Cooking From Scratch: Foods I’ll Never Buy Again

Piece of cake ... strawberry shortcake

I know — you’re never supposed to say never, and there’s a chance I’ll eat my words. But this cooking from scratch experiment taught me about certain foods that I’ll probably always buy readymade, and other foods that I’ll *probably* never buy again. Strong words, eh?

Well, instead of dwelling on the foods I lusted after (and couldn’t make at an even reasonably edible level), let’s look at some of my big, sustainable successes in the form of foods I hope to never find on my grocery bill from here on out:

1.) Ready-Made Biscuit & Shortcake Dough: Don’t get me wrong; I think the Pillsbury doughboy is freaking adorable — I just don’t want him making my biscuits (hm, that sounds like a euphemism…) But seriously, biscuits and shortcakes are so easy, you might as well make them from scratch — especially when you can enjoy them with homemade butter.

Breakfast in the fuzzy logic rice cooker

2.) Instant Oatmeal: Again, I have nothing against the Quaker Oats man — he seems like a standup guy. But after discovering the wholesome goodness of steel cut oats, I’m afriad there’s no going back to instant oatmeal for me. Steel cut oats might rank a notch lower in terms of convenience, but my handy dandy rice cooker does so much work, it hardly counts as “cooking.”

3.) Whipped Cream: Okay, I admit it — you can’t squeeze homemade whipped cream directly into your mouth like you could with a can of ReddiWip. And sure, it’s not as convenient as picking up a container of Cool Whip. But whipping your own cream isn’t just easy and ridiculously delicious — it’s also bizarrely fun, especially if you separate some out and turn the rest into butter. Mmmm.

4.) Pasta Sauce in a Jar: Sadly, Seattle’s amazing tomato season this year is coming to a close. (It still couldn’t rival Jersey Fresh tomatoes, though). And no, I didn’t freeze or can fresh tomatoes to get me through the winter, although I really wish I had… But that doesn’t mean I can’t make my own sauces using canned whole tomatoes — they yield a surprisingly fresh-tasting, chunky homemade sauce that would do Jersey proud.

Finally, here are some of my honorable mentions: butter, humms, and yogurt — I’ll definitely make these way more often, but I can’t say I’ll never buy them again… I should also give a shout-out to salad dressing, because I haven’t bought a bottle of it for years. I guess my track records shows that I probably won’t end up eating my words — but if I do, here’s hoping they’re delicious.