ways I waste time on the internet #1

This is a first of a very long list.

I like food. I like cooking, in theory. However, in practice, over the past few months I have developed the rather depressing habit of living off mediocre delivery. I order 40 dollars worth of food, once or twice a week, and continue to live off of it until it runs out.

Now, I've been trying to stop this habit because chicken tikka masala and saag paneer for four days in a row, twice a day is depressing enough. Once you add in the fact that fresh vegetable consumption is minimal and summed up by the tomato slice as garnish on the side, the practice is recast as a truly pathetic way of living.

At any rate, my cooking as of late is limited to the microwaving of frozen chicken pot pies, plain salad greens eaten with hands, and the occasional boiling of pasta. And coffee-making.

So can someone please explain to me why I spend over an hour a day reading cooking and food blogs? I read thekitchn. I read chow, even though it blows. I read eater, even though that blows too. I read all the New York Times food blogs. I always read the dining section of the Times as soon it comes out (often Wednesday, 12 am on the internet). I read Not Eating Out in NY. I read Grub Street.

And that's just the list of what I read every fucking day. It doesn't even add in the websites and blogs I'll stumble onto and then waste several hours looking through their entire back catalogue.

An ex once pointed out that I spend more time reading about cooking and food than I do actually cooking. Or eating for that matter. And that I prefer to do the former more than the latter.

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in front of the television. Saturdays were all about watching a huge block of cooking shows on PBS. My favorite was Jacques Pépin's Cooking with Claudine. It consisted of the most awesome French chef ever cooking with his daughter, who was relatively inept in the kitchen.

A common interaction was this:
--Dad, what should I do?
--Oh, you can chop the onions. (all in a wonderful french accent)
--How should I chop them, like this?
--Non, non (tries to take knife away)
--I can do it Dad (refuses to let go of knife).

It was sort of lovely and adorable, as they were obviously very fond of one another even as they got a little bit testy.

Now as pbs no longer has six hour blocks of awesome cooking shows any longer (Jacques and Julia, anyone?), that stuff I supposed being relegated to the crapfest of cable, my only option is to read this stuff on the internet. At any rate, if I were ever to start cooking regularly, I already know plenty. Or at least I've seen them do it on tv, and it can't be that hard at home. Right?

ps. I know I've been gone for a long time. Upcoming posts: Friends! Baseball! School?