Steve Calvin wrote:
> With lives seemingly getting busier and busier do you see the end of
> "scratch" cooking in the future? Just looking backward, my Mother
and
> especially my Grandmothers cooked everything from scratch. Breads,
> cakes, pies including the crusts, stews, soups, sauces etc...
>

I don't know why you are assuming that my mother's cooking was somehow
an improvement over a SPAM sandwich (sorry mom!).

Time one issue. Cost is another (cheap canned and frozen food). Skills
and traditions probably a third. A lot of the traditional recipes call
for hours of work. I enjoy spending 4 hours making a cassoulet as much
as the next guy but that can't happen on a Tuesday - I got to work.

It's just a change and not necessarily a bad one. There are tons of
high quality prepared foods and there are tons of people who while they
don't cook every day, enjoy cooking as a hobby.

Fundamentally, one of the bigger changes is probably the fact that
women don't stay home to cook all day and wait for hubby to come home -
they go out and have more succesful careers than hubby. No time for
cooking.