130 animal, vegetable, miraclealso help trim off and keep off extra pounds, when that’s an issue—which
it is, for some two- thirds of adults in the U.S. Obesity is our most serious
health problem, and our sneakiest, because so many calories slip in un-
counted. Corn syrup and added fats have been outed as major ingredients
in fast food, but they hide out in packaged foods too, even presumed-
innocent ones like crackers. Cooking lets you guard the door, controlling
not only what goes into your food, but what stays out.
Finally, cooking is good citizenship. It’s the only way to get serious
about putting locally raised foods into your diet, which keeps farmlands
healthy and grocery money in the neighborhood. Cooking and eating with
children teaches them civility and practical skills they can use later on to
save money and stay healthy, whatever may happen in their lifetimes to
the gas- fueled food industry. Family time is at a premium for most of us,
and legitimate competing interests can easily crowd out cooking. But if
grabbing fast food is the only way to get the kids to their healthy fresh- air
soccer practice on time, that’s an interesting call. Arterial- plaque specials
that save minutes now can cost years, later on.
Households that have lost the soul of cooking from their routines may
not know what they’re missing: the song of a stir- fry sizzle, the small talk
of clinking measuring spoons, the yeasty scent of rising dough, the paint-
ing of flavors onto a pizza before it slides into the oven. The choreography
of many people working in one kitchen is, by itself, a certain defi nition of
family, after people have made their separate ways home to be together.
The nurturing arts are more than just icing on the cake, insofar as they
infl uence survival. We have dealt to today’s kids the statistical hand of a
shorter life expectancy than their parents, which would be us, the ones
taking care of them. Our thrown- away food culture is the sole reason. By
taking the faster drive, what did we save?
/Once you start cooking, one thing leads to another. A new recipe is as
exciting as a blind date. A new ingredient, heaven help me, is an intoxicat-
ing affair. I’ve grown new vegetables just to see what they taste like: Jeru-
salem artichokes, edamame, potimarrons. A quick recipe can turn slow in
our kitchen because of the experiments we hazard. We make things from