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When I'm doing a turkey, I buy a couple of boxes of Stuffing and add more cubed bread, cut up and fried red pepper, celery and onions. Much quicker/easier, and I like the taste of the spices they put into the package. (I also add my own)
Another shortcut with cooking a big turkey meal: I don't stuff the bird, I just bake the stuffing in another roasting pan. I hated digging out the hot stuffing from a hot bird and sometimes getting tiny bones mixed in.
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I have always been a scratch baker, but lately I’ve been using Duncan Hines chocolate cake mixes and nobody seems to know the difference. I made one yesterday for hubby’s birthday.
I have always been a scratch baker, but lately I’ve been using Duncan Hines chocolate cake mixes and nobody seems to know the difference. I made one yesterday for hubby’s birthday.
For years I made all cakes from scratch then I finally broke down and bought a cake mix.. rarely every make a cake from scratch now. Only special recipes.
(I did the same thing with mopping my kitchen floor... hands and knees until just a few yrs ago I got a mop and I'm 60 yrs old.. lol. I just didn't feel they did as good of a job... but it's good enough. I'll get the corners with a rag)
I like garlic in all it's forms. I use powdered in many many dishes, fresh in others. I did get rid of the jarred stuff a few yrs ago tho.. but I'll use it if it's here. But now that it's just me, I don't see how it could get 'here'... haha.
I have always been a scratch baker, but lately I’ve been using Duncan Hines chocolate cake mixes and nobody seems to know the difference. I made one yesterday for hubby’s birthday.
I was never able to get a scratch cake just right, so I use the boxed mixes but make my own homemade icings. Icings are easy, and everyone loves my desserts. Realized that previously when I made cakes from a mix it was really the accompanying and over-sweet canned icings I didn't like. As you said, no one can tell the difference.
I buy frozen biscuits and pie crusts.
I almost always use granulated garlic instead of fresh after watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and seeing that almost all restaurant chefs use granulated garlic in their dishes. For salad dressing I still use fresh, though.
I buy lettuce from the salad bar at the grocery store for topping hamburgers, etc. or a salad where just a few leaves are needed. I got sick and tired of throwing out heads of lettuce that had turned brown because we never use them up. Cheap to buy from the salad bar because it weighs so little. I buy just what we need for that days meal, no more wasted lettuce going into the trash.
I tried my hand at homemade pasta sauce and realized there are jarred brands that just taste better anyway.
I buy jarred marinara sauce. I doctor it up with some garlic and spices and an ice cube of wine, and it tastes fine to me, not enough difference from making it from scratch.
I rarely buy cut veggies but I do cut them up myself in advance, a few day's worth so I can put together a salad quickly.
Bought myself a good garlic press that works without peeling the cloves. And an onion chopper that works great. Those gadgets are better than pre-cut stuff to me, because I get the benefit of fresh without the work.
I keep certain frozen veggies in the freezer at all times - quick dinners - ground chicken burger, steam some broccoli florets and steal some of the dog's brown rice and carrots and I'm done!! or a cube steak-
grab a package of California blend - carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and a box of rice a roni and a pork chop and it's dinner - with leftover sides for the next day. always have frozen sweet peas and frozen green beans for the dog - his 2 favorites.
I buy shredded carrots for salads. I have a tiny kitchen with hardly any counter space so getting out the food processor to shred them just isn't convenient. I buy Pillsbury rolls and frozen garlic bread often.....just bake it and we're done.
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