I have this argument with my wife often. I like to cook, and for me cooking is more than taking frozen meatballs and dumping them into a pan full of jar pasta sauce. I would rather make the sauce, maybe have some meatballs made in advance. My wife seems to think that pre-made stuff or mixes are the way to go. I would rather just make pancakes scratch, which isn’t hard, where she would rather I just open the mix, add water, and make the food. But I do agree that having a frozen lasagna is better than taking the full effort when I just want to get dinner going. So where are your eat the pre-made vs make it from scratch?
Speaking of creole, I started making a roux for gumbo yesterday and burned it after prepping the veggies and meat. We are pizza last night. But today I’m doing the slow 4 hours in the oven roux so I don’t mess it up again.
Roux is definitely a tough one. At least the ingredients are fairly cheap if you do mess it up, but damn you better be prepared to put in the work, endure the heat, and watch closely if you want to get it right. Damn tasty though.