Baking and Cooking

I'm thankful I know how to bake and cook. Sometimes the things I bake and cook are simple, sometimes they're more complex.

I'm also thankful for food bloggers and cookbook creators and for the recipes they produce.

French bread rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe are my go to rolls for making sliders.

 

I love A Season of Family Meal Plans (all four volumes) by Jordan Page where I got the recipe for Cheesy Chicken Sliders (in volume 4- Fall).

I'm thankful I've gotten better at learning substitutions in cooking or learning I can just leave things out. Only one pan of the sliders had cheese (based on family preference) and that's okay.

I'm also thankful I don't always have to follow a recipe when throwing dinner together. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad is something everybody in my family will eat.

I made sure to use the garlic and onion spaghetti sauce since November 8 was Bram Stoker's Birthday and Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day. It's tradition to cook with garlic that day. 

Shelftember

I participated in Shelftember again. 

When I did go to the store (which wasn't very often), I stuck to my shopping list. Because I spent less money on bulk snacks at Winco, I was able to spend more on chicken and ground turkey (not super expensive but not the best deals, either).

I took some of that new chicken and my friend, Stephanie, and I got together to make Instant Pot meals again. Honey Garlic Chicken- it's a favorite.

 

Jeremy came back from his Twin Falls fair with ripe bananas so of course I made chocolate chip banana muffins. Then I pulled corn tortillas, rotisserie chicken, cheese, and spices out and made taquitos. Shelftember! 

 

I baked a lot of bread during the month, including sourdough. I think I'm making progress on figuring out how to do it successfully.

 

I did have to send Jeremy to grab some bread at the store one night because I didn't have any bread to make sandwiches for a trip we were taking. It was better for me to sleep that night than to try to bake bread and let it cool and cut it. I had to get up really early the next morning in order to drive down to Southern Utah (more on that adventure later). Safety is most important. I was too tired to drive home so Jeremy did have to stop at a gas station to get a caffeinated drink and something to eat. But again, we had saved money on other groceries during the month so in order for him to be safe while driving, while I kept dozing off in the passenger seat, it was worth the money.

 

As I mentioned before, I got sick the end of September so we ended up spending more money on groceries than I would have liked the end of the month because Jeremy had to get pizza a couple of times for me as I was getting my appetite back and didn't have energy to make meals. Before I got sick, I was also getting what sounded good for Jr. because he was sick before me.

Oh well. It started out as a good Shelftember. 

Shelf Cooking

Here's a little shelf cooking I did on August 19, National Potato Day.

I didn't have any fresh potatoes so I pulled out some potato gems to make mashed potato volcanoes with gravy lava, broccoli trees, "those poor people" raisins, and some dino nuggets because dinos and volcanoes just work.

And don't tell me people and dinosaurs wouldn't exist at the same time because I'm a Jurassic Park fan, remember?

I picked a zucchini from our garden that morning and sauteed it for the side because I wanted it but couldn't figure out how it would fit into my volcano scene. 

I asked friends on Instagram and Facebook if anyone had any ideas for next time to let me know. I got several responses from people on Facebook from a Zucchini Dune Sandworm to gravestones for lava covered dinos. I love it when people help me figure out how to celebrate. 

Here's Some More Catching Up

May 13 was Leprechaun Day, Crouton Day, Fruit Cocktail Day, and Apple Pie Day. Guess what. We celebrated.

Ah, homemade croutons and homemade apple pie. Mmmmmm.

Besides given ourselves "gold" coins for Leprechaun Day, we also turned on Irish music and had some fun moving to the music. 

Lucky decided to use his fruit to make a kebab. Why not? 

 

May 14 was Dance Like a Chicken Day and Buttermilk Biscuit Day. We made Biscuits and "Gragy" from Shelf Cooking 101 by Jordan Page.

Of course we danced like chickens.

 

May 15 was Dinosaur Day, National Chocolate Chip Day, and International Day of Families. We had Dino nuggets and chocolate chip pancakes with our family.

 I also got out for a walk that morning with a friend I haven't been able to do anything with for a while.

It's May!!!

We reached May 1. You know what that means? 

Bridal Veil Falls is open! I made a quick stop that morning to check that the road really was open then three of my children went on a walk with me in the evening. We walked by the falls and all the way to Bridal Veil Park and back. I thought it would tucker out my youngest but he still had a lot of energy when we got home. Sigh.

 

May 2 was Baby Day. Lucky made "baby" pasta (small shells) and I have to share more cuteness from my youngest.

For dinner we had baby hot dogs (li'l smokies), baby muffins, baby carrots, and mini jalapeno popper egg rolls. Jet called the egg rolls "baby poppers" and decided since they were babies, to make up a lullaby to sing to them. He even cradled one in his hand to rock it while singing. He's so stinkin' adorable.

 

May 4 was International Respect for Chickens Day, World Laughter Day, National Orange Juice Day, and Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you.

You know you live in a cool ward when the bishopric member who is conducting Sacrament Meeting mentions Star Wars Day over the pulpit and the sister sitting next to you in choir is wearing tie fighter earrings.

We drank orange juice.
Jr. Jr. gave me this piece of advice on International Respect for Chickens Day: Remember, Mom. Whenever you see a dancing chicken, make sure it doesn't have any carrots.

 

Tell me, please. Do you have a child as random or as awesome? Yes. He makes me laugh.

 

I made sweet and sour sauce from Shelf Cooking 101 by Jordan Page and put it on chicken with rice and pineapple and green bell pepper. It reminded me of when I was in college and there was this eating place called Teriyaki Stix and I would sometimes get their sweet and sour bowl with rice, chicken, pineapple, and green bell pepper. Yumm.

December Holidays

Let's talk some December holidays that weren't Christmas and New Year's Eve.

There were a lot we didn't end up celebrating because of sickness. Nobody found treats in their shoes on St. Nicholas Day. Sigh.

We did get back to our tradition of someone being sick during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, though. Woohoo?

And since that day, December 8, was also National Brownie Day, somebody did make brownies for us to eat during the devotional. 

December 11 was International Mountain Day and I did take a sunrise picture with mountains.

I also managed to make Teriyaki chicken because that day was also National Teriyaki Chicken Day.

Jet helped me make waffle batter for National Maple Syrup Day on December 17. I love that he's my kitchen helper.

Jet loves decorations and lights as you know so he and I were able to go for a walk in City Center Park in Orem on December 18. Jeremy called us when he was going to pick us up but I totally forgot to "answer the phone like Buddy the Elf," even though that was the holiday and I knew it.

When we got home I was telling the story to the kids when my phone rang. Jr. Jr. had called me so I could answer the phone the right way that night. Thanks, Jr. Jr. We of course then had our traditional Buddy the Elf breakfast for dinner.

We used our Fablehaven Cookbook and followed one suggestion for making Tanu's Heartening Soup (shelf cooking style with substitutions) the night before the Winter Solstice.

Then I got out on the Winter Solstice, December 21, for a morning walk around City Center Park while the lights were on. I love doing that in December/early January when I'm up for it (which I wasn't much up for it before January- just those two times).

 We celebrated Lucky's birthday in December. He took balloons to his classmates and we "partied" at home. Jet helped me make Lucky's birthday cake (and put the candles in) and luckily Lucky asked for a really simple dinner. 

Kangaroos and Greasy Foods

October 24 was National Kangaroo Day. I hopped like a kangaroo in the morning when I went to wake the boys. Jet and I watched The Rescuers Down Under that night.

It was also National Food Day. For dinner, I was going to do Chicken Tikka Masala and Garlic Parmesan Broccoli from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 4. Rice would be good to go with those. I thought I could easily do another Indian food to go along so I made chana. Then I realized we had plain yogurt left from the tikka masala marinade, and I had a cucumber left over from when I made cucumber sandwiches, plus other ingredients to make a yogurt sauce to combat the heat of the food. I didn't have time to make a flatbread, though.

That Garlic Parmesan Broccoli was so good and I was able to make it from frozen broccoli. Thank you, Jordan Page and The Page Company. Yummy meal.

 

October 25 was... are you ready for this?... Pablo Picasso's Birthday, World Pasta Day, Greasy Food Day, and National Breadstick Day. We celebrated with abstract art made from Spooky Spaghetti & Meatballs (from the same cookbook) and Focaccia Breadsticks (from Shelf Cooking 101). It was also Frankenstein Friday so anything spooky counts for that.

Girls' Night Out?

October 4 was Buster Keaton's birthday so I wore my bow earrings while Nichole and I had bonding time.

We found out an event we were going to go to was canceled so we went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for us. Since it was National Taco Day, we thought about buying taquitos then realized taquitos are easy to make and we had all the ingredients already at home. Shelftember was still having its effect on us. Yay for shelf cooking!

So we went home and had bonding time making taquitos together while watching a movie (besides all the chatting while driving and shopping together). Of course we ate some of the snacks we got from the store.

We wanted to watch In the Good Old Summertime because it had Buster Keaton in it but we didn't have access to it, so we started watching You've Got Mail.

Back to talking about National Taco Day- before we left for our girls' night we tried taco flavored potato chips to go along with our Italian Baked Sliders from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Nobody in the family was impressed by the chips but the sliders were so good.

I am getting so much use out of these cookbooks.

It turned out to be good mother-daughter bonding time. Simple but quality.

P.S. It was also World Smile Day. There were definitely things to smile about.