Store bought or homemade dessert at public dinner

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
If you want to a public dinner, like a church supper, and had the choice of getting either a home made or store bought dessert, which would you opt for?

1) homemade because it will probably be better

2) store bought because it is made under regulated conditions - you may not know who made the home made option or under what conditions

3) neither
 

Homemade peach cobbler that I used to take to Wednesday night Lent suppers when I lived in Center, Texas. Everybody loved it and it was so easy to make after work and still get to services on time.
 
I take homemade whatever is needed (cookes, pie, cakes etc) and it's usually all gone by the end of the dinner. I was at a dinner once where there was a little boy about nine and he was looking at all the cookies. I don't think he noticed he was being watched. He walked around the table pointing at the cookies and saying, "homemade, homemade, walmart, homemade, walmart". When he looked up and saw us watching him, his face turned bright red. One of the older men asked how he could tell which was which and the boy said, "the store bought ones are perfectly round and they have bright blue or bright yellow frosting. Normal people don't put those colors on their food" I always wonder if he grew up to be a food critic, he would have been a good one.
 
Depends on a) what it is and b) how you define homemade and store bought.

A long time ago I was hospitalized for two weeks when my kids were still in elementary school. Many kind, well-meaning church and school friends brought all manner of casseroles and desserts to our house during my illness and recovery period. My family is not picky when it comes to food, but let me tell you, a lot of what crossed our threshold was tasted and trashed. We felt terribly guilty throwing out "perfectly good" food, but not guilty enough to gag it down. (The number of cream-of-mushroom soup based entrees and Cool-whip centered desserts was positively astonishing.)

Although this isn't the topic at hand, I learned a lot from that experience when it comes to providing food for others. If I want to bake for someone whose tastes I don't know well, I get Nestle chocolate chips and follow the recipe to the letter. Not up to baking? A package of Oreos. Food? I buy a dozen unseeded rolls, some cold cuts, a bag of pre-cut salad greens, some tomatoes and a bottle of ranch dressing.

p.s. I am considered a pretty good cook and an accomplished baker - but I nevertheless have followed those guidelines and received gushing thank yous for the past 20 years.
 
LOL...not saying your offerings weren't good Starsong...but have you ever thought those gushing thank you's would have been similar to your and your familys' when receiving the mushroom soup based goo... ;)

Incidentally Deb...nowadays that little boy wouldn;t be able to tell half the time when things are home made or shop based. So many people nowadays use bright colouring in cakes and icing... as well as having the latest gadgets to make things perfectly round or square shaped..
 
hollydolly said:
LOL...not saying your offerings weren't good Starsong...but have you ever thought those gushing thank you's would have been similar to your and your familys' when receiving the mushroom soup based goo... ;)

Incidentally Deb...nowadays that little boy wouldn;t be able to tell half the time when things are home made or shop based. So many people nowadays use bright colouring in cakes and icing... as well as having the latest gadgets to make things perfectly round or square shaped..
Click to expand...

Nah, the gushes are things like, "It was so nice to have food that we recognized and could put together on the fly." Also the kids will tell you true. Littler ones even say things like "yours was so much better than the other stuff we got!" We've also been known to make Kraft macaroni and cheese (yes, the preservative-filled stuff in the blue box), much to the delight of the elementary aged set.

Too funny.

p.s. I didn't gush in my thank you over the food itself, but rather at the extension of friendship.
 
I grew up with the quarterly "pitch-in dinners" at church. Everybody would bring what they were famous for and there would be THE BEST fried chicken, corn pudding, chocolate cake, apple pie, etc., etc.

Our neighbor would bring something and that's all her family would eat. They'd be sitting there with that one thing on their plates, nothing else. I always thought "why even bother to come?"
 
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debodun said:
If you want to a public dinner, like a church supper, and had the choice of getting either a home made or store bought dessert, which would you opt for?

1) homemade because it will probably be better

2) store bought because it is made under regulated conditions - you may not know who made the home made option or under what conditions

3) neither
Click to expand...

numero uno

Especially pie

Been burned a few times.
And, when at a public feed, it’s somewhat confounding as to what to do with the homemade glop filling yer plate, save the one bite.

But, get enough liquid together and one can wash down most anything
 
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