Bonus: The I Hate to Cook Book with Sarah Archer (or, how to feed yourself and your loved ones even when everything is terrible)

If only Peg could've got her hands on an air fryer... Side note, I also have ADHD and would be screwed without my stick blender

I finally rawdogged a can of creamed corn yesterday after thinking about this episode for weeks. Thank you, Sarah 💕

I didn’t see others make this comment so maybe others don’t have this experience, but church cookbooks came strongly to mind. the description of this cookbook - from the canned soup dominance to the tiny useful tips of kitchen or child care all done in wry tone with comedic flourishes - sounds exactly like the church books that me and my cousins have from our aunts and grandmothers Women’s Circle printed cookbooks from the 70s and 80s. We can visit them and see our beloved ancestors communicating with each other across editions, eat the food they made for us long after they have passed, and be reminded of their wisdom and wryness through clever notes and shortcuts. We send the pages to each other on Facebook, missives from our loved ones 50 years later. Gotta go get some casserole, ta for now

One of my favorite people had this cookbook. Seeing this brought back good memories of her. Thank you!

This book sounds like exactly what I need, but I am vegetarian. Can any vegos here speak to their experience with the book or recommend something similar with less meat recipes? Ideally something funny

The molasses side bar makes me wonder if you know about the great molasses flood of 1919?

i really needed that arrested development reference of, "the fact that you call it pop pop tells me you're not ready". it's drawing me out of my depression

After listening to this episode I remembered that my late grandmother had gifted me a copy of this book before she passed away at 105 in 2019. I believe it is a first edition and am so thrilled to have learned more about it from this episode before leafing through her dogeared pages and checking for her notes! All of which are either "true" or "good" marked next to particular recipes. I'm going to do a cooking stream on twitch of some of her marked recipes and also some of the wild cards that look simultaneously delicious, insane, and completely lost to time. I think it will be a fun way to honor my grandmother, who I wish I had spent more time asking questions about her long life. Thanks again for this episode!

There is a modern spiritual successor to "I hate to housekeep" called "how to keep house while drowning" by KC Davis. It's not as snarky but rather an incredibly compassionate guide to keeping your head above water while struggling with life. It saved my life as a chronically ill and chronically guilty stay-at-home mom

I don't even have anybody else I need to feed besides myself and I feel like this. I'm listening to this while making a gigantic vat of soup so I don't have to cook for a while. I'm so tired from work, and I still have to eat a dinner. This was perfect. I'll be the third Sarah if you need one.

This episode felt like a big hug. Thanks ❤️

I loved this episode! I had no idea what this was about. Never knew a cookbook could send me through so many emotions.

early mention of girl dinner. the muffin tin flight lol

" to women who do like to cook, bless her and bow low. " LOL me to my husband because I am this woman I HATE cooking SO MUCH and thank fucking god my husband is a chef.

So I’m just going to say, I’m not a Kay but I’m a McKay…is there anything there??? Also, my college roommate made a post a few years back asking for easy cream based sauces. We had “family dinner” when we shared an apartment once a week and traded off who cooked, and she loved my spinach enchiladas. The sauce is cheese, sour cream, and cream of mushroom soup, so I replied to the post letting her know where she’d tasted it so she’d know it was good. Her *mom* replied, “Here’s a good one that doesn’t involve condensed soup.” Roommate texted me a few days later to let me know she’d made my sauce because she’d remembered how delicious it was, and she was sorry for her mom’s response. Condensed soup is delicious as a sauce base!!!

These are my favorite episodes! Thank you for bringing the joy today!

I am a woman who enjoys cooking but came to it late. And i fully attribute my love of it to my mother who hates to cook, who upon my dad proposing, told him she'd marry him if he did all the cooking. Being brought up in a house where dad is the cook and house work was shared equitably was great and allowed me to slowly fall in love with cooking once i moved out and lived by myself (cooking for myself!). Mum still despises cooking and dad still learns new recipes for her now 😊😅 So this episode and its discussion were wonderful for me 💜 Love it when Sarah tackles the history of domesticity, women's lib and all that comes with it.

I absolutely loved this episode. I’m a dietitian who doesn’t really like to cook and now a mom of 2 who doesn’t really like to cook and all of this was really validating.

Looking up “kitty foreman crashing out” on Tik tok pairs fabulously with this episode btw

I came back to say that tonight I will have Sweep Steak. With carrots and potatoes.

“Viciousness in the kitchen. The potatoes hiss.” - S. Plath

Sarah, I liked how you wondered if Sylvia Plath would have read The I Hate to Cook Cookbook. (My mom, born 1931, mother of four children, had this book. I wish I still had her copy. )

If you like this episode, the book/podcast Struggle Care by KC Davis might be for you

Oooh ooh, do How to Cook a Wolf, by MFK Fisher next! (I didn't read the other comments first, possibly this has already been said.)

This is a lovely spiritual ancestor of Ruby Tandoh’s Cook As You Are which is full of “it doesn’t matter” and “here’s a recipe for when you’re tired” and “recipes with no chopping” - and, in her author’s bio, says she loves podcasts about maligned women of the 90s 🫶🏻

I cooked every recipe in this cookbook ala Julie & Julia. It was great fun, and a lot of the recipes were actually pretty good. I am the proud son of a Peg Bracken sort of cook. They were of the same generation, and she did all the housewifey things of the time, but also enjoyed lunch with her girlfriends, drinking a can of beer while playing bridge, and was an enthusiastic reader. She also had a Peg Bracken sense of humor, and served us lot of stuff made from recipes that she ripped out of magazines at the beauty parlor (where she went every Friday Morning of her adult life)

sarah squared chats are my favourite. I didn’t expect to tear up in this episode but i did

My mom makes molasses cookies all the time! In the spirit of easy recipes, a great smoothie can be made from soy milk, bananas, and molasses. Enjoy!

Loved this episode. It was exactly what I needed to hear today. Thanks Sarahs!

This is a great episode! Cheerful banter and a delightful topic! Listening to the Sarahs is so pleasant, this is my new favorite episode to fall asleep to. I've played it at least 5 times already! ❤️

thank you for the text of this sweet episode description, too — it would have made the younger version of myself (who was very bad at feeding herself for many reasons) feel very seen ❤️

This is so sweet, thank you for this bit of joy and community. It’s so hard to find joy and have energy for community, but both are soso important

Single woman here who hates to cook and clean. I loved this and immediately sent an apology message to my mom. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to put a meal on the table every night when I can barely feed myself.

Loved this! Would also love a Ms Piggle Wiggle episode!

Sarah, pretty sure most iterations of tuna noodle casserole have cream of mushroom or another cream of soup in them. Keeps in line with the canned theme!

Two merch saying ideas from this episode and the Alice Kyteler episode: “Holding hands in (/across?) the pantry” and “If you don’t have dead fingernails, live ones will do.”

I have so much more to say about Peg and Julia than can be reasonably be put here. So I'll just say this: My parents lived on a USAFB in N. Dakota in 70s. For fun they went Outdoors a lot. And they made a lot of Julia Child recipes. Minot ND was not a great going out town. They also formed an international food dinner party club where they'd get together with other couples and make borscht or sushi or whatever once a month. They have a scrapbook of menus. They tell a lot of stories about cooking from that time, and I think their experiences of becoming middle class educated people from very working class families are situated in Child's books. That, and the military stationing them overseas. It's a fascinating part of their lives. (And contrasts a lot of my mom's experiences as an educated woman that are very Peg Bracken aligned.) This was wonderful. Thank you!

I love to cook, and I'm from a family that loves to cook. Tons of from-scratch meals have I prepared in my lifetime. Last year, work consumed me to the point where I'd just hit the wall, too tired to cook. One day I stumbled across a 2-ingredient chicken dinner. Chicken breast (or thigh. It doesn't matter) and a can of cream of celery or mushroom soup. Put the chicken in a baking dish, cover with the undiluted soup, and bake. Folks, this was so delicious. Thanks, Campbell's soup!

Everyone loves the “this is a lot of things I wanted to talk about” episodes!

I'm looking forward to the Sarah Squared Peg (all yours!) episodes where we learn how delicious these recipes are!

could we please get a sylvia plath episode? i would be eternally grateful!!

If y’all wanted to read this for Christmas I would perhaps adore that!! Loved listening to this while building a home in the sims after a state regulated edible because I’m sick but I’ve been asleep all day so it’s 3am.

Lol “hopefully 2025 is off to a good start” hurts a little bit

I inherited the "I hate to cook" and "hate to housekeep" books from my grandma and enjoyed reading the humor and vintage kitsch when I was 20. I assumed that my grandma who loved to cook had them for the humour but now that I have kids and my unpaid job before and after my paid workday is to feed my family every day, I realize that enjoying cooking as a hobby is an entirely different beast. I still remember the advice that my grandma used was to go out and have fun with your friends and then rush home and start cooking onions right before your husband comes home so it smells like you've been cooking for ages.

Delighted by this episode which made me turn away from the news for an hour and was the perfect pocket of joy and affirmation of women being in it together 🤌

sarah and sarah are one of my fav host combos for this show. along with sarah and blair 🥹

This reminded me of another fascinating cookbook to read, but not necessarily use. A friend recently showed me Salvador Dali's 1973 cookbook Les Diners de Gala and it is wild!

I think this is one of my favorite episodes of all... and I've heard them all :)

I grew up eating from this book! My mum used it all of the time. The cockeyed cake was my birthday cake until I moved out of the house. I still make soup over meat all the time. Thank you for this deep dive!

SM your arrested development references are the best!!

oh. this wrecked me a little ♥️

Listening to this while doing my own household chores was perfection. As a gal who likes to cook I volunteer to be the K ✋🏻

Lmao the opening statement. Perfect.

wow this made me cry and also call my mom at 630 am to talk abt jacques pepin, much love from a girl who became a single stay at home mom at 22 during the pandemic 😭🩷

This felt like sitting around the table sipping coffee with friends. It made me cry, which i desperatly needed. Thank you Sarah(s).

you’re right, 2025 is already off to an exciting start!… 🤣😫🫠

Wholly unrelated to the episode: here in Oz there was recently a TV show on the abc (our national broadcaster) called Kitchen Cabinet. Hosted by beloved journalist Annabel Crabbe, she would interview currently serving politicians while they cooked together. It was something else.

Honestly, two of those I Hate to Housekeep tips are tips I would use… should I buy this book??!

This was so good,!!! What a wonderful witty and in depth discussion of a very relevant and engaging topic 💕

This brought me so much joy! I collect old cookbooks and (etiquette books) and found “The Complete I Hate to Cook Book” and her etiquette book “I Try To Behave Myself” years ago. I’m always on the look out for her housekeeping book. I’m so happy to see others also love her work as much as I do!

I still remember from my mother’s copy of The I Hate to Cook Book (which I read repeatedly as an odd child) a line about letting something cook “while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.”

Oh my god I have loved Peg Bracken ever since I unearthed a dusty old copy of the IHTC cookbook at my great aunt’s house, and every time Sarah has name dropped the book on either of her shows I’ve squealed a little bit inside. I’m SO excited to listen to this!!! I hope to hear some mention of how brilliant the subtitles of each of the chapters are (eg “Potluck suppers: ~or~ How to bring the water for the lemonade”), and how Peg’s words are so perfectly complemented by Hilary Knight’s hilarious illustrations.

Paused just to say lipton onion soup in sour cream is the best! My nana always did that in a bread bowl for potlucks to much fanfare and people go nuts when I do it now! Thank you for the love of my family staple!

I loved this episode so much I immediately started it over as soon as I finished. Phyllis Diller's book would be a very good snarky companion piece to this

I love Peg Bracken, too, although I was sad to read in one of her non-house-keeping/cooking-related books of essays that she was opposed to feminism. Seemed odd to me because her other books certainly had a sort of feminist tone.

This was such a comforting listen, it's like the opposite of those "quit whining, become a badass" self-help books. I may need to go out and pick up a copy.

I love Peg Bracken so much. Years ago I bought and read her "I Hate to Housekeep" book and actually implemented two specific things she recommends and think about them semi-regularly. (She says that if you notice some random little thing that's bugging you, like a smear of jam on a wall, just take care of it immediately, if you tell yourself you'll come back with a bucket of suds and wash the whole wall you never will; and she says that if you periodically go on cleaning jags, start in a different spot each time because that way you'll deep clean different parts of your house.) What I really love is her breezy, "half-assed is good enough!" tone, though.

i have never clicked on anything so fast, title is a MOOD