quiet1

'A while ago we ordered a dish that was described as pork with chilies. It turned out to be pork with a massive pile of green pepper and maybe a few chili flakes.

For some reason my 27 isn't seasoning as well as the smaller one, even though I'm using the same method. Annoying.

Those floors really are lovely. what brand mats do people use? I want one for our kitchen.

This reminds me - the rest of the house likes mushrooms (I think they all taste like dirt) so I'm wondering what sort(s) I should get dried to stash in the pantry for a quick pasta sauce or similar. Porcini is the one everyone thinks of, of course, but there's a TON available and I'm not sure which are worth having on hand. I want something that can be rehydrated to add to things (sauces, eggs) when we don't have fresh on hand because we have had some trouble in the past with fresh mushrooms not keeping well, so we don't usually buy them unless we have a specific purpose in mind. But it really seems like something we should have, because I know if you like mushrooms they can really add to a dish, and round out a fast meal.

No photo, but I got some stuff for tiki style drinks and my housemate requested a pina colada to start with. I don't have a blender so I did them kind of like a mint julep - crushed a lot of ice, shook the juice and rum with cubes to chill, poured that over the ice. Not quite the right texture but I think it at least convinced everyone that mixers are not the way to go. And that was with coco Lopez and bottled pineapple juice. I used Appleton Estate 12 year old for the rum. ETA: I have to add that the silly straws with fake flowers that I got as a last minute impulse buy really did help with the tropical feel of the drink, since I lacked anything to make fresh garnish. To be honest, I think I prefer my weird frozen fruit juice drinks without booze, and my booze less hidden by other stuff. With that said, the rum did add something the mix needed - I tried a bit without alcohol in case resident kiddo wanted a taste (he did not) and it lacked a depth of flavor. I'm thinking maybe a bit of some kind of bitters would help - I need to experiment more with the ones we have. (I got overwhelmed by orange options and bought three different orange bitters to compare and contrast.) i also got him a bottle of Somrus for his birthday, which is a weird Indian-flavored cream liqueur. Housemate likes it, I think it tastes like someone strained kheer and added vodka. However it seems interesting to mix with - I'm thinking maybe something like a Thai iced tea, very creamy and sweet.

The Koriko weighted shakers from Cocktail Kingdom aren't too expensive and are really nice.

If it is the alcohol that is the problem could you do a homemade Irish cream but heat the whiskey first to evaporate most of the alcohol?

Im quite curious for the recipe if you don't mind sharing.

'Last time I was messing with lemons I didn't even know I had cut myself until the lemon juice let me know. Owwww.

Actually, why not allow stuff from the deli? The deli here usually has way better products for sandwiches than you can buy on the shelf (like actual roasted turkey that isn't pumped full of flavoring and sodium) and a sandwich with decent meat is not a bad meal, particularly compared to a lot of packaged off the shelf stuff. Plus often the heat-and-go foods are classed as deli, and those are still, again, way more nutritious than many similarly easy to prepare alternatives. If we want people to eat better they need to be able to do so easily.

Which is why my mom (immune compromised) basically doesn't eat uncooked vegetables anymore. She's gotten sick one too many times from what seemed to be the salad or fresh vegetables or fruit. (She will take the risk with stuff you can peel thoroughly, like citrus and bananas, but that is still a calculated risk.)

Yeah, around here it is an age of the pipes thing, and of course in cheaper housing no one is paying to replace it all any time soon. But we are urban. I actually think it'd be better if the water WASN'T deducted from the SNAP benefits. Water should really be free. I can't see how you'd do that practically, of course, but as a principle - people shouldn't be deciding between spending money on water and money on food. I know there are some distribution systems, but anything that requires an extra stop adds complexity and takes time, which means more people are tempted to just buy everything at the store even if it isn't the best option rather than making the extra trip or extra stop. (I've done that, and I do not have the time management issues that someone would who is working multiple jobs and being a single parent.)

Yeah, we have a boring Oxo vegetable brush, too. I have to keep an eye on it, though, because it is comfortable in the hand so people keep wanting to make off for it for other things.

Like I said, all the shelf stable milk I've tried has been pretty gross, especially at room temp. I can see that being a factor, since food no one will eat doesn't do anyone any good. (And I know the theory is if they're hungry enough, they will eat it, but if I imagine an over worked single parent shopping and trying to get a meal into the kids before collapsing for desperately needed sleep, I can't help but think the temptation would be to avoid setting yourself up for a battle over if the kids will actually eat.) I wonder what the actual percentages are for people on food stamps with unsafe water, and how much purchasing habits would shift in those areas if potable water was available easily and free.

I might try this, have to get the rest of the house on board. But our freezer is mildly ridiculous.

I signed up also.

What liquids are nutrient dense and shelf stable, though? Sodas and fruit juices are pretty tolerable even at room temp, but shelf stable dairy is nasty, assuming it is even available. I suspect most people buying junk food on food stamps know it isn't great food, but it seems the best purchase for other reasons, like calories per dollar and how long it will keep and how reliably it is consumed. If bottled water and soda or juice blends are pretty close in cost (which they often are) then you do get more for your money with the sweet drink because empty calories are still calories, your body will run on them and it might be enough that kids are able to sleep because their stomachs aren't hurting from hunger.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone had tried mixing formula and some kind of juice, though. But the time that a kid needs formula is short compared to the time they need fluids and lots of calories in general, which is when I see stuff other than water seeming more cost effective. I've certainly had times when I grabbed a can of something like Coke or whatever was available in the vending machine and I needed SOME calories to keep me going - though that has usually been from access restrictions (waiting for someone at the hospital for example) not watching my pennies. Still, it does kind of work.

Even if one doesn't care about those kids, kids who behave better create a better learning environment for other kids at the school, too. Teachers and school staff who are having to manage unhappy and unruly kids all day are people who are not actually TEACHING. I mean, I definitely fall into 'take care of them because it is the right thing to do' camp, but there really are a heck of a lot of practical points, too. re: bottled water. I am glad you can get it on food stamps. I can see why someone would choose drinks with calories over bottled water if they are having to maximize the grocery budget, but bottled water seems like the sort of thing someone who has never had to worry about water quality would decide is a 'luxury' item and poor people don't need luxury items, because the only reason someone would buy bottled water is snobbery. It's ridiculous that people are in situations where they do have to buy bottled water to drink, but as long as they are in those situations, we should at least help them buy it. Safe water is a pretty basic need.

For some reason it has only just occurred to me that my dad might find Sous vide useful. He can cook but generally finds it too much work. He could probably handle sticking a chicken breast in a plastic bag in a water bath and ignoring it for a few hours, though...

It just occurred to me that another issue involved is that the tap water in many places with a high population of people on food stamps, at least in urban areas, is likely not safe to drink due to issues like lead in the water from old and poorly maintained pipes. (Everyone has heard of Flint now, but it isn't the only place with the issue.) So then do you spend money on water, which has no nutritional value, or on sweetened drinks, which at least provide calories? (I don't even know if you can get bottled water using food stamps.) We just had a thing here because they changed the chemicals in the water in some areas and it wasn't protecting against lead leeching from pipes as well - my household was all using bottled water until we could get the water properly tested because the house is from 1920-1930 and I think the pipes to the house in the street are about the same age.

I need a "want" option, "like" is not good enough.

Around here, too. Or if not at the school, then at city sponsored day camps. They try to have some kind of program over long breaks, too, so kids don't go hungry when school isn't in session. Often those programs are at a community building, not the school itself, but the city is definitely involved in organization and funding, it isn't just an independent charity thing. (We have those, too. Churches and so on.)

True. I am pleased that they aren't lumping milk in with everything else based on calories, though. It makes me cranky that our local school for a while was giving the kids skim milk only as part of trying to be 'healthy' - first, kids need a ton of calories relative to size, so if you're giving them good food in reasonable portions (which certainly we should be doing at school) then they don't need to be having 'diet' foods, especially since fat and protein are what make you feel full. Second, the major 'good things' in dairy products are vitamin D and calcium which are fat soluble. No fat, no absorption of the calcium. So if you're giving the kids milk as a snack (which they do for younger kids) and giving them skim milk and nothing with fat (usually the milk is paired with fruit these days since nut allergies mean peanut butter crackers are out) then nutritionally you aren't doing much better than a soda anyway. They've since switched to low fat/2%, which is better. (Hilariously, for a while the choices were plain skim milk, or chocolate or strawberry flavored 2%. So from the point of view of calcium and feeling satisfied with the snack, the better choice was the added sugar flavored milks. Resident kiddo was pretty happy to have the excuse to drink the tasty flavored stuff, but as nutritional options went it wasn't the best.)

If sugar is awful, though, then even fruit juice without added sugar should be considered pretty bad - many fruits have plenty of sugar in them as it is and usually when you have juice you consume an awful lot relative to actually eating a piece of the same fruit. (Look how much juice you usually get from a single orange, for example, compared to a typical glass of orange juice from a bottle.) So that is inconsistent. (Actually, I'd like to see a better breakdown of the numbers since the NYT article appears to be quoting figures that include fruit juices as part of soft drinks, and given that people have long been taught that fruit juice is a good thing and soda is bad to give kids, people could be buying fruit juices to replace sodas and people looking at the numbers in the article are assuming it's mostly soda. But someone buying fruit juice actually is making a 'good' choice per historical teaching about beverage choices.) (Excuse me if I missed something in the article or am not clear, we are having a bunch of plumbing replaced - yay old houses - and there is so. Much. Jackhammering. right now, I can't hear myself think.)