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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   4900 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 3, 2026

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I guess mileage may vary. I have not lived in a large city like that. The friends that I had who lived there had all those complaints. And maybe yes it doesn't take much to do a setup to allow for cooking. But it is a one time hurdle that still has to be jumped over, so I'd at least add it to the behavior stack.

I had been about to write a whole thing about the hassle of cooking. I ran out of time and wrapped up the comment. So I heavily agree with you. I have a family of 5 and I am the primary cook in the house. We still end up eating out 2 to 7 times a week (I know that is a big variance, but lots of variance in my life right now). The home cooked meals are as simple and time saving as I can make them. I'm throwing pasta in a big pot, putting pre-breaded frozen chicken in an air fryer, and using microwave ready vegetable packs. And sometimes I'm skipping those second two things. On the harder side sometimes I am making meal kits from hello fresh that take like 1.5 hours. I'm trying to make this as easy on myself as possible and it is still a huge mental strain and stressor all week every week. At this moment I am typing this comment rather than figuring out what I'm gonna do for dinner tonight since the fridge is barren. I do actually enjoy cooking and making things, but that is something i want to do once or twice a week when I have lots of spare time.

My brother in Christ, you need to embrace crock-pots.

My oldest daughter has the most annoying preference where she doesn't like different kinds of food items touching each other on her plate.

By making five fully separate food items I can usually satisfy all the kid preferences and still make something a little different for the adults.

My wife and I certainly love crockpot items, and I use them all the time for making host size meals

Yeah, poor kids in the Bronx don't have those sort of preferences, or if they do they get beat with the cooking spoon till they don't.

My oldest daughter has the most annoying preference where she doesn't like different kinds of food items touching each other on her plate.

Is she picky otherwise? I've wondered about this preference and how it relates to a desire for order versus a meme picked up. Because the meme is out there, it is not uncommon.

Also, come on. Gumbo is clearly one ingredient with rice as the other. Be reasonable!

I second the crock pot and more generally, large batch cooking (though I suppose a lot of stuff is batched when it's for 5) as much as possible. There are lots of beans/rice/meat/vegetables that are set & forget and will make your house smell amazing when you get home. An oven roasted chicken on a bed of vegetables also goes a long way.

Also pressure cookers like Instant Pot can give you comparable-ish results to a crock-pot in a fraction of the time.

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