Step one is to get Americans actually cooking for themselves again.
Most Americans eat out most of their meals, followed by frozen microwaveable shit. And, possibly worst of all, a "home cooked" meal to most Americans nowadays is still just a bunch of prepared stuff, just with a slight increase in effort.
A "home cooked Thanksgiving feast" to most Americans, for example, consists of a box of pre-made stovetop stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, a can of corn, a jar of gravy, and a turkey, usually unseasoned or seasoned with a bought spice blend. And they'll make this for their family and talk about how crazy it was to "pull it all together."
I don't know if America was always like this, or if there was a time where scratch cooking wasn't incredibly rare.
Perhaps it is correlated with women entering the workforce and becoming unwilling to actually work for their home.
Exactly true. My husband used to be a teacher in the inner city Cleveland schools. The home ec. teacher taught the children how to bake cookies: sliced frozen cookie dough! Now I could understand time constraint or test comparison. Mix all the ingredients pre-measured, and add your eggs and butter. Bake the from scratch ingredients and bake the sliced frozen and ask children to do a price comparison and taste analysis.
That is such bullshit. And it's sad that we even need to teach how to make prepackaged shit per the instructions, because that's still one step above just going out to eat.
This year our family did Thanksgiving at my mom's on the Sunday prior to the holiday, which meant it would just be me and my wife on the holiday proper. So I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves. I decided to take the approach my mom always did, which was pretty much exactly as I described in my first comment.
I couldn't believe how stupidly easy it is. Despite being a wide variety of foods with a lot of options, it was lightyears easier than a typical dinner I'd cook on a typical night. I couldn't believe this is what Americans (including my family) consider "cooking" nowadays. I thought it would be at least a little challenging juggling the dishes, but it's not.
My typical dinner consists of a meat, a vegetable (sometimes two), and a bread. I make the bread from scratch (breadsticks, rolls, buns, toast, etc.) and I always marinate or brine the meat (most important thing to do in order to get food that doesn't taste like what Americans consider "home cooked" and tastes "restaurant style"). And then I usually treat the vegetables like I would meat (most people are accustomed to boiled peas, steamed broccoli, etc., but if you just pan fry or roast them in a little fat with generous seasoning, they become good).
But I always have leftovers, which I try to incorporate into future meals to save time. Breadsticks, rolls, etc. keep in the fridge well and warm up good by steaming in the microwave wrapped in a damp cloth. Cooked leftover meats can be used in wraps, salads, on pasta, etc.
Ultimately, nearly all of my dinners are made from scratch, restaurant style, and complete. And once you get into doing it, it's really not hard or even much of a time commitment. And looking outside of my little bubble, that's when I realize how fucked modern society is.
This is why obesity, diabetes, and heart disease is running rampant. No one cooks these days. When I was young, there was only one fast food place : McDonalds. It was a treat if we ate out every few months. Now just in our locale we have: 5 sub shops, 1 roast beef, 4 chicken fast foods, 3 burger joints, 3 pizza (not counting mom and pop pizza shops), 2 donut, 4 Mexican, 4 miscellaneous fast food restaurants (Applebee’s, Panda Buffet, Chili’s, I-Hop). This is a relatively small suburban community. So you see why people are enticed to eat out, instead of cook. This not only is horrible for you, but also very costly.
Step one is to get Americans actually cooking for themselves again.
Most Americans eat out most of their meals, followed by frozen microwaveable shit. And, possibly worst of all, a "home cooked" meal to most Americans nowadays is still just a bunch of prepared stuff, just with a slight increase in effort.
A "home cooked Thanksgiving feast" to most Americans, for example, consists of a box of pre-made stovetop stuffing, a can of cranberry sauce, a can of corn, a jar of gravy, and a turkey, usually unseasoned or seasoned with a bought spice blend. And they'll make this for their family and talk about how crazy it was to "pull it all together."
I don't know if America was always like this, or if there was a time where scratch cooking wasn't incredibly rare.
Perhaps it is correlated with women entering the workforce and becoming unwilling to actually work for their home.
Exactly true. My husband used to be a teacher in the inner city Cleveland schools. The home ec. teacher taught the children how to bake cookies: sliced frozen cookie dough! Now I could understand time constraint or test comparison. Mix all the ingredients pre-measured, and add your eggs and butter. Bake the from scratch ingredients and bake the sliced frozen and ask children to do a price comparison and taste analysis.
That is such bullshit. And it's sad that we even need to teach how to make prepackaged shit per the instructions, because that's still one step above just going out to eat.
This year our family did Thanksgiving at my mom's on the Sunday prior to the holiday, which meant it would just be me and my wife on the holiday proper. So I decided to make Thanksgiving dinner for ourselves. I decided to take the approach my mom always did, which was pretty much exactly as I described in my first comment.
I couldn't believe how stupidly easy it is. Despite being a wide variety of foods with a lot of options, it was lightyears easier than a typical dinner I'd cook on a typical night. I couldn't believe this is what Americans (including my family) consider "cooking" nowadays. I thought it would be at least a little challenging juggling the dishes, but it's not.
My typical dinner consists of a meat, a vegetable (sometimes two), and a bread. I make the bread from scratch (breadsticks, rolls, buns, toast, etc.) and I always marinate or brine the meat (most important thing to do in order to get food that doesn't taste like what Americans consider "home cooked" and tastes "restaurant style"). And then I usually treat the vegetables like I would meat (most people are accustomed to boiled peas, steamed broccoli, etc., but if you just pan fry or roast them in a little fat with generous seasoning, they become good).
But I always have leftovers, which I try to incorporate into future meals to save time. Breadsticks, rolls, etc. keep in the fridge well and warm up good by steaming in the microwave wrapped in a damp cloth. Cooked leftover meats can be used in wraps, salads, on pasta, etc.
Ultimately, nearly all of my dinners are made from scratch, restaurant style, and complete. And once you get into doing it, it's really not hard or even much of a time commitment. And looking outside of my little bubble, that's when I realize how fucked modern society is.
This is why obesity, diabetes, and heart disease is running rampant. No one cooks these days. When I was young, there was only one fast food place : McDonalds. It was a treat if we ate out every few months. Now just in our locale we have: 5 sub shops, 1 roast beef, 4 chicken fast foods, 3 burger joints, 3 pizza (not counting mom and pop pizza shops), 2 donut, 4 Mexican, 4 miscellaneous fast food restaurants (Applebee’s, Panda Buffet, Chili’s, I-Hop). This is a relatively small suburban community. So you see why people are enticed to eat out, instead of cook. This not only is horrible for you, but also very costly.