And yogurt – well I really never considered making it at home since it’s a product well within the limits of my rules – however everyone was saying it’s just so darn easy and economical – so I had to try my hand at it.

I had to ask some of the same questions of myself when I started this project, like is a condiment a “food” or is it a “seasoning?” Am I going to make my own mayonnaise and barbeque sauce and ketchup? Can you even make your own mustard?

Here's a great idea for local libraries - maintain a lending collection of seeds for local gardeners.

I’m no Betty White, but I stopped accepting the things I didn’t like and began to do something to change them.

If any time of year was ripe for reliance on convenience foods, I’m declaring that it’s the week before Christmas.

I can still feel the weight of the door as it opened up to reveal the sweet fragrance of sugar and spices, as well as I can still hear my grandma calling out, "I heard noise that - what are you kids up to?"

Traveling via air is wrought with convenience stops from check-in to landing, whether it’s coffee kiosks, coolers filled with pre-wrapped sandwiches, fast food joints, or the tiny (and I mean tiny) bags of pretzels you get on the airplane.

I’m here to tell you that having a non-traditional side like I had this year, caused me to think fondly about all the foods I’m truly thankful for, convenient or not.

I submitted the recipe to one of my favorite recipe websites, 12 Tomatoes, and it won their Thanksgiving recipe contest for which I won a gift card to Williams Sonoma! You can check out that recipe here.

http://12tomatoes.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-recipe-contest-winners.html

For a while now I’ve been meaning to do a comparison of a number of the foods I now make from scratch, with their ready-to-eat counterparts...

I cheated - oh yes I did – in fact I cheated two days in a row. And while I felt a bit guilty at the time I would have either lost my sanity or gone hungry had I not allowed myself the choice of convenience foods.