Home Ec

I went to public school for a hot second. Like, I mean, maybe two days, if that. ☠️

Not much stuck with me other than horror at the size of the classes, astonishment that “home room” existed not only in “Saved By The Bell,” but also in reality, and total shock that taking “home economics” was encouraged.

I mean— wasn’t “home ec” something relegated to my mother’s generation, seen only on “The Wonder Years” and, frankly, offensively sexist in the early 1990s? How was it possible that this was even being offered to me? I was offended by the very idea of it all, especially since boys were being offered “shop” aka woodworking. I really didn’t need a seventh grade course to teach me how to iron a shirt or mend a sock or poach a fucking egg. Nail in the coffin. No public school for me. Nope.

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I think about actual, literal home economics a lot. I find waste distasteful and irresponsible and, more often than not, financially reckless.

My home economics tells me to keep vegetable scraps in my freezer for stock, to repurpose leftovers, and to appreciate nose-to-tail dining and cooking. Home economics to me is making scallion pancakes when I have a glut of spring onions and chili oil when I have accidentally ordered a 1000g bag of red chili flakes.

Turns out home economics is nothing to scoff at! Quite the opposite, in today’s environment of economic uncertainty + energy crisis + climate emergency, we should all be taking stock (and making stock) and looking critically at the economy of our home and our kitchens. “Home ec” is no 1950s suburban housewife shit any more; to me, it’s almost a moral imperative.

Plus, it leads to deliciously good food— like these scallion pancakes, and this dan dan mian (seriously— my chili flake situation is out of control; I really need to get a better handle on metric weights — that’s what they should have tried to teach me at age 13…oh wait…they did: “Measurements and Analysis” with Mr. Edmonds) and Saturday lunch fried rice with the last of the edamame from the freezer and the leftover rice from two days ago.

Diatribe over. As is March’s #rainydaybitescookbookclub @thewoksoflife challenge.