Home Economics

When I was a young'un, there were courses in Home Ec that were offered by my high school.  I never took any of them.  I thought they were all about learning how to cook, but I was female.  That comes with the gender, right?

Then, in a moment of brilliance, I took a Home Ec course in college and quickly found out that there is a whole lot more to keeping a household than just cooking.  The operative word is "economics".  I soon learned that any homemaker has three types of resources:  money, time, and energy.  Of course, this was in the days of more defined gender roles, but I came to understand that those suggestions are universal.  If the person in charge of the house and the meals also has a job, he/she has more money than time or energy.  If he/she stays at home to take care of the kids, there is more time.  And so it goes.  Naturally, the more there is to do, the less energy and time available, which requires more money which isn't always available.  Still, we do the best we can with what we have.

But let's talk about a cooking episode.  What is involved, especially when in someone else's kitchen?
Do you have all of the ingredients?
Determine eating time.  Think back to how long it will take to cook it.
Prepare the ingredients.  Figure out how to make it all done at the same time.
Plan out what pans will do the trick to cook everything, hoping there are enough, and how they will fit in the dishwasher later.
All of this doesn't happen by accident.  It occurs through experience.

Ha!  Asian cultures revere older folks for their experience.  In America, old folks are made fun of as being out of touch.   Carry on, young'uns.  Just keep on reinventing the wheel.  It's your generational legacy.