Food, cooking, and the economy About This Page:

[dejavu]

Well, we bought this house (over another model) because of the huge kitchen. I had a large one in my last house and once you're used to a big kitchen, it's hard to go backwards. I'm more of a baker than a cook, but we do eat at home virtually every night. I think we've gone out to eat 2 times in 2008. And no, we don't do drive thru or fast food or takeout. I use some processed/frozen foods for nights when there isn't a lot of time, but other than that, I'm the cook.

[poohmaine]

I can cook really well, but I don't enjoy it, especially after working all day. Luckily DH is an excellent cook, and he loves it, so we share. We rarely eat out. I love to bake, but DH does not bake, so I do all the baking. My mom and Nana taught me how to cook, starting when I was quite young.

[Belle*]

I do know how to cook and enjoy it when I have the time and money to have really good ingredients. I learned out of self-defense though as my mother cannot cook at all! She was was a very driven career woman when I was growing up (recently retired) and had other focuses.

[jjj6689]

I love to cook and tend to cook from scratch.
This week I canned 8 pints of salsa. Made angel food cakes (to use egg whites) and egg noodles (to use the yolks).
I made the salsa to use the tomatoes in the garden and the cakes (which I freeze of or share) and noodles to use up eggs. We have our own hen and are getting 15-18 eggs a day. We sale our eggs, but they are laying so well right now we still have to many.

[karmic]

I also cook most nights- my kids grew up with dinner at the table every night. We usually go out or get take out most Fridays.

[lukeandbrookesmom]

I'm a below-average cook - I never learned really. I'd be an above average baker as I did learn quite a bit of baking skills from my two grandmothers. I do cook every day, and we generally go out to eat twice a month as that is what is budgeted.

[scottjs]

I can't cook much at all. Not sure how to learn the basics!!!

[Diz]

I to cook. My mom was a great cook and had a lot of from scratch recipes she shared with us growing up. Now a baker? I can follow recipes for my mom's homemade brownies and some recipes for cakes. But pies? Forget it! I've always wanted to learn how to make a great pie dough, but figure it must not be that important to me because I haven't taken the time to learn! My father was a baker and so my mom only made a few baked items. Dad made everything else.

DH can survive -- on frozen dinners. No, really he has a few staples from scratch: chili, macaroni and stewed tomatoes and he can throw in a steak or open a can of spaghetti sauce. His father was the cook of the family. Somehow I drew the short stick on this one. I ask him all the time - why didn't you learn from your father!

Now that it's football season, we will have pizza, wings, hoagies for the games. Otherwise, we'll only eat out for business meetings or mini-vacations.

[revral]

I know how and love to cook. I also have the kitchen gear and cookbooks that go along with that love. However, I tend to eat alot of fast food simply because I get tired of cooking just for me. I think I'm going start making a serious effort to cook more. I have 2 crockpots so I could literally make enough dinners for about 2 weeks with maybe an hour of prep/assembly work.

[bau8]

I eat in fast food places at least once a week, because of time constraints. When I get home for work at 6 pm and need to be at a meeting by 6:30 and it takes 20 mins to drive there, you need to go to a drive through and eat in the car on the way to the meeting. I tried having leftovers the other night instead of fast food thinking that it was leftovers and it would be quick, the family wound up being 15 minutes late and speeding to get there.

[wyomom]

I come from a long line of amazing cooks. When I was 5 I made my first batch of brownines. By the time I was 10, I was doing some of the dinners such as meatloaf & stroganoff (not PB&J and mac N cheese), cakes and cookies. At 17, I was hired on as a cook for a dude ranch. At 22 I was canning and making preserves. All holidays are spent in my home with friends and family as I am the only one who cooks. We have friends who eat at our house on a regular basis as they don't cook which is fine with me as I love the company!
Cooking/baking is not for everyone and as the years go by, a lost art. Fast food and frozen meals have made it very easy for people on the go to have a quick meal and since the norm these days is both parents working, I could see how easy it would be to not learn, or not need to cook.

[Ransom]

We both know how to cook. DW does much better on the dishes that require patience, but we both enjoy cooking.

(I don't know why more boys don't know how to cook. I learned quite a bit by taking the cooking class in high school ... it was where all the cute girls were, plus we got to eat what we made every day! )

These days, DW and I do nearly all of our cooking on the weekend. We cook everything for the whole week, package it up, and have no worries during the work week. That saves a lot of money, as well as time!

[lukeandbrookesmom]

Originally Posted by revral

However, I tend to eat alot of fast food simply because I get tired of cooking just for me.

It's a long drive, but we could make it for dinner at your house at the end of the week

[Huntermom]

When my kids were home, we ate dinner as a family every night with an occasional call for pizza if the schedule got too busy. We usually ate quite late because of it and my kids had a little trouble adjusting to early dinners when they went off to school. My DD's university ends dinner at 7-which is when an early dinner was for us.

When there is a child home, I still cook a full meal. When I'm alone I usually will make something I like but the kids don't and eat leftovers for a couple of days.

All three of my kids (20-25) can cook pretty well, although DD likes to less than her brothers. My older son is a nutrition nut and an excellent cook. Even though he's in law school he seldom eats out. DS2 learned to cook well when he lived in university graduate housing as an undergrad and had a kitchen. His summer job included living with a group and he enjoyed cooking well for his peers. One of the great things now is when the boys are home, they will usually make one of their specialties for me-a wonderful thing to come home to.

I really don't know anyone who does know how to cook. My sister and I have discussed how as empty nesters it is sometimes cheaper to get take out-even from a nice restaurant.

Diane

[SHEANA1226]

Tim and I share in the cooking.