Kaplods-
VERY interesting about your Indian coworker!

I have to admit...I was a bit offended by this post. It's not that I don't WANT to cook from scratch. i just don't have the time and/or energy. I have a disabled hubby to take care of after working my 40+hr job. So, if all I can muster is boiled spaghetti, jarred sauce, and salad from a bag...it's what we eat. I absolutely LOVE to bake from scratch. Cooking I need a recepie, but I like to do it. I make an absolutely to-die-for pot pie, but it takes ALL day. I ususally only make it once a year (well now I won't since I lost the recepie).

I just want people to stop to think what others have going on in their lives before a judgement is made. Most of us aren't lazy, just too busy/too tired.

Kerri

newFannie -
I am sorry to have offended you. I know that people are very very busy -that brings me to another thought - with all our labor saving devices, are we really saving any labor???? People are still feeling stressed out and cramming as many things as they can in a day............
But........I am sorry to have offended you.
I posted a concept/question that occurred to me, but I did not want to judge anyone.

No real offense taken. I know the point you are trying to make is valid. Just makes us who want to do more feel badly about themselves.

I agree that half of the "time" saving devices don't save any time. All that swiffer wet jet stuff...ugh. Went back to a regular old mop and bucket and my floors were prettier than ever. And I didn't have to go over the same spot 2-3 times. Swiffer has it's place, but not as a whole floor cleaner. Great for quick spills. But the dry cloths...I could not live without those. I clean everything with them. They are especially great in the bathroom on the floor. I take one in my hand and rub it all over the floor to get all of the hair picked up before I mop. Works wonders. And the citrus ones smell great. I also feel the same about the pop-up wipes (clorox, lysol, etc). These are great for every day maintenance. I wouldn't have a house without these items. And no...I am not a neak freak....my DH would fall out of his chair laughing at that one.
PLus with all of the "time saving" devices, we feel like we should be able to get even MORE done in the day. It is just not possible. We need time for ourselves, ladies.

Kerri

Maybe we don't need to do more. Maybe we just need to stop and put our feet up and look up at the sky or something.
Maybe that perceived need to do more is the reason we do fast food.
Trying to fit more things in every day.
I don't know how "they" evaluate such things but I remember hearing that the people who were "happiest" in the US were the Amish. Interesting....

Ok, I see your point. Though I don't think that's what this topic is about.

I don't think of cooking as being domestic, it hadn't occurred to me. I guess that's because I cook for myself, or cook for guests and not as an obligation to family structure and tradition in that respect. I choose to cook because it's enjoyable.

I guess we're looking at this from the perspective of a foodie, not a domestic goddess

missmess- CUTE dog!
yeeah I understand; if I could have my intention, coooking would be unnecessary. but then also eating would be unnecesary. We would just be photosynthetic, like plants. Or just plain not need anything! In an ideal world........

I've found I cook less during the summer. We don't have central air for one. Standing in a hot kitchen ain't my idea of a hobby...much less a fun one. LOL I eat out quite often sometimes because I'm always on the go, hardly home, and I reserve my energy for other projects than cooking. But I do FAST food VERY rarely. I prefer a sit-down restaurant. It's much more sane than driving home, cooking, eating, then heading back out to where I'd just been to finish up my shopping and other errands. Cause when I'm out, I usually plan many stops along a route, and once I do fix breakfast here, and we get out the door, it's well into dinner time before I get home, and we have to have lunch in there somewhere.

Now yesterday, it WAS Wendy's chicken nuggets and fries. But that's only because I bought a hose reel from Lowes and it was missing a wheel, back to Lowes (15 minute drive, wasted gas), get home with the new one, and the hose leaks. Grrrrrrrr So another wasted trip back. In the meantime, it's now after 1 p.m. and we gotta eat, and I still have other things to get done. So got a chicken nugget combo that we shared and ate on the way to Lowes. But then yesterday evening, it was Ruby Tuesday's salad bar while we were out again.

Maybe if I just installed a stove in my car.... At least I DO have A/C in there. LOL

Oh, that is funny -
That's like me with liquids.

Well, first off, I don't find cooking to be all that enjoyable. I don't like tweaking recipes or making stuff from scratch, or anything like that. I like to throw a few things together and eat it (a good amount of my diet is raw fruits and vegetables for this very reason), and when I do cook, I prepare enough to get several meals out of it (so it will be a while before I have to cook again).

Second, I only have a limited amount of time. If I have the choice between going out and getting in some physical activity or staying home and cooking up an elaborate meal from scratch, cooking is not going to win. I'd rather fix something easy and then go out and do something fun.

Honestly, I grew up in a family of fast food / low-ingredient foods...I don't know *how* to just whip up something from 20 things I just happen to have in my kitchen. The thought of trying to do so is anxiety-provoking.

I prefer simple meals....grilled chicken with rice and some veggies (five ingredients total if you include spice for the chicken and butter for rice or veggies)...pasta (yes, I can make my own sauce, but when I don't have an hour or two to prepare it, I'll do the bottled sauce...in that case, two ingredients).....soup and a sandwich, etc.

It's taken me a while to move from the staples of my parent's life (Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, frozen pizzas, fried everything because it's easy to cook that way) to somewhat cleaner, but still simple food.

I respect those who can make what I would consider "complicated" meals, but it does bother me a little bit to have someone look down on my simple "5-ingredient" meals that are healthy and simple just because they don't take a lot of time to make.

Ah well, to each their own. As long as we're working on improving whatever we're doing, it's all good.

Hey! Having read more of this discussion, I have to say I really belong with those who don't like to cook. I've never liked it a lot, although I can put together some really good dishes on occasion. Combine that with not having oodles of time, and there you have it.

Also, regarding the Amish being the "happiest"--anyone who wants to live the Amish lifestyle should try it for awhile before signing up!

It's always tempting to think that things were better in the good old days when people supposedly lived "more simply," but one person's good old days could be another person's oppressive existence.

My grandmother did her cooking on a wood stove when my mom was a child, and that is a whole technology in itself. Plus you had to make your own bread--that's how you got bread! Imagine having to bake every single morning for your family of six children... I don't envy her one bit!

As for cleaning--I like things clean, but if it comes down to a choice between a clean floor and going to the gym, or getting my contract done, the floor is going to wait. LOVE Swiffer! Will NOT go back to a mop and bucket!

Jay

I think I like to cook. But knowing how many vegetables are still in my CSA bag today, I am starting to think about changing my mind!
But---- I think I am also not ready for the 3 - tap faucet yet. (Hot water, cold water, People Chow...)

I think folks have brought up a lot of valid and interesting reasons why fast and easy is the norm for many people.

I can think of some other reasons too. Many people don't learn how to cook, either at home or in home ec. Parents often don't teach their kids how to cook and kids may have few or no responsibilities in the home. I know that when my mom was a kid (she was born in 1932 and grew up on a farm in pretty extreme poverty) she and her sibs did real work. The family relied on the children do do real work and contribute to the running of the household. Since there was massive daily cooking and intermittent preservation, butchering etc., there was no way that their mother could have done it all. So now lots of people leave home and move into an adult world without a lot of skills like cooking, budgeting, and menu planning to see them through.

Another thing to remember is that people, both on the farm and in cities, often had cheap domestic help, even families that were just middle-class. The domestic help could do a lot of drudge work and prep work. It's pretty uncommon for people to have that kind of help now.

Judging from my mother, grandmother, and elderly relatives, it was far more common for home cooks to have a pretty limited repertoire of recipes that they made over the course of their lifetime. Lots of people cooked because they had to, whether they enjoyed it or not. Lots of people had about 10-20 main dishes that they made all the time. I have some old cookbooks (from the 30s through 50s) with sections of "foreign foods" that are maybe 20 pages with recipes like "Risotto milanaise--an Italian way of glorifying chicken leftovers."

Before the 50s, I don't think there was the kind of "foodiness" that exists now, with thousands of cookbooks and magazines published every year, plus constant food on TV, nor was there the variety of ethnic and exotic foods, nor year-round availability of fresh ingredients that we have now. I think this variety and high expectation of what cooking entails can be really overwhelming for cooks. I mean, just going to the grocery store can be overwhelming because there are so many choices. If you don't know that the best food is often the simplest and quickest to prepare, or if you think good food = snootiness + inaccessibility, you may not even know where to start.

Wow, mariposita - what a thought-provoking post. And also amusing about the way to glorify chicken leftovers!
Now I am going to think about this (the high-expectation foodie concept) and also combining this with the need to use CSA bag contents. Could be an interesting result.