But hey, you would benefit from learning to cook. Food will be heathier and better-tasting as well if you learn what to do with it.
This is what happens when we take these basic life skills out of schools. Cooking, gardening, food preservation, and basic butchery are, in fact, survival skills. Without this knowledge, is it any wonder people have this reaction to receiving a box of canned and dry goods?
Having seen its products, I'm not really in favor of public education either. I'd be happy to teach people how to cook, though, on a volunteer basis. I like cooking, and it is amazing how much better life gets when you're possessed of the skill to do it well.
I don't mind food stamps for the truly needy, but I do have a couple of caveats:
ReplyDelete1) the Federal Poverty Guidelines do a fine job of defining the poverty threshold, so no welfare at all, including no food stamps, for anyone or any families with incomes above 100% of the poverty guideline. If the man, woman, or family has income above the guideline, they are by definition not poverty-stricken.
2) Limit the items buyable with food stamps to raw material staples: flour, dairy, salt, pepper, unprepared meat, and the like. Per the OP: learn to cook. Want the junk food? Homemade ice cream is better than store bought. My wife makes a very good chocolate snack with 100% baking cocoa powder (no sugar added), butter, and whey protein powder. Great Value baking cocoa even has printed on the cylinder a pretty good recipe for brownies, makeable from basic raw materials. Per the OP: learn to cook.
Eric Hines
My wife makes a very good chocolate snack with 100% baking cocoa powder (no sugar added), butter, and whey protein powder.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to need that recipe, Mr. Hines.
Without being able to claim any admirable culinary skill, I at least mastered the basics of putting simple dishes together. When I was young and impoverished, my college roommate and I ate on a shoestring, dishes like cabbage boiled with frankfurters, or chicken boiled with rice. Peasant food is cheap and easy.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what to say to people who can't make a meal out of cheap ingredients, but who resent the inadequate food aid they receive. These are not things my mother or my school taught me. Anyone can pick them up; people have been doing it for thousands of years with more primitive cooking apparatus than the least-equipped American household is likely to boast. There is a kind of learned helplessness that exasperates my patience.
I have no idea what to say to people who can't make a meal out of cheap ingredients, but who resent the inadequate food aid they receive.
DeleteIt's not even entirely their parents' fault; it's plain laziness and a coward's lack of initiative.
From the time I was in 3rd grade, I was a latch key kid, but I had chores to do when I got home. Heading that list was to start supper cooking for a family of four (I got home an hour ahead of my high school-aged brother, and then three) according to a menu and the recipes for the dishes my mother set out before she and dad set off for work
It wasn't that hard, since the dishes were basic, focusing on things that could be done with hamburger, potatoes and canned or fresh vegetables.
What to say to the whiners? Just walk away, and let them go hungry. They're not financially impoverished, just intellectually and morally so; there's nothing that financial help will do for them.
Eric Hines
Ask, and ye shall receive, Grim, at least this time. My wife's recipe:
ReplyDeleteEasy fudge
1 stick butter - melted
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
1 tsp mint extract (optional)
stir together until well blended
1 Tbsp instant coffee (optional - I like the touch it adds)
4 Tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
4 scoops vanilla whey protein powder
stir until well blended
add liquids and fold together
fold into dish and refrigerate
NB: There are no preservatives, so prolonged exposure may result in some superficial mold growth.
Solution: eat promptly! It is very rich, so small doses are filling.
I add that the recipe scales well, so you can make bigger batches as desired.
Eric Hines
Thank you! Four scoops is 120 grams of protein. Good stuff.
DeleteI came of age when they were making boys and girls do both Shop classes and Home Ec. I thought it was great. I've never been much of a cook (and my wife negates the need being a very good cook), but I learned to use a sewing machine, and that has served me very well in my life.
ReplyDeleteOff topic: found a man with some of Grim's interests: https://www.tamburnmanor.com/about
ReplyDeleteA lot of men have some of my interests. My uniqueness is largely in the union of them. I don’t have to go very far down the line before I am the only one ever.
DeleteHe does seem like a cool guy though.
DeleteGrim, you wrote several years ago on a related topic, the link between poverty and obesity in the U.S. About learning how to cook, buying cookware and utensils, and the link was to an article whose author seemed to think that poor people were too stupid to learn to cook, budget, or buy ingredients and utensils. I remember Tex making the comment that only a prodigiously wealthy country could forget that in the past, obesity was never associated with poverty; poor people get skinnier.
ReplyDeleteLarry