I taught a friend how to pressure can beans--we did pintos and black. I need to do some more--we have lots of empty jars, and lots of bags of dried beans.
My sister in law, Tara, started a food blog, here. She's a dietician and enjoys good food. (Which is pretty much a perfect combination). Check her out.
My culinary skills improved just by living close by her for 2 years.
I made this delish lasagna the other day. My dad gave me zucchini and squash from his garden so we tried it. I think you could cut a lot of fat and not miss it. (The heavy cream and the mozzarella cheese. Milk instead of cream, and about half the cheese). Next time--because I think there will be one. I didn't use her method for the chicken, but I want to try it. Bay leaf and lemon sound interesting together.
I made a breakfast casserole from America's Test Kitchen a few weeks ago. It was good--but I wanted to try some tweaks and make it again. We had Round 2 for dinner tonight--and it was near perfection. (Left out half the sausage, salt, hot sauce, pepper, and the entire onion). If you come visit, I will make it for you. I think it's earned a spot in the regular rotation. The boys love it and the girls picked at it--but ate more tonight than last time. You toast the bread before putting it in--which solves the soggy problem most breakfast casseroles face. And, you have to make it ahead of time--which is a beautiful thing when it's 4 pm and dinner is already made except for baking.
(I think Test Kitchen hits technique RIGHT ON, EVERY TIME. Most of the time there are steps that could be streamlined and salt that can be removed. Do you agree? And I try to avoid their website so I don't think I need any new cookbooks. They have a slow cooker book that caught my attention--thank goodness my library has it. I love using the slow cooker).
This week, I learned that by adding a little cocoa powder to your morning oatmeal, you will not believe what kind of response you will get. Children who normally may loathe it might ask for seconds.
(I am not planning on repeating every time we eat it, but it sure is nice to not have to fight a battle when oatmeal is served).
Caitlin's birthday cinammon rolls turned out really well. She's not really into cake, which is OK with me.
Andrew asked for
chocolate cake,
chocolate frosting,
and chocolate ice cream for his. That all went smoothly.
But, I had two snags on the homemade pizza he asked for. First, I ran out of cornmeal. My mom quickly went to Target and saved the day. Then, when I was putting the pizza dough into the pans, I remembered I left out the salt. Since Nathan wasn't home yet, I asked him to stop at Little Caesar's to solve the pizza emergency.
I still had all the toppings and sauce, so we had pizza later that week. I think Andrew was OK with that part. (I remembered the salt the second time). His two closest friends were able to make our last minute invitation, which was nice.
I bought the worst breakfast sausage in the world. It was so bad I gave a thought to reconsidering vegetarianism. Two children would not eat it. Some of the others thought it was great and had extra. Nathan and I wished we hadn't broken our fast eating it.
This dressing is very good. Can't say anything about the salad, I haven't tried it. But the dressing changed my mind about rice vinegar.
This month I have been REALLY bad at meal planning. I just haven't done it. I think it's less stressful to take the time to make a plan and carry it out than not plan. So, I will try again, and let you know.
When we studied the Word of Wisdom this week Andrew asked, "Why are we only supposed to eat meat in the winter?"
(We don't do this, by the way--but perhaps we should try a little harder).
His was not the only question, however, we also got, "It is OK to drink hot chocolate?"
And, if you have read this far, you might also be interested in reading this, my Mormon.org profile, complete with my apron.
