It's great, but is it easy?

There are times when I learn as much at dinner parties as I do from surveys and focus groups. I had the fun and good fortune of hosting one and attending two over the Easter weekend. The most telling comment was precipitated by a very tasty hors d'oeuvre that triggered the question: "This is great but is it easy?"

The questioner, who happened to be a successful architect, (architects can swap recipes even if they don't swap blueprints) went on to say that she'd love the recipe if it wasn't one of the "pretentious ones that you have to do from scratch." Hmmm! In spite of all those cook books and cooking shows, a professional woman in her 40s or 50s was calling a scratch recipe pretentious!

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