
 |
The Kosher Gourmet by Megan Gordon With its colorful cache of purples and oranges and reds, COLLARD GREEN SLAW is a marvelous mood booster --- not to mention just downright delish
April 18, 2014
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Clarifying one of the greatest philosophical conundrums in theology
John Ericson: Trying hard to be 'positive' but never succeeding? Blame Your Brain
The Kosher Gourmet by Julie Rothman Almondy, flourless torta del re (Italian king's cake), has royal roots, is simple to make, . . . but devour it because it's simply delicious
April 14, 2014
Rabbi Dr Naftali Brawer: Passover frees us from the tyranny of time
Eric Schulzke: First degree: How America really recovered from a murder epidemic
Georgia Lee: When love is not enough: Teaching your kids about the realities of adult relationships
Gordon Pape: How you can tell if your financial adviser is setting you up for potential ruin
Dana Dovey: Up to 500,000 people die each year from hepatitis C-related liver disease. New Treatment Has Over 90% Success Rate
Justin Caba: Eating Watermelon Can Help Control High Blood Pressure
April 11, 2014
Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Silence is much more than golden
Susan Swann: How to value a child for who he is, not just what he does
Susan Scutti: A Simple Blood Test Might Soon Diagnose Cancer
Chris Weller: Have A Slow Metabolism? Let Science Speed It Up For You
April 9, 2014
Jonathan Tobin: Why Did Kerry Lie About Israeli Blame?
Samuel G. Freedman: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Jessica Ivins: A resolution 70 years later for a father's unsettling legacy of ashes from Dachau
Matthew Mientka: How Beans, Peas, And Chickpeas Cleanse Bad Cholesterol and Lowers Risk of Heart Disease
April 8, 2014
Dana Dovey: Coffee Drinkers Rejoice! Your Cup Of Joe Can Prevent Death From Liver Disease
Chris Weller: Electric 'Thinking Cap' Puts Your Brain Power Into High Gear
April 4, 2014
Amy Peterson: A life of love: How to build lasting relationships with your children
John Ericson: Older Women: Save Your Heart, Prevent Stroke Don't Drink Diet
John Ericson: Why 50 million Americans will still have spring allergies after taking meds
Sarah Boesveld: Teacher keeps promise to mail thousands of former students letters written by their past selves
April 2, 2014
Dan Barry: Should South Carolina Jews be forced to maintain this chimney built by Germans serving the Nazis?
Frank Clayton: Get happy: 20 scientifically proven happiness activities
Susan Scutti: It's Genetic! Obesity and the 'Carb Breakdown' Gene
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Dec. 29, 2005
/ 28 Kislev, 5766
Cooking up relief for busy moms
By
Lenore Skenazy
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
You can bet June Cleaver had a home-cooked meal on the table every night, which is why Wally and Beaver never became crackheads. After all, dinner is supposedly the "anti-drug."
But what are today's moms supposed to do come home, ditch the pumps, help with the homework, kiss the hubby hello, pick up a kid or two from basketball and still somehow manage to cook a Cleaverian capon?
No can do, Bub! This revolution is missing a cog! Tonight's supper is macaroni with steamed mom same as last night.
Or at least, that was pretty much the menu chez most working moms until a second revolution started taking off the one that might finally make the first revolution work.
It's called fresh meal assembly, or easy meal preparation evolving terms for a slew of new out-of-home kitchens that women are opening up all over America more than 500 to date, up from just 100 of them in 2003 and zero in 1998.
They haven't reached New York City yet, probably because the rent here is prohibitive and the takeout plentiful. But the rest of the country is becoming very familiar with these storefronts, each equipped with about a dozen counters and, at every counter, all the preshopped, prechopped ingredients necessary to make the recipe sitting right there in front of you: cinnamon pork tenderloin, say, or coconut shrimp.
Most easy meal kitchens run two-hour sessions during which customers assemble 12 freezer-ready meals, which each feed a family of six. The price is about $200, or less than $3 a serving. And the fact that these meals actually get cooked at home, suffusing the kitchen with Cleaver-era aromas? Priceless.
"To be honest," admits Westchester mom of twins Nancy Beard, "we did a lot of takeout and, G0d help us, Lean Cuisine." That was before she discovered One Two Three Dinner in Briarcliff Manor. Now she arranges to meet friends there, and together they make dinners and socialize while they do it. "We just did five meals in an hour and a half," she beams.
It's the conviviality as much as the convenience that makes these public kitchens so compelling. When women joined the workforce, they not only lost the time to cook, they also lost the time to chat. These out-of-home kitchens give ladies (and the occasional guy) a chance to socialize while still being productive. Meanwhile, the husbands are so grateful for non-nugget meals that they often volunteer to baby-sit. Talk about win-win.
"I've never seen anything quite like this, that's bubbled up from the ground up and so fundamentally solves problem," says Bert Vermeulen, president of the Easy Meal Preparation Association.
If dinner is the anti-drug and working moms are, for better or worse, still expected to make that dinner happen, easy meal prep is the missing link.
Now when working dads start getting together for playgroups, we'll be all set.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Lenore Skenazy is a columnist for The New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
Lenore Skenazy Archives
© 2005, NY Daily News
|
|
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles
|