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{\Huge Notes On Cooking}
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Written and Edited by\\Kenneth John Odle

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First Edition

2026

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\copyright{}2026 Kenneth John Odle

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\kcnt{} \textbf{Why cook?} \\This is a complex question without a simple answer. ``Because you have to eat'' is the simple answer, but in the end, that's a moot point these days. You can always eat out, or visit the deli at your local grocery store, or fill your freezer with microwavable meals, or just eat bowl after bowl of cold cereal. 

(Is making a bowl of cold cereal cooking? I think it is. You have to get the milk to cereal ratio just right, and you have to use just the right bowl, neither too deep nor too shallow, and you have to time it right so it will be neither too crunchy nor too soggy when your favorite cartoon comes on. There was a \textit{Peanuts} comic about this years ago.)

In truth, eating out is expensive, and eating out of cans or boxes or the freezer section at the grocery store can also be expensive, and none of these are particularly healthy options. And while those things can feed your soul (and enrich your doctor, provided you are lucky enough to have health care), they don't feed your soul.
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\kcnt{} \textbf{Thanksgiving} \\I have a distant relative (by marriage) who made lasagna for Thanksgiving one year. She was not a good cook, and cooking a turkey was beyond her. The sauce was out of a jar, but nobody complained. It was the only dish she knew how to make from scratch. Some people thought it was weird, because what is Thanksgiving without turkey?  I think you need to adjust your thinking a bit and instead ask ``What is Thanksgiving without something homemade that's made with care and served with love?''
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\kcnt{} \textbf{Macaroni and cheese} \\Once, long ago, my cousin Tyler and my nephew Dillan were at my parents' house. My mom offered to make macaroni and cheese for them as a mid-afternoon snack. My nephew, familiar with my mom's cooking, said yes. But my cousin, more familiar with his mom's cooking (she of the lasagna-for-Thanksgiving type) declined, because he thought she was just going to make the Kraft macaroni and cheese out of the blue box. When he found out it was going to be homemade, he changed his mind and say yes, with great enthusiasm. 

Sometimes, homemade is everything.

When I was teaching, I had quite a few students who told me they knew how to cook. When I asked them what they knew how to cook, they often said macaroni and cheese, right out of the box. I had never eaten macaroni and cheese from the box; it didn't count as cooking to me. After all, it doesn't take a lot of effort to make macaroni and cheese from scratch. You boil some pasta, you drain it, you add butter and milk and cheese. The only way the boxed stuff differs is that you add cheese powder instead of actual cheese. (Although some will debate that American cheese is ``real'' cheese. It's real enough for me; you can go your own way.) 

I learned early in my career to not criticize this. They were often cooking after school meals (or sometimes dinners) for younger siblings and this is what they knew. They were doing the best that they could.

Sometimes, doing the best that you can for people that you love is everything, even if it is out of a box.
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