I have gone back to natural foods, using cast iron instead of the cheap stuff they sell now. I dug out my Grandma's cast iron and threw out my other stuff. I am cooking much more than I used to, I make leftover trays for my husband to take to work. We hardly ever eat out any longer. My use of the microwave is down to almost nothing.

I know I am old, but I feel it is safer and good for us.

Sometimes the old ways are better! And with that I include eating from our own vegetable garden which we know is 100% pesticide free.

I went out to a restaurant a couple of months ago, for the first time in several years. I cook very simply at home.

But then, I'm an old technophobe. I don't even have any apps on my iPhone.

because it reduced my monthly bill by several tens of dollars.

just quick reheats. I might make a breakfast casserole in my 9 x 13 glass pan and keep it in the fridge. Anyone can quickly cut out a slice and nuke it for 20 seconds and be off on their day.

I was kind of disappointed by the idea that, once again, only women cook. In our family our males are tradesmen and craftsmen so they work 6:30 am to 2:30 pm and are home early so they usually cook dinner. Most of our females are teachers, engineers, nurses and in management positions so they get home around 5:30. It's nice to have dinner ready and children settled. This is not a new development either. Back in the 60s my dad always cooked dinner and he did laundry and childcare too.

I have not even bought a slow cooker. I tried my sister's once and really did not like the way it came out. She uses hers for a warming pan.

So one of the last places that forces us to actually move around a little is being converted to accommodate our already too sedentary lifestyle.

I’m not going to be able to cook naked anymore, it would totally mess my YouTube viewers minds up. Check out my station “Dingy, Dingy, What’s That Thingy”, (please subscribe). A mystery meal show.

No.

Isn't that what Sci Fi has taught us? We should also be whizzing around in flying cars.

So my parents needed to replace their kitchen faucet. They looked around at all the latest crap that was thousands of dollars (yes, thousands of dollars for a damned faucet). They finally found one for a few hundred. The worry here is that, in a few years, we won't have the "simple" option anymore. We will be stuck with unnecessary doodads and gizmos springing from what could have been a decent appliance.

Like this one:

And, cleanup of these complex appliances is a nightmare. It's just like any kitchen gadget that claims to make life easier. But in actuality, it just creates more work to accommodate a new appliance or gadget.

My oven, cooktop, 20-year-old pots and pans, mixing bowls, and nice cutting knives are enough for me to cook just about anything. Sometimes I'll take out the mixer or blender, but it's rare that I need them.

The think that takes me the longest time is prep and cleanup. None of these gadgets address that. It's just another box to put either pre-made meals into or to cook stuff you spend time preparing.

That was like field-stripping an antiaircraft gun every time you had to clean it, which was after every time you used it.

I think I made two glasses of delicious juice with it before giving it away.

I know it sounds stupid, but it enables my husband or I to start it remotely from work and arrive home to a hot meal. We dump and go. It's saved money in the long run, because we can set up beans or cheap cuts of meat and not have to wait until midnight to eat dinner. Also makes enough for leftovers.

Yes, we've had one or two mishaps when the power's gone out, but it's had a pretty good track record over the 2 years we've owned it.

Has a “delay start” feature. You have to program it before you leave the house, though.

Cooking while you're not at home sounds like a recipe for disaster (no pun intended)

I made up a lasagna earlier in the afternoon on Christmas Eve then put it in the oven on “timed bake” right before we left the house for church at 4:00.... came home to homemade lasagna all baked and ready! Of course you shouldn’t put something on timed bake that spoils quickly like eggs or seafood or uncooked meat. I don’t use it that often, but it’s a nice feature.

Once I got the hang of quickly preheating everything on the stove top before putting it in. I know, right? If I put in cold raw chicken and veg at 7:30 a.m., it would not be done at 6:00 p.m. when we all piled in for dinner. So I made sure to at least bring the liquids to a boil before pouring them over the meat and veg.

Other than that, it all took the usual amount of time to do veg-prep the night before, which is to say, a lot of time.

but I would love an oven that could tell me the exact internal temperature of what I'm cooking without having to open it (wasting heat and electricity and resulting in uneven temperature distribution) to use a meat thermometer which is not very accurate and potentially spreads germs.

Some of the smart fridges are super pointless though. Who needs an app on their phone connected to a camera in the fridge so they can see how many eggs they have left? Just open the fridge if it's that crucial to know.

I enjoy it, I love when my book club's coming over, I like cooking for family in the summer, it's absolutely one of my greatest pleasures in life, part of it because I've accumulated knowledge over the years, use family recipes (so I feel a connection with my family's past), and I have a built-in knack for it that I've worked hard to build over the years.

Do engineers seriously want to strip all the joy out of our lives? Sometimes I wonder (I know that's not exactly true, but sometimes it seems that it is).

about enjoying cooking a nice meal for the family.

I have friends whose adult kids work many hours in the day and don’t know how to boil water, so maybe this futuristic stuff would appeal to them. It doesn’t appeal to me! But then I am pretty technologically challenged! Plus I have the time. (not always the energy, though)

I see people who seem to want what I would consider an antiseptic existence. Being hands-on, though, is just so fulfilling. I like participating in a process.

I wish they would hurry up! My microwave can do just so much and it takes forever!

I wish I had a kitchen with a white refrigerator and those molded countertops. Formica.

And a tile floor.

I have stainless steel everything, "engineered-wood" floor, granite countertops. Everything is so delicate and hard to clean.

I'm pretty much sick of it all now. I still enjoy baking, but that's about it. Maybe someday I'll enjoy it again, I dunno.

As is usual, the appliance makers go way too far, mostly to sell this stuff as "high end" or for "first adopters" to play with.

That said, there are some features that can be useful. An oven, or even a fridge, that will send you a message on a phone isn't a bad thing. It can tell of a failing fridge, or that an oven or meal is ready. An oven that can be turned off, or adjusted remotely isn't all that bad either. I have no intention of paying for a feature that will automatically identify my food. Alternately I have little problem with a feature that will "suggest" a temperature/time when I communicate to it what the food is. I have to admit though, I suspect many of these tasks might be better coordinated through some version of a "smart speaker" especially configured for the kitchen.

My wife isn't just a good cook, she's a chef. None the less I wish I could get her to embrace modern technology. She measures out alot of ingredients ahead of time in small bowls. If her recipes were in a smart speaker, she could "check off" what she put is as she goes. I can't tell you how often she forgets to put in something from one of those small bowls. I have no problem with the cast iron skillets or dutch ovens. It would be nice though to have an oven that "knew" that nothing was in it, especially anymore, and notified you the oven was still on, or the stove. They ultimately made irons that "knew" that you weren't using them anymore and shut themselves off. Too many were left on and started fires.

Basically a feature that is sorta "passively" interactive can be useful without irritation. It's when they want to be too "smart" or take control that I begin to back off.

To them, the old ways were always the best, even though it was almost always obvious to me that they were wrong.

and roasting pan!

They show the potential of what we can do. It may seem pretty ridiculous, but some of it is worth looking at.

Zera is putting out a food recycler that turns food scraps into fertilizer in 24 hours. There is also an amazing kitchen hub with all kinds of bells and whistles.

I personally love this kind of stuff. From the outset, prices are high. But usually in a year or two they do drop especially when other companies start producing similar products.

Another thing, too. Some of these products wind up helping a lot of handicapped folks.

It may seem silly to you, but this kind of innovation is important.

And after 30 years I must say I am really good at it.

I use new things it they really help or improve the situation. Love my vacuum sealer, stick blender, kitchen aid mixer with the PTO for my meat grinder.

But generally I use very few items:

A good chefs knife
A paring knife
3 iron skillets
1 iron Dutch oven
3 all clad sauce pans
1 nonstick skillet

In my experience with my friends who buy all the newest item it is an attempt to overcome the lack of actual cooking skills. Like using a multipeice gadget to chop an onion which with not much practice can be done in less than a minute with a good knife. Can’t tell you how many times I have been amused by friends spending 5 minutes disassembling and cleaning a gizmo used to chop 1 or 2 veggies.

But like I said, I love it. I realize for many it is a necessary evil like I consider dusting!

For many of us, the ‘kitchen of the future’ might well be twigs and a match on the sidewalk.

raw vegan food preparation. Don't need to heat and destroy nutrients! Meat and animal products are so yesterday - a time of ignorance.