Do you Cheat in the kitchen?

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I think the overwhelming answer is yes to everyone. Cheat meaning taking a short cut has almost a negative conotation. To some using instant mashed potato mix would be cheating. But if you didn't grow the potatoes, milk the cow and and churn the butter and after having did that distilled the water to make your own salt....is that not cheating? We all like what we like whether it's cheeze wiz, instant potatos, bologna sandwhich with Miracle Whip. We all like convenience but strive to find the proper balance that yields the result we are looking for. I have to go now and crush some cane so I can have a little sugar for my tea.

Merry Christmas,


JDP
 
I don't use a lot of prepared stuff like instant Mashed potatoes but I don't make my own mustard or catsup except when it has some important reason [lets face it- a tuna or turkey sandwich fills but usually I'm in more a rush than caring about gourmet foods for a lunch sandwich that I'll often eat on my way to my next appt.].

I think that instant mashed potatoes are nearly a necessity in my pantry as a thickener. They , used properly, are a fine thickener in that they do their job and add nothing to the taste. I have eaten them straight and they remind me of nothing. They are nearly tasteless.
 
JDP said:
... I have to go now and crush some cane so I can have a little sugar for my tea. Merry Christmas, JDP


Yeah, but I'll bet you didn't grow the sugar cane...
 
Ayrton - "Ah, time to play "fun with foreigners" Philso?! (This may be the first and last time in history that "The Three Stooges" and "Jean-Paul Sartre" were mentioned in the same sentence.)"

this may have been the first time in history they've been mentioned together, but don't count on it being the last. wait till you read my forthcoming novella, "Lady Chatterbrane's Lubbers", in which our 3 heroes confound both satre and nietzsche at their own game, with the anachronistic help of euripedes. it's sure to please.
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philso said:
Ayrton - "Ah, time to play "fun with foreigners" Philso?! (This may be the first and last time in history that "The Three Stooges" and "Jean-Paul Sartre" were mentioned in the same sentence.)"

this may have been the first time in history they've been mentioned together, but don't count on it being the last. wait till you read my forthcoming novella, "Lady Chatterbrane's Lubbers", in which our 3 heroes confound both satre and nietzsche at their own game, with the anachronistic help of euripedes. it's sure to please.
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I'll take very obscure references for $1000 Alex.
 
I'd guess my big cheat is to use canned chicken. It comes like canned tuna and when I'm in a hurry it can be mixed with mayo for sandwiches or added to rice or noodles for a quick main dish. A lot easier than dicing up chicken breasts. (did I mention I hate dicing?)
 
YT2095 said:
auntdot, I couldn`t agree more :)

the Though behind this thread is quite simple, I made a little too many bread crumbs for tonights dinner, and so i thought of making Fish Cakes for during the week and considered posting my recipe for them, but then thought it through and realised that I actualy use packet mash as the the potato part and figured "Naah, I can`t post that, they`ll think I`m cheating" and it would be looked upon dimly.

then I got to figuring, I wonder how many of these chefs and cooks actualy "Cheat" also? maybe it ISN`T just me...

I never thought of instant mashed potaoes in a recipe was exactly cheating. Lol one Thanksgiving, I made mashed potatoes in a crockpot and they turned out runny because of the excess water trapped under the lid. My mom fixed my problem by adding instant mashed potatoes to the real and nobody noticed.
the rest is history :)

My husband won't let me use instant mashed stuff because for him it's a sacred thing. To save time however, I'll wash my potatoes really well and then chop them up without peeling them. I'll mash the potatoes skins and all. The only time I'll peel potatoes is for company. Also if you use a ricer to mash your potatoes. You can put your cooked unpeeled potates in the ricer and it will push the potato flesh though leaving the skins behind. Just throw away the skins and you still won't have to peel anything. Add some butter and some buttermilk and you have some really good 'taters. :-p


 
Well, as I think about what we're going to eat tonight, it occurs to me that I left out my very big cheat - curry sauces from Pataks and Sharwoods in jars. Hang my head in shame... On the other hand, they're a great way to turn out a tasty dinner in no time at all.
 
I don't use instant Mashed potatoes but I do have sliced frozen potatoes in my freezer ... from time to time I also buy sliced (and cleaned) mushrooms, if they are not available I might buy sliced frozen mushrooms...

I never make my own pasta I buy it either fresh or dry.

That was my confession :)
 
I was watching TV the other night and there was a commercial for some show, or something ... the family was sitting around the table for dinner and the son asked the question, "Do we always have to have cuisine - can't we just have food once in a while?" - you heard the needle scrape across the record and the mother looked at him in horror!!!

Gimme a break - we don't all have the time to devote to preparing a 5-Star dinner "from scratch" every night!

Don't worry about it .... like Andy M's signature says, "If you want to create an apple pie from scratch - you first have to create the Universe."
 
You design your kitchen to meet your needs. If you like deli food make your kitchen a in-home deli. If it's baked foods, go with that. Some people love breakfast foods enough to live on it all the while. Others want variety and choose seasonal foods.
Some people don't know about making bread from flour. They think it's slicing french bread and toasting it. I had a lady tell me that she made koolaid from scratch.
I found a recipe for marshmellows. It was so time consuming, difficult and needed pans that I did not have. I don't know why they are so cheap but I am not going to complain about people using commerical marshmellows ever.
I never make chinese food because we do not have the appropriate ingredients that are not canned and processed.
I don't see buying ready made pie dough, canned filling, etc and putting it together and baking it. Might as well buy a pie in the bakery. It takes several pounds of apples to make a pie or a cobbler and that's what I make when nobodys eating the fresh fruit.
All the "powdered sugar" contains cornstarch so it's the same thing as confectioners sugar.
We would be waiting a long time for a baseball game if those hot dog franks were homemade.
Cooking is fun and creative. I love grocery shopping. I'm still learning.
 
I think what the way we are able to get a favorite stuff quickly and conveniently. We could do.
 
Hello YT

I usually buy things, if I have not yet learned, how to make them.
Or if the packets look particularly nice.
Or if it is something, from my childhood, for nostalgic reasons.
Or something that brings back memories, from another country, also for nostalgic reasons.

But instant mashed potatoes??????????!!!!!!!!!!! Havent had them since i was a student, long before i learned how to cook. Even back then, when my taste in food was not in any way sophisticated, i did not like instant mashed potatoes. Maybe, they sell better quality instant potatoes, these days...

Mel
 
Who on this forum has the wonderful Carl Sagan quote about making an apple pie from scratch? Of course if the definition of cheat is to open a can of... we all cheat.

I think I'd like a different phrase/term as the connotational value of 'cheat' is negative and the fact that we all use what is available to us to put good food on the table for our loved ones is not a negative.
 
I think it is something like "To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe". That may not be the exact wording, but similar.
 
well "instant mash" was only used as an example, it could just as easily be a pack of boil in the bag savory rice or those instant noodles with flavour packet you see almost everywhere now, I was just curious that IF a recipe was posted that said "use the tomato pack from an instant noodle bag" or "add instant mash to the fish cake mix" etc, etc...

it wouldn`t be Frowned upon.

I`m a very Down-to-Earth sort of person, I like to go with whatever works rather than F*** about :)
 
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You do know that Julia always said we should keep our secrets in the kitchen! For a party a few months ago I bought frozen meatballs, then used home-made spagetti sauce and tossed them into a crock pot. Huge hit. When I told a young (twenty-something) friend that I used frozen meatballs and home-made sauce, he looked at me seriously and said, "All I heard was home-made." Yes, I believe in cheat, cheat, cheat.

By the way, instant mashed potato flakes (as opposed to buds) are a great thing to have on hand, even if you never (and I rarely do) use them for mashed potatoes. They make a great substitute for panko in breading and you can use them to thicken sauces if you have friends who have wheat allergies.
 
I really can't abide the "instant" mashed potatoes. Yuck. However, one year I accidentally put too much milk in my real mashed potatoes and they were just plain soupy. ( I think I was tossing back a bit of the bubbly that year). Anyway, I added some instant and voila! Perfect, and no one knew the difference. I must confess, though, to recently discovering and using with great success, OreIda frozen mashed potatoes. Instead of those instant flakes, these are real potatoes, riced and frozen. Just add milk and butter. I have used them for at least 4 holiday dinners and no one was the wiser!
 
Food cheats..

YT2095 said:
in the kitchen.

I`m sure I`m not the only one that does things in the kitchen that I`m a little ashamed to admit. Anyone here ever use Instant mash potato, the sort you just add boiling water to and stir? Time to Confess!
(it can be Anything)
Don't do the boil and stir thing.. use them in the microwave with corning ware set I purchased a few years ago. They come out perfect every time. Betty Crocker (I think it's them) has a Scalloped Potato thing that's fantastic and works quite well in the microwave as well. We just started using the Uncle Bens rice in the microwave. I purchased a rice cooker a yr ago but sometimes it gets a little time consuming or just annoying period to go through the hassle when you're doing dinner - we're to the point now with our schedules we want it simple and easy cook.

Use the minced garlic - keep a bottle of it in the fridge since we use it constantly; easier than working with the other in my opinion. Have been laxing off with the spaghetti sauce in making homemade so we're getting the store bought these days.

Tried that thing they were selling on tv - Pasta Express I think it was, does ok but doesn't cook as well as it should least in my husband's opinion. There's tons of other stuff that I purchase at the store and go with. When it all comes down to it in brass and taxes, the world we live in today isn't what we had many moons ago. No more are we in society of the June Cleaver traditional home maker. We have careers, family, and busy lives unfortunately the rest follows in tow.

I may have not said that in the best choice of wording but I can only hope it was taken with good intentions. I would love to stay home and cook a fantastic meal every day but I can't. Economy won't allow that to happen so we work with the capabilities that we have available to us. *shrug*

Sue
 
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