[nabs-l] Cooking Questions

Sat Jun 5 01:26:59 UTC 2010

When I grill, whether it be on the George foreman or on a propain or
charcoal grill,  I normally use an item such as a fork or something
sharp and if the meat is not real firm then it is probably not well
done.  A toaster is great when you are an individual who likes to cook
small amounts of stuff.  They're so easy to clean as most come with a
removable pan inside that you just take out and wash.  Another quick
and easy meal is stirfry.  You can cook this meal in the microwave.
You just have to ask a sighted person to read you the directions or
just dump it in a skillet and experiment with it.

On 6/4/10, Jamie Principato <blackbyrdfly at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'd never really thought about telling doneness when grilling. I knew a
> blind person could use a grill with relative ease, as I remember doing so
> under sleep shades at a student seminar once in Baltimore but I forgot how
> we determined how much the meat had cooked.
>
> On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 7:43 PM, V Nork <ginisd at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Karen, Thanks  so much for your thoughts, cooking is really  such  an
>> individual thing, and it is easy to get into a rut.   I used to love
>> gourmet
>> cooking but I am a bit rusty since my eyesight deteriorated  in the last
>> five years from partial to very limited vision.  But I am rethinking
>> things
>> so as to adapt.  One question is, is the toaster oven difficult to clean
>> without sighted help?   I think it can be a crumb magnet.  Also, do you or
>> anyone else have a link to a blind cooks list?  Thanks, Ginny
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf
>> Of Karen Anderson
>> Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 6:27 AM
>> To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [nabs-l] Cooking Questions
>>
>> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/ginisd%40sbcglobal.n
>> et
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/blackbyrdfly%40gmail.com
>>
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/chelseap08%40gmail.com
>

-- 
Chelsea Page
(601)618-5170