[nabs-l] Cooking Questions

[Joe Orozco]

I'd be interested to know how people negotiate the grill.  Specifically,
what techniques do you use to tell between well done and medium well, medium
rare and such.  I'm not afraid of the grill itself, but I've always been
hesitant to serve guests meat that is not cooked to the condition they
requested.  Jim Gashel once taught me a timed system, but this was in 2003.
I've since forgotten the increments.  Anyway, excellent thread.  Maybe this
could be one of those How To Files?

Joe

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing 

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org 
[mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jamie Principato
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 3:37 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Cooking Questions

What was this in reply to?

On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 9:26 AM, Karen Anderson 
<kea.anderson at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> These are all good questions, and there isn't one thing that works for
> everyone. I recently graduated from the Louisiana Center for the
> Blind, and I think getting good training is one of the best things a
> blind person can do. But I realize that it isn't always the right time
> for training, so here are some of my suggestions in the mean time.
>
> To start out, there are lots of meals that can be made in the
> microwave. Frozen dinners only require that you take the plastic tray
> out of the box, peel back the plastic a little way, and cook it until
> all of the food is hot. There are also single serving packages of Mac
> and cheese and hamburger helper, along with things like mini pizzas
> and pizza roles, that can be cooked in the microwave. And let's not
> forget our childhood friend spaghetios. These aren't particularly
> amazing, but they work.
>
> As someone who lives alone, I love my little toaster oven mostly
> because i don't see the need to heat up a big oven when I'm just
> cooking for myself. Anything that can be baked in a standard oven can,
> in theory, be cooked in a toaster oven. I've even gone so far as to
> buy buckets of frozen cookie dough and make cookies one or 2 at a time
> so I can have fresh cookies whenever I want them. Frozen chicken
> nuggets, French fries, tater tots and the like are also good in the
> oven. It is fine to ask the person helping you shop to read the
> directions on things, and with things like chicken nuggets if you
> can't remember the directions you can cook them until you hear them
> sizzling and they feel crispy to the touch. You can use a fork to
> touch the item, and if the top of the chicken nugget feels rough and
> crunchy under the fork it is usually done. You can also carefully
> touch the food with the tip of your finger. If you take the food out,
> bite into it, and decide it is still cold in the middle you can always
> put it back in the oven for a few minutes.
> If your oven is already marked, like I think you said yours is Kerri,
> then you can ask a sighted friend or neighbor to come and tell you
> which dot marks which temperature. Hopefully it is marked in a logical
> way so that 1 dot is at 250 degrees, the next at 300, 350, and so
> forth. The temperature gets higher the farther to the right you turn
> the dial.
>
> the stove may be a little more intimidating, but with practice you can
> become comfortable with it, too.
> To brown hamburger, place the defrosted meat into a frying pan. Turn
> the stove onto medium heat, which means the dial is pointed at what
> would be 5 or 6 o'clock. Hold the handle of the pan with one hand and
> take a spatula in the other. Find the meat with the spatula, and use
> it to chop the meat into little pieces by pressing down on the meat,
> then finding the big chunk of meat again and repeating the process.
> Once the meat has been chopped into pieces, use the spatula to
> continue stirring. While the meat is cooking it will be sizzling, and
> it will feel sort of wet and slippery under the spatula. When it is
> done the sizzling will slow down and get much softer, and the meat
> will feel coarse when you stir it with the spatula.
>
> To scramble eggs, crack them into a bowl and add a little milk and
> seasoning. Then beat them with a fork until they feel all liquidy,
> rather than being able to feel the yolk in with the liquid. Then put a
> frying pan on the stove and turn it to medium heat. Put just a little
> butter in the bottom of the pan, and once it is melted pour the eggs
> into the pan. Take a spatula and stir the eggs continuously until they
> start to feel thicker and almost chunky. Then, take the pan off the
> stove, put your eggs on a plate, and enjoy them.
>
> Keep in mind that you are probably going to make mistakes while you
> are learning, and not everything is going to come out perfectly the
> first time. The best thing to do is to keep trying and learn from your
> mistakes. If you burn the meat one time, the next time you cook it
> take it off the heat a little sooner. And remember that sighted people
> burn things, too, so it isn't just because you are blind. The hardest
> part of all of this is getting up the nerve to try it for the first
> time.
>
> I hope this helps. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.
>
> Karen
>
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