Amazing Pumpkin Cookie Recipe

I was raised by an english professor and a librarian, thank you. I was using words like that in jr. high, well before Martha had a massive divorce settlement in her favor and started her evil empire.

pompous? yes......

likeable.....questionable....

killfile....priceless!

In article , Ida Slapter writes

Lordy. I must remember to use only very short words. Like silly, and futile.

Personally, I was raised by a mechanic. But I went to school later :).

And I still don't like bake mix and don't see the point of it.

No, I think arrogant is a better word. Perhaps even boorish. Pomposity is characterized by not only arrogance but also an excessive sense of dignity. My statement was decidedly lowbrow.

Ask me if i care if you like me. Come on, ask. I'm dying to tell you.

I agree completely.

Go back to rec.food.cooking and misc.consumers.frugal-living. Nobody wants your input here.

(and what on earth is frugal about using a $2 cake mix that has $0.23 worth of ingredients in it?)

I salute you for a fine response, RJ. Drinks are on me That recipe is nothing that would prompt me to make it, but the poor OP sure got lambasted for what I'm guessing she thought was a swell idea. What a way to encourage a person. Keerist!

Unfortunately the response didn't address the issue. The person who bakes from a mix is quite likely to already have the ingredients that are in the box. He/she already has the technology (measuring devices, bowls, oven, utensils, etc.) because you still have to prepare the mix and add other ingredients such as butter, oil, eggs, milk, and water. The baked goods need to prepared on baking sheets or in pans and baked. RJ's logic fails because the person who produces their own ingredients would need resources such as land, the opportunity to produces the ingredients ( sugar doesn't grow well in Calgary), additional technology (i.e., farm equipment), and would have to acquire vastly different skills and knowledge. In other words, baking from a mix and baking from scratch require almost identical skills and technology. Oh the other hand, baking, farming, mining, milling, distilling, etc., require vastly different skills and technology than baking regardless of whether one is baking from scratch or from a mix. The person who produces their own ingredients would also have to be physically capable of farming and mining. Furthermore, it is quite unlikely that a person would have both a salt mine and farmable land.

It's an interesting sociological question. Some people blame it on the haste in the modern world, which is obviously bull. If you can find time to watch the evening news you have enough time to bake most anything. Some people blame it on our impulsive, must have instant gratification society. Which is also bull. Some people say it's just for convenience. Which is probably bull. Some people blame it on daily stress and weariness, which is a believable but poor excuse, and a symptom of another, related problem.

I almost bet it all on a girl who's experience with home cooking involved margarine spread and 'eggs' in little plastic jugs. This family did not so much cook food as assemble it from high level components and apply heat.

I think she resented my look of bewilderment when she exclaimed that what she had planned to make was not possible because the service deli at the grocery store was closed and thus flattened chicken breasts were not available. Just to offer an example.

Needless to say, next time i go meet some girl's parents (or visit her home), I'm looking for an herb garden, evidence of tomato cultivation, presence of a well worn stand mixer, an oven that will never truly be clean again, that sort of thing.

I think these people just aren't interested in the craft or art of it all. Some of them believe themselves too stupid to understand processes that were in daily use 500 years or more ago, some of them just don't want it.

They find themselves in a situation where they can't afford to eat out every night and they're getting tired of the same frozen foods and macaroni & cheese and -helper and bottled spaghetti sauce and cold cut sandwitches, but they don't want to learn anything or develop any skills.

There is a resentment they feel toward us for the attitude and sometimes condescension we show them. Can't blame 'em. But that doesn't stop me from thinking of them as wimps.

Or, like my paternal grandmother, they were just sick of it after 40 years of cooking every day. No grandparent ever cooked me anything more complex than an omelet. Granted, I feel like I'm a decade or more away from matching that quality of omelet.

I'm tempted to recommend the 'recipe' to a vegan girl I know who makes 'brownies' by combining brownie mix and water. I can't decide if that would be condescending or helpful of me.

Must be that time of the month, huh?

It's always the right time of the month for rational thinking.

Considering the millions of cake mixes sold each year, is it rational to think that 'your way' is the only way worth posting about?

You hit the nail right on the head. Yes, it is.

Making a cake out of the right kind of flour, sugar, eggs, etc, while using the correct process is at the very least a craft.

Working to perfect your recipe and process is at the very least a hobby and can be argued to be an artistic pursuit.

If you use a ready-made mix it's just assembly.

Eric Jorgensen wrote in news:20041116210251.62012b4a@wafer:

Very well said. For many people it's any means to an end.

I make virtually perfect piecrust, and I spent many years endeavoring to reach that end. For me, I cannot imagine using a piecrust mix or a pre-made piecrust. Others wouldn't hesitate in using those shortcuts. I'm not here to judge, but the final product is evidence itself.

You would have a point if anyone actually said that. Of course millions of doses of crack cocaine are also sold each year, but it would hard to argue that the sale of crack is prima facia evidence of its virtue.

But the people who wish to suppress the discussion haven't offered a strong, rational argument to support the use of mixes. Instead, they want to claim that there was an element of judgment subliminally advanced because people have the audacity to suggest that mixes have major limitations. Frankly I don't care if people eat the mix directly out of the box. I think we are moving in a dangerous direction. America is becoming a nation where you can't express your opinion without people wanting to inject "morality" into the discussion.

Religious-speak is the new PC!

"Vox Humana" wrote in news:KaKmd.4483$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com:

You're absolutely right. I see that everywhere, the workplace, the marketplace, and everywhere in between. For me it also brings to mind the issue of "political correctness" which I feel has also gone over the edge. I've gotten to the point that most of the time I'd rather say nothing than weigh every syllable I speak.

"Vox Humana" wrote in news:abTmd.8016$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.columbus.rr.com:

Amen! ;-)

The problem, of course, is that you can't argue with faith-based pronouncements. And it's not just happening in the US.

-j

I deal with that on a regular basis... my favorite one is... "because that is what the bible says!!!" or my other fav... "Because." ooooh. one more... "That's just how it is."

Nothing frustrates me more than someone who won't even listen to another point of view because its not what their priest/minister (or whatever) said. Or its different from what "they" said in church.

These people should play a good RPG, like Morrowind where you learn (usually the hard way) that there is more than one answer to 99.9% of all problems.