what's the flour for?

sometime in the last several years i have turned into a modern Betty Crocker. please understand, i am not boasting - im not saying that my recipes are cookbook worthy but that i have become much more knowledgeable in the kitchen. it was a such a slow process that i didn't even know it was happening. but now that i am in convenience food country i can see the changes clearly.


when i asked my dear friend Heidi about the struggles of moving back to the US for furlough every 4 years she said that one of the hardest things for her was cooking. i was rather surprised because for me one of the hardest things about being in Brazil was cooking. now i am started to see where she is coming from.


if i had a dollar for every time i cursed the brazilian supermarket for not having what i wanted or having what i wanted but at ridiculous prices i would likely be able to afford all the expensive imports like cream of mushroom soup, salsa, or tortillas. so in the absence of key ingredients i have had to learn to make due with what i could get or create myself. i have come back from brazil knowing how to make yogurt, sour cream, ricotta cheese, donuts and much more.


even more surprisingly i have come back disgusted at the laziness of american cooking. i know everyone is busy running to soccer practice or sitting in traffic but does that mean that everything we eat must be half-prepared before we get it home? i never would have guessed that this would bother me. in fact, i think this just may be my way of dealing with the bitterness i have felt for the lack of convenience food. ok, let's not go off on that diversion.


to make a meal from scratch is fast becoming a lost art and i had no idea of it before. let me give you a recent example.....


mother-in-law: what should we have for dinner tonight?
me: hmmmm, how about breakfast? i can do eggs, bacon or sausage and bisquits.
mother-in-law: sounds good
me: oh, no. i dont think i have enough flour
mother-in-law: flour?! what in the world do you need flour for??
me: for the bisquits, duh!
mother-in-law: you're going to make bisquits?
me: how else are we going to get them?!
mother-in-law: out of the freezer, of course! they're pre-made, you just have to bake them
me: you've got to be kidding! frozen bisquits? oh, i don't know about that...


i had totally forgotten that you could just have bisquits without getting out the flour and shortening. in the end i did make them from scratch because my husband is spoiled. the same thing happened last week when i made lasagna - complete amazement when i realized that i could use the sauce right out of the jar without having to season it and get any kind of cheese i wanted already grated. but that amazement was pale in comparison to the discovery i made today. cousin cheryl told me that you can even by pre-cooked bacon!!! not bacon bits, ok? real bacon strips that are pre-cooked!!! who could have predicted that??


as we were eating our eggs and bisquits my father-in-law revealed his sausage gravy recipe secret....you get a package of stouffers gravy mix and add some water and sausage. (sorry i gave that away, dad) i just giggled with a little pride as i thought, i bet the gravy i make with real ingredients tastes better. but then on the other hand it would be nice not to have to put so much work into my pepper gravy. so i found myself at a cross-road. to be a convenience cook or to NOT be a convenience cook.
convenience cook pros: its faster, i can use recipes that call for pillsbury crescent rolls and cream of chicken soup, all the cookies can turn out uniform, i don't have to worry about mistaking the baking powder for baking soda
convenience cook cons: its more expensive, it will be harder to adjust to life back in Brazil when we return, the food tastes like chemicals, generally convenience foods are not good for bodies


hhhhmmmmmm....what should i do? if i have to decide today i think i will chose to cook better rather than quicker. i vow to do my best to use ingredients that don't have ingredients!


i guess we will just have to wait and see how long this one lasts.....Dan, are there any more frozen burritos in there? awesome, nuke one for me would you?



just kidding