K.I.S.S.

[ORChick]

First of all - the second "S" in the title refers to "silly", so please, nobody take offense .

Second - this is not aimed at anyone specific; I am just commenting on things I have read - a few times on SS, but more often other places on the web.

And third - I have put this topic in the cooking section because that is what I know, and am particularly interested in. It could just as easily refer to many/most other aspects of life.

I am, by nature, somewhat indolent (some might say lazy ). My mother used to say that even as a baby I would much prefer to play with my toes than crawl after a toy . I am quite intrigued with ideas that make my life easier. So I am sometimes quite confused by people who appear to search out ways to make things complicated. In the area of food preservation I have noticed questions raised about "how to ...", and then the (to me) more complicated/time consuming/and sometimes even more expensive method is the one that garners the most attention (oh yes, forgot to mention, I am also cheap - I mean frugal ).

For example: preserving eggs. This comes up in preservation forums (fora?) quite often. It doesn't matter that some people (I included) say that keeping eggs in their carton in the fridge will keep them quite well for several months (certainly over the winter laying hiatus), it always seems that the focus goes to keeping them in waterglass, or rubbing them with oil - IMO more work and a lesser quality end product. Or making yogurt. Many people swear by keeping the incubating container warm, swathed in blankets and/or heating pads. Fine I suppose if one has room for a large, blanket wrapped container taking up space for hours. Or, my favorite, filling a picnic cooler with hot water to preheat it, when filling a quart jar with hot water, and keeping it in the cooler while the yogurt is incubating is much easier - no lifting, pouring, or sloshing hot water - and works just as well. And doesn't waste so much water (can you tell I live in the arid west?). But few respond to comments about the easier way, but latch on to the harder one.

The above is just some random thoughts that went through my head this morning - kind of tongue in cheek, but also kind of serious. Do you tend towards the simple? Or are you more inclined to think that it can't be such a good idea if there is less work involved?

 

[Hinotori]

Ok, I'm going to steal the heated cooler idea for yogurt. I want to do yogurt again. I've only been doing kefir lately because it is easy and lazy.

Eggs I just refrigerate. That's all Mom does with the eggs I take her when we go down. It is usually 3 months between trips and she rations the eggs until I bring more since store eggs will make her sick within minutes of eating. Mother Earth News tested a bunch of preservation methods years ago and just plain old refrigeration was one of the top methods for quality.

 

[ORChick]

Ok, I'm going to steal the heated cooler idea for yogurt. I want to do yogurt again. I've only been doing kefir lately because it is easy and lazy.

Eggs I just refrigerate. That's all Mom does with the eggs I take her when we go down. It is usually 3 months between trips and she rations the eggs until I bring more since store eggs will make her sick within minutes of eating. Mother Earth News tested a bunch of preservation methods years ago and just plain old refrigeration was one of the top methods for quality.

That's where I got the idea . I had been freezing them before that, and was never quite happy with the results. I stop giving/selling any eggs from my small flock in Sept./Oct., and just let them collect in the fridge in the garage. I mark the date that each carton's contents are collected, and use the oldest first. Kind of negates the idea of really fresh eggs for over the winter, but I figure they are still better than store bought. And, at the most, they are never older than 3 months. Even the oldest look fuller and firmer when cracked than any supermarket egg.

For the yogurt, I fill a quart jar with really hot water (actually, I save the water, and just heat the jar in the microwave), and put it into the cooler while I am heating and cooling the milk. Then I pour the milk into another quart jar, or 2, and place it/them in the cooler, but not touching the hot water jar. The ambient temp. in the cooler is just fine for yogurt, though I've never bothered to measure it. After 4 hours I check; if the yogurt needs more time then I will re-heat the hot water. Often it is done @ 4 hours, and only a few times has it taken more than 8.

 

[FarmerChick]

I go by Keep It Simple Stupid no silly here LOL


I am simple for everything I do.
I hate complicated.
worst is relationship/family/people complicated. I read what others lives are like and darn near fall over when I read the nutso people out there.
(not here, just in general)

everthing in my life includes good people, great family, easy going and a simple process for anything in life.
anything harder and I would have to check out HAHA

 

[moolie]

I'm also with you on keeping things simple, for the most part anyway

But I enjoy cooking, so don't mind doing lots of hacking and slashing of ingredients by hand even though I could use a food processor and do it more quickly--I just prefer the precision of cutting things exactly the way I want them to end up. I have made pasta and tortillas by rolling them out by hand, but gave that up as soon as I could afford/find on sale a hand-crank pasta machine and tortilla press. I prefer mixing/kneading bread dough by hand to using a mixer (works and rises better for me for some reason--I even used to have a bread maker and prefer doing it by hand).

But for yogurt, I do it your way--learned it here, used to do it by putting the water into the cooler and didn't know any other way till I read how others do it. (So thank you!) And I keep 4-5 dozen eggs on hand in the fridge at all times, have never "preserved" them any other way than perhaps in frozen baked goods (but I don't think of that as preserving eggs). And I measure by guess and by golly for the most part when cooking and baking so as to not dirty too many dishes as I go (since I tend to do rather marathon cooking/baking sessions for my freezer).

So there are a few things that I probably take the harder road for, but I mostly prefer saving time (and not washing any more dishes than I have to!)

 

[ORChick]

Moolie, like you I like to cook, and I like good food, (and, I should add, I'm retired, and so have time), and I also usually chop rather than process, and knead rather than use the mixer. But that also, in my opinion, really belongs in the K.I.S.S. category as there are often fewer, and smaller, things to wash afterwards; and my stress level is simplified - I will do a lot to avoid the noise level of small appliances (Not that I am a complete Luddite - I do very much appreciate my dishwasher and washing machines). In fact, I was amused with myself after writing the OP because I subsequently mixed up a batch of homemade mayonnaise - with a whisk! But I don't like the taste of mayo whipped up electrically; the high speed seems to do something to the olive oil. So, I suppose what I was really trying to say in the OP was that I try for the most simple method for the results I want - rather than opting for more simplicity but less favorable results.

 

[moolie]

Ah, I think I understand your OP a little better after your most recent post.

And I totally get what you mean by the noise of small appliances in addition to all the bits that you have to clean after using them--didn't even think of that when I wrote my first post, but I agree on that score as well. My kitchen is often my happy place when I'm in the zone and doing a big cook, and the noise could be a totally unwelcome interruption in the process of the day.

Funny about the mayo though!

 

[hqueen13]

Sometimes I do things the hard way cause I don't really know there is an easier way But then I've always been hard headed...
But I am lazy, and if I see a simpler way, then I'm all for that!
I guess it depends on what you're looking at for ease.... I can buy a lot of products that I choose to make. I choose to make them because I like the quality of what I can make, and knowing where it came from, a lot better than buying it Its time consuming to make it, but I prefer to make it anyway.

 

[FarmerChick]

I hate gadgets. gadgets mean more work. always have to clean them after use most times and that takes alot of time. they take up too much space also. Gadgets with motors are worst. you can't just dunk them straight into water.

hubby loves gadgets. waffle maker (I say make a pancake in a pan, oh no, he likes waffles with dents, and guess who cleans it after, me ) My wafflemaker lives in my dishwasher right now. (only 3 of us, don't use it)

little things like that drive me bonkers because I don't buy gadgets and we hit a store and his eye catches every gadget. I am so tired of saying NO don't buy it LOL

 

[Emerald]

I have to say that while I have learned everything by hand first(from years in restaurant work) I love some of my kitchen gadgets.
If I just have to chop a few things my cutting board and santoku knife will beat the food processor every time, but if I am doing more than one or two of each item I do use a gadget and depending on what the item is I have a couple different gadgets that I use. potatoes get the spirooli for hash browns and the big food processor or even my mandolin for onions or peppers or mushrooms depending on the cut. but these are all items I've used before in restaurant work too. and most of mine are pop apart and rinse so not hard to clean.
I learned how to make almost all of the breads I do by hand and did them by hand for years. I now have a cheap bread maker(second one as I killed the first) it makes the worst loaf of bread ever.. but.. it makes a great dough and I just plop the stuff in the bin set it, and do other stuff for two hours and then I come back and just hand form my loaves or rolls or bagels or whatever I feel like. I don't even feel bad about it as it is as easy to clean as the two bowls would have been. I am learning how to make bread with my kitchenaid mixer but I haven't had it a full year yet so that is a bit more "hands on" than the $1 bread maker(gotta love a yard sale) but the kitchenaid mixer has been getting more use now that I'm not so leery of the big ol' monster! I don't think it really sped up my sauce canning but I am willing to admit that, that might have been me and the learning curve of running stuff thru the strainer. Learning to grind meat without having two people(well that was more simple hehe) one for poking the meat in and the other cranking his hinny off to get it thru.
I do believe in the KISS method but I kinda apply it to the ingredients and not the cooking.. but that is just me. I like to cook and experiment in the kitchen. (probably why my whole family all buy me the weirdest gadgets ever some i love and others go to goodwill) and after being in a huge kitchen using mixers as big as my first car the little one in the kitchen isn't that loud. it is a bigger challenge to keep everyone out of my bathroom sized kitchen so I can cook than it is using a gadget or machine. I gotta turn the dining room into a huge kitchen with a bar down the middle.. family on one side me on the other.. I gotta dream!
as with all things everyone likes different things and does things differently and has a whole different idea of what is simple and what is not. That also goes into another tangent. the well meaning folks who look at you for doing things from scratch and go. "why bother they have the same stuff already done in the store" my mother is the worst when it comes to hurting my feelings this way. She will scarf it all down and tell everyone how good it is but then next say. "I don't know why she bothers it is so much work." Since when did a little work become a bad thing? (but she also doesn't see the beauty in all my big pots and pans and enameled canner I just bought for myself she just sees pots and pans!)

ETA: I guess I'm on the a bit more complicated side when it comes to incubating yogurt-I can fit 7 pint mason jars in my dehydrator and I set it for 95 and set a timer and walk away (well after I do the heat and cool and add live yogurt to the milk yadda yadda) and I've done it with half pints as well and they take even less time to work their magic. I had the dehydrator they fit it holds the temp and well it works so I ended up with a multitasker..