palatable peaches & potatoes

I realized something profound this week: I have an addiction to the way that food makes me feel.

 

I was checking out my "365 things that make me happy" journal (on my blog sidebar). Every day this year, I'm adding something new to the list, so by the end of this year there will be 365 different items. I don't want to duplicate myself, so I was looking the other day if I'd already put something on there, and I got distracted by all the food items listed. Then I started counting how many food items I actually had listed. Then I started counting other items listed that would belong to other categories such as "friends" or "Josh" or "kids". There is more FOOD items listed than items regarding my friends or Josh or my sons! Isn't that sad?!

 

So, the fact remains that I love food; food makes me happy. And even though the consumption of food continues to make my body grow, I still continue to eat it.

 

One of my 2012 goals is to make a new recipe each month (Yay! NEW food!!!). In September, I made two.

 

Some friends of ours, the Foote's, gave us a box of Utah peaches at the beginning of September. I was in heaven. I loved those peaches! I ate peaches for breakfast--cut up and put in a bowl of milk. I ate peaches for lunch--sliced. I ate peaches for dessert--crisps, milkshakes. Every day for about 3 weeks, I had peaches 3x a day. None of my boys like peaches, and Josh would only eat them in the dessert format. I tried a new recipe with the peaches called Raspberry/Peach Crumble, and it was SOOOO delicious! I loved the colors & flavors from combining the two fruits together.

We planted peach trees next to the new raspberry plants this summer, and I'm hoping that in a couple of years from now, I will able to make this same recipe with all our own home-grown food.

At the end of September, I made homemade french fries for the first time. My boys have been bugging me to do it for the past two years since they had some of Aunt Linette's homemade fries. I bought a potato/french fry cutter last fall, and finally used it. I got a recipe from "Joy the Baker's" website for "Chili Cheese Fries", and decided to give it a try (http://joythebaker.com/2012/09/baked-chili-cheese-fries/)

The fries were very good! I didn't want to use a deep fryer to cook the fries, because I didn't have enough oil on hand, so I was glad to find this recipe in which the fries are baked. The flavor was really good, and the boys really liked them! Yesterday, we had store-bought fries with our dinner, and Ammon said "I like homemade fries better". Since we grow so many of our own potatoes, I'm glad to know how to use them in a way other than soups and mashed, since the boys don't like regular baked potatoes.