Scratch Cookin'

People like to remind you that just because something is made from scratch doesn't make it better or healthier for you. Maybe so, cooking from scratch can be anything from a healthy fruit smoothie, a pasta dish with lots of added fresh, homegrown veggies or mashed potatoes with lots of butter and cream along with chicken fried steak.

My response to that is that at least you know what is in your food when you cook it yourself. You can pronounce all the ingredients. It's cheaper to make a homemade meal at home than to eat out. Even if it has butter and cream in it, you don't have to make it an everyday meal, everything in moderation. Plus, it sustainable to use produce that you've grown yourself or bought from a local farmer. Knowing where your food comes from is a big plus. And there is the added benefit of a family eating together and reconnecting if you cook a meal at home, from scratch.

This was Saturday morning's breakfast, homemade, sour cream pancakes and of course...bacon...the food of the gods!! I like to make a big batch of pancakes and then freeze them for future use. I can just take out 2 or 3 when I want them.

These are oatmeal, chocolate chip and walnut muffins. I take a couple of these to work several days a week to eat for breakfast. I can't eat breakfast at home on workdays because if I ate breakfast at 6:15am, I would be starving by 10:00. So, I usually eat a little greek yogurt and honey before I leave for work then eat a couple of muffins about 9:00.

When the weather starts getting warm I love to make homemade lemonade and/or limeade. This is limeade. Water, sugar and fresh squeezed limes, couldn't be easier. Sometimes I use local honey in place of the sugar and I really like that and it's a little healthier, I think, than the sugar. But if I think my son is going to drink any I can't use the honey because he doesn't care for it that way. I don't think the taste is that big of a difference, but .....you know teenagers. I love this glass pitcher, it belonged to my grandmother.

This was my first attempt at making homemade French fries and they turned out really good, I thought. They are a little time consuming to make, cutting them up, soaking in cold water for a couple of hours, double frying....but it's well worth the trouble.  Of course, they say French fries are not a healthy food.....but I like what one of my favorite authors, Michael Pollan, says about that. He say's that unlike fast food fries or frozen fries that you pop in the deep fryer and only takes a few minutes, it's ok to have fries every once in a while because when you make them from scratch, it is time consuming so it's not something you will do every day or even every week, you might only take the time and make the effort to do it once or twice a month.

The weekend of scratch cooking is done, I find it relaxing and of course a glass of wine at the end of it all never hurts.


Kathy