Don't use mixes!

I did something today that I'm not proud of. I am, admittedly, NOT AT ALL the world's best cook. In fact, I'm pretty terrible at it, which is part of why I started this food portion, so I could improve. There is one small item of pride I have though. I'm a pretty decent baker and I ALWAYS bake from scratch.

Well, last time I was shopping, I saw Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread on sale for 99¢ so I bought it because pumpkin is one of my all time favorite flavors of ANYTHING! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cream cheese roll....the list goes on and on. If it has pumpkin in it, I will tear that mofo up.

With excitement to taste my first pumpkin baked good of the season, I eagerly prepared the pumpkin bread mix. I don't have loaf pans, so I made it in two 8x8 pans and just cooked it a little less. It smelled delicious baking. I pulled it out, let it cool, and hastily stuck the knife into the corner, anticipating the mouth-watering taste of the first, warm piece....

IT SUCKED! I was so disappointed. I always thought mixes were basically good, even though I usually prefer not to use them. My mother used plain quick bread mix and just add canned pumpkin to it and everyone raved over her pumpkin bread. It was always delicious, even though I myself have always preferred to make it from scratch. I figured I couldn't really go wrong.

Well, the pumpkin taste is way too slight, the spices are nearly non-existent, and the texture is just fluffy and weird, not how a "bread" should be, although that could be because of the pans I used.

Seriously, it's not THAT much harder to make something from scratch than it is to make it from a mix and the taste is SOOOOOO much better. With all the free recipe websites out there, there is no excuse not to make things from scratch. It's worth every second of the extra three minutes it will take you to measure out flour and sugar. TRUST ME!

As for the pumpkin bread...maybe I'll give it to friends....friends I don't like that much. If in the next few days, you receive some mediocre pumpkin bread from me, perhaps you should be re-evaluating our friendship, ha! Nah, I'll probably just tell my family, "Yeah, I made it from the mix, its not that good, but I didn't want to throw it away." Avoiding throwing something away is a big theme of not-so-good food with my family. None of us grew up rich, so.... Pin It