The Price Of Preparing Food For Others...

[petunia_843]

I have a food related vent here. Over the past two days, I have gathered the ingredients to make a cherry cobbler and a peach cobbler to take to work for my boss's birthday. Everyone is bringing something, so I volunteered the cobbler. I don't mind the work involved, but the price is...ouch. I spent 30 dollars on pie filling, parchment paper, flour and shortening. Pie filling is killer - it's like 3.50 a can. I have no way of making fresh cherries and fresh peaches for the filling at this time of year. Not to mention, fresh fruit is almost as expensive. So here I am shelling out for these cobblers, and no one acts like it's that big of deal.

I also have a burr under my butt for a second date I had that went nowhere. I invited him over to my house for dinner, and he is a vegetarian. So I made vegetarian lasagna, garlic toast and a nice field green and strawberry salad. I spent 30 bucks on this stuff, too! Buying lasagna noodles, sauce, ricotta, eggplants, mushrooms, field greens, strawberries, celery, feta cheese, almonds, garlic toast. He ate it with relish and had like 6 pieces of garlic toast and said he was impressed, and then he left and never called again. I was miffed! I feel like if you go out of your way for someone to make them dinner, the least you can do is offer to cook dinner yourself or something. Nothing.

I don't mind springing for meals or baked goods every once in a while, but it astounds me that so many people are so nonchalant about what it costs to cook and bake at home. People act like oh, you've got stuff on hand, why don't you just whip something up? Hardly anyone I know has all the ingredients for dinners or baked goods just in their kitchens, taking up space. Hell, to even make cookies to bring to work or school can cost you at least ten dollars if you even have half the ingredients in your kitchen - if I were to make cookies for work it would run me close to 15, because I'd have to buy vanilla and powdered sugar and chocolate chips and brown sugar and all kinds of crap.

Has anyone else had this kind of sticker shock with people just having the idea that oh, you like to cook, you like to bake, surely you can just whip something up, no biggie?

[BlueJedi]

To be frank, that's a huge reason why my mom and I only take box mix stuff to potlucks and things. You can buy them on sale, and people like them just as well.
If the people at your work don't seem to care one way or another, I would stop making fancy pies to take to them. Otherwise, as you have experienced, it's just going to frustrate you, and put you out money that is not necessary.

Most people don't cook, or bake, and have absolutely no clue what exactly the costs are for it. It's the same thing with knitting and crochet. People are so used to cheap goods and foods that they really don't have any concept of what the pricing REALLY should be for those items.

But that doesn't make it all the less frustrating in your situation!

[Jzane]

[anniebeegoode]

[silverfish2007]

when i first started working here, i brought homemade stuff once in a while. but no one else ever brings anything. i even brought donuts once and they were still like $10. but no one else ever brings anything, so i stopped all together. once in a while someone will bring a bag of cookies or something, but i just pass on them so i dont feel bad at all for not bringing stuff.
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[PurpleDoor]

I'm also in the camp that brings cheap/easy stuff to parties or potluck if a "nice" dish is not going to be appreciated. For example, I bake a lot, and the basic baking ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder) are pretty cheap. What drives the price up is extras like nuts, chocolate, dried fruit, etc. So if I'm bringing something to a group where they just want food and aren't picky about what's in it, I'll make something like a very basic yellow cake. If I'm cooking for someone special or who will really notice the special extras, I'll pull out the stops.

I do think the guy you cooked dinner for was super rude to not even call and say "sorry, don't think it's going to work out".

I also usually won't make fancy meals where there are a ton of ingredients that I wouldn't be cooking with anyway. I probably would have make that guy a baked pasta and vegetable casserole and just had some cheese on top for flavor (because the cheese is definitely the pricey part of lasagne!)

[knittykat]

I beat my head against the wall for a long time over a very similar issue. I wanted so badly to have lovely dinner parties for my friends. I would make everything from scratch and present everything proudly and I would get a bunch of "what's IN that?" and "I don't like anything mixed together" and "I think I'll just have coffee".

And I'm a good cook. These people were just fussy.

So I stopped. They didn't want to show up on time and eat what I made and show appreciation so now I have open house parties and make everyone bring something. That way everyone has something to eat, I don't have to worry about special diets, pickiness, or food-related lifestyle choices, and I don't have to fork over much money either.

I used to make beautiful from-scratch cakes for people's birthdays and spend hours decorating them. I remember a particular cake where I crushed starlight mints with a rolling pin and pressed them into the frosting on the sides of the cake.....

Then once I made a box cake because I was short of money and time. Duncan Hines, on sale, and a can of premade frosting. You'd think I had dribbled the elixir of heaven upon them. People cleaned that stuff up like it was the best cake ever in the whole wide world....so I decided, fuck 'em. You get Duncan Hines from now on. Even better, one of my friends decided HE liked to bake so now HE puts in the effort and money and I get to enjoy!

People's palates are so accustomed to prepared foods and convenience foods and fast food that homemade stuff doesn't taste as good to many of them. Also, since many people don't cook, they have no idea of the effort that goes into it (like anniebee mentioned).
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[meexie]

[daysleeper]

Totally understand!! A few times I thought about bringing stuff to work and always thought better of it. If I absolutely had to bring something it was a $5 maximum expenditure. I had a temp job where they had office parties weekly, people would go all out. I think I made a salad once and said never again. I was sooo not wasting my time or money to lunchtime socialize with people I hated anyway.

My friends don't really cook and think I'm some sort of master chef, so I enjoy the effort. I'm a pretty good shopper and am able to make a fun meal for 4 people for around $25 or less. Its certainly a lot less than taking 4 people to a restaurant.

Several years ago I met this guy and made a big fuss over dinner/birthday cake for him. I made lasagna, meatballs, garlic bread and a chocolate cake. At the time I didn't really cook so I had to buy every single component including salt and pepper. I must have spent close to $100, and I was pretty determined to never do that again. Now I could totally make the same meal out of my pantry/refrigerator, but thats because I stock up on sale items. My current boyfriend started out as my personal trainer and when we initially started hanging out I saw him as this organic food/fitness god. Since I didn't want to seem like a stereotypical nutritionally naive fat girl, I'd buy all this fancy expensive food. That didn't last very long -- he eats far too much to pay $6/lb for chicken.
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[meexie]

[PurpleDoor]

Just coming back to post some of my default cheap/simple homemade baked goods and meal ideas:


-coffee cake (I have a very basic recipe, I'll dress it up with nuts or blueberries if I feel extravagant)
-sugar cookies (and related to that, snickerdoodles)
-vanilla cupcakes
-carrot muffins (the "fancy add-in" is carrots, which are super cheap)
-fruit crisp/cobbler (if a good fruit is in season)

Meals:
-Spaghetti with tomato sauce (or do a baked pasta dish but only sprinkle cheese on the top)
-Vegetable curries (versatile, use whatever vegetables are cheap/in season)
-Black bean soup with homemade bread
-For a party, do a build-your-own burrito bar and get everyone to bring a filling
-Roasted potatoes make an amazing and cheap side dish
-Vegetable quiche (again, use seasonal vegetables, go easy on the cheese)
-polenta pie: make a crust of polenta, fill with vegetables, chickpeas or white beans, and a bit of tomato sauce

Like a couple of others have mentioned, my guy can also really demolish a plate of food, so I've gotten good at figuring out cheap and health filler foods. Sauteed cabbage makes a frequent appearance in our side dish repertoire, for example. Just saute in olive oil with minced garlic, let it start to brown up a little, add salt and pepper, and it tastes delicious.

Also, I know I post about this all the time, but always always always figure out what you've already got or what's cheap/in season before planning the menu for a dinner party. If I'm making a main course, sides, and dessert, I'll maybe make a fancy dessert, but do the other dishes more cheaply. Or make a cheap dessert, but get some fancy out of season vegetables for a side. Having people over for meals is mostly about eating communally, so as long as your food is reasonably tasty, it does not have to be a 5-star gourmet meal with all the trimmings.

[checkersumthing]

[highlow kitty]

i had the same thing when i made thanksgiving dinner the first (and last!) time. i paid like 200 for a turkey and spices and whatnot and then my friend showed up with a box of potato flakes and a can of gravy. i was frustrated but hey what was i going to do? have a drink and a laugh :)

one of my former coworkers (still friend) makes the most amazing pozole... no idea what that translates into, but it's delicious and i was always so happily surprised by her generosity in bringing it to our office. mmmm... we were a share-y office, but her especially... it seems like that's an expensive thing to share

if i take stuff in it's either chocolate cookies or banana bread and both are relatively cheap for me to make since i do have that stuff on hand since i don't let package cookies in because i have NO self-control. i always grab bags of chocolate chips when they're on sale and steal people's over ripe bananas- true story, i'll say hey i stole your bananas, here's some bread!

but i like the smell of baking but need to share so i guess that's a bit different.

i am shocked though at how cheap mass produced food is. they have $5 fridays for random stuff at safeway and i got a boston cream pie for a potluck that way, and there was a lady considering and i told her, 'you can't make it for that cheap!' which is sad but true. when i do that, i do it in style, with the original store packaging and a pronouncement of 'made from scratch, especially the box!'
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