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Doritos Creator Art West Dead at 97
The creator of Doritos has died in Dallas at age 97. Despite being the bane of keyboards and mouse wheels, Art West's famous snacks have become a staple in the geek diet. Doritos officially arrived in the U.S. in 1964 and has since expanded to 23 flavors. Art's Daughter Jana Hacker told The Dallas Morning News that the family plans on "tossing Doritos chips in before they put the dirt over the urn."
A bag of doritos in my house when growing up, was a rare occurance....maybe for a special weekend if we were going to grill out burgers or the like. It cerainly wasn't day-to-day food.
Everyone I personally know still treats them the same way today. Maybe I'm out of touch, or maybe you're imagining the problem is bigger than it really is.
I checked the wikipedia and they typically sell around half a billion bucks worth of doritos per year in the USA. The vending machine in the basement sells a little lunch size snack for about a buck. There are about half a billion americans, plus or minus a heck of a lot of illegals. So the average american eats about one snack sized bag per year, or with an order of magnitude anyway. Supposedly that one annual bag is why one third of us are "fat" now. I'm thinking, no. Even assuming that only the fatties eat them and the skinnies never eat them, thats still only 3 snack bags per fatty per year.
I think this much like the widely quoted claim that the average american watches 8 hours of TV per day. Yeah, OK, whatever, its a gullibility test, nothing more.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I've got two words for you, just two words: slow cooker. Yes, I realise that they're only good for casseroles, soups and the like, but you can also come home to braised beef that melts in the mouth and if you like curry you'll love one of these gizmos (lamb works particularly well). A timer comes in very handy for things that need less cooking.
I'm also single and have little trouble cooking, subsisting as I do on slow-cooked fare, salads, stir-fry and other quickly-prepared meals. Another piece of advice I'd like to share is that you will probably find a lot of good recipes in so-called student cook books: they're packed full of meal ideas meant for people who have little time to cook. In fact, my book was the most useful thing I bought in my university years, next to a jug type water filter, which dramatically improves the quality of cheap vodka.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
Good-night, salty prince.
If you actually put some thought into it it's a lot easier and cheaper to cook for yourself. Throw a hunk of meat into the oven, and simmer some rice. Walk away, come back 20 minutes later. You're done. Less than 10 minutes actually cooking, and far far cheaper than 5 guys.
Or like the other poster suggested, get a slow cooker. Once or twice a week make up some large batch of food, and freeze it in aliquots. I've got curry, baked beans, spaghetti sauce, and gumbo in my freezer right now. All I have to do is toss it in the microwave and prepare a starch to go with it. About 20 minutes actual work, but you eat 6-8 meals off of it.
Or on the weekend, cook yourself a big roast. Maybe a turkey. This is actually very easy. Just stick it in a bag, stick the bag in the overn, and walk away for a couple hours. The left overs will last most of the week, and you can do lots of things with them. Sandwiches of course. Or throw it in a salad.
You know what's really easy too? Quiche. Just get a pie crust from the store. Toss anything you have in to it, and fill with an egg/milk mixture. Bake it about 45 minutes. Less than 10 minutes actual work.
A lot of vegetables are really easy to make for yourself too. Try doing squash sometime. Just cut it open, remove the seeds, and bake it for an hour. Or microwave it for 10 minutes. Ridiculously easy, and do you have any idea how good squash is? It's really fucking good!
Or Broccoli. Boil water, blanch broccoli for 2 minutes, strain. You're done! You can even just rinse the pot out and put it back on the shelf. Honestly, the idea of paying someone to do something so simple, and get worse results than I could at home is repugnant to me.
As for dishes, there's a lot of good food that can be made in one pot. You don't need to be serving 4 course meals to yourself just to eat well. One pot, a plate and bowl, and your silverware. Is that really going to take you more than 10 minutes to clean? Unless you let your dishes pile up, there should never be that many in a single person household.
Your only barrier to feeding yourself well, cheaply and conveniently, is your own knowledge. If you're constantly looking up recipes and trying to figure out what to do, that can be stressful. But once you have a routine down, and work out of a well stocked kitchen it's all pretty trivial.
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