Short cuts

It's Labor Day weekend. The end of a long summer and a day for family cook-outs. I'm no different. My brother is grilling ribs tomorrow and I was thinking of making a dessert to take. I got thinking about all the short cuts we take now when it comes to cooking. I don't think I have made real mashed potatoes in years, but instead make instant when come out just as good. Then, there is slaw and potato salad. It's so much easier to pick up a container from the deli at the market. Although, I still think my potato salad is better than the deli's.

Then, there's dessert. It's so easy to use to ready-to use crusts when making a pie. Again, I think my homemade crust is better, but so much trouble to make. At Christmas, I used to make cut-out sugar cookies with my daughter when she was young. Now, I can buy a cookie mix or a tube of cookie dough to slice. Even easier are the cookies that are already cut and you just place them on the baking sheet.

What made me think of this is when I was at the market yesterday evening. I had just paid for my groceries when the clerk said something to the lady behind me about the huge pie she was getting. I looked on the moving counter and I admit, it was the biggest pie I had ever seen and boy did it look good. I think it was a caramel topped apple pie. I can't even imagine all the work it would take to make that from scratch.

I do love to bake and I always make pumpkin pies at Christmas from scratch, with the ready-to-use crust. But, with it being so hot on this Labor Day weekend, I would be crazy to run the oven to bake a pie. So, on the way to my mom's tomorrow for our cook-out, I think I will stop by the grocery store and see if they have any of those pies left.

Have a great holiday weekend and I can't wait for the cooler weather of fall.
Carol