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what do you eat when you don't want anything?


sieve

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i've put myself in a bad spot. having semi-seriously resolved only to eat at home things off the grill ( yeah! i finally have a yard!) i've completely worn out my appetite for the very same. i cant bring myself to cook inside and as a result have been eating really erratically. so here's the question: what do you eat when you really don't have a taste for anything? i need help. don't let me starve.

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i've put myself in a bad spot. having semi-seriously resolved only to eat at home things off the grill ( yeah! i finally have a yard!) i've completely worn out my appetite for the very same. i cant bring myself to cook inside and as a result have been eating really erratically. so here's the question: what do you eat when you really don't have a taste for anything? i need help. don't let me starve.

Grill some burgers. Add Roquefort. (Not Stilton or some other blue cheese--Roquefort.) Add onions sauteed in butter. Add a bit of good French dijon. Eat. Drink before, during, & after eating.

Edit: BTW, sieve, welcome to eGullet! Also, for future reference, posts like this do best in the "Cooking" forum.

Edited by MatthewB (log)
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Grill some burgers.  Add Roquefort.  (Not Stilton or some other blue cheese--Roquefort.)  Add onions sauteed in butter.  Add a bit of good French dijon.  Eat.  Drink before, during, & after eating.

Edit:  BTW, sieve, welcome to eGullet!  Also, for future reference, posts like this do best in the "Cooking" forum.

thanks, matthew. i've got the drinking thing covered and i usually get my blue cheese burger fix at silver cloud, on damen. there of course, it's more about the tater tots than the burger...

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:smile:

Welcome, sieve.

I've been boiling a couple ears of sweet corn and cutting up a tomato with some salt/pepper/chiffonaded basil on the hottest days...real light and simple. A slightly chilled Pinot Gris goes well.

:wink:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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:smile:

Welcome, sieve.

I've been boiling a couple ears of sweet corn and cutting up a tomato with some salt/pepper/chiffonaded basil on the hottest days...real light and simple.  A slightly chilled Pinot Gris goes well. 

:wink:

Lady T, are you sure you're not snowangel?

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Welcome, sieve.

How about these odd suggestions?:

1. Give a food-friendly friend/family member/significant other a sufficient amount of money and ask the lucky person to prepare a surprise meal for the two of you.

2. With a guide (so you don't injure yourself or anyone else), wander around your local supermarket blindfolded. Put in your cart the first item you touch in each aisle. Make a meal using just those ingredients plus your choice of a grill-able main item plus the usual staples (oil/butter, herbs, salt/pepper, etc.).

Also, I like Lady T's idea. It's tough to beat corn and tomatoes from a farmers' market. In season that's often my whole dinner, maybe accompanied by a cucumber and sweet onion "salad."

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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Well, this requires boiling water inside, but otherwise no cooking: pasta w/ uncooked tomato sauce. You marinade the tomatoes for a while-I leave them out all day but it's not too hot here-w/ some fresh basil and oregano, garlic, onions (I like scallions), a jalapeno, olive oil, and salt & pepper. The hot pasta gets cooled w/ the room temperature sauce, making a nice dish for a hot night.

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It's tough to beat corn and tomatoes from a farmers' market. In season that's often my whole dinner, maybe accompanied by a cucumber and sweet onion "salad."

What is this sweet onion salad you speak of? I've got a pile of Sugar Daddy onions I bought at a roadside market I need to do something with...this sounds like the ticket!

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I go through the same phases. I tend to get in a rut of picking the same types of things, varying the formula a bit, but generally cooking from the same set of ingredients/techniques. My brain just get stuck on roasting, for example. As the list of new roastables dwindles down to just those things that I really have no interest in roasting, it's almost like I start to shut off. Nothing sounds good. I know roasting is good, I'm getting better at it, there are still a few things to try, but I don't want another damn chicken. And I can't get out of that must roast/can't roast loop. It's incredibly stupid.

Anyway, what I need is a mission. Use a cookbook you haven't cooked out of. Choose a recipe at random, something you'd never choose. Go to the farmers market and pick out something you've never used. Or try a cuisine you don't usually cook. I'll usually find something in there that's new, or at least a new spin, which inevitably leads to another rut. Who likes soup? :hmmm::blink:

...
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It's tough to beat corn and tomatoes from a farmers' market. In season that's often my whole dinner, maybe accompanied by a cucumber and sweet onion "salad."

What is this sweet onion salad you speak of? I've got a pile of Sugar Daddy onions I bought at a roadside market I need to do something with...this sounds like the ticket!

It's an improvised thing inspired by the vinegared veggies that sit on each table in the better NY delis. (At least they used to -- I haven't lived in NY for a while.) What I do: Halve, peel, and slice the onions into very thin half-rings. Cucumbers: peel, halve lengthwise, remove the seeds with a spoon, slice into thin crescents. Whole bulb fennel: slice off fronds and base, halve pole to pole, cut out core, slice into thin crescents. Other veggies added at your discretion. Tomato wedges can be added at serving time, or not. I toss the whole thing with a little evoo, whatever vinegar(s) strike my fancy at the moment (lately a combination of Alessi white balsamic and a good sherry vinegar), s&p, and maybe an herb or two, usually dill. I use more vinegar than I would for a vinaigrette.

Another good thing might be to make an onion confit or marmelade. It's supposed to keep really well, but it never lasts long enough around our house for us to find out. Epicurious has a bunch of recipes if you need them.

Happy crying!

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food."  -George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, Act 1

 

"Imagine all the food you have eaten in your life and consider that you are simply some of that food, rearranged."  -Max Tegmark, physicist

 

Gene Weingarten, writing in the Washington Post about online news stories and the accompanying readers' comments: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

 

"...in the mid-’90s when the internet was coming...there was a tendency to assume that when all the world’s knowledge comes online, everyone will flock to it. It turns out that if you give everyone access to the Library of Congress, what they do is watch videos on TikTok."  -Neil Stephenson, author, in The Atlantic

 

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer

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With a guide (so you don't injure yourself or anyone else), wander around your local supermarket blindfolded.

now this i like. i spend a decent amount of time at the broadway supermarket in chicago, a huge asian grocer where i may as well be blindfolded, even though i have some professional experience with asian ingredients. usually it goes like this:

what is it?

i don't know.

are you going to cook it?

do you think i should?

well, will it kill us if we eat it like that?

i dont know.

then you try it.

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I have slow times grilling in the summer, tired of cooking the same dishes such as pork chops, salmon, chicken, steak... Although I venture into new items in the weekends such as whole fish, during the week I struggle with the above mentioned standards.

What has helped me has been switching the "vehicle" for those meats... For example, instead of pork chops, I make some grill pork tenderloin tacos... Instead of salmon steak, I make a grilled salmon quesadilla, or grill chicken salad instead of grill chicken with a sauce... I have even started grilling my veggies for gazpacho so I do not get too tired of it by the end of the summer.

Most experienced cooks are able to do these kinds of changes without thinking, but for me, I have to make an effort and think about this type of possibilities.

Alex

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Slices of fresh farm stand Jersey tomatoes, slices of good fresh mozerella, a nice sampling from the local supermarket olive bar toped with chiffonade of fresh basil and a splash of EVOO and vinegar. Along with this I have the above mentioned cucumber and onion salad, though I use more vinegar (cider vinegar preferred) cut with spring water till veggies almost covered. Chilled for a couple hours or overnight the cukes and onions become semi pickled, seasoned with black and red pepper flakes. Oh yeah, for flavor and temp contrast a couple ears of fresh corn rolled in a stick of butter dusted with black pepper. A full day's servings of veggies!

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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