"Dave Bell" wrote in message
. com...
Vox Humana wrote:
"serene" wrote in message
...

On Thu, 2 Feb 2006 09:53:36 -0700, Eric Jorgensen
wrote:


Uh . . . you sound kinda like that 'magazine' that Kraft kept mailing
me for about a year there.

Oh, god, wasn't that the funniest thing ever? My mother-out-law (rest
her soul) used to receive it, and it had recipes like "Take a Nilla
wafer, top it with cool whip, and you have an elegant dessert!" Or
"Saute beef strips in Catalina dressing and add a can of pineapple for
a quick and easy sweet-and-sour!"


If you though the magazine was funny, try watching an episode of
"Semi-homemade Food" on the Food Network. One of the worst shows ever!
There is absolutely NOTHING homemade on the show so even the title is BS.
Everything is assembled from cans, jars, bottles, and boxes of prepared
food items and mixes. Oh, and to make it really special, elegant,
distinctive, gourmet, etc., you add some toothpicks, ribbon, paper
umbrellas, plastic doilies, sparklers, or the like. In each episode you
are assured that your family or guests won't guess that you made the tart
tatin from flour tortillas, canned apple pie filling, and caramel ice
cream topping because cream cheese and marshmallow fluff that you combine
and pipe from a zip-lock bag will convince them that the creation was
made by a fine pastry chef and shipped via Air France from Paris.

You have a good point, of course, but we all deal with manufactured
products at some level in our cooking. Their *finished product* is indeed
"home made", even if all the ingredients came from a factory. If nothing
else, it might get some people interested in actually cooking something,
rather than heating a frozen meal, or more likely, buying fast food!

Do *you* grow, thresh, and grind your own wheat? Chase down the bees for
honey? Churn butter from your own cow's milk?

The accepted meaning of "home made" food doesn't assume any of the above.
It means you made the item from basic ingredients, not by dumping things out
of a can. If your point was valid, then they wouldn't need to have a show
called "Semi-homemade Food" because since virtually no one makes their own
ingredients, we would all be making "semi-homemade" food.

The should just call it the "Dump and Serve Food."