Recent Foodstuff

I've had a few experiences in the past week or so that I've been meaning to blog about, so I'll roll them into one big post!

First, I was at the library last week before my hair appointment and I remembered finally to look for Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."  I'm more looking to drool over the recipes that I saw in "Julie and Julia" than make a whole bunch of them, especially anything involving liver or calf intestine.  They didn't have it, but I took a good look at their food and cooking section and liked what I saw.  I brought home a slow cooker cookbook on a whim, and well, it was pretty disappointing.  I was reading aloud some of the recipes to Brian and commenting on the recipes.  Suddenly Brian asked me if this was also a three-ingredient cookbook.  A quick glance at the cover and yeah, it is.  I had missed that on the cover when checking it out.  Let me tell you something, three ingredients does not make a good cookbook.  Black bean soup cannot be made with a can of corn, a can of black beans and a jar of salsa.  Not good black bean soup, anyway!  Ah well, it was a valiant effort and next time I'm in a food rut, there's free cookbooks to the rescue.  Any kind of food I could imagine!

Going through the cabinets the other night, I found something I've been meaning to ask someone what to do with it.  Every year, one of the tenants at my old job sends me a food gift from this Amish place in Pennsylvania.  (I miss her, she's the nicest lady!)  One year it was homemade salsas from this place, another year jams.  This year it is fruit butters....so far I've opened the peach, and I have apple and pumpkin butter as well.  The last jar is something called "Peanut Butter Schmeir"  What the heck is that???  So I googled it and it turns out it is a dessert dip and sauce.  It's quite peanutty, with a smooth texture.  It makes ice cream really special, with a little drizzle over it.  Mmmmmm.....

I've saved the best for last.  We had our friends Chris and Jenny over yesterday with their boys, Ethan and Nolan.  I made two pans of lasagna, one traditional and one roasted veggie.  She brought bread and a salad to round out the meal.  I am in love with no-boil lasagna noodles, I don't know why I resisted them for so long!   They make putting together a lasagna so much easier.  The veggie lasagna was great, roasting the vegetables first before assembling the dish really brought out their flavor.  The meat one was good as always too.  And dessert.......fresh banana cake with homemade caramel frosting!  That's the best part.  :)  Cake Doctor of course, the cake was full of banana flavor but light instead of dense like a banana bread.  Now, I've always thought that making frosting was really hard, but it wasn't!  You melt brown sugar and butter together on the stove until they're boiling, then add a cup of milk and bring to a boil again.  Then you add vanilla extract and powdered sugar until you get the consistency you're looking for.  Simple and so delicious!!