Why does anyone bother cooking anymore?

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I don't mean people who enjoy it or want to make a special recipe or an occasional experimental omelete, I mean the everyday meal grind of preparing and cooking meat, cutting vegetables, finding spices, getting pots and pans greasy, etc. etc. What the point? Have you been to the Supermarket lately? Stores don't just sell frozen food anymore or take week old chicken and pour bar-bque sauce over it and sell it as a "gourmet" meal, they have seriously gone out of their way to prepare an astonsihing array of meal choices, many of which are healthier and tastier than anything you can prepare yourself -- and they're cheap.

What the hell am I doing squeezing tomatoes and smelling packets of ground chuck?

 

[riff]

Cooking is fun. It's like growing things. Taking something raw and transforming it inot something new

 

[Marxist]

I don't mean people who enjoy it or want to make a special recipe or an occasional experimental omelete, I mean the everyday meal grind of preparing and cooking meat, cutting vegetables, finding spices, getting pots and pans greasy, etc. etc. What the point? Have you been to the Supermarket lately? Stores don't just sell frozen food anymore or take week old chicken and pour bar-bque sauce over it and sell it as a "gourmet" meal, they have seriously gone out of their way to prepare an astonsihing array of meal choices, many of which are healthier and tastier than anything you can prepare yourself -- and they're cheap.

What the hell am I doing squeezing tomatoes and smelling packets of ground chuck?

How much money do you make?

For me, it's simple economics and taste.

I cook better than most restaurants I've been to and the costs are somewhere around 10% of what said restaurant would cost.

I'd only eat that pre-made grocery store stuff if it was free and i only possessed a microwave.

 

[SexySlut2]

I like cooking.
I like to get my kids involved with it.

 

[Wiggles]

I've 'heard' that it's cheaper to buy the raw products and put them together.

I'd rather pay more for easy accesibility.

 

[clit_licker30]

So as not to weigh 300 pounds US 136.36 kilos

 

[freakygirl]

I love cooking...

Thursday I baked a ham.. had leftover ham sandwiches and navy beans (made with the ham bone) for dinner on Friday, made ham and cheese omellets on Saturday night and tonight we finished off the ham with fresh corn on the cob, hot rolls and a fresh salad.

On occasion I use the "ready to feed" shit.. only because sometimes it's all I have time for. Especially during baseball season. Sometimes I splurge and buy those over priced, full of no good stuff hot dogs at the baseball park.

 

[CarolineOh]

Not to rain on your parade, but the increase of availability of prepared foods in supermarkets has been accompanied by a similar rise in the incidence of food borne illness. So choose carefully.

 

[truegentleman]

I eat the ready made meals sometimes, but they are loaded with sodium. Plus I enjoy cooking my own food. I like to experiment with different recipes.

 

[Spinaroonie]

It's what we do. It's a culture thing. We're taught the best meals are made when you cook.

of course, I'm a college student so I eat at a cafeteria every day.

 

[tortoise]

I love to cook; it relaxes me, and allows me to express my creative side. I would cook even if I had access to amazing pre-made gourmet meals... it's all about the process (though the end result is generally pretty damn tasty, if I do say so myself).

 

[heterotic]

How 'bout neither? I open a can of tuna fish and scoop it out with unsalted saltine crackers to reduce the sodium. I've been thinking about getting a rice cooker and starting to make sushi instead, though. It would be more complete nutrition, and healthier. Probably taste a lot better too, once I got the hang of it.
I think many people have a drive to create something, then enjoy it. That's fulfilled well and often by preparing meals.

 

[freakygirl]

How 'bout neither? I open a can of tuna fish and scoop it out with unsalted saltine crackers to reduce the sodium. I've been thinking about getting a rice cooker and starting to make sushi instead, though. It would be more complete nutrition, and healthier. Probably taste a lot better too, once I got the hang of it.
I think many people have a drive to create something, then enjoy it. That's fulfilled well and often by preparing meals.

I haven't had store bought tuna in ions.. is it still as nasty as it used to be?

 

[heterotic]

I haven't had store bought tuna in ions.. is it still as nasty as it used to be?

Oh, it's great now! To be thrifty, you can buy the basic tuna in water or vegetable oil; but then you can splurge, go gourmet, and get filet in olive oil or spring water; or completely delux and go for the albacore. The possibilities are endless.

 

[Guest]

 

[JazzManJim]

Aside from having to learn how to cook so as to help Mom in the kitchen feeding the unrolu mob that is my family, I still cook for one simple reason:

Chicks dig guys who can sling the spatula.

One day it's gonna pay off for me. My Momma said so!

 

[BrownEyes26]

Cooking is a creative process. Personally, it gives me more satisfaction to prepare a meal from scratch and serve it to people who really enjoy it than to buy a BBQ chicken at the supermarket. Cooking is all about the process. Fuck the dishes, someone else does em if I cook....

 

[pipercatt]

I cook most days during the week, weekends, I don't cook a whole lot. However tonite, I made a great meatloaf with green beans, carrots and mushrooms, and was called a cooking goddess by hubby and otherlove...

Ah, the things we do for love...

 

[Weird Harold]

-- and they're cheap.

As compared to what?

I do buy some prepared foods that I can't afford to make in small serving sizes, but almost everything else is about 10% of the cost of buying it prepared. Even things like boneless chicken breasts are about five times what plain old chicken costs.

If you're on a budget, prepared foods are luxury items that can play hell with your finances.

 

[Rubyfruit]

.... many of which are healthier and tastier than anything you can prepare yourself ...

You obviously haven't eaten at my house.

 

[freakygirl]

Oh, it's great now! To be thrifty, you can buy the basic tuna in water or vegetable oil; but then you can splurge, go gourmet, and get filet in olive oil or spring water; or completely delux and go for the albacore. The possibilities are endless.

Sounds lovely.. but I think I'll stick to the fresh stuff..

 

[Sillyman]

Generally because you have more control cooking at home. You have more freedom to experiment, and you don't have to worry about someone making it too spicy or too sweet or not enough. You control the portions, and cooking yourself will provide a much larger variety no matter what. They can prepare a lot of stuff in the store but not everything. And depending on the store, some of that stuff can be really godawful.

 

[Starfish]

Stores don't just sell frozen food anymore or take week old chicken and pour bar-bque sauce over it and sell it as a "gourmet" meal, they have seriously gone out of their way to prepare an astonsihing array of meal choices, many of which are healthier and tastier than anything you can prepare yourself -- and they're cheap.

Uh, I hate to say it, but having worked in food preperation for a grocery store for 4 years, you are in for a suprise. Most of what you get in these meals you call healthy is more fat and crap than know by the taste. Not a lick of it is any better for you than a frozen dinner. 80% of it is made from ingredients out of a can or a box, or a bottle. It isn't like they are making this crap from scratch.

Hell, the fucking bread you buy from the grocery store bakery, that convieniently says 'fresh baked', to make you feel all warm and autheticized, is made from a bag mix. That would be all aside from your random store that does make bread from scratch, which are few and far between. I worked in an extreamly upity and poshy store and they carried 10 types of bread baked everyday...... from a bag.

The amount of sodium in these prepared foods is insane. I don't call that healthy.

I prepare and cook my food everyday.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

That's all changed in the last year. The meals they're preparing now are fresh, healthy, and inexpensive. Of course, this could all just be in Los Angeles.

 

[koalabear]

People got hooked on all the chemical additives in prepared food. Much better and healthier to cook it yourself. Drop by anytime Dix, I cook every meal myself. I buy meat and eggs from local farmers, ones who do not use the growth hormones and anti-biotics. Yes a vet checks these animals, all healthy. The motto in these times seems to be if you can Microwave it, don't buy it.