Julia Altshuler wrote:

> That led to a discussion with Jim about how, for some people, opening
> packages of convenience foods and combining them is cooking. They might
> have grown up in cooking traditions that involved not very plentiful
> farm food, times when there wasn't much variety, when food in winter
> meant a lot of bacon and cabbage. For them, it wasn't a choice between
> fresh pineapple and canned in syrup, it was a choice between canned and
> never having tasted pineapple before. Jell-o, which strikes me as
> humorous, might have been the most excellent convenience food, a way of
> serving something elegant for friends. Making it today for a holiday
> potluck might be nostalgia and a best offering.

There was an entire long thread discussion on Chowhound about something
just like this. If I recall correctly, the party hostess served a soup
everyone raved about and when one guest later asked for the recipe it
turned out to be doctored up canned ingredients. Yet everyone loved the
soup... so could that be considered "cooking" or just opening cans? It
was an interesting debate. I'm going to see if I can find the link to
the discussion....