Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    My all consuming passion is the eating of these meals.  If anyone
    here has an all consuming passion to prepare and serve them, let's
    get together!   :-)
    
                 Carol

    despite the easy 1-2-3 meals that they mostly are(geared to working
    superwomen),they are still sexist and aimed at how to please(get)
    your man.			

                                kelly

    Cooking is fun, creative and very social.  I have noticed that a
    great many men are enjoying it as much as I do and they tend to
    be more 'gourmet' cooks than I.
    
    I actually get more pleasure out of compliments from women on my
    cooking than trying to please a man.  Probably because I have a
    large group of female friends and we socialize a lot with pot luck
    dinners.
    
    If you don't like to cook and you enjoy a hearty meal you are invited
    male or female, Sunday nights in the South End.
    
    Joyce

    I sometimes get irate that if I want a good assortment of useful,
    realistic recipes, about the only place to go is the women's magazines.
    And I even get MORE irate when I see the "recipes for men" columns
    that consider pouring beer over a hamburger about the limits of
    a man's cooking ability.
    
    I do subscribe to Bon Appetit, but the recipes there are usually
    a bit more elaborate than I'd consider for a dinner at home.  Ah
    well - back to Joy of Cooking.
    
    					Steve

 
    Which women's mags ?  Who edits them ?
    
    Are they really women's mags or are they mags designed for 
    an outdated concept of what women do ?  
    

    The receipes are part of a formula that sells magazines, along
    with hair care, clothing, and decorating articles. There seems
    to be a formula that sells, which also may include one article
    on how some one over came a problem, an article on exercise,
    an article on some celebrity, a medical article and perhaps
    some fiction. This formula primarily sells to women who aren't
    career oriented.
    
    Cooking still falls to women more than men, so women are still
    more apt to buy magazines with new receipes in them. It's a long
    jump tho to call cooking women's "consuming passion" because of
    that.

"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach." 

:-) (or should that be ~/~ ?)

CQ

    May Goddess help me if preparing meals is my all-consuming passion.
    I eat, therefore I cook, but there's lots more to life that gets
    my eager attention. 
    
    I do, on rare occasions, get excited about making a super meal,
    but by and large it's a dirty job, but someone has....
    
    Stel
    

    I've been lucky in that my ex-husband of 12 1/2 yrs. preferred to
    do the cooking in exchange for other chores I didn't mind (such
    as the laundry, taking out garbage, and cleaning the kitchen), but
    I would hardly say it was *his* all consuming passion, either. 
    My luck has continued in that the man I've been living with for
    the past almost two years does the cooking.  Before I got married
    my mother cooked most of the food I ate.  Far from being an all
    consuming passion, I have managed to away with not having to cook
    for years.
    
    The only time I read those women's magazines (so called) is when
    I'm at the dentists and there's nothing else available.  I find
    them incredibly boring.  Looking at shining photos of well-prepared
    meals does nothing for me.
    
    I don't know if I have an all-consuming passion, but I know it isn't
    cooking.
    
    Lorna
    

    Sometimes I love to cook, and spend hours poring through cookbooks
    finding just the right thing, buying and preparing the food, and
    eating it with my SO and/or friends.
    
    Other times I come home from work, and I want the quickest and easiest
    thing I can find.  Three minutes in the microwave could seem like
    too much hassle :-) at those times.
    
    Other times I want to be cooked for, and sit down and enjoy a meal
    as a whole, rather than as a combination of parts combined by me.
    
    I don't think cooking is oppressive in itself, I think being expected
    to come up with "nutritious, exciting, tempting, low-calorie and
    low-cost" meals day after day after day is oppressive.  Everyone
    who eats should help make sure food is provided!

    re.10
    AMEN

    AMEN again
    
    I once calculated roughly how much time is devoted to shopping for,
    planning, preparing, serving, eating and cleaning up after meals.
    It averages about 3-1/2 hours a day, and that's a big chunk out
    of the eight left after eight (minimum) for work and eight (maximum)
    for sleep.
    
    I don't think food is a passion for me, and I don't usually read
    women's magazines (I don't have to time to read something that doesn't
    matter to me very much).  I think they publish so much cooking stuff
    because it IS such a major piece of our lives, and we have a lot
    of emotional baggage attached to food.
    
    G

    
      RE: 178.4
    
           I haven't seen too many "men's recipees" but enough to share
    your attitude Steve. There are, however, "Mens" mags that do have
    some pretty good recipees. The one that comes imediatly to mind
    is "Outdoor Life". Most of the recipees are aimed at game meat but
    can be used on domestic meats. Both myself and Marie (my wife) love
    to cook and love eating even more. We both read recipees in "womans"
    mags although we rate the rest of the mag as poor hamster nesting
    material. Except the coupons of course.
           If you really want to expand your cooking skills, pick up
    some good cookbooks. James Beard is an excelent cook and has a few
    books out. There's also Boston's own Julia Child. L.L.Bean has a
    very good cookbook on all types of game and fish that Marie and
    I refuse to lend out to anyone. Mosey on into your local bookstore
    and browse through the cooking sections. You'll be amazed at the
    variety and quantity of cookbooks these days. You can also watch
    P.B.S. if your in the New-England area. There's around five different
    cooking shows on channel 2. 
           To hell with the media's attitudes on male cooks. Snub your
    nose at em all and enjoy cooking and eating. Plus it's a fun way
    to entertain guests. get em all involved it's tons of fun.
    (If you cook and eat like I do, take up jogging or you'll be tons
    of fun!)  :-)
    
    
                                         Rob
    
                          

    Re: .13
    
    I had one female visitor to my apartment comment that I had more
    cookbooks than she did...  My favorites are the "Blue Strawbery"
    cookbooks by James Haller.  Great food for the imagination...
    
    Cooking can be fun.  What seems very odd to me is that society seems
    to regard cooking as a woman's job in the home, but in the professional
    arena one finds that the vast majority of chefs are men.  Why is
    this, I wonder?
    
    I've found that inviting a woman IN for dinner can lead to a very
    special relationship.

    					Steve

    I'll be the first to admit that I buy those "women" magazines because
    the food on the cover usually looks soooooo good. Whether I ever
    cook it or not, I still like reading through the recipes - because
    they give me ideas for my own recipes. 
    
    I like to cook - for me it is a relaxing activity. But, only when
    I am doing it because I want to. The minute I get the feeling that
    I "have to" cook - it's tuna fish sandwich time!
    
    Most of those magazines alternate between having a gorgeous
    cake/pie/food on the cover  or the "star" of the month (male and
    female). It's flashy and catches the consumers' eye and is probably
    what sells a good majority of the magazines (chocolate cake always
    does it for me....), the articles sure don't. And isn't that what
    the business is about - selling the magazines? If it didn't work,
    they wouldn't do it.... and they are probably less apt to change
    to see if something else works just as well (like relevent topics)
    just in case it hurts circulation.
    
    I also think that since everyone has to eat and at some point in
    most people's lives, they get sick of eating out, frozen dinners,
    etc., that cooking (or food, at least) is a topic that interest
    to the masses. So, what better topic to put on the cover of a mag.
    that you're trying to sell?
    
    janet b.
    
    

I have noticed that I enjoy cooking much more when I know
that someone *else* is going to do the cleaning up. For 
those who want to cook something other than run-of-the-mill
food, give this idea a try if you have a willing partner
to share the work.

Sam

    Re: .16
    
    Good point!  When I was married, my wife and I had an arrangement
    that whoever did the cooking, the other did the dishes.  Though
    things didn't always go as smoothly as we hoped, in general it
    helped us be a bit more adventuresome in our meals.
    				Steve