Granted, there is nothing like home-baked cakes, cookies, and pies. But sometimes one has to “just buy it”. Usually I succumb to this urge at bakeries and/or bakery sections of grocery stores. Especially if I go shopping when I’m hungry.

There are some things that home-made cannot beat. Oreos come to mind right away. A home-baked chocolate sandwich cookie is more of a Whoopie Pie and definitely not an Oreo. Although I have tried to make crackers which come out “alright”, these I think are also best bought in a box. And unless you want to spend the time and effort to make croissants and puff pastry (which I have done) these are also items I buy already made. And then there is Angel Food Cake. I tried to bake one from scratch eons ago and it turned out to be a hockey puck so I haven’t given that a second try.

What about box mixes? When I was in high school Mom would sometimes buy cake mixes on sale. I remember them on sale 4 for a $1 at times! I generally try to stay away from these except for cornbread mixes for the camping trailer. I also get tins of biscuits and cinnamon rolls for camping but never for home. If I think about it I could mix all the dry ingredients for a cake and then list the wet ingredients to add such as eggs, butter, and milk. This would be what one adds to cake mixes anyway. I’ve never tried this but think about it from time to time. I could mix the dry ingredients for a chocolate cake and take it to bake camping. Or I could just bake the cake at home and bring it along. Or just buy a small cake. Our most recent camping trip I bought cupcakes at the bakery section of a grocery store and the grandkids loved them. For the grandboy’s birthday coming up I will make a chocolate cake and bring it along. That cake will be from scratch. I need to remember if he wanted yellow or green frosting!

For our Father’s Day backyard picnic I made the potato salad and coleslaw which are best made from scratch in my opinion. I have in the past bought them at the deli section but at what price for a small amount! I opened a can of baked beans. I hope to try these from scratch sometime this summer as I have found a few recipes to throw into a crockpot. The hotdog buns and rolls were store-bought. For dessert I sliced strawberries for the store-bought angel food cake and canned whipped topping. Real whipped cream is easy to make but so is squirting it from a can!

I’m back! Well, I never went away but I did stop writing about the recipes I’ve made. This is mostly because I find I am making other people’s recipes, from blogs and from websites and from magazines. I tend to stick to standards and have not been inventive lately. I have been laid up with broken bones so Hubby had to do shopping, planning, prepping, and cooking. I am blessed to have a Hubby that cooks.

So now that I am no longer an “invalid” I have begun to cook again but not in an inventive way. This week we had pork chops with mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy, with peas as the green vegetable. We also had grilled salmon with baked potato and salad. And another dinner was fish sticks with broccoli. I also made a vegetable quiche with the magic ratio of 2 cups milk and 4 eggs. The liquid can be reduced to 1 ½ cups if there is a lot of filling items such as vegetables and the like.

Baking leads to overeating of sweets. This past week I baked brownies. From a mix. It was gluten-free. I must have bought this before my daughter had to give up sugar. It was about to expire. They were very rich and chocolate-y. I was able to store/hide them in the bread box so they were not eaten all at once. I need to avoid baking cookies because they get eaten in stacks. Even if I freeze some, I know where they are and a frozen cookie can be good to eat! Even store-bought cookies!

Do you pay attention to expiration dates on food products? To be honest I really only attend to dairy products such as milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese. On occasion I look at cans but most cans don’t stay in the pantry long enough to outlast themselves. I knew a woman once who actually honored the expiration date on a carton of eggs! We did go through the fridge to clear out old jarred items that were opened who knows how long ago.

Mostly I’ve been crocheting. Little things that finish quickly.

Here are some pictures: quiche, crocheted cup cozy, and dog Gracie hiding from the thunderstorm.