Just Food This Time

Wow, I can't believe we didn't take any pictures this week of our family. That's a first. But of course I managed to take pictures of food. Could you imagine my blog without food? Really.

Thanks to all of your comments about my food pictures and recipes. It's only encouraged my obsession though. I was thinking the other day, what is it about cooking that makes me so passionate? I've decided its an outlet to release energy, emotions, and express happiness. If I'm stressed I cook. If I'm bored (hardly ever) I cook. If I'm having a bad day I cook. If I'm having a great day I cook. Cooking just makes me feel great and takes my mind off of my cares of the world for just that moment that me and the kitchen become one. It's a beautiful relationship, really. Cooking for my family is a small act of service as well and we all know that service makes us happy.

So here's what was on the menu this week. A bow tie pasta in homemade marinara sauce, parmesean cheese and meatballs with fresh basil. (The meatballs were frozen to make it an easy meal). The homemade sauce and basil from my garden gives it a "from scratch" flavor even though I cheated with the meatballs. It was a hot item at the Rietzsch house.

Then I have three recipes for Sticky Chicken (chicken breasts, apricot jelly, onion soup mix and Russian dressing in the oven at 350 for about 45 minutes) floating in my pantry. I have made it many times but recently a friend told me how she made it and put on a salad and it was really good. So that's what I did. I used the sauce from the recipe as a dressing on the salad and it was heavenly. I made cheesy twice baked potatoes (just made it up as I went along) and we dipped the skins in the sauce it was amazing. The next day the chilled leftovers (chicken and salad) made a great salad tossed together.

Okay, so like most of you we have zucchini growing out of our ears. I have had to become very creative at adding zucchini to my recipes each day so that we don't waste it. The rule is, as long no one can taste it then its okay to be in the recipe. After all we are very tired of the flavor by now. So I made cheese quesadillas yesterday and in my homemade pico de galo I diced up the zucchini so fine that it blended splendidly with the tomatoes, onions and garlic. I added some lemon juice, chili powder and cumin and it was so delicious. Another hit. I suppose I could have made homemade meatballs the other day and added diced zucchini to those or even meatloaf. Mmm meatloaf burgers.

This morning for conference I wanted to make a special breakfast and Gabe suggested muffins. So I took a basic muffin recipe and omitted all the wet ingredients (egg, oil, milk) and replaced it with boiled and pureed zucchini. I added cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, raisins and craisins and they were the yummiest, healthiest muffins ever. The kids have been asking for them non stop.

So the moral of the story is...don't let your zucchini get the best of you. You show it whose boss!!

Oh and I just have to add how precious it was when the prayer was being said in Gerneral Conference on TV this morning and I looked over at Paisley bowing her head and folding her arms. That was a very proud parent moment. The of course Gabe hit her and the moment was ruined.

We started a new tradition on October first. Every night until Halloween we light the candles on the Halloween tree, sit around the kitchen table and tell scary stories while we enjoy a treat. The first night we made cinnamon hot chocolate and I made up a scary story about a forbidden forest that a town had fenced off. One day two brothers were playing and their frisbee went over the fence. Billy decided to be brave and get it but a mysterious fog over took him and he and the frisbee disappeared. Years later when his brother Timmy was older he was a part of a building project there and they were cutting down the forest to make room for a new development. It was then that he spotted a tree that looked like Billy and it had a frisbee grown into its branches. After careful looking the other trees resembled other missing children from years ago.

I know it sounds scary but Gabe loved it. Each night we rotate someone new making up their own scary story. It's fun.