk more about why cooking is such tough territory.
    For instance, is it the most creative thing your wife gets to do
    all day?
    
    But never, never, correct someone in a kitchen when things are going
    wrong and they know it, particularly when they're got a knife in
    their hands! :-}
    	Mez

    re .11
    my husband and i often cook together. it almost never works when
    both of us are in charge. it works best when one person "directs"
    and the other "assists" and acts as the back-seat cook. this works
    for us because we both enjoy both roles.  another method that works
    is for us to plan the meal together. each person then works independently
    to produce a part of the meal. we clean up together too.
    
    liz

    
    We often cook together, with neither one of us really in charge,
    but I can't really tell you why this works - it just does!  (Cooking
    with other roommates/former men in my life had always been a disaster!)
    
    Neither of us are territorial about the kitchen, or critical of
    each others efforts.  We're both good cooks, we like to do it, and
    it's something we love to share.  And we've learned alot, too. 
    Tom taught me curries and chinese, I taught him Greek and Mexican,
    we both did Italian and country-french and German.  And we bake
    bread together (very sensual, all covered with flour :-)  And -
    surprise - the stuff we make together usually comes out better than
    what either does by themselves.  We both do some stuff on our own
    from time to time.  I've never minded being woken up in the middle
    of the night to munch on fresh peach coffee cake or homemade french
    fries that Tom just got "the urge" to make!
    
    As for quick meals - crock pots are good, we don't have a microwave,
    but we've got some quickie meals like Fettucine Alfredo, omelettes,
    and the like (try having breakfast for dinner! it's a win!) that
    take less than half an hour to make.
    
    Rita
    

I consider myself to be one of the VERY fortunate married partners that
is not only connected to someone who LIKES to cook, but CAN cook and
is usually fairly reasonable about all aspects of the kitchen!
Patrick is a very talented cook and I love to indulge him!

I CAN cook but choose not to... I guess I don't always enjoy command
cooking.  I have a few specialties that we both enjoy and I am the
undisputed Baking Queen, but he is by far the chef in the family.

But he does get a little temperamental at times when "interlopers"
(great word for us!) interfere with the smooth operation of his
kitchen.  He appreciates my company and doesn't mind if I help in
some small way, but I can't do anything that takes up counterspace!  

Awhile ago Patrick invested in James Beard's 60 MINUTE GOURMET cards
and these things have been wonderous!! He can whip up Pork with apples,
Veal or Chicken Marsala, Garlic Potatoes, etc. and we can still be
sitting down to eat by 7PM! Sometimes earlier!

When I was single, soups saved me.  I invested in a stockpot and 
collected recipies from EVERYONE!  As a result, on a Saturday or Sunday,
I'd throw together a soup for a few hours of cooking and I'd have enough
to freeze half and have plenty for a few nights and lunches.  A
stew can be made in 1 hour if you know how... and the beauty of that is
that once you've cut things up and set it to simmer, it's time for a
cup of tea and a cuddle with the cat!!!  Effortless cooking!!

To the busy Mom who wants to provide good meals for the kids, it's a sign
of the times!!!  We don't have any kids (yet!) but I keep casseroles
in the freezer, or will brown a pound of hamburger and drain off the
grease, and add 2 cans of Franco American spaghetti... and you have
INSTANT hot meal!!!  Kids like that one alot, too!!  We called it
"slumgullion" when we were kids and a friend calls it "googumslop"...

Sometimes a hot meal is pancakes or waffles!! Add bacon or sausage for
meat!! On school nights I sometimes indulge in a poached egg on toast!
I love breakfast food, but never have time for breakfast so it's a
real treat for me!!

I have a million great recipies!!! Send me mail and I'll share them
with you!!!

Bugsy

    I like to cook elaborate meals sometimes, so I try to do as much
    as possible the night before.  One of my favorites is a pasta
    primavera dish, made with homemade pasta.  I make the pasta and sauce
    the night before so when I get home all I have to do is cut up the
    veggies, heat the sauce and cook the pasta, (less than 20 minutes).
    A wok is also a time saver, as are crock pots and a microwave.
    Its important to plan ahead and have the ingredients handy.
    I live by myself and its very easy to go out to dinner 5 nights
    a week.  Its also very easy to put on a few pounds by going out
    to eat all the time.  By planning meals ahead and preparing as much
    as possible the night before, I get home from work, jog and have
    dinner ready by 6:45.  Then the night is free for other things,
    besides preparing the next nights dinner.    ;^)
    
                                                    

    I don't have a microwave but I love to cook.  My husband loves to
    eat.  But it's tough on our schedules too....I find that if I make
    meals I can through together like bake a chicken but add vegetables
    in the pot like carrots, onions, etc. or throw a bake potato in
    with it.  Fast spaghetti or homemade ravoli....place called pasta
    works in Nashua has great homemade frozen pasta....if you like pasta.
    I also make lasagna and that usually takes up a couple of nites
    to eat but I know that can get boring....I guess just using the
    the mind.  Depends what you like.  Scallops take a few minutes to
    cook up in a wine sauce if your kids like that....mine devours it.
    I usually find if meals are going to take an hour to cook I would
    chop up some cheese or raw peppers or something "good" not M&Ms
    to serve while dinner is a cooking.....otherwise they will eat the
    inside of the refrigerator!  Cooking ahead and crock pots are great
    too....I'm saving up for a microwave.....
    
    :-)
    bs
    

    I do lots of vegetarian Oriental cooking.  Oriental cookbooks are
    great, but you have to find one whose directions don't look
    intimidating. The first few times I made stir-frys, MaPo Do-Fu,
    and Hot and Sour Soup, I was pretty glued to the recipe, and it
    was time consuming, but after about the third time they seem to
    make themselves with whatever you have on hand.  The nice thing
    about Oriental food is that you can sit down and do a whole bunch
    of chopping (tofu, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, celery,
    scallions and the like) while your dried things (wood ears, etc.)
    are coming back to a hydrated state, and while your tofu (and meat,
    if you use it...) is marinating in rice wine, soy sauce and cornstarch.
    Then you stand up and everything goes very quickly from there.
    
    Advantages include knowing there is no MSG in the food, being able
    to make it REALLY hot and spicy (yup, I'm a Szechuan addict), and
    being able to use up leftover veggies which are beginning to look
    a bit tired.
    
    And I only started doing Oriental food at home this summer...it's
    not hard to become good at it even if you're basically a lazy cook
    who hates to measure.  (It's also a good way to sneak a few veggies
    into kids...some kids....)
    
    We go to the groceries in Chinatown or to Joyce Chen about once
    a month and stock up on hot bean sauce, soy sauce, water chestnuts,
    bamboo shoots, sesame oil, rice wine, five spice powder, ginger
    root, fermented black beans, tiger lily buds, tree ears, dried peppers,
    curry pastes(Siamese), winter mushrooms, straw mushrooms, rice vinegar,
    Szechuan pepper, and hoisin sauce.
    
    Some easy and fun cookbooks include:
    
    Chinese Cookery by Rose Cheng and Michele Morris, HP Books, PO Box
    5367, Tucson AZ.
    
    Chinese Cooking for Beginners, Wei-Chuan's Cook Book Huang Su-Huei,
    1980.  (This one has good pictures at the front describing all the
    cooking processes.)
    
    The Good Food of Szechuan, Down to Earth Chinese Cooking, Robert
    A. Delfs, pub. Kodansha Intl, distr. by Harper and Row, 1974. (This
    one describes all the basic groceries, too).
    
    Good luck--write to me if you want some easy recipes to try, or
    info about Chinese groceries in the Boston area.
    
    Holly

    Instant meal:
    
    Saute an onion and add:
    	1 can potatoes
    	1 can clams
    	1 can evap milk
    	1 can water
    	salt & pepper
    
    While that is simmering, mix up a Jiffy muffin mix, I use corn or
    bran.  Bake (and sometimes microwave to hurry things along).
    
    The result - a low calorie "meal" and about 20 minutes.
    
    Sally
    PS.  This is nice for those nights when you forgot to get anything
    out of the freezer because all you need can be kept on hand easily.
    

    
    	I couldn't live without my toys:  microwave, freezer, food 
    processor and seal-a-meal!  
    
    	When I get in the mood to cook I cook up a storm, usually things 
    that can be easily frozen.  The food processor really helps when it 
    comes time to chop up all those veggies or julienne the chicken - and 
    it makes super bread.  Once everything is cooked put individual 
    servings in seal-a-meal bags and pop 'em in the freezer.  When it's 
    time for dinner you just pop the bags in boiling water.  Not
    everything goes into bags well, so I freeze stuff in Tupperware too.  
    But because I don't want all my Tupperware tied up in the freezer,
    after the stuff is frozen I transfer it from the Tupperware to a 
    freezer bag.   With a microwave you don't have to think about supper 
    at 5:30 a.m. - just wait until you get home!
    
    	Cooking ahead and freezing gives you "real meals" every night,
    without the hassle of preparing every night.
    
    		Conni
    
              

    My standbys are my own spaghetti sauce, which I make  in a batch
    to cover 2 meals, and the following meatloaf:
    	about 1 pound lean ground beef
    	1 can Campbell's ABC soup, undiluted
    
    	reserve the most liquid part of the soup, and whatever veggies
    	come with it, up to about 1/4 of the can
    
    	put the rest of the soup in a bowl with the burger, mush it
    	around till they're well mixed, form into loaf & put in a loaf
    	pan.
    
    	make a shallow groove the length of the loaf, pour the reserved
    	soup over the loaf.  You can freeze it here, if you wish, but
    	wrap it well.  If your oven has a timer, put the frozen loaf
    	in the oven in the a.m., set the timer so that it gets done
    	when you get home.
    
    	Bake at 375 for about an hour.  If you put potatoes in at the
    	same time, all you have left to do is to make frozen petite
    	peas in the microwave.
    
    I also use instant chicken once a week.  (Instant chicken is Frank
    Purdue's pre-packaged, breaded cutlets.)
    
    The Parenting note has a few on this topic.

for more ideas, the cooks notesfile has a long note on quick meals. The file
is TLE::COOKS. 
	       					-- hs

    There's also a couple of topics in HOLISTIC on recipies, some of
    them quickies.
    
    	-Ellen

    I had a fair amount of trouble getting my husband to do his share
    of the meal preparation. He didn't seem to realize how long it took
    to make up a list and do the shopping and put the stuff away and
    prepare it and clean up afterwards. What I had hoped was that he
    would take the kitchen chores one week and I would take the next,
    but he only gets truly cooperative if we do things together.
    
    Now, togetherness is nice, but has some disadvantages. Either of
    us could do the shopping in not much more time than it takes both
    of us together, and whoever wasn't shopping would have that time
    for something else. But I'd rather have him come with me than wind
    up doing it all myself - and besides, he's beginning to really get
    into vegetables. He'll select - and prepare! - all manner of plain
    and fancy vegetables, nearly all of which are fairly speedy to cook.
    
    We still spend more time for less result than I would wish, but
    we're making progress.

    [Slight digression for new noters: replies .31 and .32 point to
    different conferences. The authors of those replies - or the moderator
    - could add conference pointers to the replies, so that anyone
    reading them could use the KP7 or SELECT keys to add the conferences
    to their notebooks. The command is SET NOTE/CONFERENCE=node::filename.]

    We now return you to your regularly scheduled note.
    
    -b

    RE .33 - I have the same problem with my husband. He'll help if
    I'm cooking too but won't go it alone, or if he does he will cook
    but never clean the kitchen. (On the other hand he does vacum on
    his own). 
    
    <flame on> Why do men expect to be lavishly thanked for any help
    in the kitchen but don't return the favor. I actually had a male
    friend bragging that *he* did the cooking and shopping one week
    and he was expecting praise for it. I asked him if his wife got
    any praise for doing it all the rest of the time. <flame off>
    
    Liesl <I want a maid more than a promotion>
    

>   <flame on> Why do men expect to be lavishly thanked for any help
        
        tsk tsk!  I rarely "help" in the kitchen.  I do virtually
        all the work in the kitchen.  I enjoy it.  I don't particularly
        expect thanks.
        
        Therefore, the only possible answer to your question is...
        "men" *don't* expect to be "lavishly thanked for any help
        in the kitchen".  Perhaps *your* man does... but that's a
        different question.  And a much more specific flame.  Watch
        it, huh?
        
        Just to prove this isn't a return flame, I'm going to smile.
        
        			:-)
        
        There, OK?
        
        	/dave

When I first started eating dinner with Bill, we went out every night.
It was quicker than going to the store to buy that night's dinner (always
steak for the grill), bringing it home and cooking it.  At some point we
realized this had to change.  I was gaining weight, too. :-)

A microwave and simple cooking are the keys to our success.

We probably shop about once a week, and prepare such entrees as sloppy
joes or pre-cooked BBQ ribs for Bill (each lasts him 2 nights), broiled
or grilled fish for me (I pick it up on my way home from work), chicken
pieces (frozen as individual servings) with BBQ or soy/teriyaki sauce
thrown on, and the occasional steak.  We have frozen vegies on the side; I'm
sure some kind of potatoes or rolls wouldn't take much longer if we wanted
them.  Usually on shopping night, we have frozen dinners, which might not
be quicker.  It probably takes about 15-20 minutes to do all the cooking.

With our new eating arrangements (well, not *that* new anymore :-)), dinner
gets done a lot faster, and I've managed to lose about 30 pounds so far. :-)

Jill

I used to be a chef/kitchen manager of a 300 seat restaurant, and here's a
trick many domestic cooks don't fully use which is absolutely indispensible
to efficient cooking: inventory control.

I must admit I'm not 100% disciplined like I was when I was cooking for a
living, but I try to have at least list of what's in the freezer according
to how many portions and how it's prepared. Staples I don't worry about, I
just know I always have milk, eggs, bread, and that kind of stuff. I try to
also list canned things that can be quickly turned into a meal (like the
clam chowder ingredients suggested a while back.) Fresh fruits and
vegetables I usually don't bother writing down becuase (ideally) they get
used up too fast. But I try to keep the list in mind as I'm cooking/eating
during the week so I don't end up with nothing but a bunch of wilted celery
and two pounds of mushy carrots.

The way I try to do it is an extension of my shopping-list making. Before I
go to the store, I have to make a list. But before I make a list, I have to
plan the menus, and before I plan the menus I have to know what's already in
the house. Ideally, rather than running around the kitchen opening every
cabinet door and pawing through the refrigerator and freezer looking for
something to eat EVERY NIGHT when I come home from work I only have to do it
once a week (or less), as long as I write down what I find. When I take
something out I cross it off the inventory list, and when I make soemthing
new I add it to the list.

This kind of planning and list-making is even more important if you expect
the duties to be shared.

Don.

    Jane Brody's Good Food Book has lots of quick recipes that are also
    healthy. 
    
    So does the More With Less cookbook. It's put out by a Mennonite
    press, so may be harder to find. 

If someone's having trouble finding More With Less, I can probably get you
a copy.  

- Byron (Fallen mennonite:-) )

    Quite simple, eat out.  I sit down to no more than two meals a week
    at home - and that is more than enough.  I don't enjoy cooking and
    none of my wives (3) did either.  Money is not an issue, fortunately.

    
    Re .37, Don, such organization boggles my mind.  My mind must be
    a junkyard and yours is a filing cabinet!
    
    Re .40, I agree with you!  Eating out is best.
    
    Lorna