Right. But you can refrigerate your own cookie dough, CJ, just as you do theirs.
About those premade ones, cj. I’d much rather bake the cookies myself, though I’ve done the “snack cake” stuff before.
But I had a problem with my oven here almost two years ago, and I’ve been leery of using it ever since. It has to do with how well the oven heats - sometimes smoke comes out of it for no apparent reason, and this can set off the smoke alarm quickly. It’s a very, very loud alarm, too, since I’m in an apartment complex. AND you can’t shut the thing off. Soooo… rather than tempt the alarm, I don’t use the oven.
Which I know isn’t right. When I move, I’ll bake more.
I’d have to freeze it actually, and, being from a non-cooking family, I’m not sure about the logistics of baking frozen dough or how long it will keep. On the other hand, I’m sure people here will be happy to tell me. Actually, Schwan’s frozen chocolate chip cookies have passed for homemade, that is, until someone asks for the recipe. :o
That’s terrifying! Even if you don’t want to be Betty Crocker, PLEASE get the landlord to fix the oven! It sounds dangerous!
It’s only happened a couple of times, but it traumatized me. 
What happened was I put cookies on a sheet and set the timer for 10 mins (the box had said 8-12). A few minutes later, I heard (from the next room) a click, and a quick beep. (Found out later this was just telling me that the correct temp. had been reached.) I looked, and there was some smoke coming out of one of the burners. It didn’t seem like a big deal, but to be sure I turned the fan on. A moment later, the alarm went off. I turned off the oven, put the fan on full blast, and tried to waft the smoke up the fan. The alarm quickly went off. Whew, I thought. A couple of seconds later, though, it came back on, in spades.
I hadn’t really examined the alarm before. It’s on the ceiling just outside the kitchen. Alarms I’ve used in the past have been battery operated. I looked at the alarm, and I couldn’t see how to turn it off. With the battery-operated ones, of course, you just remove the battery. But with no battery . . . anyway, I smacked it. It went off, but came back just as quickly. I was beginning to panic - it was after 11 at night, and here I am with an extremely loud alarm! So I grabbed it, thinking i could dislodge it from the ceiling.
I pulled too hard, and it came down. It’s hard wired, you see. I was covered in a seemingly endless shower of sparks. And then all was dark and quiet.
Now, you can see why this might make me leery of the oven, right? 
At Walmart shortly before Thanksgiving I saw “green bean casserole” in a can. I didn’t examine the item, but I assume it was green beans and mushroom soup in the same can. I had the same reaction that DDG had toward the potatoes’n’gravy kit.
I told my sister-in-law about the canned casserole, certain that she would join with me in scoffing at the ignorant lazy masses. Instead she said, “What a great idea. They should put a separate little can of onion rings with it.” It hurt, but I had to admit to myself that I was being an ass. If someone chooses to buy the pre-combined casserole instead of two separate items, it’s not my business. If I get all bent out of shape about other people’s food purchasing choices, it’s likely that I need to get a life.
Damn I hate being wrong.
Hang on. If you’re using cornstarch, you mix it with cold water, but if you’re using flour, don’t you have to mix it with the hot fat first, so it coats the particles and gets a chance to cook at the same time?
As for the convenience food kit issue, I’m on the “Wow, that’s silly” side, but you all can do whatever you want. I’ll just ignore all that extra trash building up in the landfills as we speak.
I love food and I love to cook too but sometimes the convenience factor applies.
With that said, I keep various “instant” things on had at all times to include mashed potatoes. I don’t normally make them with gravy so the idea of a “kit” doesn’t turn me on. Might be great for a busy mom of four or the bachelor that has little time from his social activities to remember the gravy to go with the taters. I keep instant sauces and such on hand all the time so it doesn’t matter to me either way.
I prefer to eat whole foods so the convenience end of instant foods usually apply when I am fucking broke and there’s nothing in the house to eat because they don’t require a shelf life concern like whole foods…except for mashed potatoes. I make those from the box quite a bit because making mashed potatoes for one is just a long drawn out process. It takes me about 3 minutes to make instant versus the time it takes to make instant of about 20-30, along with the clean up.
Enough butter, milk, salt and pepper and they are pretty good in my mouth.
I can see the point to the OP but this kind of thing is cropping up into our lives more and more. Disposable this and disposable that. Instant this and instant that. Heck you can buy a whole meal in a box these days. A friend of mine doesn’t have the time to make a full meal that requires a lot of prep so this is convenient for her, big time. I personally find the meal in a box a strange thing but hey, to each their own.
Our world is changing and in the reality of things, convenience is what is going to sell, much to my chagrin (sp.) I very much prefer whole and organic foods but I also enjoy the conveniences we have available.
Think what many of our dead and gone grandmothers thought about frozen TV dinners. My grandmother would rather eat dirt than plop in a nice (organic and whole food made) three cheese manicotti in the microwave. Me, I enjoy them once in a while.
Actually, for most items in U.S. grocery stores, there’s a definite rhyme and reason for product placement. Almost every inch of shelf space is “purchased” by food companies. The eye-level shelves command the best prices, and the lowest shelves (if memory serves) are the cheapest. Which is why you find those bagged cereals (as opposed to boxed cereals) on the bottom shelves.
This applies to the major grocery store chains; small chains and individually owned stores may not have this type of arrangement.
I stand corrected - thanks.
I didn’t mean to be snippy, dantheman; hope it didn’t come across that way.
I don’t really know much about the subject of product placement in grocery stores, but my boss used to work for a large grocery chain (Kroger’s) and he’s shared some info with me.
Now, thanks to what little knowledge I have, I find it interesting to see where newly introduced products are featured in a store. For instance, if the mashed-potato-and-gravy combo mentioned in the OP was on an eye-level shelf (which seems likely), Lipton has probably sunk some serious bucks into its development and marketing. Which means that regardless of customer reaction, it will be around for at least a little while, even if it doesn’t sell; the manufacturer will give it a good healthy chance to make money since they’ve sunk a lot into it.
On the flip side, if the product was on a second- (or third-)tier shelf, it won’t stick around if folks don’t buy it right away.
So, out of curiosity, where in the aisle was this product placed?
Oh, no, not in the least. I should have realized product placement’s a bit of an art/science in grocery stores.
Isn’t it true that most new products - at least those geared toward the mainstream - are placed at eye level? Or even better, at the end of an aisle?
I think your new-product-placement statement is on the money – as long as the company making the product shells out the bucks to buy the space. End-of-the-aisle space is, I think, considered the primo spot for stuff in the store, so if a food company wants to hawk a new product, and they have that space locked up, you’ll probably see their new product there. If they don’t have that space “rented,” then it won’t be there.
Product placement in grocery stores actually isn’t very new, and it’s a ridiculously detailed science. My grandfather worked for a grocery wholesaler for 50 years and it was well advanced by the time he retired, in 1975. It’s why dairy and bread are usually at the back, why produce is usually at the front, etc. As you said, a new product like this will probably be in an “aisle cap” - his term, not sure if that’s still used - for a week or two, probably not much longer because it loses effectiveness and it gets too expensive.
And yes, it’s appalling, but then I have a weekness for untoasted pop-tarts.