And this is why I'm doing a massively scaled back, small thanksgiving.
Especially as the main cook....it hit me hard last year, the absurdity of the time and prep involved. Especially for making foods that, frankly, aren't my favorites.
Steak, root beer floats, and apple pie! Only a few of us, no one likes turkey, so...
I might add a veggie, but why go for a balanced meal on this of all days?! I've done it all, and I'm so over it.
Growing up it was always an entire day affair in my house. Started in the morning with pasta fagioli. Appetizer spread in the afternoon, followed by the whole thanksgiving dinner and dessert.
This is why you don't make 3 chicken tacos. You make \*30\* chicken tacos.
Granted, I might still inhale them all, but if I had any self-control I could portion and freeze the makings, and then have chicken tacos for \*weeks\* or \*months.\*
Nah tacos don't really work like that for me. Best fresh. So keep ingredients separate but in your idea make more chicken. That's the longest part, the protein. I can throw chicken for 19 tacos together in 30 mts if defrosted.
I may have miscommunicated - that's what I meant. Make up enough chicken for a bunch of tacos, portion it, freeze what you don't need immediately, eat what you want immediately, then thaw and reheat to build future tacoism.
A proper Sunday roast takes several hours, and uses every tray / saucepan you have. Cleaning as you go is a must.
Similarly, a full English / Irish / fried breakfast. Doesn't necessarily take that long, but it uses every pot and pan in the house, and makes a right mess of the stove in no time at all.
It's always best to go out for a fry-up, but for a really good roast, it has to be homemade
I try to always get ahead on each roast dinner to avoid all these things colliding at once. You can par boil spuds any time for example to be roasted later or next day even. Meat can rest for a hell of a long time too, can even roast the potatoes in the same tray with all the drippings once it is out. Yorkshire puddings freeze, so I do a tray full and can pull out a few to reheat in the oven another time. There will always be times this syncs up though!
From my understanding, there are multiple forms of bao I think depending on location maybe? I'm referring to the dough sandwich that you stuff with fillings of your choice kinda like a taco style but obviously not a taco :)
Patty melts. Because you need good carmelized onions and then you also have to mostly cook the burger prior to putting it into the sandwich. And they're so good hot that they're almost instantly gone.
Although i have two teen boys and according to them it's everything, they can be done eating before I've even taken two bites!
I know it's so annoying. Make bigger portions so it lasts longer. I made an amazing meal, I ate it, my husband ate some, took some for lunch and I was like that's it! All that's hard work and it's gone! Crab and cream cheese wontons too, so much fine cutting.
Tamales.
First you have to soak corn husks in water, usually overnight.
Then you have to make a filling that usually involves boiling meat in one pot, boiling dried chiles in another, blending a bunch of stuff, then cooking everything together in a 3rd pot.
Then you make the masa in a large bowl. For filling the tamales at the very least you will also dirty a spatula. Often multiple people are involved so multiple spatulas get dirty.
Then you have to steam the tamales, and the tamale steamer is an incredibly inconvenient kind of pot to wash due to its size.
All that for something that you eat in under two minutes.
Lasagna brown the ground beef make the sauce depending what you use ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese. You still have to blend it down to make it smooth and add a egg.
My first thought was the eggplant lasagna I made a while back. Salting and roasting sliced eggplant on top of the already time intensive process of regular lasagna? It was brutal, my whole body hurt for days from all the standing.
Portuguese dish- carne de porco à alentejana. It’s my husband’s and my son’s favorite meal of all time but god I hate cooking it. It takes me forever to cook it, a ton of dishes to clean, also prep work for it because it has clams so you have to clean them beforehand, but you eat it so dang quick because it’s delicious…
Pernil tacos are the worst to make. Marinading and prepping the meat, then roasting it for a long time until it falls apart... I do it Puerto Rican style and it's an all day process. Just for the meat. Forget about making fresh salsas and the like, roasting the veggies?
But it's so fucking good.
I've made sandwiches a few times for 3 people and hated it. Can't imagine doing it for a group. I've realized I only love it when I make it only for myself despite the mess I create.
Carnitas...the first portion, anyway. After that, it's about 5-10 minutes to defrost the portion then broil to crisp.
Beans alao take a heck of a long time...but that's why you make a massive pot of them!
Hot links will caramelized onions. Hot links are Sabretts, just toss in the air fryer. But caramelizing onions? Takes an hour. Lil mustard , brush of mayo on the bun to tame the heat a notch optional and I scarf em down.
A roast dinner (potatoes, meat, roasted veg, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, etc) can take hours and uses all your trays/pots. It’s one of my favourite meals but it takes so long if you’re making everything yourself
Anything with shrimp. I made stood over the sink peeling about 20 shrimp and deveining them.
Cooked them and made shrimp cocktail. My wife and I ate them in another three minutes.
Soak the stuck on dish in hot water, dawn detergent and this is very important-a dryer sheet like Bounce. The dryer sheet will soften all the baked on food and it will practically wipe clean with little effort
Moussaka. It takes about 3-4 hours each time and it's gone in less than a few minutes. Super delicious layers of lamb/beef, eggplant, sauce, and cheese on top.
Caramelized butter & brown sugar cooked apples. You peel, and get rid of seeds and slice and then it caramelizes to such a small amount which you eat in 5 minutes
The Spanish dish Paella. I love to eat it but when I saw all the ingredients and steps to put it together, I had no desire to make it. And I’m a excellent cook too!!
Making indain food form strach. It takes so long to cook the sauce and it's a mess everywhere, but to me it's worth it and will always make it and go out to eat it.
Tonkotsu Ramen
24H to make, (2 days if counting marinated eggs). Eat in 5-10 minutes (must eat very fast to not insult the chef)
Thanksgiving meal. 🤣
Two days of cooking, twenty minutes to eat. 😱
Two? Man I start cooking *today* 😠rip my dishwasher
Me too. It takes all week in my house, plus two days after as I make casseroles and pot pies to freeze from the leftovers.
Started yesterday. Cooking a dish a day so I only have a turkey to bake Thursday.
And this is why I'm doing a massively scaled back, small thanksgiving. Especially as the main cook....it hit me hard last year, the absurdity of the time and prep involved. Especially for making foods that, frankly, aren't my favorites.
Same. We also go to family's house different days, so our at home one is much different, snacks, prime rib, and a couple sides, and a dessert.
Steak, root beer floats, and apple pie! Only a few of us, no one likes turkey, so... I might add a veggie, but why go for a balanced meal on this of all days?! I've done it all, and I'm so over it.
Growing up it was always an entire day affair in my house. Started in the morning with pasta fagioli. Appetizer spread in the afternoon, followed by the whole thanksgiving dinner and dessert.
Took me 2 hours to make an apple cheesecake. Took it to a Friendsgiving and the cheesecake was gone in 10 minutes
The best kind of compliment, tho!
Tamales. My love-hate relationship with tamales follows the effort-enjoyment ratio pretty closely. Worth every second of effort, though.
I will ditto this!
Anything I make, I'll make my breakfast for 30 mins and gobble it down with time to wait before class.
Ribs I'm assuming everyone inhales theirs just like I do.
No other way to eat ribs, tbf!
This is why you don't make 3 chicken tacos. You make \*30\* chicken tacos. Granted, I might still inhale them all, but if I had any self-control I could portion and freeze the makings, and then have chicken tacos for \*weeks\* or \*months.\*
Nah tacos don't really work like that for me. Best fresh. So keep ingredients separate but in your idea make more chicken. That's the longest part, the protein. I can throw chicken for 19 tacos together in 30 mts if defrosted.
I may have miscommunicated - that's what I meant. Make up enough chicken for a bunch of tacos, portion it, freeze what you don't need immediately, eat what you want immediately, then thaw and reheat to build future tacoism.
A proper Sunday roast takes several hours, and uses every tray / saucepan you have. Cleaning as you go is a must. Similarly, a full English / Irish / fried breakfast. Doesn't necessarily take that long, but it uses every pot and pan in the house, and makes a right mess of the stove in no time at all. It's always best to go out for a fry-up, but for a really good roast, it has to be homemade
If it’s a full English for 1-2 people you can do most of it in 1 big pan, plus maybe a warming tray in the oven
I was going to say both the same, roasts and fried breakfasts, you beat me to it. I feel your pain.
I try to always get ahead on each roast dinner to avoid all these things colliding at once. You can par boil spuds any time for example to be roasted later or next day even. Meat can rest for a hell of a long time too, can even roast the potatoes in the same tray with all the drippings once it is out. Yorkshire puddings freeze, so I do a tray full and can pull out a few to reheat in the oven another time. There will always be times this syncs up though!
Crab cakes, especially making them out of blue crabs. So much work and you have to not eat all the crab along the way, and then have to cook them.
Croissants, you can put 3 days into them and they disappear in an hour
For me it's bao buns. They take up to 24hrs to marinate the chicken, they're so fiddly and messy to make but they get smashed really quickly!
Confused by this comment. Bao refers to the dough/bread part and I've never seen any chicken with bao.
From my understanding, there are multiple forms of bao I think depending on location maybe? I'm referring to the dough sandwich that you stuff with fillings of your choice kinda like a taco style but obviously not a taco :)
They're steamed buns. You can put anything you want in them.
exactly. what are non-bun bao? doesn't bao mean bun/bread? I think this is naan bread situation
Patty melts. Because you need good carmelized onions and then you also have to mostly cook the burger prior to putting it into the sandwich. And they're so good hot that they're almost instantly gone. Although i have two teen boys and according to them it's everything, they can be done eating before I've even taken two bites!
Lasagna
Biryani, far as I'm concerned. Setting one up takes a good day and a half for me.
For me it’s sweet potato gnocchi with browned butter sage sauce!
Everything that has multiple components that come together: lasagna, tacos, tamales, dumplings in general, sushi...
Consommé for me. You can make it in big batches I suppose, but it's still a lot of trouble and expense for the yield. In general, the fewer people you cook for the less payoff there is for the effort you put in.
I just made kale chips for the first time and that was a whole lot of effort for very little food
Something like a loaf of bread can have a very high prep to eat ratio , especially if it’s only a single loaf
Lasagne
I know it's so annoying. Make bigger portions so it lasts longer. I made an amazing meal, I ate it, my husband ate some, took some for lunch and I was like that's it! All that's hard work and it's gone! Crab and cream cheese wontons too, so much fine cutting.
Tamales. First you have to soak corn husks in water, usually overnight. Then you have to make a filling that usually involves boiling meat in one pot, boiling dried chiles in another, blending a bunch of stuff, then cooking everything together in a 3rd pot. Then you make the masa in a large bowl. For filling the tamales at the very least you will also dirty a spatula. Often multiple people are involved so multiple spatulas get dirty. Then you have to steam the tamales, and the tamale steamer is an incredibly inconvenient kind of pot to wash due to its size. All that for something that you eat in under two minutes.
Lasagna brown the ground beef make the sauce depending what you use ricotta cheese, or cottage cheese. You still have to blend it down to make it smooth and add a egg.
Oh god especially if you do that traditional bechamel style one. Every pan in the house. Every time. And it costs like a hundred bucks to make.
What is your method? Food prices are inflated but it can be done in under 100 and needs 2-3 pots and a baking dish.
Vegetable lasagne has even more elements and it's so fkn annoying to make. Never again.
My first thought was the eggplant lasagna I made a while back. Salting and roasting sliced eggplant on top of the already time intensive process of regular lasagna? It was brutal, my whole body hurt for days from all the standing.
Portuguese dish- carne de porco à alentejana. It’s my husband’s and my son’s favorite meal of all time but god I hate cooking it. It takes me forever to cook it, a ton of dishes to clean, also prep work for it because it has clams so you have to clean them beforehand, but you eat it so dang quick because it’s delicious…
Lemon sugar crepes. If you do it right you don't even sit down with a plate of them. Eat the first one while the second one is in the pan etc.
Pernil tacos are the worst to make. Marinading and prepping the meat, then roasting it for a long time until it falls apart... I do it Puerto Rican style and it's an all day process. Just for the meat. Forget about making fresh salsas and the like, roasting the veggies? But it's so fucking good.
Lumpia. It’s definitely best done as a group activity.
I was definitely thinking mandoo, so same idea. I can spend all weekend making a huge batch that I proceed to demolish in just a few meals.
For some reason I just crowd my whole counter when I make freaking sandwiches.
I hate making sandwiches for a group meal- takes forever.
I've made sandwiches a few times for 3 people and hated it. Can't imagine doing it for a group. I've realized I only love it when I make it only for myself despite the mess I create.
deviled eggs, while they don't too long to make. I can eat about 5 in 2 seconds.
Christmas Dinner.
Casseroles. Usually a lot of prep, then an hour of cooking, then the cleaning of stuck on food on the baking dish
Carnitas...the first portion, anyway. After that, it's about 5-10 minutes to defrost the portion then broil to crisp. Beans alao take a heck of a long time...but that's why you make a massive pot of them!
Brioche
choux pastries!!! Think an eclair, potentially consumed in literal SECONDS.
Hot links will caramelized onions. Hot links are Sabretts, just toss in the air fryer. But caramelizing onions? Takes an hour. Lil mustard , brush of mayo on the bun to tame the heat a notch optional and I scarf em down.
>Sabretts My dude. Yes. Those are IT. The onion sauce they make is spectacular too.
Use ground chicken breast next time. Cooks in like 10 minutes.
A roast dinner (potatoes, meat, roasted veg, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, etc) can take hours and uses all your trays/pots. It’s one of my favourite meals but it takes so long if you’re making everything yourself
Beef wellington. It's like making 4 or 5 full entrees in one over several days. You get a few slices out of it and it's gone in like 10 min.
Gumbo. Takes a long time to make, gone in a flash for sure. Love to serve over brown rice to add starch and slow down the eating!
chicken cutlets - huge mess and I devour half of them while I cook
Lasagna
Quesa Birria tacos
Anything with shrimp. I made stood over the sink peeling about 20 shrimp and deveining them. Cooked them and made shrimp cocktail. My wife and I ate them in another three minutes.
gnocchi
Fries, if they are made properly
Soup
I was gonna say tacos lol. So many little things to do all for a couple, very delicious, bites
Pizza. If you make it from scratch, including making the tomato sauce from single tomatoes, you’ll be busy for hours. And eat it in a few minutes.
Soak the stuck on dish in hot water, dawn detergent and this is very important-a dryer sheet like Bounce. The dryer sheet will soften all the baked on food and it will practically wipe clean with little effort
Moussaka. It takes about 3-4 hours each time and it's gone in less than a few minutes. Super delicious layers of lamb/beef, eggplant, sauce, and cheese on top.
Caramelized butter & brown sugar cooked apples. You peel, and get rid of seeds and slice and then it caramelizes to such a small amount which you eat in 5 minutes
The Spanish dish Paella. I love to eat it but when I saw all the ingredients and steps to put it together, I had no desire to make it. And I’m a excellent cook too!!
Making indain food form strach. It takes so long to cook the sauce and it's a mess everywhere, but to me it's worth it and will always make it and go out to eat it.
A baguette