Alarming example of how the general public in America relies on processed/prepared/takeout/ restaurant foods

This afternoon I worked a table at my town’s health fair, representing a charity with which I volunteer. (We refresh and recycle leftover floral arrangements into smaller ones which are distributed for free to seniors in nursing homes/assisted living, meals-on-wheels clients, etc.)
Someone with a catering business had a nearby table, at which she handed out promotional potholders. Other than the customized business info on them, they were ordinary potholders with a loop for hanging. She told us she was dismayed by how many prospective customers asked what this foreign-to-them object WAS.

We now have a couple of generations of Americans who were raised, and live, mostly on nuggetized food, and baby carrots. I can envision this scenario playing out in a future generation, when the strange object will be a fork or a knife. Eat your pellets, dear.:fearful:

1 Like

g, not sure the point you’re making. What do pot holders have to do with processed food? Please :slight_smile:

People who used pots and pans and ovens and stoves know what potholders are for.

1 Like

But processed foods can be cooked in “pots and pans and ovens and stoves.” Oh yeah, I rarely use pot holders preferring kitchen towels :slight_smile:

I get your point, but the last time I owned a potholder, I was in Girl Scouts. I use an oven mitt to handle hot stuff. Maybe I’m not alone.

I have an oven mitt that I use for covering screaming hot pan handles that have come out of the oven. A lesson from @jfood.

You put the mitt on the handle? Wouldn’t it be simpler to put it on your hand, the way nature intended?

If the mitt is too small for your hand (as many are), putting it on the handle makes a lot of sense.

Also, it lets more than one person use it.

1 Like

This is a thing, now? You can’t share mitts? My immune system is pretty solid. I ride the subway without dying all the time.[quote=“eleeper, post:8, topic:4426”]
If the mitt is too small for your hand
[/quote]

That, I get. But my hands are pretty small. That and my city of residence are the only things I have in common with Donald Trump.

1 Like

My short hand. Once I take it out of the oven, I leave the mitt on the handle so I don’t touch it inadvertently.

1 Like

LAUGH. OUT. LOUD. :slight_smile: ,now I have to write more to satisfy the site’s requirements.

Well, you’ve put a new fear in my head. I’ve never worried about grabbing a hot handle 'til now.

2 Likes

I’ve touched one once. Not fun.

1 Like

The danger isn’t usually when using the stovetop since if the handle is one that gets hot (e.g., cast iron), you know you need to protect your hand. But if you’ve used a pot/pan with a heat-resistant handle that is always safe to touch when used on the stove, to bake or broil, its handle will remain very hot for some time after you’ve removed the piece from the oven. Reach for it without a mitt/potholder/towel, and you’ll get burned. Don’t ask me how I know.

I always keep a dish towel hanging over the oven handle and use it, folded, to grab hot stuff.

I am only one example. I eat mostly food prepared from scratch and have done my share of cooking. But I still don’t know what a potholder is :blush: until I googled it. I just always put pots on wet towels. It never occurred to me I need something else.

I have pot holders and use them. That is bizarre that people would be so clueless as to what they were.

My oven is currently on the fritz, but I would still rather cook/ eat at home than get take outfox health reasons and enjoyment.

Btw- cool concept of recycling arrangements. How nice!

1 Like

Me too. But then, I’m not American (and Google tells me it’s an American term). I’d assumed it was something to hold a garden pot and couldnt see how the things I have in the shed for holding small pots had a culinary use.

I have oven gloves hanging on the oven door. http://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-coastal-oven-glove/p2139618

The danger isn’t usually when using the stovetop since if the handle is one that gets hot (e.g., cast iron), you know you need to protect your hand <<<

Stupid me, after a few drinks and while in a rush with a lot of sides going at once, I grabbed the handle of a hot Wagner cast iron pan. Left a perfect in print of the handle on the palm of my hand. Definitely makes the top 10 list of dumb things I have done in the kitchen.

1 Like

My kids eat well because I cook a lot of good food. Some of their friends though live off chicken nuggets, pizza rolls & donut holes.

1 Like