Ah!  The plenitude of zucchinis this time of year. Every morning you’re surprised when you go to garden by the 2 giant zucchinis that just magically appeared overnight.

I’ve left them on doorsteps.  I’ve had them left on my patio table.  I’ve seen them at the Book Club.  They’re at every table at the Farmer’s Market.  And my kitchen counter is buried under piles of them!

Be prepared…here come the repertoire of delicious recipes with zucchini in them!

This first in the line-up is a doozy.

It is delicious, nutritious and easy to whip up.  A favorite breakfast item for those trying to maintain healthy diets for their little ones…

Let the sweet adventure begin!

In a large bowl add 1 teaspoon baking soda to 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour.

Next, 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon,

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg,

and whisk together.

In a separate large bowl, have your cute little cooking partner add 3/4 cup of vegetable oil,

3/4 cup honey,

crack 2 eggs (reassure them that they’re doing great if they are being hard on themselves for cracking the yolk 🙂 ),

add 1 teaspoon vanilla,

and whisk together.

To this mixture of wet ingredients, add 1 1/3 cups shredded, wet zucchini (you want the moisture from it),

Whisk to combine.

Add slowly to dry ingredients,

alternating with 1/4 cup of hot water.

Place in greased 12-cup muffin tin.

Bake in preheated oven at 325 degrees for about 18 -21 minutes.

Bon Appétit, Ma Chérie!

 

Notes From a Small Island, by Bill Bryson

Have you ever read a travel guide from cover to cover?  No, right?  Because we usually just skim it, peruse through the pages that talk about places of interest, underline, dog-ear and move on.

Well, the same should be said about Bill Bryson’s “Notes From a Small Island”.  Am I not getting it or are there others out there with me that don’t think this is a brilliant read?!  Sure, there are some witty remarks thrown in here and there, and by the end of the book you are thankful that he’s the one who’s visited all of England to let you know which places are a worthwhile venture should you ever decide to spend a little time there.

But, essentially you are reading a travel guide.  Or, really, someone else’ s travel journal.  Which, apart from the aforementioned perks is a complete yawn.

I’ve read, and greatly appreciated Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods”.  It was funny, smart and made you want to put on your hiking boots and head on out to the nearest trail in the woods.

Notes from a Small Island was written 3 years before a Walk in The Woods.  Maybe that’s why I find that his writing in this book was not as refined as in Walk in the Woods?  He seemed to have an edge to him.  His humor was a bit cutting and you felt as though he was an angry fellow on the inside.

I don’t necessarily think that this is true anymore.  I just believe that it takes a while to find your writing voice and that while you’re doing it, you take on many different voices!

 

Something my Dad taught me…simple, yet effective…

Cut off the bottoms of your 20 ounce soda bottles, or any plastic bottle around that size, and stick the neck of the bottle directly into the soil at the base of your tomato plants.

When you go to water your garden, water all of your plants as you normally would, but do not spray your tomato plants with the hose.  This can cause the plants to rot and you will most likely start to see brown spots all over the stalks and leaves of the tomato plants.  And eventually your tomatoes will have them too!  Oh no!

Avoid this by watering directly into the plastic bottle and essentially just watering the roots of the plants.  Your tomatoes will be absolutely beautiful, and weed management will be minimal since they’ll all be parched!

Did you know that your bones do not form until week 25 in the womb?  Or that only 10% of breast cancer is hereditary?  How to empty a swimming pool of water without dumping it out?  How to say “I love you” in Spanish?  What temperature “lukewarm” water needs to be to activate yeast? How to build a french drain system?  Which mammals lay eggs?

PBS – Public Broadcasting System.  The greatest television; at no cost.  That’s right!  You can disconnect the cable box and alleviate yourself of one extra bill and still get great reception on your PBS channel, ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX.

But, it’s not the savings of your pocketbook I wanted to highlight today.  It’s PBS.  You really don’t need anything else for television.  There is so much on this station that will enlighten, entertain and educate you.  Such a broad variety of informational programming…

Cooking shows, gardening, home improvement, nature, science, news, and oh, the kids shows…those wonderful kid shows!  Not to mention that there are no commercials to bombard your children or to take away from your enjoyment.

Don’t forget that there are so many ways to view the shows that you enjoy from HBO or AMC, etc.  You can stream them for free, get them from Netflix, borrow them from your local library at no charge, etc.

I believe that in any given week, you can check out the line-up on your PBS channels and DVR plenty of exciting shows to fill up the amount of time you normally spend watching television.  And who knows, you might get a bit more intelligent watching them!

 

 

At a lot of stores now, if you pay attention on your way out of the check-out line you’ll hear your cashier mumble under her breath something about filling out a survey.

You have to go to a website which is found at the bottom of the receipt and fill out a survey that will take you all of 5 minutes.  And usually at the end of the survey, you are either entered to win some money, or a contest with a prize of some sort, or you get a coupon.

It’s worth the few minutes it takes for you to fill it out.  Not many people do, so who knows what you might win!

And if all else fails, you’ll usually get some sort of discount somewhere you love to shop anyhow.  Nothing wrong with that!

but content matters more.

Beware of your purse.  No lie –  it will cause you pain.

Pain in then neck (as an idiom)

and

Pain in the neck (as a physical ailment).

If you allow it to happen.

The size of your purse does not matter… you can have a giant purse and be disciplined enough not to fill it with useless stuff, so that it looks cool and is light as a feather.  Or, you could have a little purse and shove lots of heavy things into it and it can weigh you down!

The key here is to limit what you put into your purse.

The pic above shows my purse before the light bulb went off in my head.  (Yup folks, it takes me a while.) I had this enormous sack-of-a-purse and was thrilled that I could now fit everything I needed in it.  “Needed.” A book, in case I get stranded somewhere for days and have nothing to do.  An umbrella – you never know.  Crayons. 2 tubs of hand cream. 10 lipsticks.  A bag of maple candies (of course!).  3 little notebooks.  Scrap paper.  etc, etc, etc.

Needless to say that I could NEVER find my keys when they fell into that abyss, never mind trying to find all of the other “essentials”.  And the bag weighed a ton.  A ton.  I would have to switch shoulders that it hung on halfway through my grocery shopping because I felt as though my neck was going to spasm and my arm was going to fall off.

And then, one beautiful summer evening when my hubby took me for a date into town, I decided to just grab a little purse and whatever I’d need to the night….

my wallet, my reading glasses, my checkbook and an EpiPen.

And I have never felt lighter and more grateful…

and I’ve never looked back.

Take it from me, you don’t need it all!