Have Your Cake and Eat It?

BrowniesThis past weekend, we had friends over for dinner. Succulent tri-tip beef on the barbie, oven-roasted rosemary potatoes and organic salad greens with a fig-balsamic dressing.

That and dessert made out of a cardboard box.

Yup, I threw a batch of Ghirardelli’s Premium Walnut Brownies in the oven and paired the hot fudgy little squares with a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. Perfect.

Or less so. When I bake something delicious from a box it feels a bit like cheating. I come from a line of women who bake from scratch. Who know just how much to beat the egg into the sugar and butter to get that light, fluffy texture. And who play down their delicious results by saying things like, “It’s not quite up to my usual …” or “Ag, they’re a bit biltongish today” when things turn out, well, normal by anyone else’s standards.

I had never baked a cake from a box until I moved to Canada to marry my husband. And for many years I resisted. Making a cake from a box wasn’t really baking and it seemed dishonest.

But after a few years I started relaxing. Buying muffin mixes and doing things not quite the way my mother or grandmother did them. I didn’t iron t-shirts or undies or sheets for example. They came out the dryer and went straight back on the bed, slightly wrinkled but perfectly clean. And life seemed easier for it.

And so I’m wondering. What kinds of short cuts do you take? Things that ease your busy schedule but that might make Great Granny Alice roll over in her grave?

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Posted: February 5th, 2008

Categories: Food & entertaining


3 Responses to “Have Your Cake and Eat It?”

  1. Linda says:
    February 7th, 2008 at 4:42 am

    Lots, Have not baked from scratch for years, don’t iron, hang everything right from the machine on hangers an dthen into the cupboard. DH irons his own shirts.
    Only vacuum once a week.
    DON’T PUT MAKE UP ON EACH DAY
    Linda

  2. Jennifer says:
    February 8th, 2008 at 12:06 am

    Hi Sue, I love this site! I also love Ghiardelli’s brownies from the box, I make them all the time. Domestic shortcuts? I am an embarrassingly lazy housekeeper and not a great cook so my whole routine is one big shortcut. Ali doesn’t complain so it works for us. Thanks for sending me the link to your new site, it’s fabulous!

    Cheeers,
    Jennifer

  3. Wynne says:
    February 9th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

    My Grandmother must have churned an under-sea canal to the States by now as a result of my not doing things properly!
    I must admit I haven’t resorted to “Box-Baking”…but then again, I don’t bake much these days. But…I no longer iron undies, sleepwear or linen, buy ready-cooked, barbecued chicken for the Sunday “roast” and…Horror of Horrors….I make the gravy out of a packet!!!
    ;-)

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