I gave up cooking during soccer season. It was too hard trying to juggle meals, soccer practices, dance and piano lessons and Awana. Now that outdoor soccer season is over I should be back at cooking. Not so. This is indoor soccer season so instead of practices we have games. Monday night is Job's game, Tuesday night is dance and piano. Wednesday night is Awana. Thursday night is John's game, Saturday is another dance lesson and Isaac's game. Sunday night is a class at church. So cooking regular meals hasn't actually started again and come to think of it I don't think that it'll really happen until the kids are out of the house or driving which ever comes first. Now we didn't eat fast foods all the time or have pizza every night. I would cook weekends and then we'd have left overs. But the creativity was gone and it seemed like we were having the same things all the time. I have been able to cook a little more but still the same things are going through the kitchen. A while back I saw Julie and Julia and was inspired to try something new. Beef Bourginion was good but it was at least 4 hours in the kitchen if not more. At the end I had a huge mess and the kids sort of liked it. John and I dined on it for two weeks. So the Julia Child cooking wasn't it and still not much time. Christmas season is upon us and it is the season to bake cookies and have people over and do a bunch of cooking or so it seems. All I wanted was another dish to put on the table that goes with chicken. We eat a lot of chicken. The sides are generally mashed potatoes (easy), brown rice (easy and healthy), pasta (easy but not healthy), and then a vegetable. (Note: I don't consider a potato a vegetable, too much starch and carbs). I have thumbed through some of my Christmas craft/recipe books and found a recipe for potato latkes (aka: potato pancakes). So I looked up the history. It's a Jewish Hanukkah dish. In a Christmas book?, but it happens at the same time of year so why not. It looked easy; Lona and I gave it a go. I have come to realize how nice it is now to have her in the kitchen. I peeled and she shredded and mixed and fried with a little direction. Some day she may be taking turns with me. I look forward to that day but I realize that may never happen. The outcome, tastes like french fries or hash browns. Another recipe would be different maybe? They are supposed to be served with applesauce and dipped in sour cream but I know my kids better than that. The applesauce is great but the sour cream was traded in for ketchup. My grandmother makes another version of this. She used left over mash potatoes and adds Gruyere cheese and then fries them. I really like her version and so am on the hunt for good potato pancakes. The french word it is the tip of my tongue but for the life of me I can't remember it.