Nichole wrote:
I find number 3 especially interesting. I really feel like cooking and baking from scratch really adds happiness and fullness to my life.
The belief that "cooking is drudgery" started about the time there started to be reaction to
The Feminine Mystique. I don't know anyone who wouldn't say that caring for their family is their highest priority. Yet feeding them well often falls to the bottom of the list of priorities.
If you can find it, read "The Keeper of the Keys" by Carol Flinders in the original
Laurel's Kitchen (1978). It is one of my favorite pieces of writing. This is just a little of it:
Carol Flinders wrote:I have begun to wonder, of late, about this belief that housework is essentially tedious. To what extent do you suppose it has been hoisted upon us by those same commercial interests who so obligingly provide us with dishwashers, dehydrated dinners, and disposable diapers – all meant very generously, of course, to relieve us of all that horrible work, obviously an evil in itself?
What really troubles us most about housekeeping is that in our desire to be freed from its tedium, we have welcomed a host of time- and labor-saving devices which have not only not eliminated tedium but cut us off from the truly pleasurable, creative side of our work…Worst of all, these labor saving products and devices represent an enormous sinkhole for the worlds diminishing resources. The world cannot afford this version of homemaking.
The less than thrilling side of homemaking will always be there. But as soon as we take into our own hands some of the tasks we’d previously consigned to machines and manufacturers, our work becomes vastly more gratifying.
Why compartmentalize our lives so that art is a thing apart? There is an artistic way to carry out even the simplest task, and there is great fulfillment to be had from finding out that way and perfecting it. To lead lives of artistry, we have only to slow down, to simplify, and to start making wise choices.
librarylady wrote:If it is her Nonna, then she is Italian American, and like most Americans doesn't move like her peasant ancestors. She also has access to much more food on a regular basis. Whereas the Nonna's own peasant grandmother probably ate pretty sparingly most days, saving the big dishes for holidays and maybe Sundays during periods of prosperity, for Italian Americans in the second half of the 20th century (heck for ALL Americans during the 2nd half of the 20th century) food was easily available in abundance - and overeating became common. Mix with not having to toil out in the fields and the normal slowing down of one's metabolism as one gets older and voila - you get fat!!
Clara Cannucciari is probably a better example of peasant cooking than is Lisa Cecconi's nonna. Not all Italian cooking is peasant cooking and the majority of Italian-American cooking is most certainly not peasant cooking.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do. Not that the nature of the thing itself has changed but our power to do it is increased." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You are what you eat -- so don't be Fast, Easy, Cheap or Fake."
