dried tomato soup

Last night C and I perused the grocery store isles, hunting down ingredients for the magical Red Robin seasoning salt that patrons of that establishment pour on with such joy... and with perhaps a slightly maniacal twinkle in their eye. One critical ingredient is dried tomato soup mix. Now, neither of us have ever had occasion to use said dried tomato soup mix and thus no occasion to actually locate the item in a grocery store. After a walk through, the number of dried items available for sale in a grocery store is quite astounding. One area we were completely thrown off by was the gravy section. Gravies of every variety can be found in can form and dried mix form.... beef, turkey, chicken, white,homestyle, etc. etc. etc. This isn't even counting the au ju mix (and I'm slightly confused as to where that belongs anyway as it is clearly not a gravy). C commented that the large bottle of Heinz ketchup in our basket could probably be dried and then called dried tomato soup mix. Ketchup is a surprisingly versatile condiment . In fact, I believe I was served Sweet and Sour chicken while in China (an entertaining and depressing thought as it is an American Chinese dish) that was mainly made up of ketchup. Sorry, I digress. While I understand the necessity of dry goods as supplemental items in a pantry or out camping (not necessarily for lower cost! can you imagine?), I found the prospect of all the dried goods quite depressing. Because you take something that is wholesome and good, take all the life out of it, let it sit around for a while, and then foolishly think that some liquid will bring it back to its former state. Perhaps this post can be attributed to winter vegetable blues, a desire to cook with what is in season only to realize that you don't want to eat it.