What I’m Cooking This Summer (& Chatty Stories at the Supermarket)

Lion around at the zoo

A few weeks ago, I was grocery shopping alone at the Commissary.

It’s funny. When I was pregnant, strangers in stores always talked to me.

“You’re so….big. Are you having twins?”

Oh, how I loved those little chats…Then when the boys were babies, people still talked to us, but these days we’re just regular old people. I don’t get comments unless I take all 4 of them out together. Then of course, no one can believe they are all boys. (Ha! I can’t believe it either. It’s okay.)

So now when people talk to me in the grocery store, it’s usually a man who is grocery shopping but doesn’t know what he’s doing and wants help.

I was 80% of my way through the store, my cart was 70% full, and I had just turned down the bread aisle. Only there are apparently two bread aisles because regular sandwich bread wasn’t on this aisle at all, which left me lingering and searching for longer than usual because this is yet another side effect of moving all the time. You don’t know where anything is.

An airman in his mid-twenties (I’m guessing), started talking to me. He asked something like, “How’re you this fine day?”

This caught me off guard. It’s a little unusual, right? We just shop. We don’t shoot the breeze with random people standing by the hot dog buns.

By the way, when I’m nervous/uncomfortable, I tend to laugh. It’s an annoying habit that may sometimes send the wrong message, but I have very little control over it.

So I laughed a little and said, “I’m fine.”

But I’m standing there thinking, “Is this guy trying to talk to me?” Ha! Sometimes in my head I’m still 28 and cute…I forget that I actually look like a mother of four nearing 40…

He kept talking.

“So what’s a good thing to cook? I mean, I like to, but I don’t know what to make. I need ideas,” he pointed towards my cart full of vegetables, cheese, and breads and such, “and you seem to know.”

Oh!! This young man is actually wanting meal ideas from me?

He isn’t just trying to talk to me. I did a completely terrible job of thinking up cooking suggestions for him on the spot. See my mind was wiped clean as I realized that I am now the motherly lady you ask for kitchen tips…

I guess my bubble was burst, but hey. I’m going to redeem myself here. Would YOU like some cooking ideas? I have nothing earth shattering to offer, but here’s a sample of what has been cooking in my kitchen this summer.

How I actually serve lunch. That’s ham, fruit, and apple bread.

That is…this is my cooking plan aside from frozen pizza, hot dogs, sandwiches, and fruit trays because we have honestly mostly eaten exactly that.

Chicken Noodle Soup, like this recipe.

During our 2 years in Georgia, Joshua raved on and on about Mrs. Bowers’s (a local friend’s) chicken noodle soup, so I tried to make it as much like hers as I could!

I guess my cooking is still highly influenced by our time in Georgia because one of my other summer projects was this cake I saw by our Georgia friend, Julie. Hers was a little bigger, which I wasn’t quite ready for that level of baking, so I did a 4 layer version of the red, white, and blue cake for July 4th.

Yes, I photographed it while it was still in the freezer…which is why I will never be a food blogger. And don’t laugh at my melting blue rosettes. It was my first try, so I was pleased as punch.

Want to make a swirly cake like this? Well, you just need a TON, TON, TON, that’s 3 tons, of buttercream frosting, food dye, and some boxed cake mixes because oh yes, I definitely make my cakes from a boxed mix. I figure there’s no shame. That’s just pre-measured flour and sugar and directions, really.

Here’s a link to the YouTube video I watched to learn how to make the buttercream swirlies. Oh my bad, they call them rosettes:

Here’s my menu plan from last week:

I number my cookbooks, and this month I’m using book #16. Does that sound strange?

Ok. I know that looks like I’m planning to bake a lot of sweets, but in my defense, the kids are home all day and we do that for fun together. We will never actually bake 2 desserts in one week, but I dream big.

The apple bread was a huge hit with Alan and Daniel. The mug was a lovely gift from Jennings.

I couldn’t find another one online that was exactly like the one I made, so here’s the recipe for it.

Printable Apple Bread Recipe

Apple Bread

3 eggs, slightly beaten

2 Cups sugar

1 Cup Vegetable Oil (I used canola.)

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 Cups All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 Cups cored, peeled, and chopped apples

Topping:

2 Tablespoon sugar

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325, and chop up your apples. Set apples aside.

Stir together the eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla until ingredients are well mixed. Combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon and stir into liquid ingredients until just evenly mixed.

Stir in apples.

Divide between 2 greased loaf pans.

Combine sugar and cinnamon for topping. Sprinkle over tops of loaves.

Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I like to set the timer for more like 1 hour, stick a fork in it to check for doneness. If fork comes out clean, your bread is done. If it comes out doughy, bake 10 minutes longer.

I got this recipe from a church recipe collection: Roanoke First Baptist Church Covered Dish, page 192. This recipe was from Virginia Yarbrough, and I altered it to omit pecans for our nut allergy kid.

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Maybe next week I will work on my food photography skills, but hungry boys get quite impatient, so I make no promises.

Happy summer!!

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