Not Cutting It
I heard a food expert on TV or the radio once talk bout how humans are the only creatures who eat not only for nourishment, but also for pleasure. That’s why we do things like season food and combine interesting flavors. Otherwise, we would just tear meat off an animal, or yank vegetation out of the ground and just stuff it in ourselves until were were full, and then shit. I want to take the observation about humans enjoying food one step further. Another way we differ from other creatures is that we also enjoy the preparation of food. A bear will crawl in the water grab a fish and tear it’s head off with no ceremony. We, on the other hand, will fillet it, season it with pepper and lemon and bake it until it’s flaky.
Things have changed over the years for us humans. Since we more and more need instant gratification, fast food, microwave meals, and all kinds of pre-packaged stuff is available now, taking away some of that pleasure. But even with all that, I was still thrown a bit when I saw what I did at the grocery store today.
Now, I realize that several years ago, Pillsbury or Betty Crocker or some other big company went a step beyond there usual “add water and bake” products by introducing pre-made cookie dough. Okay, fine. Some people feel like they are not good cooks. But what I didn;t know (until today) is that you can now get cookie dough, not only pre-made, but also already cut into “holiday shapes.” I’m not talking about those tubes of cookies with the in-laid snowmen or angels. That’s probably not easy to pull off from scratch. I’m talking about pre-made dough that has already seen the cookie cutter.
I don’t get it. Even if you don’t have the skills to make your own dough, don’t you want to at least take pride in having done something to prepare the cookies? I think of how women used to have to churn butter and go out to the barn to gather eggs before even thinking about baking a cookie. Now all you have to do is reach in the freezer, grab a snowman, and toss it in a hot box for twelve minutes. How much effort does it take to use a cookie cutter? The whole thing smacks of laziness, to me. If you can’t muster up the energy to cut through flour, sugar, and butter, then the last thing you need to be doing is eating a cookie.
I know. It’s just a sugar cookie. But I think it illustrates the much bigger issue of a poor work ethic held by many people these days. The world’s gotten to a point where we get satisfaction from having something, rather than getting satisfaction from the effort it took to make it.
Well, Granny and I still make the effort bake sugar cookies for Christmas the “old-fashioned” way, and there’s nothing like taste of good “old-fashioned” satisfaction.
December 18th, 2005 at 6:56 am
Why a big portion of the World is overweight. Laziness. We all struggle with being overweight and they just keep coming up with easier and easier ways for us to sit on our ass and do nothing. For the love of god, why does anyone need a remote control for their car stereo. It’s only a arms reach away.
December 18th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Careful, Tony…
Holiday baking can be both time-consuming and expensive. The modern American mom often works full-time in addition to managing a household, and quite frequently without a spouse to share tasks. Purchasing pre-shaped cookie dough is not necessarily a sign of laziness; in fact, it smacks of resourcefulness, actually.
The best part about baking Christmas cookies is decorating them with your children, anyway…but depending upon how you plan to decorate them, may require that the cookies still be refrigerated dough or else freshly baked and still warm. An overwhelmed mom (or dad, even) can retain some semblence of holiday tradition by purchasing pre-shaped dough to bake and decorate. Even though these doughs are often pricey, if one does not routinely keep the ingredients on-hand, the pre-shaped dough could actually be less expensive than making cookies from scratch.
December 18th, 2005 at 7:37 pm
Some of my fondest memories of Christmas include the three of us kids sitting at the dining room table with Mom making Austrian crescent cookies. The cookies are hand shaped and after baking, coated with confectioners sugar. It was an annual event. Of course, later on we kids made X rated ones. Boy, did we shock the floor waxer when he saw. But that’s off the point. At that time, my Mom was divorced, supported us kids, and worked full-time. She will make those cookies again this year at age 73 and I am going to see her on Wednesday to examine this year’s batch. Joy to the World!
December 18th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
I feel the same way about condoms.
… sorry, it’s just that I don’t cook, so I can’t really make a judgement on your topic. But I love to eat cookies, if that makes any difference.
December 18th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
So, Higherpowered, are you saying that your condoms are handmade by the kids at the dining room table with Mom, or that your fondest memories of Christmas are of condoms? LOL!
December 19th, 2005 at 11:06 am
So, those handmade condoms, does one use a cookie cutter (ouch) or are they hand shaped? (Hand shaped sounds like more fun to me.) Are they decorated with colored sprinkles or confectioners sugar (yum!)?
December 19th, 2005 at 12:39 pm
I want to know what you do with the left over cookie dough from those pre-cut cookies. I bet the directions say “discard remaining dough”. My mom use to roll it back up and make more cookies. Yum. Yeah I’ll be making cookies this week……….From scratch.
December 19th, 2005 at 7:05 pm
I’ve been away for awhile ….. I’m BACK!
It’s a matter of perspective. Tony makes a good point. I have some great memories of making homemade cookies and brownies w/my grandmother. Memories I would have missed if she’d just thrown a premade batch in the oven.
However, in today’s environment it’s not always an option. I guess you have to look at the purpose behind the cookies!
December 20th, 2005 at 7:11 am
Tonight, my grandma and I, not only will be making cookies (store-bought dough, but we are cutting them ourselves), we’re also making homemade fudge and butter toffee. I will be over the stove for hours, joy and bliss, but it’s a yearly tradition.
December 20th, 2005 at 10:11 pm
Know exactly what you mean. If you’re all fired up to bake but you just go to the store for precut cookie dough… why don’t you just get the ones already baked? WHy bother unless you want to make it from scratch?
Paul
March 22nd, 2006 at 4:13 pm
I appreciate Marlene’s response but I just have to shake my head. More expensive to make them at home? Without carageen gum and triphosphate this and that. Too time-consuming to be involved in an activity with your partner or family? The fun only in decorating? If I didn’t spend hours making gnocchi and tortellini with my grandmother, I never would have know that she knew almost every opera aria ever written, that she thought my father was spoiled when he moved to the US, that she spoke a very special dialect from the town she came in. It wasn’t about how much the flour cost or how long you spent rolling out pasta dough, but the time together.