Link here:
The article says that in the 60s America began working more; women
entered the workforce in huge numbers in the 70s; now the children of
those busy parents are grown and don't know how to cook.
As a stay at home mom I try to make food from scratch for all the usual
reasons - health & nutrition, budget, aesthetic. (We do also eat at
restaurants or takeout a couple of times a month, but not so much as a
family, just at lunch or the 2 of us on a date) As a food commenter and
cookbook reader I'm most interested in helping people get food on the
table these days - I've got no time and little energy for elaborate
meals anymore. But I'm still interested in every day food. (No wonder
the new magazine of that name is such a hit - people need this info)
Tonight's dinner was a supper soup based on Pam Anderson's recipe from
How to Cook Without a Book - I did it w/o the book, natch: sausage,
kale and chickpea soup, using stock I'd made earlier in the week in the
pressure cooker. Cooked the soup in the PC too to speed up the process.
Blanched some broccoli for the kids (frozen organic florets) and put
out tomato slices, black olives and whole wheat toast as well. It was a
very simple meal but hubbie adored the soup. If I'd wanted to be
fancier I'd have come up with an interesting bread like cornbread (Mark
Bittman's recipe made with yogurt is easy and delicious).
Last night a friend cooked for us - he evidently remembers some meal I
made for them in 1998 or so, before I had kids, and he was very
concerned that I wouldn't be impressed. Are you kidding? He roasted an
enormous chicken stuffed with fresh thyme; served absolutely fresh
boiled corn on the cob, fresh spinach sauteed with garlic, and a
cucumber salad with a home made marinade he got out of Joy of Cooking.
Dessert was black bottom cupcakes - home made. I was *really* impressed
and told him so.
How can we RFCers pass on our skills to the rest of the benighted
world? Even in Lebanon, my father's country, middle class women don't
cook anymore. They drive a couple of hours to Syria to buy cheap home
cooked traditional dishes and bring them back to serve reheated. Only
my countrified cousins cook in their backwater village; my mother used
to commission one cousin to make stuffed grape leaves for Mom's Beirut
dinner parties.
Marion Cunningham's book "Lost Recipes" is a plea for cooking and
eating at home; I've also got a review copy of a book about why eating
family dinner together will cure all sorts of social ills and make your
children brilliant and well-adjusted. (can't remember the name, sorry)
Keep up the good work, RFCers, and let's organize our neighbors,
friends and relations to do the same.
Leila