I have to thank my mom and my mother-in-law. Both my wife and I grew up in homes where our mothers who cooked most of our meals. They were nourishing meals mostly made from scratch. Did my wife and I learn to cook from our moms? Indirectly yes.
I think if you grow up on fast food and carry out you may think that food is magically put together into a tasty package in the back of great smelling buildings. To learn to cook after growing up in that setting might be so intimidating that people are afraid to attempt to create their own meals.
My wife and I subconsciously thought, if our Mom's can do it so can we. I cook some but I have to say, my wife is a very good cook. Many of her friends call her Martha because of her skills in the kitchen not because of shady financial transactions. Home cooking of real foods is a dying art in America. I think it also threatens the health of our families and especially the children. A lot of kids do not see their parents cook. They don't know what real food looks like. They wouldn't know raw chicken from a raw rack of pork ribs. They couldn't tell you the difference between spinach and lettuce. My kids see us cook and actually like to help sometimes. I vow to teach them more everyday so hopefully they are better cooks of healthier foods when they get older.
Below is a video of Jamie Oliver discussing the serious problems we face regarding food and the health of American children today. He had an interesting show called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. On the show, his noble vision was to completely change the way children ate in a small town in West Virginia. His presentation in the below video talks about much of what I've said in this post, kids don't recognize real food because they don't see it at home. If you have some time, watch this video. Although I do not agree with all his food choices, it is inspiring none the less. CP
3 comments:
While I agree with Mr. Oliver's premise, I do not agree with all of his food choices either, and his politics make me foam at the mouth - we do NOT need more government intervention when it comes to our food. The government sticking their collective noses in where it doesn't belong - our diets - is part of what has gotten this country fat, sick and diabetic in the first place.
I agree that home cooking of real food is a dying art, which is really a shame. And what gets me is that people think it's too expensive to eat unprocessed food, because it simply isn't so. I grew up eating Minute Rice, instant mashed potatoes, Rice-A-Roni, boxed mac 'n' cheese and the like - my working mother considered them miracle foods. When I left home and married, we were on a very tight budget and I quickly realized that the real things - potatoes, rice, et al - were much cheaper than the boxed things. And they tasted better! And were better for us!
Now we don't eat grains, so the bread, pasta, potatoes and rice have mostly gone bye-bye (my teenage son still eats these things, but not nearly as often and I make the bread and pasta from scratch), so we no longer pay for them. We purchased an entire pic, paying about $3.25/lb and half a cow, paying about $4.75 per pound. This is for things like pork loin and standing rib roast. We go to the farmer's market every Saturday and buy $15 - $20 dollars worth of vegetables and fruit, which I am learning to can and preserve for the winter months.
There is NO way eating whole, real foods is more expensive than that processed crap, and anyone who uses that as an excuse doesn't know what they're talking about.
That should be an entire PIG. Oops.
Thx Jan. I am working on something that will address affordable ways to acquire real food. It can be done.
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