@znexyish said:

@Lemons said:

I mean really, how did I manage to burn my attempt at macaroni and cheese so badly just now that there is a brown film stuck to the bottom of the pan? Sigh. We have started this meal delivery thing (Plated) and with a recipe card spoon-feeding it to me in 6 steps I can make things that taste good, but leave me to my own devices and there's at least a 50% chance I'm gonna screw it up. Poor Mr. Lemons has the fanning of the smoke-detector thing down pat.

Anyway:
1.Do you like to cook?
2.Are you a good cook?
3.Be honest, how many nights a week do you get take-out? (Since the poor BBT characters have often been maligned for it, let's show our cards.)

Ain't gonna lie. We get take-out anywhere from 2-4 nights a week in my house.

First of all my quick recipe for mac and cheese: Stouffers (or your choice of food in a box) + Microwave = Yum

Do I like to cook? I do but not nearly as enough to keep in good practice

Am I a good cook? I would like to think so but when I do it is "aloof but effective"

Take Out - Not too often. Mostly if I have a coupon.

By the way how many people here are fans of Debbie Wolowitz's fav restaurant "The Olive Garden" ?

Oh and when I do have take out I don't eat out of the cartons like the gang on the show does. Ewww!

I have eaten there twice (back when it first opened in my area, sometime in the early 90's). Not a fan. My main gripe was the temperature of the food (lukewarm), I prefer that that my food be still warm when I'm done. My other gripes were that it was too salty & nothing special (mediocre). Although I did like the breadsticks.

@bratface said:

@znexyish said:

@Lemons said:

I mean really, how did I manage to burn my attempt at macaroni and cheese so badly just now that there is a brown film stuck to the bottom of the pan? Sigh. We have started this meal delivery thing (Plated) and with a recipe card spoon-feeding it to me in 6 steps I can make things that taste good, but leave me to my own devices and there's at least a 50% chance I'm gonna screw it up. Poor Mr. Lemons has the fanning of the smoke-detector thing down pat.

Anyway:
1.Do you like to cook?
2.Are you a good cook?
3.Be honest, how many nights a week do you get take-out? (Since the poor BBT characters have often been maligned for it, let's show our cards.)

Ain't gonna lie. We get take-out anywhere from 2-4 nights a week in my house.

First of all my quick recipe for mac and cheese: Stouffers (or your choice of food in a box) + Microwave = Yum

Do I like to cook? I do but not nearly as enough to keep in good practice

Am I a good cook? I would like to think so but when I do it is "aloof but effective"

Take Out - Not too often. Mostly if I have a coupon.

By the way how many people here are fans of Debbie Wolowitz's fav restaurant "The Olive Garden" ?

Oh and when I do have take out I don't eat out of the cartons like the gang on the show does. Ewww!

I have eaten there twice (back when it first opened in my area, sometime in the early 90's). Not a fan. My main gripe was the temperature of the food (lukewarm), I prefer that that my food be still warm when I'm done. My other gripes were that it was too salty & nothing special (mediocre). Although I did like the breadsticks.

I also have eaten at the Olive Garden as well as a Cheescake factory. Also another Italian family style place called "Becce du Bucco " (Buca di Beppo?) anyways somekind of Itlaian family dinner schtick. Can't expect much really.

I have never eaten at The Cheesecake Factory (no desire to). I have eaten 'real' Italian food so have no interest in eating what some people consider Italian food. But I also do not eat at chain restaurants (to be honest I rarely eat out, too picky about what I'll eat).

The different regions of Italy have some rather significant differences in food/cooking styles. Rather like Chinese with Cantonese, Szechuan, etc. So going to any one style of Italian restaurant is not a wide range of experience.

I suppose Italian-American and Chinese-American would be more accurate terms for the chain restaurants. Or just a place with bread-sticks, pizza and pasta. One would have to properly live in or near an area where people from those places actually live to find the authentic, the same going for other national and regional cuisines. Like bratface above I too do not partake of much restaurant fare. I will also only have a Chicago style hot dog only if I happen to be in Chicago.

@znexyish said:

@Lemons said:

I mean really, how did I manage to burn my attempt at macaroni and cheese so badly just now that there is a brown film stuck to the bottom of the pan? Sigh. We have started this meal delivery thing (Plated) and with a recipe card spoon-feeding it to me in 6 steps I can make things that taste good, but leave me to my own devices and there's at least a 50% chance I'm gonna screw it up. Poor Mr. Lemons has the fanning of the smoke-detector thing down pat.

Anyway:
1.Do you like to cook?
2.Are you a good cook?
3.Be honest, how many nights a week do you get take-out? (Since the poor BBT characters have often been maligned for it, let's show our cards.)

Ain't gonna lie. We get take-out anywhere from 2-4 nights a week in my house.

First of all my quick recipe for mac and cheese: Stouffers (or your choice of food in a box) + Microwave = Yum

Do I like to cook? I do but not nearly as enough to keep in good practice

Am I a good cook? I would like to think so but when I do it is "aloof but effective"

Take Out - Not too often. Mostly if I have a coupon.

By the way how many people here are fans of Debbie Wolowitz's fav restaurant "The Olive Garden" ?

Oh and when I do have take out I don't eat out of the cartons like the gang on the show does. Ewww!

Stouffers makes some damn good mac n cheese! I've tried other brands of frozen, but theirs is the best, along with TGI Friday's. Cracker Barrel has also come out with some great boxed mac n cheese that is delicious, my favorite is the one with the bacon bits, yummy!

I like The Olive Garden but hubby is not a fan, so I rarely go. My favorite from their menu is the Three Cheese Ziti Al Forno. Went with my sister and niece a few months ago and it wasn't as good as I remember, but it wasn't the local one that I usually go to, so maybe that's why. The salad and breadsticks are always tasty though, and the dessert cups were delicious.

@Knixon said: One of my favorite things from childhood was mom's home-made sweet and sour meatballs. They take a good deal of time to make, though, and go pretty quickly even when there's just me eating them. (Partly because they're so good!) I realized a while ago that the sauce involved actually turns out pretty similar to Manwich canned sauce for "sloppy joes" so one of these days I need to start experimenting with various types of frozen meatballs, simmer them in Manwich sauce (probably the thick and chunky version), with a small (tuna-size) can of crushed pineapple added for the "sweet" and probably red wine vinegar for the "sour," to see how close I can get. It would sure be a huge time saver! And much easier to make a large batch too.

Some other things I make myself, from mom's recipes, are something called Sausage Bean Chowder which came from a recipe in Parade magazine, White House Chili (from the LBJ era), and mom's recipe for spaghetti sauce which is still my favorite. It starts with Campbell's Tomato Soup which would get you the death penalty in Italy, but it's really good, substantial, sticks to the pasta... I've been to some "authentic" Italian restaurants where it's like they bring you a huge plate or platter of "noodles" with a spoonful of sauce on top, and you're supposed to go "Yum, PASTA!" But I LIKE SAUCE! And lots of it!

My mother-in-law's spaghetti sauce also starts with Campbell's tomato soup, and it's one of the best spaghetti sauces I've ever had.

@bratface said:

What kind of Parmesan? Do you buy real 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' & 'Pecorino Romano, Caprino Romano'? Because the real versions of those cheeses have a sharp/tangy taste, more so than an 'Asiago'.

As for the original questions.

1. I love to cook, started as a young child (5 or 6) with cookies and went from there.

2. Yes, have won a couple of recipe/cooking contests.

3. Zero. I'm really picky about what I eat & prefer my own cooking. I have ordered pizza in the past but that was years ago. I also have a local Chinese place that makes a killer Mongolian Beef (but I pick my order in person, although it's been a couple of years since I've done that).

Bratface, I'd love to hear more about the cooking contests you've won- which recipes. That's something to be proud of!

@znexyish said:

First of all my quick recipe for mac and cheese: Stouffers (or your choice of food in a box) + Microwave = Yum

Do I like to cook? I do but not nearly as enough to keep in good practice

Am I a good cook? I would like to think so but when I do it is "aloof but effective"

Take Out - Not too often. Mostly if I have a coupon.

By the way how many people here are fans of Debbie Wolowitz's fav restaurant "The Olive Garden" ?

Oh and when I do have take out I don't eat out of the cartons like the gang on the show does. Ewww!

Stouffers is my younger son's favorite! Kraft was my older's son's favorite, so there were a few years of the "Macaroni and Cheese Wars" around here. (Stouffer's usually won out.)

The Olive Garden is "OK" but lackluster to me. We have a "hole in the wall" family-owned Italian restaurant here that just beats it out of the water. I've never tasted marinara like theirs, and their eggplant parmesan is perfection. They make Olive Garden taste like something microwaved out of a box.

As for take-out cartons, are you referring to Chinese take-out cartons, or in general that you won't eat out of? (TBBT shows them eating out of Chinese cartons often is why I ask.) I don't eat out of Chinese cartons, not because I think it's gross, but because the tops keep folding in on me while I eat and it's restrictive. Maybe they do that on the show so they don't actually have to show any food (and maybe the containers are actually empty or almost empty to save money on food). When take out comes in one of those Styrofoam boxes or some other user-friendly box, I'll often eat straight from it.

They sometimes show them getting the larger "family style" servings/boxes from Chinese or Thai places etc, and then sharing them; but more often it seems like they each have their own combo meal plate or whatever, in some kind of foam or cardboard carton/bowl.

@Knixon said:

They sometimes show them getting the larger "family style" servings/boxes from Chinese or Thai places etc, and then sharing them; but more often it seems like they each have their own combo meal plate or whatever, in some kind of foam or cardboard carton/bowl.

Yes, I do seem to remember those sweaty socks-flavored Greek blobs being in some sort of Styrofoam or other material box.

Also the "Three Strikes" episode where Penny touched Sheldon's food; the episode where they each had some kind of Indian food "plate" except Raj got Chicken McNuggets; the episode where Raj only got steamed broccoli because he had just met the cleaning lady at the university... That seems to be more the standard than not. One of the few episodes I remember where they got the larger Chinese (or Thai?) boxes and divided them up themselves, at home, was the "Robotic Arm" episode where Penny first learns about Amy/Shamy. The start of that episode has Howard controlling the arm to unpack the boxes of food.

It was different sometimes when they went out for Chinese or whatever, because they might order the large serving of dumplings to divide up and then Sheldon gets upset because the number of dumplings is not evenly divisible by the number of people.

@Lemons said:

@bratface said:

What kind of Parmesan? Do you buy real 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' & 'Pecorino Romano, Caprino Romano'? Because the real versions of those cheeses have a sharp/tangy taste, more so than an 'Asiago'.

As for the original questions.

1. I love to cook, started as a young child (5 or 6) with cookies and went from there.

2. Yes, have won a couple of recipe/cooking contests.

3. Zero. I'm really picky about what I eat & prefer my own cooking. I have ordered pizza in the past but that was years ago. I also have a local Chinese place that makes a killer Mongolian Beef (but I pick my order in person, although it's been a couple of years since I've done that).

Bratface, I'd love to hear more about the cooking contests you've won- which recipes. That's something to be proud of!

One was at my local newspaper, it was for a 'Baked Stuffed Onion', mine won the vegetable category(back in the 80's). The other was a contest where I worked (large company, there were around 25 - 30 entries), the recipe was for a 'Triple Ginger Layer Cake with a Lemon Buttercream Frosting'. Both were judged on the finished product not just for the recipe.

@bratface said:

@Lemons said:

@bratface said:

What kind of Parmesan? Do you buy real 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' & 'Pecorino Romano, Caprino Romano'? Because the real versions of those cheeses have a sharp/tangy taste, more so than an 'Asiago'.

As for the original questions.

1. I love to cook, started as a young child (5 or 6) with cookies and went from there.

2. Yes, have won a couple of recipe/cooking contests.

3. Zero. I'm really picky about what I eat & prefer my own cooking. I have ordered pizza in the past but that was years ago. I also have a local Chinese place that makes a killer Mongolian Beef (but I pick my order in person, although it's been a couple of years since I've done that).

Bratface, I'd love to hear more about the cooking contests you've won- which recipes. That's something to be proud of!

One was at my local newspaper, it was for a 'Baked Stuffed Onion', mine won the vegetable category(back in the 80's). The other was a contest where I worked (large company, there were around 25 - 30 entries), the recipe was for a 'Triple Ginger Layer Cake with a Lemon Buttercream Frosting'. Both were judged on the finished product not just for the recipe.

That cake sounds delicious!

@bratface said:

@Lemons said:

@bratface said:

What kind of Parmesan? Do you buy real 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' & 'Pecorino Romano, Caprino Romano'? Because the real versions of those cheeses have a sharp/tangy taste, more so than an 'Asiago'.

As for the original questions.

1. I love to cook, started as a young child (5 or 6) with cookies and went from there.

2. Yes, have won a couple of recipe/cooking contests.

3. Zero. I'm really picky about what I eat & prefer my own cooking. I have ordered pizza in the past but that was years ago. I also have a local Chinese place that makes a killer Mongolian Beef (but I pick my order in person, although it's been a couple of years since I've done that).

Bratface, I'd love to hear more about the cooking contests you've won- which recipes. That's something to be proud of!

One was at my local newspaper, it was for a 'Baked Stuffed Onion', mine won the vegetable category(back in the 80's). The other was a contest where I worked (large company, there were around 25 - 30 entries), the recipe was for a 'Triple Ginger Layer Cake with a Lemon Buttercream Frosting'. Both were judged on the finished product not just for the recipe.

If there's ever a board party you're definitely responsible for snacks.

But in all seriousness that's an accomplishment. And that cake sounds salivating just off the name.