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Ditto. Plus, it is entirely feasible to put together a meal that is healthy and nutritious, even if it's not from scratch, by incorporating some convenience foods. One can appreciate good food without reaching the level of food-snobbery that frowns upon grabbing a rotisserie chicken on the way home. Real life involves the after work bustle of homework, extracurriculars, the PTA meeting, piles of laundry, or just catching up with the family; let's cut each other some slack if we decide to eliminate Mount Dishmore from the equation a few nights each week.
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Originally Posted by randomparent
Please. Plenty of from scratch foods are orgies of sugar and saturated fat, and plenty of commercial foods are healthy. An apple, no cooking required, is a whole lot better for me than home-made chocolate cake. This is not about health. It's about women shaming other women for not living up to standards that no longer work for many modern families.
My SO's brother is one of those that doesn't know how to cook, and he is a SAHD. If it wasn't for his wife (who has to cook after sometimes working doubles) or fast-food restaurants, I think that he and their daughter would starve. I've tried to give him recipes to follow - and I'm no Julia Child myself - and he still refuses to do it. He needs someone there showing him step by step how to do it. They have internet access, so I don't know why he can't just go on Youtube or even turn on one of the cooking channels and imitate what he sees there. I don't know that he doesn't care as much as he is afraid to do it.
My SO's brother is one of those that doesn't know how to cook, and he is a SAHD. If it wasn't for his wife (who has to cook after sometimes working doubles) or fast-food restaurants, I think that he and their daughter would starve. I've tried to give him recipes to follow - and I'm no Julia Child myself - and he still refuses to do it. He needs someone there showing him step by step how to do it. They have internet access, so I don't know why he can't just go on Youtube or even turn on one of the cooking channels and imitate what he sees there. I don't know that he doesn't care as much as he is afraid to do it.
The only way to learn is to try and fail. Fear of failure is sucky. I've been there, but not with cooking.
Finally, my son has a nice girlfriend who is a good cook. They cook together, but now the problem is they waste a lot of money by the WAY they cook. For example, they buy beef tenderloin to throw on the grill, and those salad kit bags with the dressing inside. In other words, too many expensive foods chosen only for convenience. They would be the kind to pick up $100 worth of groceries for dinner from Whole Foods. But that's a different thread, I guess.
My brother thinks he knows what he is doing and concocts such vile stuff. The last time I visited him, he put pepperoni, fake crab meat and cabbage into a frying pan, turned the flame up, then just left it there unwatched as he played guitar, cleaned up his room, and took a dump. Came back, poured balsamic vinegar over the whole thing, and then ate it? UGH.
I love cooking and learning new recipes and getting them to taste just right and watch people enjoy them.
My sister-in-laws idea of deviled eggs is to boil them, cut them in half and put them on a plate. She doesn't even put salt and pepper on them. Another sister-in-law doesn't add salt (or any seasoning) to her dishes when she cooks. As food cooks, it needs salt and other seasonings throughout the process or else the flavors don't develop. I end up over-salting her food and it just tastes like salty bland food.
These guys make me look like Julia Childs. Or maybe they are just smart; being purposefully bad cooks they are never asked to prepare anything.
I hate cooking; I hate touching meats, which is why I steer clear of them...I rather eat a plain cheese and ham sandwich than cook! I don't know the "basics" nor do I care to learn them. My dad had heart problems so he never put salt in our food, he would tell us to salt it ourselves per what we like...I rarely do...
I like to bake cakes, or cookies, but that's the extent of me being in the kitchen short of keeping it nice and clean.
Some people, like me, want nothing to do with cooking...it's not so others have to deal with it, or appear "chef-like", its simply something we don't enjoy doing. I enjoy it even less when it's "expected" of me to cook!
I love cooking. My husband doesn't even know where things even go in the drawers and cupboards when he empties the dishwasher.
I don't even let him near the BBQ. I learned not to let him get near the grill. Twice in the 34 years we've been married, he's tried. Once, we ended up with burnt black chicken wings, (didn't watch them) and the second time, undercooked stuffed pork chops that had to be put on the grill again. I finished cooking them.
My brother thinks he knows what he is doing and concocts such vile stuff. The last time I visited him, he put pepperoni, fake crab meat and cabbage into a frying pan, turned the flame up, then just left it there unwatched as he played guitar, cleaned up his room, and took a dump. Came back, poured balsamic vinegar over the whole thing, and then ate it? UGH..
Finally, my son has a nice girlfriend who is a good cook. They cook together, but now the problem is they waste a lot of money by the WAY they cook. For example, they buy beef tenderloin to throw on the grill, and those salad kit bags with the dressing inside. In other words, too many expensive foods chosen only for convenience. They would be the kind to pick up $100 worth of groceries for dinner from Whole Foods. But that's a different thread, I guess.
Can they afford it? If so what's the problem with putting a tenderloin on the grill?
Cooking is a dying art/skill. When I was a kid, everyone made homemade everything. It was really unbelievable, looking back. We took it for granted. Now, if someone makes a cake from a mix, that's spectacular.
It's not dying; if anything, it's trendy. There are entire cable networks and celebrity personalities devoted to cooking, foodie blogs are common, specialty high-end cookware/culinary accoutrement stores abound in upscale shopping areas, farmer's markets are commonplace in urban centers, cookbooks read like coffee table books, featuring sumptuous photography and food styling and charming anecdotes.
The bubble will likely burst. But, for the time being, an interest in food and cooking and whole food ingredients seems to be at a significant high.
It certainly is trendy, but I'm not sure if it's a bubble that will burst. There has been a lot of interest in cooking for well over 50 years, Julia Child was wildly popular by 1970 and she was accompanied by plenty of other television personalities (Graham Kerr, Jeff Smith, Joyce Chen, Chef Tell, etc). Before that cooking shows were mainly locally produced, but they were still popular.
Post WWII there were a lot of advancements in technology and chemistry that made storage of pre-cooked meals much more common, and a good portion of the population chose to go that route instead of cooking. In the 80's and 90's chain places sprung up all over the place giving those same people another option for eating. I don't think that means there's been a real change in how many people cook at home, just that there are more options. Any significant drop in people cooking at home occurred through the 50's and 60's.
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