Cooking

I have never LOVED to cook. I wish I did. I love to eat, so why not love to cook too? I suppose if I love both, I would weigh much, much more than I do!
Since our move, I have been cooking. I kind of have to. There isn't much choice for eating out in Stonewall. Not a bad thing though. It definitely saves on eating out!
Before our move, I had unintentionally lost weight. I believe alot of that had to do with stress. It also had to do with our living room being located in the basement with new carpet. I didn't want food in the new living area. Not to mention, I was too lazy to go upstairs to get those late night snacks when watching television. Who ever said you can't lose weight by being being lazy??? ;-) I'm pretty sure I've gained back what I lost. And probably more. That's the way it usually goes. Hmpfh.
I have been going through my recipe book looking for different things to make. I am a boring, habitual cooker, and I seem to always make the same things. Over and over. I'm trying to broaden my horizons. It's a little difficult to do that here, as I don't have access to alot of the things that I did in Bismarck. I decided the other day, when I found a recipe in the newspaper, that maybe that was a good idea, to find local recipes. After all, why would they print a recipe in a local paper if they didn't have the ingredients here to prepare it? I found a recipe for Chili Con Carne that I want to try out. Preferably before it gets warmer outside. I figure I still have a couple of months to get to it.
The other night I was using up our over-ripe bananas and made some banana muffins. Emma wanted to help. Emma always wants to help cook, and I haven't always let her in the past. First of all, I didn't have alot of kitchen space to work in, or counter space to work on. I have no excuse here. She did help add the ingredients as I ran the hand mixer. I didn't alter the baking time enough to fit muffins versus loaf of banana bread. They were a little hard. Tastey, but hard. Butter was definitely needed on these muffins to help them slide down the pipe.
While we were preparing the muffins, Emma commented on my recipe book. I think I bought this recipe book when we lived in Mississippi? Maybe Tennessee? Anyway, I've had it for about 14-15 years and I use it all of the time. I am always adding new, favorite recipes to it. It's about as full (or overfull) as it can be. Emma was looking through the recipe book and made the comment, "Mom, when I get older, can we copy these recipes down so I can have them?" *smile* I told Emma that I most certainly would do that, and told her that when I die, she can have it. She said she didn't want that to happen for a very long time. I don't either!
I have seen different scrapbooking ideas on making Family Recipe Scrapbooks. I think I might try and do this. For Emma. As a secret. (I just thought about this, actually!) What a good idea. I am more likely to try a new recipe when I see a picture of it. What a neat gift for Emma to receive one day, A recipe book of her cooking with her Mom in her handwriting, and pictures to boot! I will start off with some of Emma's favorite foods. I should probably do this in double, as I'm sure Gage would like one too. We are having our favorite Garden Ranch Pizza for supper tonight. I think today would be a good day to get started on this project. ;-)
Just what I need.................another scrapbooking project to get started, then get behind on. Well, if it ever gets finished, it could end up being one of the kids' favorite gifts.