Christmas Tinner

[yogi]

If you're a hard core gamer and can't be bothered with the traditional Christmas dinner, this is the solution. Christmas dinner in a can. https://nypost.com/2019/12/10/tech-comp ... re-gamers/

[Kellemora]

Actually, it's not that bad of an idea. Provided they don't put something in there I HATE, hi hi.

I normally don't like any of my foods touching each other, but there are exceptions.

Don't know if you ever saw the small Tupperware containers designed to hold ONE beef patty size item or not.
They were made in such a way instead of putting a lid on each container, they could stack up one on top of the other.
When I first started making the run from St. Louis to Apopka, Florida for the flower shop.
My mom would use these little containers, all stacked up nice and neat.
One stack for cold things, and one stack for hot things, and they slipped into one of those super wide mouth thermos bottles of the era.
This was great for me, because rather than stopping to eat, if I hit a red light or a traffic jam, I could pop the lid or next container off the stack and woof down what came next, hi hi.
As an aside: She stored the empty thermos for cold in the freezer, and would heat the other thermos in the oven, often hot enough the painted on Thermos label was scorched a bit, or bubbly, hi hi.
Now that I think about it, I think the brand name was actually Stanley, not Thermos, and was for food, not liquids.

[yogi]

We still have Tupperware in our house. LOL It's stored in the basement for archival purposes. And, I do indeed recall mom using those stackable one-burger containers. They never left the kitchen, but I can see how they might be useful on the kind of road trips you were making. Stanley rings a bell too. I used to take lunches to school and I'm thinking a Stanley food container is what mom packed into my schoolbag.

I was amused when I saw the "Tinner" because I know of gamers who would indeed spend Christmas at their computers. The first thing that came to mind, however, was SPAM, or K-Rations. That was supposed to be a meal in a can as well. I guess when it all goes down the pipes the food gets mixed up anyway. But, like yourself, I favor separate portions. It just looks better. And eating out of a can is so gauche. LOL

[Kellemora]

Hated K-rations, loved C-rations, hi hi.
I hate Spam too!
Guess I got spoiled eating good food as a kid, hi hi.

[yogi]

Fortunately I never had to eat K-rations but have talked to a few people who did. The consensus seems to be that the spaghetti is edible, but the rest should be used for composting. LOL Never tried Spam off the shelf until maybe a dozen years ago. It looks suspicious but isn't bad if fried and eaten as a sandwich.

[Kellemora]

I had an aunt who used to cut Spam in tiny squares and stick a toothpick in each.
I think she baked them with some type of jelly BBQ sauce mix, same thing she used on her Swedish meatballs.
I ate a few, but dove into the meatballs instead. They were OK I guess cooked that way.

C-Rations were the ones that had the chocolate candy bar made from hard wax, hi hi.
When I was in the service, they no longer put a pack of cigarettes in the C-Ration pack.
And many of us would trade what we happened to get. You never knew, each batch was different.
I would trade the guacamole for beans or the beef jerky for beef or ham potted meat, but not the pork.
Not always was there a chocolate bar, sometimes it was an energy bar which tasted horrible.

I never had K-Rations either. Wait, I take that back, I did trade for some things provided in K-Ration boxes.
The thing is, when we packed our backpack, we could take whichever we wanted, and I always grabbed the C-Rations, but often what was inside was a surprise. I did learn to look at he code to see if it had a c or e in the serial number. Using an e in the serial number always meant an energy bar, but a c did not always mean a chocolate bar though, sometimes it meant chicken, hi hi.

Thankfully, we had a mess hall at SDS, and a restaurant on the hospital ship, so the only time we had anything called a Ration Pack was when we launched from the ship headed to Nam. The ship always stayed about 15 to 20 miles out so it was not visible from land. Speaking of which, you had better check your compass if you want to find your way back, hi hi.

[yogi]

I believe that I looked up the ingredients in Spam at one time, but I don't recall what they are now. Anything that has a shelf life comparable to a dog's life expectancy is suspicious to me. I suppose I've eaten worse things from a can, such as sardines. Some people eat those things for breakfast, but I only tried them once. That's all I needed to know I don't want to try them again. LOL

[Kellemora]

I used to buy cans of pulled pork, chicken, and turkey, but only because I had casserole dishes I used them in.
There are many things I like that I don't buy and eat because neither my late wife nor this one likes them added to dishes.

The boxed mac and cheese with the dry powder cheese mix even with lots of butter added is still sorta bland.
So I used to take a can of tuna and 1/2 can of cream of mushroom soup and make a sauce to go over it.
Of course Today you need two cans of tuna to equal a can of tuna of yesteryear.

I would mix a little chicken or turkey in with my egg salad and call it chicken or turkey salad, but it was still my same basic egg salad recipe.

When I fixed Bush's Baked Beans, the regular variety, I would add about 1/4th of a can of the pulled pork to it. The pooches got the rest, unless I had another use for it right away.

Other than that, don't really like things blended with something else, I like my foods separate with nothing else in them.

All the years Ruth was sick, I was the chief cook, bottle washer, and full-service laundromat, hi hi.
After I married Debi she took over all those jobs from me. I even gave her control of the Remote to the TV, hi hi.

[yogi]

There are things I call peasant food and which in spite of the name is great eating. I'll braise beef short ribs, for example, with a blend of potatoes and a few other root vegetables all in the same pot. Chuck pot roast gets the same treatment in the slow cooker but I don't use wine as I do for braising. Then there are things like shepherd's pie, chili, and various versions of stew. You won't find better eats than authentic Jambalaya which has every food known to man in it's recipe. Wife likes to make the seafood version called Bouillabaisse. Then there is a whole line of Chinese foods. All these things are a meal unto themselves and taste great in spite of the blend of various foodstuffs.

Casseroles are not my favorite food, but my wife of many years is a big fan of them. About half the recipes I've found on the Internet do it the quick and easy way with canned soup added to some base ingredients. Most want cream of mushroom or chicken or tomato soup. But, if I'm going to eat something I don't like to begin with, I'm not going to use canned simulated sauces to prepare it. Yes, I'll spend hours in the kitchen preparing it from scratch, but I've not heard a single complaint from my wife ... yet.

Bottom line is that mixing your food elements together isn't all bad.

[Kellemora]

I'm with you there Yogi!
My all-time favorite dinner I call Stringy Roast Pot, with more onions that veggies, hi hi.
Oh my, I buy a Shepherd's Pie every time we are out by Hot Rod's Cafe. One serving feeds me for four whole meals.
We eat something else there and bring the Shepherd's Pie home, divide it into four containers and freeze three of them.
I love Chili if it is not too hot spice wise, and a few types of soup.
The only thing Chinese I like is Beef LoMein, and a few years ago a restaurant down here started making it, so I get that from time to time too. I can eat two meals from one serving.
But I think that is about the limit of things that get mixed together.

During the years I was chief cook and bottle washer, with 6 to 8 mouths to feed every night, I had a whole slew of dishes I made from scratch which everyone loved.
I had a couple of instant bread recipes that took me about 4 years to perfect, and then I lost them when I moved.
I still think somebody swiped them from my stack of daily recipes I purposely put in the top of the kitchen box.

I would spend the weekend preparing four different base ingredients which were used in about 16-20 different recipes.
This was a boon because I could ask the kids what they felt like for dinner tonight, rather than just making something and putting it on the table. They knew most of my dishes by name, and all of them I tried to have the base part done ahead of time. When the foster kids were in on school break, there was nine of us eating, and sometimes as many as a dozen.
Good thing I was making enough money back then to feed those troops, hi hi.

[yogi]

Chinese food fits into that "peasant food" category. My favorite restaurant menu items are Mongolian Beef and Moo shu pork. The Moo shu is like eating a burrito but with plumb sauce instead of chili pepper sauce. LOL I've done some stir frying but that's not purely a Chinese technique. The only thing I make at home is chop suey and a lot of the ingredients in that come from a can. It's super quick to make and can be done in a single pot. But, as good as al that is, Chinese food looks pretty much the same every time regardless of the ingredients.

Had to look up Stringy Roast Pot but wasn't surprised at the recipe I found. Onions, carrots, and celery is the standard mirepoix of cooking. It goes into a lot of things especially if they are Cajun in origin. The only thing I can think of that is more difficult than cooking for a dozen people would be cooking a single meal for two. I've more or less given up on that concept and generally make enough for four dishes. My wife is in charge of making the leftovers. LOL

[Kellemora]

The one and only from a can Chinese dish I like was Brand Chun King, Item Chow Mien!
When Con Agra bought them out or whatever they did, they pulled it from our state to push another major brand.
Trouble is, I HATED the taste of everything made by LaChoy.
I had a friend in California who would send me a care package of Chun King, chicken and beef Chow Mien once a year for many years on my birthday. Then it was pulled from their area and replaced with LaChoy too.
Amazon advertises they have Chun King but when you click on the link it brings up LaChoy instead.
Did someone say False Advertising or Bait n Switch?

Mom called it Beef Pot Roast, but I coined her best one as Stringy Roast Pot, hi hi.
It really was good though, yum yum.
When she was living in the Seniors apartment complex and I drove up to visit her.
She made me a big batch to take back home with me.
I think she became overzealous and caramelized the onions a bit too long.
Each time I ate a small dinner from it, all I could taste for the next three or four days was ONIONS, hi hi.
Unfortunately it is impossible to make according to her original recipe, because four of the items she used in it are no longer made. One of the ingredients did come back on the store shelves of the same name, but it is not the same product.
Mom also made the best soups, I have two of her recipes for those too. In this case it is not the ingredients themselves but what she does with them before they go into the soup. Trying to duplicate what she did is something I've never mastered, hi hi.

[yogi]

Cooking never interested me until I was more or less forced to do it when wife's cooking arm was disabled for a few months. I recall watching mom cook when I was a lad and still have vivid memories of certain things. I never paid attention enough to learn what she did or why, but I always was fascinated by the meals she produced. It was obvious to me back then that mom derived a lot of pleasure from just being able to feed people good food. When I was her caregiver I got that same feeling, but it wasn't limited to mom. One thing mom made really well was ... chop suey. She used some canned vegetables because certain things could not be obtained in our local market, but there was also some fresh veggies in her brew. I've not been able to duplicate the sauce, however. I guess I should have been paying closer attention when I had the chance.

[Kellemora]

I had owned a couple of restaurants, which started out as part-owner then full-owner.
So certain meals I would cook at home after I was married the first time, but not all that many.
Other than outdoor BBQ I didn't do any cooking at all after we moved into the big house.
But then after that wife was long gone and I was dating a gal who suddenly became seriously ill, I became caretaker, chief cook and bottle washer. When her kids placed her in a home for invalids and freed me from the task, I moved on.
My new wife did most of the cooking, but I usually helped, at least until I built a new commercial kitchen. Then once again I did most of the cooking. Then after she became wheelchair bound, after that I was chief cook, bottle washer, caregiver, laundromat, and shuttle service, hi hi.
I'll tell you, I really really really miss that kitchen I built there.
I wanted to do something similar here, but most of what I wanted to buy they no longer made in models that would work very well in home kitchens.
You wouldn't believe the type of venting required to have a commercial grade char broiler!
Now, Debi does all the cooking, unless I have to fend for myself, hi hi.
Honestly, I'm really no good at trying to cook on residential appliances. They are nothing like commercial grade!

[yogi]

I miss the gas cooktop. I suppose electric is more eco-freindly but it's totally useless for trying to cook a decent meal. Most of the cooks I talk to love the electric stoves, but I spend more time cleaning the top than I do cooking. In fact if you don't clean it properly it won't cook properly either. When I win the lottery, and after I buy the Bentley, I will redo the kitchen. Heck, I'll likely redo the whole house and move to a custom built one. But, if I had unlimited resources, I'd be at a loss for what to put into my kitchen. I do realize that the vent hood would be about the size that my entire kitchen counter is now. LOL I may in fact put in a vent for the current kitchen, but I doubt that I'd attempt any char broiling indoors. I've eyeballed those commercial kitchens a time or two and it seems like overkill for my skill level.

[Kellemora]

My restaurants had 16 burner gas grills, and an 8 burner gas charbroiler.
My house had an 8 burner electric charbroiler I could lay a griddle over for a grill.
I have to run the frau has called three times now, hi hi.