A recent poll conducted by the BBC’s food magazine Olive and the French magazine Madame le Figaro,has shown that le Rosbifs have one upped the Frogs yet again!

Apparently not only do the Brits spend more time in the kitchen on a daily basis cooking from scratch, but they cook with more variety and imagination; o merde! The poll showed that 72% of British readers cooked at home on a daily basis, while only 59% of the French polled said the same. Plus, 50% of the Brits are spending more than 30 minutes on their meals, compared with only 27% of the French readers; what, are the French perhaps, *GASP*, using pre-packaged foods?!?! Oy vey.

I thought it waould be interesting (or maybe scary?) to see how this compared with America’s stats for home cooked meals. According to the 2008 American Time Use Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics,that 52.3% of the American civilian population was involved in food preparation in the household on a daily basis; down from 57% in the 2007 survey. I’m sure, with the economic downturn and less disposable cash for eating out, the percentage of Americans cooking at home is sure to rise for the 2009 survey; well here’s hoping anyway.

I thought about all my friends, and their varied lifestyles and family types and I’m sure that most of us cook/prepare at least one meal at home on a daily basis, right?

That leads me to another weird, food related topic that has been buzzing about lately; New York schools banning homemade baked goods from bake sales. Huh?? Isn’t that the whole point of a bakesale; you know, to ummm, sell HOME-BAKED GOODS?? Ergh. Food policing gone waaaay too far. If I am not mistaken, a bake sale should include these*:

Not these:

There is a great article in the New York Times here, that talks about the NYC public school’s strange, and somewhat sad, attempt to “tackle obesity”. They have essestially banned the brought from home baked items from the BAKE sale, but allow pre-packaged foods from a list approved by the city for meeting requirements for calories, fat and salt content…good grief. I understand the jumping off point from where this craziness started, but how did they end up here? *rolls eyes*

Robert Smith at NPR cracked me up the other morning too on the way to work with his take on the fiasco Fu-nny!

Photo: *Lars Klove for The New York Times