Yum!

What a weekend! Have I mentioned that I cook when I'm stressed? I'm not really sure why that is, cooking is not my favorite thing to do and yet it's my go to thing for stress. Weird huh? Well this weekend was eventful and I'll spare you the details, but Sunday we all stayed home the kids and I didn't venture too far from the kitchen. None of us were stress eating, but I think the shared comforting was something we all needed. Well it started off simple enough, two lone ripe bananas sitting on the counter over ripe and begging to be made into a banana bread, I asked Faith if she wanted to have a go at that and you have thought I'd just given her a pony! Nodding excitedly she started flitting about the kitchen with such confidence and pride, soon bowls were clanging and measuring spoons were covered with a myriad of ingredients. It's a fairly easy recipe, one that was given to my by a unique lady I met in New Mexico, so I knew she'd have no problem, you can see for your self that she did not have any problems at all. It came out great and was devoured, I don't know what it is about banana bread in this house but it never lasts very long!

.....................Faith's Banana Bread

While Faith was working on that Andrew and I made teryaki meatballs for Ron, I didn't get a picture of that. It took a while though as we made a double batch to put some in the freezer for a later meal. Meanwhile Faith thought she'd like to make dinner. My sister had come down for our annual Christmas jammie sewing/margaritas/girl-bonding fun and had made us a quiche. (Now that's the kind of company I like, she was our guest and she made dinner!) Faith and Andrew loved the quiche and were impressed that she made it from her memory so they asked if she'd write it down so they could have it again. Well, we've had it many times since and I've not made it once, either Faith or Andrew or a collaboration of the two of them have worked together and made quiche, here is the latest version.

..................Spinach, Onion and Cheese Quiche

Last year in her garden Faith chose to plant parsnip, well, after it was replanted twice, once due to wandering chickens and two due to record rainfall it finally came up. All three of them. Not being deterred she faithfully tended those parsnip all summer, after all that work she decided to let them overwinter and has patiently waited for the ground to be warm enough to harvest them. Well her patience paid off those crazy parsnips were over a foot long! All three of them.(I'll try to remember to post pictures later.) My grandmother had given us a recipe for parsnip cakes that will knock your socks off, so that is what she made.

..............Faith preparing parsnip cakes

During that time Andrew and I made homemade hamburger buns, I didn't think I needed a picture of that as I'd already post about them here. Once you've made your own burger buns you'll have a hard time going back to store-bought, this much I do know. After they were in the oven I asked Andrew if he wanted to make a recipe he's been after me to make, for breakfast no doubt. Let me reiterate I am not a morning person and I'm not a huge fan of cooking, needless to say we've not done this for breakfast.

Warning: rabbit trail just ahead! While out running errands one day Andrew and I spotted a cookbook that was all about cooking for cowboys, I showed it to him while in line not thinking too much of it, after all Andrew is a cowboy, just ask him. He thumbed through it and saw a couple recipes, showed them to me and I looked them over, was I reading this correctly?! It was a cookbook about cooking for vegetarian kid cowboys!! They were sharing recipes for organic food and vegetarian and cowboy kids?! PERFECT!! I proceeded to put it in the cart and Andrew could not have been happier, after all he is a cowboy who is all about food. Ping, back to the story.

......................Andrew and his Blintz's

.................He's a huge fan of Emeril, has been since he was 2, can you tell?

.....I had to have mine before dinner, it was too good not to. Mouth watering yet?

So finally the parsnip cakes were ready to be cooked and enjoyed. Fresh. Local. Delicious. Organic. Simple to make. And did I mention delicious? Great job guys, everything was tasty, oh so tasty and you did a wonderful job.