Did you know that the average American spends only 30 minutes of his/her day cooking?
According to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Americans whip up meals faster than the residents of any other country while citizens of India and Turkey take the most time cooking (75 minutes on average). This makes a lot of sense since the one thing I know about Indian and Turkish food is that they involve several (delicious) spices and are very complex in their preparation–at least compared to other cuisines, like Italian (which I also happen to love).
There are also trademark Mexican dishes that take way longer than 30 minutes to prepare, but I am not one to talk since I hardly cook any of these delicacies.
I wish I knew how to make chiles en nogada or mole from scratch but that's not the case, I have to admit that I've become more "American" with the foods I prepare for my family. It's not so much by choice, I’m just well aware of my cooking capacities, and while I can make one really decent pomodoro pasta, I am certainly no chef.
What I do have now is a new kitchen (after years of waiting) and I love it, our new oven has made my daughter and I very happy, and we've been doing some "baking" lately. Of course we bake things that come in a box. We add water and eggs and there you go, instant gratification–there’s nothing like it. Just turning on the oven makes me feel a certain pride in having “home baked goods”!
Last weekend we baked these delicious organic buttermilk biscuits from Trader Joe’s and Juliana kept bragging to our friends about how delicious they were. They all asked me, "from scratch?" to which I responded, "Are you kidding me? This is America!"
Thirty minutes or less seems like a good amount of time to spend cooking during the week, because there are always fifty more things to do, like homework! So thank you, America, for making it so easy to toss a meal together in this country. You make it easy for Mexican kitchen dummies like me.
How much time do you spend cooking each day?
