The other day I was with a group of women, all in their ‘prime’ by which I mean they had at least some grey hair to their credit and a few wrinkles to boot. One of us suggested that we find time to meet more often. We could do some cooking and sharing of recipes, she said. A few others enthusiastically agreed and soon a discussion ensued on the where and how of it.
Listening to the chatter, I was genuinely amused. Here were women who had spent ALL their life cooking and caring for their families (and were still doing so), and whose plans for meeting up involved doing more cooking. It tickled my funny bone that they weren’t seeing it. Not at all.
“Oh wow ladies!” I joked, “Look at you planning cooking and recipe-sharing meet-ups as if all the cooking you do already in your lives isn’t enough!”
It was said in a lighthearted way, but I was amazed too. Why not plan some games, sharing tidbits from our lives, funny incidents or something that touched us, discuss a movie or a book, learn a new activity, dance and sing, paint or draw? Of course cooking and recipe sharing could also be a part of it all, but the sole aim? No way. Also in these days of YouTube, who actually needed recipes? Like seriously!
Anyway, the irony of what I said escaped the gathered women. They, in all seriousness, tried to explain, and convince me, how rewarding an experience it all would be. Yawn.
Don’t get me wrong here people. I LOVE to cook. With almost four decades of cooking behind me (and more to look forward to), like most of the women in the group, believe me cooking is NOT what I want to do when I find time to sit with other women. Oh well. No prizes for guessing who wouldn’t be wasting her time. 😉
Shail Mohan 2023
Shail's Nest 
Yes, that does seem rather odd.
Doesn’t it too! 🙂
Isn’t it? Especially when that is all most women get to do here!
Like you, I enjoy cooking, Shail but when bonding with female friends, cooking and recipe sharing are way down on the list. I’d rather not use a recipe from somebody I know. Better to Google and then adjust to the way I think it should be done.
I really liked the ‘adjust to the way I think it should be done’. Haha, that’s how I go about it too 😉
This amused me but…cooking by YouTube?! No thank you! I will always prefer cookbooks and recipe cards or – if absolutely pushed into the 2020s – a recipe online, perhaps from the BBC or something. But watching videos and having to stop and start would totally confuse me – and I already take FAR TOO LONG when I cook as it is!
I still have my collection of recipe cards and books. But I am afraid I have gone over to the dark side, looking for recipes on the net. 😅 The stopping and starting is a turn off. I try to remember it all or else improvise. Haha!
Simply because sharing recipes or cooking shortcuts comes easy ( from experience) baaki sab mein dhimaak ko bhi chalaana padta hai! 😌 and you didn’t hear this from me! 🥸😜
Haha! I hear you 😉
Can you imagine then the same for a person who doesn’t love to cook!? The ideal housewives edition of meetup is always a potluck where in they share their cooking skills and share the tips and tricks with others!!!
Cooking is fun when you dabble with it yourself and I’d be interested in sharing ideas and such, however like you said, it can be tiring if that’s the only thing you talk about with friends. When I am with family/friends, we try to diversify the topics like movies, books, our careers, society, culture etc…. Makes life more interesting.
Exactly!