esrosedotblog

BOX COOK

There is a new book by food historian Laura Shapiro: Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America. I haven't read it but I have read two reviews of it; which, for a book like this, is as good as reading it. I was brought up short by the assertion that people do not use prepared foods to cook anymore. I beg to differ. I have become a master; an artist of the semi-box meal! I say 'semi' because I would not make a teevee dinner at all (well maybe a Lean Cuisine for lunch or when John is out); that would be all box. I would not take two prep products and mix them (see below). But I would accept assistance from a mix or a bottle or something that would save me some kitchen time.

I did my time with Julia and James and all the 'cookies'; the elaborate recipes made from scratch and done properly with the correct tools. It was fun. But, it is no way to live if you have anything else to do. Further, it is not very healthy. All that flour and butter and other stuff on top of a simple piece of meat or surrounding vegetables is not really very good for us.

What Shapiro is talking about is the phase we all went through in the 50's and 60's which, in my mind, prepared us for the more sophisticated cooking that came later. Back then, people combined boxed foods into more complex recipes: Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise*. I have been at that table. I remember late 1979 going to a party where the guy cooked all his own food and had done so for a week! It was a box-fest. Everything was made with cornflake toppings, mushroom soup enrichment, tuna-noodled-cheezewhizzed-ritzcrackertopped-surprises. I was stunned. All in one place. It killed box cooking for me for quite a number of years.

But today, as I make up some stir fry with a bag of frozen rice and vegetables (the rice IS better than I can make), enhanced with half a bag of pure stir fry vegetables, I will thank the processed food guys who kept enough of the idea alive to save me some time and energy. And, yes, I will be marinating the chicken with Teriyake sauce out of a bottle!

*NYTimes review headline