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I will be honest: I’m no cook. I fancy myself more of an expert re-heater.
Beyond that, I love to eat and am immensely grateful for home cooking and the hands that prepare the foods, flavors and aromas that are apart of us, that we grew up with, and that take us back.
For me, it’s my father’s Yorkshire pudding smothered in gravy and my mom’s Thanksgiving turkey. A warm and fuzzy feeling, smothered love on a plate.
But times are changing. Life is busy. Since the 1960’s, there’s been a drop somewhere between 16 and 30% in meals being prepared at home. And eating at home doesn’t mean it was cooked there. A 2014 NPD Group report indicates that under 60% of the foods consumed at home were actually prepared there.
But what exactly are the trade-offs in this trend shift? Research has proven that people who cook at home eat healthier diets and are less likely to be overweight.
And it benefits your other bottom line as well. Today, the average household spends about $3,000/year on eating out. Studies confirm that making food at home, even healthier options, simply costs less – with a restaurant meal coming in typically 3x as much as the cost of making it at home.
The growing aids of meal-prep kits and grocery delivery among others, are helping us focus the limited time we do have in the kitchen to cook and commune with our families and friends. Home cooking goes way beyond sustenance. So often it’s an expression of love. And it does not have to be relegated to formal family or on special holiday occasions.
In my home, we have Tuesday Night Dinners whereby a longtime friend drives into town once a week, grocery shops and prepares a homemade meal for me, my kid and a group of friends that drop-in looking for a warm meal and communion on the second night into a hectic work week. This has been going on for over a decade. I need a new word for grateful to express just how these meals and the hands that prepare them mean to all of us.
Not only does this cook lovingly feed my village, he does so with one hand tied behind his back. Stubbornly cooperating in the process is a vintage stove with a single working burner and lack of proper oven.
Vintage Cook reminds us of grandma’s old stove that worked overtime feeding whomever came through the door, or needed casseroles hand-delivered.
This vintage beauty is the 1961 Frigidaire Flair from General Motors. Newly installed, it was the talk of the neighborhood.
It was featured in Samantha’s kitchen on Bewitched. Even with her magic readily available at the wave of a hand, our favorite witch chose to cook her meals for both Darrens, with style and love.
Let’s go back.
Put your phone away and pull up a chair.