Since the edit timer has passed, I didn't intend to imply that cooking is only ever a menial activity. The word came to mind thinking about coming home from a

Since the edit timer has passed, I didn't intend to imply that cooking is only ever a menial activity. The word came to mind thinking about coming home from a rough day at work and needing to put something, anything together to eat when you'd rather be doing literally anything else. I'm not talking about a planned meal where some actual planning and effort went into a meal that the cook is hoping you'll enjoy, I'm talking about the results of "i'm tired and hungry and I need to make something and I'm hating the entire process" kind of meals. The kind of cooking where you mechanically put something together without much thought because you're at the end of your rope for the day. Obviously such a concept expands well beyond "cooking". Replace that with car maintenance, lawn care, programming, writing, etc. People enjoy different things, and would prefer to replace those activities they don't enjoy with something else. Being able to is privilege, but I (personally) draw a hard line at calling that laziness.