Friday's Ramble ~ Turning Zucchini into an Instrument

Conversation between me and hubby:

"Uh, honey? Did you know you can use a zucchini stalk like a recorder? You know like an instrument?" (Me)

"Honey, you are just not normal." (hubby sighs and lowers his head with a smile, shaking his head from side to side)

Crazy as it sounds, it's true.  If you still have zucchini in your garden give this a try.  According to this page in my book Log Cabin Cooking, Pioneer recipes and Food Lore" you can. 

It's a ramble kind of day today.  Grab a cup of tea or coffee for this one.

Yesterday I changed up my day.  I actually cooked dinner.  The family is so used to seeing me standing at the stove canning, or out in the garden.  I was not driving out for supplies, so I surfed the net for recipes.  Allrecipes is always a nice one.  I can search for recipes by the ingredients I have.

I made Cheesy Sausage Zucchini Casserole, but changed some of the ingredients - used cream cheese and cottage cheese vs. processed cheese food, and used jasmine rice in place of regular white rice.  Delicious!

I still have some pears, and didn't have enough ripe ones for jam.  I made Pear Bar Cookies.  Yum!  I doubled the recipe, and it was out of the oven just before the school bus pulled in.  We ate them warm, and they tasted like a pie.  So good!  And so naughty.  I made these with the organic pears from my hubby's family and organic, unsalted butter.  This family is so spoiled.

I started weeding my flower beds.  I spent over an hour out there and came in soaked in sweat.  Yuck.  It's been so humid here lately, but my flower beds look terrible. 

The kids are getting lazy.  Every day I have to go upstairs and turn off lights and fans.  Dishes are being left everywhere and floors covered with whatnot.  It's no wonder my youngest could not find her shoes this morning, almost missing the bus.  And they think that when I remind them to pick something up, that I am nagging.  

One of these days they will realize what responsibility is.  They have one job chart - dinner dishes. Yet, every night I have to remind them.   Pretty soon, I'm going to have to give each of them an assigned set of dishes.  I'll engrave names so they can't say, "I don't know who left that there" and "I didn't do it."  You know?  That just might work!  Ha ha!

Speaking of that, they not respecting each other.  Guess they need a dose of reading from the virtues and morals book.  

Our youngest daughter is running for student council this year (again).  Last year she was not voted in.  Hopefully she will this year.

Update on my hubby's kidney donation:
The hospital that they were to have this done at, and then rejected for no good explanation, was recently written up in the paper.  A nurse placed a kidney with waste when it was to go to a recipient.  Some 900 transplant patients are being sent to other hospitals.  I guess that's why they continued to avoid his sister's calls.  They literally did not return any calls to her and to her case worker.  

I started writing exercises to gear up for that novel the kids keep reminding me about.  With a large family, it's tough to concentrate here anymore.  Hubby and I see how much we need a place of our own, so we are working on that.

Technology.  I dislike it tremendously.  E-mails.  Texting.  If used correctly, it's great.  Not used correctly, it's all out negative.  

I've only had to use my dryer once this summer.  I had put out two large loads of towels etc. and it rained.  I could have left them out, but rained the next day too. I love my clothesline.

I may be donating scarves to the homeless again this year.  The granny square pattern I have been using, can be made with all of my scrap yarns.

I need to get my l laundry out, and will be back to sip coffee and read blogs.   Enjoy your day!

"No one lives on the top of the mountain. It’s fine to go there occasionally —for inspiration, for new perspectives. But you have to come down. Life is lived in the valleys. That’s where the farms and gardens and orchards are, and where the plowing and the work is done. That’s where you apply the visions you may have glimpsed from the peaks."

~ Arthur Gordon