Food & Drink

Grumpy Bear · January 21

Okay, there are 8 USDA beef grades. Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter & Canner. Know what goes into that $4 can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew? Canner, near floor sweep. Or you could buy Choice Stew meat and make your own in a crock pot for about the same cost. Commercial is most used for packaged ground beef at a cost you can have ground Choice at your ma/pa store. I can use Select from Walmart for braising cheaper than Prime or Choice. I can buy oxtails cheaper than stew meat even two grades better and benefit from the bone and marrow.

I buy artisan Carraway Rye bread for the same price as commercial bakery breads and often one to two dollars a loaf cheaper. Loose the conditioners and preservatives and greatly improve taste.

And yes, wife hits up the $2 a quart Strawberries that will be a science project in a day or so and I clean and macerate them and they last a week longer and taste better.

Things I buy canned are tomatoes out of season, some fish and beans. Unless I'm crocking. Fresh fruit and veg is cheaper than canned most of the time save a few like asparagus and even that can be cheaper in season.

Thing is fresh has a short life so buying more than about three days worth is counter productive. I don't mind but some may. I get that. We are in a cold snap currently so I bought a few days of fresh and the remainder of the week in cans, boxes etc. Hybrid.

Biggest thing is staying out of the fast food chains. Any idea what sort of meal I can whip up for $25 worth of burger combo meals for two? Iowa Chops, mashed cauliflower, blanched green beans with bacon bits a wedge salad and ice tea. Or a three pound pork shoulder with red potatoes, onion and carrots low and slow for about three suppers. Flounder with asparagus and lemon and boiled new white tatter in butte with tea cake and ice cream for desert. Three days of bacon and eggs with toast and fried red potatoes.....

Six or seven Starbuck tall dark roast cost about the same as a pound of premium whole roasted beans and produces 25 cups of French pressed that isn't over brewed and bitter. I can buy a two weeks of tea bag for the cost of two fast food iced teas.

I cook for my dog and use USDA Choice 95% and some fresh human grade fruit and veggie for about 25% the cost of the cheapest kibble.

Homer1959 · January 21

8 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

Okay, there are 8 USDA beef grades. Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter & Canner. Know what goes into that $4 can of Dinty Moore Beef Stew? Canner, near floor sweep. Or you could buy Choice Stew meat and make your own in a crock pot for about the same cost. Commercial is most used for packaged ground beef at a cost you can have ground Choice at your ma/pa store. I can use Select from Walmart for braising cheaper than Prime or Choice. I can buy oxtails cheaper than stew meat even two grades better and benefit from the bone and marrow.

I buy artisan Carraway Rye bread for the same price as commercial bakery breads and often one to two dollars a loaf cheaper. Loose the conditioners and preservatives and greatly improve taste.

And yes, wife hits up the $2 a quart Strawberries that will be a science project in a day or so and I clean and macerate them and they last a week longer and taste better.

Things I buy canned are tomatoes out of season, some fish and beans. Unless I'm crocking. Fresh fruit and veg is cheaper than canned most of the time save a few like asparagus and even that can be cheaper in season.

Thing is fresh has a short life so buying more than about three days worth is counter productive. I don't mind but some may. I get that. We are in a cold snap currently so I bought a few days of fresh and the remainder of the week in cans, boxes etc. Hybrid.

Biggest thing is staying out of the fast food chains. Any idea what sort of meal I can whip up for $25 worth of burger combo meals for two? Iowa Chops, mashed cauliflower, blanched green beans with bacon bits a wedge salad and ice tea. Or a three pound pork shoulder with red potatoes, onion and carrots low and slow for about three suppers. Flounder with asparagus and lemon and boiled new white tatter in butte with tea cake and ice cream for desert. Three days of bacon and eggs with toast and fried red potatoes.....

Six or seven Starbuck tall dark roast cost about the same as a pound of premium whole roasted beans and produces 25 cups of French pressed that isn't over brewed and bitter. I can buy a two weeks of tea bag for the cost of two fast food iced teas.

I cook for my dog and use USDA Choice 95% and some fresh human grade fruit and veggie for about 25% the cost of the cheapest kibble.

Heard somewhere in the fifty first state ...... But but but its a lots of work, the government should do something ...

Edited January 21 by Homer1959

Grumpy Bear · January 22

14 hours ago, Homer1959 said:

Heard somewhere in the fifty first state ...... But but but its a lots of work, the government should do something ...

Richard if a guy is to lazy to lift a fork to his own lips then I got nothin for em.

diyer2 · January 22

Being overweight/obese I think is a disease, lots of that. What I think is sad is disease or not they aren't smart enough to realize they are eating themselves to the grave.

KARNUT · January 22

It took a lifetime for me to learn that nothing compares to natural foods for satisfaction and weight loss. All the years of drinking Diet Coke, eliminating salt, butter and fake diet foods. Left me feeling unsatisfied, hungry and fat. Akins type diets made me sick. I did have to adjust to beverages without sweet and low like coffee. And learning to eat slowly realizing it takes a minute for the stomach to feel full. Weight Watchers helped me realize what foods you can eat larger portions of and what to back off on. There’s no elimination just portion control. I rediscovered the taste of food without covering everything with ketchup or other high calorie stuff that covers good food taste. We go out once a week and I find myself picking baked rather than fried on many occasions. If you’re dropping in a deep frier you’re tasting grease and breading. I still go that route with certain foods. Only if it’s not over done. We have about five different restaurants we rotate through. That taste is the main ingredient not quantity.

Grumpy Bear · January 22

16 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

Being overweight/obese I think is a disease, lots of that. What I think is sad is disease or not they aren't smart enough to realize they are eating themselves to the grave.

My mother was one of those who ate to the grave by my age and after multiple bypasses and much doctor coaching and help from my father who watched her diet like a hawk. For her, it was a compulsion.

I smoked a good deal of my life. When forced into retirement I went five years without gaining an ounce and was quite thin for a 6 foot plus frame. 145 lbs. Lack of daily work in the industrial setting didn't have much effect. Five years later I quit smoking and over the next 18 months put on 70 pounds while maintaining my life long eating habits. Curious indeed. I've never been a huge sweets guy and eat meat like a condiment for most meals and skip it altogether much of the time. Wife is a vegetarian. Sort of. She was until she got hurt and I took over the kitchen then she ate what I could fix. Poor girl.

Eating should be a joy, not a burden. IMO anyway; and even when dieting aka eating sensibly it doesn't have to be like eating a diet of paper plates and old boots. Nor does it have to require cooking school to enjoy but you have to work at it a bit like any skill. We do this with joy when it comes to our hobbies, right? Cooking can be a hobby as well as a necessity.

Grumpy Bear · January 22

10 minutes ago, KARNUT said:

It took a lifetime for me to learn that nothing compares to natural foods for satisfaction and weight loss. All the years of drinking Diet Coke, eliminating salt, butter and fake diet foods. Left me feeling unsatisfied, hungry and fat. Akins type diets made me sick. I did have to adjust to beverages without sweet and low like coffee. And learning to eat slowly realizing it takes a minute for the stomach to feel full. Weight Watchers helped me realize what foods you can eat larger portions of and what to back off on. There’s no elimination just portion control. I rediscovered the taste of food without covering everything with ketchup or other high calorie stuff that covers good food taste. We go out once a week and I find myself picking baked rather than fried on many occasions. If you’re dropping in a deep frier you’re tasting grease and breading. I still go that route with certain foods. Only if it’s not over done. We have about five different restaurants we rotate through. That taste is the main ingredient not quantity.

Lot's of on point in this post. What I put in bold is pure gold. When I was working I ate to survive, not enjoy, and rarely took the time to linger over the one or two meals a day I ate. Lived on bad work coffee club coffee mostly. I also smoked and I hadn't much of a sense of taste anyway. The one or two I ate I did so in minutes. Horrible habits.

I'm not that guy that can tell you what 'notes' are in a bourbon or tell you what region a wine if from by smell but since I quit smoking and my sense of taste returned and cooking for the background has become somewhat of an obsession. People intentionally, at times, cover the taste of foods with 'adds' because they either don't like the food they are eating OR and I find this true allot, never learned to prepare it in a fashion that showcases the the food in a way that engages the senses.

Your point on how fast we eat is so on point and not just what it does for volume control either; although I understand that is the point you were showcasing and I appreciate that.

KARNUT · January 22

From my 20s until my 40s my breakfast was cigarettes and coffee. Lunch was sending someone to the closest fast food restaurant or cookies in my little playmate while I ran my clearing tractor on pipelines. My day usually started at 4 driving to the site. Diets coke was in there with me. A six pack daily with 2 packs of Marlboro lights 100. On the way home or to the camper a burger, fries and Diet Coke. If going home usually arriving late a little leftovers from dinner. After 40 I quit smoking got fat and started dieting. Finally in my 50s learned to eat and having 3 meals a day.

KARNUT · January 22

I’m reminded, my mother is always on a diet. She constantly eats salads. After going on WeightWatchers she learned the salad dressing was the enemy. Years ago while complaining to my father about she only eats salads and still gains weight. My father the clever man he was. Says cows eat grass Joan! We were rolling on the floor.

Atlas · January 23

Dieting is a multi-billion dollar industry and so is food science. Both are designed to increase profitability for the companies that sell the products and keep you coming back for more of both engineered/addicting foods and then fad dieting to undo the damage. Experts in those industries know how the cycle works.

Willpower only goes so far..even at full-strength it's hard to resist engineered foods. For time. For ease. For cost. For taste. If I had to guess, there are chemical compounds in diet soda that probably should be regulated as Schedule III narcotics, but they're not.

Grumpy Bear · January 24

Kitchen Tips

Let's hear them.

Dishtowel under those poly cutting boards to keep it from moving about. Or wood that doesn't have rubber buttons.

Homer1959 · January 24

On 1/21/2026 at 10:52 PM, Grumpy Bear said:

Richard if a guy is to lazy to lift a fork to his own lips then I got nothin for em.

I’m not worried about that guy; there’s definitely a program in the 51st for someone like that. ... lazy guys strive in canada you know ?

Grumpy Bear · January 24

Micky "D's" Mc Muffin

:sick:

Has got to be one of the nasties things a human can put in their mouth. I still eat one once in awhile.

Thomas Muffins are so much better and a hard fried egg in a hint of butter is a good start to something better. IMO anyway.

Toast, not grill, that muffin well. A hint more butter and a slater of 'Real Mayo". Hold that thought.

Deli had some marbled Pepper Jack/Colby rounds thick cut and some nice thick cut Corned Beef slices. Melting the cheese on a lightly salted egg as it finishes frying and heating the beef next to it, then adding to the muffin with a little fresh horseradish.

Good ingredients and mixed heat, BOOM!

Grumpy Bear · January 24

Egg Drone

It must sound silly that I drone on about a million ways to cook eggs. I say order breakfast in any new restaurant you try, assuming that if they can cook a egg it may be safe to try other things as well. However this only works if you already know the difference between a perfectly prepared egg and one that just makes it to a plate. Cooking eggs is easy. Getting them right might take a lifetime. I expect there is an entire branch of science committed to the eggs protein structure. If not there should be.

I do know that what most restaurants call an omelet is anything but and scrambled eggs shouldn't double and Superballs. Egg's Benedict is Hollandaise sauce and not yellow 'whatever that is', and they are served with Canadian Bacon. There is no substitute. Finally there are infinite ways to get poached eggs wrong. I don't bother even trying them eating-out save for a few higher end Hotel restaurants.

Then again I'm picky about words. There is no such thing as Vegan Lasagna. Create a new name for that abomination. Don't try to sell it trying due to name recognition. Ditto egg dishes.

:rant:

KARNUT · January 25

I have three eggs every morning over easy. I coat the fry pan very lightly with butter or olive oil. I usually have potatoes that I slice put in the microwave then brown in the pan. I usually put a little cheese on top of the potatoes. Salt and pepper and chunky salsa. Sometimes I use frozen hash browns. On weigh watchers with their point system the only points are the butter, oil or cheese. Bacon about once a month. Toast and jam about twice a week instead of potatoes and cheese. With their point system I get 42 points a day breakfast comes in a 7 or less. If we’re traveling I do an omelette for breakfast. Being OCD my paths are well traveled a places are well vetted or highly recommended. I’m too set in my ways and have little patience for nonsense especially with food.

Edited January 25 by KARNUT