today is National "Men Make Dinner Day" . . .

[OneBlueSky]

so whatcha cookin', guys? . . .

I'm doing up a lemon and garlic pork loin, mashed potatoes with mint, green beans with sliced almonds, and homemade biscuits . . . and strawberry shortcake for dessert . . . simple, sensible, sensational! . . . mmmmmmm . . . :)

on edit: oops . . . forgot the link . . .

http://www.menmakedinnerday.com/orgin.htm

[GOPisEvil]

1. Every day is "man cooks dinner day" in my life...

...except those nights I eat out.

Tonight? Something high in protein, but low in fat, I'm thinking salmon cakes. :9

[GumboYaYa]

10. Same here.

My wife's midwestern cooking just doesn't do it for my New Orleans taste buds. I cook almost every meal at our house and enjoy doing it.

[kodi]

12. yeap, its just too bad i had my taste buds shot off in the war.

i was once married to a woman who burned a pot of water.

[GOPisEvil]

13. Heh...my reasons are different.

If I don't cook, there's no one else to do it. Good thing I enjoy cooking. However, cooking for 1 sucks.

[GumboYaYa]

15. And expensive.

I found that I threw away more food than I ate when I was cooking for one.

[GOPisEvil]

16. Agreed. It's either eat leftovers every day for a week, or toss it.

There's a book (maybe more than one) out on cooking for one; I should get it.

[BiggJawn]

24. It's a worthless book.

Requires ingredients that you can buy only in 4-6 serving quantities...
So when it's just me for dinner, I live on Garden-Burgers and soup...

[SOteric]

27. A book isn't what you need,

you need to learn about and borrow a few of the techniques of professional chefs.

Instead of cooking a big batch of an entire meal and eating leftovers, you cook large batches of the elements of a meal and hold them.

I do most of my cooking on Sunday and Thursday nights. I make a big batch of some multi-purpose pasta each of those nights, lightly coat it in olive oil and hold it in a lexan (it's container very much like a large, rectangular Tupperware-style cupcake tray) in the fridge. If I want pasta for dinner, I just toss an appropriate amount of pasta into a pot of hot water for a minute or two (just to let it heat up, it should be pretty much cooked already). Then I either top the pasta with sauce, or I toss it in pesto, or...whatever. I can also quickly build a pasta salad for lunch.

Rice, polenta and potatoes can also be cooked ahead and reheated to order.

On the two nights in question, I also do most of my produce shopping and will cut frequently used vegetables into tiny zip-lock containers, roast a bit of garlic, make homemade stock and freeze it in ice-cube trays.

I like taking a cookie in my lunch bag for an afternoon snack, so I always make a big batch of dough, cook off a half-dozen of the cookie du jour and then freeze the rest of the dough in small batches. At any given point my freezer has at least 4 types of cookie dough.

All told my cooking takes about 1.5 twice a week, and then can be done in as little as 5 minutes on a weeknight. -or it can take longer if I've put on the Jazz and I'm in the mood for getting adventurous. I'm thrifty with my cooking. It is extremely cost-efficient to eat the way that I do.

Because I prepare the batches the way that I do, it's also very easy to accommodate an unexpected guest for dinner. And people who regularly cook for more than one can benefit from these techniques as well, especially if you're dealing with a family of 'fussy eaters' or allergies - where everyone wants something different and your patience and budget cannot handle the load.

Even as I decide to finish this post, a metric fuckload of similar tips are rushing to my mind. Maybe I should write a book...

[GOPisEvil]

28. "A Metric Fuckload of Tips on Cooking" by SOteric

I'd buy it just for the title. ;-)

[SOteric]

30. Or even..."A Metric Fuckload of SOteric Cooking Tips"

:hi:

[GOPisEvil]

31. Excellent!

Do you have the cure for chronic lazy-ass syndrome? :hi:

[SOteric]

32. You bet!!

Have a competent hypnotist tie everything in your life, mentally, to sex. Dudes always have enough energy for that. ;-)

[GOPisEvil]

34. *snarf*

I can see it now...(Wayne's World Dream Sound)

My friends: Dude, your apartment is always so clean, your clothes are clean (and not at the last minute), you always have wonderful meals prepared. How do you do it?

Me: Hard to explain. It's just that getting work done around the house feels so good - it's almost like sex. :D

[BritishHuman]

37. I definitely need a hypnotist

I could get a part-time job cleaning other people's houses too... :-)

[SOteric]

45. Oh no.

I have other plans for you. ;-)

[BritishHuman]

47. Eek!

But in a good way.
:silly:

[TXlib]

43. How does a metric fuckload differ from a british fuckload?

Bored minds want to know...

[SOteric]

46. The Metric Fuckload

is about .18 percent larger than the Imperial Fuckload.

[commander bunnypants]

2. Damn

and I cooked last night

DDQM

[youngred]

3. Considering I regularly do

I am making a delicious Beef Stroganoff over egg noodle pasta accompanied by a nice dry red wine and a long loaf of bread. Appetizers are stuffed mushrooms and and for dessert chocolate silk pie with whipped cream.

Thurdsay nights are big dinner in-nights with my friends

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. heehee

Beef Strogonoff - *snort* - always makes me laugh.

[Robb]

5. And "long loaf" didn't?

Hee...

Yeah, every day is Robb Makes Dinner Day around here. Mrs. Robb has Town Council this evening after work, so it's going to be less like a restaurant and more like a pit crew tonight. "Here ya go!" "Thanks!" vroooom...

[youngred]

8. ok

?

[PVnRT]

6. Pizza Hut it is

I can make eggs, bacon, snickerdoodles...and that's it.

[trof]

7. What am I making?

Reservations.
(OK, somebody had to.)
;-)

[FDRrocks]

9. I only know how to make pasta

:( And I just ate lo-mein last night. GODDAMNIT!

[bif]

11. I can cook up a storm

And do a fair amount of the cooking around our house. But, these days, since I don't get home til late, I usually only cook on the weekend. Maybe I can reheat the Moroccan Chicken I cooked on Sunday!

[catmandu57]

14. Hell, I cook dinner just about every night

Tonight the marshmallow woman gets home late so it simple and fast tonight. Tatertot casserole and green beans.

[BarbaRosa]

17. I cook every night

It just taste better that way.

Tonight I think is beef bites in gravy, jasmine rice and mixed veggies.

[Ruby Romaine]

18. what's

a pogos?

"Foods that should "not" be part of MMDD
Although some of the foods that I am about to list may sound like a tempting addition to your meal -- they should never be part of "National Men Make Dinner Day":

chewing gum
cotton candy
take-out pizza
pogos
left-overs from last night
sandwiches from office vending machine
neighbors left-overs from last night
anything bar-b-qued "


http://www.menmakedinnerday.com/foods.htm#top

[TopesJunkie]

19. I cooked on Monday and Wednesday night.

Tonight is leftover night.

[Bertha Venation]

20. heh... guess Kathy & I are eatin' out.. . . ;-) . . . eom

[Ruby Romaine]

21. i hope you're not going to dinner at this fine establishment!

http://calgary.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=ca_carcasses20031105

http://edmonton.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=ed_canines20031106

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. Right.....Today I want to live without gastrointestinal upset more than

I want my husband to cook me dinner. ;)

[rbnyc]

23. My husband makes dinner about 4 nights a week.

I make dinner 1 night a week. And the other 2, we order in.

:)

He is a GREAT cook. (But, messy.)

:hi:

[BiggJawn]

25. Gardenburgers and Soup. Just like EVERY Thursday...

Dinner for One. Bullshit. "Two or more Dine, One merely Refuels" is more like it.

It's been 7 years since my last marriage, and I still can't get excited over the prospect of Dinner for One.

My GF says she'd come over for dinner if my apartment wasn't such a pit, but hey, like Fanny Brice said, "A little dinner wouldn't hurt, but guess who is gonna be Dessert?". So I eat alone. Frankly, she ought to thank her lucky stars my place is a pit. Anything else could mean I was "entertaining" someone else....

[geniph]

26. My husband cooks dinner every night

I'm quite useless in the kitchen - although I do all the cleaning up. I can make coffee, but that's about it. He's more interested in eating than I am, so he does the cooking. The boys help with food prep if he needs help. I clean up the mess and do the dishes. I'm utterly uninterested in the whole process; I'd starve rather than cook for myself. When I was single, if it didn't say Progresso, it didn't get fixed.

[everythingsxen]

29. Well, I need someone to cook dinner for.......

I need a volunteer from the audience....

[AlienGirl]

33. Me! Me! I volunteer!

Cook me dinner!

Tucker

[everythingsxen]

36. Ah.. excellent!

Hrrm... let me see...

*sniffs the air* You are... a vegetarian aren't you?

Well then what shall we have eh?

I was thinking of something possibly Italian...

Let's say.. pasta with my own personal spaghetti sauce? Lots of mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic and plenty of other herbs and spices. A nice salad to start things off of course, followed by some sort of soup... what goes well with Italian I wonder..

Well, after the pasta... maybe some... oh say I know. What about eggplant parmesan? We could even have that with the pasta.

Then followed off by something for dessert....

Something Italian.... what about Tiramisu? or possibly just tiramisu ice cream? What do you think? Sound good? :D

[AlienGirl]

39. Sounds excellent!

Much better than Jag's idea of what vegetarian cooking should be..."You tell the cook what you want to eat and they go make it for you." Um, except there is no cook!! LOL!

Tucker

[everythingsxen]

40. Sweet.

Well at least I know what to cook. :P

[AlienGirl]

42. LOL yep

[Braden]

35. that would be everday here as well

my wife's cooking is horrible.

tonight it's a big 'ole pot of chili.

[LuLu550]

38. looks like we're

gunna starve tonight, kids....

[Speck Tater]

41. Thanks for reminding me.

I'll stop at Taco Bell on the way home from work.

[pmbryant]

44. I just got pushed to tomorrow

I was supposed to make dinner tonight, as I am supposed to every Thursday, but my S.O. just called to say she ate a huge lunch and wants to have leftovers for dinner. :shrug:

So my weekly production will be tomorrow. :-)

--Peter