In which I prove to Danny I DO cook. :P

So, for Thanksgiving, no one wanted me to make homemade cheesecake, pies or desserts.  They wanted me to buy them. Eek!  I know, right?!

This bothered me because I LOVE to bake-- and I think I'm pretty good at it.  Why in the world would I pay four times the amount for something inferior and for Thanksgiving?

Why didn't my family know me well enough to know that I LOVE to bake.  So I ranted a little to Danny about it. 

You know what he said?

"If only you loved to cook as much as you bake."

Well, I'm sure you can imagine the conversation that followed that. 

It sounded like this:

Oh no you didn't.  I cook more than anybody I know.  Maybe because I have more children than anybody I know.  I see the Schwanns truck drive down our street all the time.  That doesn't count as cooking.  So what if people's wives make them lunch to take to work? You know how to make your lunch too. And I do make lunches for you sometimes.  Is this in reference to chicken patties?  I don't make them THAT often.  Who do you think cooked while you were gone 7 1/2 months??  You really think my cooking has taken a back burner? 

There was lots of defensiveness from both parties. 

Then I realized that my meals really took a dive after watching that movie Food Inc.  I was afraid to make food from beef and chickens treated so badly and processed so horribly.  We were nearly vegetarian for a full month!

I decided (on the way home from Utah), until I can afford better foods and find them around here, I need to do my best with what I have.  So, I kept Danny awake (he was driving) by rattling off my ideas for the freezer.  We brainstormed meals and made up a fairly extensive menu. 

Yesterday I made potato soup, cream cheese chicken, chicken soup, chicken tortilla casserole, and a pan of crumbled bacon for the freezer meals that need it.  I made apple dip to accompany the apples at lunch time.

Today I'm making stuffed potatoes, Grandma's corn chowder, and rolls-- ALL for the freezer. And I'm baking banana cream pie, whole wheat bread, and maybe lemon meringue pie.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to try my good friend Candace's lemon poppy seed bread recipe instead.

It feels good to be prepared for the masses.  :) 

P.S.  I sent Danny with cream cheese chicken and rice, green beans, an apple and apple juice in his lunch today.