Is thrift in the Kitchen a lost art?

**imagine** · 03-01-2011, 05:58 PM

This article has believes thrift in the kitchen is a lost art.

What do you think? What are your thoughts?

Good housekeeping: the lost art of thrift in the kitchen - Times Online

Nod to shp1055 who posted that a genreation had lost the art of cooking. Which made me search the net and I found this topic. Thanks shp1055 for getting me thinking.

**jas** · 03-01-2011, 06:25 PM

Great article. Yep some women and girls just don't have any interest in cooking. I love it and am learning new skills all the time and I am almost 50 years old. I want to get back to basics.

Not to say that I won't still buy any boxed pasta, but I have just today for the first time made home made pasta and it was fun and rewarding. And tasted great to boot!

Other things on my list to master are different kinds of bread. I am getting pretty good at the basic whole wheat and want to move on to some artisian breads soon.

My dd 17 soon to be 18 in 9 days can cook she just does not do it as often as I would like. She likes fresh homemade food when I make it. I don't know how much she will carry on in her own homemaking someday. Sometimes I have to kind of trick her into helping. Like the last time I made bread I also made these Cinnabon clone buns and she jumped right in helping me make them. Boy were they good. Can't make them more than a few times a year because they are sooooooooo fattening.

DD is the one who actually got me started watching the cooking shows on tv. She was watching them around the holidays one year and now I am hooked. She was not asking to make things, when I started watching we would oooh and ahhhh and then I would run out and get the ingredients and starte cooking. Dh and ds were giving no complaints and a lot of thumbs up at all the new dishes. Some are now in the regular rotation of things I make.

**mndtrp** · 03-01-2011, 07:35 PM

Going off the people I know, ranging from 25-35ish, we are pretty split between home cookers and eating outers.

I am, by far, the most frugal. I get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing how many times I can re-purpose something, which is why I enjoy cooking whole birds so much. I've gotten into canning, and will soon start on the dehydrating. My friends who do cook, they can make good food, but definitely buy things fairly prepackaged. Through my teachings, they are slowly getting better.

However, there are still quite a few that would rather go to Subway or just get some hot pockets.

**ladykemma2** · 03-01-2011, 07:46 PM

i work with young people who go to whole foods every night and buy dinner from the bar and deli section. they come in with tubs of $5 hummus. i told thme they could make hummus for about 75 cents and they didn't believe me.

**savvy_sniper** · 03-01-2011, 08:29 PM

All of my brothers can cook and they cook VERY well. My husband is Hispanic. NONE of his cousins' wives knows how to boil water! They all REFUSED to learn. They all live on fast food - breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The extent of their cooking is things like Ramen noodles.

My step-daughter is always amazed at what I cook and how quickly and easily I can put a nutritious meal on the table at the drop of a hat. She was totally shocked when she happened to mention she would like to make chocolate chip cookies and I went in the kitchen, pulled all the ingredients out, and told her to get busy! Her mother doesn't cook much and what she cooks isn't very good.

Cooking IS becoming a lost art. It has a lot to do with the growing obesity problem in this country.

**zakity** · 03-01-2011, 08:50 PM

Yep, it is a lost art. Most of the moms I know think a packaged meal that they cook at home (like hamburger helper) is cooking from scratch. I talk about cooking from scratch and we get to talking and they find out that I don't buy any box mixes at all. They then ask me how I cook. **rolling eyes**

**lisaflex** · 03-01-2011, 08:59 PM

just sayin...do people really ...and i mean REALLY...eat hamburger helper? yuck

**savvy_sniper** · 03-01-2011, 09:05 PM

Unfortunately, yes they do!

Originally Posted by lisaflex

just sayin...do people really ...and i mean REALLY...eat hamburger helper? yuck

**Momto5RN** · 03-01-2011, 09:14 PM

not at my house although i dont cook every night .
i am between the too busy and the making a thing of ground beef last a few dinners.

usually 1 night a week i end up ordering a pizza or doing a drive thru like burger king - either due to fibro - migraine or just too tired and bust from work stuff and after school stuff or i save it for a weekend treat .

but all my kitchen appliances are well used and really now what i would call pretty anymore LOL

99% of my cooking is from scratch - we like the taste better - its healthier- and they really dont make prepackaged stuff big enough for a family of 7 by the time i bought enough for all of us - i could order a pizza out and pay less.

My kids learn to cook oldest son lived in own house or apt for 3 years in college preferred cooking himself than getting take out -my older dd works in a restuarant so watches the cooks asks them questions etc

16 yo can make 3 or 4 diff dinners -
14 yo can make 2 things ( she is resistant to things she cant make in a microwave lol)
10 yo can make things in microwave or cold things

i think as parents feel they are too busy to cook -people see running thru a drive thru 4x a week as the norm - the kids dont get skills passed down anymore .and alot of HS done have home ec with cooking and sewing classes anymore .

**Palooka** · 03-02-2011, 12:04 AM

I can not get my DD interested in the kitchen for nothing!! Lord knows I've tried. Maybe someday when she is older, she will want to learn to cook.

Now my step-daughter loves the kitchen and loves to bake at 13. She even asks me what should we bake next. Just tonight she called me from her mom's house asking for a recipe to make over there. Made me feel good.

**Palooka** · 03-02-2011, 12:07 AM

Originally Posted by lisaflex

just sayin...do people really ...and i mean REALLY...eat hamburger helper? yuck

My dh would live off the stuff if I let him.

**writtenonmybody** · 03-02-2011, 12:16 AM

It's interesting to read the replies here because I don't know that I agree. With my friends and family, food and health are a big deal. They all garden, they all cook meals at home. Not to say they don't go out to eat or decide to cook something easy or packaged once in a while but over all.. I know more people who cook good meals and even challenge themselves in the kitchen than not.

However, What I do think along with this is... when I was younger my mother, aunts and grandmothers were all in the kitchen doing all this cooking, baking, etc. Now, in our friends homes, and families homes there are men and women sharing the cooking and getting excited about it. Hell, I know of a very manly man who cooks and bakes pies, cookies and bread. His wife doesn't do hardly any cooking at all... and for sure doesn't bake.

In my experience, I'm finding that men and women alike are enjoying homemade items more often together. The roles of the households have changed and I think they are better for it.

On a side note, My daughter loves helping us cook meals and bake. Loves loves loves it. My son however, hates it. I'm surprised by this as kitchen duties are shared here.