by Elsha
My mom and I like to laugh over this story: Just after one of my older brothers was born, my mom’s mom had come to stay and help out. One night after dinner my grandma brought out chocolate pudding for dessert. My mom exclaimed, “How did you make chocolate pudding? I know we didn’t have any pudding mix!” To which my grandma responded, “Well, I made it from scratch.” (And probably looked at my mom like she was a little crazy or a lot sleep deprived.) Until that point, my mom hadn’t realized you could make pudding from scratch.
During my growing up years my mom typically made pudding from scratch (once she learned how that’s what she preferred) so pudding from scratch would not have surprised me. However, I have had similar experiences.
For instance: In 2008 we celebrated Thanksgiving at my sister’s house, and at some point during the day she realized she hadn’t bought whipped cream to go on the pumpkin pies. (And what’s pumpkin pie without whipped cream, right?) At that point my husband said, “Well do you have heavy cream? I’ll just make some.” And I turned to him in surprise and said, “You know how to make whipped cream?” And he looked at me like *I* was a little crazy for not knowing how. Now, I was aware that you COULD make whipped cream, but it surprised me that Brian not only knew how, he had done it before (I certainly never had.)
So I’m curious- have you had this experience? Have you been caught off guard when someone made something themselves that you had only ever had pre-made? Let’s hear it!
This post is hilarious to me. It never occurred to me that you COULD make pudding from scratch. However, I didn't even know about the cans of whipped cream until at least junior high, because my mom always whipped it up herself!
Posted by: Rebecca (Bearca) | December 07, 2011 at 04:24 PM
People always look at me funny when I tell them that I regularly make pancakes from scratch. But... I have all the ingredients! It's easy!
Posted by: Lynnette | December 07, 2011 at 06:06 PM
Guacamole. My parents don't eat it and I discovered it in a Mexican restaurant as a teenager, so my mom would by the premade stuff for me. In college, one of my housemates just whipped up a batch one day and I was AMAZED. Now I can't imagine eating the store-bought stuff.
Posted by: Jen L. | December 07, 2011 at 10:40 PM
I am always shocked to discover people use fake mashed potatoes and pancake mix. I always make those from scratch.
I was in high school before I knew that macaroni and cheese could be made from a box.
Posted by: Linda | December 07, 2011 at 10:45 PM
Growing up my Mom always made frosting. We never had the stuff in cans, and I still can't stand it. Buttercream is so easy! butter, powedered sugar, milk, vanilla BAM.Delicious! Done!
But it wasn't until college that I realized I was in the minority. Every year my Mom would make my Dad his favorite cake for his birthday: Chocolate, with peppermint frosting. The frosting is just the above recipe with peppermint extract instead of vanilla. One year I'd been home for his birthday and brought half the cake home for my roommates. One loved it so much I started making it for her every year. One year we had a party and when I served her bday cake, everyone started exclaiming over how good the frosting was. Someone said "Where did you get this frosting?!".
Um? What? I made it?
"You can MAKE Frosting?!"
They...had no idea. It wasn't just the girl who said it. I was the only person there that had ever made frosting. Classic.
Posted by: Caitlin | December 08, 2011 at 10:50 AM
With mom making everything from scratch I'm surprised we didn't make our own cheese and butter! Haha. But here are some things that are way better from scratch than a box: cookies of any kind, pie crust, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and brownies. But there is one thing out of a box that will always and forever be better than homemade: STUFFING! :)
Posted by: Kari | December 08, 2011 at 02:03 PM
Oh yes! The first year my husband and I took my kids apple picking (before he became my husband), we brought the bounty home and he promptly made...applesauce. We were stunned -- the kids (4 and 8 at the time) and I had only ever had it from a jar. It was AMAZING and spoiled them forever...it was the biggest treat, to get a bowl of Dave's applesauce!
He grew up on a farm and did a lot of 'from scratch' things...and taught me. Now we roast our own coffee beans, render our own lard...heck, he even blew me away the first time he made sloppy joes without using Manwich! (Now I wouldn't touch Manwich with a 10 foot pole.)
The only thing my daughter really prefers to NOT be from scratch is Mac n Cheese...she loves that nasty orange powder from Kraft! :-)
Posted by: Wendi | December 13, 2011 at 10:18 AM