All About Dinner/What Dinner Should I Make

Dinner. It’s More Important than Either You or I Thought

This is my roundup post about dinner. I’ve been thinking about dinner a lot these days, and not just because I’m hungry. Dinner is more important than I thought. And it’s hard to get a “real” (three course, meat, starch, and vegetable) dinner together every day.

This reflection, that “what dinner should I make” is not just a throwaway question, that it actually is one of the most important questions we ask, struck hard while I was reading the Blue Zones.

The Blue Zones of Long Life All Emphasize Dinner

In the book, Dan Buettner researched cultures where people live the longest. There were four focus cultures. One, Loma Linda, California, centered on a group of Seventh Day Adventists who had combined Christianity with better health through science. Then there were the Sardinians, the Okanawans, and the Costa Ricans.

In all of these cultures, the food practices were front and center. Okanawa has an active gardening culture and the home cultivation of the goya, the bitter melon, not to mention soy beans and yams, featured. In Loma Linda, the health benefits of nuts came into play. In Sardinia, it was red wine and dinner table discussions, and in Costa Rice, tortillas made with a special high-vitamin water infused with lime which were eaten at every meal.

What do all these food practices have in common? They’re really really simple. They’re things you eat every day. The cooking processes are routine. And they foster connection with the land and other people.

American Cooking Culture is Nowhere Near so Healthy

Consider, by contrast, the cooking that we feature in our American bookstores. Martha Stewart has become a kind of pariah, but she still set the standard for what I’ve called “Vanity Cooking,” creation of a type of food that correlates with Rob Henderson and his Luxury Beliefs, that is, a type of cooking that exists not to taste good, but to look good.

And that even worse, cooking this food takes so long to make that people generally don’t actually make it. They look at the pictures and *think* about making it. Maybe. A study in 2008 found that time spent cooking in the U.S. had declined 40% between 1965 and 1995. Quora reported that Americans eat out 4-5 nights a week. The same page reported that for many, home cooked may mean a jar of Prego sauce warmed up and served on spaghetti. Allie Volpe in Vox writes that it’s hard to keep up with the cooking, “One recipe can dirty up a whole sink’s worth of dishes.”

My friend, you’ve got to report to the kitchen, put on your apron, fill the sink with water and soap, and wash as you go.

The Question: Can You Cook?

Last week when I was out hiking with the Mountain’s Edge People I was asked what I like to cook. “Oh, you know, hamburgers, pizza, cottage potatoes, fried rice … “

“So … you can’t really cook?”

I was taken aback. I just said that I *could* cook. The speaker was probably taken in by that whole vanity cooking deal. He believed that if a dish doesn’t have a foreign name or look good in a bookstore cook book, it’s not “real food.” But I demur. Though real food does look good in pictures, usually, we’ve seen it often before, so there’s no novelty value.

Then he stopped. “Oh, wait, you must be able to cook. You ran a household with kids for years …

This isn’t really funny, but when I told the story of this conversation to Scarlett,at the point when I mentioned he said maybe I couldn’t actually cook Scarlett interjected “Push this guy off a cliff. My mom is a great cook.” And actually, because we were hiking the Horsetooth at the time, I had an opportunity to do just that. (In truth I probably couldn’t have, even had I wanted to, since I was carefully clinging to the rock myself at the time)

But I digress.

Is It Ever Okay to Be Tired, You Know, and Just Order Out?

No, it’s not okay. You have no idea what they put in that take out food. In general, food that comes from restaurants has the following problems:

• It costs too much. According to Forbes, “anytime you’re ordering out, you’re spending five times as much, on average, compared to making a homemade dinner.”
• It takes too long. It’s almost impossible to get takeout food back to the house in less than an hour, from getting the idea and ordering it, getting in the car or waiting for DoorDash…
• It’s really unhealthy. Check out VeryWell Fit. “After adjusting for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, BMI, dietary and lifestyle factors, the researchers found that frequent consumption of takeout or restaurant meals (two or more meals per day) was significantly associated with an increased risk of early death.” And that is the exact opposite of the goal of this blog.
• I can tell if you eat out a lot just watching you walk down the street. I don’t know what’s in those foods, but it’s bad.
• Driving to and from restaurants wastes not just gasoline but time, a critical resource in our lives. Time that is far to precious to use driving around looking for a single meal.
• Restaurants are for social purposes, such as, you need to meet up with a friend over a meal. If you care about your future you will minimize restaurant consumption. It’s for traveling, for big parties with people you don’t like, and special occasions.

What Qualifies as a Home Cooked Meal?

Okay, Prego sauce and spaghetti is not a true home cooked meal. Basically, if it’s home cooked, it is cooked from fresh ingredients. Meat, chicken, fish, potatoes, vegetables, flour, canned goods as long as they’re not whole-meal canned goods, spices, eggs, milk, cheese. These are the ingredients in home cooked meals. Also, any fresh dinner put in the freezer and brought back out, is still technically a home cooked meal. It tends to go best if you freeze just the sauce and put it over fresh pasta, freeze just the chili and buy fresh tortillas, etc.

What Can Not Be in a Home Cooked Meal?

Can not appear: TV dinners, frozen pizza, tater tots, canned chili. Almost anything from the frozen food aisle. Breakfast cereal. You may find yourself driven to serving breakfast cereal for dinner, but it cannot be considered “home cooked.”

Grey areas/OK in a pinch: bagged salad, cans of soup, chips as a side dish. Hot dogs.

Who pays for dinner?

This came up in a conversation with Victor this week. “Look,” I said. “If a guy asks you out, he’s got to pay. You shouldn’t go out with a guy and he doesn’t pay for dinner. I can prove it.”

“Okay, let’s hear it,” he replied.

“Well look, what women need to avoid is a guy who doesn’t care about her that much. The kind of guy who might take advantage of her. So, if a guy is only mildly interested, he might not pick up the check. But if he’s serious, he’s going to pay, because he wants to take care of you. And if he really cares, he would be embarrassed if you thought he didn’t have any money. So if he picks up the check, you’ve got the main thing to worry about covered. He’s got positive intent.

“Okay.”

But here’s the second reason. This only applies to young women, but it’s still traditional. If a guy doesn’t have enough money to pick up the check, where is his potential as a provider in times of trouble, as in, potential fatherhood, etc? A guy who won’t pick up the check is letting you know he won’t be there for any length of time, or any difficulty. And if were around, he’s got no resources to help with said pending crisis. Guaranteed fail, for any smart girl.”

Victor had to admit he couldn’t find a flaw in the logic.

Of course, finding a promising suitor and having him pick up the check isn’t a good strategy for getting dinner. Even if you had enough dating prospects (problematic, since sincere guys get mad and then sullenly stalk off if there’s too much competition) if you were eating dinner in restaurant with men every night of the week you’d soon fall into the category of persons who eat out too much, your health would decline, and you’d no longer be the person you want to be.

Dinner When You’re Sick

There are a few good choices. A can of soup is good, if you have one. A nice pot of white rice-cooker rice tends to hit the spot. Perhaps potato buds (instant mashed potatoes) or a baked potato if that isn’t available. And if that doesn’t work, well, toast and tea.

Generally, milk and coffee are to be avoided. Tea and soft drinks are viewed more favorably. Gatoraid might hit the spot.

Dinner to Make with Ground beef/Dinner with Ground Beef

Did you know that in America, dinner with ground beef is the top dinner recipe search? Dinner with ground beef gets 74,000 searches per month, while dinner ideas with chicken is only 22,000. Below is a list of common hamburger dishes, to give you some ideas for using ground beef. And in case you don’t want to go to the store, what you also need to have on hand besides ground beef. “Etc.” stands for salt and pepper plus spices and add-ins you can use if you have them that won’t ruin the dish if you don’t.

• Hamburgers from Food.com — also need buns and ketchup, helps to have tomatoes lettuce other condiments, cheese.
• Tamale pie from 100 days of real food.com — also need onion, bell pepper, canned diced tomatoes, frozen corn and corn meal plus chili power, cumin, etc.
• Shepherd’s pie from The Wholesome Dish.com — also need potatoes, bag of frozen vegetables, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.
• Tacos from Feel Good Foodie — also need taco shells, onion, chili and cumin powder, onions, garlic, helps to have tomato, lettuce
• Meatloaf from Spend with Pennies.com — also need eggs, crackers or breadcrumbs, ketchup, onions, garlic, brown sugar, also helps to have sage

Where the word dinner comes from?

The word “dinner” comes from the Old English “disner.” The word dinner means the evening meal in America, but in Britain, the working classes call the evening meal “tea.” This is explained by Great British Mag:

“High” tea is actually dinner but has also come to mean a lavish afternoon tea. In the past, high tea was an alternative to afternoon tea. It combined snacks and a hearty meal and was usually served at about 6pm.

This eventually evolved into the lower classes calling their midday meal “dinner” and their evening meal “tea”, while the upper classes called their midday meal “lunch” and referred to the evening meal as “dinner”.

In America, you also have the term “supper” for the evening meal. This word is more common in the Midwest. The word dinner is used for a more formal meal, thus the idiom, “formal dinner” and supper is a more casual meal, thus “church supper.”

Dinner with the Parents

Dinner with the parents is a *thing.* Why? When your true love takes you home to meet the folks, it’s a big step. This is particularly true if you’re a woman, because men don’t generally bring women home unless they’re considering bringing them into the family. You are justified in being nervous.

Because, the parents will now decide if they like you. And if they don’t, then … it’s gonna be harder. So you want to make a good impression at your dinner with the parents. Put on fresh clothes. Comb your hair. Try not to talk too much or too little. And if you can, observe your significant other. It would be good if this person has an open, free, casual relationship with the folks.

Things to watch for? Over controlling parents, people pleasing behavior in your beloved. Or even people pleasing in the parents, for that matter. Emotional drama. Trying too hard to please. Gossiping about the rest of the family. Table manners too formal (will be a nuisance to maintain) or too sloppy (will begin to drive you crazy if repeated for years.)

Dinner Tonight

Tonight, I have to go to a show with my mother and stepfather. So I am going out. I will not have to pay, by virtue of our family dinner hosting rules:

• First of all, the one who invites pays for dinner
• Second of all, the senior member of the party pays for dinner
• Third of all, the man pays for dinner

And Don’t Forget The Potential of Using Leftovers

Allie Volpe in VOX says you should cook the same simple meals over and over. And keep whatever left for tomorrow in the ‘fridge. Bravo.