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I ALWAYS use canned tomatoes if it's not summer, when we grow them in our garden. Vastly preferable to mealy, out of season, bland store tomatoes. If homegrown isn't available, canned all the way.
I also almost exclusively use canned beans (red beans, white beans, navy beans, black beans, etc.), mainly because I rarely plan enough ahead to soak dried beans.
Exactly. Like someone said upthread, when I make chili it's pretty much a couple of cans of tomatoes, a couple of cans of beans, with an onion and a green pepper and maybe a zucchini thrown in. Maybe I can't claim that it's made from scratch, but it's certainly home-assembled.
I ALWAYS use canned tomatoes if it's not summer, when we grow them in our garden. Vastly preferable to mealy, out of season, bland store tomatoes. If homegrown isn't available, canned all the way.
I also almost exclusively use canned beans (red beans, white beans, navy beans, black beans, etc.), mainly because I rarely plan enough ahead to soak dried beans.
I confess I typically use jarred tomato sauce for pasta. There's one that I really like the flavor of, and it's quick and easy and I doctor it up a bit with some additional herbs and spices and a splash of wine and I'm good. I don't actually use it all that often anyway, because my kiddo doesn't like red sauce so we typically have our pasta other ways than with red sauce.
This was for a stuffed cabbage recipe. I make a really big batch of the sauce and freeze so I can make several batches of the stuffed cabbage over time. It had been a few months since I made the last batch of sauce, and that was the last time I had used the can opener. The kid had helped clean the kitchen that last time, so I had no idea where he had stashed it! lol!
I remember when I was in hs band, and we did an annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser. Booster parents supplied brownies and cookies and such for dessert. I remember some parents would bring store-purchased baked goods, others would bake themselves. I remember one mom inquiring if the brownies were purchased, or homemade in a particular instance. The kid dropping them off said, "My mom baked them. " The lady literally turned up her nose and said, "Be honest, though...from a mix, right?" Give me an effin' break.
Meanwhile, the spaghetti sauce was probably out of a jar, right? LOL
I remember when I was in hs band, and we did an annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser. Booster parents supplied brownies and cookies and such for dessert. I remember some parents would bring store-purchased baked goods, others would bake themselves. I remember one mom inquiring if the brownies were purchased, or homemade in a particular instance. The kid dropping them off said, "My mom baked them. " The lady literally turned up her nose and said, "Be honest, though...from a mix, right?" Give me an effin' break.
I bake for the bake sales my husband's employer has (to raise money for various charities) and the organizer of the bake sales always asks for my recipes the next day. My husband is sure that they want the recipes because they don't believe that the baked goods are homemade. They're very specific about not giving credit for volunteer hours for purchased baked goods.
I almost never use canned goods. It took me 10 minutes to find the opener when I made something recently that used several canned tomato products.
I use fresh or frozen instead of canned. For several years my one canned ingredient was beans. Then I "discovered" how easy it is to soak beans, and how many wonderful varieties of dried beans are available. Even an average grocery store has quite a few varieties. Whole Foods and a few other stores have bulk bins of dozens of varieties of dried beans that you can measure out and purchase by the cup, ounce, pound or however you want. I try new beans every time I shop.
Now we use dried beans for everything, healthier and so must tastier. Even canned refried beans lend a tinny taste to Mexican casseroles and baked burritos.
Homemade is not the same as "Scratch Made". So technically even the hamburger helper is homemade.
That's my thought process as well to be honest. And even, from scratch, doesn't mean that one has to personally make every item oneself. For instance, one can an bake a pie "from scratch" and not ground the wheat oneself, etc. No, in my view, you'd start getting away from the "from scratch" authenticity if you buy canned apples, a pre-made pie crust, etc.
I confess I typically use jarred tomato sauce for pasta. There's one that I really like the flavor of, and it's quick and easy and I doctor it up a bit with some additional herbs and spices and a splash of wine and I'm good. I don't actually use it all that often anyway, because my kiddo doesn't like red sauce so we typically have our pasta other ways than with red sauce.
This was for a stuffed cabbage recipe. I make a really big batch of the sauce and freeze so I can make several batches of the stuffed cabbage over time. It had been a few months since I made the last batch of sauce, and that was the last time I had used the can opener. The kid had helped clean the kitchen that last time, so I had no idea where he had stashed it! lol!
I rarely make red sauce for pasta (we mostly do garlic, herb, and olive oil-tossed pasta, sometimes with fresh diced tomato when in season), but when I do, I usually use whole canned tomatoes.
I'm amazed anyone has the time or inclination to critique how others cook and declare it homemade or otherwise. Perhaps some people have too much time on their hands.
A few years back, over a course of four weeks, I was invited to five "home cooked meals" by various people. In four of the five meals, I was served a Costco pot pie. Not that there is anything wrong with Costco pot pies as I actually like them. However, why make a big deal telling me that you made it from scratch when you brought it in from the store?
I try not to let myself get annoyed by such things, and focus instead on the fact that they're cooking dinner for their family. It's becoming more and more uncommon, unfortunately.
you are right; in fact even those who do cook for the family often eat dinner separately. But a lot of things we see today are very different from when we were growing up.
Now on serving things like humburger helper, I stil would rather see mom or dad fix a little healthier food. Maybe if a salad is added or fresh veggies (not canned) it would balance itself out.
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