Americans are being taught that we’re too stupid to cook.  That cooking is so hard we need to let other people do it for us.  The messages are everywhere.  Boxed cake mix.  Why is it there?  Because a real cake is too hard!  You can’t bake a cake!  Takes too long, you can’t do it, you’re gonna fail!

I had never considered the possibility that I like to cook because it makes me feel smart. My wife makes bread using a process that involves no kneading and I consider hear a genius because of it.

I had not considered that my culture reinforces this idea every day. All of my cooking heroes (Alton Brown, Michael Ruhlman, et al.) regularly throw back the curtain and say "Look! What you thought was magic is actually easy!"

Case in point: a couple of months ago, I was getting ready to make pizza with my family. I did not go all out: used pre-made pizza dough from the store (available in the refrigerated section), shredded some mozzarella, opened a package of pepperoni, cut up a green pepper. Then I realized I had forgotten to pick up pizza sauce. Panic set in. There was no way my kids would eat a pizza with just olive oil & garlic (their loss). So I went back to the pantry, hoping to find a jar hiding somewhere. In the pantry, I came back to my senses. I had garlic, herbs, tomato paste, and a can of crushed tomatoes. I had a stick blender (immersion blender). 5 minutes later, I had pizza sauce. I felt like a genius for doing what the automated machinery at the pizza sauce factory does all day long.

I had initially planned to rant a little bit, go on about the demise of Western culture, etc. Instead, I would simply encourage you to cook something today. Take Ruhlman's advice and roast a chicken or make some soup (recipe: stock plus what you like in soup) or make cornbread from scratch (a recipe is probably on the cornmeal package). You will eat well. And you will feel like a genius.

Easy win.