I’m turning into a real homemaking queen lately.
As opposed to Homecoming Queen. I’m typing this out wearing the dress I made on Saturday (which I got oodles of compliments for today) and realizing that I’m living my granny’s ideal - I can cook, sew, clean the house (ok, not so strong on this one), do my own makeup, and land a nice man.
If you take history back 50 years, these were the requirements for being a woman. Mostly because there were single income families where the woman’s role in the household is to keep it running by cutting corners - cooking every meal, sewing half the clothes (suits have to be tailored, hey), and get darn near orgasmic by the sight of a modern washing machine. Nowadays, we all have jobs. Do the dishes? The machine’s got it. The laundry? The maid came by on Sunday. The cooking? We’re ordering in. Sewing? You kidding me? We have third world labour to do that for us. Land a man? Who needs a man? It is no longer the obligation of the woman to "land" a man. They’re LUCKY to find a wife (i.e. woman willing to settle down and have children instead of pursuing her own career) let alone one who can serve 5 course dinners.
Now consider this: if we delegate sewing and cooking - two previously "necessary" household skills - into hobbies, and love doing it regardless of whether we have to or not, think of the money you’d save! If you choose to cook every meal, whether via a slowcooker that you dump raw food and seasonings into in the morning, or a quick stirfry the moment you get home, you’re saving the cost of eating out ($8) (pack leftovers into lunch and save another $5), let’s say you only do this during the weekdays. That’s $13 x 5 (workdays) x 4 (weeks) = $260. Now instead of buying that simple pouf "designer" dress for $300, make it yourself with fabric that costs $40 and a pattern that costs $20. It’d fit perfectly (since you did fit it, didn’t you?), costs less, probably made of better material (silk instead of rayon) and if you enjoy sewing (I love sewing. I hate cutting out patterns) the workmanshop should be pretty comparable. The dress I’m wearing would’ve cost me $60 - without lining. Mine costs $6 including the zipper, and it’s lined.
What to do with the extra money you save by cutting corners? What we always want to do with extra money. Shoe shopping!
July 24th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Sounds like a plan.
I’m sure your handiwork is worthy of high praise, indeed.
I’m not sure things were really all that different in those “Good Old Days.”
Because my Dad was away from home for work so much of the time, my SuperMom did it all.
She raised four of us single-handed on an income that seems like a bad dream today. I know because I prepared the family taxes.
No microwave, three or four jobs and (though I love her dearly) her culinary and tailoring limitations were legendary.
Who’s been filling your head about 50 years ago, Young Lady?
July 25th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Gerry/ blame stu’s mom. Or my grandmother.
The last generation of women in my family tend to “hack” cooking, but were all expert seamstresses. I distinctly remember that all the meals prepared by my mom involved boiling, while my grandma (on both sides) did it all - broil, fry, bake, braise - in a wok.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:05 am
Oh, and as for the 50 years ago reference, it’s the “1950’s suburban housewife” ideal. You don’t hear much about the 1960’s suburban housewife, nor the ones in the 1970’s.
It seems like after the 50’s, they stopped putting the gorgeous housewife in front of washing machine ads.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
We boiled stuff whether it needed it or not, too. Within an inch of its life, and then some. Yuck.
Now you mention it, I don’t know who they use to shill appliances anymore.
July 25th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Great blogs Sally. “u cracked me up with that, “men are lucky to land a women who can cook”. I gotta remember that one.lol
But to flip that over, for the women who still can’t cook, they would starve when the men don’t take them out to dinner..lol Maybe they can just google dinner. hehehe.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Gerry/ the Maytag repairmen.
Mostly they just show a shiny stainless steel appliance and hope that it is attractive enough.
Peter/ Thanks Peter!
See, the issue with that is that women can now afford to buy themselves dinner.
July 28th, 2006 at 9:14 am
“…and get darn near orgasmic by the sight of a modern washing machine.”
um…it’s not the sight, it’s the vibration. You gotta sit on ‘em, though, for it to work. The “darn near orgasmic at the sight” part you mention is purely the pavlovian response…of a highly conditioned subject. Confession time, Sally? Doing your knitting sitting on the washer? Don’t wear out the heavy-duty cycle heh, heh. Sorry. seriously, tho, I agree with every thing you are saying…except for the shoes shopping…that extry money is obviously best spent on sugar-coated nugs…maybe a new vaporizer.
July 30th, 2006 at 3:10 am
I think you deserve it girl. Hey! have you seen Tess’ blog on yahoo 360? She’s also good when it comes to food and guess what? she is asian too. My question is, do asian women has this gift eversinced? Also my asian friends on webdate*dot*com knows various eastern and western dishes. How come your good?
July 31st, 2006 at 1:05 pm
I seriously think that our -also asian- parents/grandparents tend to emphasize homemaking skills, especially when it’s the girls.
I remember standing on a step-stool over the stove at the age of six learning how to flip an egg over without breaking the yolk. And learning little tricks like putting mangoes in the rice bucket until it ripens.
Eric/ http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888054921/104-2933980-9026313?v=glance&n=283155
(it’s a book I saw at BMV last week.)
July 31st, 2006 at 6:04 pm
One of the things I tell my clients, besides go out less often, is to stop wasting food. If you actually cook all the food in your fridge, eat all the leftovers, it’s amazing how much money you’ll save at the end of the year.
Anyhoo, my mom loves sewing too. Wanna do a pattern exchange?
July 31st, 2006 at 7:05 pm
I do agree, remember in college I cook like crazy just want to save money. There were several occations where I cooked five meals at once, boxed them up and eat for two days, lol. Now looking about, I felt like I did accomplished a lot and was very independent when I was in school.
August 1st, 2006 at 4:42 pm
It simply amazes me how much more it costs to eat out than to cook at home. My husband and I are expecting our first child (for some reason I wrote “chicken” the first time, guess I’m hungry!) and lately we eat out a lot! Tonight I took a card from your deck and tossed together a hamburger casserole, with tomatoes, rice, garlic and onion. And of course, hamburger. Thanks for being an inspiration, Sally!
These days you don’t need a pretty housewife type to sell a washing machine. There are just too many to choose from. And I for one am GLAD that the 50’s housewife stereotype is going, going gone!
Ginny
August 1st, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Woah… hey… HOW DO you turn eggs over without breaking the yolk?
August 2nd, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Zauber/ LOTS of oil if you’re using a wok. Not so much if you’re using one of those non-stick pans. If you’re really bad at it, use the right tool - a flat spatula. If you’re using a wok, make sure to keep the egg moving.
Nowadays I can turn eggs over with chopsticks.
Patterns/ I don’t have that many yet. (Especially dresses and such) Since I’ve been doing a lot of home decor sewing, I just end up marking the pattern right on fabric and cutting them out…
Ginny/ Thanks Ginny! I was just telling stu that if we were to take his son out on Saturday when he was over instead of my doing all the cooking, we would’ve spent a fortune. Instead, ribs dinner (with leftovers) with corn and banana bread costs around $20 for 3 instead of $60.
However, if you have all your meals in Chinatown, I can’t say you won’t be saving money eating out in HK style diners and their $3.50 dinners.
September 2nd, 2006 at 4:10 am
Home cooking is not actually cheap unless you cook larger portions for 3-4pax in terms of economies of scale. At least in my case
But I’ve got to say that I am fortunate enough to earn some income from my craft-turned-business hobby.
September 13th, 2006 at 6:04 am
Hi Sally,
I like your blog, all that cooking and stuff, which I can actually do when bf is not doing all the cooking…heres our’s:http://www.yepayepa.net/kl18th/. Can we link your blog to our’s? Cheers,Nina
February 4th, 2007 at 4:24 am
Why Sally, if i may just ask…Do you have something against women who are willing to give up their jobs to become a homemaker?
February 4th, 2007 at 4:27 am
But (to follow-up) don’t get me wrong here, i really adore your Blogs…