Folks can't always cook the types of fancy meals Julia Child used to explain on her TV show.

It's a different world. Now instead of the fancy French cooking of Julia's day, food TV features easy dinner recipes. That doesn't mean bland. In fact, some of the French recipes are so rich that people couldn't even eat them every day.

Dinner cooking ideas can be found in other places too. There's a lot of food online. That doesn't mean just the cooking show web sites, although they have a lot of terrific information. Simple meals, healthy meals, even meals cooked on car engines are featured. In fact there are thousands of online sites for ever type of food or meal subject. Someone who decided to read every food related web site online would never finish in a lifetime.

Boring and simple aren't the same thing. Easy meals don't have to be terrible. Hot dogs are simple, but maybe too mundane. Corn dogs are another story. Lots of people enjoy them and they're not hard to prepare. Dip a dog in flour, corn meal, milk, salt and sugar, then fry it. Make it more authentic by inserting a stick.

Corn dogs aren't healthy. Easy doesn't mean not healthy. Broiled chicken is nice in a salad. That's a simple meal. It's also delicious and good for you. Make it soup and salad with some chicken soup. Soup and salad is a healthy meal. A salad can be dinner all on its own.

Now for some history. Dinner and supper started out as separate meals in colonial times. Physical work required a late afternoon meal, called dinner. Supper was the heavier meal at the end of the long, hard day. New lifestyles and types of work meant dinner and supper changed over the years until, for many, they merged. Physical laborers commonly maintained the tradition of separate supper and dinner into the 1970's, and some people still do it today.

You don't have to have a separate supper and dinner. However, it might be a good idea to try the traditional lighter dinner meal at supper time, or can we call it sipper? Easy dinner recipes mean don't call me late to dinner.