Mrs. Dash and other convenience products

[Megan Blocker]

Moving down the same road to the barbecue sauces...Open Pit??? Surely you could do better--at least KC Masterpiece, since I realize that it's not possible for most of you--or me, for that matter--to run out to the store for a bottle of Gates'.  (I make my own, riffing off Ollie's recipe.)

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I know, I know...I think it's a childhood thing. I just love it. I rarely make anyone else eat it, though. Plus, living in Manhattan (no grill - sigh), I grill so rarely that when I do, I usually make my own. Open Pit just happens to be the thing I keep in my fridge.

That said, I DO prefer it to KC Masterpiece...

[MarketStEl]

Moving down the same road to the barbecue sauces...Open Pit???

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I know, I know...I think it's a childhood thing. I just love it. I rarely make anyone else eat it, though. Plus, living in Manhattan (no grill - sigh), I grill so rarely that when I do, I usually make my own. Open Pit just happens to be the thing I keep in my fridge.

That said, I DO prefer it to KC Masterpiece...

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Chaçun à son goût... Since you do make your own, though, you might want to try Ollie Gates' recipe. It's got a hint of sweetness--most Kansas City sauces do--but it's not molasses-y like KC Masterpiece; in fact, it's a lot more tangy, thanks to the cider vinegar. PM me if you want a copy.

[Rinsewind]

Canned black beans-- don't usually have the foresight to tell what I'm making for dinner until I get home from work.

Annie's Naturals Low-Fat Gingerly Vinagrette-- I LOVE those gingery salad dressings that you get in some Japanese restaurants, and this comes the closest. I'm happy to make my other salad dressings, but can't manage this one (don't care about the low fat, btw, that's just the way it comes).

Salsa-- make my own sometimes, but sometimes you just want to flop on the couch with a bag of chips and start eating. Fortunately, there's a pretty wide choice in Oklahoma.

Dried Garlic with Parsley-- yes, yes, I KNOW fresh garlic is infinitely better, but this stuff I can sneak past my kids.

Konriko Cajun Spice Blend-- husband loves it on white rice.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese-- God help me.

Cherry Pop Tarts-- see above.

Hellman's-- I'm not making my own for a damn tuna fish sandwich... Maybe an aioli for some fresh fish, but not a tuna fish sandwich...

Barilla or Bertoli Tomato Sauce-- spaghetti is usually the meal of last resort (not that I don't love nice fresh pasta with homemade sauce) when I look in the fridge and it's a vast wasteland. I always keep some sauce and dried spaghetti on hand, which the kids love.

Pesto-- upscale version of above. Easy enough to make, but I can't seem to manage to get my act together to grow my own basil. *sigh*

Should I admit to the occasional use of Hamburger Helper because it takes no effort and the kids like it? Maybe not...

[SuzySushi]

Gotta add Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Nissin Top Ramen to my list... kids' favorites!!! They prefer these brands to the from-scratch versions. Who am I to fight? LOL!

Kinda reminds me of a friend who always baked her own great breads. I was over there visiting one day when her son bounced in asking excitedly, "Can I go to Billy's house for dinner tonight? They're having peanut butter & marshmallow fluff on Wonder bread!!!"

[jgarner53]

Certainly Mae Ploy Thai green curry paste is on my list. I couldn't even begin to know where to start, and it makes for a pretty quick meal when I'm in the mood for Thai.

I fall into the canned bean camp myself, usually because I don't think about beans far enough in advance to plan for the cooking thereof. So quick and easy to toss a can of cannellini beans in with some pasta and wilted spinach and cheese.

And yes, Trader Joe's frozen spinach puffs, pork gyoza, French onion soup pucks, and the occasional quiche (though I eat more than I should at work). All good when I'm on my own for dinner (well, not the spinach puffs) and have no intention of cooking.

[fiftydollars]

Frozen puff pastry

[srhcb]

The Eastern European spice secret - Vegeta

Miracle Whip

Velveeta (in the foil pouch) & Shells

and, I hesitate to say it....

.... I like instant potatoes!

SB (thinks the thread should be called "True Confessions")

[Smithy]

I certainly have to cop to canned beans (especially garbanzos, kidney beans and cannelini) but I may have to see what Rancho Gordo can do to convince me otherwise. I'm afraid I fall into the "forgot to plan ahead" camp too often.

Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice, and their Jambalaya, and their Gumbo, all in handy boxes the size of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but much, much better. These mixes are too salty, and I'm well on my way to making better gumbo now thanks to that wonderful Gumbo cook-off thread, but these are fast, tasty, and inexpensive. How can you beat that on a late hungry night?

Edited to add link

Edited September 10, 2005 by Smithy (log)

[fifi]

Oh dear. I'm afraid that my list is long. While I love to cook, I have this alarming tendency toward laziness. That, and the fact that I live alone leads to some short cuts.

I cook a lot of beans. I have developed "the Parson's method" of cooking beans, from the thread that rancho_gordo linked to, to a state of art. But I also have to have some cans of beans in the pantry for an impromptu bean salsa. Goya is my favorite brand.

Bread crumbs is a given. As someone above said, I do not eat a lot of bread, so making them fresh is not usually an option.

Mayo is the same thing. I am not going to make it myself for a sandwich. My fave is Hellman's Mayonesa made with lime juice. I can get it here at Randall's, a Safeway company.

I love Shake 'n' Bake. If I have that in the pantry I am good to go for a pork chop or a piece of chicken in the DeLonghi.

Mae Ploy Thai curry paste to be sure. The same thing goes with pasta sauce. Classico is my current favorite.

Canned petite diced tomatoes to be sure. I am not a tomato lover. Raw tomato makes me gag so I don't grow it or normally buy it. Besides, processing raw tomato is a real PITA for the little bit that I would normally use.

Frozen peas and corn are God's gift to mankind. Same thing goes for spinach.

When you get into condiments, the list gets ever longer. There are some things that you can't do without in Mexican cooking . . . Knoor Chicken Base and Maggi to name a couple. I have made my own Worchestershire, once, Emeril's recipe. Great. Not worth it. Ketchup . . . Heinz. Pace Picante has a place in my heart. I really don't like fresh Pico de Gallo . . . It's that fresh tomato thing. Jane's Crazy Salt is a requirement for an avocado sandwich with lentil sprouts.

I am sure there are more.

[Moopheus]

I use many, many cans of chickpeas in a year.

Swanson's vegetable broth, in the carton.

Things like mustard, ketchup, mayo I think of more as staples than convenience foods. I have made them, but only for special meals. I suppose the line between a staple and a convenience food is kind of a blurry one.

[Chris Amirault]

I agree very much with Linda about Mae Ploy curry pastes. Just used the panang one tonight to make a fine and very untraditional chicken curry with some of the zucchini that has taken over our CSA farm....

Of course, the go-to convenience food in this house is sriracha.

[mizducky]

And can someone explain to me why people like Hellman's? 

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Well, Hellman's is what I grew up with. And of the prepackaged mayos I've tried since, it's pretty much the one I like best. Although recently I've gotten very fond of Trader Joe's mayonnaise--it's got a nice sorta lemony tang to it, and a looser consistency than the Hellman's--or Best Foods as they call it out here. Not sure how the same product wound up having two different names depending on which side of the Great Divide one is on, but if you go to either product's website you'll see they look fairly similar except for the logo, and a little statement at the bottom linking to the other site:

Best Foods

Hellman's

One of my prepared-foods Shameful Confessions: in a town where I've got a bazillion different pre-packaged salsas to choose from, one of my favorites is Von's Mild Southwest Salsa. It's actually a pretty decent product, nice and chunky (I'm not sure why they call it "Southwest," other than the fact that it has beans in it). Also, unlike other salsas that purport to be mild, this one is *really* mild. While I adore spicy foods, they no longer like me so well, so it's nice to have a salsa that I can consume in mass quantities without putting myself in mortal pain. Yeah, I can make my own, and do occasionally, but when it's one a.m. and one is fighting off the munchies by throwing together a quick bowl of nachos, it's nice to have a bottled salsa ready to roll.

Edited September 11, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[Smithy]

And can someone explain to me why people like Hellman's? 

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Well, Hellman's is what I grew up with. And of the prepackaged mayos I've tried since, it's pretty much the one I like best. Although recently I've gotten very fond of Trader Joe's mayonnaise--it's got a nice sorta lemony tang to it, and a looser consistency than the Hellman's--or Best Foods as they call it out here. Not sure how the same product wound up having two different names depending on which side of the Great Divide one is on, but if you go to either product's website you'll see they look fairly similar except for the logo, and a little statement at the bottom linking to the other site:

Best Foods

Hellman's

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I've noticed other splits at the Rockies, but never known why. It seems to be some corporate thing. The only other example that comes to mind is See's Candies, known on this side of the split as Fanny Farmer...but I'm pretty sure I've seen others.

The major mayonnaise manufacturers (Miracle Whip does not count, and I truly detest the stuff, but I know many people love it) seem to be Hellman's/Best Foods and Kraft. The Kraft doesn't taste nearly as good to me. As I recall it's too heavy on the garlic (dehydrated and powdered, no doubt). There may be other ingredients throwing it off for my tastes.

Yeah, I can make my own, and do occasionally, but when it's one a.m. and one is fighting off the munchies by throwing together a quick bowl of nachos, it's nice to have a bottled salsa ready to roll.

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...and that, my friend, is one of the most compelling reasons for convenience foods. If I made everything from scratch, all the time, we'd eat a lot of cheese and crackers ...no, wait - those are all convenience foods too, aren't they? I haven't a clue.

[CaliPoutine]

I certainly have to cop to canned beans (especially garbanzos, kidney beans and cannelini) but I may have to see what Rancho Gordo can do to convince me otherwise.  I'm afraid I fall into the "forgot to plan ahead" camp too often.

Zatarain's Red Beans and Rice, and their Jambalaya, and their Gumbo, all in handy boxes the size of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but much, much better.  These mixes are too salty, and I'm well on my way to making better gumbo now thanks to that wonderful Gumbo cook-off thread, but these are fast, tasty, and inexpensive.  How can you beat that on a late hungry night?

Edited to add link

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I just bought a couple boxes of that Zatarain's because it was on sale for $1.00. I thought it would make a quick meal for my neice when she comes to visit. I then wondered about the company since they are based in New Orleans. I checked the website and they have moved production to Houston.

My foods

Ketchup

Hidden valley ranch

Garlic Plus( made by Mcormacks, availble in canada)

Hellmans( trader joes mayo is good too)

Thai curry pastes

I used to use bottled ginger until I saw Michael Smith( chef at home, foodtv canada) freeze his ginger and then grate it frozen using a microplane). It works great

Coolwhip

[SuzySushi]

I've noticed other splits at the Rockies, but never known why.  It seems to be some corporate thing.  The only other example that comes to mind is See's Candies, known on this side of the split as Fanny Farmer...

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Nope... See's Candies and Fanny Farmer are two totally different companies. The candies just seem similar!

See's Candies was founded in Los Angeles in 1921 by Charles See using his mother Mary's recipes. The shops were designed to resemble her black-and-white kitchen. The company was bought by Berkshire Hathaway (owned by investment guru Warren Buffett) in 1972.

Fanny Farmer was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1919 by a Canadian candymaker who named it after Fannie Meritt Farmer of the Boston Cooking School (she had become famous for developing level spoon measurements). It was acquired by Archibald Candy Corp. of Chicago (which owned competing brand Fannie May) in the 1990s. Fanny Farmer and Fannie May are now owned by Alpine Confections, Inc. of Chicago.

Edited September 11, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[Smithy]

I've noticed other splits at the Rockies, but never known why.  It seems to be some corporate thing.  The only other example that comes to mind is See's Candies, known on this side of the split as Fanny Farmer...

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Nope... See's Candies and Fanny Farmer are two totally different companies. The candies just seem similar!

See's Candies was founded in Los Angeles in 1921 by Charles See using his mother Mary's recipes. The shops were designed to resemble her black-and-white kitchen. The company was bought by Berkshire Hathaway (owned by investment guru Warren Buffett) in 1972.

Fanny Farmer was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1919 by a Canadian candymaker who named it after Fannie Meritt Farmer of the Boston Cooking School (she had become famous for developing level spoon measurements). It was acquired by Archibald Candy Corp. of Chicago (which owned competing brand Fannie May) in the 1990s. Fanny Farmer and Fannie May are now owned by Alpine Confections, Inc. of Chicago.

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Ah, another urban myth shot to smithereens! Thanks for the facts, Suzi.

[lesfen]

Crap... I went shopping yesterday and was reminded of a few more...

Saffron or Yellow Rice. We LOVE this stuff. If my 22-month-old even SEES the pouch in the cupboard she says "I want rice." I probably buy 3 or 4 pouches of it when I shop. BUT... I just found a recipe for it and it doesn't look very hard at all. I'm going to give it a shot next week. Maybe I can mark it off my list.

Red/Black Beans and rice. I don't use Zataran's tho'. I can't remember the brand name right now tho'. I'm pretty sure that this is just sheer laziness.

[lia]

I regularly use the powdered buttermilk "blend(?)" in the cardboard tub. Great product, have used it only for cakes, corn bread and pancakes most frequently; never biscuits or something where I think the buttermilk REALLY matters.

I would love to always have real buttermilk around, but I'm an impulse baker and I never ever finish the quart before it's bad.

[MarketStEl]

Funny thing is, my grandmother used nothing but Hellman's, but I'm not as particular about mayonnaise as she, my roommate or a bunch of other people are. I have tried Whole Foods' budget brand (365) and found it both too lemony and too runny, though, but that aside, I'll eat just about any other brand. I will allow as to how Hellman's has a better consistency and flavor than most other brands I've used.

I should probably try Mrs. Dash, especially since my partner must watch his sodium intake, which in turn means I have to keep my hands off the Season-All when cooking.

Reading further posts in this thread, I see that we have defined "convenience products" broadly. I can't imagine making my own sriracha, either, and I now put that on lots of different things.

I have mentioned elsewhere that my partner absolutely loves Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni, so there's usually some of that on hand. And yes, I do make my own version of this dish, but it doesn't taste the same. I must not be using the right chemicals.

I do keep canned refried beans (Goya) around when I'm on a Mexican kick too. I find making these just a bit of a hassle if I'm pressed for time. (I happen not to be now.)

[crinoidgirl]

Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce.

nuff said

[snowangel]

Canned petite diced tomatoes to be sure. I am not a tomato lover. Raw tomato makes me gag so I don't grow it or normally buy it. Besides, processing raw tomato is a real PITA for the little bit that I would normally use.

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I can't believe you didn't mention Rotel tomatoes.

[Soup]

Gotta add Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Nissin Top Ramen to my list... kids' favorites!!!

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Person after my own heart. My 3 year old loves Tom Ramen. I get the multi-pack Kraft mac & Cheese at costco. I would add Chef boy ardee's spagetti and meat ball. A childhood thing I can't shake.

[Smithy]

I have mentioned elsewhere that my partner absolutely loves Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni, so there's usually some of that on hand.  And yes, I do make my own version of this dish, but it doesn't taste the same.  I must not be using the right chemicals. 

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Well, it's hard to find xantham gum, guar gum, and red food dye #2 (among others)....

[SuzySushi]

Gotta add Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Nissin Top Ramen to my list... kids' favorites!!!

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Person after my own heart. My 3 year old loves Tom Ramen. I get the multi-pack Kraft mac & Cheese at costco. I would add Chef boy ardee's spagetti and meat ball. A childhood thing I can't shake.

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If I failed to mention it, I also buy these foods (sic) by the case. When my daughter's friends are over, they inhale this stuff!!!

[Rebecca263]

I have mentioned elsewhere that my partner absolutely loves Hamburger Helper Cheeseburger Macaroni, so there's usually some of that on hand.

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I've been to Shop Rite and FoodTown here in the Marlboro/Freehold area now and can't seem to find this stuff! I can't stand it! What, exactly, is Hamburger Helper? Where is it located in the food stores? I've just got to get some and try it! I feel like an idiot, today I asked the nice man who was stocking the canned fruit, he looked with me, but neither of us could find the stuff. WAH!