I think it's a plot to keep people thinking that it's all so hideously complex, so that we'll eat out more. And buy more branded prepared foods, which have a much higher profit margin.

Why can't they use a better excuse? I can understand -- and suggest some workarounds -- for:

- I don't have the time
- I don't like dishes/cleanup
- I hate the prep work
- I don't like worrying about ruining an expensive roast

But not ... I *can't*. It's too *hard* ????

Depending upon which cookbooks you have, it may even look really hard. I hadn't read my ancient pair of Joy Of Cooking paperbacks in literally years, but recently I flipped through it because everything else was packed. It was intimidating! It assumed everyone using it had an entire afternoon free to prep things, and was willing to do multi-stage preparation with 20 different ingredients for a basic spaghetti-meat-sauce.

If I had started out cooking trying to use that one as a guide, I'd be convinced anything other than grilled cheese sandwiches would be to hard. Even my beloved GCS would be abandoned, because that cookbook was one of the "butter each side of the bread and fry it individually, then assemble the sandwich in thus-and-such order and continue ..." instead of my method of "dash of miracle whip and a slice of cheese in between two slices of bread, then fry it in pan til browned right or the cheese melts out, whichever comes first".