Do you cook from scratch these days?

Like most people did say 50 or so years ago? Or do you use a lot of convenience foods (cans, jars, boxes and mixes) to put together a meal? What was the last thing you cooked from scratch. I don't understand why all of the additives for flavor such as MSG when we used to have homemade foods without it and they tasted great. Why not just use spices and herbs for flavor instead?