Is cooking a new trend?

[Addie]

There are companies that will prepare a dinner for any size family. Whoever gets there first will pick it up and it will be hot. These companies do cook from scratch. Now I wouldn't call this food, made in the home, but darn close to it. When both parents are working, I am sure it is a lifesaver. Does beat tossing a sandwich or something out of a can at the family.

 

[larry_stewart]

For the kids school lunches, we sometimes make sandwiches. But they are so unpredictable that sometimes we buy a loaf of bread early in the week, then they dont want sandwiches that week , so the bread gets old and hard. So last year, my wife bought the pre-baked frozen breads that you just defrost / let rise, then pop in the oven and ' voile ', you got yourself a loaf of fresh ' homemade ' bread. This way we could use it when we needed it, and not buy something that may go bad. Even though not truly homemade, I think its kinda cool ( and she was probably the only kid in a school of 1000 kids) that had fresh baked bread for a school lunch.

 

[Addie]

For much of my life I was a stay at home mom and going out to dinner was a rare treat. Life is so different these days with two people sometimes making buckets of money, I would have met my husband after work for dinner too. Children change everything and parents should be able to put a decent meal on the table for the family, but that's just me.
We are both retired, and I'd much rather have a good meal at home, than to change from my slippers and go somewhere for food I can make better.

The fondest memories my kids have is the home cooked food they grew up with. They learned how to set a proper table and how to pass food politely to without any smart remarks. They also learned all of their table manners. There were rules that they had to follow. I can't think of ever going out to eat. I loved cooking and still do. I took my daughter out for lunch after her graduation. That was the only time. It wasn't until all my kids were grown and I was married to my second husband that I went out to eat often. And that was only on the night his boat came in.

Yeah, it is nice to go out once in a great while, but it can't be the memories you give your kids about a family sitting down together to share a home cooked meal.

 

[bakechef]

I love when people say they made Homemade Cookies, and all they did was open the pillsbury cookie premade package, and slice that cookie dough and put it on the baking sheet.
Im not knocking it, cause they taste great, and put in some effort, but I just ant consider that truly homemade.

My sister - in - law brags about her " Home made Baked ziti". You guessed it, boil the pasta, dump a jar of Prego in, then grate some cheese on top. Once again, not knocking her efforts, but my idea of homemade differs just a bit. I dont think she really realizes what I go through when I make something , compared to her preparing something which is pretty much premade.

But , who cares, its the thought that counts

Yeah the refrigerated dough is good, but I don't consider it homemade. I do give people credit for at least getting in the kitchen and making some kind of effort.

 

[CWS4322]

I worked with someone who bought a house without a stove. In the four years I worked with her, she never bought a stove. I have cooked over an open fire, on a wood cookstove, on my own woodstove, on a campstove, on a single element, on a conventional stove. What I have never done is figured out how to cook using only a microwave or a toaster oven.


I grew up in a family where the women (excluding my mom and paternal grandmother who grew up in a house with a cook and didn't learn to cook, but then, her mother didn't cook either), were all exceptional cooks. My aunt is an amazing cook (at 92). She is also the most skilled knitter I've ever met. Her DILs all competed with one another as young brides to cook "as well as their MIL" (although she never put that pressure on them), their daughters all cook (for the most part, from scratch), and their daughters are now into baking and love using the family recipes. I love to see that. The family tradition of food was passed down. If I hadn't spent so much time with my maternal grandma and my aunt, uncle, and cousins, I'd probably be a 5-ingredient (including S&P) cook. Last time I saw my brother (early December), he mentioned he wants to spend more time baking. I'm thinking when he gets back on the 16th, I might have to kidnap him and bring him out to CWS' family recipe bootcamp and teach him how to make the things Grandma taught me! The last time I tried to teach him how to make lefse, his turned out like shoe leather. His attempt at krumkake was a bit better.

 

[Addie]

Many years ago there was a show on and the cook's name was Donavan. I can't remember his last name. He had about twenty microwave ovens all around him and his spiel was how to cook whole meals including desserts in the microwave. To me, nothing ever looked like something I would want to eat. No gravy ever. Roasts were missing that nice crust that comes with baking. None of the food look appetizing.

Give me a stove. I don't care if it is gas or electric. Even a wood burning stove would suit me just fine. But don't give me a meal that was cooked in a microwave oven. That is not my idea of cooking.

 

[larry_stewart]

I was always jealous/ envious of my brother from a kitchen point of view. He always seemed / seems to be one step ahead of me. His kitchen always had the bells and whistles that I dreamed about. It was bigger, well known and sought after brand name appliances, multi burner gas grill/ griddle included stoves .... At one point all i had was a crappy 4 burner electric coiled stove, in which only 2 of the coils worked, and if you touched any part of the stove while it was on you would get an electric shock ( which was a real treat when stir frying or handling hot foods. But even in my darkest kitchen days as mentioned, it didn't make too much of a difference, cause I always was able to outcook him . There was never any open competition, and he ( and everyone else) knows Im a much better, more dedicated, creative cook than he is, but he always had the better equipment. It always went back to my analogy of golf, where if I traded clubs with Tiger woods , I got his clubs and he got my 30 year old $100 Spalding starter golf set, He would still be able to kick my butt ( probably blindfolded too). So, now being a little older ( and somewhat wiser), the fact that he has a better cooking situation doesn't bother me. I know may people ( including myself), who in far worse cooking situations have created some magnificent things. Which includes basically all the recipes we love and desire from our past, which were likely cooked on far less ' desirable' equipment and situations. Im not saying that the improved gadgets and techniques don't help. Im also not saying that I dont want them ( which is a subtle, or not so subtle hint for anyone planning on buying me a holiday gift ). Im just saying that we dont need to listen to those cooking snobs, chef wannabees or the clever marketing people who try and beat us down cause we don't have what they expect is needed to create some mighty fine things in the kitchen. Having some know-how, desire to learn , creativity and the willingness to take risks ( if it taste like crap, learn from it, toss it over the fence, and make whatever adjustments necessary to correct the problem).

Not sure where all of the above came from. Guess thats what happens when you are in a hotel and cant sleep in the middle of the night. Sorry for rambling

larry

 

[RPCookin]

Many years ago there was a show on and the cook's name was Donavan. I can't remember his last name. He had about twenty microwave ovens all around him and his spiel was how to cook whole meals including desserts in the microwave. To me, nothing ever looked like something I would want to eat. No gravy ever. Roasts were missing that nice crust that comes with baking. None of the food look appetizing.

Give me a stove. I don't care if it is gas or electric. Even a wood burning stove would suit me just fine. But don't give me a meal that was cooked in a microwave oven. That is not my idea of cooking.

I agree with you but for one qualification. My mother had a combination microwave/convection oven, and when she combo cooked a pork loin, it was delicious. Moist, tender, nice crust, and done in about half the normal time. but that is the exception.

Personally, I love cooking for my 91 year old father-in-law. He doesn't cook at all, because he is a farmer, and while my wife's mother was alive, he farmed and she took care of the house - they were a team, and that's just how it worked. Since she passed, he eats a lot of frozen prepared foods, so he really appreciates it when we have him over for home cooking.

I do Sunday dinner almost every week while he and my wife go to church. I do mostly scratch, but I'm not afraid to get a little assistance from McCormick gravy packets (I like the onion and mushroom gravies in particular, and he loves mashed potatoes and gravy). Today was all scratch - chicken fried chicken, brown rice mushroom risotto, and green beans. Sunday dinner is my favorite meal of the week, bar none.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Every child from my home, as an adult, cooks from scratch, and is very good at it. I'm very proud of how they feel it's a responsibility to give their own children wholesome and delicious food for every meal. They are keenly aware of good nutrition, and that the food needs to be enjoyable. And the grandkids, the oldest of which is 5, help in the kitchen but stirring, and putting ingredients into a bowl, etc. Good cooking is not a dying art in my family. I'm thankful for that.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Steve Kroll]

Frankly, we see it all the time and, while we foodies can lament it, it's just a different lifestyle. This has been a gradual shift going on for centuries. Part of the reason is economic. There are more two income couples now than ever. After both partners work all day in the workplace, I can see not wanting to cook. Especially if your parents never had the time/took the time to teach you how to cook.

I blame it on their parents. Both for the man and woman.

Don't get me wrong. I am not blaming anyone or lamenting the situation. Just making an observation and adding to the discussion.

However, to address one point, I don't point a finger at the parents. Case in point, I tried many times to interest my own daughter in cooking when she was growing up. I would try to have her help with meal preparation or shopping, but she had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever at the time. I would certainly hope that no one thinks me a bad parent for not giving her proper instruction, but it wasn't from a lack of trying.

I will say she has made tremendous progress with her cooking skills now that she is on her own. But at this point she's pretty much self taught (although she does call with occasional questions). I would like to think maybe I had some influence on her, but I can't take much credit for any success or failure.

On the flip side of the coin, my mother had zero interest in cooking and taught me nothing in the kitchen. I wouldn't consider her a bad parent. It just wasn't her thing. I am also completely self taught.

Parents only do what they can as instructors. We try to set a good example, but it doesn't always take. It's also up to the student.

 

[larry_stewart]

My daughter among the top 5 in her class of 250 cant boil an egg. Has the smarts, but cooking is just not her thing nor her interest ( except pancakes, she enjoys making them from scratch).

My son, on the other hand, not great at it, but puts a lot of effort .

Any time I get a phone call at work from my son, its always about cooking. ( how long to I keep it in the oven for? What temperature? whats the name of that spice ..?) I think its hysterical, cause Im not talking most the time he calls, Im talking %100 they tell me he is on the phone, its a cooking question, and I love it

 

[GotGarlic]

I know people from all over the spectrum, from those who make some of their own ingredients to those who make "semi-homemade" meals to those who use pre-prepped or cooked supermarket foods to those who eat out most of the time. It all depends on many factors - interest, budget, family composition and schedules. I did many things differently when I was working and going to school than I did when I was just working and what I do now that I just volunteer for whatever I want to do. When we had exchange students, I did make a special effort to have home-cooked meals most of the week, but with sports and band schedules, we did the best we could.

It all just depends.

 

[GLC]

An associate (who himself cooks well) lives in a new, upscale urban development. You know the kind. $250,000 and a Yard that you (literally) can't swing a cat in. All the houses have well-appointed kitchen. Many have very high dollar commercial style equipment. But the vast majority never cook. Nothing.

Aside from the expense, There's something fundamentally human missing there. The act of turning raw materials into good food. The laying on of hands that results in nourishment provided to others. Those are expressions that cannot be conveyed by paying a restaurant bill. The communion of the meal itself, gathered together around the home hearth; that is the thing that combined connection and practical service and says that here is caring and appreciation and identification as partners of the hearth.

You know, when archeological sites where paleo peoples lived, the seasonal rock shelters where the useful and plants and animal foods were to be had at that time of year, the feature that most often and most prominently identifies it is the hearth, the pit with blackened rocks and ash layer. When an excavation is proceeding horizontally, that ash lens is what says that here is where they gathered. It's not unusual for every single artifact to have been used to obtain, prepare or cook their food. That hearth is the center around which their lives moved.

And without that functioning hearth, where is the center of the home? We know the answer, and it is a sadness.

 

[CarolPa]

My mother didn't allow me in HER kitchen. She just insisted I didn't know how to cook. If I would try, she would take over because I was doing it wrong. She never wanted me to leave home and wanted me to always need her. I was not allowed to do anything at home because I "didn't know how." When I finally moved out on my own I learned on my own. After 3 weeks in my first apartment I decided I'd better clean it because no one else was going to do it. The first time I did laundry I put undies in with blue jeans and had to wear tattle tale grey undies. One thing I CAN say, I never cooked the turkey forgetting to take the bag of giblets out of it!!

 

[CarolPa]

One time my daughter told me the ladies at work wanted to have a cookie exchange. I baked some cookies for her to take. When she came home that day she was laughing. She said the rest of the ladies cookies were terrible! And they were. Most of them were the refrigerated cookies that you just slice or break off and bake. They tasted like they had a lot of preservatives in them. I think they all thought everyone else would bake from scratch.

My daughter never wanted to learn to cook or bake. She survived. She is married and they eat. They do a lot of cooking on the grill. She did New Years Day at her house one year and invited everyone over. Everything was good. I was surprised.

My son is also a good cook. He does most of the cooking at his house. I didn't teach him. He belongs to a social club where the men do a lot of cooking and I think he learned from them.

 

[Addie]

My oldest daughter was in the kitchen with me when she was five. She learned to fix breakfast and lunch for her siblings. My two boys went with their father as soon as they were old enough to the summer jobs he was working as chefs. They learned the hard lessons of the professional kitchens. Every morning off to work they would go, in the afternoon it was their play time. As a result they are all good cooks.

No, cooking is not just a new trend. It has always been part of society. But now that we are rediscovering that being in the kitchen in not a chore, but fun, we are passing it along to the next generation.

 

[Addie]

My mother didn't allow me in HER kitchen. She just insisted I didn't know how to cook. If I would try, she would take over because I was doing it wrong. She never wanted me to leave home and wanted me to always need her. I was not allowed to do anything at home because I "didn't know how." When I finally moved out on my own I learned on my own. After 3 weeks in my first apartment I decided I'd better clean it because no one else was going to do it. The first time I did laundry I put undies in with blue jeans and had to wear tattle tale grey undies. One thing I CAN say, I never cooked the turkey forgetting to take the bag of giblets out of it!!

That is so sad. Both you and your mother missed out on a chance of experiencing some wonderful times together. It is like my DIL. None of her girls were allowed in her kitchen either. But just think how surprised she is that you can learn all by yourself.

 

[bakechef]

My brother's kids are good cooks. He has a son and a daughter in their 20's and they can both cook. They share a house and due to a tight budget they cook almost everything that they eat, they even make most of their own bread. Their dad, my brother never showed any interest in cooking, but after his first divorce, I helped him learn. They learned most of the basics from their mom who is a great scratch cook.

 

[GotGarlic]

You know, when archeological sites where paleo peoples lived, the seasonal rock shelters where the useful and plants and animal foods were to be had at that time of year, the feature that most often and most prominently identifies it is the hearth, the pit with blackened rocks and ash layer. When an excavation is proceeding horizontally, that ash lens is what says that here is where they gathered. It's not unusual for every single artifact to have been used to obtain, prepare or cook their food. That hearth is the center around which their lives moved.

This is a little over the top, imo. Society would not have progressed very far if we all still had to hunt, gather, prepare and cook our own food. And just because some people take shortcuts doesn't mean that families don't eat together.

 

[Andy M.]

...However, to address one point, I don't point a finger at the parents. Case in point, I tried many times to interest my own daughter in cooking when she was growing up. I would try to have her help with meal preparation or shopping, but she had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever at the time. I would certainly hope that no one thinks me a bad parent for not giving her proper instruction, but it wasn't from a lack of trying...

I probably didn't express my feeling as well as I could.

A parent can't force a child to take an interest in cooking. I have two daughters who never did. But they saw my ex and me cooking for them and maybe it registered in the dim reaches that this was a good thing. My older daughter now cooks well for her family and my younger daughter is developing a real interest in cooking and food culture.

If a child sees a parent with no interest in cooking, that could influence them as an adult.