photoshop and lies: waistlines and caramelized onions

Dear aspiring family cooks,Caramelizing onions, you know, that deep brown, sweet, gorgeous onion you see in so many photos with recipes TAKES A LONG TIME. And yet, recipe after recipe I read and try shows the golden onions, with a cook time of 8-10 minutes. The most egregious offender I tried was a dish where raw onions were placed in the oven with chicken and cooked, coming out golden and caramelized in the photos, but looking like limp pale mush on my plate and tasting even worse. I didn't believe that my favorite cooking magazine would lie, I even increased the cooking time by about a third. But, there you have it. (Apparently others have noticed this trend, even in recipes from the NYT. From the linked article: Here, telling the truth about how to prepare onions for French onion soup, is Julia Child: "[C]ook slowly until tender and translucent, about 10 minutes. Blend in the salt and sugar, raise heat to moderately high, and let the onions brown, stirring frequently until they are a dark walnut color, 25 to 30 minutes." Ten minutes plus 25 to 30 minutes equals 35 to 40 minutes. )I'm upset about this because it links back to my last post about having fun and experimenting in the kitchen and not being afraid to fail. The most recent spate of recipes I've found under-estimating cooking times and other errors,  have come from national women's magazines (I can't remember which one, I buy a stack at the airport and tear out recipes.) It bugs me because you can do everything "right" and be guaranteed to fail. Where's the fun in that?  Seasoned cooks may know better, but beginner cooks don't, and these recipes are often aimed at beginner cooks,  almost always from a quick, or 30 minute meal section. They say they are simple, you can come home from work and have golden brown onions and a family dinner from scratch in 30 minutes! It's almost as bad as the diet and fitness articles that show the airbrushed model who works out 3 hours a day next to an article for "flat abs in five minutes."It's impossible, it won't happen, and we moms and women get snookered. "Why don't my abs look like that?" "Why is this meal gross, my family won't eat it, heck, I won't eat it, the magazine said it was simple! I can't cook!" We fail, yet again. We give up and stop exercising because it doesn't "work" or we stop trying to cook because when we do try it never turns out right.I wish the magazines would be honest— about bodies, weight, exercise, and how long it takes to get a complex recipe on the table, from start to finish, including prep time, with REAL cooking times, with the average home cook, not a line-cook who can dice carrots in 30 seconds.I wish that high-schoolers were taught some simple dishes in school (click on the link to add the ten things you think should be taught in school). I consider it a life skill. I remember learning to balance my check book in school, something I never do, but I have to feed myself and my family every-darn-day. I wish that instead of lecturing teens about fat and calories, we would take the time to teach them to make a home-made spaghetti sauce, a bean chili, or a soup from scratch. I wish that cooking shows were more honest, that recipes were real. I wish that the show, "Worst Cooks in America" didn't expect gourmet five-course meals, but taught real people how to cook real food for their families.P.S, my favorite learn-to-cook resource is Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family (Satter) starting with boiling pasta, pantry stocking, and 4 ingredient meals...How did you learn to cook? What have been your favorite resources? For a total newbie in the kitchen, how would you suggest they gain skills? What are the most egregious recipe fails you've experienced?