Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 8:29 PM
Thu Nov 26
3 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Email
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
06/01/09
06/01/09
[www.campusprogress.org]
06/01/09
06/01/09
But it really is too bad so many people don't realize how easy, cheap and healthy cooking can be. I made homemade pizza for lunch that took less time than delivery (okay, I made the dough in advance, but the active time is still less than 30 mins). I only learned how to make brownies for scratch this year and once I did I was kind of amazed that companies manage to sell brownie mix. The difference in active time is maybe 5 mins.
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
And half the time they turn up with nachos, but whatevs nachos are delicious.
06/01/09
This requires one night a week, maybe, or the ability to say "Well, sometimes I like to make this GREAT rhubarb pie..." It doesn't mean getting a degree from Le Crodon Bleu. Cooking is EASY. It's simple, easy, natural, and eternal. And why shouldn't the First Lady be the one to remind us of that?
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
The idea that a First Lady's job is to show us how to bake (and this is coming from someone who considers cooking and baking to be crafts worthy of the highest adulation) even if she herself hates to do it is absolutely ridiculous.
Why not have the White House chef share a few tips with us, since she's (he's?) the one actually doing the cooking?
I do agree that - since one of Michelle's causes seems to be promoting ethical and sustainable foods - it would be great if the WH equipped us with ways to cook said foods. But it doesn't have to be Michelle doing a demo on Martha Stewart.
06/01/09
Kids LOVE her. They ADORE her. They would do ANYTHING Michelle told them to, because they think she is AWESOME. It's such a burden for her to encourage kids to learn to cook?
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
That totally explains it. OK, I feel better now, and can go back to work.
06/01/09
The garden was a great first step -- I was overjoyed. And while the White House kitchen staff will surely do fantastic work with that produce, would it kill Michelle to make a White House Garden Salad to help promote cooking among yougner kids?
(Btw -- OMG I LOVE YOUR NAME. Smazeny Syr sandwich = best drunk food on the face of the planet.)
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
For me it's less a race issue, although I do see that, but a gender one. She has tons to contribute outside of the home, and I don't understand why we have to remain wedded to the idea that she ought to be inside the home. The idea that a woman with Michelle's resume would play a traditional first lady role doesn't make any sense to me.
06/01/09
As technology has made food, cooking and eating more about convenience, it has also taken away the importance of group meals and cooking for oneself. We've also begun to forget the recipes of our past -- recipes that speak as much to our families' histories and the amalgamation of cultures that have created American culture as they do to what and when we like to eat. I never got to know my great-grandmother, but I do know how to make her blintzes and her knishes. I wouldn't make my Bubie's brisket every week -- hell, I only make it once or twice a yearmaybe -- but I do make it.
Cooking shouldn't be something used to keep people in their homes. It is a way to connect yourself with nature, and with the Earth -- to know when things are in season, to cook based on the cycles of nature, to care about our animals. It should be taught equally to men and women. Knowing how to cook isn't just practical, it's culturaly important.
06/01/09
Me? I'd probably LOVE being cooked for for a few months, and then start hankering to get back in there and do it myself. But, chances are, in Michelle's position, I wouldn't have that kind of time. Hell, I hardly have the time now - I make the time, since it's one of my favorite activities. For me, cooking is a creative outlet.
Amanda Hesser, I'm sorry if Michelle Obama doesn't do everything the way you do, but that's life. She's a person, not a Barbie doll.
06/01/09
on a related note, I just got back from the corner produce stand, wherein I bought fresh blueberries and peaches, and the old farmer told me that I should mix em together in a pie. I said well I'm not much of a baker, and he said, oh my wife does it, I've never made a pie in my life. I just smiled and said, I'm pretty sure I'd blow up my house if I tried to use the kitchen. then I got on my bike and rode away in all of my snarky glory.
06/01/09
06/01/09
I love pie, and I love to bake in general (except pies!) but have never, in any of my attempts, gotten the dough to the right texture/consistency. Then again, I am also a terribly impatient perfectionist (the worst combination for double-crust pies!!!), so I definitely get pissed when my crimps don't look like I think they should. This actually might say more about me than about pies! ;-)
06/01/09
I'm not picky about aesthetics (I do believe my best pie was also my Franken-pie), and believe me I was shocked when my dough came out awesome the first time I made a pie, but in my experience most people fuck up pie crust by doing too much. Really, you just need to do as little as possible.
The Joy of Cooking has the easiest pie crust recipe I've ever tried to follow. That definitly may have helped, too.
06/01/09
Some people like to cook, while others do not, much as some people enjoy playing the piano, while others do not. Neither position constitutes a public value judgement of the pursuit.
Dig harder for editorial topics,
Jigglyball
06/01/09
This is not a "different strokes for different folks" issue. And I'd be devastated to see your children (if you decide to have any, ever) grow up on Chinese takeout and pizza.
06/01/09
I think that from the quoted comments in the article, Michelle makes it clear that she did the cooking when it was required of her and when it was important to her family. However, it's not something that she does for pleasure, and with a staff of cooks in the White House, it's no longer necessary for her to spend time on this one thing that she doesn't enjoy.
For what it's worth, and a hunch tells me it might be something, I have literally never ordered Chinese take-out, and while I love pizza, I usually make my own at home. This does not make me qualitatively better than someone who does order takeout. Though I appreciate your deep concern for my potential offspring.
06/01/09
Amanda Hesser has devoted her life to food; cooking and dining are her twin passions. It's unfair to expect that every single person in the public eye conform to Amanda Hesser's idea of how to spend one's time.
06/01/09
Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. What might be right for you, may not be right for some.
It takes different strokes to move the world.
06/01/09
06/01/09
I look around at my peers and am APPALLED at how little they can cook. My mother stopped working when I was very young, so I want to say now that I understand that the amount of time that one has available to cook is different for every person. But Mom cooked dinner for us most nights of the week, with Dad filling in when he was home early enough from the office, and weekends during which he cooked all our meals. We dined out like any normal family, but by the time I was 4 I was helping make pancakes on weekends, meatloaf on Wednesdays, roasting chickens and grilling steak. I was using a smaller chef's knife proficiently by the time I was 10. By the time I was 12, I was cooking dinner one night each week. When my younger sister was old enough, she did as well.
The result of all this normal family cooking was that by the time I got to college, I could cook. Am I a master chef? No way. But I can cook. I've made bread, pizza dough, all kinds of pasta dishes. I've grilled, I've roasted, I've braised. I can flip through cookbooks without feeling totally intimidated. And I'm a foodie, too, as I've exposed myself here on these food posts -- I buy from farmer's markets, I source local (I drove to VA to pick strawberries last weekend instead of buying them shipped from CA), I refuse to buy mass-market meat or dairy. I understand that I take it to another level, too, and that many cannot and will not put in the kind of effort I do to take cooking seriously.
But if Michelle Obama can contribute to reminding people -- ESPECIALLY young adults and kids -- that they CAN cook for themselves, that cooking for yourself is fun, is stress-relieving, is HEALTHIER for you (stay AWAY from that processed SHIT!!), then she SHOULD. Because while the President may have the greatest influence on government, politics and diplomacy, the First Lady has a HUGE influence on culture. And we are at a critical moment culturally -- we have to remember what traidtions we want to keep while breaking the chains of the past. Cooking is something that EVERYONE should be proficient in, if not "good." And she can help bring the importance of cooking your own food, and eating with family and friends throughout your whole life, back to the fore of our minds. It's a very important thing to do.
And I want to leave you all with this little rant from Michael Ruhlman's blog, posted today, during a post about making pate a choux, the unbelievably simple foundation recipe for cream puffs, among other delicious pastry treats:
I've already posted on this amazing preparation, but a recent blogger's use of the dough [for pate a choux] from Ratio got me thinking about it all over again. I made it that night, brought it to a friend's and cooked the cheese puffs there. It took literally ten minutes to gather everything and put it together. So simple, so fast, so good. YOU DON'T NEED A BOXED MIX! DON'T LET FOOD COMPANIES TELL YOU YOU'RE TOO STUPID AND TOO LAZY TO DO IT YOURSELF! THIS IS BEAUTIFUL FOOD MADE FROM BASIC INGREDIENTS: WATER, BUTTER, FLOUR, EGGS!
Indeed.
06/01/09
06/01/09
That said, something about the piece rubbed me the wrong way; I know Hesser's point is NOTHING along the lines of "Get in the kitchen and make me some breakfast, woman!" (Which, by the way, is what my brother wrote on the tag of my Christmas present - a waffle iron - a couple of years ago.) But it still feels...icky, somehow. And that's coming from someone with a cooking-centric foodblog.
Maybe it's partly that I just kinda can't stand Amanda Hesser?
06/01/09
You don't have to claim to love cooking every day. But maybe it's the Thanksgiving turkey recipe, or maybe some special mashed potatoes, or a dessert, or a breakfast, just ONE thing that she really likes to cook. She can't talk it up for the sake of all our future generations? "Oh, I don't really like to cook, but sometimes I make this thing my gradmother taught me..."
It's a simple as that.
06/01/09
Now, I love cooking but I only have the time and the energy to do it on the weekends. Cooking anything from scratch *takes time* and I'm tired of all the magazine articles telling me to "prepare ahead of time" blah blah blah. I need Filling, Healthy, and Fast - which, mind you, does not necessarily mean take-out. I also don't have a dishwasher, so it better not create too many dishes for me to wash. AND I don't eat meat, so I'm not just going to slap a filet of something in a pan and be done with it.
So, I appreciate your position. However, on a daily basis for most of us, I just don't think it's realistic.
06/01/09
At the end of the day there are only so many causes a person can get behind...
06/01/09
No one is going to cook for themselves or their family 7 days a week. But too many people cook for themselves or their family 1 or 2 nights a week. That is BAD. We lose recipes, we lose techniques, and we lose history. No one is going to be perfect, but where we are now is just so depressing.
Example: 1 double recipe pizza dough (roughly 8 small pizzas). Total prep time: 10 minutes. Total rise time: 2 hours. In fridge, will last a little over a week. In freezer, will last almost a month. Stic in fridge to defrost at the beginning of the sday, then leave for work. It takes as much time to prep the pizza as it does to preheat the oven. Cook time: 10 minutes. Done, done, fresh and healthy, and a habit that wil save both money and priceless little bits of history and culture. Not to mention a great way to use up leftovers.
06/01/09
06/01/09
Not to mention, if someone can afford to have someone do the cooking (or the laundry, or the cleaning) for them, then why not?
06/01/09
07/31/09
I source local (I drove to VA to pick strawberries last weekend instead of buying them shipped from CA)
Unless you "drove" a segway or a bike, you just did more damage to the environment than if you bought the shipped strawberries.
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
06/01/09
Re-paint Truman Balcony, install new knick-knack shelves in the china room, re-plate the vermeil [yeah, West Wing!], trim bushes in the Rose Garden.
06/01/09