Do You Still Cook Meals Or Do You Belong To The Wavers?

The micro & non micro wavers...

Hands up, if you remember a life before the microwave came onto the scene? Those good old days in the 70's and 80's where cooking still meant taking your time and where we knew how to cook.

Believe it or not, there is a generation of us, who still had home economics or rather cooking at school. A required subject, where I can just about remember how to make rock cakes ( although even my scones at times qualify as rock cakes and could be used to break a window ) and that deceptively easy white sauce...the one without lumps.

Microwaves have been given the goodbye wave from me many, many years ago. Food never tasted the same or it was so darn hot that you'd burn your mouth. Personally, I tend to think that the microwave is not good for our health. Why else would they warn you not to stand in front of it, while it is in operation?

It's funny how as a married couple, Bob and I tend to think alike. The other week we were invited to a birthday bash held at the fishing club house. We sat at the end of the table, and suddenly the hostess went to an old contraption standing on the windowsill behind us. A jolly old microwave. As she was putting bread ( Agh, bread from a microwave!!! ) in it with the required wooden spoon to keep the door closed, one of the other ladies piped up:

" Oh, that is our old microwave. We had it for 10 years and gave it away a few years back. "

Suffice to say, that both Bob and I tried to nonchalantly duck out of reach from the microwaves...

Cooking eggs in your microwave...how jolly awful. Eggs fried in a pan on a stove are beyond the pale. Yet, the extreme waver is far from rare. Popcorn, toast, bread and cakes to name but a few foods made in the micro by the wavers.

Ready made meals that merely need to be pronged and popped into the microwave are everywhere in our supermarkets. Good lord, have we been brainwashed into preferring their chemical offering over good old fashioned homemade meals? A proper stove, electric or otherwise might sadly morph into an ornament. Kitchens in homes are getting smaller because no one cooks much any more.

A space for a fancy capsule coffee machine and obviously a microwave seem to be the main considerations for a modern kitchen. Even the sink has shrunk. I defy you to find a double sink...less cooking and a proliferation of dishwashers have shrunk the average sink into a small sized affair where you couldn't swing a big pot around.

Luckily, my dishwasher is top notch, most efficient and friendly and rarely rumbles...Le Bob

When you walk passed those offerings of artificial food and look at a label of those " just pop it in your microwave " foods, the list seems never ending and all these E's and exotic numbers of the various ingredients surely can't be good for us?

The art of cooking is more than producing food to eat. Cooking is relaxing, cooking is fun and cooking ranges from the mundane spaghetti and mince, via a pizza ( homemade from top to bottom ) to maybe a Sunday roast complete with Yorkshire Pudding.

The list of what we need to pass on to the next generation is growing: Reading for the sheer joy of it, knitting and now cooking...

Biggi