An Overabundance Of Zucchini? Here Are Some Great Recipes



Check out Taste of Home - Top Ten Zucchini Recipes for this recipe for Zucchini cupcakes and much more!  Lots of summer recipes for this amazing, but overabundant veggie!

Poisons Under Your Sink: Hidden Danger of Cleaning Products

The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) has recorded many exposures to household cleaning substances that were serious enough to require treatment in a health care facility. Incredibly, according to the AAPCC the largest number of occurrences of poisoning in 1993 were due to cleaning products - drain cleaners, toilet bowl cleaners, bleach, soaps and detergents.  To read this article in full, visit:  Mama's Health 

Is Your Home A Healthy Home?

If you are like most people, you just naturally assume that if a product was on the market for sale, it was safe, right?  Wrong.  Actually, consumer products that we all use everyday are filled with toxic chemicals, many of them requiring special handling like well ventilated rooms, gloves, some even require eye protection.  These same chemicals when used in a chemical laboratory or in the workplace require even stronger measures.  Sometimes even a respirator.
An EPA report stated the "indoor air pollution is one of the nation's most important environmental problems."
Every year, five to ten million household poisonings are reported, the immediate result of accidental ingestion of common cleaning, pesticide, personal care or other common household products.  Many of these are fatal and many are children.
A 1985 EPA report concluded that the toxic chemicals in household cleaners are three times more likely to cause cancer than outdoor air pollution.  Also, a report  by the CPSC on chemicals commonly found in homes identified 150 that have been linked to allergies, birth defects,  cancer and psychological abnormalities.  All these chemicals seem to concentrate over time due to windows being sealed tight in the winter to keep in the heat and also in the summer to keep in the cool!

We need to educate ourselves.  There are safer alternatives now.  Start to eliminate the toxic environment from your house and daily life.  The website below will help to educate you more on how to do this.

www.reachout.healthyhometour.com

Redneck Wine Glass

This is made from a dollar store candlestick holder and a Ball canning jar. You could use any kind of canning jar.  Decorate just like you would a real wineglass.  Talk about being the talk of the town for your next party or get-to-gether. 

Favorite Banana Bread Recipe

1  9 x 5 x 4-inch loaf pan

350 Degrees F.

1/2 Cup Butter

1 Cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 Cups Flour

1 t. Cinnamon

1 t. Baking Soda

1/4 t. Salt

1/4 t. Allspice

1/4 t. Nutmeg

1 Cup Mashed Banana, Very Ripe

1 T. Liquid (sour milk, juice, or buttermilk)

Cream together butter and sugar; add eggs and beat well.  Sift dry ingredients together; add to egg mixture with banana and liquid; mix thoroughy.  Bake in a greased loaf pan for 1 hour or until bread tests done.  Cool on wire rack.

Variations

Use part Whole Wheat Flour.

Add 3/4 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips.

Add 1 Cup Chopped Walnuts.

Great Outdoor Party Idea

Summer Camp Giant Bubbles Kit & Tutorial

What a GREAT! idea.  This would be perfect for any child's birthday party activity.  Easy to make, very low cost and a great party pleaser!  For more great party ideas visit:  Design Dazzle Blog.  This is a great place to share your awesome ideas for other to try.

Need Help Planning The Perfect Party?

Well, look no farther than The Hostess With The Mostess 
This site is so user friendly and visual!  Oodles of pictures to help you get everything "just right".   Lots of resources for every occasion imaginable, including "everyday" celebrations.  They have recipes, downloads, a shop where you can get personalized party invites and favors and so much more.
Happy party planning!

An Amazing Online Cooking School!

If you have ever wanted to go to culinary school, do I have a website for you!  Rouxbe Cooking School is like attending one of those fancy culinary schools, but from the convenience of your own home. 

They offer a 7 day free trial, then it is just $29.95 per month therafter if you decide to attend.  They use the same curriculum and learning path used by professional culinary schools.  Start anytime and progress at your own pace.  Short lesson segments and fun quiz questions along with 1,000's of amazing videos, some with step-by-step instructions.  Including, "How to Make Stock" and "How to Make Roux" and so many more.

They offer a price guarantee for a full refund if you don't feel like your cooking has improved within 30 days!  So what have you got to lose?
Visit their website above and take a look around.  I think, like me, you will be very impressed and excited!

Blogging with Blogger

Creating a blog using the Blogger template is very easy and geared toward the novice blogger, soon to be blogger extraordinaire!  They add things quite often to keep you up to date with the "big guys".  Blogging is so much fun and can be a family treasure trove for years to come.  You can keep family photos, family recipes, information you are interested in and all of your favorite websites and blogs handy, all on one site.  That way you only have to pull up your blog for find that recipe you no longer know which cookbook it is in or go to a link of your favorite blog.  It really is amazing how easy and fun it can be.  I encourage anyone with half an interest to create a blog using the Blogger format.

What Will Your Retirement Look Like?

Click on the underlined address below for information about getting a solid, dependable income to help with retirement. 



Tell Me The Story

This site is  password protected.  Username:  story    Password:   story

It's Never Too Early To Start Planning Trunk or Treat

Holding a Trunk-or-Treat Halloween activity is a great way to keep Halloween safe. What is a Trunk-or-Treat? It's when several families get together at the church building, park their cars in the parking lot, open up the trunks of their cars, and kids come around to each car to Trunk-or-Treat instead of going house to house to Trick-or-Treat.

You can just have the Trunk-or-Treat part outside or you can have a combined indoor/outdoor party. Here are some fun Halloween activities you can do:

Trunk-or-Treat

1. Let people know the estimated number of children that will be there so they can know how much candy to bring.
2. If Halloween is on a Sunday you can hold the Trunk-or-Treat activity on Saturday the 30th.
3. Those who don't have trunks (or cars) can also hand out candy by standing in-between the cars.
4. People can even decorate their cars!

Indoor Activities

1. Pumpkin Carving Contest: People can bring their previously carved pumpkins to be judged and prizes can be given out at the end.
2. Bat Craft: These are easy to make and decorate. Their wings flap too!
3. Bobbing for Apples: A barrel, water, apples, and lots of towels.
4. Halloween Carol Sing Along: Common songs where the lyrics are replaced with Halloween words. Here are some links:
   • Halloween Carols 1

Holding a Trunk-or-Treat Halloween activity is a great way to keep Halloween safe. What is a Trunk-or-Treat? It's when several families get together at the church building, park their cars in the parking lot, open up the trunks of their cars, and kids come around to each car to Trunk-or-Treat instead of going house to house to Trick-or-Treat.

You can just have the Trunk-or-Treat part outside or you can have a combined indoor/outdoor party. Here are some fun Halloween activities you can do:

Trunk-or-Treat

1. Let people know the estimated number of children that will be there so they can know how much candy to bring.
2. If Halloween is on a Sunday you can hold the Trunk-or-Treat activity on Saturday the 30th.
3. Those who don't have trunks (or cars) can also hand out candy by standing in-between the cars.
4. People can even decorate their cars!

Indoor Activities

1. Pumpkin Carving Contest: People can bring their previously carved pumpkins to be judged and prizes can be given out at the end.
2. Bat Craft: These are easy to make and decorate. Their wings flap too!
3. Bobbing for Apples: A barrel, water, apples, and lots of towels.
4. Halloween Carol Sing Along: Common songs where the lyrics are replaced with Halloween words. Here are some links:
   • Halloween Carols 1

Not Yo' Mommas Banana Pudding

This is a recipe from my daughter-in-law Sarah Mays

1 package of shortbread cookies (chessman, lorna doon)
6 to 8 Bananas
2 Cups Milk
1 (5oz) box of instant French Vanilla Pudding
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12oz) container frozen whipped topping or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Line the bottom of a 13 x 9 by 2 inch dish with part of the cookies and layer  the bananas on top. 

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld mixer.  Using another bowl, combine the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together and mix until smooth.  Fold the whipped topping into the pudding mixture.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding and stir until well blended.  Pour mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with remaining cookies.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.