On Sun, 18 Jul 2010 07:20:18 -0500, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>It's the last sentence in the paragraph that caught my attention. Do
>you believe the statement?
>
><http://www.chicagotribune.com/featur...-schools-20100
>717,0,7359675.story>
>
>"This country cooks. Something like 70 percent of all meals are going to
>be prepared in one form or another by someone in the house," says Harry
>Balzer, chief industry analyst of the NPD Group, where he has followed
>Americans' eating and drinking patterns for 25 years. "The average
>American gets about 200 meals (a year) from a restaurant and that's
>almost unchanged for 10 years."

That's because more and more meals consumed in the home are purchased
pre-prepared from the frozen foods section, packages off the shelf,
delis, and take outs... very few meals are actually prepared at home
anymore other than to open the package and heat. Pasta with jarred
sauce ain't cooking.