Wednesday, October 15, 2008

What I Learned From My Mother (and Rachael Ray)

I must begin this post with a disclaimer. I am not a Rachael Ray fan. I am also not a Rachael Ray hater. My biggest beef with her is that she counts in a strange way (more on that later). I must credit her with something however, that has changed the way I cook - or more precisely how I prepare my food.

Years ago, just as good ol' Rach was becoming the next big thing, my mom mentioned her to me. She told me she had watched a few of her shows and thought she was entertaining. Then she told me about the garbage bowl concept. At first I thought, "What a bother. Why not just throw-as-you-go?" Now however, I'm a believer. As I prep most meals, you can find a medium sized bowl on my counter full of food-garbage. It's mostly filled with veggie peels, onion skins and maybe a small wrapper or two. I don't use my garbage bowl to drain cans of food like Rachael does (my sink is not that far away) but it sure is handy for all of the other little bits of stuff. It keeps the mess off of my cutting board and makes clean up so much easier.



Thanks, mom for passing on that great tip to me. It would have taken me awhile to catch on to that one since I don't really ever watch her show.

Oh yeah, and you want to know why I don't like to watch her show? I know it is going to sound ridiculous. When Rachael counts or needs to emphasize the order of things (as in "first we saute the onions in a little EVOO, then we add in the tomatoes and finish off with the salt and pepper") , she starts with her thumb, then her index finger. Who uses the thumb as #1? Everybody knows the index finger is #1. Watch any sporting event in the country. See those big foam fingers waved around by the crazy fans? What finger is pointing up? That's right - not the thumb.

Sorry Rachael. You count funny. But thanks for the garbage bowl idea!

7 comments:

Marie' said...

Hi Andy,
Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog.
Your blog is beautiful. My mom has always had a bowl while she was prepping. I always thought it was because they don't have garbage disposals there, but I guess it would keep my sink cleaner if I did that.

Jocelyn said...

That one tip from RR changed my cooking life.

Beth H said...

I agree the garbage bowl is great. We always have one on the counter, but we call it our compost bowl! At the end of the day I take it all out to the compost and the worms are happy to take it from there.
BUT...if I'm making something that the scraps would be good to add to my frozen veggie baggie I use to start veggie stock with...I use a new bowl and then transfer to the baggie in the freezer. No need to throw it out!

Stephanie said...

The garbage bowl sounds like such a simple thing, and I'm sure it will much better than the garbage "pile" I make which I have to then try to slide it all in the trash. I've never noticed Rachel's counting. I just can't listen to her for very long because it sounds like she's always about to lose her voice. That and I'm not a fan of her "EVOO" thing.

Melissa said...

This post reads like a conversation I had just the other day. Totally not a big RR lover, though not a hater either, but the garbage bowl changed everything for me. Amazing how little seconds walking over to the garbage can add up! I wouldn't ever spend the money to buy her marketed "Garbage Bowl" (eye roll, can people seriously NOT just pull a bowl out of the cupboard?!) but I use mine all the time now. This post is equally funny because just this morning I watched a clip of "RR's Corn Porn" clip online...yikes!

Lee and Sharon said...

I love your comments Andy and your funny, funny sense of humor. Yeh, I wish I had a garbage disposal too - but I think the composter outside is doing it's thing. Yikes, better tell Dad to build one more thing for me. ha ha
Poor Dad - - his "honey-do list" just keeps getting better and bigger. Sure do love that scrap bowl too.

Anonymous said...

Hey I've totally outdone RR one the entire Garbage Bowl concept. I used something called a "Garbage Can." Maybe I should get someone over at Watch Entertainment to patent it for me.