foodie stuff

I worked last night and so I spent the day puttering today. Got home, slept for a couple hours. Went to do groceries. Baked a date loaf (thanks Mum for the recipe- it turned out great!). Homemade pea soup for dinner.. I love making large batches of things and putting a yogurt container full in the freezer. We don't have a full freezer at all, but there's been a container or two of leftovers in there lately which is nice. I made this pea soup before Christmas and it still tastes good.

And now a cup of tea and the recipe books open in front of me. I was kind of stumped at the grocery store today. My mum sometimes would say that she didn't know what to make for dinner, and she remembers her mum doing the same thing.. and I am starting to do the same thing now. Really it's not quite the same- I don't have 3 or 5 kids to feed like they did. Also, when I work a day shift I'm not home for supper, or Brian is late at school- and we often have leftovers. But still... I make the same things a lot and I'd like to branch out. I have the time to do it and we have probably hundreds of recipes on our shelf, just waiting to be explored...

Right now I'm reading More with Less- it's a classic, though I had actually never heard of it till I met my dear husband. He was raised on many of the recipes from this book, during some of the leaner years of a pastor's family... lots of beans (we both love beans). The front cover of the book says- "A world community cookbook- Recipes and suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources". Sounds good to me.

I've been making a lot of stir fries... with carrots and peppers and curry, and shrimp.. whatever we have in the fridge really. Lots of Asian stuff I guess... I tried out Pad Thai again last week which I haven't done for a while (due to a bad experience with old bean sprouts, haha)- it wasn't bad. And then there is always pasta with tomato sauce and veges, or soup. I was making more soups last fall. And the classic lemon pepper baked fish with potatoes and peas. Yummy. but I'd like to try some new stuff.

My culinary wheels are rolling... I really embrace the 'cooking/baking' part of being a wife. In the fact that I always have an eager recipient to cook for.. it's fun. It's nice that he cooks a fair bit too :)

handsome husband does Movember...and to think I was fully consenting of this moustache!
haha.. ps- Brian made the pear gratin