Food Security Carnival Discussion Post.

[commodorified]

Solicit or offer ideas, cheer each other on, ask for or offer data or resources, team up and do a group-authored post or a mini-carnival cluster of posts, find a beta, be a beta ...

I would like to say: I am not at all worried about avoiding duplication, and suggest that nobody else be either.

If eight people do posts on How To Cook Eggs, they will all be different, they will all be right and useful, and each of them will be somebody's absolute most useful and favourite post of the whole carnival.

Carry on!

Comments

[indywind]

I'm thinking another along those lines, cooking for people with some money but lacking time, energy, organization, info --basically suffering from "I don't know where to start it's all too overwhelming!" inspired by the pleas for help from my mother-in-law who was never very organized about food to start with and still isn't now that she's primary caregiver for 2 school-age grandkids and has assorted cognitive and mood disorders which occasionally escape the control of medication.

Betas who have personal experience of cognitive/emotional state interfering with food security would be very much appreciated, because my personal experience of being mentally or emotionally unable to deal with obtaining food has been much, much smaller than my experience of not having time or money or access. (Except inasmuch as not having had access or permission fucked up my mental/emotional state; that's a separate thing.)

[indywind]

Yes! That would be awesome.

[kindkit]

I might make a post about roasting and using a whole chicken (since it's cheaper than buying chicken parts but many people are intimidated by it).

[jenna_thorn]

Would a "Basic pantry staples" list be helpful?

Thinking here from the point of view of someone who taught a college-aged friend that assembling sandwiches wasn't really cooking.

This is rice. Sticky (short grained) rice smooshes and is good for risotto or sushi. Long grain rice doesn't clump and will have basmati or jasmine on the label and be more expensive, but very tasty. Specific cuisines call for specific types. End of month calls for whatever is available.

Rice is dry storage until cooked, then needs refrigeration. If bought in bulk, separate into insect-proof containers, because bugs like rice, too, and losing one container of five is better than losing one five-pound container. Temperature isn't as important as humidity.

Ways to cook rice:
option a. 1 cup rice + 4 cups water, boil until toothsome, then drain the water.
option b. 1 cup rice + 2 cups water, bring to boil, cover, and turn off heat, let sit so that it steams. When the water is absorbed, the rice is cooked. Fluff with a fork.
option c. buy a rice cooker. Ask other poeple. I've no clue, but some folks love them.
option d. oven-baked, good for large groups
option e. ??

things to do with cooked rice.
option a - stuff with rice: mixed frozen veg or canned tuna or last night's leftover chili, heated separately then combined or, if not too cold, mixed in to heat through.
option b- stuff beside rice: Throw a little butter or salt, if you want, on your rice and use as a separate veg. next to your grilled chop or sausage in tomato or chunks of grilled portobello.
option c - stuff on rice: rice as foundation, including under chicken cooked in sauce or potato curry or tofu stirfry or slivered beef in teriyaki or ...
option d - stone soup (always and forever)
option e - heated, with milk and a bit of brown sugar for breakfast or then cooled, threatened with a cardamom pod and called rice pudding, om nom nom.

Bonus household use: in climates humid enough (Hello Texas Gulf Coast) to clump salt or brown sugar, a dozen grains of cheap white rice in your salt shaker on the table will help kept it usable. A thin cloth bag filled (not too full!) with rice and, if you've got it, a scent agent like lavender, tossed in the microwave for less than a minute, makes a lovely heating pad. Watch for bugs or empty it, though. (Have you seen the insects of the Texas Gulf Coast?)

And then something along similar lines for potato and dried beans.

[geeksdoitbetter]

i don't know how to be a beta, but i would love to help out with this!

i can always tell the trajectory of my depression by a quick look at my kitchen

[geeksdoitbetter]

also! shopping on the same night as cooking = disaster

Re: Content warning: poss eating disorder triggers

[geeksdoitbetter]

definitely!

i keep a very short list of things i know i like and are easy for me to make, as well as being easier for me to do a quick shopping run for

and then, you know, i don't look at the list for months at a time

[geeksdoitbetter]

"assembling sandwiches wasn't really cooking."

erm

that language makes me grumpy and sad

[indywind]

What I'm thinking is along the lines of: read a draft of my post before it goes live and give me feedback about it based on your personal experience.

[geeksdoitbetter]

~claps~

i can totally do that

[indywind]

I think the "basic pantry staples" list/discussion could be helpful.

But, "the point of view of someone who taught a college-aged friend that assembling sandwiches wasn't really cooking" might not be the most helpful POV from which to approach it.

I find myself resistant to learning when it's presented as the 'real', 'right' or 'best' way, or equally accessible or relevant to everyone. Especially if my choices or experience get invalidated in the comparison.

[indywind]

I suspect I'll get into that a little bit, and would love to see what anyone else has to say about it.

Re: Content warning: poss eating disorder triggers

[indywind]

I would be interested in reading this! It's also related to what I want to write about.

[delight]

I would really appreciate this, as someone who has epic tons of things I cannot eat and is a complete failure at cooking!

[dorothean]

me too.

[auriaephiala]

My experience (which of course may differ from yours) is that:

1. 2 cups water to 1 cup rice produces rice that sticks together, at least for the basmati or other rice available here.
2. I prefer 2.5 cups water to 1.5 cups rice, or if that's just too much, 1+7/8 cups water to 1 cup rice.
3. I find rice is much less sticky if you bring the water to a rolling boil FIRST, then add the rice, then cover and turn down to low.

[daedala]

Would it be helpful to have a post about how to buy meat from a farmer and eat from your freezer all year long? This is what I do now (lamb, split quarter of beef, and half a hog), and it can be cost-efficient, but it requires a fair bit capital up front. It may not be appropriate for talking about food security, though the mention of "income increase" was what made me think of it.

I was thinking something along the lines of pros and cons, the mechanics of doing it, the costs, how much freezer space is really needed, maybe some stuff on how to cook these exciting new cuts of meat you may not have cooked before, and so on.

ETA: In the U.S.; I'm not sure it works the same elsewhere, though some parts would probably translate ok.

[dorothean]

Solicitation of ideas!

I would be very interested in reading people's ideas on how to cook for just one person. I live by myself and have trouble sometimes. I get most of my vegetables when I eat out (e.g. at the Whole Foods hot bar) which is more expensive than I'd like. But it's hard to buy vegetables when it's just me eating them, because they go bad before I've gone through the lot. I guess I need to cook big batches of things I can freeze, but that takes more planning than I'm up to, sometimes!

[lireavue]

*wanders through from Network* HMM. I might do something about, how to plan out a week's worth of meals, assuming that you live in a place/are in a financial situation where you can do weekly grocery runs. Or at least, how I plan such a creature, and then how I reconfigure a menu plan based on various and sundry of the things that can rear up and bite you when you least expect it.

(Lord knows I still misjudge the amount of time leftovers from x dish will last on a regular basis. And I consider myself pretty decent at this by now.)

[havocthecat]

I think a post about different ways of preparing food might be helpful, based on this discussion. (Not one that I'm considering writing, just an idea I'm offering out there should anyone want to pick it up and run with it. Or not, for that matter.)

[daedala]

Yeah. I find Primal/Paleo fairly helpful for myself, but a lot of it really comes off as snobby expensive Atkins, with an extra side helping of pseudocaveman machismo and sexism. I end up skimming a lot to get to the recipes...

[kittydesade]

*wanders through from lireavue* and I'm sure no doubt she will bully me into writing something about which I have experience. ;)

[lireavue]

That's what I'm for! XD

Batch cooking, maybe? ...weekend prep? Though that second one assumes time/energy/spoons it's still, heh. One of those things that can be done when time/energy/spoons DO exist, to stave off the inevitable not having.

[nineveh_uk]

I had a school cookery lesson that was "how to make boiled egg and toast". It took me years to work out why. But I was 10 at the time.

Re: Flour

[nineveh_uk]

Also in the UK, I would call the second "strong flour". Dialect, you cannot win :-)