Yet another huge time sink in preparation...
and mere gulpseconds to see it all disappear!

Since I cook most of our meals, that's one of the things that always
annoys me. I can spend hours making a meal or dessert, but it only takes
a few minutes to eat it. That just seems wrong somehow.

those same folks see nothing wrong with shoveling it down in one day!

Cookies are my weakness. Sweet, chewy, and easy to grab. I always eat way
too many in a day when I make cookies.

If I order a burger somewhere and it arrives with (any kind of) cheese
on it, I send it back.

Not me, I request cheese if they don't include it already. Pepper jack is
best, cheddar works, American will pass if that's all they have.

Or go Hawaiian with swiss cheese, pineapple, and teriyaki sauce.

it is REALLY pungent

Nope, I'll pass on smelly cheeses...

Unfortunately, they take a lot more time (I am obsessed with time).

A lot of prepackaged foods take almost as much time as made from scratch
foods. Sometimes we receive brownie or soup mixes in gift baskets. By the
time you measure everything out, add the eggs, oil, and whatever you
could have made it from scratch just as quickly. It tastes better and I
know what's going into it. Lord only knows what they stick in those
packaged mixes.

I have to consider, carefully, who I'm "targeting" for the treat.

My mother-in-law doesn't have any teeth and can't/won't wear her
dentures. She also has medical conditions that limit her diet. Trying to
find things she can eat is nearly impossible.

I asked why it was called "Box Cake", she laughed: "Cuz its the
(only) cake that I make from a (premixed) BOX!"

My wife makes and decorates cakes often. She makes her own buttercream
frosting, but just uses the cake from boxes.

I don't like cake anyway, but the cake mixes do seem to produce a lighter
cake than anything I've tried making from scratch. Mine always come out
dense and heavy. I'm probably using the wrong flour.

Buttercream frosting tastes OK, but we're just talking about sweetened
fat. A few bites is all I can handle.

My wife also loves carrot cake with massive amounts of cream cheese
frosting. Definitely not my thing.

Anthony Watson
www.watsondiy.com
www.mountainsoftware.com