I'd like to teach the world to cook

This will seem like a tangent, but I promise it will relate.

There was another outbreak of cooking discourse on Twitter. This one got a little weirder. There was also some racism involved, but that part is pretty normal.

Regardless, there is some groundwork I want to lay down before getting too specific.

Let me clarify that I don't really like to cook. I don't hate it, and I get some satisfaction from being able to do it, but a lot of my motivation for cooking is really just that you can eat better and more economically that way. It can also be more convenient, though that's not a given.

My first tangent here should be that there will be people who swear it is more expensive to cook at home than to eat out. 

Usually they make this case by listing every ingredient in the purchasing quantity. If you needed to buy a new bottle of Worcestershire sauce every time you made Sloppy Joes, and you bought the fancy Lea & Perrins, that would add about $7 per dinner. However, it is a shelf-stable ingredient (it does need to be refrigerated after opening) where a small amount will last a long time, it can be used in multiple dishes, and you can get the store brand for much cheaper. 

It's like when Republicans try and show prices are out of control by pricing a Thanksgiving dinner where they include a sack of flour because they will need a few tablespoons and also the turkey is organic and fresh, or Dr. Oz being outraged about the price of crudites... lots of people are spending a lot less and getting more bang for their buck.

The next area that I want to address (though it feels too germane to be a tangent) is that cooking is not some arcane lore that requires years of studying and expertise, even as it does become easier with practice.

I think sitcoms play a part in this. (Okay, this part may be a tangent.)

Once upon a time, sitcom families like the Cleavers had wise fathers and mothers who were perfect housekeepers. As things got more modern, writers and producers wanted to change that up. The first thing that happened was that many sitcom fathers became buffoons, though generally well-meaning ones.

I have seen many men express displeasure with this because it's disrespectful. Maybe, but very few fathers for my generation were as wise and caring as Ward Cleaver; biased and volatile doesn't always work for humor. 

Maybe for Titus.

The other thing that happened, though, was that television mothers became notoriously bad cooks. 

I don't remember seeing many women offended by this. If you could cook, it wasn't insulting you; just that one particular woman, for laughs. If you couldn't cook, maybe you sympathized, especially if you had a Marie Barone mother-in-law who was a great cook and pretty insulting. 

Maybe there was also a rebellious part that was thinking it was unfair that the husband never had to cook. Regardless, I suspect that the growing depictions of women who could not cook helped make a lack of cooking skills seem practically inevitable. Besides, who has the time?

This is where it was important that I mentioned that I don't particularly enjoy cooking; there are a lot of possible shortcuts.

Sloppy Joes? I have made them from scratch, but now if I am going to do it, I use a canned sauce. (I do add Johnny's seasoning when I am browning the ground beef, and add brown sugar when I pour the sauce on.)

There are a lot of things that I know I can make from scratch -- because I have -- but I simply don't find it a good use of my time. For other foods that does matter.

My point is that cooking can be as easy or as complicated or as quick or as laborious as you want it to be.

The caveat is that you can't always choose what to simplify. 

I tried making tiropita once, which I like but I only ever find at Greek Fest. I am sure there are people with different skills for whom it would be easier, but it is not going to be easy enough for me to justify making it again. 

I once looked at taking an Indian cooking class and I had a cookbook. Looking through it, I realized that I was happier going out for Indian food. However, I do buy jars of sauces that are meant for using with chicken. I used them with sliced potatoes, and sometimes I will put in some apples or green beans or whatever is around. That's easy.

I did take a Chinese cooking class. I learned some good techniques from it, but the only thing I regularly make is fried rice, which is easy. I don't want to spend the time on some of the other things. 

Keeping soy sauce or teriyaki sauce around isn't a problem, and sometimes I will go wild and buy some hoisin sauce or something, and that's fine too. (The stir frying I do is more like teppanyaki, so I guess more Japanese-style, and probably not really Mongolian.)

It can be a completely reasonable decision to not cook some things, but there may be other things that you could totally cook. Maybe that would take some practice or watching a video or taking a class at the rec center. 

It can also be completely reasonable to not pursue cooking if it doesn't interest you. It may be worth considering whether you are getting good nutrition or spending too much, but if ordering in or going out works for you, fine. 

There may be options that you have not thought about yet that would work for you. 

Stay open to that.