[nabs-l] living skills, unsupportive family and negative words

Arielle Silverman arielle71 at gmail.com
Sat Apr 26 22:59:36 UTC 2014


Hi Ashley,

You can buy measuring cups and spoons in sets that fit together with
the smaller ones nested inside bigger ones, and then they just stay in
order. I don't Braille or label any of my measuring utensils.
When you add pasta to boiling water the water will cool slightly so it
won't boil over. You can turn the heat down after it has returned to
boiling.
The trick of listening for when the water is boiling never worked well
for me. I usually just feel the sides of the pot, which stay cool, and
judge that it's boiling when the sides start to vibrate.

For knowing when anything is done, be it meats or pasta or whatever,
for beginners I suggest just following the cooking times in the
recipe. If you follow the cooking time and something doesn't taste
right, you'll know you need to adjust the cooking time a little bit.
But for the most part, recipes have been tested and the cooking times
given are pretty reliable.
It will not hurt you if you accidentally take a bite of undercooked
meat, notice it doesn't taste right and then put the meat back in the
oven for a little bit longer. I've certainly done that.

The single biggest lesson I learned about blind cooking is that it's
OK to touch the side of a pan to see if it's centered, or to touch the
top of something you just took out of the oven to see how it feels.
Sighted people often flip out if we even get close to touching
something, because they manage to monitor everything with their eyes.
But just because sighted people don't use their hands doesn't mean
it's dangerous for us to do so. You can get a lot of information from
feeling how firm something is on top, etc. and as long as you wash
your hands often during cooking, this is perfectly sanitary.

For more detailed questions I suggest asking on the Blind-cooks list.

Arielle

On 4/25/14, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hi Kaiti,
> I think we have some similarities in our parents. Again, I liked hearing
> your story and tips without some of the judgements coming from others.
> My mom does get impatient too. I suppose she is sort of helpful because she
>
> did help me relabel the microwave as its labels fell off. they had stuck on
>
> for years and years.
>
> thanks for your advice. Can you suggest some basic recipes or do you just
> follow packaged directions?
>
> It seems to me most recipes I read online use words assuming you know
> things; okay; I understand terms bake and preheat.
> But some baking recipies say things like sift this or cream that.
> What do you do about measuring? how do you differientiate the measuring
> utensils?
>
> I'll just copy your text in and respond after it.
>
> About stoves:
> Of course, some stove and oven controls are
> better than others, and that was certainly the case between my home
> and apartment stoves (my apartment stove actually has dials for the
> burners with a tactile marking already on them, and they click into
> the different places so it works well without any modification).
>
>
> I respond:
> Oh, which type of stove? I did not realize they still made stoves with dials
>
> that clicked into places for the temperatures. We have a flat electric
> stove. I use it for canned food but its hard to center pans and I want one
> like you described. So, if you know its type, let me know. We use GE
> appliances.
>
>
> About the boiling:
> Rice, pasta, and hard boiling eggs are very simple.  You just put them
> in a pot of water.  Rice and pasta you add once the water is boiling,
> but if you make eggs make sure you put eggs in before boiling water,
> because obviously the water will be hot once you turn the burner on.
>
> I respond,
> do you just feel it to know when its cooked through and then drain it?
> I love pasta.  Yeah, its easy to cook, good point. But how do you keep it
> from boiling over then if you add the noodles to already boiling water? Do
> you turn the heat down? To add stuff to pasta, all you'd need is spaghetti
> or manera sauce.
> Easy to fix. Does the pre formed meatballs have directions on the package
> for cooking them? Yeah, all you'd need to do is add sauce and possibly meat
>
> balls. So, how much sauce. Do you simply pour some, maybe half a jar into a
>
> dish and heat it up?
>
> The cool thing is now a days they make some fancy sauces with lots of good
> tastes so you can have quite a variety of options for sauces.
> I know potatoes are easy to make. Do you put them in cold water or after its
>
> boiling? You have to cut them first I know. Then they can be eaten as slices
>
> or mashed with adding some items like butter and milk.
>
> I've often wanted to make roasted potatoes. All I know is you throw them on
>
> a greased sheet at 350 but I don't know the specifics of what spices to add
>
> and if you have to peel them. Maybe I'll look up scalloped potato recipes
> and see if I understand that.
>
> Meats are harder as you have to clean the meat and determine doneness.
> Even a pretty competent lady at our nfb chapter says she is not as confident
>
> in cooking of the blindness skills she has because she doesn't trust her
> judgement on meats. She is younger than me but lived on her own for several
>
> years.
>
> True you can time the meats; like chicken is 30 minutes. but still it can
> vary due to your oven, and unlike baking, there's no toothpick test.
>
> I'm glad  to hear your cooking adventures are going well.
>
> Ashley
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> nabs-l:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/arielle71%40gmail.com
>




More information about the NABS-L mailing list