Recent Cooking Adventures

 Hello, all!

We are all still working to regain our energy, while hitting an occasional hiccup. Covid was no fun, and I'm still struggling every day with energy levels, but there are days I feel a little better.

On those days this week, I have spent a bit more time in the kitchen experimenting with some fun recipes. I'll share a few of them with you, not necessarily in order completed as my days have all run together. LOL.

First we'll start off with my first adventure in making soft pretzels, which turned out phenomenally! I made the dough, formed the pretzels, boiled them in baking soda water for 20 seconds each (sets the dough AND gives it that special flavor that is unique to pretzels) and then salted with coarse pretzel sauce and baked them.

Pretzels Ready To Go In The Oven

I only made 6, and they didn't last but a few minutes after they had been out of the oven, so I'm glad I had only made a half batch of dough, as they all might have disappeared fairly quickly even if I had made a dozen.

Super Yummy Pretzels

One morning for breakfast I decided to make strawberry banana smoothies with frozen fruit. Made with Splenda, they were not only tasty, but healthy!

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

One night for dinner I decided to make gnocchi, but I couldn't decide if I wanted it in a light marinara sauce, or if I wanted a browned butter sage sauce, so I decided to make a gnocchi duo with both. It turned out well, and the gnocchi was light and pillowy. The consensus between all three of us was that we liked the browned butter sage sauce better, but they were both extremely delicious. Aaron and Alysia even got involved with forming the gnocchi after I made the dough.

Gnocchi - L: Browned Butter with Sage, R: Marinara

Also this week we visited Greece in the World Cookbook, and our recipe was Moussaka. While I didn't get a picture of that, we all liked it, and we may end up making it again sometime.

Friday night we had company for dinner. Friends Dale, Bonnie and Caleb came to bring my new piano for me. I had purchased it from one of their friends, but I didn't have a way to haul it, so they brought it to the house for me, and then stayed for dinner and games.

We had creamy chicken enchiladas, Mexican rice and ice cream. After dinner we played a few rounds of the game Pit. Since then, I have been playing the piano as often as I can find a second. I am a long way from good, and I haven't even tinkered with practicing for years, so I am super excited and am hopeful that I can pick it up and get better quick!

My New-To-Me Adagio Electric Piano

Besides doing school and cooking, we haven't done much this week. We have been preparing to follow the Iditarod for school since Alysia recently learned about it in History and Geography while learning about the Pacific states. To prepare we learned as much as possible about each of the mushers that are involved. We also watched a few sled dog movies based on true stories, including Iron Will, Togo, Balto and The Great Alone (the life story of late Iditarod 4-time consecutive champion Lance Mackey). The Iditarod started today, and Alysia's picks (Jason Mackey and Bridgett Watkins) are currently in 18th and 19th places. We will be watching progress closely over the next few days. Generally it takes 8 days to a couple weeks.

Well...that's it for now. Stay tuned for more soon!

Amanda