So...the other day, I read that Americans can't cook.

Imagine that.

Evidently, grocery store sales of ready made meals are suffering, as are the sales of restaurants. Ready made meals are more expensive, so people are passing those up in favor of making things themselves (and bypassing eating out). Like, from scratch. With real vegetables, dude, and like, meat and stuff that you have to touch with your hands, and it's like ewwwwww grosss! nastttyyyyyy!

You know, Mr. Manners and I both regularly make things from scratch. We never buy prepared meals. We order chinese or eat sushi once in a while. We do eat out at lunch, but try to keep that healthy (no fast food ever). So I'm flabbergasted that someone doesn't know how to make a biscuit, or can't make their own marinara sauce, or a burrito, or a pot roast, or toss together a spice rub for a pork loin, or make chili, or make soup, or stuff and roast a chicken, or make stuffing, or make a cake without a mix, or make muffins, or make salad dressing, or their own mashed potatoes or macaroni (ok, I admit to cheating on this one, but I confess that we add tuna, a jalo, and real cheese, and dill).

And while cooking during the week annoys me because I feel as though I'm under this enormous time constraint, cooking on the weekend can be a luxurious event to be enjoyed with good music and an occasional glass of wine.

When you learn to enjoy cooking from scratch, learn to grow your own herbs....

:-)