"~patches~" > wrote:
> You'd be surprised at how many women have educations, have careers, and
> have kids yet still find the time to cook.

I think a lot of it has to do with time management and priorities. Here are
a few factors that I think lead to the "lack of time" perception:

- The siren call of technology. People think things like microwaving frozen
dinners is saving a lot of time, but often it is not. For a family of four,
in the time it takes to sequentially microwave four dinners, one "real"
dinner serving four could have been prepared.

- Programming every minute of the children's time. In driving children
around to all these activities, it doesn't leave much for cooking and
eating. Plus the different schedules of multiple children's activities can
make it impossible to have everyone home at the same time. There's something
to be said for giving a child some of their own unprogrammed time to do
things and interact with others in an unstructured way.

- Long commutes. Some people insist on having the "perfect" house and then
drive hours a day getting to and from work. That time could be spent on
other activities, cooking being but one of them. At some point one has to
say what good is the perfect house if you are never there.

Of course, if you don't know what you are doing cooking, and don't have the
interest, even an infinite amount of time isn't going to help.

I think a lot of those older cookbooks, such as "Joy of Cooking" and
"Mastering the Art of French Cooking" put a lot of emphasis on methods and
less on recipes than a lot of current cookbooks. The thought was if you knew
the methods, you could come up with your own recipes fairly easily. But it
seems as people these days clamor for recipes even if they have no idea how
to cook. They are not interested in methods, they want instant
gratification. You see that here on rfc quite often. I know sometimes I'll
post an idea (general methods and ingredients without amounts), and almost
instantly there's the "recipe please" requests. I can't respond, because for
the most part I don't use recipes.

There was a very short article in the Washington Post last week interviewing
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, that gave some advice that I think is very
good, kind of like the Nike "Just Do It" ads:

Washington Post: You had the benefit of cooking with family in the kitchen.
What advice do you have for people who are learning on their own?

Lidia: Don't become a slave to the recipe. Follow it the first time, yes.
But after that, don't worry so much about the measuring. Really.

Washington Post: Easy for you to say.

Lidia: Young people. They're busy working, they're bombarded with ethnic
cuisines and they try to do it all. They should focus on a single one --
like Italian. They should just get in there and do it.

(Full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...r=emailarticle)


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