I've really seen it all now - pancakes from an aerosol can!

[emeleel]

I kid you not:

Organic Batter Blaster ™ - Original Pancake and Waffle Batter

[theworm[$]]

it's organic. It has to be good.

[thinkerlady[$]]

Aerosol?? Just saying---ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[emeleel]

Actually, the lady from the "Lunch In A Box" blog said they were okay. Not great or anything, but pretty good. She was surprised, although she still really doesn't like the idea of batter from a can.

[pluckyduck]

You know, I'm the last person I ever thought would go even somewhat "green" or "organic healthy", so please understand I recognize how non-recycled glass the house I'm living in is...........

Is this *really* the direction we are supposed to be going here?

What the hell sense is there in that extra fill-the-landfill packaging for pancake batter?

Here's one of the things that worries me about our society. People are completely untrained and unprepared to make simple, basic, meals. Melanie, say you hang out with a group of frugal housewives online (you probably do, but I'm just guessing at that ), but out there [motions to the big wide world] the art of basic cooking is lost. Most people don't know how to feed themselves and their families from anything that doesn't come pre-prepared in a box or a take out joint. Our mothers did it for convenience. Our generation and the one after it does it because they haven't the faintest idea how to survive.

I have a long rant about the home ec program in our school system. I just might treat you to it once I have more coffee.


(P.S. and before somebody blames evil corporations for pushing this stuff on us, I haven't stopped being a capitalist. Companies fill needs, they don't create them. Well. Not usually, unless they are really, really good at it.)

edit - added a little bit to my rant.

[lynnzop[$]]

Q: Can the can/packaging be recycled?
A: Yes, the plastic caps and tips are both recyclable, as is the steel can.

So if you take the time to recycle it, it can be.

I get it...sort of like Redi Whip (which the boys love, I detest). It would be great for camping, easily packed in a cooler or small fridge, no messy clean up of all the prep utensils and bowls.

[emeleel]

Of course, the best kind of green is not to have to recycle something in the first place.

And I totally agree, a lot of people don't have a clue how to cook food, not even simple stuff. When I worked before DH and I got married, my main co-worker had a daughter only 6 months older than me. She had wanted her daughter to have all the fun she didn't get to have as a kid, so daughter got to be involved in cheer, dance, gym, etc. and never had to do much around the house. I kid you not, one Easter season she called her mother at work and asked her HOW TO BOIL EGGS because she was supposed to take them in to the daycare where she worked next day for the kids to decorate. And this was a *married* young woman - they pretty much subsisted on Lean Cuisines and eating out.

I think with the cost of food these days, though, and the availability of info on the internet, we're seeing a rise in people wanting to get back to basics and learn this stuff.

And I'm doing my part by making sure my two know how to cook basic stuff. Each week one of them gets to decide on a main dish or even a whole menu, then we cook it together. It's fun, and they're learning how to do what to cook particular types of food. Hopefully they won't starve if they live on their own when they get older.

[pluckyduck]

This is really my hot button.

I get the camping thing, btw, that's one of the first things I thought of, not that I'd ever actually *camp* mind you.

Melanie, I don't know that the high cost of food is going to drive people back to preparation, if they never learned the basic skills to begin with. I'm a curmudgeon who thinks people will fill up on the $1 menu at the local fast food place or bad for you prepared foods and never buy fresh fruits and vegetables which are an expensive but necessary line item on a family budget because the money has been consumed by unnecessary crap that people think they need.

Something simple like oatmeal. How many people think that the only way you eat oatmeal is out of little tiny preflavored packets in an assortment box? Would be clueless and intimidated what do with a cannister of just oatmeal, a pot and some water? Not saying *don't* buy the preflavored little packets, people should buy what they want, but I'm pretty sure that basic skills have gone to hell in a handbasket.

Old. Ranty. And I haven't even gotten to my Home Ec rant yet!

[emeleel]

Rant away, Duck!

(BTW, I never took Home Ec. My schedule was too full with AP classes and band. But I learned most of what I learned at home. Which is where folks really ought to be learning this stuff, anyway!)

[pluckyduck]

emeleel said

Rant away, Duck!

(BTW, I never took Home Ec. My schedule was too full with AP classes and band. But I learned most of what I learned at home. Which is where folks really ought to be learning this stuff, anyway!)

Well, I did take Home Ec throughout school. Of course, it was just teh girls then, now the classes are not gender specific.

Here's what we did in Home Ec. When it was the sewing unit, we sewed. When it was the cooking unit, we cooked. We learned how to do all of the basics, follow recipes, measure, etc. etc. I remember that the class was usually 2X a week. The first session we prepped for our recipe and the second session we cooked.

Fast forward to 2008, No Child Left Behind & State Curriculum

I'll start with a compliment. The cooking semester included an at home project that required parent involvement. I think that's a great idea. I had a lot of fun with both my boys, planning the recipe..his father taught Adam how to chop up onions and carrots the professional way (Dad went to cooking school), etc. Of course there was also a written report that had to be submitted and Adam got marked down to a B- because the teacher didn't like the way he had colored in his map.

That's not my real rant, as stoopid as that is, that's not the real rant.

These kids cooked twice, twice, two times, in an entire semester that was about cooking, in a fully equipped and funded commercial kitchen.

The first half of the semester was studying stupid "terms" nobody cares about, tests, memorization and cheat sheets. The threat was, if you didn't pass the tests, you weren't allowed to cook. WTF people? Yes, please, lets drive home that cooking is sooooooo complicated, you have to study to be able to do it.

Does it really matter if you call a pancake turner a spatula as most of the population does, even though it isn't really right? Pick the "flippin" thing up and use it! Sure, tell the kids, while they are using it, what the right names are, but why, for the love of god, would you put up unnecessary barriers to entry? Any chance that any of those students was going to learn some cooking skills or pick up a love for cooking was beat straight out of them. (Was it beat with a rotary beater? A wire whisk? Who cares!)

I could go on. I'll stop now. (This was all according to the state curriculum, btw, the teachers had no choice, they had to follow it to the letter.)

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

emeleel said

But I learned most of what I learned at home. Which is where folks really ought to be learning this stuff, anyway!

Not an option in my home. It wasn't until I took Jr. High Home Ec at school that my bedridden mother and untrained father and I started having balanced meals, at least at dinner, because I took over meal prep in 7th grade.

[emeleel]

Okay, barring unusual circumstances.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

True, my circumstances were unusual. But sewing and cooking and woodworking and machine shop, along with music and art, are introductions to non-academic subjects that can lead to vocational or professional career plans. Why not expose kids to these things as part of the general idea that kids should be well-rounded (like we do with art) or given opportunities to think of different careers/find different talents that they may never have considered?

[theworm[$]]

Years ago in most "standard" families the dad went to work and the mom worked at home cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids. Now we have a lot more single parent households and households where both parents have to work - sometimes more than one job.

I keep wishing that I would buy nothing but fresh unprocessed ingredients, but if I'm supposed to work a more than 40-hour work week and keep up with all the responsibility, it's a lot easier to buy prepared foods. It's probably more expensive and less healthy but in today's society where we are forced to work more and more hours sometimes we pay for convenience.

Food is getting more and more expensive. People have less time, and it's easier and often less expensive to choose the less-healthy options. It's not a good choice, but for many people life circumstances and financial situations limit choices.

I don't know how two working parents manage their jobs, their home responsibilities, the car-pooling and child rearing and don't end up using come convenience foods. I like cooking, but hardly ever do it. Yes I wish it were different, but life is full on sacrifices and sometimes good home-cooking becomes a sacrifice.

[Helen_B[$]]

When I was a newly wed, I worked and Marty went to grad school. We grocery shopped together, and I did the cooking. I had the James Beard Cookbook, the red and white gingham binder (Betty Crocker?) and something called A Cookbook for Poor Poets and Others. We couldn't afford prepared meals, although we ate out once a week. We packed our lunches. I was astonished to talk with present-day twenty-somethings who don't cook, at all. Or pack a lunch.

I learned to cook at home from my mother (who worked full time), from my grandmother who had run a bake shop, from home ec, from 4-H, even I think from Girl Scouts. (I'm sure in Scouts we made blushing bunny and egg in a nest, at least.)

If I wanted to eat, I had to cook. Now the kids cook, too, and we talk about the loss of cultural literacy that happens when families don't share food preparation and eating together. Food is a big part of our family culture.

Another thing I learned in school was sewing. I also learned in 4-H, and from an older cousin. So, I can not only make clothing, I can repair clothing. Don't even get me started about that.

[pluckyduck]

@ wormie

Yeah and for sure. Time pressures are real. With teenagers, we find that we get more quality interaction with the boys, table style, when we eat out at a sit down restaurant, too, so we're trying to do that 2 - 4 times a month. (We were always bigger on take out than sit down.) At home there's grunts and kids wanting to eat in front of the the computer or TV. We're pretty lenient like that.

@ Helen

I had sewing in school, too. Didn't take.

I should tell you guys about the day I declared Jello Pudding Cups & Jello Cups a banned substance in the house. (DH does the major grocery shopping, and he usually bought them for the boys, figuring it was a better snack than many.) One day I flipped and said, that's it, no more. Ridiculous waste of extra packaging, and I'm sure money although I didn't calculate it. I loaded the cupboard with boxes of Jello and Jello pudding I'd bought on sale.......declared the ban to a shocked audience........and handed each boy a box.

"Read the directions. Figure it out."

Adam was seriously pissed at me for months. I mean angry. Dan took to making pudding and liked that he could make it whenever he wanted and serve it up to the family. Adam has only recently started to come around that it might not be a complete travesty to have to wait four hours to eat the Jello.

[emeleel]

We used to eat in front of the TV, but not because that was something I wanted for us. We honestly couldn't use our dining room in the old house because of the heating/cooling situation there. And DH just *had* to have the TV on. I know, I could have talked to him about it, but I just never did. I am so thankful to be able to eat "right" now that we've moved.

My mom tried to teach me to sew. I hate the cutting out part. I could probably learn to enjoy the actual sewing part, but I hate the cutting. Part of it probably is because my mother is very anal-retentive about doing it "right" and "just so" and she made me way too uptight about the whole process. The same thing happened with crocheting. Well, almost. She'd taught me to chain, to single crochet, to do some simple rounded things like flowers and stuff, but when we hit double crochet, she showed me, I did it, she said it was wrong, I said "that's what you showed me", she said no, we argued, and that was the end of crocheting for me.

And Andrea: at poor Adam! Shocking - a whole four hours?! What, is this the 20th century or something?!

[mtomm[$]]

With teenagers, we find that we get more quality interaction with the boys, table style, when we eat out at a sit down restaurant,

Wow, we've noticed the same phenomenon with our boys (17, 14).

[Prepoia[$]]

I always made eating dinner together a priority and the kids never complained because it was ingrained in their lives. Even as adults they come back and sit in "their" chair at the table. There were times when sports or other activities they had made it impossible, but generally we ate, talked, laughed, and discussed the world together every night for dinner. It was worth the work and effort it took on my part. We could see our television from our dinnette area and sometimes we had it on but basically tv and computers and whatever else was for before and after dinner.

I've talked about this with groups of kids at school before and you would be shocked how many WANT to eat sitting down at a table together and how many say they enjoy talking at dinner with their parents. Many others said they like it but complain to their parents because they feel they shouldn't be spending all that time talking to their parents. When someone says something silly like this, his/her peers all say yeah they agree..blah, blah, blah, but really they like it (unless there's always discord and fighting at the table and sometimes that can be a negative for spending time together).

Anyhow, families eating together is one of my rants. Sorry.