Cooking
A few days ago I was listening to a group of women talking about cooking. They were all pretending to be embarrassed while actually boasting about what poor cooks they are and how they’ve never cooked anything from scratch. “I don’t cook, I shop!” said one. I’ve heard conversations like this one before, but my perspective is very different now. We are trying to squeeze the most out of every penny so that Howard can stay a cartoonist. This means I can’t use shopping to solve the problem of eating as I used to do. I would half-guiltily buy frozen corn dogs or chicken nuggets or even fast food rationalizing that I was simply too stressed and too busy to cook. That is a luxury I can no longer afford. To my surprise while buying raw ingredients and cooking food has used up more of my time it has reduced my level of stress. I am remembering that cooking can be a relaxing and rewarding experience. I am realizing that a working knowleged of How To Cook affords many opportunities for creativity and yumminess. And Yumminess does not have to be expensive.
This is something that I need to pass on to my children. I need to teach them to cook from scratch. That way they have a choice whether to join consumerist society or stay back-to-basics. My kids may choose to shop rather than cook, but it needs to not be because another option was never made available.