Delia says cheating is ok.

thriftmonster

mary43 wrote: »

I know the young people I care for are all for an 'easy meal'...........life doesnt seem to allow them the time to cook when other things seem more enticing (mates, girlfriends etc.)

Although as Michael Pollan has pointed out, we've all found time over the last few years to surf the net each day, despite our "hectic" lifestyles!!!

However, I do agree with you Mary43, that it might be a good intro to some people into cooking.

Thriftlady - I succumbed to "in Defense of Food" despite it being Lent:D

thriftlady_2

thriftmonster wrote: »

Thriftlady - I succumbed to "in Defense of Food" despite it being Lent:D

Uh-oh, I'm feeling the urge to click over to Amazon, it's on my wish list. Is it good ? He talks a lot of sense doesn't he ?

thriftmonster

It's excellent - although his style is quite hard to read in the first bit. The bit about the low fat diets is very interesting and very similar to a book by Walter Willett that I have called "Eat Drink and Be Healthy"

It has also led me to the websites of Marion Nestle and one called Eating Liberally, both of which are very interesting and OS

However, ds1 and I have one problem with Michael Pollan and we're going to email him if we can. He did a segment last week on "Market Kitchen" which the kids and I were watching and in front of him, he had a whole spread of "health" foods to avoid - including our Lactofree milk!!!! Ds1 was raging - it's only semi skimmed milk treated with lactase and we rely on it a lot to cook from scratch! I can't see it's any worse than trying to make "fake" milk out of soya or rice.

Moan over, I would recommend the book - although a lot of what he says about putting it into practise could have come from the OS board.

purpleivy

thriftmonster wrote: »

Although as Michael Pollan has pointed out, we've all found time over the last few years to surf the net each day, despite our "hectic" lifestyles!!!

However, I do agree with you Mary43, that it might be a good intro to some people into cooking.

Thriftlady - I succumbed to "in Defense of Food" despite it being Lent:D

This book is on my list as well. I wonder if Waterstones have it in? I have some vouchers in my bag.... or there's the 20% off voucher for Borders on the newsletter this week.

Delia Smith gets on my nerves rather, but I do have some of her older books.... Book of Cakes when it was in a little paperback format... all pages are dropping out! Christmas, WInter and Summer. I gave up watching her on TV, like watching paint dry, but then most cookery programmes seem like that to me really. I never used to miss any of them, but these days I'd rather be in the kitchen.

StressedSteph

AnnieH wrote: »

I bought the mail on saturday cos i wanted the Delia article - what a waste of 70p!:mad:

Shepherds' pie - a tin of minced lamd and frozen mashed potato? You may as well buy a frozen ready meal.

I simply can't beleive there are people out there that buy FROZEN MASHED POTATO. Good lord :eek: :rotfl:

mary43

Have to confess to always having a packet of instant mash in the cupboard.........just in case we run out of the real thing

liames

I make all my own food with fresh meat and vegetables but I made Delias shepherds pie and it was really nice. The M&S mince lamb was £2 and aunt bessies frozen potatoe was £1.50p . I did'nt use all the potatoe. It served two people so I suppose it was'nt too expensive if you wanted to cheat.

bluemoon_3

mary43 wrote: »

Someone was talking about this on the radio this morning and suggested it could be helpful to a lot of young people who might be put off cooking due to the endlless cookery programmes on the tele and how people are 'judged' by what they've managed to produce.
I know the young people I care for are all for an 'easy meal'...........life doesnt seem to allow them the time to cook when other things seem more enticing (mates, girlfriends etc.) so maybe, just maybe, if they started doing something like shepherds pie with tinned mince and instant mash at least it gets them away from the microwave and more familiar with the oven.
From that they could then go on to being a bit more adventurous hopefully. I've known it happen with some of the young people we care for. We've had kids who have taken great pleasure out of 'creating' something from oddments in the fridge and cupboard and others who are happier to mess about with anything they feel is more 'instant' and later on, few years down the line, they start to be more experimental and actually take notice of what they eat.

I've definitely noticed this in myself. I'm 27 and started cooking meals for myself and OH when I was about 21. I've found it interesting that recipes that I would once have thought of as difficult are now quite simple. For example, homemade pizza was an 'indulgence' meal in terms of time and effort when I was 21, whereas now it's a quick meal as long as I carve out 5-10 minutes to hand-knead the dough at least an hour before I want to use it.

Just last week I decided to make a bechamel sauce recipe that I'd avoided for years because I remembered it being complicated and time-consuming. It surprised me how simple and quick it was this time - so much so that I've made it again since and it will now become one of my 'basics'.

Confidence and experience are the two most important tools in any kitchen, and by definition these things take time to acquire - 'cheats' are great if they get people going (or keep people going) and they aren't necessarily something you have to move away from or feel guilty about if they work for you. It provides a good foundation to build on if you want to though.

Bargain_Rzl

For anybody based in London, Delia's doing a book signing on 28th Feb lunchtime at John Lewis on Oxford Street

catkins

I like Delia and have a couple of her cookbooks - the vegetarian one I particularly like. But I have looked at the new one and just cannot believe some of the things she is telling people to use. Frozen chickpeas!!! I just soak a large amount of chickpeas then cook and freeze them - it works out much much cheaper. As for using instant mash or frozen roast potatoes and yorkshires!!!! To me they taste awful