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I use canned beans (all the time) and tomatoes (in the winter). I still don't have making homemade tortillas down, so I get those from the store. Do those count?

I'm a lot more fanatic about cooking from scratch now that I work from home. I still buy canned tomato products when I run out of whatever I had stashed in the freezer from the summer before. Sometimes I'll buy canned beans, but I prefer cooking from dried beans instead.

I bake most of my own bread, including hamburger buns and pita bread. Sometimes I buy hot dog buns or tortillas. I'm getting better at making home made tortillas, but there's a place about 3 blocks from my house that makes them, and they're good, so I don't mind buying them.

I buy sauces and condiments. Pickles, olives, jelly, peanut butter.

I also have a few recipes that were passed down from my mother that require a canned/jarred products and I have no problem buying those products for those particular recipes.

And sometimes I crave something that I ate as a kid. Kraft mac 'n cheese, Mrs. Grass's Chicken Noodle soup, Campbell's tomato and rice soup. Usually I want something like that when the weather is particularly terrible or when I'm not feeling well.

Hmmmmm...I make my own Italian and fresh Polish sausage, because I can't find the kind I like around here. If they had the right stuff, I'd buy it, though.

One problem/issue/point of contention in discussing "homemade" or "shortcuts" or what have you is the notion that if you're not pulling it out of the ground yourself then you're "cheating" or "using help" or something similar.

Canned tomato products are superior to fresh tomatoes in most places for a much larger percentage of the year. I don't consider it using help to use canned tomatoes. I'm not a big fan of beans, but I also don't think using canned beans would fall into the category of cheating or cutting corners.

Frozen and canned vegetables (not the kinds in sauces, but the kinds packed in water, perhaps with some salt) are just as, if not more, nutritionally beneficial than fresh vegetables; so, again, I'm not going to call it cutting corners.

The point of my little holding forth to this point is that there is a whole lot of room between nuking a TV Dinner (something I'm not above doing in the right circumstances) and starting only from fresh, raw, whole ingredients and doing every iota of possible work on it yourself. Reality insists, I think, that most everyone slides back and forth along the path between those polar ends. Jacques Pepin uses canned fruit as a dessert, Rachel Ray occasionally makes risotto exactly the way you want it made.

For myself; I use boxed organic chicken broth a lot. Store bought filled pastas are also a frequent time saver. We've just gotten into making our own fresh pasta, but we haven't moved on to filled, yet.

We eat bread from the market near our house 90% of the time we have bread. Baking our own just isn't going to happen in this rental kitchen with our current schedules.

We don't make the wine, either :)

Frozen, peeled and de-veined shrimp are also a frequent item.

It's not so much a short cut, as it is advance prep. I like to make a huge batch of marinara, divide it into quart-sized bags, and freeze it.

@ccbweb, I think it's interesting to see what people think of as "cheating," and that may not be the right word as you suggested. There's nothing wrong with taking a shortcut, if that's what time and circumstances allow.

But I think that the more you cook, the more you realize how far you actually are from "pulling it out of the ground" whereas those who don't cook a lot would think that using a boxed cake mix is equivalent to home-baked. We know it's a shortcut. When we do it, we don't pat ourselves on the back, we just shrug and say, "It's all I had time for."

The fact that people responding to this mentioned canned tomatoes probably means that we realize what a convenience it is to open a can instead of peeling the tomatoes, seeding them, and cooking them down to a sauce (or whatever). We appreciate them. We know what it takes to get to that point if we start from fresh tomatoes.

Other people would say that opening a can of jarred sauce is home cooking compared to opening a can of Spaghettios.

One time, hubby told his mom that I made Italian sausage, and she replied that she used to make Italian sausage and proceeded to explain that she fried it. And he said, no, she grinds the meat, adds spices, and stuffs it into casings.

And yes, I do make my own Italian sausage, but only because I can't find any here that I like. When I lived in Chicago, I used to buy it, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. And I still don't. But the sausage they sell around here just isn't what I like. When I'm in the mood, I make a big batch and freeze it, and when I want some, it's waiting in the freezer, as convenient as if I went to the store.

Once you start getting into cooking, you begin to realize there always seems to be another step back we could take. I mean, I don't grind my own wheat for bread, but I know people I do. I don't grow my own veggies, except for a few things, and I don't consider grocery store veggies -- even frozen ones -- as a "cheat." But I do appreciate the convenience.

There was a time when our ancestors milked the cow and churned the butter, but now we buy butter and never think twice about it. I have no urge to churn butter. I don't make my own sauerkraut. I don't make jelly or preserves. There are plenty of things I buy. And I appreciate every last convenience.

And although I generally bake all my own bread, I do it because I enjoy it, not because I think it's necessary. If there was a good bakery around, I'd probably buy bread more often.

YES on the Muir Glen fire-roasted tomato products! You can't make something taste bad when you use them.

I think that this is a great help: I eat a lot of leafy greens. Maybe it's just me, but as much as I love to eat them I get tired of cleaning and taking out the stem. What I do is do these prep steps earlier in the day I want to make something. That way it's like an instant mise when I'm ready to cook. Those are my favorite shortcuts, like toasting big batches of nuts and making condiments that are all ready.

my favorite canned items:

- muir glen tomatoes
- canned or deli beets, pickled or regular. yes freshly roasted tastes better, but boy they can either create a red mess or at least create a lot of trash - gloves, foil, paper towels, etc
- del monte summer crisp corn in a can is sometimes better then the real thing!
- better than boullion chicken stock concentrate

Well, I certainly keep canned tomatoes on hand, summer and winter. I rarely cook with fresh tomatoes as they're just so good as they are! Likewise frozen corn and peas are usually on hand for some recipes. Canned beans are also a staple though I want to get back into making them from scratch using the slow cooker. I also keep a couple of cans of canned soup on hand. I usually freeze soup whenever I make it, but have run out of late, so had to buy canned.