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This past weekend I was chatting with a friend while making macaroni & cheese. I want you to imagine macaroni and cheese, then follow me below the dingledoodlesquiggliedividerthingie fold...
So, was your macaroni & cheese prepared from scratch, or from a box? (Take the poll below!) Ours was from scratch. My friend was teasing us, insisting we should have used the iconic Kraft Dinner. K1 chimed in, much to my eternal satisfaction, that the only time she eats “box mac&cheese” is before swim practice when she's in a hurry. Oh yeah – and that only Annie's will do.
This got me to thinking, about how much of what we eat and drink comes in two flavors: processed/premade, and from scratch. Yeah I know everything can be made from scratch, but for the vast majority of American households, some proportion of the Stuff We Eat comes out of a box, jar, or can. Here's my question to discuss tonite:
What are the items you routinely eat in BOTH homemade and processed forms, as “separate food groups” if you will? Is there anything you will only buy processed under duress or emergency? Conversely, do you always cook from scratch? Casa Brillig, for example:
Makes macaroni and cheese from scratch when we're having it for dinner, but will use Annie's boxed for a quick snack or meal component for the kids on a swim nite.
Keeps a box of Bagel Bites around for emergencies, but prefers to take an extra few minutes and prepare them fresh from mini-bagels, pizza sauce and cheese.
Prepares hot cocoa from milk, cocoa, sugar and vanilla on chilly winter weekends, while keeping packets around for routine hot chocolate fixes.
However:
Chicken broth is nearly always homemade. I make large batches throughout the year, reduce the volume two or threefold, and freeze in mason jars. I end up buying only if we run out during the heat of summer.
Instant, minute, frozen or parcooked plain rice does not enter Casa Brillig We make it in 10-cup batches with a rice cooker and freeze it in portions for 5-minute rice later.
How about you?
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Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
From puddytat:
Here's a good one by Tracker that explains the GOP understanding of basic math. Ministry of Truth's reply puts the bow on top.
From Killer of Sacred Cows:
My Top Comment for today is from facethemusic, in TomP's President Obama: "This is not class warfare. It's Math.".
from smileycreek:
There were many good comments in Brit's Barriers and Bridges: On Being Called a Racist, but two stood out to me: shanikka's belief that good people can also be racists, and wiseacre's description of a 20/20 special where two identically dressed men with identical resumes, one white and one black, were filmed as they went about identical quests for an apartment, a job, a car, and even shoes, and how he was shocked out of his complacency at the different treatments the two men experienced.
From Land of Enchantment:
La Feminista!! occams hatchet writes a great diary, and she offers a great riff in reply.
From Yours Truly, brillig:
kos points out that Breitbart is nuts.Seneca Doane and blue aardvark made me laugh!
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Top Mojo for yesterday, 9/18/2011, with first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo wizardry!
1) Perhaps an intervention of some kind is by Remediator — 94
2) Another Way to Look at This by bink — 94
3) Yes. It's so very clever of Breitbart by Remediator — 88
4) A Native American View by Ojibwa — 83
5) Down goes the Geithner-supported-Warren meme nt by bobswern — 78
6) He is an angry paranoid by Philpm — 72
7) dorgan by Laurence Lewis — 72
8) Daily Kos Seems to Have Changed a Bit by JekyllnHyde — 72
9) Thanks bobswern for another by monkeybrainpolitics — 68
10) The cuts are already happening by MrMichaelMT — 67
11) Here are a couple of articles by cosmic debris — 63
12) so amp it up! by G2geek — 62
13) From the protest: by artisan — 62
14) Ending the huge giveaways to Medicare "Advantage" by elwior — 61
15) The real question by Son of Saul — 61
16) It's important to build bridge otherwise we all by dopper0189 — 60
17) Sounds like the talk around... by BarackStarObama — 60
18) More etiquette by Amber6541 — 59
19) Byron Dorgan nailed it again! by Paleo — 58
20) The livestream feed by Burned — 57
21) I have decided to come back by rexymeteorite — 57
22) who the fuck was by alizard — 56
23) I've seen the new rules in action by KelleyRN2 — 56
24) Voices are only lost if they choose to be silent. by DawnG — 55
25) Agree. It's almost reflexive. by Remediator — 53
26) Coming out of the closet was hard for me. My by Dancun74 — 53
27) It is a start by beltane — 52
28) Go to teh dollar store. by Horsefeathers — 51
29) There's nothing more patriotic than sedition (n/t) by Trix — 51
30) Tipped and recced by Horace Boothroyd III — 51
31) I had one of those moments. by smoothnmellow — 51
32) "Bankers win, America loses." by homerun — 51
33) We are all Troy Davis. by davidseth — 51