Links posted on August 11, 2009
While I ate my Trader Joe's frozen burrito for lunch, I read a great NY Times Magazine article by Michael Pollan, "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch". Pollan discusses the decline of cooking in the American household and how cooking shows are somewhat at fault. Prime time cooking shows are all about cooking as a spectator sport, and not about turning off the tv and getting into the kitchen. He also discusses a link between obesity rates and the time spent cooking. If the only way to get a cookie is to bake it yourself, you are less likely to eat it. So the food industry is also to blame for making all yummy, bad for you food so cheap and easily available.
In theory I am not in the norm since all the food network shows I've watched have inspired me to cook more and quite a few of our favorite recipes came from Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, and Rachel Ray. There's something gratifying about accomplishing at least one major feat in the day. But now that we've added a baby into the mix, we have a lot less time and we are tending to have fewer steps in our cooking. We would love to eat healthier and even make our baby's food. But we are just so pressed for time nowadays.
Anyway, it's a good read. Enjoy.