An idea about life skills

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My idea for a thread about cooking and life skills with very explicit instructions didn't seem to be very popular, so I had another idea. I think this would be especially good for people with no cooking experience at all. My daughter has a camera and I could make YouTube videos of me cooking good, simple recipes. I would have all the ingredients, tell you what you need, then show you how to put it together and cook it. Seeing it is easier than reading it.

Also, it would help anyone not just those on the spectrum. Lots of people never cooked and need to learn how to.

What do you think?

I still think a life skills thread with instructions for daily household tasks would be a good idea, especially for people about to me movng out on their own who haven't much experience running a home.

I think you should get yourself into the kitchen and bake me a pie!

Seriously, I can't get my pie crusts to come out right - they're either like dry cardboard or they tend to dissolve into the filling. Help?

Barbecue and beans. Beans and barbecue. Is there really anything more about cooking I need to know???

Are you baking them on a rainy day? Humidity is a huge factor in pie crusts. I have a great recipe for pie crust that I can send you if you want. You can also use an egg yolk in it for a heavier crust for things like sweet potato, pumpkin, pecan etc, or you can add sugar to it for cream type pies.

Are you balling up the dough, wrapping it in plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge for about 30 mins to an hour between mixing it an rolling it out? That's very important to do. Otherwise it's not only hard to work with but being refrigerated helps it "set".

Do you make sure that any water you add to the mixture is ice cold, and that your butter is still cold? Do you use real butter, margerine or Crisco? Real butter (unsalted) makes the best and easiest to work with crust, from my experience.

You are talking about a crust made from scratch, right? Not one of those crusts that you buy in the pan from the store.

Pies are actually my favorite dessert to make. My daughter likes baking cakes, but I like pies.

I don't do bbq. My husband or my oldest daughters fiance do that. The are the Czars Of The Grill! We have so much specialty cooking stuff for grilling it's not funny. They take it entirely too seriously. If you want to talk BBQ, I'll go get one of them for you.

This is an excellent idea. I left home without mastering certain skills like ironing my clothes. My mother didn't have the patience to show me, so I became pretty self-taught in cooking and certain aspects of housekeeping.

Some non-food ideas: Ironing, sewing on a button, mending a tear, doing laundry without wrecking your clothes ...

If you have a good recipe for roast chicken, I'd love to see that. It's said that knowing how to roast a chicken is essential, unless you're a vegetarian, of course. Maybe easy omelets and scrambles.

Do you want to roast a whole chicken, or chicken parts?

As for the eggs, my husband likes the peppers and eggs that I make him on the weekends. Would that be something you are interested in?

I think it could be helpful for a lot of people who just may not have learned things when they were supposed to.

I remember at the age of 14-15 when I got sent away getting in trouble because I didn't know how to do simple household tasks like making a bed or using a vacuum because I had never done them before. We don't make beds in my home and had few rugs so we didn't have a vacuum.

There are still things to this day that I don't know how to do or never realized I was supposed to do. Like recently before I moved I think I dropped something on the floor and noticed a very large amount of fuzz and dust on the coils under the fridge. Before that I never even realized you were supposed to clean under there now and then. No one told me.

I don't really know how to cook anything complicated.

Ironing? I don't even own an iron or ironing board and ironing probably hasn't been done in my home in a good 15-20 years.

Thanks for asking. I had the whole chicken in mind, but roasting the parts is important too. Whichever is easier for a newbie to do. Yes, bring on the peppers and eggs.

At my advanced age, I still can't get a whole roasted chicken the way I want it. It seems silly because it should be easy.

I think its a great idea. Cooking shows tend to only focus on things that are relatively complicated and involve lots of ingredients and such, so I'm sure a basic cooking show would be a big help to many of the culinarily challenged. If you do a good job who knows, food network might take notice!

The wayI roast a whole chicken is this.

I unwrap it and take out any parts that are in bags inside and throw them out. I wash it good, inside and out then pat dry with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 425.

Get a shallow pan big enough to hold it and a roasting rack to set it on. You want it up out of the juices and you want the pan to be at least three inches deep.

Set the chicken breast side up on the rack. Get some kitchen string and tie the feet together. Tuck the wings back behind and under the body. Like he's laying on his back with his hands behind his neck. They don't have to be tied, they just stick back there.

Rub the whole thing with butter. Cut off about an inch of butter and rub it on. If you like seasoning such as garlic powder or lemon pepper, go ahead and sprinkle it with that.

Put about an inch of water in the bottom of the pan. If you want, you can put some chopped garlic in the water to help flavor the chicken.

Make a tent over the entire pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Make sure it's all covered fairly tightly down to the pan. It's ok if the foil touches the chicken but try not to let it. It can stick and pull the skin off.

Put it in the oven and check on it about every 30 minutes. Make sure there is still about an inch or two of liquid in the bottom of the pan. Baste the chicken by using one of those squeeze bulb pointy things or a gravy ladle or even a spoon, when you check it. You do this by pouring some of the liquid in the bottom of the pan over it. Add more water as needed to keep at least an inch, preferably two, of liquid in the bottom of the pan.

When the chicken legs move really easily (I usually cook mine about an hour and a half to two hours) check the doneness with a meat thermometer. You stick it in the breast, not touching the bone, and it will give you the temperature. The correct temp is listed on the thermometer. I use that BBQ fork of my daughter's fiance. It's electronic. You push a button and then select the type of meat, stick the fork in and it will give you a readout of whether or not it's done. It also tells you whether it's rare, medium or well. Or, you can just cut into the breast fairly deeply and look to see how it looks.

When it's done, take the foil off and baste again and put back in the oven to brown. Check on it about every five to ten minutes because it can brown fast.

Chickens done!

As for chicken parts, Wash them and put them in an oblong casserolle dish. Pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil over them. Just drizzle it. Turn them to coat them with it. Sprinkle them with your favorite seasoning. I use either lemon pepper or Cajun seasoning. Cover with foil and cook on 425 for about an hour or until done. Check them fairly often.

You do pork chops the same way as chicken parts. In fact, thats what I'm making tonight. Cajun pork chops, rice, and green beans.

I think that's a great idea.

my daughter and I have made several for my son, I credit them with getting him to speak more lately than he did. Now if i can just stop everyone from giving in to His wants without waiting for him to ask! just disappointed to find out it isn't an original idea of mine!

Love this idea. Some people become better cooks when the information is presented visually as opposed to a set of instructions on a list. This could be the reason that cooking shows are successful.