I’m really a lot with you, there. Dave makes a big batch of spaghetti sauce and cans it, so we’ve always got home-made. Except one night last week, and we had friends coming over so no time to make it. I bought a jar of something or other and it was sweet. SWEET. Nasty stuff.
They had me until the frozen peas. Shiver. Guess I could leave them out. Keep yer veggies out of my mac-an cheese (onions are OK)
Best home-made?
Bread for sure.
Pizza.
And I’m surprised no one mentioned Beef Jerkey.
As far as I’m concerned, it takes no work at all to make great guacamole. Mash up an avocado with fresh lime juice, salt, a clove or two of garlic, and a sprinkling of cayenne, and I’m in heaven. Any additions to it are just a distraction.
This week I discovered something interesting: green beans from the garden have a rich, deep, almost coffee- or chocolate-like flavor to them that I’ve never tasted from green beans before. I can’t wait until we have enough that we can cook them; it’s a thrilling flavor discovery for me.
Daniel
Just thought of another one: Scalloped potatoes. The ones that come in a box are junk. My recipe has been handed down to me from my mother and grandmother. It is ridiculously simple, and sinfully delicious. It’s also my husband’s Favorite. Meal. Ever.
I think we’re saying the same thing. It’s just that I consider peeling and mashing an avocado, juicing a lime, pressing a couple of cloves of garlic, mixing all of the ingredients together, and cleaning up the implements (juicer, garlic press, etc.) to be–how did I phrase it?–“a bit of work.”
I’m intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. 
My caramel gets to the right point eventually but then if I don’t use it right away (in cookies or cheesecake or whatever) it stiffens up and becomes unusable/unspoonable.
Homemade lemon curd I will have to try, although I got a source for a good storebought one.
Churning butter is actually ridiculously easy as well and it’s cheaper if you can get a good source of cream (a dairy wholesaler) but not much point otherwise.
Just dump cream in a mixer and mix it for 10 minutes or so. Seperate the buttermilk into one bottle and the butter into another. Then wash the butter under cold water until the water stays clear and you can pack it away.
If you want european style cultured butter, dump a dollop of creme fraiche into the cream and leave in a warm place for 24 hours, then do the exact same thing.
shrug seems easy enough to me. You can get the sauce done in the time it takes for the pasta to boil. Given that with Kraft Mac & Cheese, you still take the same amount of time and you still have to stir, it sounds about just as easy.
My husband makes a killer apple-cranberry pie. He’s going to enter it in the State Fair this year.
I make a pretty decent cheese & veggie soup- OK, I do use the cheese soup starter powder but I still have to balance out how much milk & veggies & real cheese to add. Veggies I use- broccoli, cauliflour, carrots & … tater tots. L
And fresh-ground pepper!
Homemade Tamales. I make 'em once a month by the dozens, experimenting with different ones. The Goat cheese/mushroom ones were a hit, as were the serrano chicken.
I agree completely. It just has more heart.
What?
Oh. Um…piecrust! I have yet to taste the store-bought pie that holds a candle to even the worst one I’ve made.
OK, now that I have washed the drool out of my keyboard and it works again…
All you that have posted so far must post your recipes.
Chocolate pudding, in a pie with homemade graham cracker crumb crust (bought graham crackers) with realy homemade whipped cream, oh yeah, kahlua in the pudding.
Clam chowder. that canned stuff is like fish flavored slime.
Salsa, just some Roma tomatoes, a few roasted jalapenos skinned and seeded, chopped onions, garlic and salt, cilantro if its your thing.
Taco shells, that ortega/taco bell stuff is crap. Simple corn tortilla fry it up in a deep frier or shallow pan, and stuff it full and let it set for a minute.
Green chile sauce, the canned stuff is flourescant and a bit sweet, onions and garlic sauteed in lard, tiny bit of flour, add some crushed tomatoes, and chile, either frozen or fresh roasted.
Croutons.
Toretellini, don’t ask me for a recipe, thats my grandmothers thing. but they are SOOO much better.
Anything italian, sauce(tomato, alfredo, pesto) , pasta, meatballs, ravioli, lasagna.
It is, indeed, extremely easy. I generally don’t bother with making regular butter (the store brands are perfectly fine for most things), but I make honey butter whenever I make homemade bread for some gathering or other. I also make garlic and herb butter occasionally, if I’m preparing to make something it will go well with.
Also, as MrDibbles pointed out, homemade soap is nice. I’ve been working with glycerin soaps lately because it makes it very easy to experiment with different scent blends. Castille soaps are more involved, but also fun.
Yes, please do post more of these recipes for those of us reading along. I come from a ‘meat and mashed potatoes’ house (didn’t even have lasagna til I was a teenager and in other people’s homes, for example) and I don’t know how to make almost any of this stuff, but this thread is making me want to try. Please share! 
You must be much better at making piecrust than I am. I have made some truely horrid pie crust.
I’m with ya’ll too. Home made sauce rocks. We cook ours in the oven all day. Once an hour we stir, and add more ground parmesean cheese. I will admit the acidity always bothers me, but I got a neato tip a few years ago. Put a whole egg into the batch. The calcium shell absorbs an insane amount of acid, and sure enough it worked. Beats the hell out of adding sugar to perfectly nice sauce.
Also, home made jamm is a staple around here. I am not sure we even have a jar of storebought in the house. We’ve got Mixed Berry, Apricot and Spiced Peach in the fridge.
Cartooniverse
Mmmmm…tamales. What type of basic recipe do you use? I’ve only made them at home once and they didn’t really come out right.
I’m another one who can’t stand boughten spaghetti sauce. Also, there isn’t a substitute for homemade mashed potatoes. I’m sure there are more, but those are 2 that I have strong feelings about.
GT
Another vote for soup. I make about 5 quarts at a time, and freeze it in 1 pint containers. I have mastered beef & barley with mushrooms, lentil with kielbasa and spinach, split pea with ham, turkey vegetable noodle (linguine makes perfect noodle soup noodles!), pasta fazool, navy bean with ham hocks, clam chowder, and black bean chili.