Exactly!
Scratch cooking from the pantry. I make a basic vegetable minestrone but it never gets boring because, being a minestrone, it always changes depending on whim and what's on hand. Sometimes spinach and extra diced tomato, sometimes no spinach but more garlic in the starter and triple tomato paste, sometimes mixed bean with carmelized "string" onions. Every now and then, a tube of frozen ground turkey. Delicious. Varying the beans, alone, is a great way to keep variety. Bowties or elbows or egg noodles? Potatoes or no? On and on...
Now my breadmaking skills are still developing, but a variation from batch to batch again keeps things interesting. You mentioned a mixer...I have a fine Kitchenaid but I don't use it--I knead each batch by hand. Great way to burn through frustrations, especially in Obamaland.
As for flour, I've never tried King Arthur but I've heard great things. I use Pillsbury unbleached no-bromate. Anywhere from one-sixth to one-third graham flour for mixed grain bread, what is known in Trinidad as "hops."
Yeast from the jar rather than the packets allows me to vary batch sizes.
And on top? Sesame seeds, or dried onion and kosher salt, or even rosemary.
Bread like this is good enough to eat all by itself.
We could use standard stuff like flour, salt, sugar, shallots, wine, etc... in the kitchen, and any leftovers in the walk-in, and (after I pressed the issue) any edible vegetation around the school grounds. (I remember Euell Gibbons.
It became quite a competition to be creative with some of the stuff we were handed.
If any freeper has stuff in the fridge and wants to make a meal of it, or even post hypothetical "mystery baskets", I'm game to come up with a creative, tasty dish and recipes.
/johnny