Ok then, following devastating revelations regarding purchase of ready made pesto,what other heinous crimes and guilty pleasures will you foodies admit to?

[moondog]

Let she who is without blame cast the first stone (or something) so here goes.

Bottled mint sauce is essential. Who on God's earth would make it themselves??????

Overmydeadbody I find it really odd that you cook professionally but have little interest in doing anything but the bare minimum at home. I know you must be wrecked as your job is very physically exhausting but surely you enjoy cooking? Do you think that cooking for a living has made it into a chore for you?

Overmydead.... will that make pints of gravy.... cos one tablespoon of flour would make about half a pint! I use balsamic vinegar when I am in the mood, and half flour/half bisto but seriously, my teens fill every yorkshire pud with about quarter of a pint... we are a gravy family and I need a big big saucepan of it! Thanks for the tip though!

My brother is a chef. At home: beans on toast, peanut butter on toast. fishfingers. and so on.

He does wheel it out for sunday lunch if at home, and occasions tho.

He just can't face it.

Frozen bags of rice
Pasta in a packet
Pasta mince/meatballs in a packet
all to be microwaved.

they sell bags of rice frozen?!

seriously?

one thing i can't find here is sherbet, god i miss that stuff but can make it in the ice cream maker even i'm really craving it.

bisto in the brown cardboard box is excellent stuff, bisto granules in the jar are a chemistry experiment gone horribly wrong. i won't have a word said against the box powder, though, it's brilliant.

Carmerene yes I enjoy it most of the time, but it has become a chore for me, when I've been cooking from 9am till 5pm with only an hour's break the last thing I want to do is more cooking at home! It's physically exhausting hard work tbh. It's bloody annoying coz I used to enjoy it more.

Also, I have the world's smallest kitchen at home so there isn't enough room to properly cook anything.

I'm quite lucky though in that a lot of the food I cook at work I can make a bit extra and take it home. We live off a lot of frozen ready meals, but at least they are healthy ones that I cooked myself!

helliebean I see what you mean! And there's nothing worse than not having enough gravy to go round!

lol at catizsleepy, I may just nominate that as quote of the week!

OBM,

Last stuff I had was tracklements caramelised onions, from deli in the Lake District, but usually is EPC (English Provender Co) from Sainsburys.

Why do you use frozen onions? Sorry if I am being a little dense.

BTW dis you get your mum's Georgette Heyers?

Overmydead... we fight for the last drops of gravy... we just all happen to like our food wet if that makes sense!

can't bear chopping them LadyW. And I make lots of spag bol/winey beef stew etc in big batches.

I have cans of soup, and Lloyd Grossman pasta sauces in the larder - but as they are kept for dh on the odd occasion he has to sort his own dinner out I don't think they count.

I buy jars of chargrilled peppers - just can't be arsed with peeling my own, but again I don't think that's bad. I've just checked the larder (I was getting more wine) and apart from pesto (sacla) the only other crimes are the seemingly common tikka and thai curry pastes, and tom yum paste to make hot and sour soup.

Enid - I started doing the ritz crumbs for the kids chicken nuggets, but have switched to Nairns Organic herby oatcakes instead - lots less salt and they taste gorgeous.

Ooo - just remebered - I love Waitrose quiches. They taste far better than my cackhanded soggy attempts and are significantly easier.

I don't understand bought pesto at all. It's usually full of dubious ingredients and is a pale imitation of the real thing. It takes literally minutes to make your own. Same goes for mayonnaise. The only two shortcuts I use are fresh ravioli from Waitrose and occassionally ready chopped stir fry vegetables

oh, OH! tuc biscuits, for the record, are divine with smoked salmon. i promise. again with the salty, and a spritz of lemon. seriously, they're worth a shot.

and yes to the lloyd grossman sauce, but only the puttanesca one. it's too strong, though, you need half of it and to cut it with a can of tomatoes. but not bad for holidays etc. we recently bought a can of seeds of change stuff on hol and it was, i'm afraid, inedible.

we took some Seeds of Change on holiday with us.

it was like tinned tomato soup.

eeeww.

Yep expat, M&S and Tesco both do it. Just enough for 1 person.

mint has taken over my garden, mint sauce was my speciality as a child

Have those of you who use frozen yorkshire puddings tried Nigella's recipe? Again it's incedibly quick and easy and the results are pretty spectacular.

I also use prepared puff pastry but only Saxby's all butter version.

I can even make Yorkshire puds with Nigella's recipe.

Actually, Jamie did a nice shortcrust in the food processor so I'm going to give it a bash.

I often use dried onions instead of peeling,slicing(crying),frying. Apart from the huge saving in time - not to mention the impossibility sometimes of preparing fresh onions with the Tyranosaurus Cling-on toddler - the final dish can be even nicer than when made with fresh onions because it is less oily.

I use the dried garlics in the Schwartz range, and also garlic puree in a tube. But not Lazy Garlic - eugh, too vinegary and not garlicky enough. I only peel garlic if I want whole cloves.

But my ultimate lazy-cook shortcut is Birds Instant Custard Powder. We go through gallons of the stuff!

Can I join? We generally make everything from scratch, pastry, pasta sauce, pizza dough etc. Although when I visit my siblings who are still living at home and where opportunities to cook for oneself is difficult I love having snacking on... drum roll....

Chinese "dolly" noodles!!

We can't buy it where we are and they remind me of my childhood!

just remembered I use Frozen chopped garlic, green garlic, and ginger from the Asian section of the frozen aisle.. totally fine.
In fact sometimes the frozen garlic is better, since I have a tendency to burn garlic.

hello prettycandles, where do you get dried onions from?

Vegetarian gravy:

Finely chop an onion.

Fry in plenty of oil till brown at the edges.

Stir in a generous tablespoonful of plain flour.

Add water/wine/any cooking water from vegetables, as appropriate, and stir frantically till lumps are boiled out.

Season with black pepper. No salt. Then add soy sauce (which is why no salt), Worcestershire sauce and a touch of balsamic vinegar.