Stay At Home Today

I decided to actually stay home today and see what I would do.  So far, so good!  I got everything I need put together to make dinner tonight, Stuffed Zucchini, and I’ll either be making oatmeal cookies or blueberry sweet potato bread later on today.  Maybe both!

Got the dishes done, ran by the post office, decided to stop reading “Airframe” by Michael Crichton because it’s boring as sin, and start putting together some good mail.  Oh, and I chopped up a small cauliflower (a.k.a. “white broccoli” to my kids) for a snack.

Well, now that I’ve whet your appetite with just the very mention of Stuffed Zucchini, I will put down the recipe here:

STUFFED ZUCCHINI

2-3 ginormous zucchini that you picked up at your church library because somebody’s garden grew too many of them and they want to share

3 medium garden-fresh tomatoes from same church friend above.

1 box Stove Top Turkey stuffing, prepared according to directions on box.

1/2 - 1 cup fresh corn kernels

1/3 - 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375′.

Slice ginormous zucchini in half lengthwise.  Scoop out innards, leaving a slim shell.  Keep half the innards and chop finely, tossing the rest away.

Dice tomatoes and slice kernels from corn ears.

Combine prepared stove top, zucchini guts, diced tomatoes and corn kernels and 1/2 the parmesan cheese.  After it is well mixed, divide equally amongst the zucchini shells and fill to just over the top of the shell.  Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese on top and bake at 375′ for 20-30 minutes, or until zucchini shell is peirced easily. 

Serve this with some No Knead Bread covered in homemade blueberry butter, sit back, and now you can die happy!

Lost Highway

Well, I have a new anthem for this summer.  It’s “Lost Highway” from the CD of the same title by Bon Jovi.  Not only is he hot, his band is rockin’ too!  Better yet, my prim & proper hubby loves it, too.

MySpace Is Better Than A P.I.

A zillion years ago when I was in high school, I had a wonderful, wonderful guy friend.  Sometime in the general direction of after graduation, he came out to me on my front porch one evening.  Of course I was devestated because I was sweet on him, but isn’t that the way life is?

So anyway, he went up to Logan for college and did a stint at some camp place in or near Yellowstone, and that was the last I ever heard from him.  I was hurt when he didn’t come to my wedding reception (yes, I noticed!) and eventually found out that he’d moved to Baltimore.

Let’s just gloss over the little stalking expedition I went on and fast forward to today. 

So, I’m trolling myspace this morning doing a search for all my gal pals in town when I decide to punch in his name.  You’ll never guess whose profile came up first!  I couldn’t believe it.  I also wasn’t completely sure it was him because he’s back where I knew him and I just never in a million years figured he’d be back there.  But it was him.  And I’m so glad.  It would be great to renew our friendship, but maybe I’m part of a life he doesn’t recognize anymore.  What’s important is I know that he’s safe and he seems to be really happy and successful.

Hoist The Colours

I had THE BEST pre-birthday celebration yesterday!  Bananarama and her family had us all over and she made me the most fabulous potato salad I’ve ever had.  Of course, it’s also the only potato salad I’ve ever had, but that’s because I have a strict no-mayo-in-my-salad rule.  This one, did not have mayo in it.  It had all manner of yumminess that did not require the foul white substance!  You should visit her website HERE  in a couple of days where I bet she’ll post the recipe.  We also had some fabulous grilled chicken and corn on the cob, which I shucked because I’m so anal about making sure EVERY LAST SILK is plucked off the ear. 

Then we picked up some poor, unsuspecting young woman from their ward to watch all six of our kids while we went to see “Pirates 3″, which is also three hours long.

 BWAHAHAHAHA!!!

Now that I’ve had some time to digest it and savor how thoroughly enjoyable it was, I am sad it’s all over.

Or is it?

Afterwards we headed back to rescue the sacrificial sitter and had the most fabulous lemon cake with tangerine/pomegranite sherbet, which makes for a fabulous frosting if you let it melt into a puddle around your piece of cake!

 Well, I think I can die happy now.  Excepting that my birthday is actually tomorrow, so I think I’ll wait.  After all, Grandma A sent me a check for this purse I’ve been eyeing over at my favorite neighborhood Target….

Domestic Goddess Strikes Again!

Today I cleaned & vacuumed the living room, cleaned the kitchen and did the dishes, vacuumed the hallway and made strawberry jam.  I also made everyone a nice, healthy lunch, and we have a FANTASTIC dinner on the menu.  Teryiaki-lime carne asada kebabs with lemon orzo salad.  I have Enrichment tonight, which they will be serving sub sandwiches at, but I think I’ll eat before I go.  My dinner sounds much better, no?

I REALLY wish I had my tub of quilting tacks so I could throw a couple of quilts on this afternoon, but they remain elusive.  I guess I’ll just have to finish sewing on B’s patches to his scout shirt!

 My friend, S, was over and so I had to show her the jar of dilly beans I’d made a few years ago.  They’re so pretty… I really should make them again, except for the giant pain in the butt that they are to make.  You have to have perfectly straight beans and they have to be the right size to fit in the jar, blah blah blah… plus I want to get a new kind of steam canner so I don’t have to boil gallons upon gallons of water for a water bath.  I’m thinking of making corn relish, too.  I love to give it away, but since it’s so much work and for only a few jars, I hate to eat it!  And then since I don’t eat it, I forget what you would eat it with.  Thus, the vicious cycle starts…

Ok.  I have to go find something else domestic to do.

Oh, did I mention that these strawberries were picked YESTERDAY MORNING???  How fresh is that?

Sunshine In A Jar

I’m making strawberry jam today.  As soon as the dishwasher is done sterilizing my jars.  The perfect storm occured making it all possible!

• Perfectly red, perfectly fragrant and perfectly sweet strawberries from my newly discovered strawberry stand.
• Kitchen is spotless.
• The mood has stricken!

 I haven’t made jam for at least two years now.  I’ve bought the strawberries.  I’ve bought the jars and pectin.  But I just couldn’t do it.  Now I’m ready.  Now I’ve got the muse again.

It helps I have my own full-on freezer as well to store this jelled-gold in as well.  Oooh…. speaking of gold, I wish I had some edible gold powder to put in it to give it that lip-gloss look!

Incentive Enough!

So, practically the whole fan-damily came to town for B’s baptism on Saturday.  Can I just say, it was FAB-U-LOUS??  For the first time in my life, I’m really and truly going to miss my sister and her family.  I mean, I miss not being close to them anyway, but I’ve come to feel especially close to them in the last year.  So much so that I briefly considered saying in this rathole apartment for an extra year just so we could spend money traveling to visit our loved ones instead of saving to move.  That notion quickly passed, though.

Anywho, all the cousins and aunties have agreed that we should have a family reunion at Disneyland next fall.  Well I personally need no excuse whatsoever to go there, but since family will be there… it’s now my duty to go! 

Which means I really do have to get off my fat ass and lose some weight so I can ride all the rides with everyone.  I have a new-ish blog called The Fatty Chronicles that will cover my struggle with this journey.  Please come by and leave comments of encouragement!