This is a new phenomenon for me and I need somewhere to share it. I used to love cooking for people. No matter how many, no matter the dietary restrictions, no matter how much notice... none of it mattered because I loved feeding people.

But over the last year I've started feeling dread and anxiety whenever my husband invites people over or if we're staying with a group (like the holidays) and I'm expected to cook (this expectation happened over many years due to the aforementioned love of cooking for people).

It truly is the dietary restrictions. How the hell do you manage the freaking venn diagram of what is passable and keep your sanity. I'll give you an example.

Me: Can't eat high carb due to PCOS/PMOs
Husband: High cholesterol/mushrooms/raw tomatoes/courgettes
Husband's Parents: Shellfish/Peas/Cucumber/Watermelon
Sis-in-Law: Onions/Legumes/Red Meat/Dairy/Coriander tastes like soap

And then there's the preferences!!?!?! Doesn't like spicy, doesn't like cold things, hates slimy (okra), can't stand fish, coriander-tastes-like-soap (okay this one is super real and legit).

I can feel my body go into fight/flight mode and get exhausted the moment the idea comes up that I might be cooking for a group.

We've started doing delivery more whenever we have people come over.

A few months ago, I was part of a potluck lunch at work. A colleague, who was Syrian, brought in fattet hummus. It was one of the most delicious foods I have ever eaten, and really got me interested in Middle Eastern cooking and flavours (I am a white person, who grew up in a meat, potato and boiled veg family, so pretty life changing!)

She shared the recipe with me, but has since left the company. I am hoping to finally make her recipe for the first time this week, but now I have realised - I have no idea what to serve with it. I am looking for any suggestions :) my partner would like a meat option but I think it seems a bit weird (?)

Also, when I googled I found that apparently this is more of a breakfast dish? Is that true? And do I just eat it with a spoon or am I meant to be dipping things in?

Sincerely, someone who is desperately trying to respect the dish I am making XD

any tips? i’ve been simmering my chili on the stove for at least an hour, and i added my dried (soaked 24+h) kidney beans with the liquid like i normally would with canned beans. figured that they would cook while the chili simmers instead of getting soggy like canned beans. now, i’m not opposed to letting chili simmer for hours. but i’m getting worried because whenever i check on them, it just seems like nothing has changed. internet says beans cook in like 120 min! am i doing smthn wrong? do i need to turn the heat up? i brought everything to a boil and it’s just been simmering… i want to eat my damn chili. help

So I was talking with my dad tonight as we were finishing the turkey stew I made with thanksgiving leftovers. And it got me thinking about how crazy economical a turkey can be.

We paid $55 for an 18lb turkey, a fairly nice one. For that $55 we got a meal for 12 on the day of thanksgiving dinner. Most of the meat was removed from the bird and put in a ziplock bag in the fridge. I then put the carcass in a pot with water, onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, peppercorns, and a few garlic cloves. Boiled it for about 6 hours. The next day a soup was made with the broth and meat from the carcass. That soup made about 6 meals. Two other containers of just broth were put in the freezer about 5 cups each. Sandwiches have been being made with the leftover turkey meat all week, in the range of 8-10 sandwiches I’m not sure exactly. Also twice in the following 5 days we had turkey re-heated in gravy with leftover mashed potatoes from the thanksgiving meal fried in buter with onions for another six meals. And yesterday I took a container of broth out of the freezer, and made a turkey stew with it, onion, celery, carrots, potatoes, and all the small bits of leftover turkey meat that aren’t great for sandwiches. I made a batch of biscuits and placed them on top of the stew in an oven safe bowl and baked it until the biscuits were done. That was another six meals for last night and tonight. There is still enough turkey breast meat for two more sandwiches.

That’s meat for 40 meals for $55. Not the best, but also we got a fairly nice turkey. I’ve seen it on sale after holidays for as low as 99c a pound in the past few years. I’m not sure what exactly I was going for with writing all this up but I tend to get sticker shock looking at the price of a turkey sometimes. But when I break it down it actually turns out pretty economical. If you like Turkey and are happy to eat it for an entire week.

I made a big batch for homemade gyros, and have a ton leftover. Im drawing a blank for what else to use it with.

Due to an interesting turn of events my husband came home with a 20lb bag of onions. We plan on propagating some of them and planting them but we need some recipes! What are your favorite onion heavy dishes?

I tried a new fish and chips shop today and the portions are massive so we have heaps of leftovers.

Any ideas on what I could do with the leftovers? I’m thinking of pealing the batter off and then just using the fish in cooking tomorrow but does anyone have any ideas/recipies they’ve used?

Want to incorporate couscous into my diet more as I find it super tasty.

Wanted to get some opinions on the Cuisinart MCP line. Looking to get my first set of pots and pans ik everyone says to buy them individually but I feel like this might be a good deal? The pro line is also on sale but from what I've read it's not as good as the MCP. Planning on moving into an apt with a gas stove if that's helpful. With all the coupons and whatnot it's coming out to $177 which I think is decent for what you're getting

https://www.kohls.com/product/prd-2044690/cuisinart-12-pc-multiclad-stainless-steel-cookware-set.jsp?skuid=98766339

Personally use Pepper Jack but I'm curious what others use, anything else you add, like ground beef or tomatoes and so on, would be interesting too

Gonna help my grandmother hand out halloween treats this year, and would love to cook her supper. I have bone in chicken thighs that I'd love to bake in the oven. What is a good, savory recipe that i should use? I'd like there to be a sauce component mixed in with the thighs as it cooks. Google is no help, as apparently i don't know what to type

I wanna ask experts here why some chicken stock recipes fry the chicken first before simmering in a pot with water.

What happens if I boil raw meat directly? How will it affect the stock

Hi everyone,

I just graduated college and moved into my own place a couple of weeks ago! I am living in nyc and my kitchen is not enormous, but it’s not super tiny either. I have a small old stove/oven, and I really wondering, what is the least amount of cookware that I really need?

I feel like I’m not a huge cook, but if I had the right tools I could get more into it. Also, my girlfriend is moving in with me in a few months and she likes to cook, so I’d like to get some things that I can build on with more cookware in the future, rather than replace.

Long story short, what are the essential pots and pans and stuff that I need to get to cover all my bases? Also other tools and things like spatulas. Sorry for my lack of specificity, I really don’t know what I’m doing yet but I am excited to learn more!

Thank you!

A 750 mL bottle of the 100% california EVOO used to cost maybe 15-20 and now it’s 28$$$. What can I replace it with that’s similar quality?

Hi all

Just wanted some advice on making bread. I'm pretty good at following recipes and baking in general, bread on the other hand is proving a little worse for ware. This is a photo of my second bread attempt. Tastes good but it's a little dense and not as airy as I thought.

Did kneed for 10 mins left to double on the first rise for hour and 40 maybe and another prove for an hour till doubled again.

Any tips on how to get a fluffier and airy loaf?

Mixer maybe? Struggle to kneed properly due to issues with wrists.

https://ibb.co/yF548Lx3 photo bread, sorry mods if we aren't allowed photos but this will show what's going on here 🤣

Guys i got a reipe from youtube, uts only a normal recipe for chicken stir fry noodles, but i have few questions:

1. The recipe didnt mention chicken bouillon or msg, so i was thinking, would it taste better if i added a little bit of chicken bouillon and msg to the sauce? And how much should i use? Is 1 tsp of each good?

2. Also when marinating the chopped chicken, would it be better if i also used some chicken bouiloon and msg?

3. The recipe needs 420g of dried noodles, and i want to make them fresh, google said to multiply the dried weight by 1.5 to get the wet weight, meaning i need to make almost 600g of fresh noodles... i just want to confirm if this info is true or not

Thx in advanced

And without liquid nitrogen.

And by churn, that includes those machines you can put in the freezer and they churn it there (it's still a churn).

There's got to be a way to stir and return the bowl to the freezer over several steps: tried it. Makes delicious cement.

Any tips or success stories?

So the restaurant that I tend to go too more often than I should has a bad habit of never sending me home with enough salsa to finish the bag of chips that come with the to go order. I want to make a stab at trying to make some of it myself at home so that I can finish my chips.

To be clear, this is the kinda place where you get the loud sizzling fajitas, punch bowl sized margaritas, smothered ground beef burrito, ect ect.

I can tell it's some sort of canned tomatoes, with a few fresh ingredients. Cilantro, white onion, green onion, jalapeno. Definitely garlic smelling, but it almost smells like cheap spaghetti sauce. It almost smells like dried Italian seasoning but that wouldn't be right I wouldn't think???

Tips, tricks, suggestions, industry secrets? All would be welcome.

Thank you for your time.

I'm considering using water and some baking soda, or just a little bit of dish soap, and then letting it dry fully before assembling it (maybe leave it out in the sun for a little while).

Does this seem reasonable?

Hi all, my friend loves cooking and for xmas I want to get her cool, authentic ingredients (used in traditional dishes) from Mexico, Montenegro and France. These are places she will be travelling to this year. Every time she returns from a trip she tries to recreate local dishes so id love to make a basket of those ingredients. I have researched extensively on the internet but I want real chefs/cooks/people from those places to give me ideas! The only caveat is i can order it online and it ships to Canada. Thank so much for the help!

I brought home some chickpea curry today, it’s been out of the fridge since 3pm and I only just remembered to refrigerate it now at 11:30pm. I’m guessing it’s not safe to eat anymore, but thought I’d ask before I throw away potentially good food.

Thanks!

We’re having a soup cook off at work and the winner gets one day of PTO…. This is a big win. Tell me what your favorite soup is! I figured if my soup is most popular, I will likely get more people testing my soup and therefore hopefully voting for it 😂

Hi!

My four year old has severe ARFID and we struggle to get him to eat 90% of the time.

My FIL stayed in a cheap hotel with his brother for a few days and came home today with a shit ton of the breakfast food smuggled out. He always offers everything he eats to my kids first to try and goad them into eating.

To the surprise of us all my four year old took a big handful of the scrambled eggs. He proceeded to eat the entire container (1L size) and then ask for more.

We tried to make him eggs but none of them were right. I tried with milk & butter, one of each, neither. He was not interested. No seasonings as the eggs were bland as fuck. My FIL said they were kind of rubbery.

We called the hotel who gave us the name of their wholesaler, but the eggs only come in portions of 100. Before we drop money on that and also a new freezer to store them in, does anyone have any idea how they're made?

Please and thank you!

ETA; We succeeded!! Thank you all!! A new safe food has been added to his list and it's finally one with some decent calories lol. I love you all!!!!

We're omnivores. No problem with mains. I'm seeing that I'm in a rut on veg sides. I love broccoli, mostly steamed. I have a collection of sauces including homemade mustard and homemade horseradish.

I've done some research to jog myself out of the rut.

sesame asparagus w/ homemade Hollandaise
honey glazed carrots
roasted mirepoix
roasted Brussels sprouts
sauteed mushrooms and onions
roasted cauliflower
peas and cauliflower
cabbage steaks, onion
roasted beets
cucumber salad
grilled tomatoes

I won't bore you with the veg I'm not fond of. I don't want to restrict creativity. Discussion, ideas, commentary are all welcome. What are your favorites? Recipes? Even better sources? I have my trusted websites but always looking for new ones.

Eat well r/Cooking, dave