Did the Balducci Christmas Dinner, not bad, why would anybody do it from Scratch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW , my mom was an amazing cook and did everything but never left the kitchen so I have idea who she is.

*I have no idea

[Anonymous]

I think it's fine if you really don't like to cook. I've told plenty of friends to not feel pressured about making a dinner (some people get very stressed about cooking, as they aren't very good at it), and just order out. I prefer making most everything myself, but typically purchase desserts as I'm not into making them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW , my mom was an amazing cook and did everything but never left the kitchen so I have idea who she is.

Sweet Jesus. Seriously? Wow.

[Anonymous]

OP. Head over to the Bostson Market thread. Different perspective on the same topic.

[Anonymous]

Because there is no way NO WAY that a ore made reheated Neal could touch what cook myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there is no way NO WAY that a ore made reheated Neal could touch what cook myself.

Come again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because there is no way NO WAY that a ore made reheated Neal could touch what cook myself.

Sure that you can beat a staff of trained and experienced cooks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because there is no way NO WAY that a ore made reheated Neal could touch what cook myself.

Sure that you can beat a staff of trained and experienced cooks?

Yep

[Anonymous]

Look at the wording of the title of the thread. "Not bad"

Really? That's the outstanding sentiment you had and wonder why everyone doesn't throw money at that "solution?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because there is no way NO WAY that a ore made reheated Neal could touch what cook myself.

Sure that you can beat a staff of trained and experienced cooks?

Yep

Me too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We did the Balducci Christmas dinner,

I am wondering why people do everything from scratch when places like this exist? Maybe we would have swapped the pie with the pie gourmet in Vienna or maybe added a ham from honey baked ham. But what is the point of making everything from scratch?

Let's see. A honey-baked half ham costs $52-75. I spent $25 on my half ham, $5 on apple cider and had brown sugar in the cabinet. It took me about 3-4 minutes to prep, cooked for 2 hours (during which I did a bunch of other things) and then it took me about 10-15 minutes to slice it. Half the price, not that much work and my family actually likes it better than HBH or Balducci's. Unless you have money to throw away or you just don't have the time, why would you pay 2-3 times as much for a store-bought meal when most people can make as good or better at home?

Pre-made dinners are good for convenience when you have an issue where you cannot cook, but to make it the default? Not in my household.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a number of recipes that are tradition in our family. It would be kind of awful to try and Balducci that away. Not everything is about convenience and money. Food is sentimental for a lot of families. The making of it, the kids helping and setting the table, the smell of it in the house while it is cooking, everyone having a favorite dish on the table that reappears year after year mainly for them etc etc.

Money being more accessible has helped us stress less about sales or price checking, hire someone to help us clean the house, bought us better ingredients and wine, and given us more days off for family the week of the holidays - but I don't think I will ever just buy a store bought holiday meal so I don't have to bother with it. Seems weird and detached to do that but that is just my take on it and I am sentimental about things like this. Maybe to some people food is just food?

Sounds old fashioned. I was a child about 30 years a go and thought it was annoying that we had to do all that instead of spend time with each other. I also hated having to eat things that were only semi good but since someone made them we had to pretend. There was a few good dessert items but everything else was good but not restaurant good. Also the prep work, cleaning, etc... It is a vacation not a time to do manual labor.

New poster here -- I am so sorry your childhood memories of Christmas are so sad. For some of us, though, cooking a special meal with the people we love is fun -- maybe because we have happy memories and can picture our own children passing them on to their kids. (From a mom of teens and college students, all of whom really like to cook on the holidays.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the Balducci Christmas dinner,

I am wondering why people do everything from scratch when places like this exist? Maybe we would have swapped the pie with the pie gourmet in Vienna or maybe added a ham from honey baked ham. But what is the point of making everything from scratch?

Let's see. A honey-baked half ham costs $52-75. I spent $25 on my half ham, $5 on apple cider and had brown sugar in the cabinet. It took me about 3-4 minutes to prep, cooked for 2 hours (during which I did a bunch of other things) and then it took me about 10-15 minutes to slice it. Half the price, not that much work and my family actually likes it better than HBH or Balducci's. Unless you have money to throw away or you just don't have the time, why would you pay 2-3 times as much for a store-bought meal when most people can make as good or better at home?

Pre-made dinners are good for convenience when you have an issue where you cannot cook, but to make it the default? Not in my household.

Dunno honey baked hama are much better than what you described. The balducci ham had a sugar mustard glaze with apple compote, much tastier than getting a store bought ham and throwing leftover sugar and old cider on it.

[Anonymous]

Balducci's ready mad food is just okay. I certainly would not want it in place of my cooking unless I really could not cook (sick, getting back from a trip etc)

It is really expensive, they use a lot of salt and sometimes weird spice combintations., meat sometimes is really fatty and doesn't reheat the best.

Their baked goods are really high priced for the quality. Much prefer this bakery for the quality, taste and price.

http://www.praline-bakery.com/pralines-cakes/

the chocolate mousse cake is awesome.

We aren't talking high end chefs cooking this food.

Now if Bryan Voltaggio was cooking different story!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We did the Balducci Christmas dinner,

I am wondering why people do everything from scratch when places like this exist? Maybe we would have swapped the pie with the pie gourmet in Vienna or maybe added a ham from honey baked ham. But what is the point of making everything from scratch?

Let's see. A honey-baked half ham costs $52-75. I spent $25 on my half ham, $5 on apple cider and had brown sugar in the cabinet. It took me about 3-4 minutes to prep, cooked for 2 hours (during which I did a bunch of other things) and then it took me about 10-15 minutes to slice it. Half the price, not that much work and my family actually likes it better than HBH or Balducci's. Unless you have money to throw away or you just don't have the time, why would you pay 2-3 times as much for a store-bought meal when most people can make as good or better at home?

Pre-made dinners are good for convenience when you have an issue where you cannot cook, but to make it the default? Not in my household.

Dunno honey baked hama are much better than what you described. The balducci ham had a sugar mustard glaze with apple compote, much tastier than getting a store bought ham and throwing leftover sugar and old cider on it.

"Leftover sugar"
Mmmm. Yeah. Cause it goes bad, right? And people don't keep sugar in the pantry.
You are insane.