Cooking a lost art?

[caseysmom]

I still enjoy cooking, unfortunately I also enjoy eating. I am not a very good baker though.

Its a shame how much people go out to eat, it is so much healthier to cook at home most of the time.

[NicoleLJ]

Cheaper too. And I find much tastier. My fiance works at a department store and on lunch break everyone goes to fast food places. He heats frozen meals that I made him. When he is heating it everyone is begging him for some. He says he much prefers the meals I make and freeze over fast food any day.

[Grace]

I don't do baking - and I don't buy bakery products at the store.

I do love to cook from scratch though. I love doing Baked Beans - baking them all day. The house smells so good. Most of my cooking is from scratch.

I do buy some frozen dinners - for those nights when we are on-our-own without leftovers. I'll have a salad - he has a frozen dinner.

[Karen]

I think it is just as much that time is a lost item these days, as cooking does take some planning ahead - one needs to have ingredients on hand, and some time to accomplish! When both parents in a couple work, for example, by the time everyone gets home, there's not time to make much in the way of food, or energy, if one has not done the shopping and prep ahead of time.

[Freedom]

I love to cook, most of my friends find it "intriguing," lol. Yup, the ready made supermarket meals are a big thing.

A year or so back, there was an email, you sent a recipe to the last person on the list, deleted that name, added your name to the top of the list, and sent it on to 10 people. Idea was, you would receive recipes from folk you didn't know, so most likely the recipes would be new to you. I was SO excited!

I got replies from all 10 people, they don't cook, they had no recipes, were not sending it on, and what did I think this was the 1950's?
******

Funny, I made a chocolate cake tonight as well! I managed to do something I have never done - poured batter into the first cake pan and then proceeded to drop the bowl into it! SPLASH! (or should it be splat?) Batter over me, the counter, the coffee maker, the tile backsplash, man, I haven't made a mess like that in YEARS! He he. We still had a 2 layer cake; but it was a lot lower than normal.

[slick]

I am a rotten cook. I try and try but I can even botch up a slow cooker recipe. These days with working such long hours, I don't have time to cook from Mon-Fri. Instead, I take salads and fruit to work and when I get home it's workout time then to bed. I never get fast food or packaged food. When the mood hits me, I'll cook up a batch of something and freeze it for lunches/early dinners. Of course, not having anyone to cook for but me doesn't give me much incentive to be experimental.

[Medusa]

I love to cook but I cook simple meals. I refuse to cook with or eat canned vegetables except tomatoes. There's something about chopping onions and garlic and filling the kitchen w/that aroma that gets me excited. When I was working long hours, I'd cook meals for the week ahead and the house would smell like a restaurant. I've been alone for so many years but I'm just now learning how to cook in smaller portions. Even if I buy a pot roast I cut it in half and get two meals out of it. My friends like coming to my house b/c they know that I'll always have soup or stew or sauce of some kind that I can reheat, toss a salad and add some crusty bread and they've got a good home cooked meal. I do on occasion succumb to eating a frozen pizza or some other frozen food but that's usually on a really busy day when I don't have too much time and the fridge and cupboards are low.

[carole]

I really enjoy baking, and the more you do it the better you get at it, i have some wonderful recipes, some that always turn out great, and i stick with those, again i love to eat it too, so as i am always watching what and how much i eat, don't do it too often, but i do make my Weight Watcher breakfast muffins once a week, they are delicious with currants and sunflower seeds in them,yum think i might go and make some today.
One thing i am not is a gourmet cook, just a plain everyday home baker.

I also enjoy watching cooking programmes, we have NZ celebrity chef on and NZ home baker which i prefer to watch on at the moment, and they have some divine every day recipes on them.

[Randi]

I cook from scratch, too. It's healthier, cheaper and yummier - you know exactly what's in it. Furthermore, you can cook huge portions and freeze, so one day when you're busy or just don't feel like cooking, all you have to do is heat it.