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Lately, I really haven't enjoyed cooking. Probably you moms can relate, but 5 o'clock rolls around and I grumpily lumber over to the cupboard to see what I can throw together. I think it has something to do with being a mom and having to cook everyday. I use to really enjoy cooking. I think college was the first time I really had to cook for myself. I enjoyed leafing through my cookbooks finding delicious healthy dinners I would like to make.
So where has the enjoyment gone?
I realized that I've fallen into a bit of a rut lately. I have my handful of go-to dinners that I always have the supplies on hand and I can throw together in 30 minutes or less. But it's been a while since I tried anything new.
So I decided to push myself and try some recipes I've never tried before. And lately, I've actually been really excited when it comes time to start dinner! It's fun to mix new ingredients, maybe buy something at the grocery store I've never bought before. Like just this week I bought hoisin sauce. Hoisin sauce comes up a lot in Asian recipes, but I tend to skip over those ones because I don't want to buy this new thing. Well, now I have it and I don't have to skip over those recipes anymore. More new things to try.
One recent dinner that I am particularly proud of you can see below:
This is Lettuce Wraps with homemade Asian Dipping Sauce and it was awesome! I found this in the appetizer section of one of my cookbooks and thought it would cover the bases for a good meal.
Now understand that I don't take personal credit for these meals. I'm not one of those people who can open up my cupboard and whip up something amazing with whatever I happen to find. I need a recipe.
While I enjoy cooking, I've never been much of a baker. Not only have I tried new dinner recipes, but some new baking recipes as well. They asked a few ladies to bring a homemade pie to a church activity and I thought, well why not? So I signed up. I've never made a pie before. I've seen my mother make pies hundreds of times at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I've never done it myself. I made an apple pie and I am quite proud of how it turned out:
It wasn't perfect, but it was yummy. My biggest problem with it was that as the apples baked down the crust stayed up making a dome shape so that when you cut into it the top was hollow. Does that make sense? If any of you experienced pie makers have any tips to fix that, I would appreciate it.Also, believe it or not, I've never made sugar cookies. I've frosted sugar cookies hundreds of times, but again my mom always made them and the frosting. So I made sugar cookies for the first time! I made an orange glaze frosting that I used on everything except the cats. For the cats I made a chocolate glaze frosting. It was yummy! Maybe next year Kayla will be big enough to help me frost them.
Back by popular demand, here is another video of Kayla dancing. While visiting our octogenarian friends, they showed us a toy bear they had recently received from a friend that, when you pushed the button on its paw, sang a Christmas song. It's a little early for Christmas, but Kayla didn't mind at all. (There was some construction going on outside so you hear a bit of banging in the video.)On any given day with decent weather most of the neighborhood kids are out on their bikes. If any kids are outside Kayla wants to be outside too, right in the middle of the action. Here, one of the kids has let Kayla borrow a skateboard.Here is Kayla with our next door neighbor's tricycle and helmet (on backwards of course). She has a tricycle and helmet of her own, but your own stuff is never as fun as someone else's stuff. When she rides this tricycle, her legs can't quite reach the pedals so she goes Flintstones style. I wish I had a video of that!
At the beginning of September we had the Evergreen State Fair. A lady at church is the Superintendent of Sewing, which means she is in charge of all the quilts and other sewn projects that people bring in to be judged at the fair. She announced that she was hiring for a few days of part time work if anyone was interested. Amanda signed up and worked three days taking in entries and clerking for one of the judges. While taking in other entries Amanda thought that perhaps she ought to enter the Christmas stockings she had made. Not only did she win a blue ribbon, but also won "Best in Class" for holiday items.
Here is Amanda at the fair pointing to her stockings and her HUGE ribbon. Maybe next year she'll enter a goat. Unfortunately our camera battery died right after we took this picture, so we sadly did not get any shots of Kayla petting the baby pigs.
Here is an up-close picture of the stockings and ribbons that we took after we got home and recharged the camera battery. The stocking for Kayla is not quite finished yet, but will be done before Christmas this year.
This is Lettuce Wraps with homemade Asian Dipping Sauce and it was awesome! I found this in the appetizer section of one of my cookbooks and thought it would cover the bases for a good meal.
It wasn't perfect, but it was yummy. My biggest problem with it was that as the apples baked down the crust stayed up making a dome shape so that when you cut into it the top was hollow. Does that make sense? If any of you experienced pie makers have any tips to fix that, I would appreciate it.
