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.

Yummy Eats and Long Nights

Two weeks ago Paisley started walking. We captured it on video and posted it below. We also captured her lovely moments of enjoying her meals this week. She sure does love my cooking if you can't tell. She licks her plates, licks her fingers and cries for more. It's a dangerous addiction if you can't tell from the pictures. Dinner time always brings out her inner beast. She seems to have no memory of her actions once it is all over. Also, I was able to give her pigtails and I was so proud.

Gabe was really sick this week. It started Wednesday night when he cried all night of tummy pains then threw up all over our bed. Then for 2 days straight he was fine and exactly 48 hours later the same thing. The next day he got bad diarrhea and a soar throat and cough. He's had every flu symptom other than a fever. Now Manuel has it. At least we got in a fun night of tennis and Popsicles before the madness began.

On the menu this week I created a yummy french entree. I made homemade crepes and stuffed them with zucchini, cheese, omelet egg and mushrooms and smothered it in creamy hollandaise sauce. I wanted to use sliced breakfast sausage and asparagus but forgot to buy it. It was still really good. The next morning we smeared berry cream cheese and blackberry jelly on them and rolled them up with powdered sugar. The kids inhaled them. But the best thing I made this week was the cookies. It was just the weight watchers recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies but Walmart was out of canned pumpkin so I improvised with a can of yams. I figured sweet potato pie, candied yams...it should work. And yes, it did!! Because the yams are sweeter than canned pumpkin the cookies tasted better. I pureed a 30 ounce can of yams, added it to a boxed spice cake mix and then dumped in a bag of chocolate chips. No other ingredients but those three. Baked at 350 for 20 minutes. The best cookies I've ever had and my kids were getting their yams. Way better than pumpkin for sure!!

A girl I visit teach who is Chinese gave me and my companion a Chinese Thanksgiving traditional cake. It was very pretty but very nasty. The center tasted like mashed garbanzo beans with sugar. I'm not a picky eater either. I'm grateful for her kind gesture but not a fan of that desert. Of course I had to take a picture though.

I have to apologize as I have no control over inserting pictures and text where I want them on my blog so that's why everything is always all over the place and my text is all broken up and in weird places. Because of this I can't really add subtitles to my pictures and post recipes under my food pictures. But that's always my intentions.

Jordanelle

This weekend we went up to Jordanelle by Park City. My dad (grandpa Roger) invited us to go boating with him and my sister Crista's family. It was fun. It was the last warm weekend of the year and we wanted summer to go out with a bang. My dad brought homemade slow cooked sweet pork, grandma Candice brought strawberries and chocolate sauce, fruit and veggies/dip and chips and potato salad and we brought drinks and candy apples that we made. Crista brought yummy peanut butter brownies and cake. I water skied and knee boarded. Manuel didn't want to get cold or wet so he just came along for the boat ride. Gabe loved being on the boat. He sat at the front and giggled every time the boat jumped over the waves. Paisley however hated the boat. The minute it started she cried and screamed and began to shake. She was terrified. So we gave her to grandma Candice. The water was cold but after getting in it became warm. We had storm clouds hovering over us but we somehow dodged all the storms and managed to get a bit of sunshine. I was sunburned. The scenery was beautiful and the leaves had turned red all over the mountains. Gabe said the air smelled like "camping smells". Now that Fall is almost here we are excited for the colder weather.

Oh, and of course what blog entry would be complete without some food pictures. We enjoyed homemade butternut squash soup from the garden, mozzarella ball salad and sushi. Yes, our kids love sushi.

Happy Birthday Opa!

We just want to say Happy Birthday to Manuel's Dad and let everyone know what a great person he truly is. Walter is the kindest, sweetest, most patient man I have ever known. He gives all he has even when he doesn't have very much. He loves his kids and grand kids and it shows. Thanks and we love you!

Here is our birthday tribute to Opa