Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We have one and a half generations of folks who have been told all of their lives that cooking was a chore, complicated, expensive and something you wanted to not do, who've been fed produce grown for its shipability instead of for either flavor or nutrition, who never see a reasonable portion size and who think everything is supposed to taste sweet.
If we can get them to eat raw carrots instead of chips we will have made a start. After all, they still have to be the "baby" carrots. Just cutting a carrot is more than we can ask.

Well, let's not forget the 2 or 3 generations before that -- y'know the ones who thought veggies would be indigestible if they weren't cooked to a sodden mush. That did a lot for their rep.

I'm kind of on a theory binge today, but the history of food in America is one of excess on one hand and puritanical disgust on the other. Throw in nutritional information that comes without the caveat that we still have much to learn about nutrition, flavors made in laboratories and meant to be addictive, the divorce of the majority of the population from the production of food, a mass phobia of fat, a real obesity epidemic, fad diets, 80-hour work weeks, government subsidies for sub-par foodstuffs, infomercials for cooking gadgets that never work like they do on TV, immigrants driven to our shores by shortages, the ubiquitous plenty of sugar, fat, and salt, and an underlying fear that anything that can cause real sensual delight is probably wrong ("Sinful" does not get applied to so many foods for no reason.) and it's enough to make you hole up with your laptop, a case of Mexican cokes, and a few cans of Pringles. Baby carrots and bagged salads are just not great comfort food.

Strangely, I disagree. First, I love veggies, the taste, the smell, and I like 'em nekkid, too. As far as comfort food, well when SU is the number 1 pick, and we are three games away from NCAA tournament, and we start LOSING, nothing comforts me like lighting into a carrot, or fresh broccoli, cauliflour or cherry tomates and feeling them crunch - and snap. That is also how my DS learned to love veggies. I always put out a tray before a game.

I'd agree that carrots are great, but I just can't get into those weird, watery baby carrots in a bag. On the other hand, I'll admit I'm not a big veggie lover so I don't think of them as comforting. Except for peas. I just love peas, really I do.

I don't like baby carrots either but I love regular carrots and celery.Cukes aren't bad either.
Fitzie

The "baby carrots" aren't actually baby carrots; they are culls that are ground down, to look baby.

Real baby carrots have little green carrot tops.......

Real baby carrots have little green carrot tops.......

Ok, now you are making them sound too cute to eat. This thread does remind me that I need to throw a squash in the slow cooker, though, so thanks for that.

It is exactly (in fact, today's cult diets have nothing on those of the 19th century). There's actually an entire book on this subject: http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780151011940-0