For a while now I've been pondering what it means to cook. Can one be a cook and have absolutely no interest in food from a creative standpoint? Can "assembling" meals be the same thing as cooking? That is, if I make a ground beef dish with dehydrated noodles and cream sauce brought back to life with a cup of water and serve it with a green bean casserole made by opening a total of four cans, and then mixing and heating their contents, have I cooked? Or, if I open a poly bag of frozen vegetables and meat into a skillet and heat them so that the frozen sauce encasing them melts and warms through, is that cooking?

As with most things, I think the lines are pretty blurry. If, that is, if lines exist at all. I certainly don't make everything my family eats from scratch, or even near-scratch in the case of the Tastykake treats that Brainiac seems to acquire whenever he leaves the house. Then, of course, there's ketchup, pasta (a convenience food that even anti-convenience-food folk seem to have no problem with), sausages, and on and on. I make some of our broths but not all, some of our pickles but not all. You see where I am going with this, right? Is there anyone out there anymore who does the Ma Ingalls thing, churning butter, salting pork, grinding wheat (although even Ma Ingalls used white sugar for company, not to mention tea leaves and commercially roasted coffee)? I make soup noodles from time to time, am interested in making all kinds of ketchups and regularly bake bread (from commercially-produced flour), although I've never made pitas, tortillas, matzoh, lavash or any of the other scores of bread products we eat. But, on the whole, I procure a heck of a lot more than I actually produce.

Then again, I have had the experience more than once while grocery shopping of having someone point out that my cart contains ingredients to make food rather than prepared foods to which one merely adds water or applies heat.

I don't really know where I am going with all of this. I wish I had a point, but I'm not there yet. I do know that I am a moving target, cooking-wise. Since I work at home in somewhat sporadic bursts I have a great deal of control over my own schedule and am able to make chicken broth or pizza dough or a batch of mango jam in between my other daily activities and responsibilities. It's easier for me than, say, a single mom working two minimum-wage service jobs or a woman who sits at a desk writing briefs for 12 hours a day, to put a "cook" meal on the table, as opposed to one for which many boxes and cans are opened and contents heated.

On the other hand, some of the things that I make which my family loves to eat the most are ridiculously easy and scarcely qualify as cooking. Roast chicken, comes to mind. With roasting chiken all you really need is a chicken and time, heat application at its most sublime. Soup's the same way - leftover veggies cooked in seasoned water, what could be simpler?

So, maybe time really is the magic ingredient rather than being invested over who made the broth. And it's something that is so scarce anymore. I know from experience that four not-over-programmed individuals can still result in one over-programmed family. If, on top of our over-programmedness, I added a full-time out of the house job I'd do a heck of a lot more assembling and heating.

Hm. As I said, I wish I had a point, but I do not. These are things that I've been thinking of for a while now and I'm no closer to understanding the various inputs and methods involved in cooking for one's family than I was at the beginning. I should say here that I'm not looking in all of this to judgment - there is no way on earth I'm going to come down on a mom who is just looking to get through the day sanity intact and trying to get some food on the table in the bargain. I, too, can be a master assembler. To wit, my chili recipe, a triumph of assembly and heating:

Brown however much ground beef or finely chopped steak you want in a large saucepan. When about half-way browned, add a couple fistfull's of chopped onion and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. When the onion is translucent, add two drained cans of drained kidney or black beans (or a can of each) and a drained can of petite dice tomatoes. Add a packet or a couple tablespoons of chili seasoning and a squirt or two of Frank's RedHot (the lime variety is particularly nice). Allow to cool slightly and taste to adjust seasonings. May be served over biscuits or rice, if desired.