There was an interview with the CEO of Kraft Foods in yesterday's Wall Street Journal that I found both hilarious and depressing. Here's a choice excerpt:
WSJ: Do people still want to cook?Ms. Rosenfeld: A lot of people consider microwaving their nacho chips with Cheez Whiz on it as cooking. I think consumers very much like to cook. I think the definition of cooking has changed dramatically. Whereas our mothers were more inclined to using their oven and their stove when they cooked, today's consumers think about using their microwave. They think about assembly as opposed to necessarily cooking.
I'm excited about this new product we just launched in January called Deli Creations. These are hot sandwiches that are made with our high-quality ingredients like Oscar Mayer meats, Kraft cheese and A1 and Grey Poupon sauces. But what's so cool about them is you stick them in your microwave, it takes 60 seconds and it tastes freshly baked.
WSJ: Do people feel like that's cooking?
Ms. Rosenfeld: In all honesty, no.
An update on the you-are-a-winner situation:
After doing a little research, including reading everything on this very informative FTC page,
we decided to take a pass on the Fabulous! Prizes! and not subject
ourselves to what was sure to be a high-pressure sales pitch. Now
that I'm back to working full-time in an office, I don't need that kind
of aggravation at the end of my day.
Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.
I don't remember ever being explicitly taught to cook, though I certainly absorbed all of the basics from my mother. She cooked dinner from scratch for our family almost every night. And around the holidays there was always something baking up in the oven.
It wasn't until I got older and found myself in the kitchen with friends who really didn't know how to cook that I realized that I already knew things like the importance of heating up oil before tossing something in the frying pan, why you should always set the timer for sooner than the recipe says, and how a written recipe is always a jumping-off point for your own creativity.
Tonight I made beef short ribs with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and I definitely wouldn't have had the nerve to try a two-day, multi-step, multi-hour-cook-time recipe (the ribs) without the culinary foundation that mom provided. And the results were more than edible:
On Saturday, Josh and I went to the Southcenter Mall so I could use up a couple of gift cards I'd received for Christmas. On our way out, we ran into one of those mall contest displays in the median strip, the primary feature of which was a spiffy new Smart Car!:
The next evening I got a call from an unknown number with an unfamiliar area code, so I ignored it. When I bothered to check my voice mail later, on it was a message from A VERY LOUD AND PERKY PERSON informing me that my contest entry form had been drawn, and I was the winner of some "gifts" that I needed to claim and I should call them back ASAP to do so.
No, I did not win the car. Or the cash. Apparently I won a vacation package for two to my choice of: New Orleans, Las Vegas, Jamaica or Orlando. And a "chauffered limo to dinner for two." And $500 in shopping certificates to some Internet shopping site where I'd only have to pay shipping and handling. Starting to sound a bit weird, no?
Turns out, the two of us need to go to some office suite in Tukwila to claim these "prizes" and -- oh yeah -- spend 90 minutes of our time listening to some sales pitch. What do you want to bet this has something to do with time shares?
Anyway, I live not too far away, and I figure I can cough up a little of my time this evening to scope the situation out. If I get the prizes, great. If not, or if things turn super-shady (e.g. "give us some up-front money and/or your SS #"), I can always whip out my travel agent card and tell them to F-off and not mess with a travel professional. At least I'll get an entertaining blog entry out of it.
