I have had Netspend for years now, they have always been wonderful to deal with. We could have a "regular" bank account, but why....I hate banks! Netspend also has amazing savings account interest, better than any bank out there! We have never had ANY trouble...I think the original post was a little bit over the edge.....calm down and enjoy life! They are actually the best prepaid service we've ever seen. Well...that's all.
All good points. My mom showed me exactly the things you mentioned--sifting flour, packing brown sugar into the measuring cup--and more (how to identify the "soft-ball stage" while making fudge). I agree that it would be hard to just figure that stuff out from a cookbook--which is why I recommended learning from a relative or friend who can show you that stuff. (And recommend staying away from confections and pastries, unless you do have someone who can show you how its down.)
On the other hand, you can make rice knowing nothing except how to boil and simmer. Once you know that, you can make soup as well, if you can cut things up into small pieces. Stir-frying is something you can learn by trial and error, if you can tolerate a few errors (most of which will still be edible, even if not exactly what you wanted). And so on.
The payoff from being able to cook is so huge, I think it's worth the cost of the occasional failure that comes of learning the hard way. (And those of us lucky enough to have learned the easy way should stand ready to pass on the knowledge--and should be thankful for just how good we've got it.)
My worst job was working at Wal-Mart - I'm sure a lot of other people could say the same (and might have, though I didn't read through the mass of comments above). I was supposed to be a cashier, they had me pushing carts in 100 degree weather... The Gatorade cooler we had for water? The other cart guys kept their drinks inside of it, so the water was literally moldy. I went in to get a glass of water from the in-store McDonald's (which they had said was okay to do) and was chastised by management for it. I quit on the spot. My (now wife) worked at the same time as me and had quit a month before for the same kind of petty crap.
French dip is an interesting example--in part because I don't have anything like a recipe.
If I cook the beef myself, I usually pressure cook it in a couple cups of water with an onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Then I use the resulting broth as the dip.
If I buy roast beef from the deli, I usually just use a cup of bouillon as the dip (often adding some onion flakes or onion powder and some minced garlic--but I might skip that if I'm in a hurry).
If I've actually roasted a roast (rather than pressure cooking it), then I might get kind of fancy with the dip--because there won't be any broth that just comes along for free the way it does in the pressure cooker. There will be pan drippings, though, which are the classic source of "au jus" for something like a French dip. Pour off the drippings, then add a bit of wine (or broth or even just water) to the pan, and put it on a warm burner and gently scrape off some of the roasted-on stuff off the bottom of the pan. (Called "de-glazing" the pan.) Combine with the drippings and simmer in a sauce pan for a bit with some onion (or garlic, carrot, celery--whatever you like). Skim off as much fat as you can and serve the rest as dip. (This will give you a much better dip than the other methods. But, since the roast meat will only be good if you start with a particuarly good cut of beef, it's only a frugal option if you can get a great deal on the meat. We usually get a standing rib roast for our Christmas feast, but otherwise usually use one of the other options listed, unless we find a fantastic sale on roasts.)
Just lately I've seen some restaurants (especially fast-food places) thicken the dip almost like a thin gravy. If that's how you like it, just take a teaspon (or so) of the fat you skimmed off, add a teaspoon (i.e. an equal amount) of flour, and stir it together in a pan over medium heat until every grain of flour is coated with fat. Then, gradually add the broth part of the dip while stirring. The result will be a thickened dipping sauce.
All these things are easier if you keep some broth on hand. Anytime we cook anything with bones, we save the carcass and any trimmings and then boil them together (with some onion and a carrot and some celery leaves) to make broth. (Refrigerate overnight, skim off any fat. If you don't need to use it within a day or two, you can keep it in the freezer for many months.) Even though we always do that, we also end up buying canned broth sometimes. (And, as I mentioned at the top, using an occasional bouillon cube, when we're in a hurry.)
Somewhere in this post, or in a link within this story, is the suggestion to call your credit card company (I e-mailed mine, I don't like to talk to reps on the phone) and ask for your interest rate to be adjusted. I merely asked Amex asked what the procedure was for an interest rate review, and they dropped it 5%. I mentioned this to my boyfriend, who e-mailed his credit card company (also Amex) and his was lowered 12%! I am so glad that I tried this! Thank you!
I have a DC01, it was my mum and dads from when my dad (facilities manager) was looking into replacing 150 national vacuums with the 'new' bagless technology in the early ninety's.
It still works, and yes, the company chose the new Dysons. They where brilliant, not sure about current products since manufacturing went to Malaysia, but my mum and dads replacement DC08, seems to still be alive.
Lemons are abound, but bad design creeps into every company.
p.s. I went to school right next door to the first and original factory, which is now an R&D place.
As a retired meat cutter (40 years), I learned very early on that cooking and eating out are as different as driving a car or going for a walk.
We eat out because we're hungry, we cook because we have a cooking method we want to use, not necessarily for the end result.
When a customer would ask for a specific cut of meat I would always ask how they are going to prepare it, then proceed onto the cut.
For those folks who have issues with cooking shows or cookbooks, try the Pioneer Woman (online). She presents recipes in easy to follow, photo sequences.
Then there are also online recipe sites (RecipeZaar and AllRecipes) that let you search for ideas based on what ingredients you have on hand. I usually print 4 or 5 recipes from these sites and then ad lib. But last night my wife made me stick to just one recipe and it came out great. (Sometimes she says she isn't very hungry.)
I'm trying very hard right now to readjust my rent in Mountain View.
The landlord wants to *increase* the rent of my 2-bedroom by $100. The same apartments in the same complex are going for $500 less per month. I'm not joking. It's advertised right on their web site. They're simply refusing to lower my rent, but are perfectly fine with me moving to another unit for a lower rent.
It's quite frustrating because moving is annoying. Am I going to have to do this every time my lease comes around? I kind of want to just move to another complex if they're going to be this difficult about it.
I pretty much had to teach myself to cook because I didn't want to eat the kind of things my mom cooked.
I'm a huge fan of kids cookbooks from the '60s and earlier. They don't assume you know what you're doing, they define terms, they offer measurements, and they usually have pretty clear directions. (instead of my mom's recipes, which use measurements like "a box of cottage cheese" and directions "cook until done" or "brown until looks right.")
If you get too late a publishing date, you get into the idea that kids only like junk food & aren't allowed to use the stove. But I had kids cookbooks from the '50s and '60s that taught me how to make a roux, how to saute, how to make a white or chocolate cake, which part of an orange is the zest - all the stuff that can stymie a new cook.
I have to say that learning the basics of cooking once you are already an adult is not easy. I know this because I have watched someone try. He bought a food processor for one recipe because he didn't realize there were other ways to accomplish the goal, for example. People who learned to cook as kids forget just how much is involved and don't always explain well.
Cookbooks are written in a sparse, abbreviated style with technical terms rarely used elsewhere. Those cooking show people have huge loads of expensive equipment, which is just not needed. And they don't even show how to measure anything--it's just magically waiting in unnecessary little bowls that they don't have to clean themselves. Who's going to tell you to pack the brown sugar down tightly, spoon in the flour lightly, and measure shortening by submerging it in a cup of water?
There may be some good YouTube videos now. But otherwise there's no substitute for actually watching someone doing everything. Including shopping!
I learned most of my cooking skills while camping with Girl Scouts, which has made me appreciative of having access to stove burners instead of a fire and a cheese grater instead of just a dull knife. And a can opener instead of just a dull knife. Hmm, wonder how those knives got so dull? I actually used one where the back of the blade was sharper than the front.
I also learned a few things from Mom (who let me in the kitchen only to earn my cooking badge and to load or unload the dishwasher) and from an 8th grade home ec class. I learned a lot more from various roommates. And I occasionally learn more from friends or cooking shows (where I learned how to stir things that needed to keep their air bubbles--you can do it a lot more thoroughly than I had feared).
Some cookbooks do try to be teaching cookbooks, such as _Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!_ Frankly, I still hate _Joy of Cooking_ which has recipes embedded within recipes embedded within recipes. I just want it all on one page.
You will also get conflicting information. My mom taught me that you need the meat drippings to get a flavorful gravy--the fat has all the flavor. My latest roommate taught me that you can put the broth you make from the drippings into the fridge so the fat separates and THROW THE FAT AWAY and you still can make a flavorful gravy from it.
However, my mom has a vegetable-oil-based pie crust that comes out flaky even though everyone else insists you have to have the little flakes of butter in there to make flakiness. So experiment and make your own judgments!
Mostly new learners should remember that they aren't as stupid as they feel. And it's good to specialize a bit at first, trying the same sorts of recipes until they get easier in order to build confidence. Charlie above recommends a slow cooker. I've heard of someone who stir fries. Many guys barbecue. There's also sandwiches, eggs, soups, muffins. I started with French toast and mixing various things into macaroni and cheese. Pick something you really love, try a bunch of versions of things, ask people questions, and experience success.
There may be some things you never get, though. My mom doesn't do cake from scratch even though she makes her own yeast breads and pies, which are harder! She says her cakes always come out too dense. My chocolate chip cookies always come out too cakey (but I haven't given up yet). Even giant black holes of knowledge don't keep you from being an admired cook, especially to yourself when you come home from work and have a lovely tupperware of pasta with actual whole grains in it and not even trace amounts of hydrogenated fats!
I am a broker in Hawai. I submitted a loan to HMP and rec'd a conditional approval asking for $1800 from my borrower. When I tried to search the WA state website for licensing info, I couldn't find anything.
Your blog is the only thing I could find. You mention that you saw other blogs, too, but all I saw was disgruntled people getting faxes from HMP.
I am just trying to see if these guys are legit. You don't think they are. Did you ever get any other responses from other brokers, good or bad?
thank you,
Michelle Solomon
Paradise Home Loans, Kona
808-325-6898
Another advantage of cooking is that you can cook things exactly the way you like it. I just moved and my pots and pans aren't unpacked yet, so I've been eating out a lot. Tonight I went to Chipotle and had a pretty decent fajita, but all I could think was "I would have sauteed the onions instead of serving them raw, and used fewer green peppers, and added some cumin to the rice". When you cook for yourself, you pick the ingredients and you decide how to combine them.
I had to teach myself to cook, since I never learned growing up and none of my friends cooked much. I depended on my Betty Crocker cookbook (which is a better beginner cookbook than Joy of Cooking, in my opinion). But I also learned a lot from watching cooking shows on TV, particularly America's Test Kitchen and Good Eats. Sometimes it's easier to watch someone doing something than trying to learn from a book. Also, many areas teach "extension" classes at night at the local school, and cooking classes are almost always offered, for very little cost.
The worst job I ever had was as a bill collector. They worked 365 days a year. Can you imagine calling someone on Christmas day over a credit card bill. There were so many people working there that sometimes by the time the person got home there were 6-10 messages on the machine so naturally they weren't happy to talk to us. I only last about 3 weeks. I am not a very pushy person and I had the lowest collection rate there. Not to mention I kept losing my voice from talking for 8 hours constantly. It had reached the point that I just cried at the thought of going in, there were times I thought dying would be better than working there.
I think one way for people who are just starting to learn to cook to make their own meals is to use a slow cooker.
All you have to do is assemble a few ingredients, throw them in the slow cooker and let the cooker do all of the work.
An additional benefit is that you can use cheaper cuts of meat because the slow cooking process makes the meat fall off the bone tender.
They even make small slow cookers for single people along with cookbooks like "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker."
That's not necessarily true. I built up a large amount of savings during my life and I use my credit card to buy just about everything; I just make sure I pay it off every month. I think that people with no income AND no savings shouldn't be allowed to have a credit card.
Now, I don't understand why this country treats everyone 18-20 like they are still irresponsible children. Also, I don't understand the hypocrisy of the laws. People 18-20 can operate multi-million-dollar military machinery, die for their country, get married, and yet they can't drink or be trusted with their own money.
When I was 17, I was a telemarketer selling season tickets for the local symphony orchestra. I learned quickly that I'm not a natural salesman.
When I was 18, I worked for the summer at a women's clothing store that was located at the end of a strip mall. Women would load up their arms with clothes and the just run out the door and around the corner with $2000 worth of clothes. Then the two assistant manegers, who resented me because I was in college, were caught for returning items without receipts and trying to cover up their insider theft with the real theft. Not nice.
For beginning cooks, a great idea is to learn how to fix a few "one-two punch" meals: an initial large meal that leads to an additional totally different meal or two. Probably my favorite such sequence is a roast chicken, then stock from the carcass for chicken soup or pot pie. I also love to braise a large beef roast (or cook it in the crockpot), leading to a second meal of shepherd's pie or French onion soup. Yum!
These things are not difficult, and they are SO much better than most restaurant meals.
One summer I worked at a country club in North Carolina. I'd never seen such a bunch of overfed sanctimonious pricks in my whole life. One of the hideous events I had to work was a lobster feast. I would wait in the oven-hot kitchen while they shoveled hundreds of screaming lobsters into huge boiling pots, then carry scalding trays of them out to the nouveau-riche klansmen and their clown-faced wives, who would only eat the lobster tails and pile up the half-eaten carcasses elbow-high in garbage cans placed all around the tables in the dining room. I'd drag the garbage cans outside into 100 degree heat to dump them in a festering pile of swollen shells, then return to the hellish kitchen to start all over again. All for barely over minimum wage, with no tips, serving hillbilly country club members who looked at everyone as slaves.
One of my former bosses and his wife were the reasons I hated one job so much. Both of them were micromanagers, distrustful and often condescending. They're so bad that when we, their employees, network at industry events, we hear, "Oh, another new face? Your company's always had a hard time keeping people." One of my coworkers there was a veteran, having stayed two years, during which time he counted at least 15 people had come and gone through just MY position - at a small non-profit of 12 people in the office, two of whom are the bosses. My coworkers would add that there was one woman who was supposed to become the Director of a project, but that she quit after two days because she couldn't stand the power struggles.
Anyway, the few times at the start of that job that I tried to use my brain to improve upon a project, I was met with distaste, possibly contempt - which is a great way to kill a new employee's desire to invest herself in the company. Whenever I'd ask for more work (and I did, often, at the beginning), there wasn't anything to do, or rather, nothing that the higher-ups would trust underlings to do.
After my first month at work, I started every morning of the subsequent eleven months calculating in my head how much time remained until I could go home, and then ticking off every fifteen minute period.
Yes, I have a lot of bitterness! But at least in the face of this adversity, I came away with many great friends. :)
I run into these meal opportunities a few times a year through work and volunteer activities, but since going vegetarian I mostly find the meals awkward opportunities to go hungry in front of everyone else! If you are preparing such a meal, consider those who don't eat a "Standard American Diet." (Yes, some of us think it's pretty SAD. :)
I have had Netspend for years now, they have always been wonderful to deal with. We could have a "regular" bank account, but why....I hate banks! Netspend also has amazing savings account interest, better than any bank out there! We have never had ANY trouble...I think the original post was a little bit over the edge.....calm down and enjoy life! They are actually the best prepaid service we've ever seen. Well...that's all.
@Debbie M:
All good points. My mom showed me exactly the things you mentioned--sifting flour, packing brown sugar into the measuring cup--and more (how to identify the "soft-ball stage" while making fudge). I agree that it would be hard to just figure that stuff out from a cookbook--which is why I recommended learning from a relative or friend who can show you that stuff. (And recommend staying away from confections and pastries, unless you do have someone who can show you how its down.)
On the other hand, you can make rice knowing nothing except how to boil and simmer. Once you know that, you can make soup as well, if you can cut things up into small pieces. Stir-frying is something you can learn by trial and error, if you can tolerate a few errors (most of which will still be edible, even if not exactly what you wanted). And so on.
The payoff from being able to cook is so huge, I think it's worth the cost of the occasional failure that comes of learning the hard way. (And those of us lucky enough to have learned the easy way should stand ready to pass on the knowledge--and should be thankful for just how good we've got it.)
My worst job was working at Wal-Mart - I'm sure a lot of other people could say the same (and might have, though I didn't read through the mass of comments above). I was supposed to be a cashier, they had me pushing carts in 100 degree weather... The Gatorade cooler we had for water? The other cart guys kept their drinks inside of it, so the water was literally moldy. I went in to get a glass of water from the in-store McDonald's (which they had said was okay to do) and was chastised by management for it. I quit on the spot. My (now wife) worked at the same time as me and had quit a month before for the same kind of petty crap.
@Jules:
French dip is an interesting example--in part because I don't have anything like a recipe.
If I cook the beef myself, I usually pressure cook it in a couple cups of water with an onion and a couple cloves of garlic. Then I use the resulting broth as the dip.
If I buy roast beef from the deli, I usually just use a cup of bouillon as the dip (often adding some onion flakes or onion powder and some minced garlic--but I might skip that if I'm in a hurry).
If I've actually roasted a roast (rather than pressure cooking it), then I might get kind of fancy with the dip--because there won't be any broth that just comes along for free the way it does in the pressure cooker. There will be pan drippings, though, which are the classic source of "au jus" for something like a French dip. Pour off the drippings, then add a bit of wine (or broth or even just water) to the pan, and put it on a warm burner and gently scrape off some of the roasted-on stuff off the bottom of the pan. (Called "de-glazing" the pan.) Combine with the drippings and simmer in a sauce pan for a bit with some onion (or garlic, carrot, celery--whatever you like). Skim off as much fat as you can and serve the rest as dip. (This will give you a much better dip than the other methods. But, since the roast meat will only be good if you start with a particuarly good cut of beef, it's only a frugal option if you can get a great deal on the meat. We usually get a standing rib roast for our Christmas feast, but otherwise usually use one of the other options listed, unless we find a fantastic sale on roasts.)
Just lately I've seen some restaurants (especially fast-food places) thicken the dip almost like a thin gravy. If that's how you like it, just take a teaspon (or so) of the fat you skimmed off, add a teaspoon (i.e. an equal amount) of flour, and stir it together in a pan over medium heat until every grain of flour is coated with fat. Then, gradually add the broth part of the dip while stirring. The result will be a thickened dipping sauce.
All these things are easier if you keep some broth on hand. Anytime we cook anything with bones, we save the carcass and any trimmings and then boil them together (with some onion and a carrot and some celery leaves) to make broth. (Refrigerate overnight, skim off any fat. If you don't need to use it within a day or two, you can keep it in the freezer for many months.) Even though we always do that, we also end up buying canned broth sometimes. (And, as I mentioned at the top, using an occasional bouillon cube, when we're in a hurry.)
Somewhere in this post, or in a link within this story, is the suggestion to call your credit card company (I e-mailed mine, I don't like to talk to reps on the phone) and ask for your interest rate to be adjusted. I merely asked Amex asked what the procedure was for an interest rate review, and they dropped it 5%. I mentioned this to my boyfriend, who e-mailed his credit card company (also Amex) and his was lowered 12%! I am so glad that I tried this! Thank you!
Hi
I have a DC01, it was my mum and dads from when my dad (facilities manager) was looking into replacing 150 national vacuums with the 'new' bagless technology in the early ninety's.
It still works, and yes, the company chose the new Dysons. They where brilliant, not sure about current products since manufacturing went to Malaysia, but my mum and dads replacement DC08, seems to still be alive.
Lemons are abound, but bad design creeps into every company.
p.s. I went to school right next door to the first and original factory, which is now an R&D place.
As a retired meat cutter (40 years), I learned very early on that cooking and eating out are as different as driving a car or going for a walk.
We eat out because we're hungry, we cook because we have a cooking method we want to use, not necessarily for the end result.
When a customer would ask for a specific cut of meat I would always ask how they are going to prepare it, then proceed onto the cut.
For those folks who have issues with cooking shows or cookbooks, try the Pioneer Woman (online). She presents recipes in easy to follow, photo sequences.
Then there are also online recipe sites (RecipeZaar and AllRecipes) that let you search for ideas based on what ingredients you have on hand. I usually print 4 or 5 recipes from these sites and then ad lib. But last night my wife made me stick to just one recipe and it came out great. (Sometimes she says she isn't very hungry.)
bad i missed this contest
I'm trying very hard right now to readjust my rent in Mountain View.
The landlord wants to *increase* the rent of my 2-bedroom by $100. The same apartments in the same complex are going for $500 less per month. I'm not joking. It's advertised right on their web site. They're simply refusing to lower my rent, but are perfectly fine with me moving to another unit for a lower rent.
It's quite frustrating because moving is annoying. Am I going to have to do this every time my lease comes around? I kind of want to just move to another complex if they're going to be this difficult about it.
That's a good point, Debbie.
I pretty much had to teach myself to cook because I didn't want to eat the kind of things my mom cooked.
I'm a huge fan of kids cookbooks from the '60s and earlier. They don't assume you know what you're doing, they define terms, they offer measurements, and they usually have pretty clear directions. (instead of my mom's recipes, which use measurements like "a box of cottage cheese" and directions "cook until done" or "brown until looks right.")
If you get too late a publishing date, you get into the idea that kids only like junk food & aren't allowed to use the stove. But I had kids cookbooks from the '50s and '60s that taught me how to make a roux, how to saute, how to make a white or chocolate cake, which part of an orange is the zest - all the stuff that can stymie a new cook.
Not only would it be bad for business, but I believe it's also against the law to refuse any genuine federal bank note.
I have to say that learning the basics of cooking once you are already an adult is not easy. I know this because I have watched someone try. He bought a food processor for one recipe because he didn't realize there were other ways to accomplish the goal, for example. People who learned to cook as kids forget just how much is involved and don't always explain well.
Cookbooks are written in a sparse, abbreviated style with technical terms rarely used elsewhere. Those cooking show people have huge loads of expensive equipment, which is just not needed. And they don't even show how to measure anything--it's just magically waiting in unnecessary little bowls that they don't have to clean themselves. Who's going to tell you to pack the brown sugar down tightly, spoon in the flour lightly, and measure shortening by submerging it in a cup of water?
There may be some good YouTube videos now. But otherwise there's no substitute for actually watching someone doing everything. Including shopping!
I learned most of my cooking skills while camping with Girl Scouts, which has made me appreciative of having access to stove burners instead of a fire and a cheese grater instead of just a dull knife. And a can opener instead of just a dull knife. Hmm, wonder how those knives got so dull? I actually used one where the back of the blade was sharper than the front.
I also learned a few things from Mom (who let me in the kitchen only to earn my cooking badge and to load or unload the dishwasher) and from an 8th grade home ec class. I learned a lot more from various roommates. And I occasionally learn more from friends or cooking shows (where I learned how to stir things that needed to keep their air bubbles--you can do it a lot more thoroughly than I had feared).
Some cookbooks do try to be teaching cookbooks, such as _Help! My Apartment Has a Kitchen!_ Frankly, I still hate _Joy of Cooking_ which has recipes embedded within recipes embedded within recipes. I just want it all on one page.
You will also get conflicting information. My mom taught me that you need the meat drippings to get a flavorful gravy--the fat has all the flavor. My latest roommate taught me that you can put the broth you make from the drippings into the fridge so the fat separates and THROW THE FAT AWAY and you still can make a flavorful gravy from it.
However, my mom has a vegetable-oil-based pie crust that comes out flaky even though everyone else insists you have to have the little flakes of butter in there to make flakiness. So experiment and make your own judgments!
Mostly new learners should remember that they aren't as stupid as they feel. And it's good to specialize a bit at first, trying the same sorts of recipes until they get easier in order to build confidence. Charlie above recommends a slow cooker. I've heard of someone who stir fries. Many guys barbecue. There's also sandwiches, eggs, soups, muffins. I started with French toast and mixing various things into macaroni and cheese. Pick something you really love, try a bunch of versions of things, ask people questions, and experience success.
There may be some things you never get, though. My mom doesn't do cake from scratch even though she makes her own yeast breads and pies, which are harder! She says her cakes always come out too dense. My chocolate chip cookies always come out too cakey (but I haven't given up yet). Even giant black holes of knowledge don't keep you from being an admired cook, especially to yourself when you come home from work and have a lovely tupperware of pasta with actual whole grains in it and not even trace amounts of hydrogenated fats!
So what's the french dip recipe you use?
You are my hero today! I can take that simple advice with me anywhere for the rest of my life.
Hi,
I am a broker in Hawai. I submitted a loan to HMP and rec'd a conditional approval asking for $1800 from my borrower. When I tried to search the WA state website for licensing info, I couldn't find anything.
Your blog is the only thing I could find. You mention that you saw other blogs, too, but all I saw was disgruntled people getting faxes from HMP.
I am just trying to see if these guys are legit. You don't think they are. Did you ever get any other responses from other brokers, good or bad?
thank you,
Michelle Solomon
Paradise Home Loans, Kona
808-325-6898
Another advantage of cooking is that you can cook things exactly the way you like it. I just moved and my pots and pans aren't unpacked yet, so I've been eating out a lot. Tonight I went to Chipotle and had a pretty decent fajita, but all I could think was "I would have sauteed the onions instead of serving them raw, and used fewer green peppers, and added some cumin to the rice". When you cook for yourself, you pick the ingredients and you decide how to combine them.
I had to teach myself to cook, since I never learned growing up and none of my friends cooked much. I depended on my Betty Crocker cookbook (which is a better beginner cookbook than Joy of Cooking, in my opinion). But I also learned a lot from watching cooking shows on TV, particularly America's Test Kitchen and Good Eats. Sometimes it's easier to watch someone doing something than trying to learn from a book. Also, many areas teach "extension" classes at night at the local school, and cooking classes are almost always offered, for very little cost.
I didn't know how useful witch hazel was. It's cheap to buy too.
The worst job I ever had was as a bill collector. They worked 365 days a year. Can you imagine calling someone on Christmas day over a credit card bill. There were so many people working there that sometimes by the time the person got home there were 6-10 messages on the machine so naturally they weren't happy to talk to us. I only last about 3 weeks. I am not a very pushy person and I had the lowest collection rate there. Not to mention I kept losing my voice from talking for 8 hours constantly. It had reached the point that I just cried at the thought of going in, there were times I thought dying would be better than working there.
I think one way for people who are just starting to learn to cook to make their own meals is to use a slow cooker.
All you have to do is assemble a few ingredients, throw them in the slow cooker and let the cooker do all of the work.
An additional benefit is that you can use cheaper cuts of meat because the slow cooking process makes the meat fall off the bone tender.
They even make small slow cookers for single people along with cookbooks like "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Recipes for Two: For the Small Slow Cooker."
That's not necessarily true. I built up a large amount of savings during my life and I use my credit card to buy just about everything; I just make sure I pay it off every month. I think that people with no income AND no savings shouldn't be allowed to have a credit card.
Now, I don't understand why this country treats everyone 18-20 like they are still irresponsible children. Also, I don't understand the hypocrisy of the laws. People 18-20 can operate multi-million-dollar military machinery, die for their country, get married, and yet they can't drink or be trusted with their own money.
When I was 17, I was a telemarketer selling season tickets for the local symphony orchestra. I learned quickly that I'm not a natural salesman.
When I was 18, I worked for the summer at a women's clothing store that was located at the end of a strip mall. Women would load up their arms with clothes and the just run out the door and around the corner with $2000 worth of clothes. Then the two assistant manegers, who resented me because I was in college, were caught for returning items without receipts and trying to cover up their insider theft with the real theft. Not nice.
For beginning cooks, a great idea is to learn how to fix a few "one-two punch" meals: an initial large meal that leads to an additional totally different meal or two. Probably my favorite such sequence is a roast chicken, then stock from the carcass for chicken soup or pot pie. I also love to braise a large beef roast (or cook it in the crockpot), leading to a second meal of shepherd's pie or French onion soup. Yum!
These things are not difficult, and they are SO much better than most restaurant meals.
One summer I worked at a country club in North Carolina. I'd never seen such a bunch of overfed sanctimonious pricks in my whole life. One of the hideous events I had to work was a lobster feast. I would wait in the oven-hot kitchen while they shoveled hundreds of screaming lobsters into huge boiling pots, then carry scalding trays of them out to the nouveau-riche klansmen and their clown-faced wives, who would only eat the lobster tails and pile up the half-eaten carcasses elbow-high in garbage cans placed all around the tables in the dining room. I'd drag the garbage cans outside into 100 degree heat to dump them in a festering pile of swollen shells, then return to the hellish kitchen to start all over again. All for barely over minimum wage, with no tips, serving hillbilly country club members who looked at everyone as slaves.
One of my former bosses and his wife were the reasons I hated one job so much. Both of them were micromanagers, distrustful and often condescending. They're so bad that when we, their employees, network at industry events, we hear, "Oh, another new face? Your company's always had a hard time keeping people." One of my coworkers there was a veteran, having stayed two years, during which time he counted at least 15 people had come and gone through just MY position - at a small non-profit of 12 people in the office, two of whom are the bosses. My coworkers would add that there was one woman who was supposed to become the Director of a project, but that she quit after two days because she couldn't stand the power struggles.
Anyway, the few times at the start of that job that I tried to use my brain to improve upon a project, I was met with distaste, possibly contempt - which is a great way to kill a new employee's desire to invest herself in the company. Whenever I'd ask for more work (and I did, often, at the beginning), there wasn't anything to do, or rather, nothing that the higher-ups would trust underlings to do.
After my first month at work, I started every morning of the subsequent eleven months calculating in my head how much time remained until I could go home, and then ticking off every fifteen minute period.
Yes, I have a lot of bitterness! But at least in the face of this adversity, I came away with many great friends. :)
I run into these meal opportunities a few times a year through work and volunteer activities, but since going vegetarian I mostly find the meals awkward opportunities to go hungry in front of everyone else! If you are preparing such a meal, consider those who don't eat a "Standard American Diet." (Yes, some of us think it's pretty SAD. :)