Cooking JOY, Despair, or What
I could spend HOURS COOKING cooking when I was in my twenties, and time or effort meant nothing, and cost was not an issue at the time either, because the husband liked me to cook and to use the best of everything. The husband also like to go to good restaurants of various ethnic origins.This and other options and propensities adds up to the a life long love affair with cooking and good food.
As time went by, my life CHANGED, and the people I cooked for changed. I did not think of myself as a “FOODIE, or a gourmet chef, or SPECIAL. My mother cooked and she did her VERY BEST with what she had which was limited. I did what my mother did but I had few LIMITATIONS. I lived in a huge city and had enough money for good food. One reason I had enough money for food, was because after shelter, food was at the top of the list. I just never restrict myself to a tight food budget. Sharing food was a way of life and that has never changed.
I loved to read and study, and accumulated over one hundred cook books in a few years. I learned about wines and meat cuts and serving and food values. Now we have the internet and a zillion cooking shows, and I have more time than ever, but I find myself wondering if cooking is worth the time and effort. Naturally, it depends on many things. I still like to read and study and try new recipes, but now I find people doing that on the web, or books, and I get pulled along. We live in a new world.
Now I can go to the grocery and buy many prepared or partially prepared foods. Mostly, I just LOVE all the OPTIONS and can adapt most recipes to the TIME I have or choose to spend. We have fish, meat, fruits, and veges fully or partially prepared. I can pick up from an endless array of hot or cold or frozen prepared food. The stores changed as the women went to work.
Yet, I STILL cook quite a bit. I take SHORT CUTS of all kinds at times, but I still cook. Is cooking a WASTE of time. Will kitchens become OBSOLETE or just for warming and storing?
Most of the people have access to my kind of stores now, and have many, many restaurants within a short distance. So how much cooking should we do? I am currently doing as much as makes me happy which is what I have always done. I cook what the stores don’t for the most part. That includes my special dishes and HEALTHY ingredients with no CHEMICALS .
How about YOU? Why do you COOK and how much time do you spend? I know more MEN are cooking and when they do, they usually do it well, I think. Times are changing so how is food done at your house?
Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in Senior Chatters
Hi Rose, yes I still cook most days, the reason being nobody in the world will ever convince me frozen or tinned veg tastes the same as fresh, so I always cook fresh veg, there is too much in a cauliflower for one serving so will use it for two days dinners and then make into soup, I do this with all veg I have left……..take today for instance, I had a frozen cottage pie from the freezer, looked yummy on the box so I bought it, not so, no comparison with home made……..baking I no longer tend to do except bread occasionally, now I could live on fresh bread and butter for ever, so do not bake it often for that reason, oh the carbs lol…….. would be so much easier to buy frozen meals when you are just catering for yourself but I have plenty of time so no reason not to cook, gives me something to do………will bake cakes for special occasions, or if my daughter asks me to……..Almond cake and Walnut and Treacle loaf my speciality……..XX
starlette, I thank you for taking the time to make this comment. I love the sound of that almond cake. I will google Treacle loaf. Sounds so English. I am really interested in foods that crossed the ocean from England to our colony and country.and the ones that did not.
As a single man,I cook or prepare nearly all meals I have…its too easy to fall into the trap of “why cook for one” or “its too much bother”,and then wonder why the kilos are packing on…….I,m happy to cook for a “friend” if I can entice her around to my lair,(heh heh),,,,, always seems to impress them 🙂 🙂
cappuccino. sounds good. Thank you for sharing and it is easy to gain weight eating out.I am impressed with you and you just mentioned you cook.
Hello Rose,
30 / 60 / 90 / 15= you can’t do much with those figures? Let me explain;
30min thinking, 60min shoping, 90min cooking, 15min eating that’s the average time a women spends for lunch / dinner per day.
If I would do that I wouldn’t have time for SC so I went back to old traditional meals from Russia Germany that we can enjoy for two days.
But there is still the shoping left which annoy me very much.
On the other hand the needed food doesn’t come on its one to my house.
You in the States take longer for shoping but short for preparing??
vonMichael. Going shopping could be fun, but our stores are making so many changes, shopping is a search mission, but we are having many farmers markets and fun ways to buy food.Do you still have small shops, if so shopping could be a lot of fun.
Try to see it as fun, enjoy the walk, and shop with plenty of time. I like to get free samples, and one store has a free coffee sample.