The Food We Love

Inspired by my friend's food blog http://love2cooksweets.blogspot.com/, I thought I would include some of our traditional Mattson foods and the events they celebrate in this post.Pretzel Jell-O. We love pretzels, especially when they are coupled with something sweet like yogurt, frosting, peanut butter, or Jell-O. This Jell-O casserole has a crust of crushed pretzels and butter, topped with a layer of cream cheese and cool whip, followed by the jiggly stuff with berries in it. We like Pretzel Jell-O any time of the year, but always have it with our Christmas dinner. The layers of red and white just seem so festive. I got the recipe from my friend Kerrie in Illinois.

Cinnamon Rolls. Who doesn't love cinnamon rolls? Well, we are no different. Although we would love to eat them every day, we keep it to only two times a year. Our tradition is that every six months when we watch General Conference for church, we have this sticky treat for breakfast on Saturday. This way, we hold off the calories and keep the kids excited about watching conference.

Cheesecake. Chris loves cheescake. So on his birthday I will usually make a cheesecake from scratch. When we were first married I made my very first cheesecake and it came out just perfect. We joke that I have been trying ever since then to repeat that culinary feat and have never achieved it since. But, in reality, cheesecake it just really yummy no matter what.

Mexican fiesta food. I make Mexican food every year on Cinco de Mayo. I also make it every Monday...and any other day I feel like it so that we usually end up eating Mexican at least twice a week. Still, it is a tradition. I do change it up each time though. Sometimes it's more authentic than others, but seeming as how Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday anyway, but a Mexican/American holiday, I don't feel too bad throwing in some black olives every now and then (which are not authentic Mexican). This year's big bang was the fresh pineapple, Yum!

Pizza. Years ago Chris gave me a pizza stone for Christmas (the one on top) and I have made homemade pizza every Friday since. The first pizza fell onto the oven door before I could cook it. Many others stuck to the stone or dripped toppings onto the oven floor, but I never gave up. Now, I can make a pizza quicker than what it takes to order one and have it delivered, I have the crust recipe memorized, and I know the perfect brands to use for all the ingredients. Our tradition is pizza and a movie as a family every Friday night. One of the things I love best about pizza is the ability to make each pizza a new and different creation, like the taco pizza on top (see, I sneak Mexican in everywhere). Another thing I love is that I usually have at least one child helping to put on toppings.

There are many other foods that we love and are a part of our traditions that are not included in this post, like coconut shrimp for Chris's birthday, my favorite coleslaw for potlucks and picnics, my Dad's green Jell-O for Thanksgiving, and my friend Kammie's brownies for any pick me up occassion, but I sadly do not have pictures of them because we eat them too fast.