Appreciation for my food education

We've noticed that there are occasional places where people like to keep to themselves... not if WE can help it! We fight against the culture here of families only hanging out with their families. Our weapon? Culinary challenge of the international sort. We have become great friends with a few couples in our ward who are part of this underground movement.

Milo and Kim Quiroz, Stacee and Andres Calderon, Desirae and Tony Heaton, Molly and Joel Upshaw, and others have demonstrated their culinary expertise, which I must say is pretty "weaksauce" compared to our creations.

We usually hold our group once a month and we have enjoyed feasts from around the world. We recently had Greek Food, which we made meatballs with mint yogurt sauce. We also adapted a delectable Greek pastry. The secret- it was actually super easy and really fun. You simply buy something called Fillo dough, which can be found in the refrigerated pastry section of your grocery store. It's usually by the frozen pie crusts. And you take the thin sheets, wrap three together around anything- cream cheese, peanut butter, chocolate, or anything else sweet. Next baste melted butter on top of it and then bake at 350 for close to 20 minutes, or until toasty brown on top like a croissant. We've recently discovered it is wonderful for breakfasts, adding eggs, peppers and cheese. For our dinner we chose a cream cheese filling. It was a huge hit!

Before that, there was Italian night and chose to make gnocci. It's a potato pasta or sorts, usually served with a creamy marinara sauce on top. I thought about simply buying it from the store and noticed how overpriced it was. I enlisted my sister in law, Brianna Magnusson to help with the task of creating it from scratch. We were relatively successful and I think I shall make it again! We loved having Brianna here, who quickly bonded with Elena and gave me some much need time off to get things done around the house. She told me of her pursuits in her program about female health issues and I enjoyed learning more about her and what she is interested in. I respect the work she is trying to accomplish and look forward to more visits as the years go by. (I think Elena enjoys her Aunt being around too!)



And before that we enjoyed Chinese food. We made jaotze, or pot stickers and spring rolls.

I really enjoy getting to know people over food. If the conversation stinks, I turn my attention to the surprise on my plate. I have seriously enjoyed the food, but treasure the company even more!