That's why I get take-outs, don't have to do the dishes.
Also, can we take a moment to talk about how great the performance of whomever that woman in the meme is? Looks like an Oscar worthy performance to me.
Lmao I was about it comment about who this was but then I saw your name.
Margot, I think of you every time I think of Wolf of Wall Street. Kisses!
Everyone is focused on the cooking time and not the punchline, which is still needing to do the dishes.
Making a meal falls into three parts: prep, cook, and clean. I used to hate the 'boring, standing on my aching feet' prep bit, so I'd try to fit the prep into the little gaps in cooking. Of course, 8 couldn't do it and I had to keep adjusting things - taking something off heat/down heat, whatever - to finish the prep for the next stage. The constant adjustments made the food not as good, the cooking unnecessarily stressful, and left me exhausted with a sink full of dishes at the end.
Nowadays, I sit in front of the tv. I do my prep there, all the peeling and chopping and slicing and dicing. When I cook, everything is ready for me to add to the dish, so the food tastes better and cooking itself is much less stressful. And I use the little bits of spare time during cooking to rinse the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. When I'm done cooking, I only have the last handful of things to put in the dishwasher, plus whatever plates from the meal itself.
My life is much easier, all because I now watch TV.
You also forgot about planning and shopping.
Ah. So, I get a farm share every week. 'Planning' is looking at the list of what I'm getting and figuring out what I can make from it - although I've been doing this long enough that I actually have a selection of recipes that I re-use year to year, so I spend more time digging the recipe out then I do actually 'planning'.
The weekly shopping is usually about 5 'missing' ingredients that I need for my chosen dishes, plus whatever staples I've run out of. I usually go shortly before the store closes for the night, and it takes about 15 minutes.
Well yeah. Unless you're using disposable plates, you're going to still have to do dishes. Fewer, but still.
But you can reduce that with things like a slow cooker, and one pot meals.
Do some dishes while you're cooking.
The only time I need to do dishes after cooking is when I am cooking something that needs constant attention, too many things at once, orI’m just lazy
Usually I just have the skillet I cooked in and the plate/silverware I used
You are both cooking too slowly and eating too fast
Yeah, honestly. It's a crap meme. Maybe it feels like 2 hours because its boring for you. If you cook for 2 hours likely one part of it is putting something into the oven for 1 1/2 hours.
Not everyday can be a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal.
I make chicken pot pie weekly. Mirepoix, peel dice potatoes, constantly stir so roux doesn't clump. It's 90 minutes of non stop cooking and 30 minutes of oven.
Try cooking a whole chicken a 700°C for 30 minutes and see what happens.
Is that the only option everyday? A whole fucking chicken? People are ridiculous.
Stop boggis-shaming me
Well you're not really supposed to use a pottery kiln.
Take 10 minutes to spatchcock your bird and it will cook in 40 minutes
Wash up whilst it cooks
Or just use a convection oven. They're super fast. 6 drumsticks or 4 thighs in 20 minutes.
What are you cooking that takes 2 hours every day? I cook most of my own meals and i don’t often go over an hour of cooking and most of that is just waiting.
Even if it does take 2 hours start to finish, I have to imagine there's at least SOME part of the recipe that involves waiting for something to cook. That's dishwashing time right there.
With leftovers most meals take a couple minutes!
I used to feel this way about cooking. I started trying to find joy in the repetitive parts of life, so they didn't seem so annoying. It's definitely a journey, but if you keep at it, you get to a point where cooking feels like a creative outlet. Once you have enough experience to create something new from your pantry and quit following recipes verbatim you'll have fun. It took me a few years to get there, but you're going to have to cook your entire life anyway, might as well get something out of it.
We absolutely hit a specific age where the annoying parts of life, like cleaning and tidying, suddenly become one of the most satisfying parts of life.
One must imagine Sisyphus happy and all that.
I always cook as much of whatever I'm making as I can, then put it in containers in the fridge or freezer (depending on the dish and how much).
And I have some base recipes that I cook that are easy to quickly make other things with. One thing I've done for almost two decades now is make a basic kinda "half-bolognese" (can't think of a better English description right now). Just onion, garlic, meat (or in my case vegan alternative), salt, pepper and some stock of your choice. Then freeze that divided into a couple of portions per bag or container. Very easy to use for a lot of recipes.
I also buy bags of dried beans (way cheaper than undried or pre-soaked) and soak those then freeze them like above, same thing there with being good bases for many things.
One of my current favourite recipe that's quick, cheap and filling without any of the above prep is falafel in tomato sauce. A local brand here in Sweden makes almost weirdly nice falafel that's $5 for 800g (28oz), which is like 50 falafel balls. I put the falafel in my air-fryer (oven or frying pan works just as well) and while those cook I sauté some onion and garlic in olive oil then add spices (the current version I love is with some smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, thyme, black pepper, lots of turmeric, a bit of soy sauce, a stock cube and either MSG or other umami base). Then add the falafel once done and crushed tomatoes and let cook for a few minutes. Works great with rice, pasta, potatoes in whatever variation you like, couscous, and my current fav which is coarse bulgur with vermicelli (roasted noodles). I wouldn't have guessed it before trying but the falafel is so good in the sauce!
That's why you cook enough for 15 meals and re heat it over the week.
Meal Preppers rise up
I cook and clean for an entire family inside of 40-50 minutes 5 nights a week. All of that is mostly "from scratch" and delicious. At some point it becomes a skill issue.
imagine thinking cooking is the hard part of adulting
You’re doing something wrong if it takes you two hours to make dinner.
Skill issue.
So you basically stick to 30 minute meals or under and there's nothing wrong with that since they do typically take less skill to prepare. There are plenty of recipes that take 2 hours or longer to make.
Ok but if you’re new to cooking and you can’t make a meal without complaining about it taking forever maybe stick to easy meals?
Like I said it’s a skill issue. You don’t need to cook gourmet meals every night.
This is why my SO and I try to clean as we cook so it's easier for later.
I heard dishwashers are actually more energy efficient than hand-washing, so no that's one problem mostly solved. As others commented cook portions that last two or three days or freeze some of it.
As someone who has been cooking for himself for a long time, cook large amounts and refrigerate each serving in separate microwavable containers for later.
I also try to make things that can all go onto a single plate to create less cleanup.
I had this whole comment typed up but I genuinely don't know where to start because I don't have this problem. If you do, and you want some help, let me know and we can work something out together.
I mean... just yesterday I slow cooked something for 8 hours and ate in 30 minutes with some left over. That doesn't mean I have to treat it all as "cooking time".
If I am cooking something more labor intensive then I may just simultaneously cook something else for the week/meal prep/clean used dishes in the gaps in time.
Still It does feel like that sometimes. The only other thing you can really do is cook enough portions for a few meals so that you can reheat for later meals.
I don't mind that, but what I do mind is that it now costs as much to make food at home as it did to dine out two years ago.
where on earth do you live? cooking at home is like 20x cheaper than even the cheapest fast food here in sweden.
Cook 4 portions.
1 for now
1 for lunch
2 to freeze
Cast irons are awesome
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