Baking and Cooking

I use to do some baking and cooking when I was little. I am sure I enjoyed it then. But, as I grew up I really stopped enjoying either one. Makes it kind of a bummer when you have a family to feed and you don't want to go out for dinner every night!

But, yesterday, as I was making sweet potato casserole (with potatoes from our garden) I found out what I "enjoy" about it, now. I like making stuff with stuff from our garden. Or with things that I know are really good for our family.

I love baking now, because I use majority of ingredients that are really healthy. I am giving my family something that nobody else can. I made broccoli and cheese casserole yesterday and some of the broccoli was from our garden. I liked that.

I can't explain it. Why that makes a difference. But, it just does. I guess it is a feeling of really accomplishing something that is truly good. When they eat that really healthy, good food, I envision their little bodies (and hubby's too) rejoicing. Being given the stuff it was meant to eat. (Don't get me wrong, we eat a lot that isn't good for us too. Everything in moderation!)

I think I like the challenge, too, of finding nutritious things to make with the stuff we grow. We have soooo many sweet potatoes. We are giving some away, but yesterday I made sweet potato biscuits with honey butter, just because we had all the ingredients. Some of the fam liked them. Some didn't. I don't know if I will make them again. But, I enjoyed trying.

When we had oodles of apples, it was fun trying to find different things to do with them. I made lots of applesauce that we froze, apple pies, apple brownies, apple muffins.

We are going to have tons of venison. Again, some we are giving away. But, I am looking forward to googling some really easy, good recipes. (I try not to make anything that has more than 6 ingredients.)

And, I am finding the more I am in the kitchen, the more comfortable I feel. I have always followed a recipe, exactly. I am now starting to "get" what more I can do or what I can change to make things more to our family's liking. Things that are not in the recipe!

I suppose I am bragging a little bit. But, considering I spent half (well, more than half) of my married life railing against being in the kitchen, it really is something I am kind of glad I am accepting.

I still like to keep things simple. I don't like a lot going on in the kitchen. But, at least I don't mind, so much, being in the kitchen . . .