talon | Too Stupid To Cook

Still, for people unused to cooking, it can be a challenge. After all, many people don't have pantries with ingredients on hand, may not understand substitution or basic technique and need a recipe to follow, and can't chop fast enough to prep quickly. By the time they find a recipe, shop for ingredients, and chop everything up -- well, no wonder people think cooking is hard.

These words have been repeated so many places so many times it's almost a cliché now. It dno longer matters who says these words, they're everywhere - in the nightly news, in newspaper columns, in people's blogs, in magazines and tabloids, and most especially in TV commercials and advertising.

And it's bullshit.

Every denigrating word of it is bullshit.

If a 2 year old can figure out how to pour milk on cereal, spread peanut butter on bread, and knows soup is made from chicken and vegetables, then a hungry adult with a third grade education can figure it out.

They don't have to cook fancy cordon bleu or fice star restaurant review menus, but they are all capable of feeding themselves by cooking their own food.

Only homeless people don't have pantries or something that can work as a pantry.

Lack of ingredients? In America? I should laugh so hard my head go splody! Left-overs from a take -out meal, even food dug out from a dumpster, counts as ingredients, and if the person has a home - even if it's sharing a single room with others, they have a place to store that food.

Understand substituion or basic technigue? Get real. To cook, all you need is food. A heat source is a nice bonus. A pot is a luxury. Basic technique is wash and peel food to eat (some foods don't require peeling). Hot food - apply heat until it's as hot or cooked through as you want. You can lay the food on a hot rock and let the sun cook it - that's a really hard techniqueto master, isn't it?

As for substitutions - that only mattersif you're cooking to impress someone or trying to recreate a specific dish - not necessary to actually cook food.

Need a recipe to follow? Only because they've been brainwashed into thinking cooking is hard when it's the easiest thing we can do, next to breathing and eating. All you need is something edible, and maybe some heat. Don't need to make it up into "recipes".

Can't chop fast enough? Well, neither can I. Speed is not essential in food prep.