Everyone is focused on the cooking time and not the punchline, which is still needing to do the dishes.
Making a meal falls into three parts: prep, cook, and clean. I used to hate the ‘boring, standing on my aching feet’ prep bit, so I’d try to fit the prep into the little gaps in cooking. Of course, 8 couldn’t do it and I had to keep adjusting things - taking something off heat/down heat, whatever - to finish the prep for the next stage. The constant adjustments made the food not as good, the cooking unnecessarily stressful, and left me exhausted with a sink full of dishes at the end.
Nowadays, I sit in front of the tv. I do my prep there, all the peeling and chopping and slicing and dicing. When I cook, everything is ready for me to add to the dish, so the food tastes better and cooking itself is much less stressful. And I use the little bits of spare time during cooking to rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. When I’m done cooking, I only have the last handful of things to put in the dishwasher, plus whatever plates from the meal itself.
My life is much easier, all because I now watch TV.
You also forgot about planning and shopping.
Ah. So, I get a farm share every week. ‘Planning’ is looking at the list of what I’m getting and figuring out what I can make from it - although I’ve been doing this long enough that I actually have a selection of recipes that I re-use year to year, so I spend more time digging the recipe out then I do actually ‘planning’.
The weekly shopping is usually about 5 ‘missing’ ingredients that I need for my chosen dishes, plus whatever staples I’ve run out of. I usually go shortly before the store closes for the night, and it takes about 15 minutes.
How does one sign up for a farm share?
Search for CSAs near you. A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Usually a farmer has to borrow money from the bank at the start of the season to buy seeds, service the machines, hire the hands, etc, and hope to have a good enough crop to pay back at the end of the year. In a CSA, the farmer figures out his much they need to make all that happen, plus insurance, living expenses, some money for improvements and retirement, etc, etc. They figure out how much did they think they’ll produce that year and how many people it would feed, then sell the shares at a price that brings in the money they need to keep the farm running: they’re no longer dependent on the bank.
They’re also no longer dependent on the big agriculture practice of having your crops harvested early, sent to a middleman for sorting and packaging, sent to a distributor, sent to a warehouse, before finally sitting in the back of a grocery store before it gets put out, where the under-ripe produce is sold to you and you have like a week to eat it before it goes bad.
Instead the produce is brought in the day before distribution, so it’s at or close to the peak of ripeness and has more flavor. Since it’s not spending time traveling between middlemen, it lasts longer in your fridge. Since it’s not being bounced around lots of places, you get access to a wider range of things than normally show up: my CSA plants several types of regular tomatoes, but also a bunch of heirloom tomatoes as well. We get regular basil, yes, but also twelve other types of basil - lemon, Thai, red rubin, lime, holy, etc. My CSA also grows some fruit: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, figs, watermelon, paw-paws and pumpkins.
Each week, I get a large box of pre-picked food, plus I can pick some more in the fields if I want. Thursday night, I sit in front of the tv and cut everything up, Friday I go grocery shopping, Saturday I cook 2-3 large meals then stick half the servings in the fridge and the other half in the freezer. Odds and ends will get tossed into a salad for the week; larger amounts may get frozen, or pickled or canned or dried for later on. I get enough each year that I can eat most of my meals from farm produce, and it’s all made specifically to my taste and without a ton of chemicals in it.
I should note that I also assume some risk with my share: if it’s a great harvest year, I’ll get extra, but if it’s a bad harvest – well, prices would’ve increased at the store as well, so I figure it works out. I think mine was like $700 for a full share for 26 weeks which, like I said, it feeds me for an entire year, so the rest of my weekly grocery budget is like $20-25 (and I could get by on a lot less if I needed to). That said, I get an awful lot of food for the money - you can usually sign up for smaller/partial shares (or split it with a friend), and some places have shares available on an alternate-week schedule or let you choose which weeks you want to get it (which is useful for avoiding lettuce month, lol).
Some places will deliver to your door, some you pick up at various drop-off locations or farmers markets, some you have to pick up at the farm - when you look into it, don’t just look at the farm location, look into where you can get your food from, which may be closer to you. Oh, and some include or have add-ons for other things like honey or eggs. And there are also CSA’s for things beyond veggies: there are CSAs for meat, dairy, grains, mushrooms, etc.
Anyway - search for CSAs near you, check them out for drop-off/delivery options even if the farm isn’t in your immediate area, and see what turns up!
+1 for farm shares, except they’ve mostly closed and sold off their land to developers in my neck of the woods. Getting into the remaining ones has proved difficult.
Also we have a nutty growing season that means it’s mostly root veggies for 8months of the year.
We still want to support local ag, but it ain’t easy in a cold state with aging population.
I can see where that’s gonna be hard. You might try local harvest.org , though that’s less helpful than it used to be - I think something happened during the pandemic and they stopped double-checking the listings were still good each year, but it’s the last site I had for finding good CSAs.
Honestly, meal kits are clutch for this since they provide everything and the most effort needed by me is putting them away. 2 nights a week it makes my job of figuring out what to eat and how to make it a lot easier.
Are meal kits cost effective?
The cheapest meal kits are only slightly more expensive than the equivalent grocery store order. However, you will be limited in options for price points on the items. For instance, if the meal kit only uses products with labels that don’t really mean a whole lot, but are charged a premium for, you often don’t have the option to select the less expensive option. So someone who is a little adept at getting the most for their money from a grocery store will end up with a significantly better price. This is all before you consider that these services, as a whole industry, are plagued with late deliveries, spoiled food, incorrect ingredients, and damaged goods (though this one is more on the side of the delivery service).
So you will be limiting yourself in these ways for the trade-off of not having to go out and shop, and shopping by selecting meals, rather than ingredients. However, grocery stores, at least in even semi-urban areas, are already likely to delivery grocery orders, eliminating the the expense, and time, of brick and mortar shopping.
pasta, protein, some vegetable, fat to fry the protein in, cream boiullon and some spice for the sauce.
oh the horrors
Mise en place avec télé
Oui!
Well yeah. Unless you’re using disposable plates, you’re going to still have to do dishes. Fewer, but still.
But you can reduce that with things like a slow cooker, and one pot meals.
- Dump ingredients straight on the countertop.
- Use a Boring Company™ Not A Flamethrower™ to roast/flambe.
- Lick the finished meal off the countertop.
- …
- No dishes!
Using a Musk flamethrower is so uncivilized!
I absolutely went through a phase (6-8 years) of just using paper plates and paper cups, and just tossing it.
The only time I need to do dishes after cooking is when I am cooking something that needs constant attention, too many things at once, orI’m just lazy
Usually I just have the skillet I cooked in and the plate/silverware I used
Do some dishes while you’re cooking.
That’s why I get take-outs, don’t have to do the dishes.
Also, can we take a moment to talk about how great the performance of whomever that woman in the meme is? Looks like an Oscar worthy performance to me.
Lmao I was about it comment about who this was but then I saw your name.
Margot, I think of you every time I think of Wolf of Wall Street. Kisses!
Just don’t think about dying and all the dishes get cleaned and put away in your dream house magically somehow.
But the whole point of the story is that choosing to be human in the real world, instead of being an everlasting symbol in a fantasy world, is to accept everything that comes with being human in life: dying, doing dishes, but more importantly, the ability to choose your own path in your story.
Inspiring, thank you esteemed Academy Award nominated character actress and producer Margot Robbie. Very wholesome.
Are you saying that Barbie is the metaphorical equivalent of Arwen, the mortal Elven Queen of the Reunited Kingdom of Arnor and Gondor?
This. Sometimes it’s even cheaper than making a meal at home depending on what you get.
I used to feel this way about cooking. I started trying to find joy in the repetitive parts of life, so they didn’t seem so annoying. It’s definitely a journey, but if you keep at it, you get to a point where cooking feels like a creative outlet. Once you have enough experience to create something new from your pantry and quit following recipes verbatim you’ll have fun. It took me a few years to get there, but you’re going to have to cook your entire life anyway, might as well get something out of it.
We absolutely hit a specific age where the annoying parts of life, like cleaning and tidying, suddenly become one of the most satisfying parts of life.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy and all that.
Do you have a tip for enjoying scrubbing the shower, the toilet, and behind the toilet? Everything else is ok, but I hate those. As a result, I try to keep them as clean as possible in day to day use (squeegee the shower after every use, use toilet cleaner, etc) but I still have to dedicate time to cleaning them occasionally and tbh I’m considering paying someone else to do it.
What are you cooking that takes 2 hours every day? I cook most of my own meals and i don’t often go over an hour of cooking and most of that is just waiting.
Even if it does take 2 hours start to finish, I have to imagine there’s at least SOME part of the recipe that involves waiting for something to cook. That’s dishwashing time right there.
Yup, and unless you let it dry in for a few hours after eating, then final cleanup should be done in a jiffy.
With leftovers most meals take a couple minutes!
What meals do you cook?
I once made Coq au Vin, it took around 2 hours, and I never felt like cooking that again.
At least it was really tasty.
and that’s why proper coq au vin is a fancy schmancy dish, not something you cook every day.
Not everyday, but some dishes take time
You are both cooking too slowly and eating too fast
Yeah, honestly. It’s a crap meme. Maybe it feels like 2 hours because its boring for you. If you cook for 2 hours likely one part of it is putting something into the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Not everyday can be a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal.
I make chicken pot pie weekly. Mirepoix, peel dice potatoes, constantly stir so roux doesn’t clump. It’s 90 minutes of non stop cooking and 30 minutes of oven.
Do you divide it up into seven meals and eat chicken pot pie everyday?
It feeds 4 and I have one jar of leftovers to freeze. Once a month I have 4 jars and don’t have to cook chicken pot pie that week.
Try cooking a whole chicken a 700°C for 30 minutes and see what happens.
Is that the only option everyday? A whole fucking chicken? People are ridiculous.
Stop boggis-shaming me
No but you commented that they were cooking for too long with no idea of what was being cooked.
I have an example of what needs a longer cooking time.
The ridiculousness comes from you commenting without having any idea what OP was cooking and not providing advice of things that can be cooked quickly.
OP just said cooking, not cooking (x). I am also no one’s mother and thus reserve the right to make comments without fixing one’s entirely life for them.
Well you’re not really supposed to use a pottery kiln.
Take 10 minutes to spatchcock your bird and it will cook in 40 minutes
Wash up whilst it cooks
Or just use a convection oven. They’re super fast. 6 drumsticks or 4 thighs in 20 minutes.
Microwaves are faster, eight minutes and you’re done.
I tried this recipe and it was awesome. The charring made the chicken absolute 10/10, would bang.
so maybe don’t cook a whole chicken?
I know the standard advice is to wash dishes as you cook, but I never know when the cooking is passive enough to warrant doing dishes. If I stop staring at the thing I’m doing I get distracted and it burns.
What you’re supposed to do is get your MISE EN PLACE, that means get your shit ready, prep all the ingredients, mince and dice whatever and get them into prep bowls, and then start cooking when everything is actually ready to be cooked.
If you want to do dishes while you’re cooking,
the cooking is passive
adjust the heat, dawg, nothing should be burning in the 2-3 minutes it takes between stirring to wash something. If it is, you’re cooking it too hot
When I say I get distracted, I don’t mean that I do something for 2-3 minutes and then come back. I completely forget I was cooking for sometimes long periods of time. Even if I’m still in the kitchen.
Timers dawg, timers, if shits on heat set a timer. At least in the 2-3 minutes you’re trying to multi task if it goes off you’ll have the chance to be like “what the fuck was that for OH MY GOD MY ONIONS”
That makes sense. I don’t know why I don’t do that already.
It’s cause you didn’t think about it and you’re not in the habit of doing it, but that’s what we’re here for
Maybe leave a note for yourself reminding you to use timers next time you cook so you get into the habit
I just a put a sticky note in the kitchen! Thank you
godspeed noble warrior
I completely forget I was cooking
i cannot understand how this is possible
Death to America
I am riddled with ADHD
I’ve heard of people setting themselves really short-term alarms, like 2 minutes or such. If you get one of those mechanical kitchen timers, you can set it up real quick and extend it, if you get back to the stove before it goes off.
Rinse as you go, especially for things you know will stick (cheese, eggs, sauces, etc.). You can still use the tool if needed, but it’s a lot easier to clean later on if there’s no dried food on it, and stuff rinses off really easily while still fresh (usually).
I can’t manage to clean as I go either, but this has saved me a mountain of effort.
Hang on, if you’re washing dishes before you are done cooking and long before you even set the table or start eating anything, what exactly is it that you are washing? One big knife and a chopping board? How did this become the standard advice?
smh my head, amateurs not even dirtying up a few bowls with prep
My god you’re right. I’ve been wasting years of my life by leaving that one bowl with a bit of juice from some tomatoes at the bottom until later when I did the rest of the dishes. Think of how much I could have achieved in that time!
???
You’ve heard of the slow food movement? Sarcasm aside, I am advocating for the slow dishwashing movement. I am 100% serious about this. Well, maybe 75%. Or 45%. I am somewhat serious about this.
I get distracted when I leave the kitchen, so doing the dishes while waiting until the next cooking step is done fixes two problems for me: 1) I get less mess afterwards, 2) less destroyed food because I left the kitchen and forgot to check it.
I always end up needing the thing I washed again
Clean the dishes while waiting for your food to cook and then leave the remaining dishes you didn’t clean because you were still using them until the next dish run.
Yep. This is how I do it for even when I’m cooking for large gatherings. Yea it can get hectic but you’re not going to be drowning in dishes at the end of the night.
I always cook as much of whatever I’m making as I can, then put it in containers in the fridge or freezer (depending on the dish and how much).
And I have some base recipes that I cook that are easy to quickly make other things with. One thing I’ve done for almost two decades now is make a basic kinda “half-bolognese” (can’t think of a better English description right now). Just onion, garlic, meat (or in my case vegan alternative), salt, pepper and some stock of your choice. Then freeze that divided into a couple of portions per bag or container. Very easy to use for a lot of recipes.
I also buy bags of dried beans (way cheaper than undried or pre-soaked) and soak those then freeze them like above, same thing there with being good bases for many things.
One of my current favourite recipe that’s quick, cheap and filling without any of the above prep is falafel in tomato sauce. A local brand here in Sweden makes almost weirdly nice falafel that’s $5 for 800g (28oz), which is like 50 falafel balls. I put the falafel in my air-fryer (oven or frying pan works just as well) and while those cook I sauté some onion and garlic in olive oil then add spices (the current version I love is with some smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, thyme, black pepper, lots of turmeric, a bit of soy sauce, a stock cube and either MSG or other umami base). Then add the falafel once done and crushed tomatoes and let cook for a few minutes. Works great with rice, pasta, potatoes in whatever variation you like, couscous, and my current fav which is coarse bulgur with vermicelli (roasted noodles). I wouldn’t have guessed it before trying but the falafel is so good in the sauce!
I’m gonna have to try that falafel sauce recipe sometime - sounds delish
That’s why you cook enough for 15 meals and re heat it over the week.
Meal Preppers rise up
Even better is finding someone to cook with and make 30 portions instead. It goes faster, is more fun, and when you’re making that much food doubling the amount doesn’t appreciably increase the work.
Big batch of pasta gang represent.
Big batch of meal soup chiming in.
Can opener gang inna howze
Only to learn about real soup…
You’re cooking the wrong recipes if its taking 2 hours every time.
It’s always the fucking french fries. Put in a liter of oil and you still have to make an least four batches.
Leaves a hell of a mess, too!
Buy tater tots and bake them for 25 minutes.
If it’s the pre-cut freezer kind, roast them in the oven with a bit of oil a 170-200c. When they’re done, switch the fan on to crisp them up for a bit. Way less oil, only one sheet pan to clean, and you can cook single batches. Bonus, you don’t have to constantly watch them. Just check on them every 5 min after about 30 min. No oil bath to worry about either.
Downside is you have to wait for oven to heat up.
Yeah, that’s not something I make very often lol
As someone who has been cooking for himself for a long time, cook large amounts and refrigerate each serving in separate microwavable containers for later.
I also try to make things that can all go onto a single plate to create less cleanup.
This is the way
I heard dishwashers are actually more energy efficient than hand-washing, so no that’s one problem mostly solved. As others commented cook portions that last two or three days or freeze some of it.
As long as you have a dishwasher. Many apartments (and some homes) dont have them nor a space for them.
This is why my SO and I try to clean as we cook so it’s easier for later.
This is the way for me too, seeing a stuffed sink full of dishes just makes me stressed let alone how dirty it feels in general.
Also, make more one pot meals. And make big batches so you have leftovers for days. If you are spending more than 15 minutes actively preparing a meal, you can and should probably be lazier.
I had this whole comment typed up but I genuinely don’t know where to start because I don’t have this problem. If you do, and you want some help, let me know and we can work something out together.
